The name Jehovah

Q. Why does the King James sometimes depart from the standard convention of translating יְהוָה as Lord in order to translate it as Jehovah 7 times?

A. The King James Bible uses Jehovah 7 times, 4 times as God’s name, plus 3 times where his name is part of a place name.

• Exodus 6:3 and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
• Psalm 83:18 that men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
• Isaiah 12:2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
• Isaiah 26:4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
• Genesis 22:14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
• Exodus 17:15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi:
• Judges 6:24 Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites.

Some have answered that Jehovah is used in these places because it is used as a proper name. That does not suffice, because it is a proper name in the other places. These seven choices break down into three categories.

A place name.

In Genesis 22:14, Exodus 17:15, and Judges 6:24 Jehovah is part of a place name. In Genesis 22 and Judges 6, a geographical location; in Exodus 17, an altar at a particular place, given a name.

A double name.

In Isaiah 12:2 and 26:4, there is a double name, in the Hebrew יָהּ יְהוָה (Jah Jehovah). So the translators use the standard convention once and Jehovah once to translate the double name.

A (contextually) unique name.

In Exodus 6:3 and Psalm 83:18

Jehovah as used in Exodus 6:3 and Psalm 83:18 is contextually unique, but the way his name is referenced. Christopher Yetzer writes, “Exodus 6:3 pointing out the name which He was not known by and Psalms the name which is alone His.”

I will take Jesus at his word

 This is what much so-called Christianity in the United States has degenerated to:

“I always think of all the world’s faith traditions as a circle, with that divine mystery of the universe in the middle. We all have different names for that mystery, whether it’s God or Yahweh or Allah or Nirvana or Great Spirit. Whatever you call it, this is all different pathways to the same fundamental truth.” James Talarico

I will take Jesus at his word.

The Bible Made Them Baptists

From time to time I have written on “The Bible Makes Baptists.” Here is an excerpt from “Brazil Needs Gospel Preachers,” by Harvey Boyce Taylor (1870-1932) in News and Truths, September 27, 1922. Paraíba is state in northeastern Brazil. Recife is the capital city of Pernambuco, another state in northeastern Brazil. This is another historical example of the reading of the Bible producing Baptist belief.

The third case in point is the capital of the state of Paraíba. We had no missionary, no preaching, no Baptists in that capital. Quite a number of disciples were made under the preaching of a Presbyterian missionary. In a little while after reading their New Testament, they got dissatisfied with Presbyterianism and went to the missionary and asked him if there wasn’t anybody who did things like they did in Bible days. He tried to satisfy them but couldn’t and then told them where they could get a Congregationalist preacher, as one of the things they did not like was the Presbyterian form of church government. The Congregationalist preacher came up from Recife. After talking with these folks and trying to satisfy them, and failing, he told them they were Baptists. They had never heard of the Baptists. They had simply read the New Testament and it had made them what they were. They got in touch with a Baptist missionary down at Recife and he came out and baptized 40 of them and organized them into a church. That was the first New Testament church in the state of Paraíba.

Life is Good

“Life is good ... It is a blessing and a privilege to have this life, because God ultimately said, I’ll give this one to Jamie, because I know that he is the right person for it. And I think God gave you your life because he knew you were the right person for it.”

Jamey Carrington, speaking of the privilege of the life he has been able to live with spinal muscular atrophy

Psalm 109

Psalm 109 (metrical version from the 1650 Scottish Psalter)

Common Meter.

Suggested tune: Bangor, by William Tansur.

O thou the God of all my praise,
Do thou not hold thy peace;
For mouths of wicked men to speak
Against me do not cease:

The mouths of vile deceitful men
Against me opened be;
And with a false and lying tongue
They have accused me.

They did beset me round about
With words of hateful spite;
And though to them no cause I gave,
Against me they did fight.

They for my love became my foes,
But I me set to pray.
Evil for good, hatred for love,
To me they did repay.

Set thou the wicked over him;
And upon his right hand
Give thou his greatest enemy,
Ev’n Satan, leave to stand.

And when by thee he shall be judged,
Let him condemned be;
And let his pray’r be turned to sin,
When he shall call on thee.

Few be his days, and in his room
His charge another take.
His children let be fatherless,
His wife a widow make.

His children let be vagabonds,
And beg continually;
And from their places desolate
Seek bread for their supply.

Let covetous extortioners
Catch all he hath away:
Of all for which he laboured hath
Let strangers make a prey.

Let there be none to pity him,
Let there be none at all
That on his children fatherless
Will let his mercy fall.

Let his posterity from earth
Cut off for ever be,
And in the foll’wing age their name
Be blotted out by thee.

