Post by iris89 on Apr 19, 2006 17:22:15 GMT -5
Discourse on The Name of God (YHWH) You Worship Does Matter:
INTRODUCTION:
The Bible clearly shows that it does matter at Exodus 6:3 in the Authorized King James Bible (AV), "And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them." (AV). In fact, one man, Gerard Gertoux , the President of the French Bible Society, wrote an entire book on the subject of God's (YHWH) name, "The Name of God Y.eH.oW.aH Which Is Pronounced As It Is Written I_Eh_Ou_Ah ." A brief advertisement for his book said:
"Can we be certain how God's Name was originally pronounced? Was it pronunced "Yahweh" as many modern scholars have thought? What has been the history of this name down through the ages? How and why should this affect us as individuals? How and why should this effect our translations of God's Word today? A recent scholarly study of this most important subject is as broad as it is deep, yet can be followed by all those who are notably interested in the greatest Name in the universe, Jehovah and are willing to put forth an effort commensurate with such a study as this. We only recommend those books that will add to our appreciation of Jehovah and His Word the Bible. This book by Gerard Gertoux will undoubtedly do these. 328 pages, University Press of America."
Yet some say, "Actually, it really doesn't matter, considering [name removed] believes the same Messiah as you do (in a way; only that he believes he is the same person as God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which you don't believe as being triune).
He also believes the same God as you do (see above message).
So why, especially if the only person who speaks to you here is [name removed], would you distinguish which God you are talking about?"
But, if this were true, Why would God (YHWH) say as he did at Exodus 6:3, "and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Jehovah I was not known to them." (American Standard Version; ASV)? Obviously, God's (YHWH's) name is important to him or he would not have stated what he did at Exodus 6:3.
Now, if his name as expressed in Ancient Hebrew as YHWH [English transliteration of four Ancient Hebrew consonants] in the original Old Testament over 6,000 times as testified to in the English version of a Italian article published on the catholic magazine, edited from Dehonian friars, "Rivista Biblica", year XLV, n. 2, April-June 1997, p. 183-186. Bologna, Italy which said,
"English version of a Italian article published on the catholic magazine, edited from Dehonian friars, "Rivista Biblica", year XLV, n. 2, April-June 1997, p. 183-186. Bologna, Italy.For a long time it was thought that the divine Tetragrammaton YHWH, in Hebrew written with the letters YHWH (which recurs over 6800 times in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament) did not appear in the original writings of the New Testament. In its place it was thought that the writers of the New Testament had used the Greek word for LORD, KYRIOS. However, it seems that such an opinion is wrong. Here below are some factors to consider:
1) The Tetragrammaton in the Greek Version of Old Testament, the Septuagint (LXX).
One of the reasons produced to support the above mentioned opinion was that the LXX substituted YHWH (YHWH) with the term KYRIOS, (kurios) which was the equivalent Greek of the Hebrew word ADONAY used by some Hebrews when they met the Tetragrammaton during the Bible reading.
However, recent discoveries have shown that the practice of substituted in the LXX YHWH with KYRIOS started in a much later period in comparison with the beginning of that version. As a matter of fact, the older copies of the LXX keep the Tetragrammaton written in Hebrew characters in the Greek text..." [source - Dehonian friars, "Rivista Biblica", year XLV, n. 2, April-June 1997, p. 183-186. Bologna, Italy.]
NOW WHY IS THE USE OF GOD'S (YHWH) PROPER NAME IMPORTANT?
FIRST, Its use is important to show proper respect to our Creator, Almighty God (YHWH),which literally means 'He who causes to be.' Why is this so? He made it a point to the original faithful men he used as scribes, more than 40 he used to put the thoughts of God (YHWH) into the language of mem, to make his proper name that he wished to be known by known to them.
Even mere humans wish to be addressed by name and not by "man," "boy," or whatever, and many take offense when they are not. Now, if mere men take offense at NOT being addressed by their proper name; how much more so would the Creator, Almighty God (YHWH) maker of all there is.
SECOND, It is necessary to use God's (YHWH's) proper name to identify which god you are speaking about by the use of his transliteration name in English, YHWH, to identify him as the one and only true God (YHWH) creator of heaven and earth as there are over 2,000,000 false gods [Hindus have for example many gods]. In other words, we should distinguish him from the many false gods that there are, and from false creedal creeds that dishonor him. Let's look briefly at one of one of these false gods:
"'The Archeology of The Middle East'
The religion of Islam has as its focus of worship a deity by the name of "Allah." The Muslims claim that Allah in pre-Islamic times was the biblical God of the Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. The issue is thus one of continuity. Was "Allah" the biblical God or a pagan god in Arabia during pre-Islamic times? The Muslim's claim of continuity is essential to their attempt to convert Jews and Christians for if "Allah" is part of the flow of divine revelation in Scripture, then it is the next step in biblical religion.
