This is what is known as the Tetragrammaton–the name of our Creator and Heavenly Father. It is often transliterated into English as Yahweh. It is displayed here in three forms. The first two are Phoenician (Paleo-Hebrew) script; the other is the Modern Hebrew script.
Ponder Scripture Newsletter
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Newsletter #44
SAY HIS NAME!
By Larry Acheson
01/23/2025
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ames are important. I have woven this truth throughout nearly everything I have written over the years. Those involved with the Black Lives Matter movement understand the importance of names. Out of that same culture arose a powerful "Say Her Name" movement as a means of memorializing victims of police brutality. Sadly, innocent Black lives have been taken at the hands of inexperienced or poorly trained police officers. I have seen the news reports from memorial services for these innocent victims: A man (or woman) steps up to the microphone and, after expressing emotionally-charged words about the victim's noble upbringing and lifestyle, boldly shouts, "Say her name! Say her name!" And the crowd boisterously shouts the victim's name. Not once. Not twice. Many times over.
Why does the man with the microphone exclaim, "Say her name"? We all know. It's to give honor to the victim and to her memory. We can't bring her back to life physically, but we can at the very least honor her memory by saying her name because names identify people and, when spoken respectfully, honor them.
Memorializing the lives of others is a natural part of the grieving process. That's why memorial services are held for loved ones. We cherish the memories they leave behind, and we want to carry them with us forever. We all have fond memories of loved ones who have passed, and just hearing their names mentioned touches our hearts in a special way. On the other hand, deliberately not speaking someone's name has the opposite effect. Refusing to say someone's name is not an act of love. We tend to not speak the names of people we don't like, but if we do say their names, it's done with a negative tone.
Television personality Whoopi Goldberg made news in 2024 when she made it clear that due to her intense dislike of Donald Trump, she would not speak his name. The following excerpt is taken from yahoo!news the day after President Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the 2024 Presidential election:“Everybody can always say, ‘Oh, she [Kamala Harris] should have done this, she should have done this.’ She did what she did. She was everywhere. She talked to everybody. And people didn’t come out. I don’t know why,” Whoopi Goldberg said. “And it doesn’t even matter. He’s now the president. I’m still not going to say his name.”[1]
Here's a video clip in which Goldberg makes the remark.
If we understand the thought process behind Whoopi Goldberg's statement, she is persuaded that the very mention of Donald Trump's name brings him honor—honor she's not willing to give. That's why she won't say it.
So that's why the "Say Her Name" or "Say Their Names" movement is so understandable and meaningful. It says their lives mattered, and we want to remember them in a special way. It's an expression of love. It is horrible that any innocent person should die, whether it be at the hands of law enforcement or at the hands of criminals. I pray this nightmarish scenario end forever because, in the final analysis, all lives matter.
I do not want to in any way diminish from the value of human life and how important each person's name is. At the same time, I cannot over-emphasize the importance of our Creator's name. Although very few people are either able or willing to see it, mankind does not collectively treat our Creator's name the way we want our own names treated. Many authorities, both ancient and modern, agree His name is pronounced Yahweh, or something very close, but that name is generally minimized and even trivialized by nearly the entire world. In fact, many don't even have the slightest inkling of what His true name is. As for the scholars that do, they openly teach that we should call Him "God." Rabbinical Judaism teaches that those who even respectfully speak His true name will not be in the Resurrection of the righteous. Instead of speaking His name, they teach their adherents to say "Hashem," "Adonai," or "God." Once anyone with a heart to search out truth delves into this matter, they find that "God" is indeed a name, but it's not the name of the Creator of the universe. "Hashem," by the way, was originally the name of a man, but that's another study.
Among today's Bible scholars, there are those who insist that "God" is merely a title, a perfectly acceptable English translation of the Hebrew Elohim. However, that's not really true. At best, God is a lousy translation because "Elohim" means "mighty," "power" and "supreme." But that's not what God means. All etymologists, i.e., those who specialize in researching original meanings of words, agree that "God" does not and never has meant "mighty," "power" or "Supreme." No, they say it means things like "to invoke," "to pour, to offer sacrifice," "an object of worship."[2]
I am both awestruck and shocked by the reactions of religious people when I tell them that not only is the Creator's name not "God," but that "God" is also a blatant mistranslation of the Hebrew title "Elohim." I say this because I well remember the days when I was right there with them, calling on God, praising God and praying to God. But then one day I was confronted with the fact that "God" was originally the name of a pagan idol whose worship is condemned by Almighty Yahweh.[3] I was stunned and in disbelief. I had to prove the veracity of that information before I would accept it. It was a hard thing to do, not only because it hurt knowing I had been calling on and praying to the Almighty with the wrong name, but I realized this new information would not be well-received by friends and family. And it was not.
