LESSON 2

The Creator Proclaims His Name

The Primitive Religion

   Man has an innate sense of religion. Not fully understanding his environment, he seeks the aid of forces outside himself to help control influences and situations beyond his knowledge. So strong is this sense of religious obligation that primitive cultures resist change and have what may be called a religious fear of departing from customs and beliefs imbedded in tradition.

   An outsider visiting a primitive culture finds that the first sign of the religious significance of a place, person, event or ritual is the sacredness with which it is regarded. Anything holy demands respect and caution from the adherents.

   Most primitive worship began with the exalting of objects nearby. Animals, rivers, trees and mountains were among the first to be glorified. These things were worshipped because of the superhuman qualities they were thought to exhibit or in some way represent.

   Because of the belief that divine qualities could manifest themselves in either man or beast the deities were pictured as composite beings, having human bodies with animal heads and vice versa. This was especially true of Egyptian worship.

Old Wine in New Bottles

   From local, tribal religion it was only a small step to the more national religions that dominated in Egypt, Babylon and later, Europe. When tribes united to form a polity or kingdom, a city or confederacy bound them as a body. Each group brought with it local deities. But the roots never were pulled from the soil that had nurtured the domestic deities, their customs and practices. Because of this, pagan religions can be traced to their source.

   As Egypt became united, local religions were fused with one another. Similar deities came to be identified with one another and often bore a hyphenated name. It was in this way that Amon-Re and Ptah-Sokar-Osiris came into being, their separate natures combined as far as possible into one. Their secondary characteristics, if resistant to such a blend, were separately embodied in accessory figures or symbols. Not all their mighty ones could be melded, however, and as a result, the trinity of Osiris, his sister Isis, and their son Horus came into being. Horus became the sun deity. Later Re came to eclipse him.

   The Greek historian Herodotus had in the 5th century B.C.E. identified certain Egyptian and Greek mighty ones. The Latin poet Apuleius noted that Isis, the Egyptian mighty one, was worshipped by many peoples under names that included Minerva, Venus and Ceres. Many of the same deities were worshipped under different names by various civilizations, a result of interaction between Greek and Roman beliefs.

   In 1724 a Jesuit scholar named Joseph Lafitau published a book noting the similarities in the religion of the American Indian, the ancient cults of Bacchus, Cybele, Isis, Osiris and Christianity. These similarities seemed to him to point back to a common origin. Indeed. The ageless merging of pagan religious beliefs has never stopped. Links with heathen practices and worship are plainly visible in Christianity today. They have survived since their birth from the mother of heathenism--Babylon.

   Charles-Francois Dupuis in 1795 published a book in which he sought to discern behind the figures of the Messiah Yahshua and Osiris, of Bacchus and Mithras. A study in comparative religions shows a single theme running through the entirety of the world's religions.

   Only one example is the veneration of a mother deity.

History of Mother and Child

Mother and Trinity
Egyptian mighty one Isis holding the infant Horus display an early mother and child theme. Right, the trinity of Horus, Osiris and Isis.

   Man's reliance upon the earth for food and his development of agriculture had profoundly affected his religious ideas and practices. Two basic concepts of a fertility deity and a vegetation spirit, who annually dies and revives again, resulted.

   In India, the local female deity is more highly regarded than the national mighty ones Siva and Vishnu. She is directly responsible for the fertility of fields surrounding the village. She is for all intents and purposes the guardian of the village and the one to whom the people turn for everyday needs.

   On page 20 of the Encyclopedia of World Religions is noted the source of this worship. "The most authoritative evidence concerning the worship of the mother of deities comes from the Mediterranean area, from Iran in the east to Rome in the west, and covering Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece. Indeed, in this area the names and functions of the great deities were so interchangeable as to make comparative study a highly complex undertaking. The Semitic names for the greatest mother deity were Inanna in Sumeria, Ishtar in Babylon and Astarte or Anat among the Canaanites. Commonly identified with the planet Venus, her most typical title is 'queen of heavens.'"

   This reference goes on to point out that the deity is also known as Aphrodite in Greek.

   Worship of a mother mighty one in the Roman Empire centered on the Egyptian Isis. Originally the wife of Osiris, identified with the dead Pharaoh, she was the mother of Horus. Isis is often shown suckling the infant Horus, thought by some to be the prototype of the later Christian image of mother and child.

   Throughout history the mighty ones of the pagans have been basically the same. Attributes and worship connected with them are strikingly similar; only the names have been changed. It makes little difference whether worship is directed toward a male or female deity, the basic characteristics are the same in various cultures, though called by a different name.

Religious Unity Began in Babylon

   Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 B.C.E.) unified the heathens. His kingdom reached from Babylon and Assyria north to the Caucasus Mountains and west to the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. He soon saw that if he were able to establish a one-religion world, his empire would be more solidified not only religiously, but also socially and commercially.

