Social Media Bullying: Is Saying God and Lord Acceptable?

You’re quite fortunate if you run in social media circles within the Hebrew Roots/Messianic movement or other denominations of Christianity and haven’t had a run-in with people who are quick to tell you why this or that is pagan, sinful, or just plain wrong. One of the most popular areas in which newcomers are attacked is in the usage of the honorific titles of Lord and God, which are used as English language equivalents to the Hebrew words, Adonai and Elohim. And I am not referring to people who simply prefer to pronounce the Tetragrammaton, I am talking about the people who go out bent on conquering, making it a salvation issue.

Now, it’s one thing when seasoned veterans get bombarded with this stuff – but the folks preaching this, often very unkindly and with threats of damnation, do not pay the slightest bit of attention to whether someone has been a believer one hour, or fifty years, or whether they are thirteen years old, or eighty years old. Truly, one of the great evils of social media religious preaching is that we do not have a relationship with the people we are approaching, and therefore have no idea if we even should approach them. We lack the wisdom to know if we are instructing them or confusing them, or even damaging them. I don’t want this to happen to anyone’s kid and so after years of pondering this, I am finally setting it down in writing.

So, let’s look at the use of honorifics in the Bible – and we will use a specific example from my own social media wall a couple of weeks ago. I was talking about it being the anniversary of coming to an understanding of Torah being for today, and I praised “Adonai.” This was the response I got from someone who I had never heard from before:

“Well, I guess you are still waiting for Him to ask you what His proper name is! His name is not Adonai or Lord or God but…”

FYI, I removed His Name from the quote because the sarcastic and ignorant nature of the comment brought His Name to shame. I literally felt embarrassed for my King. Of course, I know the Name, the four-letter Tetragrammaton – it was silly, arrogant, and undiscerning to presume otherwise, just because I chose to use a formal title that means “My Lord” or “My Master.”

Before I start, I want to give a little bit of an example of how the usage of intimate Names compares with the usage of honorifics when addressing someone with whom we are not social equals:

Your Majesty,

I applaud your Highness on your recent speech to parliament. It was a privilege to hear the wisdom of your Grace addressing the legislature. Long live the Queen!

Okay, that letter was respectful, right? Let’s try it again without the honorifics, but still speaking with nothing but kindness:

Elizabeth Windsor,

I applaud you, Elizabeth, on your recent speech to Parliament. Liz, it was a privilege to hear your wisdom as you addressed the Legislature. I hope you live forever.

Notice that I said nothing uncomplimentary in either letter. But the tone was different – in the first, I was speaking to someone socially way above me and in the second I was either speaking as a peer, a buddy, or a cheeky little monkey. Probably her Majesty would see my impertinence as a qualification for the latter lol. The point is, did I dishonor her in any way by referring to her with honorifics instead of her actual name? Certainly not, if anything, I elevated her – and that is exactly what happens when an honorific title is used instead of the Tetragrammaton or its short form Yah.

So, is there cause to rebuke anyone for using a respectful title? What do we see in the Scriptures? In the Hebrew, and the Greek, do we see the use of titles or only the use of the Name? (I will note here that I have no beef with anyone who pronounces the Name – we see it used all throughout Scripture as well – just not exclusively).

Let’s look specifically at Adonai – first used by Abraham in Genesis 15:2 directly to God, and God doesn’t get the slightest bit offended and say, “Why aren’t you calling me by my Name? Do you want the pagans to think you are talking about someone else?” Nope – why would God take offense to a man submitting himself as a servant? It was a fitting and appropriate thing to do. The prophets thought so too–as Adonai is used 434 times to describe God as Lord and Master.

How about El/Elohim? El is a word that is the Hebrew equivalent of the English God (which came from the Germanic Gott, and is not to be confused with the pagan deity Gad or the Tribe of Gad in the Bible – there is no link between Semitic and Germanic languages – we can’t rightly say that the languages were divided at Babel and also say that they are still all related) and shows up within the monikers El Elyon (Most High God) nineteen times in the Psalms, El Olam (Everlasting God) and the more commonly known El Shaddai (commonly rendered Almighty God) throughout Genesis. Elohim is a generic word meaning mighty one or god, and refers to both the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and various false gods, angels, civic leaders, judges, etc.

Elohim itself is used over 2600 times in the Hebrew Scriptures and has a lot of different meanings–one of which is a title of the Supreme God. Although I could go into more detail on this, suffice it to say that it is used exclusively for God in Genesis 1-4.

