The WTS pats itself on the back for revealing the Name of the True God. It claims that through superstition and by deliberate action, Jews and apostate Christianity have hidden the Name.
Doug,
They do and they think they can score points with God by using it. It is as if they think that such use protects and distinguishes them magically somehow. Jews on the other hand were so fearful of using it that they replaced the name with other words like God and Heaven. Even today such words are held in such regard that they spell G_d instead of God.
You said: The truth is, the name "Jehovah" that the WTS reveals is not God’s name but a confused and mistaken concoction. The WTS has inserted this mistaken name into its NT, using English characters.
This is denying what is staring you in the face. The WTS was not the first to try translating this name and we find it rendered in one form or another in other translations as well. It is a real translation of the Hebrew letters from which it was derived. There are other derivatives that could have been used and other languages in which this was done as well so this is not limited to Jehovah. Something like Yahweh also is used with this and other spellings that many prefer. Attempts to transliterate and all that used in arguments about it do not change this reality. At least it identified and replaced the Jewish substitutes like LORD and GOD used for it in times past that corrupted the text for many years and hid the real application and use of such words. But it is true that the WTS use in the NT cannot be supported as you state here. Its use by the WTS borders on idolatry
You said: In Hebrew thought, a "name" is the very person, it is not a handle. Hence the change in a person’s name following a significant, life-changing experience.
This is funny. You give our Supreme Being no credit for intelligence. Nowhere in His word does God say that pronunciation would be a problem for Him or that He would reject anyone doing so. You give our Father no credit for the many languages He caused to exist in which this name would be rendered. And you have no proof for what you are saying here. But this does present a problem. How then did YHWH the "name" of "this very person" somehow become the Father, Son and HolySpirit. Under what authority and where in scripture were such changes made?
You said: So to reveal God’s name is to reveal his character, to reveal the nature of his Being. This is what Jesus did.
And this is a good thing is it not? But how did Jesus do this? By saying Yahweh and lot of times instead of Lord or God? By revealing his plan to redeem us opening up the scriptures and teaching us and acting the way God would have acted in his place? Yes! But the nature of His Being was not revealed visually or literally by the human Jesus standing before them. We know this because Jesus said: By Joh 5:37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. So that is not the way we should be thinking. We should be thinking another way, this way in fact where he said: Joh 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Comprehension, by now understanding his prophecies and commandments, see with the minds eye how we should act, think and believe. He was one with the Father in such ways despite the fact that he as a human did not had the nature of such a Being.
You said: I do not pretend to understand everything provided by these authors, but there is sufficient to show that the WTS does not have a clue.
This is true just as Trinitarians do not have a clue. Why else would both of them falsely teach we will go to someplace else called heaven to live and work? False doctrine is not what we get from Jesus who promised humans redemption and immortality in a kingdom here on earth instead. Nowhere do we see Jesus doing what the WTS and Trinitarians are doing.
Joseph