   He deported many of his subjects from local areas of worship to other locations in his real in order to loosen the local bands of nationalism and regionalism. At the same time he hoped to disrupt religious ties to a local area. In doing so, he made the Babylonian religion supreme.

   Emperor Constantine (306-337) attempted the same unification of his Roman Empire through a national religion. He adopted the new religion, Christianity (which was already going into apostasy) and established it as the religion of the empire. He had also formulated its policies and caused its doctrines to be accepted even though he was not a follower of this sect nor did he understand many of the issues brought before him.

   Through him the acceptance of Christianity by his subjects was given official blessing. Thus began the Roman Catholic Church, from which sprang many daughters making up the sects of Christianity.

Expansion Meant Compromise of Religious Doctrine

   The transition from the pristine worship Yahshua brought to the amalgamation once again of True Worship took place over a relatively short time immediately following the death of the Messiah and His early apostles.

   An ancient historian noted, "The Jewish Christians gave up the Jewish laws which they had hitherto kept, in a greater or lesser degree, adopting the dogmatic precepts of Christianity as they had been developed under heathen-Christian views, as proof of their sincere convictions, they for the first time placed an uncircumcised bishop at the head of the community." Graetz, History of the Jews, vol. 2, p. 431. Graetz made the comment at the time of Hadrian, when Christians broken with the body of Jews.

   The Encyclopedia of World Religions says on page 90 under "Christianity," explaining the conversion and education of the pagans, "The expansion of Christianity and the church's involvement in society brought changes and corruptions. A religion cannot expand without adapting itself to the language and customs of its converts, and while this process may win converts it may at the same time pervert the religion." Note that the author allows for the adaptation of the religion to the LANGUAGE of the converts. Therefore they began calling Yahweh whatever they were calling their deity prior to their "conversion." Thus we have Baal, Pan-Bog, Deos, Dieu, Theos, Gott, God, etc., each with heathen or quasi-heathen ties.

   Under "Pagan Religions and Cultures," the Bible Almanac on pages 106-107 states:

   "Certain features were common to most of these pagan religions. They all partook of the same world view, which was centered on the locality and its prestige. The differences between Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian religions or between Greek and Roman religions were marginal.... Most of these religions were polytheistic, which means they acknowledged many gods and demons.
   "Each polytheistic culture inherited religious ideas from its predecessors or acquired them in war. For example, what Nanna was to the Sumerians (the moon god), Sin was to the Babylonians. What Inanna was to the Sumerians (the fertility goddess and queen of heaven), Ishtar was to the Babylonians. The Romans simply took over the Greek gods ad gave then Roman names. Thus the Roman god Jupiter was equal to Zeus as sky god; Minerva equaled Athena as goddess of wisdom; Neptune equaled Poseidon as god of the sea; and so forth. In other words, the idea of the god was the same; just the cultural wrapping was different.
   "So one ancient culture could absorb the religion of another without changing stride or breaking step. Each culture not only claimed gods of a previous civilization; it laid claim to their myths and made them its own, with only minor changes."

   In his recent book, Anti-Judaism and the Origin of Sunday, Samuel Bacciocchi notes on page 43, "The fact that after the year 135 Gentile bishops replaced the bishops of the circumcision, indicates that a distinction took place at that time between Gentile-Christians and Judeo-Christians." The author goes on to show how the change of bishops from a background of Judaism to Gentile paganism was instrumental in bringing in the heathen concepts which included Sunday worship.

   The heathen practice of worshipping various mighty ones was transferred to the adoration of patron saints, as explained on p. 541 of vol. 4 in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Pagans were normally devoted to local shrines of particular gods. The church tried to meet this psychological need by establishing shrines of martyrs. The martyr cult, a matter of private devotion from 150 until 250, became so popular after the Decian persecution that official control was required.... By 400, particular saints were being invoked for particular needs (one for health, another for fertility, travel, prediction, or the detection of perjury)."

   The practice served as a substitute for polytheism now that the church officially accepted monotheism (one mighty one).  Early evidence of this tendency to accept other deities is found in the Britannica's statement, "Invocation of Mary as 'mother of God' is first attested in the 3rd century papyrus."

   Will Durant's Story of Civilization, chapter 3, sums up the carryover of heathenism into modern religion:

   "Paganism survived in the moral sense, as a joyous indulgence of natural appetites. As a religion it remained only in the form of ancient rites and customs condoned, or accepted and transformed by an often indulgent church. an intimate and trustful worship of saints replaced the cult of pagan gods, and satisfied the congenial polytheism of simple or poetic minds.
   "Statues of Isis and Horus were renamed Mary and Jesus; the Roman Lupercalia and the feast of the purification of Isis became the feast of the Nativity. The Saturnalia was replaced by Christmas celebrations.... Pagan altars were rededicated to Christian heroes; incense lights, flower processions, vestments, hymns, which had pleased the people in older cults were domesticated and cleansed in the ritual of the church; and the harsh slaughter of a living victim was sublimated in the spiritual sacrifice of the Mass," p. 75.

