Does God Have a Name?

Question

MANY people might say: ‘Does God’s name matter? There is only one Supreme Being.’ For example, a clergyman in Canada once said: “The name that people give to God is also unimportant.” This cleric held that it would make no difference if one used “Allah,” as do Moslems, or “Manitou,” as do some North American Indians. Many of the clergy have the same opinion.

But let us consider: Why do we use names? What is in a name?

Basically, names are used for identification. They are also often closely linked with personal achievements or fame. To millions, such names as Alexander the Great or Ghandi immediately bring to mind the achievements of these men.

But why is God’s name necessary? Because, although many people believe in only one true God, countless others worship many gods. Hindu people have millions of gods. In other parts of Asia and in Africa, millions worship their ancestors. What is the name of your God???

Answer 1

The true God's name is Jehovah. To prove it, you can read Psalms 83:18. Yes, God's name does matter.

Answer 2

Jehovah God Psalm 83:18

Answer 3

Yes God has lots of names but the great thing about it I think it all boils down to the same being. I believe it all goes back to the tower of Babel. Idols I do not believe in or rituals but I do believe in the power of prayer. I have been praying for years as far as I can remember is 4 years old and I just always said GOD and no matter what he always hears me and gives me what I ask..wether it is a parking space, a car, a house, a second chance.... the greatest thing I have asked for was my life and to make a difference in someone's life.

Answer 4

Lord is a identify purely as Queen is a identify. Jehovah is God's call purely as Elizabeth is the Queens call. in the old King James bible it tells you there hundreds of cases that God's call is Jehovah. It replaced into faraway from the bible so as that human beings would think of Jesus replaced into God. He replaced into the son of Jehovah God.

Answer 5

Usually we think of names as something given to us by someone with authority to do so. With god it is a bit different. Since there is no one to give god a name, god is left with picking a name.

The question for god is, what does god want us to call god? Any name that god comes up with is going to essentially mean 'god', but it is hardly going to be able to sum up the concept and so we do find in many religions multiple names for god including in the judeo-christian tradition.

There are many similarities between what people of different faiths mean when they reference god by a name. Often they refer to a creator, a prime creator in most cases, but there are important differences which make it so that Allah and God the Father are not exactly equivalent. So the names that we use do differentiate between ideas of god.

Having said this, for our sake, if we say 'god' we are saying god's name because when we say 'god' we are giving a name to that thing which is the prime creator. That's why you don't have to say Yahweh to be 'taking the Lord's name in vain'. You could give a million names to god and as long as they were referring to that unique prime creator of everything, you'd be talking about the same entity.

This is not to say that everything we call god is the prime creator of reality. Very often people call things god that do not refer to the prime creator. If I say that I believe in Bubbliedubblie the god of toilet paper who wields power over the toilet, I'm obviously talking about a different concept than the prime creator. So Bubbliedubblie might be a name for a god, but it's not a name of god.

It's overly simplistic to equate the beliefs about god with the names different religions give god. For instance Bubbliedubblie is the name I give to my god. Is Bubbliedubblie the same as Yahweh? Certainly not, not because they are different names but because they are different concepts. So no, Allah, and Brahma, and the Holy Trinity, and Yahweh, and Bubbliedubblie are not the same. The first four have a lot more in common than a lot of people realize, but talk to any followers of two of those gods and you'll soon discover that their gods are very different.

Doesn't mean we can't all get along, but we shouldn't sacrifice reason, pretend like two things are the same that aren't, just to get along. We should get along because it's right. That's the bottom line.

Answer 6

Although the name for the Supreme Being varies...the cultural concept of God varies even more.
That Moon God dude wants a lot of Christians and Jews dead so His people can triumph and rule the world.

The God of Abraham had more peaceful ideas.

Answer 7

יהוה This is the original Hebrew Bible text and is also called the tetragrammaton. It is unpronounceable as written because it contains no vowels and generally translates to YHWH. The masoretes added the vowel markings for the word 'Adonai' which means Lord to the original tetragrammaton. This left us with the word Yahweh.
As to why is it necessary? It is not. It matters very little what name you call God he will hear you. What matters is that you call his name in adoration and praise.

Answer 8

The first answer given is correct. We seldom, if ever, utter the name out of extreme reverence toward Him.

His Son, Jesus Christ, was first known in the spirit world and in the Old Testament times as Jehovah.

It seems you could have answered this part of your question because you elaborated so much on the remainder of your entry. Remember, brevity is the soul of wit.

Answer 9

In every language your own name is different, I believe God has so many names for this very reason- all people across this great nation have different languages. What is God to you is something else to someone across in India. I know that he is known to many and all who worship him come to know the same being.

Answer 10

God has many names:

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah
The Alpha and Omega
El Shaddai
Jehovah

Here is a good site.

http://www.layevangelism.com/qreference/topicscip/n/namesofgod.htm

Answer 11

Ed: God has MANY names. We need some way of identifying things and people right? Thus we have names. Also, he goes by many names, depending on which religion you believe. No matter whatever name you give God, it is the same God we all believe in. Think about it.