*facepalm* Why would he distinguish these two aspects of "the LORD God" as the one who is to be worshiped and the one who saves us, but not correctly translate "LORD" as "Yahweh"? It makes his point so much more clear. He's God, so he demands worship. But he's also Yahweh, the one who revealed himself to Moses, said "I will be with you," and brought Israel out from slavery. Total failure and missed opportunity considering this guy is teaching Old Testament at a Reformed seminary. He needs to study the Hebrew more and the traditions of man less.
Brother, I would hazard to say that you have a hypercritical spirit to repent of. We all can find fault - why not rejoice at the Lord's (or, LORD's) work rather than to "argue about words"?
@grantorstormieallard7475 uh, because it's bad to ignore what the Bible says? "Lord" is a title. "Yahweh" is his personal covenant name. The only reason we even have "LORD" in the Bible is because of jews being kind of superstitious and also saying "I can't abuse God's name if I don't say it at all." And that of course is not true. We should not follow their example. In fact, we are dishonoring God by refusing to use his name. Look at all the times in the old testament when he says something like "by my name Yahweh" but we have it "by my name the LORD," which makes no sense. I'm not being hypercritical, I'm reasonably expecting someone who is teaching on the old testament at a master's level to know and speak on this correctly. When I hear most people read Yahweh as LORD, I don't correct them like this. It's not their fault that almost no pastor is willing to teach them correctly. "You know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." In addition, this very issue is something the Jehovahs Witnesses use against us when talking with those who seek and value a good biblical understanding but don't have it yet. They say "look, those guys aren't using God's name but are covering it up with LORD instead. We are the ones following the Bible here." And that works. The best lie is when there's a bit of truth to it and that's what they are doing. It's true "the LORD" inappropriately covers up God's personal covenant name. I'm sure like most Christians you don't think it's a big deal to not use His name, but if all you had to do was actually read what is in the Bible correctly in order to take away one of the big deceptions of the JW cult, then why on earth not? That's pretty clearly worth it. Give the smallest bit of effort to use God's real covenant name that he gave us and get rid of a stumbling block for those genuinely looking for the Truth? Sorry this is so long, but I believe it is a legitimate issue, and again, I'm critiquing a seminary professor on this, not just some random member of a congregation.
Spot on...and so helpful pastorally.
Amen
That's mt OT prof. whoop whoop
*facepalm*
Why would he distinguish these two aspects of "the LORD God" as the one who is to be worshiped and the one who saves us, but not correctly translate "LORD" as "Yahweh"? It makes his point so much more clear. He's God, so he demands worship. But he's also Yahweh, the one who revealed himself to Moses, said "I will be with you," and brought Israel out from slavery.
Total failure and missed opportunity considering this guy is teaching Old Testament at a Reformed seminary. He needs to study the Hebrew more and the traditions of man less.
Brother, I would hazard to say that you have a hypercritical spirit to repent of. We all can find fault - why not rejoice at the Lord's (or, LORD's) work rather than to "argue about words"?
@grantorstormieallard7475 uh, because it's bad to ignore what the Bible says?
"Lord" is a title. "Yahweh" is his personal covenant name. The only reason we even have "LORD" in the Bible is because of jews being kind of superstitious and also saying "I can't abuse God's name if I don't say it at all." And that of course is not true. We should not follow their example. In fact, we are dishonoring God by refusing to use his name. Look at all the times in the old testament when he says something like "by my name Yahweh" but we have it "by my name the LORD," which makes no sense.
I'm not being hypercritical, I'm reasonably expecting someone who is teaching on the old testament at a master's level to know and speak on this correctly. When I hear most people read Yahweh as LORD, I don't correct them like this. It's not their fault that almost no pastor is willing to teach them correctly. "You know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness."
In addition, this very issue is something the Jehovahs Witnesses use against us when talking with those who seek and value a good biblical understanding but don't have it yet. They say "look, those guys aren't using God's name but are covering it up with LORD instead. We are the ones following the Bible here." And that works. The best lie is when there's a bit of truth to it and that's what they are doing. It's true "the LORD" inappropriately covers up God's personal covenant name. I'm sure like most Christians you don't think it's a big deal to not use His name, but if all you had to do was actually read what is in the Bible correctly in order to take away one of the big deceptions of the JW cult, then why on earth not? That's pretty clearly worth it. Give the smallest bit of effort to use God's real covenant name that he gave us and get rid of a stumbling block for those genuinely looking for the Truth?
Sorry this is so long, but I believe it is a legitimate issue, and again, I'm critiquing a seminary professor on this, not just some random member of a congregation.