Early Christians imitated Jesus and popularized the custom of referring to Almighty
God as "Our Father". This served to inspire people to think of God as their own Father,
a loving figure of authority. It is reasonable that this would encourage a sense of
closeness and warmth amoung people who might otherwise feel distant from God.
What isn't reasonable, however, is the practice of Jehovah's Witnesses in using the
name 'Jehovah' as a source of division and separation. This Name is commonly wielded
like a club to denigrate anyone who doesn't 'know' or habitually use it as "part of false
worship".
The reality of the Christian Bible writers is simple: They prefered to use "Father"
over the form "Yahweh" or tetragrammaton ( They NEVER referred to God as Jehovah
since there was no "J" in Hebrew).
Jesus Christ avoided using Jehovah or Yahweh in giving the Lord's Prayer
"Our Father in the heavens, hallowed be thy name". He clearly chose one over the
other. Not only that, but Jesus failed to address God as "Jehovah" in any account
of his death. He called God "Father" (Luke 23:46). Even when he quoted the Psalms
while dying, he didn't choose any text that included the name Jehovah. The Bible
record shows the transliteration of "My God, My God" (Luke 27: 46)
The Apostle Paul avoided the name Jehovah or Yahweh when setting forth the
basics of Christian faith : "For even though there are those who are called "gods",
whether in heaven or on earth, just as there are many "gods" and many "lords",
there is actually to us one God, the Father." 1 Cor, 8:5,6. In this critical definition
of faith, he neglects to speak of "Jehovah".
The Apostle John never uses Jehovah or Yahweh in any of his 3 letters to congregations
at the end of the first century. God is "The Father" to him.
Perhaps the ULTIMATE evidence is shown by Almighty God himself when he
avoided using the name Jehovah or Yahweh in John 12:28 given a 'perfect opportunity'
to do so.(just read it)
Besides all this, there is simply NO PROOF that Jesus had the name Jehovah
or Yahweh in mind when he referred to God's "name". WHY? Because the Jews had already
developed the habit of speaking about "God's Name" when they simply meant His power
or authority. The Watchtower Society ADMITS this in their Insight book on the last
paragraph of page 12 , Volume 2. " by name must be meant here not the two syllables
which make up the word Jehovah but the idea which it expresses". When Jesus
made the "name manifest" to his disciples, isn't it obvious that these Jewish men
already knew the name Yahweh? They were getting a new powerful image of God thru
Jesus' miracles, not a revealing of a name they already knew.
The Watchtower Society forces the name Jehovah into the Christian Greek scriptures
without any manuscript evidence to support the idea, only the presumption that Bible writers
must have done so as in some copies of the Septuagint. Yet, as we've already seen
Christian Bible writers avoided using Jehovah and used Father instead in clear examples,
when given the choice.
All this emphasis on the name Jehovah comes with a price. First, other Christians
are pronounced "false" because they don't use "God's name". Secondly, Jesus Christ
is treated almost as a minor character in Watchtower publications. It's nearly impossible
to find any heartfelt or personal reference to Jesus Christ in any Life Experience
published in the Watchtower magazine ( see Col. 3:17) . Witnesses commonly avoid
calling Jesus "The Lord" and almost never make any personal references to him in
any casual conversation. Any Witness who does do this is usually branded as an
"apostate" and shunned suspiciously!
I write this information again because the Awake (Jan 22 04) has once again
brought up the subject of God's Name as a weapon to be used against non-Witnesses.
I encourage you to share any information I've put together here in confronting Witnesses
about this .... because it is clear that they have no official rebuttal to the points I've made.
So far, they don't want to comment on the above facts.
metatron