Participants: Alex Schlusser (Host), Rachael Hyman (Host), Sasha Bolotnikov
Series Code: BTOR
Program Code: BTOR000026
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00:01 The Bible says that
00:02 those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 00:06 But what exactly is the real name of the Lord? 00:10 Join us today on "Back to Our Roots" 00:12 and you will find out. 00:32 Hello, and welcome once again to Back to our Roots. 00:35 I am your host, Pastor Alex Schlusser, 00:37 and my co-host-- Rachel Hyman. 00:39 And we are once again so happy that 00:41 you have decided to carve out a little bit of time 00:44 and join us today. 00:46 Today on our program, 00:47 we are talking about the name of God. 00:50 Big controversy. 00:51 Now, you know that may seem like 00:53 such a simple straightforward thing. 00:55 Well, what's God's name? 00:56 God. Yeah. 00:57 But there's way more to it, 00:58 and we're gonna explore that today. 01:00 You know as you said Rachel, there is a lot of controversy. 01:03 Have you run into any of that? 01:05 Yeah, definitely I mean 01:07 I know some people who would say that, 01:08 if you don't know the exact correct name of God, 01:12 then your salvation is literally at risk, 01:14 because you are not calling Him by His right name. 01:16 Yeah, there are a lot of people 01:18 that actually get very militant about it. Yeah. 01:22 Which is really ashamed as we are gonna see. 01:24 So how do we begin the process of even figuring out 01:29 what God wants us to call Him? Good question. 01:33 You know, I know that for a long time 01:35 I felt very comfortable just saying, Abba. 01:37 Yeah, dad, daddy. 01:38 Abba is the Hebrew word for daddy, right? 01:41 Because I think ultimately 01:43 that's who God should be to us. Totally. 01:45 Or Father, Abba, Daddy. 01:47 But there's a lot more to it 01:49 as in the scripture that you brought out. 01:50 "Those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." 01:54 The first time I ever saw that scripture I went, 01:57 okay, so what exactly is the name 02:01 that we're supposed to call upon? 02:04 So at this point I want to get deep into our discussion today 02:07 because we're gonna be talking about a lot of Hebrew 02:10 and tearing things apart today 02:12 so, we're gonna invite our friend, 02:15 our resident scholar, Dr. Alexander Bolotnikov. 02:18 We need you, Sasha. Sasha, yes. 02:21 I'm glad to be with you, Alex and Rachel. 02:24 Yes, Sasha, how are you doing today? 02:25 You're looking bright. Yes. 02:27 Nice bright color today. 02:30 Sasha, we're talking about the name of God 02:32 and you and I have had lengthy discussions about this. 02:36 How in some circles within Christianity 02:38 this has become even a point of division within congregations 02:42 which is really crazy 'cause that must 02:44 completely grieve the heart of God 02:46 that people are breaking up and arguing over His name. 02:50 So, you know, I guess the big question is, 02:54 you know how in fact are we to address Him. 02:57 And I'd like for you first to explore 02:59 and let's talk about the idea of translation 03:02 and then the proper names because, 03:04 you know, we know that God reveals Himself, 03:07 the scriptures reveal Him in a lot of different names, 03:11 Lord our righteousness 03:13 and so on, all these different things 03:15 the Lord that heals, and the Lord our banner 03:18 and all of these names 03:20 really reveal aspects of His character. 03:22 But they don't speak directly to-- His exact name. 03:26 Right! What are we supposed to call Him? 03:28 Well, it's interesting that we have a good example 03:33 of how are we supposed to address God. 03:37 And it's in the New Testament 03:40 in the Sermon on the Mountain, 03:41 Lord's Prayer, Jesus says, 'Our father, 03:45 who is in heaven' and you know I have, 03:49 I'm asking these questions to people who have children, 03:53 you know and I say, 03:55 what if your son calls you by the first name? 03:59 How would you accept this? 04:03 And people said I'll be offended. 04:06 You know, it's the sign of disrespect. 04:08 And for that specific reason in Jewish tradition 04:14 the name of God which is four letter, 04:18 four Hebrew letter Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey. 04:21 Right, that's also known as the Tetragrammaton, right? 04:23 Yeah, tetragrammaton. 04:25 And it was never pronounced by the Jewish people. 04:31 And it created a bit of confusion for example, 04:36 because of the translators of King James Bible 04:39 back in 1600's they didn't know about this Jewish tradition. 04:45 When they saw the name of God 04:48 and, you know, how in Hebrew you have the consonants 04:51 and then at the bottom vowels. 