God's name

greymare

greymare

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I was thinking the other day, (as i tend to do).. Does Gods name ie what you call him/her, really matter. Now, if you stand aside all the human aspect of different beliefs , books, rules, regulations etc, do you think he/she (as you prefer) thinks that Jehovah, or Yahweh, or Buddha or whatever cares.
What I mean is, if he appeared to those and introduced himself etc , isnt "God " the most respectful title. To me, its like calling your Dad by his first name. his peers can do it, but it would be wrong of me to do it. So, i guess wht I mean is, God is a respectful title, and all the other names are like his aliases? do I make sense?

anyway, i was just writing down my thoughts and would like to hear your feedback. Love the Grey:eek:
 
greymare said:
Does Gods name ie what you call him/her, really matter.
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Probably not :)


Now, if you stand aside all the human aspect of different beliefs , books, rules, regulations etc, do you think
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How do I "stand aside" these, and then "think" :confused:

Buddha or whatever cares.
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Do you mean Siddhartha Gautama? If so; he is of course dead, so I suspect he cares not. ;)

What I mean is, if he appeared to those and introduced himself etc , isnt "God " the most respectful title. To me, its like calling your Dad by his first name. his peers can do it, but it would be wrong of me to do it. So, i guess wht I mean is, God is a respectful title, and all the other names are like his aliases?
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I think you make "God" into a person of some sort ("he") whereas I don't so this is a bit out of my territory here, grey. But it's good to share :)

s.
 
Snoopy, what i mean is, forget for a moment what our faiths want us to believe and just suppose that there is a God, (regardless of what name you call him). and everything else is just added fine print. .

Would it matter so much if wwe just called him (or her, whatever) God. You know, like, Sir, or whatever title you give a respected elder.

Just suppose, is all..
 
greymare said:
Snoopy, what i mean is, forget for a moment what our faiths want us to believe
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OK OK! :p


and just suppose that there is a God,
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For you, grey, I will. :)


(regardless of what name you call him).
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D'oh stuck again. If you're doing the same here, i.e. forget for a moment what our faiths want us to believe, how do you come to suppose a notion that God is a him or a her or some sort of limited thing that can have a name? (without having recourse to any of your beliefs?)


Just suppose, is all..
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I'm trying, but you gotta play by the same rules as you're setting. :)

s.
 
Namaste Grey and Snoopy.

I've got to find the song. Our choir just sung it at our interfaith service. Fits the question perfectly....

Well maybe not quite perfectly for Snoopy.

Snoop my brother, fschizzle me thinks it is you that isn't playing the game. If we are playing the game of what does it matter what we call G!d that includes calling G!d him or her. After all it is said that G!d doesn't care whether we say she, he or it, as long as we don't say them all together!

So don't get all anal on the grey here...after all this isn't black or white, it is shades of grey...

Holy Spirit, Krishna, Shiva, Mother Earth, Father Sky, Great Spirit, G!d, Allah, Adonoi.... No grey, I don't think it matters.

Now Snoops point about the Buddha... Maybe you or I can see G!d in all things or represented by all things, but me thinks Snoopy is referencing that the Buddhists don't see him as G!d but as enlightened as the discussion for them whether there is a G!d is open....

I think the trouble lies when NASCAR, MONEY, the NFL...etc. or your country or even your religion become your god....and then the name is an issue, as the allegiance is no longer to a spiritual concept, being, spirit or entity but an institution.
 
It's the thought that counts....name matters not.

It is said that G*d knows of every sparrow on the world (which seems a pretty insignificant creature) so even no name wouldn't make a bit of difference as G*d surely knows what you mean....but if it makes one feel better to use a respectful title (as if one was mailing G*d a letter with their prayers) then by all means, knock yourself out.
 
wil said:
So don't get all anal on the grey here...
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Yuk sorry didn't know I was :eek:

Just trying to say that anthropomorphising is part of a belief system so if we're playing remove your belief system...(if we can do that...)

I shall withdraw to my grey area...

s.
 
greymare said:
I was thinking the other day, (as i tend to do).. Does Gods name ie what you call him/her, really matter. Now, if you stand aside all the human aspect of different beliefs , books, rules, regulations etc, do you think he/she (as you prefer) thinks that Jehovah, or Yahweh, or Buddha or whatever cares.
What I mean is, if he appeared to those and introduced himself etc , isn't "God " the most respectful title. To me, its like calling your Dad by his first name. his peers can do it, but it would be wrong of me to do it. So, i guess what I mean is, God is a respectful title, and all the other names are like his aliases? do I make sense?

anyway, i was just writing down my thoughts and would like to hear your feedback. Love the Grey:eek:
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Why would you think it wrong to call your dad by his first name?

Everyone else on the planet could do it. It seems odd that of all the people he comes into contact the one(s) he probably loves the most and has more regard for than anyone else shouldn't be allowed to address him by his favourite form of address. Fair enough if he insists on being called Mr. Smith by his mates then this should be your clue but somehow I suspect that among his equals he prefers something less formal.

My sons are free to call me by my first name whenever they like. They sometimes do, at other times they don't. Sometimes they choose other less respectful words to attract my attention (in jest) and this is fine too even in public. I want my sons to be my equals not my servants. I don't want them cowering in corners at the sound of my approach or fearing for there lives if I see them in my presence.

Why would any other being be any different?
 
TheEndIsNigh said:
It seems odd that of all the people he comes into contact the one(s) he probably loves the most and has more regard for than anyone else shouldn't be allowed to address him by his favourite form of address.

