Question: I've come across something that's been called the "Sacred Name Movement," and I'm curious...

August 1, 2010

TBC Staff

Question: I've come across something that's been called the "Sacred Name Movement," and I'm curious if any of you have heard of it. They disparage Jesus' name as a pagan conglomeration of Zeus and a Greek healing goddess named Ieso and say that salvation is only achieved by calling upon the (varying) properly pronounced name of God, the Tetragrammaton, YHWH (or YHVH). They deny the Trinity and claim that the name of the Messiah also had to be YHWH or some variation. They seem to treat Hebrew as the original perfect language and also seem to deny the validity of the Greek NT and choose to believe that it was first written in Hebrew or Aramaic. I'd appreciate your thoughts or observations on this.

Response: We haven't yet particularly addressed groups in the Sacred Name Movement such as the Assembly of Yahweh. To know that "Yahweh" (the closest to the four letters YHWH) is correct, and that Jesus could and can correctly be called Yahshua—or, even more correctly, Yahweh-shua, or "God" (Yah) "the Savior" (Shua)—is wonderful, but we do not recommend fellowshipping with any group that establishes this as their basis for separating from other believers. Their apparent intent is to help Christians better understand the Scriptures through Hebrew eyes and culture.

If any group, however, places extreme emphasis upon these aspects, it can be quite easy to begin to have a cultic mindset; i.e., that they are the only ones who have the truth and everyone else is anathema. From there, it's only a short distance to legalism and presenting error that often goes undetected by followers. The Jews regarded the name of God as so holy that they would not dare even to write or pronounce it, instead using Adonai or Elohim. To make this a main teaching, or to say that it is "suppressed" information (as some groups do), can easily lead the unsuspecting to feel unsafe with any version of the Bible, any teacher of the Scriptures, or any group other than the one promoting this teaching.

Legalism is discussed in the article "Jews, Gentiles, and the Church" (see September 1989 TBC). We've been freed from the law (of sin and death) and from the penalty that we would otherwise have to pay if we were under the law. But we are to abide in Christ, who came to fulfill the law and in whom we're enabled to live lives in obedience to His will and in accordance with His purpose. Galatians 3 explains this. We are now under the "law" of love (Jn:14:15).

Do we not think that when we refer to our Lord as "Jesus" that God knows exactly whom we mean—and men as well? Further, this "understanding" didn't compel the writers of the New Testament to adhere to the sole use of "Yahweh" and "Yahshua. On the contrary, Kurios (Iēsous), is used by Paul when quoting Psalm:117:1. Instead of "O Praise the LORD (Yahweh), all ye nations...", the apostle Paul writes, "Praise the Lord (Kurios ), all ye Gentiles..." (Rom:15:11). That is one reason why some in the "Sacred Name Movement" deny the validity of the Greek text of the New Testament. The Scriptures do not support their preconceived ideas.

Nevertheless, in the Old Testament, the inspired Jewish writers of Scripture used "Elohim," as in Psalm 59 (see vv. 1,5,9,10,13,17). David does record "Yahweh" in verses 3 and 8, but why not in the others, if the premise of these folks is correct? It isn't.

The idea that "Jesus" (Iesous) is derived from "a pagan conglomeration of Zeus and a Greek healing goddess named 'Ieso'" is unsupportable. The name "Iesous" is found in the Greek Septuagint. Regarding the derivation or origin of the name, it is easy to find the following: "Jesus, (je'zus) [Latin from Gr. Iesous, which is for Heb. Jeshua, a late form of Jehoshua or Joshua...]" (John D. Davis, The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible, Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1944).

In Scripture, the term elohim is used as a generic term for "god" as when speaking of the Philistine god Dagon ("elohim"-1 Sm 5:7); Chemosh, the god ("elohim") of Ammon and Moab (Jdgs 11:24; 1 Kgs 11:33); Ashtarte (or Ashtoreth), the Sidonian goddess (I Kgs 11:33); and Milcom, another god of the Ammonites (1 Kgs 11:33). For that matter, in Exodus:7:1 we read, "And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god [elohim] to Pharaoh...." Yet, no one paying attention to context and usage imagines that "Elohim" in Genesis:1:26 refers to anyone other than the Almighty God.