This is a question that is often asked. Why should an English speaking person call on the Hebrew names of Yahweh and Yahushua?
The answer is actually quite simple. Personal names do not translate across languages. For instance, Vladimir Putin is still Vladimir Putin in any country or language. Personal names do not translate, they transliterate.
To transliterate is to retain the original pronunciation as much as possible. Have you ever listened to a news broadcast in a foreign language? You’ll hear a bunch of unintelligible words until they bring up names like “George Bush.” This is because names transliterate, not translate.
Even so, “The LORD” is not even a translation of the name “Yahweh”, it is a direct replacement.
Put simply, the translators admit they substituted Yahweh’s name for a title. All for the sake of an tradition. Yahweh’s name is in scripture nearly 7000 times. And nearly 7000 times they replaced it (not translated it) with “the LORD”, or “GOD”. Imagine that? They took His name out of His own book!
I wouldn’t want someone to change my name unless it was Yahweh, and it is clear that according to the third commandment Yahweh doesn’t want anyone to change or falsify His name either.
Think about this for a moment. What makes man think he has the authority to change the name of the one who created him, and who created all things? We don’t have that right! For instance, in the scriptures we see that one who changes the name of another is always in authority over them. The Messiah renamed Simon. Yahweh renamed Abram to Abraham. He renamed Jacob to Israel. Adam named the animals. Even we name our children, not the other way around. Yahweh, our Heavenly Father, named His Son ‘Yahushua’ in Matt 1:22.
Matthew 1:21- “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Yahushua [a name meaning, “Yahweh saves”], for He will save His people from their sins.”
Yahweh named His son after Himself. Every time we use His original name we are declaring that “Yahweh saves” us. The name “Jesus” has no such meaning.
The bottom line is we have no authority to rename or alter the Messiah’s name, or the name of Yahweh the Father. We need to leave things just as He inspired it.
For any who might say, “Well I don’t speak Hebrew so I’ll use an English name” consider this: If you don’t speak Hebrew then you can’t say Abraham, Isaac, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah, Zechariah, Michael or a long list of other Hebrew names! Why was Yahweh’s name the only one changed? And why was Yahushua’s Name the only name in our modern bibles that is vastly different from the Old Testament to the New Testament? In the Old Testament, it’s “Joshua” but in the New Testament it’s “Jesus”.
The answer is simple: Tradition.
Does it matter? Yes, because truth always matters to a believer. The apostles were preaching and teaching and baptizing and doing all things in the name Yahushua. This is what He is called in heaven, never “Jesus.”
Yahweh’s Name IS truth. Yahushua’s Name IS truth. Substitutions and alterations are not truth. Yahweh is seeking those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. When call upon His true name, we are worshipping Him in truth.
So if we know that “the Lord” and “Jesus” are not truth, why would we continue in error?? Aren’t we supposed to love the truth?
But maybe you are thinking, “Okay so do you have any scriptures that show that Gentiles should be calling on His name?” I am glad you asked….
Malachi 1:11- For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen (Heb. Gentiles), saith Yahweh of hosts.
Acts 9:15- But the Master said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
Acts 15:14- Simeon hath declared how Elohim at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.