2. The “Lord” is the name of the one true God.
In my previous blog we settled, once and for all, the question of whether or not God exists. We’ve presented irrefutable facts that prove God does indeed exist. The question then becomes who is this one God who made everything? What is his name? Throughout history there have been many religions established that all claim that only their god or gods are true and all other gods are false. All religions are therefore mutually exclusive which means only one religion can be true; or they are all false. How is a rational person to decide which God is correct? When we look for evidence of God we find it only when we examine the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The true God of Christianity also happens to be the God of Judaism. The difference being Judaism doesn’t recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Son of God. Part of the process of proving that God exists in the first place, our “proofs” of God, is intertwined with God’s name as revealed in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
1 Chronicles 16:29 – Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come before Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Exodus 6:2-3 – And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them.
Genesis 4:26 – And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.
God is known by many names, mostly associated with his many wonderful attributes. You are what you do and what you continually think about. A person’s name is very important to them and it’s the same with God. In his word God declares his name to be “Lord” so that’s what we should call him when we access the throne room of heaven in prayer. God chose the Hebrews as his chosen people. The Hebrew language contains only consonants (no vowels) and the speaker provided the vowels when they spoke. The Hebrews call God by the name of YHWH, which is pronounced “Yahweh.” The Bible was first translated from Hebrew into Greek and Yahweh became Jeshua. The Bible was later translated into English where the name for God was translated as Jehovah.
Nehemiah 9:6 – You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.
Psalm 18:30-31 – As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust Him. For who is God except the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?
Revelation 19:16 – And He (Jesus) has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: King of kings and Lord of lords.
Since the early 1500’s Christians have commonly referred to God as Jehovah. In the Scriptures God declares his name to be “Lord” and that’s the name I suggest we use, unless you happen to be Jewish. I don’t recall anywhere in the Bible where God declares his name is Yahweh, Yeshua or Jehovah. When you speak to God remember who you’re talking to and address God using the formal name he prefers (Lord); or you can call him Master, God, King or Father. In the dictionary lord is defined as master or ruler. When we capitalize the word Lord we are then referring to the divine master and ruler of the universe; which is God. The word Lord defines both who God is (our master) and what God does (ruler over us). I’d say the Lord’s name fits him perfectly so use it when you come before the throne of grace as a sign of honor, respect and reverence. We express our proper “fear” of the Lord when we use his holy name before the throne of heaven. Once you have observed the proper heavenly prayer protocol and given God the glory due his name; then you can approach God and present your petition. Always close prayer by giving thanks to God in Jesus’ name.
James 5:14 – Is anyone among you sick? Let him call the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
Colossians 3:17 – And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Philippians 2:9-11 – 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 the 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.
God wouldn’t have created the universe unless he had a good reason. God wouldn’t have made man, his masterpiece of creation, and placed us on this earth without a good reason. God wouldn’t have made everything we see unless he intended to be intimately involved in every aspect of his creation by revealing himself to man and telling us why we’re here. A God who created all we see would, above all else, desire that man fully believes in him and knows his name. Only the Lord our God has given us his word, our Holy Bible, which will answer all these questions. Critics have been trying to find fault with the Bible for 2000 years and have yet to find any errors in it. The Bible is one third prophecy and over 500 of the over 1000 prophecies in it have been fulfilled and documented as fact. The Bible is the truth of God and the wisdom of God.
Hebrews 11:6 – But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Isaiah 43:11 – I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior.
Isaiah 43:15 – I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.
Ephesians 5:20 – Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
All of the other fake religions and false gods throughout human history have not produced even a single fulfilled prophecy. They were all sponsored by Satan to hide the truth of God from man. One way you can be sure you’re dealing with God is if he can fulfill prophecy because only the true God is the author of history. Only God knows the end from the beginning. Another way you can be sure of the identity of God is if he can bring someone back to life, which is something only God can do and which God documented several times in the Holy Bible because God is the author of life. The Hebrews identified their God as someone who could walk on water and calm the raging storm. Jesus did both od those things on the Sea of Galilee as further proof to the Hebrews, and the us Gentiles, that he is indeed God in the flesh. Of the four main world religions only the Lord God of the Christian faith has proven that he is God. Only our Lord has fulfilled prophecy, raised the dead, controlled nature and walked on water. What more proof do we need to identify God?
Isaiah 1:18 – Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Romans 10:13 – For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Isaiah 42:8 – I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another.
Psalm 29:2 – Give unto the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
I previously posted an eleven part blog series on fake religions and false gods back in May and June of 2021 (see my archives). I’ll just repeat the high points here. Christianity is the world’s largest religion with over 2.5 billion followers. Jesus Christ is the head of our church, which was founded in 33AD, and the Bible is our holy book written by God himself. The tomb of Christ is empty for he is risen and he sits at the right hand of God in heaven. Islam is the world’s second largest religion with over two billion followers. Islam was founded in 622 AD by the prophet Mohammed who claimed that god was named Allah, which is a name he borrowed from the moon god of one of the old desert tribes of the Arabian peninsula. Mohammed wrote the Quran, the holy book of the Muslim faith. Mohammed is buried in a grave somewhere. Both Jesus Christ and Mohammed claim to be prophets of their respective faiths. Only one God can be true so let’s look at the evidence and decide for ourselves who is the true God of heaven and earth.
