Is it "God" or "G-d"?

I have noticed this trend picking up a small amount of steam over the last year or so. It's not widespread, and I can never see it becoming the "norm" or anything, but it is more noticeable now then it was a while ago. I even have a family member that does this. What is it that I am talking about? It's the conscious decision not to write out the name of God. They would, instead, write "G-d". Now, lets be fair - it's not that these people hate the letter "O" or anything - and I am sure the "O" key on their keyboard works just fine... it's just that, for some reason, they have decided that it is somehow more respectful and/or reverent to write "G-d" instead of "God."

....but is it?

Well, it is almost always traced back to the fact that the Jews in the Old Testament times would not write out the name of God when they were making copies of OT scrolls. Now, right here we run into an important point: the original writers had no such tradition. When Moses wrote the original scrolls of the Pentateuch, he wrote out the actual name of God. When Ezekiel wrote his original, he wrote out the name of God. It was a tradition that developed later that the Jews would not write out the name of God. Furthermore, it was the personal name of God that they refused to write. Eloheim, Adonai, etc, they had no problem with - they would simply not write out the personal name of God - and that is a very condensed version of how we ended up with Jehovah/Yaweh. Anyway, all that to point out that not writing out the name of God is a tradition of men. There is no such commandment from God.

The debate should end there - but it probably wont. We may need to point out that God gave lots of commands in the OT - and the Jews expanded greatly on these commands.... something that Jesus seemed to go out of His way to oppose. For instance In John 5, Jesus healed a man who could not walk. Jesus told him to pick up his bed and walk. Now the Jews got upset and told him that it was not lawful for him to be carrying his bed (this took place on the Sabbath). Now, the Jews were wrong... how do I know? Because Jesus told this man to do it, and in reality not doing it would have been disobeying God (since Jesus is God). Not carrying a bed on the Sabbath was a commandment of men. Commandments of men were things that Jesus seemed to greatly dislike: "Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 'THESE PEOPLE DRAW NEAR TO ME WITH THEIR MOUTH, AND HONOR ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME. AND IN VAIN THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE COMMANDMENTS OF MEN.' " (Mat 15:7-9). Once again, there is no command from God that says you can't write His name - and the original writers of the Bible did write Gods name. Throughout history, the great men of the Church (Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Whitfield, Edwards, Spurgeon, etc) all wrote out the name of God. We can write out the name of God.

To be honest, I tend to think writing "G-d" is a unconscious work of self-righteousness. I don't think these people are deliberately doing it as such - but the end result is the same. They are following a tradition of men in an attempt to be reverent - reverence pertains to righteousness.... and since this tradition is solely of men with absolutely no Biblical support, this ends up being at least close to self righteousness. I don't mean to sound harsh - and once again, I don't think they are deliberately being self-righteous.... I just think they need to honestly ask themselves why they feel the need to add this requirement to themselves when God gave them no such command.

One final thing - the three letter word "God" isn't nearly as important as the name "Jesus":

"let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the 'STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED BY YOU BUILDERS, WHICH HAS BECOME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE.' Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Act 4:10-12)

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Php 2:9-11)

 

...and yet no one writes "J-s-s" It's ok to write "God" and it's ok to write "Jesus".

 

Thanks for readin!

Rob

Are we all children of God?

"We are all children of God"

You'll likely hear that a lot. It quite often comes tied to the concept that a "loving God wouldn't send His children to hell!"

But ….is the concept true?

No. Not everyone is a "child of God". Let's look a little closer at the concept.

People usually don't know where this concept (children of God) even comes from – I mean, they know it comes from "The Bible", but they have no idea where (very few of the people who claim to have read the Bible really have read it!). Well, it is mentioned a few times, but the "main one" is John 1:12 -

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name [John 1:12 NKJV]

Now, let's break this verse down a bit.

First off, the "Him" in this verse refers to Jesus (if there is any doubt about this, a quick read of the first chapter of John should make this clear).

Ok, so we have the first part "as many as received Him" – now, right off the bat, notice that it doesn't say everyone received Him, it says "as many as received Him". This seems to be a clear implication that the verse is speaking of a select group of people, not everyone. But maybe some will still doubt – so let's take special note of the first word of this verse: BUT. Ok, so why is that word there? Well, it points back to the previous verse, which says: He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. [John 1:11 NKJV] – this verse explicitly says that not everyone receives Him. Now, this particular instance is talking about the Jews, but it establishes the precedent that not everyone is a "child of God" (I really don't think anyone would even bother making the ludicrous claim that everyone is a child of God except the Jews!)

Next, we have this part: "to them He gave the right". Again, it doesn't say "to everyone He gave the right" or "to all He gave the right" – no, it says "to them". The very notion indicates some people were not given the right. It's "to them", a select "them" are given a right that other people are not given.

So what right did He give them? "The right to become children of God" – Note that they had to BECOME children of God; they were not children of God beforehand (this is true of EVERYONE – no one is born a "child of God", they have to become one!), this lets you know that what they were before was not what God wanted them to be, and the fact that He gave them the right to become something, would seem to indicate that He wanted them be different. This is further borne out in 2Corinthians - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  [2Co 5:17 NKJV]

Now, John 1:12 closes with a reiteration of the very point I am making; who did He give this right to? "To those who believe in His name" – This would indicate that those who do not believe in His name are not given this right. Now, lots of people "believe" in Jesus, but that's not quite what's in view here, as can be evidenced by this verse: Even the demons believe--and tremble!  [Jas 2:19 NKJV] No, these people "Believe in His name". So what's the deal with Jesus' name?

And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  [Isa 9:6 NKJV]
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name [Php 2:9 NKJV]
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. [Act 4:12 NKJV]

Ya see - Jesus' name is special – special in a way we can only barely understand. Part of  believing in Jesus name is to be in complete agreement with everything He said, among which is this: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." [John 14:6 NKJV]

So what am I getting at here? If you believe everyone is a "child of God", then you believe that those who are not trusting in Jesus alone for their salvation are children of God (the old "all roads lead to heaven" deal), which means that you disagree with Jesus who claimed to be the ONLY way to heaven, which means that you DON'T believe in His name (at least not in the way the Bible says you need to!), which means that YOU are not a child of God!

My favorite preacher, C. H. Spurgeon had this to say about John 1:12 – "All men are not the sons of God; the doctrine of the universal Fatherhood is utterly untrue. They only become the sons of God who receive Christ, and believe on his name; else are they heirs of wrath, even as others: 'To them gave he power to become the sons of God.'"

So, if they (and possibly you) are not children of God, whose children are they? Well, first off they are "by nature children of wrath." [Eph 2:3 NKJV] – notice that it is "by nature", that means that they are born that way, their natural state is a child of wrath… and the wrath in question here is the Wrath of God – not something anyone will want to suffer! The Bible makes it easy for us and breaks things down into two groups: "the children of God and the children of the devil" [1Jn 3:10 NKJV]

So which one are you? If you are a child of the devil, then you cannot enter heaven – at least not as you are. You need to become a child of God – you literally need to be born again, because only people who are born again go to heaven - "unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  [John 3:3 NKJV] You need to realize your state of absolute sinfulness. God's standard is absolute perfection – no exceptions. God demands a life of perfection – and you don't have one to offer Him! You have broken His laws and as such deserve His punishment which is (as I'm sure you know) hell. This wasn't an accident either – every time you lied, you knew it was wrong, but you did it anyway – each time you stole something, you knew it was wrong… now maybe you tell others that you have NEVER stolen ANYTHING, but you and God both know the truth – and HE is the one you have to answer to. Just look through the 10 commandments and try to gauge how many times you have broken each one over the course of your lifetime. Keep in mind that God doesn't just go by what you DO, He also demands perfection in everything you ever say or think – if you have a sexual thought about someone you are not married to, then you are guilty of actually committing adultery in God's eyes!

Now, you may hope that God will see that your good outweighs your bad – but it doesn't work that way. The Bible says: "There is none who does good, no, not one." [Rom 3:12 NKJV] and "all our righteousness are like filthy rags" [Isa 64:6 NKJV] – that means that the best, most nice and kind things you have done in your life are less then worthless to God – and to offer them to Him in an attempt to get into heaven is insulting to Him. Imagine if you were selling a brand new BMW – and I said "Here, let me give you a dirty diaper to pay for it" – you would either be angry or think I was insane (maybe both!), but either way I doubt I would get your car! It's the same thing with God – you have nothing to offer Him. NOTHING. The best you have available to offer just angers Him… so what do you do? Well, you need to realize that you have nothing to offer  God, that since you willingly sinned against Him you DESERVE to be sent to Hell – that you have no excuse or defense, and you just ask for His grace and mercy. The most absolutely stunningly amazing thing is---- that HE PROMISES HE WILL GIVE IT TO YOU!!!!

  "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out." [John 6:37 NKJV]

If you ask Jesus for forgiveness and mercy – He WILL give it to you! The INSTANT you do that you will become a Christian, and will be destined for Heaven!

Then get a Bible and read it EVERYDAY and obey what you read – try to find a good church (there's no such thing as a Christian who doesn't at least try to hang out with other Christians!) and tell others about Jesus!

Thanks for readin!
-Rob