CLARIFICATION

Yesterday's posting took me about five hours to write, and some time after I had finished it, I realized that I had not done a very good job of connecting my thoughts. I do not believe anything I wrote was incorrect, but the four paragraphs almost seem to form an outline rather than the presentation of a single idea. Hopefully, this post will "connect some of the dots."

My ultimate goal was to present the view that the Old Testament Hebrew הוה (YHVH), which appears 6823 times, and which is translated "LORD" in most Bibles, is a reference to the pre-incarnate the Son of God. Various attempts have been made to write the name (Yahweh, Yah, Yehovah, Jehovah), but today, no one really knows the correct spelling or pronunciation. הוה is defined as "I Am that I Am," or "I Am" in Exodus 3:14. As I pointed out yesterday, Jesus identifies with the name, "I Am" several times in the Gospel of John.

I also pointed out the Hebrew הוה was κύριος in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament translated in about 200 B.C. In the Greek New Testament, κύριος is used as a title for Jesus (Lord) over six hundred fifty times. The writers of the New Testament must have known that they were using the same Greek word for the title of Jesus as was used for the name of God, because all four writers of the Gospels and the Apostle Paul quoted from the Septuagint. Therefore, they clearly identified הוה as Jesus.


The main reason it is important to understand that "LORD" does not refer to God the Father, or to God as a Trinity, is because if it did, then the Bible contradicts itself, and that is impossible. There are two Old Testament references to men saying they had seen God with their eyes (Gen. 32:30; Jud. 13:22), and yet, the Bible teaches that no man has ever seen God face to face (Jn. 1:18; 1 Jn. 4:12). It also says that to look upon God's face would result in sudden death (Ex. 33:20).

Before Christ came to teach us about God, man was not aware that the God of Israel was a Trinity composed of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). So when Jacob wrestled with this very special "man," he somehow thought it was the one true God. The "man" with Whom Jacob wrestled was God, but God the Son, not the Father or the Trinity. The same is true of Manoah who, seeing the Angel of the Lord, thought it was God. Perhaps on another occasion, I will attempt to show that the "Angel of the Lord" is another manifestation of Jesus in the Old Testament.

To sum up, הוה, κύριος, LORD, YHVH, I Am, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, and Jesus are all one and the same Person. I sure hope that all makes sense to you. God bless you as you serve Christ Jesus, our Lord!