   The changeover today seems complete.

Worship Unknowingly Veiled

   A basic understanding of how pagan religion fuses to and permeates modern worship uncovers a great irony in the arguments employed against the use of the sacred Name.

   Those arguments usually take one of these forms: "We are now all worshipping one Mighty One, so why make a big deal about His Name? After all, He knows who we are worshipping. If you call Him one thing and I another, what difference does it make? So, what if some call Him God or Lord, others call Him Gott, some Godt, Dieu, Dio, Dios, Deos, Theos or Pan--He knows who we are talking to. Does the proper vocalization of His Name really make that much difference?"

   By using any other than Yahweh's Name in worship, modern man is allowing the relentless infiltration of heathen practices to penetrate even his personal worship. All these other names have heathen ties somewhere in history and were merely carried down through modifications. By using them, one is not calling on the Creator, but is actually in danger of calling on pagan deities and idols.

   Jeremiah's prophecy perceptively foresaw that this was to happen today: "Which think to cause My people to forget My name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten My name for Baal" ("Lord"--center column reference), Jeremiah 23:27. Hosea 2:17 prophesies, "For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name."

   Yahweh over and over again admonishes man to remember and call on His Name. His Name is as necessary to him as yours is to you.  It does matter to Him what you all Him. Who are we to tell the One who holds all life in His hand--present and future eternal life--that He must be satisfied with whatever we wish to call Him?

   The Bible has come down to us as the very Word of the Almighty One of the Hebrews, the One worshipped by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  He heard the cries of His people, Exodus 3:6-10. Moses was told to prepare to deliver the people Israel from the bondage of the Egyptians. Yahweh revealed in an awesome display of power that He is not a pagan deity of nature elements.

   He is not simply a force or power of fire, wind, mountains or rivers. He was to show Pharaoh and Israel alike that He controls nature. Yahweh is in charge of the forces of this planet and they saw nature bow to the bidding of His servants Moses and Aaron as waters turned to blood and frogs and lice appeared and disappeared upon command. They saw the diseases brought on the cattle, boils upon the people, hail falling and locusts covering the land. But in Goshen His people Israel were protected from the last seven plagues.

   He would prove to both Egyptian and Israelite that He is in control of nature and He will move on behalf of His people to deliver them. He is unlike anything in the universe. He embodies all power and all wisdom. Nothing could match Him, and that also applies to His unique Name. He defied the entire Egyptian religious system. He struck terror in the hearts of the Egyptians by showing that the deities they worshipped had no power, Exodus chapters 3-12. He is special and so is His Name. How can you worship traditional man-devised mighty ones and expect salvation? Yet by using their modern, counterpart names that is essentially what you are doing.

The Sacred Name--Rooted in Eternity

   Moses inquired into the nature of Yahweh in Exodus 3:13. He used the Hebrew "ma" meaning "what," rather than "mi" meaning "who" the Creator was. He received from Yahweh the answer, "'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh," meaning, "I am that I am."

   In verse 14 Yahweh tells him, "Thus shall you say unto the children of Israel, 'I am has sent me unto you.'" The "I am" (Hebrew "I will be") is also described in Revelation 1:4, "Who is and Who was and Who is to come." It means a continuance in time present: "Who was," continuance in time past; "Who is to come" continuance forever. What He will be is left to be filled up according to the needs of those with whom He is in covenant. He will become the Savior, Redeemer, Deliverer, Strengthener, Provider, Healer, Comforter, etc. He will be all things to His people. That is the meaning of His covenant Name, Yahweh.

   In Exodus 3:15 He says He is the Mighty One of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that His Name is Yahweh, and that it is His Name forever, His memorial for ALL generations. Yahweh is the Name He told all generations to use.

   The Philistines worshipped Dagon, the Egyptians Amon-Ra, the Ammonites Milcom, the Greeks Zeus, the Romans Jupiter. But the Mighty One Israel worshipped was Yahweh. As far as is known, no other peoples called their mighty one by that Name.

   Since the early 1950's most scholars have agreed that the proper spelling and English pronunciation equivalent is Yahweh. Archaeology supports them.

   In the ancient manuscripts of our Bible, the Name Yahweh is found 6,823 times.  The Hebrew letters (read from left to right) is how Yahweh revealed Himself in the Hebrew Scriptures, the language He chose to communicate with man.  The first of these Hebrew letters, , is a yothe and has the long "i" sound (pronounced like the long "e" sound in "chlorine").  The is a hay, with the vowel sound of long "a."  The third letter, is a waw, with a long "u" sound.  The final letter (hay) at the end of a masculine name has a short "e" sound.  The English equivalent of these letter sounds is IAUE. Pronounce them rapidly and you get "Yahweh."

