Yahweh… It’s Just a Name?

‘It’s Just a Name…’ Oh Really?

A common argument that any name is acceptable for calling on the Heavenly Father not only violates the sanctity of Yahweh’s revealed, personal Name, but is also an assault on His True Worship.

The ongoing push to unite all worship into a monolithic, worldwide religion accomplishes its goals by exploiting words that are key to true worship and redefining them for mass consumption and unholy ends.

They make grace the universal leveler that eliminates specific demands that set apart true worship. “We are all covered by grace regardless of beliefs,” they say. Yahweh answers, No, such thinking turns grace into lawlessness, Jude 1:4.

The old bromides like: “He has many names;” “What difference does His name make, He knows who I mean,” fit right into this universalist agenda. Generic attributes like lord and god create all-purpose mighty ones. The result is worship where one size fits all.

But this is not how our Heavenly Father Yahweh expects devotion. In the 44th chapter of Jeremiah we find Him completely disgusted with His people and ready to wash His hands of them. We see an exceedingly patient Father who has finally had enough of His rebellious children who insist on worshiping their own way.

After all the many prophets He had sent to warn them, after all the trials they had to overcome and the plagues and hardships they endured for their disobedience, nothing ever really changed. Not for long.

Judah Barred from Using the Name
Now the people say in defiance to the prophet, “As for the word that you have spoken unto us in the name of Yahweh, we will not hearken unto you. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil” (Jer. 44:16-17).

His people were as rebellious as bratty children who act up just as soon as the parent’s back is turned. These defiant ones are still wanting to worship the heathen gods. No matter what Yahweh says or does, they lust to follow the apostasy of the majority religions around them.

Yahweh decides it’s time for drastic measures. “Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says Yahweh, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, Yahweh Elohim lives” (Jer. 44:26).

Yahweh tells them, okay, go ahead, follow your lust to worship in error like the heathens around you. But know this, you may no longer use my Name if you do.

This was punishment for their refusal to worship Him in truth. He does not want His Name tied to their sin of rebellion. So much for the argument, “It makes no difference what I call Him.”

For Judah to return to True Worship would mean that Judah would have to return to using His Name.

Name Identifies True Worship
The Name does more than identify. It also creates True Worship. You take on His Name you take on His worship; you take on His identity. When you take on His identity and don’t live up to His standard, you smear Him.

The lesson for us comes down to this: You cannot worship the Mighty One of the universe properly without using His revealed, personal Name. His Name defines Him as well as the only worship that is uniquely His. His name is not just an identifier, it is His very identity and all that He is and does for His people. The only True Worship in the Bible is carried out through His personal Name.

What does this mean for those who mix His Name with the heathen titles in their congregations and from the pulpit? The same goes for their literature, prayers, and songs? How can you mingle true worship with false and think He’ll find that acceptable. G-d and L-rd are generic titles that apply anywhere to any worship traditions. They fit anywhere.
We learn in Revelation 7:3, 14:1, and 22:1-4 that the 144,000 faithful who are sealed in the end days are sealed with His Name in their foreheads. There is solid proof that His Name separates True Worshipers from false and will give them literal protection from tribulation in the latter days.

Notice what James told the people gathered at Jerusalem: “Simon Peter has declared how Elohim at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name” (Acts 15:14).

The heathens had to come out of their false worship and observe the true Name. True Worship and His Name go together like hand in glove and cannot be separated. It’s a match, not a mix.

Those who know the true Name but insist on using replacement titles are still in spiritual Egypt, in essence still sacrificing to the Queen of Heaven because they have not come to know the true Father, which comes from loving and using His personal Name.

If there is one truth that is clearly shown throughout Scripture it is this: His Name and True Worship go hand in hand, they cannot be separated. He prohibits man from substituting His Name just as He will not allow any worship other than what He prescribes.

By showing us in Jeremiah 44 that apostate worship is not allowed to call on His Name, He is also showing us that only in His Name can one worship in truth.

The true Name is not just a matter of His “knowing who we mean” when we worship or call on Him. It is more than simple identity. His Name is the difference between being in the truth and being outside the truth. It’s the difference between worship that pleases Him and worship that provokes Him once we know better.

This truth is as difficult for some to accept as it is for them to accept the Sabbath over Sunday. It is nothing more than 2,000 years of boiler-plated tradition speaking. All they need to do is allow Yahweh to work with their hearts — show them the truth — and they will see the difference.

The prophet wrote: “O Yahweh, hear; O Yahweh, forgive; O Yahweh, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my Elohim: for your city and your people are called by your Name” (Dan. 9:19).

