SoSpression Blog

Cultural Name Calling: The Names of God and the Languages of the People of God

Paul looked like an Egyptian, but spoke Greek.

Acts 21
37 And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek?

38 Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?

White supremacist Christians don’t understand this scripture because they can’t conceive how Paul could look like an African. They think Jews were white. “Santa Claus is white, Jesus is white, everybody is white!”

YouTube Israelites can’t understand this scripture because they think Paul didn’t speak Greek. “Obviously Greek is evil, and the letter J is evil. Plus why would a Hebrew speak Greek?”

Maybe because it was the language spoken of the day. They didn’t preach the gospel in Hebrew to people that didn’t speak Hebrew. Most people in the Roman Empire spoke Greek.

Lesson learned: Don’t be a white supremacist Christian. Don’t be a YouTube Israelite. Just read the Bible and have faith in God, and make sure your work matches your faith so you don’t have time for silly arguments about letters, etymologies, and vain words.

Cultural Competition

Sometimes we men feel inadequate and lack identity, so we become overly competitive because of a lack of identity or fatherlessness. This problem is especially prevalent among “black” men of a fatherless generation. Many of us are a part of the Scattered Tribes of Israel, that have lost their identity and heritage because of the sins of their forefathers and the curses of the Law.

This leaves many so called “black” men susceptible to the same lies that tripped up our forefathers… the battle for cultural superiority.

White Supremacist Christians provoke this envy, and Youtube Isrealites respond in kind, returning evil for evil. They have found a new identity other than slavery, which is good… but then they overcompensate by competing culturally instead of giving God glory through the Messiah.

But what Bible believing followers of the Messiah have to realize is that God is not like us! He does not need to compete with other gods! He has no competition! He is not threatened by other cultures because all people came from Him, and all must come back to Him thru the gospel of Jesus Christ!

If we realize our identity in God we would not feel the need to compete with other cultures, but to simply give God glory! It doesn’t matter whether you are from the Scattered Tribes of Israel, a descendant of Cush or Egypt, Asian, European based, or Native American… We all are one in Christ!

The Names of God

How many names does God have? Some people have looked through the Bible and found that God has over 900 names and titles. Do any of these names or titles show Him disrespect? Does He only have ONE proper name, or did He give Himself several different names that covered several aspects of His character? Are any of the names of God inferior to another name that God gave Himself?

What about the name that the Egyptian Hagar (non Hebrew) gave to God in Genesis 16? Is that an inferior name for God because it was given to Him by a human, and Non-Hebrew human, and a female Non-Hebrew human? Is God disrespected by a name given to Him by a mere human, and a Gentile Woman human at that?

YouTube Israelites will tell you that there’s only one valid name for God, and it’s in Hebrew. But what does the Bible say?

Yes Yahweh or YVWH, aka I AM, is one of His primary names, and Yah is a version of that name. But there’s also the El- based names. El-Elyon, El-Roi, El-ohim, etc. God has many names. So does the Messiah!

The King of the Jews: in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew

Luke 23:38 And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, This Is The King Of The Jews.

Why was “The King of the Jews” written on the cross of Jesus Christ in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew?

Probably so that 2000 years later YouTube Israelites could argue about the letter J and which language is okay to translate the name of the Messiah? Probably not.

They lived in a multilingual society. The Roman Empire primarily spoke Greek. In Acts 21, we see that the Apostle Paul spoke Greek to the Roman guard, then he spoke Hebrew to the Jews. Multilingual. Translation is not a sin.

Conquerors speak their own language, not the language of their colonies. If Jesus also spoke to a Roman centurion, whose culture spoke Greek, then how did Jesus not also speak Greek? Is it possible that Jesus spoke Greek to a Roman, like Paul did?

Matthew 8
7 when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,

6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.

8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

Do colonizers conduct business in all the various languages of all the lands they take over? Or do they take their chosen language to those lands and make their colonies learn it? Let’s get off YouTube and use the bible with our brains for a few minutes. Did Pontius Pilate communicate with Jesus in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek?

John 18

33 Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?

34 Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?

35 Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?

36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.

Is Translation or Transliteration a Sign of Disrespect?

Taking the name of God in vain has do to with disrespect and dishonor from the HEART, not translation. It also has to do with doing evil things in His name that do not fit His character.
2 Samuel 12:¹⁴ Howbeit, because by this DEED thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to BLASPHEME, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.

King David pronounced YAHUAH’S name very well, but the adultery and murder in His heart and actions gave the opportunity for blasphemy of YAH. It’s not the translation or the pronunciation but our ACTIONS that violate His Holy Name.

Translation into Diverse Languages is a New Covenant Blessing

I totally agree with destroying pagan idolatry that has crept into the Body thru the Roman Empire. However, translation is not pagan idolatry. There are so many other actual sins, false Greco Roman ideas, and false doctrines to purge from the Assembly of Believers. We don’t have to ban any languages!

Translation is simply what men do to communicate with one another since the Tower of Babel. God chose to confuse our languages, but He did not tell us that we couldn’t translate and communicate with each other. The problem with demeaning other languages is that it feeds cultural pride, and Israelite cultural pride is antithetical to the gospel. The gospel went to the Gentiles for a reason!

Prideful Israelites hated every minute of it, but God did it anyway. He took the gospel to every language. To the Jew first, then to the Greek, then to every other ethnic group on the planet. Ever since the veil of the temple was ripped, Israelite cultural superiority has no place in the kingdom of God!

Israelites hated this, it was a stumbling block to them. They would rather keep their cultural righteousness which does not exist anymore.

But in the Kingdom of God Righteousness is by faith in the Messiah and Savior whether you call Him Jesus, Yeshua, Yashua, Emmanuel, as long as you believe He died on the cross and resurrected, His kingship can be expressed in Hebrew, Latin, Greek, or any other language!

Don’t let YouTube Israelites change your faith. Yes there are a lot of scriptures that show the identity of the Scattered Tribes of Israel. I support those prophetic scriptures wholeheartedly. But none of those scriptures alter the gospel of Jesus Christ, or the way of salvation.

Translation is not a sin. Transliteration simply helps people that have a different alphabet and different phonics pronounce the same word! Transliteration changes words even less than translation does!

God’s name is not about an argument of words and translations. His name stands for His authority, His identity, who He is, and what He’s done for us.

The faith that was once delivered to the saints brings the gospel to every tribe tongue, language and people. It doesn’t seek to demean other languages. The gospel was given to the Gentiles, and that Was GODs plan. In order to do that, God’s thoughts and ideas had to be translated to other languages.

Translation is not a sin, unless there is deception of addition or subtraction purposefully placed in the translation. Translation is not sin, and transliteration is not sin either. The cross had King of the Jews written in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. You can believe the original texts of the bible and you can trust in the name of Jesus.

If the scriptures were inspired by God, and a Hebrew prophet or Apostle wrote it in Greek, then you can trust the Greek. You can trust the scriptures as long as you lookup the original language it was written in, whether it was Latin, Aramaic, Greek, or Hebrew. The Holy Spirit rested on the person, not the language.

Don’t Be Bothered

Please don’t be Bothered by any stiffnecked YouTube Israelites who just found out they were Hebrew 5 years ago now all the sudden they are gatekeepers of what language you can address your Heavenly Father in.

Remember that the Gospel was given to the Gentiles for a Reason… to circumvent the greedy hearts of His unrepentant and disobedient Northeast African Jews!

1 Thessalonians 2:15 Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
16 Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

Remember on the tree that He died on “King of the Jews” was written in Greek, Latin AND Hebrew.

So whatever language you call Him in, you better call Him King, and obey Him.

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