Thus we should all become Muslims. But, on the other hand, if Allah was a pre-Islamic pagan deity, then its core claim is refuted. Religious claims often fall before the results of hard sciences such as archeology. We can endlessly speculate about the past or go and dig it up and see what the evidence reveals. This is the only way to find out the truth concerning the origins of Allah. As we shall see, the hard evidence demonstrates that the god Allah was a pagan deity. In fact, he was the Moon-god who was married to the sun goddess and the stars were his daughters.
Archaeologists have uncovered temples to the Moon-god throughout the Middle East. From the mountains of Turkey to the banks of the Nile, the most wide-spread religion of the ancient world was the worship of the Moon-god. In the first literate civilization, the Sumerians have left us thousands of clay tablets in which they described their religious beliefs. As demonstrated by Sjoberg and Hall, the ancient Sumerians worshipped a Moon-god who was called many different names. The most popular names were Nanna, Suen and Asimbabbar. His symbol was the crescent moon. Given the amount of artifacts concerning the worship of this Moon-god, it is clear that this was the dominant religion in Sumeria.
The cult of the Moon-god was the most popular religion throughout ancient Mesopotamia. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and the Akkadians took the word Suen and transformed it into the word Sin as their favorite name for the Moon-god. As Prof. Potts pointed out, "Sin is a name essentially Sumerian in origin which had been borrowed by the Semites."
In ancient Syria and Canna, the Moon-god Sin was usually represented by the moon in its crescent phase. At times the full moon was placed inside the crescent moon to emphasize all the phases of the moon. The sun-goddess was the wife of Sin and the stars were their daughters. For example, Istar was a daughter of Sin. Sacrifices to the Moon-god are described in the Pas Shamra texts. In the Ugaritic texts, the Moon-god was sometimes called Kusuh. In Persia, as well as in Egypt, the Moon-god is depicted on wall murals and on the heads of statues.
He was the Judge of men and gods. The Old Testament constantly rebuked the worship of the Moon-god (see: Deut. 4:19;17:3; II Kngs. 21:3,5; 23:5; Jer. 8:2; 19:13; Zeph. 1:5, etc.) When Israel fell into idolatry, it was usually the cult of the Moon-god. As a matter of fact, everywhere in the ancient world, the symbol of the crescent moon can be found on seal impressions, steles, pottery, amulets, clay tablets, cylinders, weights, earrings, necklaces, wall murals, etc. In Tell-el-Obeid, a copper calf was found with a crescent moon on its forehead. An idol with the body of a bull and the head of man has a crescent moon inlaid on its forehead with shells.
In Ur, the Stela of Ur-Nammu has the crescent symbol placed at the top of the register of gods because the Moon-god was the head of the gods. Even bread was baked in the form of a crescent as an act of devotion to the Moon-god. The Ur of the Chaldees was so devoted to the Moon-god that it was sometimes called Nannar in tablets from that time period.
A temple of the Moon-god has been excavated in Ur by Sir Leonard Woolley. He dug up many examples of moon worship in Ur and these are displayed in the British Museum to this day. Harran was likewise noted for its devotion to the Moon-god. In the 1950's a major temple to the Moon-god was excavated at Hazer in Palestine. Two idols of the moon god were found. Each was a stature of a man sitting upon a throne with a crescent moon carved on his chest .
The accompanying inscriptions make it clear that these were idols of the Moon-god. Several smaller statues were also found which were identified by their inscriptions as the "daughters" of the Moon-god. What about Arabia? As pointed out by Prof. Coon, "Muslims are notoriously loath to preserve traditions of earlier paganism and like to garble what pre-Islamic history they permit to survive in anachronistic terms."
During the nineteenth century, Amaud, Halevy and Glaser went to Southern Arabia and dug up thousands of Sabean, Minaean, and Qatabanian inscriptions which were subsequently translated. In the 1940's, the archeologists G. Caton Thompson and Carleton S. Coon made some amazing discoveries in Arabia. During the 1950's, Wendell Phillips, W.F. Albright, Richard Bower and others excavated sites at Qataban, Timna, and Marib (the ancient capital of Sheba). Thousands of inscriptions from walls and rocks in Northern Arabia have also been collected.
