The meaning and purpose of the names of YHWH

Discuss either theological doctrines, ideas about God, or Biblical criticism. I don't want any debates about creation vs evolution.

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sgttomas
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The meaning and purpose of the names of YHWH

Post by sgttomas » Sun Jul 10, 2011 4:01 pm

I guess I composed this before I returned to DOXA, so it doesn't appear on these forums. IIRC, I posted this on graceshaker's forum (anyone remember him from CARM?) but they have since been closed (last I saw). Anyways, I composed this about 8 months before becoming a Muslim. I recalled this post because Fleetmouse asked me what was it about the Quran that led me to believe it was from God (I'm paraphrasing to place his query into the right context). This post is my response / "pre-sponse".

- - - - - - - -

The names of God were revelations of His character. The power of the word is to reveal characteristics of reality that cannot otherwise be perceived. The word embodies reality.

I can see the ancients finding the power in these concepts appealing. The I AM is a declaration of noncontingent existence. As we apprehend the I AM we also apprehend our own eternal selves.

LORD (YHWH) is also a very powerful concept. The Earthly authority. The archetype. The limit of ability and capacity are governed by the LORD.

And on and on, we find more aspects of God revealed through His divine names. I wonder how this evolved? I can imagine that creative minds are aware of attributes of reality that seem to be self-evidently great: full of potential for human satisfaction, peace, and preservation.

So by knowing the names of God we know our limitations as humans, both in the lowly sense and in the mighty sense. The names of God are pearls of wisdom for reflecting on our status and purpose in life. They guide us through hardship and direct us to prosperity. They are the "laws of human nature" that we ignore at our peril, for the Righteousness of the LORD demands it!

Psalm 7:17
I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.

Consider how starkly this stands in contrast to the zeitgeist of salvation by our own hands (through technology). The manipulation of our selves to remove suffering rather than overcome it. When we alter this relationship with the world, are we speaking the names of the LORD in deference to His Magesty?

Isaiah 26:10
Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the LORD.

The names of God are revelations from antiquity about how to put ourselves in right standing with our existence.

This is really what brought me back from the brink of materialist agnosticism. I could discount all proofs for the physical presence and purpose of God, but I could not discount the direct revelation of truth implied by the names of God. The names became the reality of God.

The names ARE the whole of the reality of God. To call upon the Lord, to speak His name, is to bring into our minds the relationship between us and the Almighty.

We keep the name of the LORD sacred, because to pollute or defile that characteristic is to change the nature of our right-standing with life (personal and corporate). If we take the name of the LORD in vain we will be punished because we will naturally be working against the author of life.

It is possible for us now to understand the significance of The Word in creating the Kingdom of Heaven. The power of the Word isn't to define an absolute reality, but to bring us into a proper relation with the reality that we are entirely subject to. We do not find the immutable nature of the LORD by turning Jesus' ministry into theology, but by meditating on the words of the LORD to reveal His holy Name. When we know the LORD by his name, we have the creative material for transformation into a godly being.

The names of YHWH: http://beitnitzachon.com/Beit-Ha-Mishka ... f-YHWH.htm

eta: The names of ALLAH: http://bewley.virtualave.net/names.html

Peace.
Prophet Muhammad (God send peace and blessings upon him) is reported to have said, "God says 'I am as My servant thinks I am' " ~ Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol 9 #502 (Chapter 93, "Oneness of God")

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Re: The meaning and purpose of the names of YHWH

Post by met » Sun Jul 10, 2011 6:31 pm

sgttomas wrote:t is possible for us now to understand the significance of The Word in creating the Kingdom of Heaven. The power of the Word isn't to define an absolute reality, but to bring us into a proper relation with the reality that we are entirely subject to. We do not find the immutable nature of the LORD by turning Jesus' ministry into theology, but by meditating on the words of the LORD to reveal His holy Name. When we know the LORD by his name, we have the creative material for transformation into a godly being.
yeh, on this we agree... or IS IT we USED to AGREE(?)
The “One” is the space of the “world” of the tick, but also the “pinch” of the lobster, or that rendezvous in person to confirm online pictures (with a new lover or an old God). This is the machinery operative...as “onto-theology."
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Re: The meaning and purpose of the names of YHWH

Post by sgttomas » Sun Jul 10, 2011 10:12 pm

Shoots, beats me. I composed those words to mean that Jesus was not God - that we have precisely the same nature as Jesus, and that taking the Gospels literally in a fashion and making Jesus equal to God Almighty is inconceivable and contravenes the whole idea of what I was describing about the Divine Names.

I would say that you have strong feelings of affinity to what I wrote there, but if you assert that Jesus is God in some way, then we haven't found common ground.

It's interesting for me to reflect on the sgttomas who wrote those words. To understand the place of distrust in religious traditions, but the deep need to connect to God in an authentic way; the decrepit and broken person who was seeking out the Pure and Holy. Somewhere - I cannot find at the moment - I wrote about the Prophets who spoke these names of God and how they were in a right standing with the Divine so that they could channel His Reality into their being. I really wish I could find that post. Anyways, here is what I wrote shortly after testifying that Muhammad is the Messenger of ALLAH:
metamorphized sgttomas wrote:I am now pursuing the ideal Islam, through the "real" Islam, to flesh out my ipso facto Islam. It feels as seamless as that: all one identity at heart, pragmatically worked out by a human struggling with God.


