Is it respectful to call God by name?

by woodland 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  woodland

  Hi All

  I was just wondering what your views were about calling God Jehovah. I appreciate that there is scriptures that says to call on his name, but if I were to meet the Queen or President Bush it would grossly disrespectful to say Hi there Elizabeth or How you doing George.

  If this is the case with mere men and women in positions of power, is it not imaginable to address God on first name terms?

  And with this in mind, what do you think of a group of people calling themselves Jehovah?s Witnesses?
• 

  Elsewhere

  I just call gawd my Beotch...

  Hey Beotch!!! Give me a new Caddy!
• 

  gitasatsangha

  I choose to call God by his real name, Fred Schneider. He likes to be called by his real name.

  a member of Fred Schneider's Witnesses
• 

  imallgrowedup

  I am with you 100% Woodland! I call him "God".

  growedup

  P.S. Welcome to the board
• 

  Nosferatu

  I tend to go somewhat along with the JW view - Brother God.
• 

  Sara Annie

  My husband and I have taught our children that, when they are in need, they can call out to us and we'll come running to help them. When they call out to us in the middle of the night, on the playground, or from the bathtub , they aren't yelling "Sara" or "James". They are calling out to us by the names that they know us by, the names that identify us to them and only them-- they call us "Mom" and "Dad". To my children, my name is Mom.

  I tend to anthropomorphize the situation by thinking that calling someone by their proper name denotes a peer relationship that simply doesn't exist between God and myself. His name may be Ernest or Quentin or Cecil or Cyclops or Henr3ry with a silent 3, but "God" is just fine for me.
• 

  Sirona

  It is OK to call a god by name if that god says its OK, I suppose. The biblical God seems to refer to himself as Yahweh (YHWH) and therefore I would think that more accurate than "jehovah".

  I call the Goddess by Her names - Isis in particular - and She doesn't seem to mind.

  Sirona
• 

  startingover

  When I read Ray Franz' take on this it really hit me. The way the word name is used in the bible it relates more to a reputation, as in "he has a good name". Of course, looking at it that way really changes the usage of the name Jehovah that the WTS is so proud of.
• 

  robhic

  I believe I posed this same question somewhere a while back. I agree 100% with your position.

  In my opinion, it is very disrespectful, not to mention presumptuous, to call a person of a higher status (or whatever) by their first name. I wouldn't call the president of a company nor my own parents by their first name. You just don't do that.

  I think the dubs take some extraordinary liberties with their position on using god's name. Besides, even jesus called him "father" and that is the word/name he used to teach his followers to pray. Can't get more specific than that.

  Do you think it is just one more of the many and vaious ways the WTS tries to put themselves in a "special" place and distance themselves from the rest of mainstream religions? More fuel for the "us vs. them" fire?

  Robert
• 

  shotgun

  I've started calling him Loving Creator to my daughter and WTBTS to my wife!