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GOD'S
TRUE "NAME"
Since
ancient times, men have given a name to the Creator.
Moses asked Him what His name is; He answered: "I Am He
Who Is", in Hebrew it is said "YHVH", and means "The One
Who Is", the "Being" in excellence. He also told Moses:
"Here are the terms in which you will address the
children of Israel: I AM sent me to you… This is the
Name that I will carry forever, under which will
invoke Me the future generations" (Exodus 3,13-15). This
name indicates the existence of the unique Creator, "The
One Who Is", by opposition to the gods of paganism and
mythology who "are not", who don't exist.
Thus,
the Creator's Name is neither "Elohim", nor "Allah", nor
"God", nor "Theos", nor "Deus" or "Dio", etc, according
to the languages, nor even YHVH. Because the Creator
revealed His Name in Hebrew, a language in
which this word has a meaning as we saw; it reveals His
Essence, His Being, His Personality, His transcendent,
eternal and uncreated Nature. The name YHVH doesn't have
a meaning in all the other languages. Indeed, to
understand the Name "YHVH", one must understand Hebrew.
However, it is to the whole humanity, and in all
languages, that the Creator wants to be revealed. His
Name must have a significance in the language by
which man invokes Him and must have the possibility to be
translated in other languages while reproducing the
exact meaning of the word. YHVH has no significant
meaning in French, English or Chinese etc.
On
the other hand, how can we translate in Arabic or in
English the word "Deus"? Impossible! Because this word
doesn't have a meaning, it doesn't designate the quality
of the Creator's essence. YHVH means "THE BEING" in
English, "L'ÊTRE" in French, "L'ESSERE" in Italian,
"DAS SEIN" in German, "AL-KAEN" in Arabic, etc…
These names strike men and lead them to think about their
spiritual commitments to discover finally the One and
Unique Creator.
All
the other "names" assigned to the Creator are inspired or
translated from paganism and mythology. Thus, "God",
"Deus", "Theos", "Dios" emanate from "Zeus", the god of
the Greek mythology. These are proper names which have no
meaning and therefore disfigure the only One Being in
reality; we remain rather indifferent to Him because they
don't reveal the fatherly and loving Face of the Father,
any character, any aspect of His personality.
On
the other hand, the Name YHVH reveals a transcendent
aspect, rather "cold", which doesn't touch men's hearts,
it doesn't invite to God's love, nor does it reveal the
Creator's love for his creatures. It was only a first
revealing contact from the One who created mankind,
wanting to make Himself known as the unique Source and
Reason of the existence of men on earth.
With
time, the Jews became unfaithful to the Lord by adoring
the gods of the surrounding mythologies. They soiled His
holy Name by placing Him at the level of these false
gods. The Almighty denounced this apostasy by his
prophets: "They have profaned my Holy Name among the
nations where they have gone, so that people say of them:
'These are the people of YHVH'… I am going to
sanctify my great Name, which has been profaned among the
nations, which you have profaned among them. And the
nations will know that I am YHVH" (Ezekiel
36,16-23).
Also,
later, the prophecies announced that the Creator's true
Name, his sanctified Name, will be revealed in the
future. It was the Messiah's mission to reveal this true
Name which includes the infinite, essential, intellectual
and emotional qualities of the One who was before the
world ever existed. The Messiah was to reveal the
Creator's true Name at the price of his sufferings and
persecution. David, 1000 years BC, foresaw the Messiah's
passion and described it in one of his famous Psalms.
David makes Him say:
"A
pack of dogs surrounds me, a gang of villains closing
in on me; they pierced my hands and my feet, they lay
me down in the dust of the death… I shall
proclaim your Name to my brothers, praise You in
full assembly" (Ps 22,17-23).
When
Jesus came, He held promise: the eve of his Passion, in
presence of his apostles, "his brothers", addressing
Himself to his Father, who also became by Him theirs and
ours, He said:
"I
have revealed your Name to those whom You took
from the world to give to me… I have revealed
your Name to them and I will reveal It to
them (again therefore, in the future, as we will see
further), so that the love with which You loved me
may be in them, and so that I may be in them."
(John 17,6 / 17,26).
Thus,
we pass, by the Messiah's passion, from the intellectual
Name of YHVH, to a Name of intimate Love: The Creator is
pure love for the brothers of his Messiah, this
Messiah who gave them for Father His own: "Go to my
brothers and tell them: I am ascending to my Father
and your Father…" said Jesus to Mary of
Magdala (John 20,17). It is by Jesus that the Creator's
true Name was revealed to the whole world.
Jesus
insisted on revealing the Creator's fatherly
dimension. He taught his disciples to invoke Him like a
Father: "You should pray like this: Our Father who
are in Heaven, sanctified be your Name" (Matthew
6,9). God's Name is sanctified in us by the discovery of
the affectionate feelings of the Father towards his
faithful children…, but His terrible feelings
towards the infidels.
This
is how his holy Name is sanctified! Understand who
can!
By
Jesus, the Creator's fatherhood became accessible to the
believers of all races and nations, in contrary to the
Jewish pretensions according to which YHVH is the
monopoly of the Jews. Jesus, and his disciples after Him,
opened the Creator's fatherhood to the whole world.
Indeed, Paul says: "Do you think God is the God only of
the Jews, and not of the gentiles too? Most certainly of
gentiles too! "(Romans 3,29). That's how Ezekiel's
prophecy comes true: "The nations will know that I am
YHVH".
