January 12, 2009
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What Name????
What name do you use when talking/blogging about God? and Why?
Do you use God, which can be universal term and is used by many religions to speak of their god? When people say that they follow god do you ever wonder which one? Do you just assume that they speak of the God of the Bible? Do you just assume they are Christian?
What term do you use? Lord is not a name for the God of the bible it is just a title.
There are many names people use….here are a few:
God - is a deity in theist and deist religions and other belief systems. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, the Bahá’í Faith, and Judaism, the term “god” remains an English translation common to all.
Lord - Lord is a title with various meanings. It can denote a prince or a feudal superior. In religious contexts Lord can also refer to various different gods or deities.
YHWH (many variations) – Yahweh is the English rendering of יַהְוֶה, a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton
The Hebrew term יהוה had been vocalized as יְהֹוָה (YeHoWah/JeHoVaH) … Many modern Jews will not say this name out loud. Instead of pronouncing YHWH during prayer, Jews say Adonai.Adonai -Hebrew for “Lord”
HaShem – It is common Jewish practice to restrict the use of the word Adonai to prayer only. In conversation, many Jewish people, even when not speaking Hebrew, will call God “Hashem”, which is Hebrew for “the Name” (this appears in Leviticus 24:11).
Elohim - is a Hebrew word which expresses concepts of divinity.
Other – there are others not mentioned above.
What do you use??
Comments (24)
I normally say God, or The Lord, but in prayer, I use many different names. Heavenly Father, Father God, Lord, Lord Jesus…
I’m the same as Papillon_Mom
I just call him God..my husband refers to Jesus has Yeshua (forgive the spelling if that’s not right).
@Fairywife - your spelling it right
all of the above
Great post! I have been trying to get away from using the very all-encompassing word God, and use Lord or Jesus (Yeshua). Using just God is so prevalent in society today, I find I have to fight how I would be viewed if I say Jesus. You have challenged me to be a little bolder in how I talk about my Savior! Baruch Hu!
Names used to have very important meaning in Bible times. They spoke of a person’s character. I find when I say Jesus that I really am not thinking about him as Saviour, Deliverer which is what the Hebrew root yasha is. But if I say Yeshua, or Mashiach, it means, oh so much more! the one who saves and is anointed ( by Elohim.)
I pretty much just use God. It’s not that I’m lazy (totally), it’s just that its what I’ve always been raised on.
“Lord”, and “Father”. And I try not to say it every 5 words like has gotten so popular in public prayers. “You know, God, how much we need you, God. And God, we just thank you God, for being God..”.etc.etc…bleh
I mostly say Father God in prayer….actually I love to switch to Afrikaans sometimes, because there is a more reverent way of saying ‘You’ in afrikaans, which is ‘U’…..and it seems to put me in my place…
When I pray I pray to the father in Jesus name.
Why Jesus
Acts 4:12
”Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
1 Timothy 2:5
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
@Papillon_Mom - @ilovemy2babyboys - @Fairywife - @FKIProfessor - @nachbtikvah - @Garistotle -
@NightCometh - @Neeka1 - @prophet_21 -
Thank you for your reply.
What do you use when speaking about HIM on your blog?
OH! Duh. Um, usually “God”.
Usually on my blog I put God.
I am sorry I usually use God, unless I am speaking of speaking of something particular. Elohim, Yahweh-Tsidkenu, El-Elyon, Yahweh-Jireh, etc. Jesus is still my favorite name.
I usually use God or Lord as well ……..but because it’s encompassing the Trinity, I tend to refer to which part of the Trinity I’m “talking” to …..Father, Jesus or Holy Spirit.
I’m usually not left wondering. How it’s used and who uses it usually is telling.
I’ve referred to him as all of them, though normally ‘God.’ But then ‘God’ is a function applied to all deities, whether real or not.
When I’m talking, praying, or reading I use Adonai, Ha Shem, Elohim and Yeshua
On my blog I try to use God, Lord for my readers’ sake and then after they know who I’m talking about then I’ll start throwing in Adonai. Same for Yeshua, I’ll start off typing Jesus or Jesus/Yeshua so that people will understand and then I’ll either keep it up throughout the post or switch over to Yeshua once I think that people will know what I mean.
What? No one calls him “the man upstairs?” I used to hear that from the Bible-thumpers I lived around in the south.
I think modifiers are helpful. The God of Jesus, the God of Jacob.
@yorel - I know a man who absolutely hates that expression and he’s from Oklahoma.
As far as what I use to speak about Abba on my blog? Well I like using lot’s of different titles to bring to mind all of His excellent promises and covenants; His character and His set apartness. I agree with you that “god” is really void and can be used interchangeably with false gods. Exodus 15:11 sums that up. I prefer His titles in Hebrew as there is rich meaning in each word used in those titles that point to many different things throughout the Truth (a.k.a the Scriptures — see Psalm 119:142,151, and 160). Elohei Avraham v’ehlohei Yitzchaq v’elohei Ya’akov in English is “G-d of Abraham, G-d of Isaac, and G-d of Jacob”. I like to make sure you know Who the God is I’m speaking of here. (with the “o” or “-” in the middle is cool with me and based upon the person I’m fellowshipping with I’ll do either one…sometimes the Spirit leads me to do one or the other too.)
I should point out that even though those are the vowels (usually) placed on the tetrgrammaton in the Masoretic text, that’s actually not how it is meant to be vocalized. That misconception is what led to the invention of the word Jehovah (or Yahweh) as a name of G-d.
The vowels that you see are the vowels for the word Adonai, which the Masoretes placed in the word in order to remind readers to use the circumlocution. In fact, when the text reads “Adonai Tetragrammaton” (The word ‘Adonai” followed by the name of G-d) then you will find the vowels for “Elohim” applied to YHVH so it is read as “Adonai Elohim”
Good post. I usually use different terms depending upon the person to whom I am speaking. With my family, we usually use Adonai. When speaking to a Chasid, I’d use HaShem and Yeshua, but in an evangelical church I’d talk about G-d and Jesus. They’re all translations of the same names, nd different people understand different languges, just like I’d order una cerveza or ein bier or a beer depending upon in which country I was.
Final point, it is, of course, possible that those vowels are the correct ones for G-d’s name. Nobody now knows, so I find it best to avoid offense by using the various different “acceptable” replacements.
@Moreh_Mouse - Thank you for the wonderful comment
Pretty much all of the above, plus the others mentioned in the comments. BTW- I love your theme!