Reliefs and votive bowls used in worship of the "daughters of Allah" have also been discovered. The three daughters, al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat are sometimes depicted together with Allah the Moon-god represented by a crescent moon above them. The archeological evidence demonstrates that the dominant religion of Arabia was the cult of the Moon-god.
In Old Testament times, Nabonidus (555-539 BC), the last king of Babylon, built Tayma, Arabia as a center of Moon-god worship. Segall stated, "South Arabia's stellar religion has always been dominated by the Moon-god in various variations." Many scholars have also noticed that the Moon-god's name "Sin" is a part of such Arabic words as "Sinai," the "wilderness of Sin," etc. When the popularity of the Moon-god waned elsewhere, the Arabs remained true to their conviction that the Moon-god was the greatest of all gods. While they worshipped 360 gods at the Kabah in Mecca, the Moon-god was the chief deity. Mecca was in fact built as a shrine for the Moon-god."[source - The Archeology of The Middle East].
THREE, His Son's name is Jesus or Yeshua, English transliteration of Ancient Hebrew which literally means 'JHWH is Salvation.' Now with respect Jesus (Yeshua) it is absolutely necessary, also, to distinguish him from the many false messiahs that appear. In fact, all the children of Saturn were considered/called messiah's by the ancient Romans. Here is a little on that,
"In Roman Mythology, Saturn was the ancient god of agriculture. He was the husband of Ops, goddess of plenty. His children included Jupiter, ruler of the gods; Juno, goddess of marriage; Neptune, goddess of the sea; Pluto, god of the death, and Ceres, goddess of the grain. Saturn was shown as a man with a beard, in art, and carrying a sickle (resemblance to her glaive?) or an ear of corn."
NEED TO DISTINGUISH YHWH FROM FALSE CREEDAL CONCEPTS OF GOD (YHWH):
There are many creedal creeds that paint or posture God in strange surreal forms that are both false and dishonoring to the true God (YHWH) the maker of all there is such as he exist in three modes or manifestations or he is made up of either two or three individual spirit beings, etc.; however, only three of these will be considered as follows:
"[ONENESS THEOLOGY]
They believe that the Father (YHWH), the Son, Jesus (Yeshua or YHWH saves) and the Holy Spirit are the same God with no distinction in person or being. That only one God simply manifests himself in these three ways at different times.
Uniqueness - They believe that they are unique in that they conform strictly to the objective of having only one God where as others have more than one God. In many aspects it is similar to Modalism, but theologically speaking it is considered a distinct creedal doctrine. However, many writers fail to differentiate between Modalism and Oneness Theology and this is an error.
[SABELLIANISM THEOLOGY OR MODALISM]
God is three only in relation to the world, in so many "manifestations" or "modes." The unity and identity of God are such that the Son of God, Jesus (Yeshua or YHWH saves) did not exist before the incarnation; because the Father (YHWH) and the Son, Jesus (Yeshua or YHWH saves) are thus one, the Father (YHWH) suffered with the Son, Jesus (Yeshua or YHWH saves) in his passion and death.
Uniqueness - They believe that God is one in earthly manifestations, but not heavenly. [Branham's Bible Believers, Inc.][ to Branham's 1189 page book "Conduct, Order, Doctrine of the Church," the "First thing is to straighten out you on your 'trinity' Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. "God is like a three-foot rule... The first twelve inches was God, the Father; the second twelve inches, God, the Son, the same God; the third twelve inches was God, the Holy Ghost, the same God," (pp.182 & 184). Branham clarifies his position in a speech given October 2, 1957 when he exclaims, "See, there cannot be an Eternal son, because a son had to have a beginning. And so Jesus had a beginning, God had no beginning," (Ibid, p.273).]
[[Note, this has much in common with Oneness Theology]]
[TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY]
They believe that there is one but God made up of three separate and distinct persons of but one indivisible essence. That these three persons existed from eternity, and are co-equal in power and substance. These individuals are known as Father (YHWH), Son, Jesus (Yeshua or YHWH saves) and the Holy Spirit. The undivided essence of God belongs equally to each of the three persons. The Church (Catholic, Orthodox, and most Protestants) confesses the Trinity to be a mystery beyond the comprehension of man.
Uniqueness - They see a distinction in the persons of God, but hold that there is but one God. It is a mystery, i.e., they are not able to explain it."[ source - Discourse on John 1:1 + Appendix by a PhD Theologian who wishes to remain Anonymous in 1999].