-sgtt
Prophet Muhammad (God send peace and blessings upon him) is reported to have said, "God says 'I am as My servant thinks I am' " ~ Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol 9 #502 (Chapter 93, "Oneness of God")

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Re: The meaning and purpose of the names of YHWH

Post by mdsimpson92 » Mon Jul 11, 2011 12:58 am

The name that struck me was "I am that I am" from Exodus. As if it was the primary essense of god in that way. It was the one that made me find Meta's blog and also to get into philosophy. . . .Wow I sound like St. Thomas Aquinas.
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Re: The meaning and purpose of the names of YHWH

Post by met » Mon Jul 11, 2011 3:47 pm

sgttomas wrote:I would say that you have strong feelings of affinity to what I wrote there, but if you assert that Jesus is God in some way, then we haven't found common ground.
I think there are many ways saying 'Jesus is God' could be both true and meaningful. Too many to really go into right now, in fact. But, for u (i'm guessing) NOTHING that ever was or is a part of creation is ever also God or any part of God?
The power of the Word isn't to define an absolute reality, but to bring us into a proper relation with the reality that we are entirely subject to.
I suppose this is the part that asserts Jesus is not God...
The “One” is the space of the “world” of the tick, but also the “pinch” of the lobster, or that rendezvous in person to confirm online pictures (with a new lover or an old God). This is the machinery operative...as “onto-theology."
Dr Ward Blanton

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Re: The meaning and purpose of the names of YHWH

Post by sgttomas » Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:31 pm

[q
met wrote:
sgttomas wrote:I would say that you have strong feelings of affinity to what I wrote there, but if you assert that Jesus is God in some way, then we haven't found common ground.
I think there are many ways saying 'Jesus is God' could be both true and meaningful. Too many to really go into right now, in fact. But, for u (i'm guessing) NOTHING that ever was or is a part of creation is ever also God or any part of God?
Yes, that was the conclusion that I had come to and was implicit in my writing of that post. Hence this chapter of the Quran instantly seared into my heart and brain:

"The Unity" / "Sincerity"
In the Name of God, the Infinitely Good, the All-Merciful.
[112:1]Say: He, God, is One.
[112:2]God, the Self-Sufficient Besought of all.
[112:3]He begetteth not and He is not begotten.
[112:4]And there is none like unto Him.
The power of the Word isn't to define an absolute reality, but to bring us into a proper relation with the reality that we are entirely subject to.
I suppose this is the part that asserts Jesus is not God...
Yes.

God is the All Forgiving, but His forgiveness is beyond our forgiving.

God is the One Who Guides, but His guidance is beyond our guiding.

God is the Intimately Aware, but His intimacy is beyond our intimacy.

God is the All Hearing, All Seeing, All Knowing, All Powerful One, but His attributes of power and ability are not like our power and ability.

We can never describe the quality of being God in any way, nor can anything in Creation fulfill the reality of being God. But we can know by our insufficiency that we have a yearning for the One who is Totally Self-Sufficient, Eternall Besought Above All (112:2) that there is a relationship to the Absolute that we need.

So it was that I harboured some thoughts of being an Eastern Orthodox Christian for a while, because of their Christology. But I couldn't sustain even that. There was no point to Jesus being God any longer. Jesus could just as well only be human and I wouldn't suffer any loss of intimacy with God, awareness of Him, or reliance upon Him. God cannot have the quality of being accidentally something. Oh, it just happens to be the case that Jesus is God. No, Jesus MUST be God and it cannot be that we can exist and have awareness of God apart from Jesus. Yet it is entirely possible. Muhammad brought the message of who God is, just as clearly as anything that the Bible could account for. The only difference is the assertion that God partakes in humanity as the Divine. And that has already been eliminated as incoherent/meaningless. It cannot be possible that He, God, is One (112:1) and that God is an associate of anything created. That is sincerity of God-consciousness. Any assertion of a meaningful association of God with Jesus necessarily changes the meaning of "God" to suit "Jesus". That is totally the opposite of what The Word does.

Jesus is not God.

Jesus brings us into proper relation to God. Jesus is a Messenger of God, acting on His behalf. That is the Word that Jesus is. He is God's Word, but it is still GOD'S word.

Peace,
-sgttomas
Prophet Muhammad (God send peace and blessings upon him) is reported to have said, "God says 'I am as My servant thinks I am' " ~ Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol 9 #502 (Chapter 93, "Oneness of God")

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Re: The meaning and purpose of the names of YHWH

Post by Metacrock » Sat Jul 16, 2011 11:54 am

Jesus is the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity.
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Re: The meaning and purpose of the names of YHWH

Post by Kane Augustus » Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:58 pm

Jesus was a person. A nice person with a lot of insights that were helpful during his time. Some of those insights are still helpful, but, overall, Jesus remains simply an interesting historical person, and that's all.

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Re: The meaning and purpose of the names of YHWH

Post by sgttomas » Sat Jul 16, 2011 11:54 pm

Metacrock wrote:Jesus is the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity.
I was a good Lutheran for a time, so I'll chime in with the phrase we repeated time and again in our study of Luther's catechism.

"What does this mean?"

Also, my argument is that the Trinity belief augments the God-notion with accidental properties. This is impossible for God. God is Necessary Being. There is real structure to my argument here. Find something that undermines it.

-sgtt
Prophet Muhammad (God send peace and blessings upon him) is reported to have said, "God says 'I am as My servant thinks I am' " ~ Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol 9 #502 (Chapter 93, "Oneness of God")

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Re: The meaning and purpose of the names of YHWH

Post by Metacrock » Sun Jul 17, 2011 2:15 pm

I am not going to arguw with you about Jesus. I respect your views Sarge, and the path you have chosen. I know Jesus and he never told me stop belief in the Trinity. Nevertheless I respect your views. I'm not doing this to have arguments about Jesus with people who believe in God.
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