Why would any other being be any different?
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Kids are different because they do addresss parents by the address most favored...mom, dad, pop, mum, etc.

Would I care if my kids called me wil?? no. But I love it when they curl up in my lap and call me dad....only two in the world have that privilige.


segueing back to the OP... yet another reason that whatever term of endearment each of us have for spirit would be accepted I suppose.
 
greymare said:
I was thinking the other day, (as i tend to do).. Does Gods name ie what you call him/her, really matter. Now, if you stand aside all the human aspect of different beliefs , books, rules, regulations etc, do you think he/she (as you prefer) thinks that Jehovah, or Yahweh, or Buddha or whatever cares.
What I mean is, if he appeared to those and introduced himself etc , isnt "God " the most respectful title. To me, its like calling your Dad by his first name. his peers can do it, but it would be wrong of me to do it. So, i guess wht I mean is, God is a respectful title, and all the other names are like his aliases? do I make sense?

anyway, i was just writing down my thoughts and would like to hear your feedback. Love the Grey:eek:
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When a child (fully trusting in his father), used to reach his arms up for a hug, he would call his Dad, "Abba". It too is a name. But it is so intimate, that only family can use it...

Strangers would simply say "your Dad", or your father...but you have the option of calling him something closer...

That is the wonderful thing about having a relationship with God...

What a privilege...;)
 
Hi Greymare —

Some thoughts on the Divine Name:

The ancients believed that the Divine Name is sacred, because to say the name is to invoke the named ... so one could suggest that what matters is not so much the name, as what the name invokes in the mind of the user of the name ... that's to where the invocation is addressed, as it were.

Different names invoke different ideas, and not all ideas are of the same order. The idea that all divine names actually mean the same thing is quite a modern idea, without any real foundation.

The term 'God' goes back into Indo-European etymology, and its meaning is lost in the mists of time, although the implication is 'the one to whom sacrifice is offered'.

The Hebrew term 'el' for example, infers the Deity in simple and compound senses, but is common throughout the Near East, and applies to pagan gods as well as the Hebrew God.

Theos is from the Greek verb and means 'to run' or 'to shine' ... the journey from there to the noun meaning 'deity' is a long one.

+++

There are two orders of Sacred Name, those we comes up with, such as 'el', 'theos' (and in the New Testament the Greek Kurios, 'Lord' was the translation of the Hebrew Adonai) and those that man is given by the Deity Itself, such as the "I Am That I Am" of Exodus and the "I Am" of John's Gospel, or "Abba" as taught by St Paul.

... in the case of the Christian Tradition, "Abba" is the Revealed Name.

Thomas
 
greymare said:
thank you all for your input
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In Psalm 34:3 worshipers of Jehovah are exhorted: "O magnify Jehovah with me, you people, and let us exalt his name together." How can readers of Bible translations that omit God's name respond fully to that exhortation? Christians are happy that at least some translators have had the courage to include God's name in their renderings of the Hebrew Scriptures



As to the argument that there are no other gods from whom the true God had to be differentiated, that is simply not true. There are millions of gods worshiped by mankind. The apostle Paul noted: "There are many 'gods.'" (1 Corinthians 8:5; Philippians 3:19) Of course, there is only one true God, as Paul goes on to say. Hence, one great advantage of using the name of the true God is that it keeps him separate from all the false gods. Besides, if using the name of God is "entirely inappropriate," why does it appear almost 7,000 times in the original Hebrew Scriptures?
 
steadfast199 said:
In Psalm 34:3 worshipers of Jehovah are exhorted: "O magnify Jehovah with me, you people, and let us exalt his name together." How can readers of Bible translations that omit God's name respond fully to that exhortation? Christians are happy that at least some translators have had the courage to include God's name in their renderings of the Hebrew Scriptures



As to the argument that there are no other gods from whom the true God had to be differentiated, that is simply not true. There are millions of gods worshiped by mankind. The apostle Paul noted: "There are many 'gods.'" (1 Corinthians 8:5; Philippians 3:19) Of course, there is only one true God, as Paul goes on to say. Hence, one great advantage of using the name of the true God is that it keeps him separate from all the false gods. Besides, if using the name of God is "entirely inappropriate," why does it appear almost 7,000 times in the original Hebrew Scriptures?
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so Biblicaly speaking what is Gods true name ?
 
yhwh or the euphanism adonai meaning Lord because yhwh was not meant to be spoken aloud being it was so holy.

Leviticus 19:12, 22:2
Isaiah 42:8
Jeremiah 16:21

I also believe the thought that Gods character is reflected in His name. So whatever character you are calling upon you would use that name for example when I am praying for healing I would call Him Jehovah Rophe

Heres a list of his names I like to use

The Names of God
 
If you look at the original language. The name YHWH, as given to Moses when he asked, which has been translated as "I Am that I Am" is actually "I will be what I will be" which are the present and future tenses of the word, then add the past tense "I was what I was", and a whole new level of multidimensionality appears.
This seems very significant and profound to me, but think what you will.
 
You know what's wild is that God doesn't have to exist to make God work. The higher power step of AA works whether or not there is, factually, objectively, a Higher Power. It's because it's us. It's a manifestation of our desire that there be meaning and some sort of overall order to things. So no Grey, it doesn't matter. Well, unless your Higher Power says it matters. Then it matters...to you...'cause you made it matter...or something.

Chris
 
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