What's in a Name
Maybe NOT as Much as Some People Think
One of the things those of you not yet retired will discover as time goes on is you no longer sleep at night. More correctly, you simply just doze off between pee breaks. That’s what will happen to you when you have a bladder the size of a hamster’s and a prostrate the size of a Buick. Typically I’ll try to go back to bed to catch a few more Z’s before my next urge, but if I can’t doze off again after say 15 minutes or so, I’ll just go get a cup of coffee and then go check my emails. Not having a job anymore just means I’ll take a nap later in the day to catch up.
Well, this morning abut 4 am, while reading my messages, I noticed that a friend on FascistBook sent me a video at the link provided and I presumed he wanted my thoughts on the matter so, please take a few short minutes to review it and I’ll follow it up with my thoughts
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2732832396910301&rdid=ztRSmAQRuOlXMTZ3
I think that a lot of people out there will agree that there is a lot of problems with modern day Christianity or “Churchianity” as some folks like to call it. Over the course of two millennium, we've added a lot of “stuff,” specifically with Christmas and Easter that just doesn’t belong there. I mean, just what the hell does a fat man in a red suit riding in a sleigh pulled by magical flying reindeer handing out toys and candy to good little boys and girls have to do with the birth of the savior? Heck, we don’t even know when “His” real birthday was and even if we did, we were never told to celebrate it. All of that mistletoe, Christmas trees, holly and yule log stuff comes from pagan traditions. And just what do chocolate covered marshmallow bunnies and colored eggs have to do with the passover and sacrifice of the Lamb of God “crucifixion of Yeshua?” Nothing. Arguably, they are more closely linked to pagan fertility practices that the early Catholic Church blithely absorbed in order to grow their numbers, wealth and influence.
These days, thanks to the teachings of folks like Dwight L. Moody and yes, even Billy Graham we have an “easy believe-ism” form of Christianity. Wanna feel better about yourself? Just get tearful about your sin, walk the sawdust trail at some tent revival and come up to this raised platform we’re calling an altar, repeat this prayer and then presto-change you’re now a christian. Start paying your tithe right here. Adding insult to injury, they have that damned Health, Wealth and Prosperity Gospel with all those Armani Suit and Rolex Watch wearing dudes riding in their chauffeur driven Rolls Royce’s to the studio to be on their TV shows telling anyone watching to send a “love offering” to the address on your tv screen and claim your free “feel good about yourself again” miracle! What’s that, didn’t get your miracle? I guess your faith wasn’t strong enough. Send us another love offering and try again. Remember what your old football coach used to tell you, “Just keep running that play till you get it right.”
Yep, that’s right folks, “we got trouble, right here in River City.” (Hat tip to the “Music Man” Robert Preston)
Now I’ll be fair here. This young Jesus Wannabe in the video is partially right about a couple of the things he mentions. And that is where the trouble lies. He’s only partially right which means he’s also partially wrong. And yes, when they first started translating the Bible, they changed the names of the characters found within it. This most likely was because of antisemitism. We’re all Christians now. Heaven forbid we should follow the teachings of a “Jew!” So yes, Jesus’ real name is Yeshua. But even then, there is variation because the Hebrew language, just like all the other languages on the earth have evolved over time. Some folks insist on using the name Yehoshua instead of Yeshua a.k.a. Jesus. But does anyone out there think for a minute that God is going to send anyone to hell because they didn’t spell or pronounce these names the right way?
Furthermore, God’s real name, whom we’re commissioned to make known among the nations, but ain’t doing a real good job at it, is the tetragrammaton spelled YHWH. That’s because ancient Hebrew language doesn’t print out the vowels. The conventions of the Hebrew language is what will tell you which vowel sounds to use. My understanding is that it can pronounced either “YaHWeH” or “YeHoVaH.” It does appear in our English Bibles as LORD and here and there there as “Jehovah” but, there was no “J” sound in Hebrew or Aramaic. Even in the early “Germanic” influenced English language pronounced it with a “Y” sound instead of the J. For example, the Apostle John’s name is more like the German Johan pronounced “Yohan” or the more correct Hebrew pronunciation, “Yohanen.” They may use a letter J but, they pronounce it with a Y.
My take on it is this. Yes, it’s more polite to use the real or correct names of God and His Son if or when you can and it’s OK to teach others but, don’t go overboard and jump the shark just to prove yourself to be right. That’s selfish pride talking there. Yes, there can come a time when you get so deep into the weeds that you can lose the message and/or worse yet, start becoming legalistic and telling folks they’re wrong or even going to hell because they don’t do it the same way you do. Some of these guys are so busy trying to, forgive the analogy, “pick the fly shit from the pepper” that they’ve forgotten to season the meat altogether and it done turned cold before anyone got to eat any of it. These guys are so puffed up and obsessed with being more righteous than thou art that they end up missing the forest for the trees.