If you've ever worked in the customer service sector, you know how people often react when you get their name wrong. I could tell some stories about that, both positive and negative! On a positive note, I remember when a call center agent rang my phone and asked if she could transfer a certain irate dentist to me so I could help resolve a messed-up order he had received. She gave me his account number, and as I was accessing the account, I asked the agent what the dentist's name was so I could give him the proper greeting. She said she couldn't pronounce it. By this time, I was looking at his account and I saw his last name was "Mirmohammadi." I immediately understood why she didn't attempt to speak his name. I told her to go ahead and transfer him to me. As she did so, I slowly sounded out the syllables "Mirmo-ha-madi." Once the transfer was completed, I asked, "Hello, am I speaking with Dr. Mirmo-ha-madi?"
There were about two seconds of silence, followed by one of the most boisterous belly-laughs I have ever heard. The voice answered with a hearty middle-eastern accent, "I can't believe it! I can't believe it! This is incredible! No one ever pronounces my name correctly, and you got it exactly right! I can't believe it!" For the better part of a minute, he kept raving over my having correctly pronounced his name; one thing led to another, and not only did the call end on a jovial note, but he decided he was okay with the order he had received; it was no longer a big deal. We enjoyed a great conversation, all because I got his name right, and I treated that name with respect.
But I've also experienced the reverse. If a customer is already frustrated by the time they're talking to you, getting their name wrong only adds fuel to the fire. Insofar as recent events from the national scene, during the 2024 Presidential Campaign, the liberal media made a big fuss over then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump continually mispronouncing Kamala Harris' first name. She had made it clear that it's pronounced "COMMA-la," and I watched more than a few media segments in which the correct pronunciation was reinforced. Nevertheless, Donald Trump would always say "Ka-MAWLA." Here's an excerpt from NPR journalist Deepa Shivaram's August 2024 article "How to say 'Kamala' — and why it makes a difference":But on the campaign trail, Harris' name has been mispronounced intentionally by former President Donald Trump. He and other Republicans have regularly incorrectly referred to her as "ka-MALA" or "Camilla" and have mocked her name in other ways. At a rally in July, for example, he made a point of saying he didn't care about the pronunciation.
"They were explaining to me, 'You can't say "ka-MALA" — you can say "COMMA-la."' I said, 'Don't worry about it — I couldn't care less if I mispronounce it. I couldn't care less,'" he told the crowd.
Singling out Harris' first name is a way to "other" her, said Myles Durkee, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan.
"When you intentionally mispronounce someone's name who's less traditional in the American context, it's almost a dog whistle to othering that person, trying to suggest they're less American, that they're less worthy of you saying their name correctly in the first place," he said.[4]I hope you can see where I'm going with this. Humans tend to appreciate it when you say their name in a kind, respectful way, and they like it even more when you pronounce it correctly. But what I am unable to grasp is how the vast majority of humans aren't able to make the connection between respectful treatment of their name and respectful treatment of the Creator's name. I understand that most folks already think they're honoring the Creator when they call Him "God," so I'll overlook those people because I was there once myself. Back then, I didn't mean to refer to the Almighty with an incorrect, even pagan, name, but if you don't know, you don't know.
However, when it was revealed to me that His name is not and never was "God," and when I did the Berean thing and proved it for myself, the dynamics changed. If I didn't dump the "God" name/title overnight, it was quite soon afterwards. At that time, for some reason, I thought I could share this same life-changing information with friends and family. Wrong. They wouldn't let me get to first base. We all have our own ideas of what's important in this lifetime; one of my priorities is to honor our Heavenly Father and His son, not only by obeying Them, but also by using their true names and titles when I talk about Them and when I read from the Word. A question I have often asked those with whom I'm able to discuss this topic is, "Can you think of a better name to call upon than the name our Creator gave to Himself?"
The name Yahweh should be honored, praised and spoken of highly in all conversations. Instead, we've been taught that it should not be pronounced out of a sense of reverence, which by "Say Her Name" standards, is an oxymoron. It's definitely a false sense of reverence. Typical of convoluted human reasoning, the opposite of the correct reasoning is being applied to our loving Heavenly Father. We avoid saying His name, not out of reverence, but out of a sense of irreverence. If you want to give Him honor, then say His name! Praise His name! Out of a sense of reverence, His great name and His creative works should be shouted from the rooftops! The day is coming when it will.
[1] "Co-hosts of 'The View' react to Trump win: 'The convicted felon box on employment applications better be taken off.'", The Recount, lifted from yahoo!news, November 6, 2024.
[2] Cf., The Oxford English Dictionary, Volume IV, The Philological Society, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, GB/ENG, 1978, item "God," p. 267.
[3] Cf., the Hebrew text of Isaiah 65:11, where the names of two idols are listed in addition to the name Yahweh. Instead of the text reading, "But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, ...," the text should read, "But ye are they that forsake Yahweh (יהוה), that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for God (גָד), ...."
[4] Cf., "How to say 'Kamala'—and why it makes a difference," by Deepa Shivaram, NPR Services, August 8, 2024.
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