Let GOD his father’s wickedness
Still to remembrance call;
And never let his mother’s sin
Be blotted out at all.

But let them all before the LORD
Appear continually,
That he may wholly from the earth
Cut off their memory.

Because he mercy minded not,
But persecuted still
The poor and needy, that he might
The broken-hearted kill.

As he in cursing pleasure took,
So let it to him fall;
As he delighted not to bless,
So bless him not at all.

As cursing he like clothes put on,
Into his bowels so,
Like water, and into his bones,
Like oil, down let it go.

Like to the garment let it be
Which doth himself array,
And for a girdle, wherewith he
Is girt about alway.

From GOD let this be their reward
That en’mies are to me,
And their reward that speak against
My soul maliciously.

But do thou, for thine own name’s sake,
O GOD the Lord, for me:
Sith good and sweet thy mercy is,
From trouble set me free.

For I am poor and indigent,
Afflicted sore am I,
My heart within me also is
Wounded exceedingly.

I pass like a declining shade,
Am like the locust tossed:
My knees through fasting weakened are,
My flesh hath fatness lost.

I also am a vile reproach
Unto them made to be;
And they that did upon me look
Did shake their heads at me.

O do thou help and succour me,
Who art my God and LORD:
And, for thy tender mercy’s sake,
Safety to me afford:

That thereby they may know that this
Is thy almighty hand;
And that thou, LORD, hast done the same,
They may well understand.

Although they curse with spite, yet, Lord,
Bless thou with loving voice:
Let them ashamed be when they rise;
Thy servant let rejoice.

Let thou mine adversaries all
With shame be clothed over;
And let their own confusion
Them, as a mantle, cover.

But as for me, I with my mouth
Will greatly praise the LORD;
And I among the multitude
His praises will record.

For he shall stand at his right hand
Who is in poverty,
To save him from all those that would
Condemn his soul to die.

The 1650 Scottish Psalter may be more properly known as The Psalms of David in Metre. This English-language book of psalms in meter was first approved by the Westminster Assembly. The Assembly felt a need for a unified psalter in church use. Thus, they began with recent versifications of the psalms by Francis Rous (1643). This work was revised and approved in 1646. This work underwent even further revision by the Scots, and was authorized for public worship in November of 1649 by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland – and first printed and used beginning in 1650.

In other words, b to w

• brumous, adjective. Foggy, misty.
• commensurate, adjective. Of the same size, extent, or duration as another.
• conflagration, noun. A large fire extending to many objects, or over a large space; a general burning; (figuratively) a large-scale conflict.
• destitute, adjective. Lacking something needed or desirable; totally impoverished.
• desuetude, noun. A state of disuse or inactivity.
• effete, adjective. Having or reflecting an attitude of social superiority; pretentious or snobbish; depleted of vitality, force, or effectiveness; exhausted.
• epeolatry, noun. The worship of words.
• funicular (aka funicular railway), noun. A cable railway system in which a cable moves permanently attached rail cars up and down a slope.
• gargoyle, noun. A grotesque ornamental figure or person; a roof spout usually in the form of a grotesque or fantastic creature projecting from a gutter to carry rainwater clear of the wall.
• hendiadys, noun. A figure of speech in which a complex idea is expressed by two words connected by a copulative conjunction instead of the combination of one independent word and its modifier (e.g. grace and favor instead of gracious favor).
• histrionic, adjective. Deliberately affected; overly dramatic or emotional; theatrical.
• hypoxia, noun. A deficiency of oxygen reaching the tissues of the body.
• jargogle, verb. To jumble, thoroughly confuse, befuddle, or scramble.
• kalon, noun. Ideal perfect beauty in the physical and moral sense (especially as perceived by Greek philosophers).
• klaxon, noun. A kind of loud horn formerly used on motor vehicles.
• liripipe, noun. The pendant part of a long tail of a cloak or hood.
• Manichean, noun. An adherent of the dualistic religious system of Manes, a combination of Gnostic Christianity, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and various other elements.
• mannequin, noun. A styled and three-dimensional representation of the human form used in window displays, as of clothing; dummy.
• matriculate, verb. To go through the process of admission to membership, as by examination and enrollment, in a society or college; to enroll; to enter.
• mélange (also melange), noun. A mixture, or medley; confusion.
• monolatry, noun. The belief in the existence of multiple gods but practicing only the worship of one of them (cf. monotheism).
• monotheism, noun. The doctrine or belief that there is only one God (cf. monolatry).
• octothorpe, noun. The earliest or official name for the symbol # (of uncertain meaning, the name was created when the # symbol was added to the telephone operating system).
• peculation, noun. Embezzlement.
• profligacy, noun. The trait of spending extravagantly; dissolute indulgence in sensual pleasure.
• rebarbative, adjective. Tending to irritate; irritating; repellent; annoying.
• rescind, verb. To abrogate; revoke; annul; vacate, as an act, by the enacting authority or by superior authority.
• resend, verb. To send again; to send back.
• sapient, adjective. Having great wisdom and discernment; possessing or expressing great sagacity.
• speculation, noun. Assumption of unusual business risk in hopes of obtaining commensurate gain.
• Sudoku, noun. A logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle, in a 9 by 9 grid of squares (from the Japanese, shortened from sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru (the numbers must remain single).
• tsundoku, noun. The act or phenomenon of acquiring reading materials and letting them pile up in one’s home without reading them (from the Japanese words tsunde-oku (to pile things up) and dokusho (reading books).
• woebegone, adjective. Beset with woe; exhibiting great woe; sad.

