Did WE Forget Our Creator’s Name? 

Rob Skiba’s Blog robschannel.com

Growing up in a KJV Only environment and still having to deal with them all the time on-line, I’ve come to know many (if not all) of their usual arguments. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love and study from the KJV myself and have for 40 years. It’s my preferred study Bible to this day, and the version from which nearly all of my “memory verses” were derived. My issue isn’t with the translation so much as it is with those who worship it as the fourth person of the Trinity and who make absurd claims such as it supposedly being “the most accurate, literal, word-for-word translation we have in the English language.” I could write an entire book on why that is a ridiculous claim to make, but for me, the most notable problem with such a view concerns the issue of YHWH’s Holy Name.

How many times did YHWH declare His name? It wasn’t “I am the LORD” as the KJV (and others) would have us believe. No. He said His name the same way I would say, “I am Rob,” or you would introduce yourself to someone with your name. In like fashion, over and over and over again, He said “I am YHWH“ all through the Bible. He also said He wanted His name(not title) to be known in all the world. Indeed, He takes His name quite seriously. Shouldn’t we therefore do the same?

Exodus 9:16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.

Jeremiah 16:
19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is YHWH.

Isaiah 42:8 I am YHWH: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another {such as Baal, whose name means “lord}, neither my praise to graven images.

In the Jeremiah 16 and Isaiah 42 passages above, I restored His Name to the text, which the KJV translators saw fit to remove. While it is indeed true that “Adonai” is a Hebrew word which means and is translated appropriately as “lord,” there is another proper name, which actually means “lord” too: Baal. Seems to me that where the Hebrew uses the word Adonai, it is correct  – in a “word-for-word translation” – to render it as “lord.” However, where the Hebrew reads YHWH, it is not correct to substitute it – especially with a title, which when applied as the proper name of a deity, is Baal. Could this be what Jeremiah was warning against?

Jeremiah 23:
26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;
27 Which think to cause my people to FORGET MY NAME by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have FORGOTTEN MY NAME FOR BAAL {which means “lord”}.

I’m not a “Sacred Namer” in the sense that they usually demand you say the Name and get it right or you are praying to a false god and thus going to Hell. I believe YHWH knows when we are calling on Him, whether we use “the Lord” or “God” or if we choose to use His Name but pronounce it as JeHoVaH (as the KJV Only types do, due to the few times the translators actually did render the Name instead of replacing it), YaHoVaH, YaHWeH or YaHuWaH. In each of those cases people are doing the best they can with 4 consonants, so I am not going to get dogmatic about that (like some Sacred Namers do).

Read more at Rob Skiba’s Blog robschannel.com