Of course the followers of these distorting creedal creeds say it does NOT matter what name you call God (YHWH), but as we have seen this is NOT so and an outright lie in keeping with John 8:44, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (AV).
See Part 2:
INTRODUCTION:
The Bible clearly shows that it does matter at Exodus 6:3 in the Authorized King James Bible (AV), "And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them." (AV). In fact, one man, Gerard Gertoux , the President of the French Bible Society, wrote an entire book on the subject of God's (YHWH) name, "The Name of God Y.eH.oW.aH Which Is Pronounced As It Is Written I_Eh_Ou_Ah ." A brief advertisement for his book said:
"Can we be certain how God's Name was originally pronounced? Was it pronunced "Yahweh" as many modern scholars have thought? What has been the history of this name down through the ages? How and why should this affect us as individuals? How and why should this effect our translations of God's Word today? A recent scholarly study of this most important subject is as broad as it is deep, yet can be followed by all those who are notably interested in the greatest Name in the universe, Jehovah and are willing to put forth an effort commensurate with such a study as this. We only recommend those books that will add to our appreciation of Jehovah and His Word the Bible. This book by Gerard Gertoux will undoubtedly do these. 328 pages, University Press of America."
Yet some say, "Actually, it really doesn't matter, considering [name removed] believes the same Messiah as you do (in a way; only that he believes he is the same person as God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which you don't believe as being triune).
He also believes the same God as you do (see above message).
So why, especially if the only person who speaks to you here is [name removed], would you distinguish which God you are talking about?"
But, if this were true, Why would God (YHWH) say as he did at Exodus 6:3, "and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Jehovah I was not known to them." (American Standard Version; ASV)? Obviously, God's (YHWH's) name is important to him or he would not have stated what he did at Exodus 6:3.
Now, if his name as expressed in Ancient Hebrew as YHWH [English transliteration of four Ancient Hebrew consonants] in the original Old Testament over 6,000 times as testified to in the English version of a Italian article published on the catholic magazine, edited from Dehonian friars, "Rivista Biblica", year XLV, n. 2, April-June 1997, p. 183-186. Bologna, Italy which said,
"English version of a Italian article published on the catholic magazine, edited from Dehonian friars, "Rivista Biblica", year XLV, n. 2, April-June 1997, p. 183-186. Bologna, Italy.For a long time it was thought that the divine Tetragrammaton YHWH, in Hebrew written with the letters YHWH (which recurs over 6800 times in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament) did not appear in the original writings of the New Testament. In its place it was thought that the writers of the New Testament had used the Greek word for LORD, KYRIOS. However, it seems that such an opinion is wrong. Here below are some factors to consider:
1) The Tetragrammaton in the Greek Version of Old Testament, the Septuagint (LXX).
One of the reasons produced to support the above mentioned opinion was that the LXX substituted YHWH (YHWH) with the term KYRIOS, (kurios) which was the equivalent Greek of the Hebrew word ADONAY used by some Hebrews when they met the Tetragrammaton during the Bible reading.
However, recent discoveries have shown that the practice of substituted in the LXX YHWH with KYRIOS started in a much later period in comparison with the beginning of that version. As a matter of fact, the older copies of the LXX keep the Tetragrammaton written in Hebrew characters in the Greek text..." [source - Dehonian friars, "Rivista Biblica", year XLV, n. 2, April-June 1997, p. 183-186. Bologna, Italy.]
NOW WHY IS THE USE OF GOD'S (YHWH) PROPER NAME IMPORTANT?
FIRST, Its use is important to show proper respect to our Creator, Almighty God (YHWH),which literally means 'He who causes to be.' Why is this so? He made it a point to the original faithful men he used as scribes, more than 40 he used to put the thoughts of God (YHWH) into the language of mem, to make his proper name that he wished to be known by known to them.
Even mere humans wish to be addressed by name and not by "man," "boy," or whatever, and many take offense when they are not. Now, if mere men take offense at NOT being addressed by their proper name; how much more so would the Creator, Almighty God (YHWH) maker of all there is.
