There are many names for God, but there is only one God, and He is the same God for everyone, although our impressions of Him differ. Do you think He would be confused if you called Him “Sam”? He knows who you’re calling, He speaks the language of our heart. kind of reminds me of that viet nam era movie where the soldier thinks Gods’ name is Howard. “Our Father which art in heaven, Howard be thy name”. Trust me, God will hear you what ever you call Him. To insist on any particular name, or even to favor one particular name seems counter productive and divisive. We in the western world call on the name “Jesus” however in His original (human) language, there is no “J” is there? Do you think He can’t hear us because we translated His name? Just my thoughts.
"Jehovah" is a more modern word that dates from about 1520. It is comprised of abbreviated Hebrew verbs. It would most likely mean “he who will be, is, and has been”. ** The proper name of God the father is the ancient Hebrew “Yahweh” which means “I am” as stated in the book of Exodus. Here’s a good article from the Catholic Encyclopedia: newadvent.org/cathen/08329a.htm**
Roman_Army said:
I would disagree that JW’s worship the same God we worship. There are so many differences between our God and who they call Jehovah. For example - His plan, His people, the way He communicates to His people, His love (conditional), Who he’ll accept in Heaven, How to please Him - What He requires of His people, When he grants forgivness - oh the list goes on. Unless you are willing to say that the God we worship is the same God everyone worships - in a Universal sort of sense - then as a former JW, I have to respectfully disagree with you.
The point is there is one God, if the JW’s perception of this one God is wrong. It doesn’t change God, it changes what they think He is. To say they pray to a different “God” is to say there is more than one, there is not. You may say His name is Sam, I may say His name is Howard, what you or I call Him doesn’t change Him, it just affects you and I. Example three religions, yellow, blue and green. Yellow believes we should kill each other since we’re different And, they use Gods’ Word to justify it, blue believes we should love and accept each other since we’re all “brothers” and they also use Gods Word to justify it, green believes somewhere between the two, they all worship the same God, each of their perspectives are different because each has been exposed to different situations with the one true God. I was raised in a family of four children, we each believe different things based on our own individual lives, we’re not all correct, but each of us thinks we’re correct.
So you believe there is more than one God? Doesn’t sound like Catholic doctorine to me, just what is your religion??? (LOL) How could they worship a different God if there is only one?
Well, I’m certainly glad, you are a “former”, and I firmly believe you’re in the right pew now, however I’m sure there are some who feel you’ve made a terrible mistake. My point is they don’t praise a “different” God. God is one, He is the same, it’s our human minds which create the differences. Which is one of the problems with JP II, he understood there is only one God, despite our individual ideas of Him.
Oh, i’m not saying that they worship correctly or that their views towards God are necessarily right. In fact, i don’t even consider the JW’s to be christians, since they don’t recognize the divinity of Christ.
“Jehovah” and “Yahweh” are two different attempts to transliterate the Hebrew “tetragrammaton” which consists of four consonants generally rendered “YHWH.” Others transliterated it as “JHWH.”
Hi Tom,
To the original poster, Just because some cult uses a name for God that we also use, does not mean we should stop using it.
Absolutely.