   Many reference works attest to the proper Name of the Creator as Yahweh. Some of the older works, such as Strong's and Young's concordances, use the Ashkenazi Hebrew "vav" (Yahveh) instead of the more correct and more ancient Sephardic Hebrew "waw" (Yahweh). Ashkenazi were Jews who settled in middle and northern Europe after the dispersion.

   The Name Yahweh is not a translation.  It is a transliteration.  That means the sounds of those original Hebrew letters (called the "Tetragrammaton"--"four letters") have been exactingly reproduced into modern letters. When those letters, Y-A-H-W-E-H, are combined, the sound of the original Tetragrammaton is produced. His name was transliterated YHWH for sound of each Hebrew letter. With proper equivalent sounds, YHWH also comes out "Yahweh."

   While the Hebrew letters are evident in the Old Testament Scriptures brought down to us in Hebrew, not all sources agreed that they are found in the New Testament Greek Scriptures available today. Modern archaeology and research, however, show that the Jews wrote the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew even in their otherwise Greek texts.

   George Howard, professor of Hebrew grammar and religion at the University of Georgia, stated in an article in Biblical Archaeological Review (March 1978) that Jewish Christians continued to preserve the Tetragrammaton in their Bibles.  He comments: "This further suggests the Jewish Christians did not translate the Divine name into Greek." He notes it was only later when Gentile scribes out of ignorance or a lack of respect for the Hebrew Tetragrammaton that substitutes like Kyrios and Theos were used in the Greek Scriptures. These substitutes, then, were further translated "Lord" and "God" respectively in today's English Bibles.

   Fragments of Psalm 22 from Origen's Hexapla show the Tetragrammaton appearing as the Greek "pi," written twice.  Howard says, "This is a clumsy attempt to represent with Greek letters what the Tetragrammaton would look like in Hebrew." And because not all readers were familiar with this less than successful effort, they read the Tetragrammaton as "Pee-pee."

"Jehovah"--A Man-made Hybrid

   "Jehovah" is a hybrid name dating fro about 1510 when Peter Galatin, Pope Leo 10th's confessor, is said to have used it. It is not an accurate transliteration of the Hebrew letters for Yahweh's Name.  Because the Pharisees taught that the Name Yahweh was too holy to pronounce, the reader was to substitute the title Adonai (Lord) wherever the Name Yahweh appeared. By placing vowel points for Adonai above the Tetragrammaton, the reader was to remember to use the surrogate "Adonai" for Yahweh.

   English translators, not understanding the purpose of the vowel points, soon substituted the title "Lord" wherever the Name Yahweh should have appeared ("Lord" being a meaning of "Adonai"). This is readily explained in Rotherham's translation of the Bible where he devotes several pages to the Name Yahweh and its suppression.

   Rotherham says, "Jehovah is merely a combination of the sacred Tetragrammaton and the vowels in the Hebrew word for Lord, substituted by the Jews for J(Y)HVH, because they shrank from pronouncing the Name, owing to an old misconception of the two passages Exodus 20:7 and Leviticus 24:16. To give the name JHVH the vowels of the word for Lord (Heb. Adonai) and pronounce it Jehovah, is about as hybrid a combination as it would be to spell the name Germany with the vowels in the name Portugal--viz., Gormuna. The monstrous combination Jehovah is not older than about 1520."

   Moffatt and other translations such as the Revised Standard Version readily admit that the Name Yahweh was omitted.  This information can also be found in many of today's dictionaries and encyclopedias under the heading "Jehovah" or "Yahweh."

   Recent discoveries and a better understanding of the Hebrew as well as the Greek and English texts of the Bible have led scholars to conclude that Jehovah is a Latinized-Hebrew name that should be pronounced Yahweh in English. Most updated encyclopedias and dictionaries reflect this advanced discovery and conclusion of biblical research.

   In quoting editor Lattey of the Roman Catholic translation known as The Westminster Version of the Sacred Scriptures, the Jehovah's Witnesses write on page 16 of their book, Let Your Name Be Sanctified, "I should have preferred to write 'Yahweh,' which, although not certain, is admittedly superior to 'Jehovah.'"  He further states, "In my translations I have preferred upon literary grounds to use the older English word 'Jehovah,' as consecrated in our poetry (for example, Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 7, verse 602), although it is based upon a misunderstanding of the Hebrew."

   In both of these quotations, the Jehovah's Witnesses organization admits that part of their group's name is based on a misunderstanding of the Hebrew and that Jehovah is not a true rendition of the Tetragrammaton. It should be Yahweh.

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