The Seven Names Of God

Here is an excellent article at The Q Continuum: Reflecting on 21 Centuries of Faith regarding the seven Names of God.

Q writes:

The name of a person is sacred [...] If our names are sacred, how much more is the name of God?

Exodus 20:7 mandated the special care over the name of God – which the Scribes exercised diligently. The Jews, out of respect for the holiness of God did not pronounce the tetragrammaton YHWH meaning the “Eternal One or Eternal Lord”. In the Holy Writ, the revealed name of God is often replaced by the divine title of “Lord” (Adonai in Hebrew or Kyrios in Greek). The title of Lord is also ascribed to Jesus which is a proclamation of His divinity. Due to the sacredness of the name of God, and the vigilance to respect His name, titles were given so the Name would not be spoken.

Below are the traditional Seven Names of God. For this reason it was sometimes common in the Middle Ages to refer to God as The Seven:

Click here to continue reading The Seven Names of God.

Your Name Is Mud

That's what my mother would tell me.

That is what amounted to a threat coming from her: "If you don't do X, then your name is going to be mud." The thing is, I believed her. (She always told me that I knew what side my bread was buttered on.)

Names are powerful things. We use them to uplift, we use them to tear down (sticks and stones). Most parents spend countless hours when deciding on names for their children. Does it sound right? What is the meaning? Do the initials spell something obscene? Is it a family name? Does it reflect our values or religion? And so on ... as well it should.

The story of the Tower of Babel is based in part on the monstrous pride of the people who were trying to make a name for themselves instead of submitting to the Lord. Then they said,

"Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth." Genesis 11:4

Each of my children has a first, middle, and last name. I use them quite liberally, most of the time using the first alone, sometimes I use the first and middle together, or even the dreaded triple name utterance. (That's how we knew we were in trouble as kids, when our parents used our full names.)

Occasionally, I'll use first initial and middle name to get their attention; and for the girls, I will even use only their middle name (again to get their attention). With 5 Nod-lings, there are a lot of names flying about the house.

Imagine my surprise, then, when Nod-girl told me this today:

"At school, I didn't remember my middle name so my friend made one up for me."

I stared. I gaped. My mouth formed shapes, but no sound came out.