Jewish rabbi refers to transliterations of God's Name as "nonsense" and insists "Yeshua carries enough offense already"....

A rabbi recently made these comments:  “I am asking kindly: No YHWH, YAWEH, YHVH, YAHASHUAH, YAHSHUA or any other nonsense. I am a Jewish Rabbi and this is a Jewish organization and the terms like the one above are confusing and disturbing our mission as an organization. If you choose to unfriend us that is ok too, but these are our guidelines as an organization We need to be sensitive towards the Jewish people and not to add more confusion as the name.  YESHUA carries enough offense already, let us not add to it. Thank you.”
 

While we at The Refiner's Fire understand why this rabbi does not want “The Name” used on his wall, we are at the same time offended that he added the phrases, “…or any other nonsense” and “YESHUA carries enough offense already, let us not add to it.” 

In our opinion, it is blasphemy to refer to the “The Names” of YHWH or Y’shua as NONSENSE or to suggest those names are OFFENSIVE, especially in view of the fact that YHWH gave His Name to Moshe!  (See our article:  God revealed His Name to Moshe)  Moshe didn’t find YHWH’s Name “offensive”, so why do the Jews?

By refusing to use His Name at all, traditional Jews are actually guilty of obliterating His Name!  (They have even gone so far as to refuse to use His TITLE of GOD, forcing out the “o” and inserting a hyphen.)  Yet, according to Torah, Jews are to "eliminate the name (of other gods)..."  BUT, they are not "to treat YHWH your God that way".  That is EXACTLY what they have done by prohibiting His Name from being written or spoken -  so they have literally broken Deuteronomy 12:4! 

Deuteronomy 12:3  Break down their altars, smash their standing-stones to pieces, burn up their sacred poles completely and cut down the carved images of their gods. Exterminate their name from that place. 4  "But you are not to treat Adonai your God this way. (CJB)

Let’s take a closer look at this issue, beginning with Exodus 3 where we see YHWH giving His Name to Moshe:

Exodus 3:13-15 Moshe said to God, "Look, when I appear before the people of Isra'el and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you'; and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what am I to tell them?" God said to Moshe, "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh [I am/will be what I am/will be]," and added, "Here is what to say to the people of Isra'el: 'Ehyeh [I Am or I Will Be] has sent me to you.'" God said further to Moshe, "Say this to the people of Isra'el: 'Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [יהוה - YHWH, Yahweh], the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz'chak and the God of Ya'akov, has sent me to you.'This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered generation after generation. (CJB)

So, God Himself revealed His Name to us, and man has had access to it all along. Ironically, traditional Jews refuse to utter his Name for fear of mispronouncing it or misspelling it, etc, (and on the other end of the spectrum, you'll never hear the Father's Name in most Christian churches as they are all concentrating on "Jesus" whom they think came to replace the Father and abolish all his original Divine instructions/teachings)....

YHWH is our Creator's Name; "God" is just a title.  There was never a ban on using the Name; there was a ban on CURSING in the name or abusing it in some way (i.e., attributing something to Him that He never said or did). There are at least 300 incidences in Tanakh where we are COMMANDED to use the Name of YHWH, who accepts NO substitutes!

Furthermore, Y'shua called His Father MarYAH (Master Yah) in Tanakh quotes like Psalm 110 and in regular conversation. Y'shua was squarely against the Oral Law that included the ban (Joshua 23:7, Isaiah 42:9)!

So, why do we use the tetragrammaton?

• Noach built the ark in the Name of YHWH, not G-d.
• Avraham declared the Name of YHWH to his 318 trained men.
• Moshe declared the Name of YHWH to Pharaoh.
• King David and all the Prophets declare the Name of YHWH.
• Mashiyach Y'shua and his disciples declared the Name of YHWH.
• The Prophets of YHWH revealed that all the Earth is going to Fear the Name of YHWH.
• But the Pharisees, who insist that the Name of YHWH is too Kadosh (holy) to pronounce, devised a big cover-up conspiracy scandal to hide the Name of YHWH from the world. Rabbinical Judaism uses Elokim, HaShem, Adonai and other “knock-off” substitute titles in violation of the Third Commandment: "You shall not take the Name of YHWH in vain" or distort, or bring it to nothing.