One of the really interesting aspects of the charge that it is a sin to use titles or that it is somehow disrespectful, besides the fact that just about every Biblical figure of note uses them when speaking of/to God, is that we also have the testimony of Yeshua/Jesus and the Apostles, none of which ever utter the Tetragrammaton – even though there was one in Greek that we have archaeological evidence of. In English, the first-century Greek version of the Tetragrammaton would be rendered Iawe (ee-ah-way), and here is a link to another blog post with the information on that.

So are we to accuse Yeshua of sinning, or of not knowing the Name, or of being disrespectful, or any one of these accusations we see commonly flying around? May it never be! Not only did Yeshua never sin, but He always did the will of His Father. If He said the Name, it would be recorded for us. What we do see is Theos, Kyrios, and Pater – the Greek equivalents of God, Lord/Master, and Father. Abba (Aramaic for Father) is used only once by Yeshua (Mark 14:36) and twice by Paul (Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6).

The case for using only a pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton YHVH, yod-hey-vav-hey, or the short form Yah is therefore without merit and would require one to ignore both the Hebrew and Greek canonical text, as well as the Septuagint (LXX), Dead Sea Scrolls, Pseudepigraphic writings, as well as all other Jewish writings through the Millenia. This is really a non-doctrine if someone is trying to enforce it – it has to be strong-armed because it has no Scriptural merit excepting for an out of context reading of verses which promote the proclaiming of the Name – which is problematic to read exclusively as referring to a personal name because the word shem (name) also means reputation/renown. In the ancient Near Eastern world, everything was about honor/reputation/renown – in fact, we still equate a man’s “good name” as being equal to his reputation, not a collection of expressed syllables.

So should we be concerned about the Name of God? Absolutely – and I am talking about His reputation here. Speaking syllables is easy, anyone can do it according to their theory of how it was pronounced – but if we speak those syllables with our bad character backing it up, we are dragging that name through the manure we are wallowing in. No, we must take care that our character is superlative, that we go from glory to glory, becoming more and more like Yeshua, the express image of God and our example in all things.

Be sure to check out the related posts about the words Lord, Christ, Yahweh, IHS, and Amen.

Confronting the Memes Pt 5: Can we really not say “Lord?”

So yesterday at a gathering I met with a woman who had questions about my usage of Lord based on this oft-misunderstood verse in Hosea 2 (and since I also see this on memes I am going to place it into that section of my blog as well):

16 “And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.

It’s a common misunderstanding, so let me go through it here. I asked her what the context was and she told me chapter and verse, and so I said, “Okay who was being preached to and what did they believe?”

The citizens of the Northern Kingdom of Israel were henotheists, which is slightly different than polytheists. Polytheists simply believe in the existence of many gods but henotheists, in contrast, have a system of worship in which they worship many gods but have one main god to whom they give preferential worship, while not neglecting the others. These gods were called ba’alim (being the plural of ba’al)–it is a word that is very similar to elohim. Whereas ba’al means roughly the same thing as lord or master, elohim is translated as god but means mighty ones (and can refer to men or gods) – so this is simply a matter of how it was translated into English, which is different than being a definition. Just as the word Ba’al also referred to the storm and fertility god of the Canaanites, El (the biblical short form of elohim) was the head of the Canaanite pantheon and was married to Asherah. El, of course, is also biblically used for YHVH.

Ba’al (thanks once again to my lovely supporters who bought LOGOS for me) is actually only translated as pertaining to pagan gods in half of its appearances in scripture because it is a title and a descriptor–meaning leader, owner, lord and master among other things. The problem with looking at a Hebrew word and deciding that it means one thing is that while there are over a million English words (roughly 170,000 in current use), there are less than 10,000 Hebrew words. Our words tend to be very specific, leading us to be very dogmatic about which words are and are not acceptable to use. We tend to confuse the concept of words with definitions. In Hebrew, the meaning of a word is more about context than a collection of letters. A word that is good in one situation is bad in another–ba’al and ba’alim can be either positive or negative, just like El or elohim. In the same way, lord and god also fall into this category as well, of words that are both positive and negative and must therefore be judged contextually.

We are in error if we say that Ba’al = Lord as though any spoken English word can be absolutely equated with any Hebrew word.

If I were to call Chemosh or Molech “my ba’al” then that would be idolatry, but if I call them ba’alim that is just an accurate description. If I bow down to YHVH my El that is pure and proper but if I bow down to El of the Canaanites that is, again, idolatry. Because we have a more specific language, upon coming into acquaintance with Hebrew we often like to inflict a specificity onto Hebrew when it does not exist. English is more often about exact words, Hebrew is more often about context – but even in English we have many neutral words that have to be considered with respect to intent more than just a collection of syllables.

So that being said, let’s go back to the verses in question.