04:53 So, so you understand in Hebrew writing 04:56 what appears to be all the letters 04:58 that you would see, 04:59 those are actually all the consonants. 05:02 The vowels appear as dots, as marks, as dashes and so on. 05:07 So this is what Sasha's, what Sasha is referring to. 05:09 Yes, yes, so the translators of King James Bible 05:13 didn't know that the name of God, Yod, Hey. 05:16 Vav, Hey these four letters were vocalized. 05:19 The dots were put intentionally wrong 05:23 and that's why they come with this Jehovah 05:27 and Jehovah such a word doesn't exist in Hebrew. 05:31 And I know for many years 05:33 and until today there were these people 05:35 who believe that God needs to be called Jehovah. 05:40 And I know that even in our saying this, 05:42 there are some of you sitting at home, 05:44 scratching your head going, wait a minute. 05:46 You know, I for as long as I've known, 05:48 I've thought that we are to call God Jehovah 05:52 that it appears in songs, 05:53 that it appears in all these places. 05:55 And to try and explain to them wait a minute, 05:58 the whole way that that term came out 06:02 was a misunderstanding or a lack of knowledge about 06:05 what the Hebrew really was doing. Interesting. 06:07 Yeah, and the Hebrew was trying to actually dissuade it 06:11 either from actually pronouncing the name of God 06:16 out of respect, out of reverence, 06:20 you know, that's the treatment to the name. 06:23 So what would-- how it would be, 06:24 you mean without putting vowels there, 06:27 that it was like so people could almost skip over 06:29 so they don't verbalize it or-- 06:30 No, they don't verbalize it. 06:32 Instead of Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey 06:34 and you know, grammatical 06:36 it's most likely being pronounced 'Yahweh'. Okay. 06:41 It's based on the Hebrew grammar and some other sources. 06:44 But the Jewish tradition always 06:48 whenever you see Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey 06:50 you have to say it as Adonai, mean Our Lord. 06:55 Our Lord. 06:57 So they don't actually pronounce it 06:58 the way it's literally supposed to be pronounced out of respect 07:01 and then they'd say our Lord. 07:03 They're substituting, very interesting. 07:05 Yeah, they are substituting. 07:07 And that's how Jews express reverence 07:11 when they deal with the name of God. 07:14 I know they also, if they're writing 07:15 Gods name down on papers 07:17 if they're writing God or something 07:18 it'll be like G-d. 07:20 Yes. Out of respect. 07:21 Yeah, out of respect, 07:22 yeah, and there is also that's a little different 07:26 because, you know, because in Hebrew 07:28 you write left, you read-- 07:31 From right to left. Right to left. 07:32 You know when you read God, 07:34 you know, so they wouldn't be reading as letters. 07:37 Right! I know an American Jews would do something like that. 07:39 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 07:41 And so they usually put that, 07:43 but that's again the sign of extreme 07:45 reverence and respect. 07:48 Because calling somebody as a friend is like more of, 07:53 you know-- Appropriate 07:55 to call friend by their name but-- 07:56 Yeah, you know calling somebody 07:58 by first name is more of a casual 08:01 and people don't, and Jews don't want to address God casually. 08:06 And by the way his name Yod, Hey, Vav, 08:09 Hey is not the only one which is in scripture. 08:13 We have specific text, Exodus 6:1. 08:19 This is Moses asking, 08:20 who I'm I supposed to tell the people has sent me. 08:23 Actually that's Exodus 3. 08:27 But in Exodus 6, God says, to your fathers 08:33 I have revealed myself with the name God Almighty 08:41 but with the name Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey 08:45 I have not revealed myself. 08:47 So you don't have a single name for God, 08:51 that's this text really proves that there is another name. 08:54 And the people of course many people 08:57 who don't read Hebrew and they see God Almighty, 09:00 they are not aware that actually Almighty is what's El Shaddai. 09:06 And Shaddai is not Almighty. 09:08 Actually Shaddai is indeed also a proper name. 09:12 We don't have such a word in Hebrew that is Shaddai. 09:18 So, you know, there are many versions of it, 09:21 I tend to agree with rabbis who translate it as God 09:27 who said enough is enough, it's a God the Judge. 09:31 Enough is enough, interesting. 09:33 What about that passage that I wrongly quoted? 09:36 Sorry, but the Exodus Chapter 3 when Moses is asking, 09:42 you know, who am I supposed to tell the people has sent me, 09:44 and that's where God says, I am that I am. 09:47 Yeah, exactly. 