No. 105

March, 1997

Yahweh: god of the Christians
by John David Clark, Sr.

"I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God almighty;
but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them." Exodus 6:3

The first time I heard the word Yahweh was at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in the mid-seventies. Now, Yahweh is accepted as the most likely true name of God in all of liberal Christianity and is more slowly (but surely) being accepted in every Christian sect. Why Yahweh instead of Jehovah? I personally always thought that Jehovah was fine; but here is the explanation for the change, as delivered to me by the professors of Hebrew at the Baptist Seminary:

The name of God revealed to Moses (Ex. 6:3) is made up of only four letters. In theological circles, it is called the "tetragrammaton". "Tetragrammaton" is just a Greek word meaning "four letters" (tetra = four; grammaton = letters). Transliterated, those four letters are JHVH.

In the reading of the Bible, many of the learned Jews, we are told, historically had so much reverence for God that they refused to speak His name aloud when it was found in the Biblical text; so, they contrived various means to circumvent it. At a place where the text reads, "Thus saith JHVH", they would refuse to pronounce the name that was on the page. They would say "Thus saith the name" instead. It was a little awkward, but that's how some of the Jews felt--and feel--about the name of God; it was too holy to be spoken out loud. Generations passed. No one spoke the name, and eventually no one even remembered how to pronounce it.

In the original Hebrew text, there were no vowels, just consonants. A group of Hebrew translators (so the story goes) called the Massoretes added the vowels to the text about a thousand years ago. I imagine they did so in order to help preserve Hebrew from becoming a lost language. But, which vowels were to be added to the tetragrammaton? Since no one knew how to pronounce the name of God any longer, what vowels belonged to those four letters? According to the theory, now accepted as fact by multitudes of Christians, the Massoretic translators decided to use the same vowels which were in the Hebrew word "Adonai", a word that means "Lord". Thus, the tetragrammaton would be pronounced (in English) "JeHoVah".

That is the story I was told, and that may actually be the way the word "JeHoVah" came about. I don't know.

But modern scholars were not satisfied with "Jehovah". They felt that they could improve upon the name invented (so they say) by the Massoretes and bring it closer to its original form, even if no one can say for certain what the original name was. The Masoretic vowel pointings, now dismissed by modern scholars as untrustworthy Massoretic contrivance, were replaced with the modern scholars' guesswork. They felt that they could render a more plausible answer to the problem of the missing vowels. And their vowels gave the tetragrammaton look something like this "JaHVeh".

But there is no "J" sound in Hebrew, nor is there a "V" sound. The "J" would be pronounced as the English "Y" and the "V" would be pronounced as the English "W". So, as a result of modern scholars' efforts, the widely accepted pronunciation of the tetragrammaton is no longer the Massoretic Jehovah but Yahweh. Virtually everyone in higher scholastic circles approves of this modern invention, and the name Yahweh is gaining ever greater popularity among all Christians.

Now, hold that thought as I change subjects for a moment.

We know that the gods of the ancient world were in fact demons. For me to say that actually might not have bothered educated pagan philosophers of the ancient world. Yesterday, I read an excerpt from Celcus, a vehement anti-Christian of the second century, A.D., wherein he criticized Christians of his day because they refused to honor what he called "demons". Of course, such ancient scholars understood demons to be harmless, even helpful, spirits. They saw them as "gods" to be honored. Moses' and Paul's view of those gods was quite different, however. They learned from God that demons were evil and not to be trusted.

But to move on, you may remember from school days that the chief of the Gentiles' gods was called Zeus by the Greeks. This same chief of the gods was called Jupiter by the Romans. We who believe the Bible know that the chief of demons is in reality Satan; and so, we know that the Gentiles' chief god (Zeus, or Jupiter) was in fact none other than Satan himself. But this same "supreme god", chief of all demons, had another, and possibly more popular name, the Latin name JOVE.

Now, consider carefully these facts about Latin grammar: First, just as in Hebrew, Latin has neither the English "J" nor "V" sound. Latin "J" is pronounced as the English "Y", and the Latin "V" is pronounced as an English "W". Secondly, there is no silent "E" in Latin. If a Latin word ends with an "E", it is pronounced as a short "eh" sound. Thirdly, as anyone learns in the first few days of studying the Latin language, a short "O" sound (such as in the Latin word Jove) is difficult to spell out, but is somewhat like "AH". This means that if we pronounce Jove according to the rules of Latin grammar which we are taught, if we pronounce Jove as an ancient Roman would have done, Jove would be pronounced very nearly, if not exactly as the modern Christian name for their god: Yahweh. Can anyone honestly believe that this is a coincidence?

We have already been taught by the Spirit that the god of Christianity is Satan; what is surprising, with the emergence of Yahweh as the new name for God, is how blatant with that damning truth Christians are becoming (or how blind). Satan has been disguised for a very long time, but the holy Ghost is drawing him out of the closet. Can you see him?

The god of Christianity is the Roman chief of demons, Yahweh. Since the first time, years ago, when I heard Christians suggesting a change from Jehovah to Yahweh, I have wondered why. Now the answer is clear. As I have told you before, Christianity is the Roman Empire in disguise. The chief priest of Christianity, the Pope, still calls himself after the chief priest of the Roman Empire, Pontifex Maximus--because he is worshipping the same filthy chief of demons that the Romans honored. What Jesus showed me and what I have told you about the Roman Empire's transformation into Christianity is being confirmed again. It is amazing! And I pray for faith to be able to believe what I am seeing. But can this similarity between Yahweh of modern Christian scholars and Yahweh of the ancient Romans be mere coincidence? No thinking person can believe so. The only thing is--what do we do with all this truth that Jesus keeps showing to us? Tell us what you think.