Posted on 12/15/2018 5:12:11 PM PST by pcottraux
God’s Name Will Not be Mentioned
By Philip Cottraux
I personally think there’s no such thing as an atheist. Deep down inside, everyone knows there’s a God. Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness (Romans 2:15). The reality is they don’t believe He doesn’t exist; they hate Him.
The war against everything related to God, the intense hatred of all religion, and the burning desire to scrub any mention of His name from society betrays their true feelings. The murky reference to “separation of church and state” is a thinly-veiled false justification. They want to burn one of the most sacred aspects of the First Amendment, freedom of religion, to the ground and rename it “freedom from religion.” They react to any mention of the divine like kryptonite and go berserk trying to wipe it out with the same obsessive compulsive reaction as a germaphobe washing his hands twenty times in a row.
This is true on both the ground and top levels of the atheist movement. Richard Dawkins stands on stage before adoring throngs, encouraging his followers to bully and mock religious people with contempt. Like good little fascists, they hold up clenched fists in unison and cheer. Mid-level atheist coalitions file lawsuits at the sight of plastic manger scenes. Atheist internet trolls harass religious people online, some scoffing, others cyber stalking or even making death threats against Christians (don’t tell me it doesn’t happen; I’ve seen it firsthand). Despite the claim of atheists that they only want people to keep religion “in church,” a creature’s predatory instincts kick in at the first taste of blood; one victory pushing God out of the public square will only insatiate their appetite. You can see the dark bowels of this monster’s goals in the internet troll’s comments on any religion-related article: “Ban all religion.”
All in the name of reason, of course.
The two letters EL referred to God from Genesis through the time of Abraham. This is why so many Biblical names contain them; Samu-EL, Dani-EL, Isra-EL, etc. However, the sacred name of the Lord was revealed to Moses before the burning bush on Mount Sinai. Exodus 3:13-14: And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. “I Am” is an English translation; ancient Hebrew didn’t contain vowels, only letters, and so the given name consists of four consonants: YHWH (also called the Tetragrammaton). JEHOVAH is the Latin translation of YAHWEH.
In Old Testament times, just like anyone other than the high priest entering the holiest of holies could mean death, the name of God was forbidden from being mentioned out loud. This is also why the disciples were probably shocked at one of Jesus’ boldest pronouncements. When He walked on water during the storm, they saw Him approaching from a distance and thought He was a spirit. Matthew 14:27: But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. Unfortunately, most English translations miss the mark just slightly on the phrase “it is I;” the original Greek text literally said, “Fear not; I AM.” He invoked the name of Yahweh to describe Himself. matches His use of the same phrase in John 8:58: Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM.
No power can resist Jesus‘ name. Salvation can come to the lowest sinner and healing to the person in the bleakest stages of terminal disease by invoking the name of Jesus. Which is why the darkest powers on Earth revile it so much and try so hard to scrub any mention of it from society.
I find this hostility peculiar. I try to adopt the mindsets of other people out of fascination at how the human mind works. But I can’t relate to atheist activism.
They like to compare belief in God to belief in unicorns or leprechauns as part of an ancient dying superstition. Just to play devil’s advocate, let’s assume they’re right and God is like a leprechaun. I don’t believe in leprechauns. However, it wouldn’t bother me if there was a large group of people who did believe in them. I might find it amusing, but a waste of time to try to convince them the leprechaun doesn’t exist. If this group wanted to talk about the leprechaun publicly, or have buildings and meetings or public displays dedicated to the leprechaun, or even print In the Leprechaun We Trust on currency, I still don’t see the problem.
I can’t comprehend wasting time and energy on a violent enraged reaction, demanding the leprechaun be removed from public life, filing lawsuits to get people to shut up about the leprechaun or demand laws banning them from believing in it. If anything, it might be a more fruitful exercise to try to understand why people are so insistent there’s a leprechaun. There must be something about the leprechaun mythos that strikes a psychological nerve that I would be missing. And saying “because people are stupid” is just cognitive dissonance.