09:48 And this is also a translation. 09:51 In fact that's how God introduced His name. 09:54 His, you know before the Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey come on stage, 09:58 He says I am that I am. 10:01 And this is where we have 10:03 a little bit of grammatical issues, 10:05 because I have to tell you, 10:08 English as well as German, French, Spanish, 10:11 they have many tenses I believe English, 10:14 you correct me if I'm wrong has at least 12 tenses? 10:19 And-- You might know better than we. 10:22 Well-- That's what you study. 10:24 Yeah, in order for me to speak English, 10:26 I mean in Russian we have past, future and present. Okay. 10:30 In English I have to figure out, 10:32 is it past simple or past perfect or future perfect. 10:36 So you're saying when God said I am 10:38 that I am, is there controversy over 10:39 whether that was present or something? 10:41 Well, Hebrew language doesn't have verb tenses. 10:45 It has verb forms, the verb appears 10:48 either as a finite action or infinite action, 10:54 so I am that I am is like infinite being, 10:59 so God who exist and he-- From beginning to end. 11:02 From beginning, well, there is no beginning and end. Right. 11:06 It's infinite exist, infinitely existing God. 11:10 He always been and He always will be and He is. 11:14 Okay, so you're bringing up these names 11:16 that God is calling Himself in the Book of Exodus. 11:19 When did this Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey come up about? 11:22 Or when is it first written in the Bible? 11:23 Well, first it appears in Genesis Chapter 2. 11:28 Okay. 11:29 So is that officially God's first name 11:32 in the Bible that we know about. 11:34 One of the names, it appears like 11:37 it talks about Elohim which is translated as God. 11:42 And it uses Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey which is translated as the Lord. 11:48 And the translation is based on a fact 11:51 that every time Jews read this they say Adonai our Lord. 11:56 So English translate that sees Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey, 11:59 it says the Lord. 12:00 And it sees Elohim translates God. 12:03 So and in. 12:05 Does Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey, 12:07 literally mean our Lord, is that just the -- 12:08 their chosen piece of sub, their chosen substitute. 12:11 That's based on Jewish tradition. 12:13 Jewish tradition, okay. 12:14 Yeah, that's based of Jewish tradition. 12:16 We just said the literal translation 12:18 of Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey 12:20 is somebody, someone who in who exists forever infinitely 12:25 with no beginning and no end. 12:27 That's the literal translation. 12:29 But, you know, reverently, Adonai, Our Lord 12:34 and this is where many people are extremely, 12:41 you know, that's where they come and say, oh, 12:44 it's not correct, this is wrong. 12:48 But we have to look at the example of Jesus. 12:54 What we have in the New Testament is 12:57 Jesus and the Apostles and the Gospel writers 13:03 quote the Old Testament passages. 13:08 They quote these Old Testament passages in Greek of course. 13:14 And I have to address this right away 13:17 because there is this conspiracy's theory 13:20 that goes that, 13:22 you know, you don't have that 13:23 the Greek text of the New Testament 13:26 which we receive today is a wrong text, 13:29 that was somewhere hidden away 13:32 Hebrew text of the-- of the Old Testament. 13:35 I have to be very straight, 13:37 this is an absolute nonsense. Okay. 13:41 For the very simple reason. 13:43 You know, you have to understand the Jewish reality. 13:47 You were born in America, Rachel, right? Mm-hmm. 13:51 Do you speak Hebrew? 13:52 Not at all really, I can sing it but I don't really speak it. 13:55 You know, you have many Jewish friends? 13:58 I used to. 13:59 I don't live in Jewish neighborhood anymore, 14:01 I am in Wyoming. 14:02 Yeah, but you grew up-- 14:04 I grew up in the Jewish community 14:06 and I had many Jewish friends. 14:07 Your parents spoke Hebrew? 14:08 No, none of them spoke Hebrew. 14:10 So the Jewish whom you met across the America, 14:13 what language do they speak? 14:14 English. 14:15 Of course, so if I give you something in Hebrew 14:18 are you gonna read it? 14:20 I can read it but I don't know 14:21 the exact words that I'm saying 14:22 'cause I learned it from my Bat Mitzvah, you know. 14:24 That's the point. 14:26 You know, I learned my Hebrew when I started 14:29 l-- I learning Hebrew when I turned 18. 14:30 I grew up speaking Russian in Russia. 