Names in our culture are mostly labels. Not so with Yahweh. His Name signifies the one and only true Heavenly Father as opposed to the false deities of apostate worship. His Name is a true means of identification, a link to the only true Creator.

The simple lesson for Israel and for us is this: Reject True Worship and you reject His Name. The reverse is also true: Reject His Name for a substitute, and you no longer have the authentic, True Worship of the Scriptures. The two are inseparable.

Danger in Name Apathy
Names and words are powerful in ways you may not have considered. Is there any danger to the notion that any name is acceptable in worship of our Heavenly Father?

Aside from keeping us from the truth, the typical nonchalance regarding the Heavenly Father’s Name and His uncommon worship is part of the general indifference that will open the door to the universal, false religion soon to take control. At the heart of this system will be a demon-backed religious leader who will demand worship on a worldwide scale, unlike anything in history.

A book called New Age Bible Versions details how the way is being paved for the great deception. It reveals that the newer translations of Scripture are taking important words and terms associated with pure worship and generalizing them to appeal to a broad spectrum of worshiper. The goal is to soften the edge and ultimately devalue obedience to Yahweh’s will. Highly publicized was the taking of male references to Yahweh in Bibles and religious song books and replacing them with such pronouns as “She” for “He” (reflective of the worship of the ancient, feminine goddess Sophia).

Ultimately, attempts will be made to include everyone of every faith under a single, global religion. To accomplish that, the wording in new Bibles will help to ease many into that false worship. As will pulpit messages that incessantly attack the law and obedience.

The move is insidious for now. Once churchianity is rendered even more pliable, however, the complete yielding to the demands of a one-world religion will come openly.

Paving the way for this universal religion is a reorienting of beliefs through the manipulation of words. Unaware of what is happening, the masses accept new terminology that moves them further and further from what truth they had. Altering wording changes conceptions.

Power in Names
Stop for a moment and consider names and their power, especially when revealed in the Scriptures.

Who was the first to call something or someone by name? Yahweh. Names were used not for the simple sake of identification, but for creation. Just as Yahweh can travel by thought, when it says that Elohim created, He didn’t work or fashion through physical labor and burning calories. He spoke it (actually, Yahshua as the Dabar or the Word spoke it). The term used for the object brought it into existence.

Things are what they are because of what they are named.

Names don’t just differentiate objects from one another, they create the object. Names are the parents of everything in the universe.

“Let there be light” (the Hebrew ore) and light came into being.

The Hebrew word for “name” is shem. The two letters shin and mem are at the core of neshamah, which is the Hebrew word for soul. The soul or essence of the human being is contained in his or her name.

In 1Samuel 25:25 we read, “As his name is, so is he.”

Titles That Thrill the Adversary
Turn to Luke 4:8. This is Yahshua’s response to Satan’s invitation to fall down and worship the Evil One:
“And Yahshua answered and said unto him, Get behind me, Satan: for it is written. You shall worship Yahweh your Elohim, and him only shall you serve” (Luke 4:8).

The KJV says “L-rd thy G-d.” The Aramaic or Hebrew, which Yahshua spoke, reads, “Yahweh your Elohim.” But even in the Greek, Yahweh’s Name would have remained unchanged.

If Yahshua had said “Lord thy God,” Satan would have been de-lighted. Why? Because this general term could refer to Satan himself. The Apostle Paul calls Satan the “god of this world” in 2Corinthians 4:4. In Matthew 12:24 Satan is called Beelzebub, which is another name for Lord of the fly or the manure god.

In effect our English translation says: it is written, you shall worship the lord god – which could just as well be Satan – and him only shall you serve. We can see how the Adversary de-lights when people are led to worship in these common titles today. Doing so removes them from the true Father and a false one is put in His place through a generic and incorrect identification.

Any time we are not worshiping Yahweh in His true Name, we are in danger of invoking false mighty ones manufactured by the Father of Lies himself— even if done in ignorance.
You change the name of the one you worship and you change WHO you worship and the WAY he is worshiped. By using generic terms you re-move yourself from the True Yahweh. It is not simply a matter of semantics; it is not simply a choice between two equivalent alternatives. It is a matter of true versus false identification – and proper worship versus erroneous worship!

That is why Yahweh characteristically introduces Himself by Name first, then specifies precisely what worship He expects:
“I am Yahweh: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to an-other, neither my praise to graven images” (Isa. 42:8). In Exodus 3, Yahweh tells Moses that His Name is Yahweh, then proceeds to explain how He will bring Israel out of the sin of Egypt. They would come to know True Worship, including the Holy Days, after they first learned His personal Name.