And another thing. The word “Christ” is simply just the English translation of Greek word ‘Christos’ which means “Messiah,” the “Lord’s Anointed” or the “Chosen One!” Is God going to send anyone to hell simply because they used a word, with the same or similar meaning, that came from the wrong language? I think not!
Now, to be fair regarding another argument made in the video, do some folks make Icon’s or false Idol’s from images of Jesus and/or his mother Miriam a.k.a. Mary? Yes, they do! This habit some folks have isn’t really all that far off from some Protestant denominations who have taken the Bible and, arguably, made it the fourth person of the Godhead. But, I think that I could argue that this fellow is doing the same thing with the language. I’ve heard of the Grammar Police but this dude has taken it to a new level.
Secondly, I think this fellow, who for all I know is well intentioned, only God knows what is in his heart, is making the same mistake that a fellow I wrote about previously and goes by the moniker “TruthUnedited” is making by renouncing Christianity! He’s right to make note of and call out the places where, for lack of a better way to put it, “The Church” has gone off the rails. But, IMHO, he’s wrong to totally throw out the baby with the bathwater in the manner that he has! Why? Because in the process of pruning a few diseased branches from the tree, the method in which he’s doing it, he’ll likely to cut down the whole orchard! That means a lot of innocent people can get hurt by such things so be careful.
More on TruthUnedited:
Bad Eschatology and The End Times
Finally and perhaps most importantly, his argument that Jesus Christ is the “Anti-Messiah” as he puts it is absurd simply upon ifs face. His argument is ridiculous! Not everyone who calls upon the name of Jesus is a heretic bound for hell fire and damnation simply because they’ve been taught the incorrect way to say the name of the Messiah or that they’ve been taught, right or wrong, that the Torah (Law or instructions) has been done away with. Arguably, he’s right to point out that Heaven and Earth have not passed away and thus the law is still in effect but, he totally overlooked what the Assembly and the Elders in Jerusalem, with the help of the “Holy Spirit” (Ruach Kodesh) told the gentile believers in Acts 15, specifically in verses 28&29.
In closing, if you’re a true believer, the Torah is now written on your heart and with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, you can know deep down in your soul right from wrong. That’s why it is written: “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:17 NKJV. The law has been superseded by a higher law, to love God with your whole heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. This is the Greatest Commandment which is a simplified restatement of the Ten given to Moses at Mount Sinai. All of the other 613 Mitzvot are a clarification on the ten and even then, most pertain only to specific people i.e., the Levite Priests, women and the people living in the land of Israel. The rest is all common sense stuff like not stealing, don’t commit adultery, taking care of widows and orphans and making good on anything you may have, knowingly or not, done that harmed someone else, etc.
You know, it's not it's not always the case that the devil ever offers people something that’s obviously evil and satanic to lead them astray. He always offers something that sounds and looks good like calling Jesus by his Hebrew name Yeshua! One day, maybe soon, it’ll be something else like; “Here, take this mark and then we’ll give you food.” Feeding starving people is a good thing right? But, it's the method you need to be on the look out for. It's not the obvious feeding the needy, but the taking of the mark, that's the problem. So, I think it's very interesting that he calls out all of these things like the man made traditions that have, over the course of the last two millennium, entered into the institutional churches. He sounds like he’s wanting to be moral, do the right thing and protect people from falling into error.
This is the same reason why many folks on the political left “believe” (absence of the word “think” deliberate) they’re being moral as they forcibly redistribute the wealth of others. It’s because even though Marxism is a satanic lie from the pit of hell, is not completely incoherent. It is a liars's version of what Christians in the “ecclesia,” the Assembly, “The Church” are supposed to be doing! It's a liars's version that calls upon an “earthly power based” lie. He’s not explaining how the meek will inherit the earth or how to love your enemies as yourself, take care of the poor, the orphans and the widows. Instead, they say they’re doing whatever it is they’re doing in the name of good. Pay for USAID with your taxes and trust us to do something good with it, in your name. It always sounds good, but it always ends up being men playing political power games through force or fraud and not a flow of God's will through the heart of His church, voluntarily changing the hearts of individuals, and letting them have the free will choice in the process.
In a nutshell, be careful of those who come across as experts on everything because chances are better than good, they don’t know squat about anything! “There are two kinds of people in this world, those who think they know everything and those who are wise enough to know that they don’t!” This dude may be trying to sound like he knows a lot but, it looks to me like he is too proud to admit he doesn’t.