SECOND, It is necessary to use God's (YHWH's) proper name to identify which god you are speaking about by the use of his transliteration name in English, YHWH, to identify him as the one and only true God (YHWH) creator of heaven and earth as there are over 2,000,000 false gods [Hindus have for example many gods]. In other words, we should distinguish him from the many false gods that there are, and from false creedal creeds that dishonor him. Let's look briefly at one of one of these false gods:
"'The Archeology of The Middle East'
The religion of Islam has as its focus of worship a deity by the name of "Allah." The Muslims claim that Allah in pre-Islamic times was the biblical God of the Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. The issue is thus one of continuity. Was "Allah" the biblical God or a pagan god in Arabia during pre-Islamic times? The Muslim's claim of continuity is essential to their attempt to convert Jews and Christians for if "Allah" is part of the flow of divine revelation in Scripture, then it is the next step in biblical religion.
Thus we should all become Muslims. But, on the other hand, if Allah was a pre-Islamic pagan deity, then its core claim is refuted. Religious claims often fall before the results of hard sciences such as archeology. We can endlessly speculate about the past or go and dig it up and see what the evidence reveals. This is the only way to find out the truth concerning the origins of Allah. As we shall see, the hard evidence demonstrates that the god Allah was a pagan deity. In fact, he was the Moon-god who was married to the sun goddess and the stars were his daughters.
Archaeologists have uncovered temples to the Moon-god throughout the Middle East. From the mountains of Turkey to the banks of the Nile, the most wide-spread religion of the ancient world was the worship of the Moon-god. In the first literate civilization, the Sumerians have left us thousands of clay tablets in which they described their religious beliefs. As demonstrated by Sjoberg and Hall, the ancient Sumerians worshipped a Moon-god who was called many different names. The most popular names were Nanna, Suen and Asimbabbar. His symbol was the crescent moon. Given the amount of artifacts concerning the worship of this Moon-god, it is clear that this was the dominant religion in Sumeria.
The cult of the Moon-god was the most popular religion throughout ancient Mesopotamia. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and the Akkadians took the word Suen and transformed it into the word Sin as their favorite name for the Moon-god. As Prof. Potts pointed out, "Sin is a name essentially Sumerian in origin which had been borrowed by the Semites."
In ancient Syria and Canna, the Moon-god Sin was usually represented by the moon in its crescent phase. At times the full moon was placed inside the crescent moon to emphasize all the phases of the moon. The sun-goddess was the wife of Sin and the stars were their daughters. For example, Istar was a daughter of Sin. Sacrifices to the Moon-god are described in the Pas Shamra texts. In the Ugaritic texts, the Moon-god was sometimes called Kusuh. In Persia, as well as in Egypt, the Moon-god is depicted on wall murals and on the heads of statues.
He was the Judge of men and gods. The Old Testament constantly rebuked the worship of the Moon-god (see: Deut. 4:19;17:3; II Kngs. 21:3,5; 23:5; Jer. 8:2; 19:13; Zeph. 1:5, etc.) When Israel fell into idolatry, it was usually the cult of the Moon-god. As a matter of fact, everywhere in the ancient world, the symbol of the crescent moon can be found on seal impressions, steles, pottery, amulets, clay tablets, cylinders, weights, earrings, necklaces, wall murals, etc. In Tell-el-Obeid, a copper calf was found with a crescent moon on its forehead. An idol with the body of a bull and the head of man has a crescent moon inlaid on its forehead with shells.
In Ur, the Stela of Ur-Nammu has the crescent symbol placed at the top of the register of gods because the Moon-god was the head of the gods. Even bread was baked in the form of a crescent as an act of devotion to the Moon-god. The Ur of the Chaldees was so devoted to the Moon-god that it was sometimes called Nannar in tablets from that time period.
A temple of the Moon-god has been excavated in Ur by Sir Leonard Woolley. He dug up many examples of moon worship in Ur and these are displayed in the British Museum to this day. Harran was likewise noted for its devotion to the Moon-god. In the 1950's a major temple to the Moon-god was excavated at Hazer in Palestine. Two idols of the moon god were found. Each was a stature of a man sitting upon a throne with a crescent moon carved on his chest .
The accompanying inscriptions make it clear that these were idols of the Moon-god. Several smaller statues were also found which were identified by their inscriptions as the "daughters" of the Moon-god. What about Arabia? As pointed out by Prof. Coon, "Muslims are notoriously loath to preserve traditions of earlier paganism and like to garble what pre-Islamic history they permit to survive in anachronistic terms."
During the nineteenth century, Amaud, Halevy and Glaser went to Southern Arabia and dug up thousands of Sabean, Minaean, and Qatabanian inscriptions which were subsequently translated. In the 1940's, the archeologists G. Caton Thompson and Carleton S. Coon made some amazing discoveries in Arabia. During the 1950's, Wendell Phillips, W.F. Albright, Richard Bower and others excavated sites at Qataban, Timna, and Marib (the ancient capital of Sheba). Thousands of inscriptions from walls and rocks in Northern Arabia have also been collected.