Power Through Words
We establish our beliefs through language. Language can inspire, convict, and challenge, as in the way Yahshua used it; or it can be used to manipulate and subjugate, as despots have done over the centuries through propaganda. Words can sway emotion and opinion, as in a good movie or a good book.

Even husbands, wives, and children know what the wrong word or the right word can mean in their relationships.

The use of general titles like god and lord promote universalism, which is exactly the opposite of the True faith. True Worship is narrow, specific, well defined, and includes the faithful identifying the True Father by name (Matt. 7:14).

The way of error leading to destruction is broad and many will be in it, Yahshua said (v. 13). One way this is accomplished is by the argument that it doesn’t matter what we call Him. Any name or title is acceptable.

As explained, titles like god and lord are general and apply to many different mighty ones, even to Satan him-self. Pagan idols as well are called by the same titles commonly used as names for the Heavenly Father.

Titles do not fix an identity. They are like the generic “human being.” To call on “G-d” is like calling your neighbor, “Hey you, human being…”

Today’s New Babel
Even the sacred Name of the Creator Himself can lose its significance when we allow others to manipulate with words and substitute names.

The human-centered, humanistic movement that began in the Renaissance is finally succeeding in eliminating the very language of sin, which de-rives from a higher power. We hardly ever hear in general society terms like “immorality,” “living in sin,” “fornication,” “virtuous,” and the like.

Today man has decided to set his own standards of what is right and wrong. Sin and any reference to it is out, because sin recognizes a Father above, and that runs head-long into the notion that man himself is all-knowing.

Our culture is building new Towers of Babel, where everyone speaks the same language of moral relativism. This movement is out to change the way people think by changing their language and how right and wrong are perceived.

Forces working behind the scenes have seized on the power of language to promote their own agendas.

Its all part of a revamping of Bible-based beliefs – to replace traditional and biblical morality with humanistic beliefs. This in turn will prepare the way for the universal Man of Sin.
Instead of biblical standards, we have today “political correctness.” As one author wrote, “Political correctness is an attempt to eliminate freedom of speech for those who hold traditional values and religious beliefs. It is overt social censorship designed to stifle the truth.”

But even greater implications are those that tamper with the very nature of Almighty Yahweh and His Word. Satan is out to obliterate Yahweh and the truth of Him in a final push to pre-pare for His own Antimessiah.

Not just everyday words but even the Word of Yahweh is being molested and modified for an unrighteous end. A recent report notes that a prominent publisher is packaging its Bibles for worldwide distribution with the insignia, “Good News for a New Age.”
Even more disturbing is how new versions are fiddling with the text itself.

Satan as G-d
Those who misunderstand the significance of words and names tell us that it doesn’t matter what you call the Heavenly Father. They say, “He knows who you mean” regardless. Oddly, however, those who tell us this exclusively employ the same “L-rd” and “G-d” titles, which by their universal use amount to false replacement names.

Having been removed from the Name Yahweh, which identifies the True Mighty One of this universe and the specific worship He demands, mod-ern worshipers have unwittingly ac-cepted a generic title that takes them away from the only True Worship connected with His Name as well.

Not surprisingly. Satan has usurped this title. New Age and satanic writings describe Satan in terms that sound biblical, calling Him the Divine God. saying Lucifer is God, the bringer of Light. the savior of the world.

This fact will help to fulfill the prophecy of Revelation 13:4:
“And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast, saying. Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?”

But how could it happen? Quite easily. The masses are already calling on their mighty one with the same terms and titles honored in both Christianity and Satanism.

Yahweh’s Unheeded Warning
A little more deception and they sim-ply transfer the titles from one being to another! By definition, titles can apply to any number of persons or beings.

Thus is the final fulfillment of Deuteronomy 32:17: “They sacrificed unto devils, not to Elohim; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.”

There are many new “gods” coming up in this age of the New Age. Our society is becoming increasingly taken over by pagan worship and its many false deities.
But the biggest is yet to show. The very worship of the Antimessiah all starts with violating the warning in Exodus 23:13, which is just as applicable for us today as for Israel 3,000 years ago:

“And in all [things] that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of your mouth.” (Ex. 23:13)

Yahweh knew clearly what He was doing by giving us this warning. He is Yahweh Almighty, the only True Father above. His Name identifies Him and defines Him, just as it does those He calls His People, by His Name.