However,
the revelation of this holy Name does not concern only
the time of the Christ. Jesus had said: "… and I
will reveal It to them", in the future, as we
previously saw. In a heartfelt cry, Jesus had previously
asked: "Father, glorify your Name!" The answer came
instantly: "I have glorified It (by Jesus) and
I will glorify It again (in the apocalyptic
times)" (John 12,28).
It
is in our apocalyptic end of times that Jesus reveals,
once more, like a recall, the Father's true Name. This
resumption is due to the fact that the believers of all
sides - Jews, Christians and Moslems - have all
disfigured the Face of the Creator and the authentic
faith by their behaviors. To the purity of the faith,
they mingled politics, fanaticism, material cult, laxity,
ignorance, immorality, spiritualism etc. Jesus had
foreseen it all; this is why He had said that He had to
reveal, again, his Father's true Name.
In
the past, the Father's Name has been soiled. Today, the
Son's name has been soiled by the so-called Christians.
Both holy Name's must be sanctified again
today.
This
holy Mission falls to the Apocalyptic Apostles; they have
to accomplish it while "prophesying again against
many different nations… "(Rev 10,11). The resumption
of this prophecy will allow a great number to see the
Father's true Face through the Son's sanctified Face:
"Here He comes… Everyone will see Him, even those
who pierced Him…(Rev 1,7)… That day, the deaf
will hear the words of the Book and, delivered from
shadow and darkness (widespread by the false
believers), the eyes of the blind will see" (Isaiah
29,18).
Indeed,
the Book of Revelation reveals that, nowadays, the
Messiah also carries a new, sanctified, Name. In
fact, the Name of Jesus lies no more in the traditional
churches. Only the true believers will discover it and
deserve, therefore, to have engraved in their hearts,
forever, the Father's true Name:
-
"The winner, I will make him a pillar in the temple of
my God and I will engrave on him my God's
Name… and my own new Name" (Rev
3,12).
-
"I saw Heaven open, and a white horse appear... its
rider judges and makes war in justice. His eyes
were flames of fire (of anger)… the Name
written on Him was known only to Himself..." (Rev
19,11-12).
-
"The angel harvested the whole vintage of the earth
and put it into a huge winepress, the winepress of
God's anger!" (Rev 14,19)… The last plagues that
must consume God's Anger (Rev 15,1)… The nations
had gotten in fury and now the time has come for your
retribution, and for the dead to be judged, and for
your servants the prophets, for the saints and for
those who fear your name, small and great alike, to be
rewarded. The time has come to destroy those who are
destroying the earth (Rev 11,18) ".
Thus,
the Creator's apocalyptic Name, after the one of Love for
his faithful children, is: Severe Judge and Ardent Anger
regarding the impious men against whom "He makes
war in Justice".
The
Creator's Name is double: "Father Love" for his faithful
children and "Pitiless Judge" for the rebels. He has an
eye of infinite love towards his children, and an eye of
ardent wrath towards the enemies of his Messiah, of
virtue and of faith. We have to choose between the love
of God and his just Anger.
However,
God's Name is multiple: He is also "the Eternal", "the
Merciful", "the Almighty", "the Omniscient", "the
Creator", "the Unique", "the Terrifying" etc. The Quran
gives Him 99 Names applicable to His Essence. All these
qualifying Names, contrary to those of "God",
"Allah", "Dieu" etc… - which are proper names (such
as Robert etc…) - are translatable in all languages,
to give a meaning, a quality of the
Creator's multiple character; they define a particular
personality of that Uncreated Being and Creator of
all. Nevertheless, the word "God" cannot be eliminated.
But when we pronounce it, let's have the conception of
"Dad".
Now,
in order to deceive the believers, the Devil starts by
giving them a false image of the Creator as well as
different names. These names and conceptions are the
reason of the division between the believers. This is how
the devil acts when he doesn't succeed in convincing them
by atheism. This false picture of the heavenly Father
also carries, necessarily, a false name which deviates
the believers. In our time, the apocalyptic Beast is the
satanic weapon of choice to distort the true
Name.
Blessed
are the winners against the apocalyptic Beast! They will
discover, more in depth, the Name of Love of the Father:
"Such will be the winner's part; and I will be his God
and he will be my son. But the cowards, the renegades,
the murderers etc…, their share is in the burning
pond of fire and sulfur - it is the second death - " (Rev
21,7). On the other hand, the Father says about the
faithful believer who triumphs over Evil in this world:
"I will be his God, and he will be my son" (Rev
21,7).
In
order to discover closely the true Name which has
multiple faces of the Father, his varied Face, all his
marvelous Qualities, let's put in practice James'
precious advice:
"Resist
the devil (by resisting, today, to the Beast and to
his works) and he will run away from you. Come
closer to God, and He will come closer to you"
(James 4,7-8).
The
closer we come to God, the more we discover to what
extent "God is Love" (1 John 4,8). But, on the other
hand, those who get away from Him discover that "Love is
terrible when not loved", as said Theresa of
Avila.
Finally,
let's remember that Jesus told us to ask the Father above
all: "Your Name be sanctified!" because, from this
sanctification, which gives us to know the
Creator, result all graces.
"The
eternal life is this: to know You, the only
true God, and your Messenger, Jesus, the Christ whom
you have sent" (John 17,3).
Father,
sanctified and glorified be your name… within us!
Amen!
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