Has anyone ever stopped to wonder, what, in the name of God, is God's name?
I mean, we call Him God, sure. His Son is the great and awesome JC. We have the Holy Spirit moving around there too. (Being Christian, this is the Trinity we have faith in.)
He's omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and above all, benevolent.
Being such a powerful being, it brings me to wonder, what is His true name? A being of such infinite greatness would, I think, have its own name. We can safely say His name is not God. That was a name coined by humans to describe, well, gods. The Sun god, the Moon god, the god of the Underworld, etc. ... no, God is not God's name.
Perhaps Yahweh, or its anglicized representation, Jehovah? Yahweh (and by extension, Jehovah) is widely considered to be the 'proper name' of God. However, in the Hebrew Bible, it is written as YHWH; there are no vowels to guide the pronunciation. Therefore, we are not even sure how it is pronounced.
Potentially even the Muslims might have it: Allah. The supreme and all-comprehensive divine name.
But I don't think so.
Not because I think religion is wrong, but simply because I believe God is so powerful, and so divine, that His true name would be incomprehensible to us mortals.
Think about it. By most accounts (including my own), God is an infinite, supreme being, perfect in every possible way, and anyone who's religious enough will tell you that there is NO WAY to comprehend Him in His entirety while our minds are still limited to this world. Why? Simply because the human mind has little capacity for the infinite.
Therefore, by extension, His true name would be similarly baffling to us.
I think of this because I would hate to die and find out that our creator's true name was, say, Bob.
(I would almost be surprised if anyone gets that reference.)
And I would think, sure, God works in mysterious ways ... but Why couldn't you have TOLD US?
I would not be surprised if I get flak about this from any super-religious types, though. If you are the type who thinks a little healthy curiosity and expression of one's ideas is wrong, and if you 'care for my soul' enough to condemn me simply for philosophizing, then you can be sure you deserve the same judgment that you expect me to receive.
5 comments:
Rather interesting post. I think many Christians just read the bible and quote the bible. They don't understand it, or question it. If you ask many what is God's Name... "God. That's his name."
God is not a name,its similar to him, her, it, man, woman. They are things, but not descriptive enough. God's name, could be God. But I don't think so
If the stories in the Bible are nothing more then tall tales that a couple of drunks wrote a thousand years ago and didn't mean to be taken this far, then it shows laziness, lack of detail, or just carelessness on their part.
I'd like to think that that is not the case. More then likely, his name is just not known. The writers of the Bible wrote what they knew at the time. So we call him God. One day we'll know the answer. Perhaps it is Bob.
lol, i like how you're carrying on my train of thought.
^_^
Well written.
It's also worth noting the countless metaphors in the Bible God adopts as alternatives to his name(s). Each of which was ultimately purposed to offer insight into God's nature in terms the people of the day could understand.
There's the Lamb, the Shepherd, the Rock (and by extension, the Firm Foundation), the Horn (symbolizing strength), the Banner, the Bread (of Life), the (Living) Water, etc. There are a whole lot more examples, but those are the ones I tend to notice most often.
Lol, that did occur to me.
But, it stands to reason that those names are all for the sake of our mortal brains.
It still doesn't answer the question of what God's name is, or if He even has one.
Technically, he doesn't even have to have a name, and it wouldn't change things much.
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