Inside out

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ...” 1 Thessalonians 5:23

In this description to the Thessalonians, Paul begins from the inside and works to the outside. In the description of the Tabernacle to Moses, God begins with the inside and works to the outside (Exodus 25:10ff). In our salvation, God begins with the inside and works to the outside.

Dolly Parton and her faith

I hesitate to post this, because I usually practice a policy of not saying anything negative about a person when they have just passed. Nevertheless, I think circumstances are different here. After her death, Dolly Parton’s “Christian Faith” has been highly praised. I have noticed many Christian folks have escorted Dolly Parton right on up into heaven.

Dolly Parton had that sort of pleasing personality that put people at ease. Back in the day I was a big fan of her songs “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You.” I don’t know her heart, but I do know some things she has said. If I condemn those sayings in others, I must condemn them in Dolly Parton as well.

Here are a few quotes.

Khloé in Wonder Land

“Well, you have to believe in something bigger than you. And whether you call it science, whether you call it nature, whether you call it this or that, doesn’t matter, you know. There’s a force there. There’s an energy. There’s greatness. And those of us that, you know, do believe like we do. However you find him, just do.”

New Humanist

“We all need something to believe in, whether you believe in God or not, whether you call it Mother Nature or Father Time or a higher wisdom. You need to believe in yourself and you need to believe there’s a force that can push you and lead you on. I was always guided by that.”

Southern Living

“Whether you believe in God or not, you need to be grounded; you need to believe in something greater than yourself.”

“I’m not a religious fanatic in any way. I’m more spiritual but a lot of times when things get crazy during the day, I just kind of stop and just kind of draw in God’s energy or that good higher wisdom, whatever you want to call it. Everybody calls it something different.”

“…the kingdom of heaven is inside. It’s right inside of you. And you can draw from that wisdom, whether you call it God or higher wisdom or a higher knowing, there’s something bigger than you.”

Hollywood Reporter

“I try to find the God-light in everybody and everybody shines. I see that in everybody. I go right to that God-light, and I don’t care if you’re Black or white or green or alien gray. I go to that, because we’re all pieces of God and we all have that little God-light inside us.”

Dolly Partin’s America

“I really don’t know where we go. I don't know if we, If there’s such a thing as reincarnation, I kind of believe all that kind of stuff. I’m just open to things.”

“But anyway, so I’m just saying you don’t really know. You just hope and you have faith. That’s what faith is. But I believe that it’s going to be better. I think it’s not the end of me. I don’t think it’s the end of any of us. I think we’re recycled and if nothing else, we just go back into that great flow of divine energy, and hopefully we can spread ourselves around in other wonderful ways. That’s what I hope.”

To be clear, Dolly did talk about church, the Bible, God, and Jesus. In her interviews, she was exuberant, likable, and relatable. Nevertheless, the more she talks, the more it is clear that that Dolly Parton believed that it was okay to believe what you wanted to believe about God, as long as you believed in something bigger than yourself. (And she consistently talked that way.) That’s not biblical truth.

So, while I can appreciate good things about Dolly Parton, these things she said are just wrong according to my understanding of biblical truth. What Dolly has advocated in such statements is mystical universalism, rather than the biblical teaching of salvation through Jesus Christ alone. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” and “if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” The Bible teaches of Jesus: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” The biblical gospel message is exclusive, through Jesus Christ alone, not inclusive of all paths.

Don’t get mad at me. If you agree with Dolly, then agree with her. However, in doing so you are not agreeing with the Bible. I cannot see Dolly’s heart. God will judge that. We can hear and read her words and judge those.

John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

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Note: Dolly at times testified of going to the altar many times at her grandfather’s Pentecostal church and not getting saved, but also of praying and finding peace at an old abandoned church house. However, on at least one occasion of telling this, she goes immediately to talk about everyone finding their own path to God, whatever works for you.