That’s why, even if I didn’t believe in God, I could never join the new atheist movement in its anti-Bible crusade. These are some of man’s oldest stories, and there must be a reason why people hold them so dear. I appreciate Jordan Peterson’s neo-Jungian take that we can learn wisdom from the past about ourselves by studying ancient tales. His lectures on the meaning of the Bible, or as he calls it, metatruth, are fascinating. The atheist approach, ridiculing the Bible stories without seeking to understand them is as bone-headed as making fun of Aesop’s fables because rabbits and turtles can’t actually talk. People who do this think they’re some kind of revolutionary geniuses but are blind to their own stupidity. The emperor has no clothes.
There’s just something about modern atheism that’s unappealing to me. It doesn’t strike me as an honest attempt at reason or truth like it claims to be. It’s too dismissive, too sure of itself, and tries too hard to be outrageous and really “stick it” to religious people. Atheists who march, wave signs, file lawsuits, and troll social media spend so much effort in what seem to be desperate cries for attention to mask their own insecurities.
When the Assyrian invasion of Judah began, all hope looked lost as city after city fell. Finally, Sennacherib’s armies had Jerusalem surrounded. After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself (II Chronicles 32:1). Under siege, the population of Judah, including King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, hunkered down. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Prayer and fasting ensued.
But before the final attack, Sennacherib’s armies taunted the Jews. The king even went a step further, setting himself up as an enemy of their God. He sent a message in verses 13-14: Know ye not what I and my fathers have done unto all the people of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands any ways able to deliver their lands out of mine hand? Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of mine hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of mine hand? All the other people Sennacherib had conquered prayed to gods who failed to save them. How was the God of Israel any different? His words echo Pharaoh’s when Moses had demanded he let the slaves go: And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go (Exodus 5:2).
Like atheists today, Sennacherib mistakenly assumed that the One True God was no different than any of the idols of the time. But he was sorely mistaken. His challenge, “Who is your God that shall deliver you out of my hands?”, was answered by the prophet Nahum: The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein (Nahum 1:5).
Sennacherib’s fate was sealed. Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses (Isaiah 37:36). His armies suddenly killed by an angel overnight, Sennacherib retreated home with his tail between his legs. Later, he would be killed in disgrace by his own sons at the temple of Nineveh (verse 38).
This is the fate of all those who oppose God. Sennacherib has been in hell for thousands of years. Yet I can’t help but think he is still arrogant, still shaking his fist in the flames in defiance of God. If heaven is where the saints lift up their voices in praise to the Lord, hell is where only cursing His name takes place. Hell isn’t as humbling as we think (I base this one the story of Lazarus and the rich man, who remained selfish even in the flames). It’s where everyone screams their hatred of God, as if He can hear. I realize the Bible says Every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God (Romans 14:11), but I think this is referring to the Day of Judgment more so than hell itself.
And that’s the twist. Atheists don’t want God’s name to be mentioned publicly. But this will come back around to them. It isn’t His name that won’t be mentioned in eternity. Its theirs. No matter how much they blaspheme Him in eternity, He won’t hear. The most horrifying punishment imaginable, worse than the fire and burning and darkness, is eternal separation. To be erased from God’s memory. To have your name forgotten by Him and all your loved ones in heaven, never to be remembered again. Why not surrender to His love here on Earth, while there’s still time? Psalm 9:17: The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
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I personally think there’s no such thing as an atheist. Deep down inside, everyone knows there’s a God.
Every atheist can give you a detailed description of the God in which he or she does not believe.
I was in a discussion with an atheist once, and I decided to see how deep his atheism was, so I simplified the definition to that One Universal Power, Infinite and Indescribable, which created everything.
He said, “That can’t be God.” I asked why not. “Because I could believe in that, and I don’t believe in God.”