Psalm 19:7 – The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Matthew 22:37 – (Jesus speaking) – You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Jesus Christ fulfilled over sixty prophecies in the Bible about the coming of the Messiah, the Son of God, and we have eyewitness testimonies from those who actually knew Jesus in addition to the witnesses of many millions of people who have testified that a personal relationship with Jesus has changed their lives for the better. In Allah, on the other hand, we have no fulfilled prophecies and no personal testimonies other than from the prophet Mohammed, who established the Muslim faith and had a vested interest in maintaining the narrative of the religion he created. I know of no one who has claimed that they know Allah personally or that he has changed their lives in any way. In the Bible we have the obvious wisdom of God and in the Quran we have a book of contradictions and half-truths. The Quran is just an unsuccessful attempt by Satan to mimic the word of God in order to fool man. Based on all the evidence, we have proven that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and that Allah is nothing more than a false god from a fake religion sponsored by Satan to divert man from the truth of God and salvation unto eternal life in heaven that God has prepared for man.
Malachi 3:6 – For I am the Lord, I do not change.
Isaiah 45:5 – I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me.
Hosea 13:4 – Yet I am the Lord your God…there is no Savior besides Me.
To be fair, there are two other major world religions we should mention. Hinduism is the third largest world religion with over 1.3 billion followers, primarily in India. Hinduism is not technically a religion; it’s really just modern day paganism. Hindus worship a thousand different gods and everyone is free to choose which gods they worship. Hindus are free to worship one god, many gods or no god at all. Hindus worship idols of their chosen deities in their temples and also in shrines they set up at home. Hindus have no doctrinal authority in which to turn to and they all expect that their soul will somehow evolve into a perfect state of being on its own. Common sense should tell us there can’t be thousands of gods and man cannot evolve into anything good on his own. Look around. A perverse and evil world should tell us this narrative is false.
Deuteronomy 7:9 – Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.
1 Corinthians 15:58 – Therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:6 – So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.
Buddhism is the fourth largest world religion with over 500 million followers. Buddhism is an Indian religion started by Guatama Buddha around 500 BC. Buddha is not in heaven; he is buried in a grave somewhere. Buddhism is technically not a religion either because Buddhists don’t believe in a supreme being we refer to as God. You could say Buddhists worship man as their god because they glorify themselves as the way to heaven. In the Buddhist system of faith each individual is to attain enlightenment on their own, which will result in their achieving eternal bliss. Buddhism is similar to Hinduism in that regard. So when we consider the name of God we will start with the Lord with over 500 fulfilled prophecies and millions of personal testimonies. Next we have the choice of the Buddhist religion which names no god at all and Hinduism which has thousands of unnamed gods.
Finally, we have the Muslim god Allah, who was once the moon god from one of the minor desert tribes who Mohammed resurrected as the one true god of Islam. I guess they didn’t have enough names to go around. Allah has no personal testimony other than the founder of Islam, which we can discount because Mohammed had a vested interest in promoting the religion he created. Mohammed cannot provide an impartial testimony to prove his god is the true god. We must look elsewhere. The god Allah from the Quran, the flawed Muslim holy book, doesn’t have a single fulfilled prophecy or shred of evidence to prove that he is god. Islam says Allah is an aloof god who does not contend with man, which is a convenient way of not having to provide any proof that Allah is god. Mohammed did this as a way of preventing anyone from ever questioning the god he created, under penalty of death. Under Islam Allah can never be questioned therefore he can never be proven false. When something is the truth you have no need to hide it. You only want to hide something if it’s false and you don’t want anyone to find out about it. That sums up Islam.
Isaiah 46:9-10 – Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.
Does it sound reasonable to you that a god would go to all the trouble to create the universe and man and then have nothing at all to do with what he created? That just doesn’t sound logical or truthful to me. According to Islam every man in heaven gets 72 virgins to pleasure him. Where do the all women come from? Women on earth don’t outnumber men by a factor of 72. This sounds more like the sexual fantasy of a man and not something from god. How can you have a loving relationship with someone when you have 72 partners? That sounds to me like nothing more than sinful sex to me. I’m assuming Muslim women get to go to heaven. What do the women get who go to the heaven of Islam? Are they still the chattel of men there like they are here on earth? Do the women in the heaven of Islam receive reciprocal treatment in kind, and if so, where do all the men come from? It sounds as though there are a lot of slaves in the heaven of Islam.
What woman in their right mind would want to sleep with 72 men? They would need to be put on life support and the same goes for the men. I’ve been married for almost fifty years and it’s all I can do to keep up with one woman and try to keep her happy. The thought of having to please 72 women would terrify me. It’s my idea of hell not heaven! I don’t mean to be disrespectful of any religion but as a disciple of Jesus Christ I am commanded by God to speak the truth of God and to share my witness with all nonbelievers. Being politically correct is not an option because it’s merely a device of the devil to shout down the truth of God and prevent the spread of the truth of God to the nonbeliever. I’m not offended by those of a different faith who want to defend their beliefs and in return I expect the same courtesy. We should all be able to discuss our beliefs openly and then agree to disagree with one another in a respectful manner. In Scripture the Lord says to come check him out and learn that he is God. With all these fake religions and false gods being discredited in this blog it should be evident by now that the only true God is the Lord God of Christianity.
2 Corinthians 5:11 – Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
1 Peter 1:25 – But the word of the Lord endures forever.
Philippians 4:4 – Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice!