Do you have some proof? The name of God seems to be fully spelled out in holy writings. Strong's Concordance shows no evidence for leaving out the "o" in God for the number 0430. 
Posted on 07/07/2003 3:50:21 AM PDT by grumple
In light of the many perversions and jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayton asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding the attacks on Sept. 11). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?" In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school ... the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.
Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. The school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued (there's a big difference between disciplining, touching, beating, smacking, humiliating, kicking, etc.). And we said OK. Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents. And we said OK. Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school. And we said OK
Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. Agreeing with them, we said it doesn't matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private as long as I have a job and the economy is good.
Then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female body. And we said OK. And then someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then further again by making them available on the Internet. And we said OK, they're entitled to free speech.
Then the entertainment industry said, let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex. Let's record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes. And we said it's just entertainment, it has no adverse effect, nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.
Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.
Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they WILL think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in!
But God and Lord are not his name, yet the same people that do this have no problem spelling out YHWH or some variation of that. Why is that?
Nope, you're wrong, custom dates to BC in the English calender, not AD.
Do you disagree that the proper name for the Judeo-Christian deity is in fact "JHVH/IHVH/Jehova"?
I was pointing out that Judaism came first, Christianity later.
Jews have the right to worship and spell "God" anyway they want, just as you can worship and spell "God" anyway you want. You appear to demand that Jews to spell God's name the way you spell it, imposing your religious beliefs on them.
Besides, the Alef-Beit parable is right here in the NT:
Matthew 19:21-26
21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
Y-H-V-D-H
I like that sentiment.
No. Sorry. That is just you trying to read things into my statements that isn't there. I was just pointing out it was kind of silly. Period.
Excuse me, I need to go wash my c-r now... maybe get some w-rk done.
I was not likening you to a terrorist. I was making the point that we have heard repeatedly since September 11th. If we allow fear to run our lives, then the terrorists have won. If we eliminate God's name for fear that a "terrorist" will deface it, then what have you accomplished?
That is absolutely true of course, but the question is: do we have the strength of character to respond to this current crisis w/ the same resolve that we had when confronted by WWII?
Character and self-esteem are not the same thing.
How would you interpret a supporter's commitment to that cause?
Do you have some proof? The name of God seems to be fully spelled out in holy writings. Strong's Concordance shows no evidence for leaving out the "o" in God for the number 0430.
As many have already informed you, the use of G-d in lieu of God comes from the Jewish custom of not including the vowels of God's name in the text when the scribes transcribed the Scriptures. In fact, the name Jehova was spelled (as transliterated) the equivalent of Yhwh (pronounced Yah-weh) in the Hebrew Scriptures. So spelling it out as G-d is an act of reverence, not an act of aversion.
That said, there are many around here who have an aversion to seeing items posted in the "News" forum that don't belong there -- items such as vanities, emails, hoaxes, urban legends, etc. Your post -- an item you received via email, and an item which is a borderline urban legend since it is not at all an accurate quote of Billy Graham's daughter as it purports to be -- is an example of something that DOESN'T belong in the News forum. It could reasonably be posted in the General Interest forum or the Religion forum, but it isn't News.
Just my $0.02 worth.
Before I could even play this game, I'd first have to wrap my brain around the idea that Bush is God.
Not quite the direction I was going with that, sometimes I forget who I'm dealing with... ;-)
No, clearly you were going in the direction of Belittlement, but ended up smack in the middle of Ridiculous instead.
Stand by ... the way things are going, the day that starts happening is not far off. :o(
A few citations are included below, if you really want to run them down
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shamash.org: Writing: Why do some people write "G-d" with a hyphen instead of an `o'?
Based on the words in Deut. 12:3-4, the Rabbis deduced that it is forbidden to erase the name of G-d from a written document. Since any paper upon which G-d's name was written might be discarded and thus "erased", the Rabbis forbade explicitly writing the name of G-d, except in Holy Books, with provisions for the proper disposal of such books.
According to Jewish Folklore, G-d has 70 names. However, only one of these names is the ineffable name, which cannot be erased or pronounced. Further, of the 70 names, seven may not be erased but they can be pronounced on certain occasions (such as when reading the Torah). The other names may be erased and pronounced, but still must be treated with respect. The Talmud (Shevuot 35a-b) makes it clear that this prohibition applies only to seven Biblical names of G-d and not to other names or attributes of G-d, which may be freely written. The prohibition was later codified by Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Yesodei HaTorah 6:1-2). The practice of writing "G-d" is supported in Shut Achiezer, 3:32, end, where it is endorsed and accepted as the prevailing custom. Rambam cites Deut. 12-03:04, which states "and you shall destroy the names of pagan gods from their places. You shall not do similarly to G-d your Lord." The intent of this is to create an atmosphere of respect for G-d's name vs pagan gods names.
As a result of this, people acquired the habit of not writing the full name down in the first place. Strictly speaking, this only applies to Hebrew on a permanent medium, but many people are careful beyond the minimum, and have applied it to non-Hebrew languages. Hence, "G-d". One explanation is that using G-d is a reminder that anything which we may say about G-d is necessarily metaphorical. Spelling out the Name (even in a language other than Hebrew) would imply that one could speak meaningfully (not just metaphorically) about G-d.
However, the Shach (Yoreh De'a 179:11) ruled that "God" spelled in a foreign language does NOT have the status of a "shem" and thus may be erased, lehatkhila. There is a story about Rav Soloveitchik (z"l) intentionally writing GOD on the board while teaching a class and then just as deliberately and intentionally erasing it, so as to demonstrate by his own example that this was not a halakhically a problem.
Conservative ref: http://communities.msn.com/JudaismFAQs&naventryid=160)
and Reform practice is to use "God". However, even some who are not strict (or even observant) in general will write "G-d", to emphasize that Jewish conceptions of G-d are meant.
Note: There is one exception to the destruction of G-d's name. In Numbers 6, the Suspected Wife Ceremony, a man who suspects his wife of adultery (with witnesses seeing a forbidden seclusion) brings his wife to the temple. The Priests test the women by pronouncing the horrible Biblical curse. After reading the curse it is written on parchment and dissolved in water (which the women drinks). If she is guilty she dies and otherwise the couple gets their marriage back. Thus, G-d actually allows the ineffable name to be dissolved in water that the women drinks. As the Talmud notes: G-d allows the ineffable name to be erased for the sake of bringing peace between a husband and wife.
Note that if you disagree with another poster's decision to omit or include the hyphen, you should not publicly criticize or ridicule said poster.
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You can find a brief Reform answer at http://uahc.org/ask/god_questions.shtml
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