14:34 You know so there are 14:36 Jews across the world, speak the language 14:38 of the country they grew up with. 14:41 Okay. 14:42 And as we talked in our program, 14:44 for you know, back then the first century 14:47 you have 70% Jews living outside of Judah 14:52 do not speak in any Hebrew 14:54 and what kind of sense would anybody make 14:59 if they receive a text in Hebrew they can't understand. 15:03 So what are you trying to say? 15:05 What I am saying is 15:06 that the fact that the New Testament 15:09 was written in Greek, 15:11 it was done for purpose, so that people could read. 15:15 Today Hebrew, academic Hebrew 15:18 I know may be 10, 15,000 people 15:20 who can read academic Hebrew. 15:22 That's why today the most books published in English. 15:25 Back then most books wanted to have widespread audience 15:29 were written in Greek. 15:31 So are you saying that, 15:35 this English words we're saying have been put there 15:37 so that we can understand the meaning? 15:38 Of course, of course. Right? 15:40 See, this is when we get back, 15:42 so we go back to the text of the Gospel, 15:45 and here the Gospel authors the apostles 15:49 are reading and citing the text 15:52 of the Old Testament that have this Yod, 15:54 Hey, Vav, Hey. And guess what? 15:56 Do they have this in Greek? No. 15:58 There is no single instance in a New Testament 16:01 where you have Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey. 16:03 What you have is the Greek word 'Kurios' 16:08 which means the Lord and Jesus cites Himself several times, 16:15 the Lord, the Lord, the Lord. 16:17 Why the Kurios because when Jesus cites Old Testament, 16:21 He doesn't pronounce the name of His Father as Yahweh, 16:26 he says, 'My Lord, My Lord why Thou have forsaken Me' 16:31 before He's dead. 16:32 He didn't cry out Yahweh, Yahweh, 16:34 why have Thou forsaken me. 16:37 You know that's the last word Jesus cried out at the cross. 16:41 --So that brings us back to, 16:43 is there a name that is above all the other names, 16:47 you know of God is there specific, is Yod, 16:49 Hey, Vav, Hey is that the most important name 16:51 or from what I'm gathering from you is 16:54 God didn't necessarily choose one name 16:58 that's above all the other names except, 17:01 Jesus did say when you pray say, our father. 17:04 That's the point. 17:05 When we pray we address God as our Father, 17:09 our Lord and there is no any indication in the Bible 17:14 that you have to keep pronouncing Yahweh or Yod, 17:18 Hey, Vav, Hey as the name above all the names. 17:22 Well, this of course it occurs many times in the Bible 17:26 but that's all. 17:27 You know that reminds me, 17:28 I told Alex this the other day, 17:30 I have a friend who just had a baby 17:32 and I said how is little Angelica doing? 17:34 And she said whoa, whoa, whoa, 17:35 it's not Angelica, it's Enhilica and I said okay, 17:39 I'm sorry you know, sometimes people treat God-- 17:42 we put our human attributes to God thinking that 17:45 God gets upset with us, 17:47 he must be very upset with us 17:48 that we call Him by his wrong name 17:49 but God is God, He is much more patient 17:52 and is what it matters 17:53 what's in our heart is, right, Alex? 17:55 And I think that people whether they know the Hebrew 17:59 or the Greek can get saved. 18:01 Right. 18:02 You know, I remember running into people 18:06 arguing that unless you said Yeshua, 18:10 if you said Jesus you aren't saved. 18:12 Yeah, God's not gonna accept you. 18:14 Which of course is-- Ridiculous. 18:17 It's sad. It is sad. 18:19 By the way this is an absolute 18:21 lack of knowledge of any language. 18:23 See, internet has all these materials, 18:26 but people who read it 18:27 unfortunately don't know what they are talking about. 18:30 They don't understand that Jesus is an Yeshua, 18:34 it's a anglicized version of the same-- 18:38 It's the same. 18:39 It's absolutely the same thing. 18:41 In order to understand it you need to know 18:43 little bit more than just English. 18:45 Now, now I would say 18:47 and we've brought this up in previous programs 18:48 that when you do look at the Hebrew 18:51 when we use the word the name Yeshua 18:56 and we understand what does Yeshua mean in Hebrew. 19:00 Where does it come from? 19:01 It comes from salvation, the Lord says, right? 19:03 Exactly. And that's Yeshua Y E not Y A. 19:07 A, right. 19:08 But the beautiful thing about that 19:10 is that if we take it just as we've mentioned before 19:13 and you take it into the context 19:14 of the angel speaking to Mary or some people would say, 19:17 no her name was Miriam, okay. 19:20 But again we're getting hung up on things 19:22 that ultimately all it does 19:23 is become a device of tool of the enemy-- 19:25 Distraction. To separate. 19:27 Yeah, it's a beautiful thing 19:28 when you, when you get the picture 19:30 that the angel said to Mary, you shall call his name Yeshua 19:35 because Yeshua saves people, you know. 19:37 And as we've said his very name, 19:40 in his very name is salvation. 19:42 And you know that is so typical, isn't it, Sasha, 19:45 especially of Old Testament biblical characters, 19:48 that their name represented who they were 19:51 or the circumstances that they were born into 19:53 or what they were gonna do, 19:55 how are they gonna be used in multiple ways 19:57 that was a very common thing. 19:58 Oh, absolutely, name is the character, 20:01 that's why even the name Yod, 20:03 Hey, Vav, Hey represent the character, 20:05 you know the consistency, the permanency, 20:09 the ever existence of God that's what's important. 20:13 And that's what people means when they say oh, 20:16 who calls up on the name of the Lord will be saved, 20:19 so you got to know the exact name. 20:21 You know I look at this it's like an idiom, 20:23 you know, like suppose 20:25 somebody is having the flu and gets a running nose. 20:29 A runny nose? 20:30 Running. Where is it running to? 20:32 So the nose jumped off the face and ran away. 20:35 You know you got to have a sense, 20:37 you know you look at this text in Genesis 4 last verse, 20:42 when, at this time of Sab, 20:44 they first called upon the name of the Lord, 20:47 I mean what did they do? 20:49 Just came like a wolves to the moon and started-- 20:51 Hey Lord! What did they call? 20:55 Well, you look at Genesis 13:6 20:59 and that's clear, what it means. 21:02 Abraham comes back to the altar 21:05 and calls upon the name of the-- that's clear by the-- 21:07 But, but what Sasha is saying is that it is an idiom, 21:12 this idea of calling upon the name of the Lord. 21:14 What it really means is. Who do you want to serve? 21:18 Those who choose to serve God, 21:20 those who confess that God is Lord, the Lord of their life. 21:23 In the context of Genesis 21:26 calling upon the name of the Lord 21:28 mean offering the sacrifice to the Lord. 21:31 And sacrifice signifies the sacrifice in Calvary, 21:35 so in fact when Paul speaks about this in the Book of Acts, 21:40 he says anybody, you are gonna be saved 21:43 when you accept the Calvary sacrifice of Jesus. 21:48 That's the calling of the-- 21:49 What if you can't speak or you know, 21:51 if you are deaf or whatever 21:52 you can't actually call on the name of the Lord, 21:55 I mean what matters is, 21:56 is what you want to do with your heart? 21:58 What you want to do with your life? 21:59 Who you want to worship? 22:00 Which by the way is what 22:01 the scripture say that God looks at the heart. 22:03 Right. 22:04 And it's really the intent that we have. 22:07 So you know, Rachel, when we're talking about 22:10 putting this program together as we wrap this up now 22:13 and prepare for song which by the way, 22:14 when you listen to the song, 22:16 you're gonna hear these different names 22:17 that we were talking about. 22:19 Rachel asked the question in our discussion about this. 22:21 She said, you know, what really does it matter? 22:24 And that's such a great statement. 22:26 Because people make majors out of minors 22:29 and keep people away from knowing Jesus 22:31 just because of issues that are really manmade. 22:35 Jesus said that we should call Him Father. 22:38 You know, when you call from your heart 22:40 that's all that matters. 22:42 So Rachel and I are gonna do a song. 22:44 Sasha's gonna tell little bit about that song as we prepare. 22:48 Kadosh Kadosh Adonai Tz'vaot, 22:50 Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, 22:52 Revelation 4:8. 23:08 (Singing in foreign language) 25:27 Holy, Holy, 25:34 Holy, Holy, 25:40 Holy, Holy, 25:47 Holy 25:53 Is the Lord, 25:57 God of hosts 26:07 Is the Lord, 26:11 God of hosts 26:21 Who was and who is 26:27 and who is to come 26:34 Who was and who is 26:40 and who is to come 26:51 (Singing in foreign language) 27:20 Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord, 27:22 God of hosts. 27:24 You know someday 27:25 the angels in heaven will join in 27:27 with the voices of all the redeemed, 27:29 all those who have called upon the name of the Lord. 27:33 And we will be together in the end, 27:37 voices from every tribe, tongue and nation. 27:39 How amazing that will be. 27:41 So on behalf of myself, Rachel and Sasha, 27:45 please may the Lord bless you and may He keep you 27:48 and may the Lord make His face 27:49 to shine upon you and be gracious to you, 27:50 may the Lord lift His countenance upon you 27:53 and bring you His peace. 27:55 Join us once again on Back to our Roots. |
Revised 2014-12-17