Does a tree fall in the forest...
Perhaps they are more accurately described as anti-theists?
Considering how worked up they get over something they claim doesn't exist, you are correct.
Perhaps would could label them theophobic and accuse them of hate crimes against God.
Agreed. I began calling them all antitheists about two years ago.
In spoken Hebrew, the declensions of the verb, To Be, are omitted; they are understood (implicit). Some commoners mistakenly think that the verb does not exist.
This is an ancient practice because the infinitive, To Be, and the name of God [YHWH] are linguistically related, and the Hebrews were afraid of accidentally taking the Lord’s name in vain, so they simply stopped using the verb in its various tenses.
The connection is obvious: “I Am” means the God who exists simultaneously in all time: was, is, will be. His name thus implies all tenses of the verb, To Be.
To use one of the names from the article as an example: In Israel, one would not say, “I am Daniel”; one would say, “I Daniel”: The word, am, would be understood. (Thus context is important to understand tense!)
Further, although the meaning of that name, Daniel, is translated, “God is my Judge,” the literal translation is:
Dan’i’El: Dan Sheli Elohim: Judge There-is-to-me God. The middle and last syllables in Daniel are contractions: Dan (Shel)i El(ohim).
written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness ...
“The walk of shame” was named by a generation that was raised in a culture of recreational sex. I have always found that instructive.
Very circular reasoning...and if you press them really hard about any issue about the universe’s (or life’s) origins, they inevitably circle back around to an answer along those lines.
Among the on-line atheist community at least, that description is a tell for the truly deranged psychotic ones. In an ideal world, atheists would be content to just not believe in God and go about their day. But from my experience, anyone who proudly calls his or herself "anti-theist" is like the fanatical vegans. It's not enough that they don't eat meat, they want to impose their lifestyle on the rest of us and make it mandatory. Anti-theists are the same way; they're little fascist wannabe's who want to destroy anything not like them.
What a perfect definition of a liberal.
Right, and 97% of the hardcore anti-theists on the internet community are leftists, so the cesspool forms the perfect mindset for both ideologies.
I heard an evolutionist say that the only reason he believed in evolution was because the alternative was belief in God.
You are so right about the raging the atheists do in opposition to God and those who believe. If they truly believed He didn't exist, then they wouldn't care whether or not others believed. It's a lame excuse to claim they really oppose all the bad things believers have done in God's name. They conveniently forget all the horrible things done by atheist nations and leaders. One day, they will no longer be able to deny He IS but it will be too late.
In that film Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed by Ben Stein, I was shocked to hear Richard Dawkins actually admit that "aliens" could be the origin of life on Earth! Uh, Rick, where did the ALIENS come from???
I love where the Bible talks about names being blotted out of the book of life. That tells me that their names, like the rest of mankind, have been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and only when a person finally dies without accepting the Lord, is his name wiped out. I believe it is God’s will for all to be bound for Heaven, but that if we refuse to accept Him (those who are old enough to acknowledge Him), then the Heaven He created for us, will be closed to us. Great article I found:
http://www.learnthebible.org/blotting-out-of-names-the-book-of-life.html
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and understanding of the scriptures. Keep us on your list.
My wife and I are blessed.
That was a fail on several different levels. Obviously the first being that that isn't how scientific conclusions are carried out; you can't start with a conclusion then pick and choose which data to believe after-the-fact.
Now, for the deeper level; I'm not saying evolution is true. But IF it is...it still doesn't disprove God. It could help explain why there's such a diversity of species but it can't account to where the FIRST life form came from. The leap from non-living matter to life is beyond impossible to make naturally.
They conveniently forget all the horrible things done by atheist nations and leaders.
That's one of the glaring hypocrisies I can't ignore from atheists. Always quick to point out the Inquisition (and act like atheists were the primary targets instead of Protestants), always quick to cover up the communist purges of the last century (which have a WAAAY higher body count).
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