The Northern Kingdom, as I said, were henotheists and they worshiped YHVH as the head of their diverse pantheon of borrowed gods from the nations around them. When they called YHVH “My Ba’al” it was not an exclusive relationship but as one of many. He was on top of their heap, but they were not faithful to Him. Think of a woman who has a lot of boyfriends with one whom she prefers over the others – that is ancient Israel.

YHVH said that they would no longer call Him, “My Ba’al” but instead “My Husband.” This is not about the syllables of the titles they give Him but about the exclusivity of relationship. It is one thing to call someone Lord when you have many and quite another to call someone Lord when you only have one Lord–in the same way, it is one thing to call a man your favorite boyfriend and quite another to call him husband when you are devoted only to him. We must read these verses with the understanding that the people to whom these words were spoken were not monotheists, and therefore do not apply to monotheists any more than you can take any other prophecy directed at one person and automatically apply it to another.

So let’s look at that verse as read in this light –

“And in that day, declares YHVH, you will call me your One and Only, and no longer will you call me One of many.”

The next verse verifies this if we look at it logically within the Ancient Near Eastern context of Scripture, “I will remove the NAMES of the ba’alim from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by NAME no more.”

Now, if this meant that we would never speak the syllables that made up the names of false gods, then the Bible has failed us utterly. In order to obey the commandment to read the Torah out loud to the entire nation every seven years, the syllables making up the names of many ba’alim have to be spoken out loud. So this cannot be the meaning – the Scripture cannot be in violation of itself. Here we go back to the meaning of shem or name, in Bible times. A man’s name was no collection of syllables but instead the measure of his reputation, power, authority, honor, and renown. We focus on syllables because we no longer live in an honor/shame culture where we would appreciate the vital importance of a man’s name in the community.

That verse should be read as such (and actually is, when read by people from the Near and Far East, from much of Africa and South America):

“I will put an end to her calling upon the authority of and her honoring of the ba’alim, and she will have no respect for them ever again.”

So to wrap it up here is my contextual version of Ho 2:16-17

“And in that day, declares YHVH, you will call me your One and Only, and no longer will you call me One of many. I will put an end to her calling upon the authority of and her honoring of the ba’alim, and she will have no respect for them ever again.”

As we see from the ingrafting of the pagan Gentiles into the bosom of Abraham, and the return of the ten tribes from within their midst to the faith of the Fathers–this is exactly what He has done. Believers in YHVH in this day and age are not henotheistic, but monotheistic–when we say Lord, God, Master, Savior, Redeemer, and King we don’t mean one of many, we mean the King of kings, Lord of lords, One true God and everyone knows it. Pronounce YHVH, however, especially with all the different variations, and folks may be scratching their head.

I am going to quickly add another example from Isaiah 54:5

5 For your Maker is your husband,
the LORD of hosts is his name;
and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
the God of the whole earth he is called.

The word translated “husband?” Yep, you guessed it, that root word is ba’al. “Your Maker is your ba’al.” Never make the mistake of underestimating how little people know about linguistics and the Hebrew and Greek languages–and the contents of the Bible they claim to know better than you. Don’t let them scare you.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Is 54:5). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

May this season of repentance and joy be a blessing to you all. May YHVH, our gracious LORD, mighty Suzerain King and most High God bless you all richly in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus).

Be sure to check out the related posts about the words Lord and God, Christ, Yahweh, IHS, and Amen.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ho 2:16–17). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

The Character of God as Father Pt 6 — The Proverbs 11:1 Parent

Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is His delight

I learned that verse from 3-2-1 Penguins, which my now 13 year olds used to love. But I am going to apply it differently than most people do. It’s a verse about integrity in business, certainly, a verse about not cheating people and hearkens back to Torah law, but when the scriptures says that something is an abomination to the LORD, or that He hates something, we have to go a lot deeper because it is revealing something important about God’s character. And if something is true about God’s character, then we are supposed to be conformed to that over time as we grow in maturity.

In my last few blogposts, I have been showing how patient and consistent God is in His dealings with His children, and how, when it looks like He has double standards it boils down to mainly two realities — the heart and maturity level of the person in question. A rebellious “spit in his face with a smile” type of person is going to be treated differently than someone who wants to please Him but just screwed up. On top of that, the types of people who spit in His face will also be dealt with differently — have they rejected Him when they do it, or are these people whose thinking has been so warped that through circumstance that they see God the Father through the lens of repeated beatings and rejection? You see, we can hold Him at arms length because of anger and hatred towards our own earthly fathers, or we can simply hate Him without any such provocation whatsoever. As God knows our innermost thoughts, our mindset and hangups play a big part in how He treats us, if it did not, then let me assure you that many of us would be quite dead. Many people who think that they hate Him actually love Him but are too frightened to let their guard down, and my entire focus over this blog has been combating that and restoring His reputation among the children. Simply put, to paraphrase Malachi, I want to return the heart of the children to their Heavenly Father by cutting through all the false perceptions of Him. It took me over a decade, but I’d like for everyone else to fast track it — why? Because He deserves it and you deserve it. He deserves to be loved as He is and you deserve to experience the kind of Father He really is.

Let’s go back to Proverbs 11:1 and the false balance. Other versions call it “inaccurate scales” and I like that better. Say on one hand we have someone who has been walking with God for 50 years, knows the commandments, preaches righteousness, and yet violates Lev 19:18 “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Say there is another person who has been walking with God 1 year, who doesn’t really know the commandments very well and doesn’t preach, and yet breaks the same commandment? Does God hold them to the same standard?

Now let me add to that scenario. The guy who has been walking with God 50 years was brutally abused and even molested by his earthly father and still carries around in him those misconceptions about the Father. To him, the commandments are the dictates of a brutal tyrant and not the house rules of a loving Father who simply wants harmony and cooperation among His children. And the guy who has been walking with God only 1 year had an idyllic childhood, wonderful loving parents who although they were not believers, raised him in kindness and compassion and never taught him to be cruel. Now what does God do? Only He can dispense perfect justice in such a case, and so we must trust Him to do so and not simply look at it with frustration from the outside.

Aren’t you glad we don’t make those kinds of calls? Whereas we rush to judgment, God has a set of absolutely fair balances and only He can see what is on them. He judges based on maturity, intent, ignorance, and a whole bunch of other things — and indeed we see the evidence of this in our lives. There are things He does not allow me to get away with now that He let slide for years, and I am sure you can relate to that. Heck, there are things He doesn’t allow me to get away with now that He was letting slide a few weeks ago! That is what it is to have a fair balance, because now on the scale that measures my sin, revelation was added to counterbalance it, and when I do now what I did then, no longer in ignorance, my Father is going to treat me differently — and frankly He needs to. That is exactly how we parent our own children. We don’t treat teens like toddlers.

And that is why we can feel safe with Him. I know that many of you had earthly Fathers (and mothers) who were chaotic and inconsistent, and oftentimes demanded accountability in areas completely out of the blue, without even instructing you beforehand. In fact, with many children, being backhanded was the way they learned something was wrong in the first place. And I know that when we see things like Uzzah touching the ark to steady it when David was moving it, and being immediately killed, our indignation rises up and just like King David we are offended that it wasn’t fair — but of all the laws on the books, every Israelite should have known that the ark was immeasurably holy, and even the High Priest was only allowed to go before it once a year and sprinkle blood on it on Yom Kippur. Touching this holy thing meant death, and Uzzah knew it, not only shouldn’t have he been near enough to touch it, but he shouldn’t even have been anywhere near the cart carrying it. The consequences were absolutely spelled out and absolutely clear and from his childhood he had heard the Torah read once every seven years on the Feast of Sukkot. Everyone knew to stay away from the ark, with the exception of the priests, and even they were only allowed to approach it when given permission, and specific Levites, who were only allowed to touch the poles supporting it when the camp was moving. If Uzzah had not died, all Israel would have flocked to touch the ark — I mean, if you saw that people could touch the earthly throne of God, wouldn’t you touch it if you saw that nothing happened? Just ask Adam when he saw that Eve didn’t physically die from eating the fruit from the Tree of Good and Evil. And I am not comparing the two, just stating the human predilection for pressing their luck in order to have “an experience.”

On the flip side, lets look at Ninevah. Ninevah was the great capital of Assyria, hated by the Israelites. They were pagans dedicated to the worship of Dagon (the god who was half man and half fish), they were bloodthirsty and unjust, and their crimes were legendary. But when God sent Jonah to preach that they would be destroyed in 40 days because of their sins, they repented and destruction was diverted. Jonah preached God’s laws to them, and they humbled themselves in sackcloth and ashes and with fasting. And God relented and did not destroy them — but why? Why after centuries of wickedness did God not destroy them anyway? Because of accurate weights. We know this because of how God responded to Jonah’s displeasure.

Jonah 4:11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

God took their ignorance into account and they were saved from physical destruction, for the time being. It doesn’t mean that they all had salvation and we will see them when Messiah returns, but it means that their ignorance PLUS their repentance tipped God’s impeccably accurate scales in favor of mercy. I pray that after that, many of them covenanted with the LORD, but we just don’t know.

If Ninevah, with as wicked as they were, if their genuine repentance was met with such mercy, how much more so is your genuine repentance? Their ignorance was not enough to save them from the day of destruction, but their repentance was. That is Fatherhood, that is long-suffering righteousness and mercy. That is the character of our Father.

True repentance, which is by definition humble in nature, always tips the scales.