Reliefs and votive bowls used in worship of the "daughters of Allah" have also been discovered. The three daughters, al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat are sometimes depicted together with Allah the Moon-god represented by a crescent moon above them. The archeological evidence demonstrates that the dominant religion of Arabia was the cult of the Moon-god.
In Old Testament times, Nabonidus (555-539 BC), the last king of Babylon, built Tayma, Arabia as a center of Moon-god worship. Segall stated, "South Arabia's stellar religion has always been dominated by the Moon-god in various variations." Many scholars have also noticed that the Moon-god's name "Sin" is a part of such Arabic words as "Sinai," the "wilderness of Sin," etc. When the popularity of the Moon-god waned elsewhere, the Arabs remained true to their conviction that the Moon-god was the greatest of all gods. While they worshipped 360 gods at the Kabah in Mecca, the Moon-god was the chief deity. Mecca was in fact built as a shrine for the Moon-god."[source - The Archeology of The Middle East].
THREE, His Son's name is Jesus or Yeshua, English transliteration of Ancient Hebrew which literally means 'JHWH is Salvation.' Now with respect Jesus (Yeshua) it is absolutely necessary, also, to distinguish him from the many false messiahs that appear. In fact, all the children of Saturn were considered/called messiah's by the ancient Romans. Here is a little on that,
"In Roman Mythology, Saturn was the ancient god of agriculture. He was the husband of Ops, goddess of plenty. His children included Jupiter, ruler of the gods; Juno, goddess of marriage; Neptune, goddess of the sea; Pluto, god of the death, and Ceres, goddess of the grain. Saturn was shown as a man with a beard, in art, and carrying a sickle (resemblance to her glaive?) or an ear of corn."
NEED TO DISTINGUISH YHWH FROM FALSE CREEDAL CONCEPTS OF GOD (YHWH):
There are many creedal creeds that paint or posture God in strange surreal forms that are both false and dishonoring to the true God (YHWH) the maker of all there is such as he exist in three modes or manifestations or he is made up of either two or three individual spirit beings, etc.; however, only three of these will be considered as follows:
"[ONENESS THEOLOGY]
They believe that the Father (YHWH), the Son, Jesus (Yeshua or YHWH saves) and the Holy Spirit are the same God with no distinction in person or being. That only one God simply manifests himself in these three ways at different times.
Uniqueness - They believe that they are unique in that they conform strictly to the objective of having only one God where as others have more than one God. In many aspects it is similar to Modalism, but theologically speaking it is considered a distinct creedal doctrine. However, many writers fail to differentiate between Modalism and Oneness Theology and this is an error.
[SABELLIANISM THEOLOGY OR MODALISM]
God is three only in relation to the world, in so many "manifestations" or "modes." The unity and identity of God are such that the Son of God, Jesus (Yeshua or YHWH saves) did not exist before the incarnation; because the Father (YHWH) and the Son, Jesus (Yeshua or YHWH saves) are thus one, the Father (YHWH) suffered with the Son, Jesus (Yeshua or YHWH saves) in his passion and death.
Uniqueness - They believe that God is one in earthly manifestations, but not heavenly. [Branham's Bible Believers, Inc.][ to Branham's 1189 page book "Conduct, Order, Doctrine of the Church," the "First thing is to straighten out you on your 'trinity' Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. "God is like a three-foot rule... The first twelve inches was God, the Father; the second twelve inches, God, the Son, the same God; the third twelve inches was God, the Holy Ghost, the same God," (pp.182 & 184). Branham clarifies his position in a speech given October 2, 1957 when he exclaims, "See, there cannot be an Eternal son, because a son had to have a beginning. And so Jesus had a beginning, God had no beginning," (Ibid, p.273).]
[[Note, this has much in common with Oneness Theology]]
[TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY]
They believe that there is one but God made up of three separate and distinct persons of but one indivisible essence. That these three persons existed from eternity, and are co-equal in power and substance. These individuals are known as Father (YHWH), Son, Jesus (Yeshua or YHWH saves) and the Holy Spirit. The undivided essence of God belongs equally to each of the three persons. The Church (Catholic, Orthodox, and most Protestants) confesses the Trinity to be a mystery beyond the comprehension of man.
Uniqueness - They see a distinction in the persons of God, but hold that there is but one God. It is a mystery, i.e., they are not able to explain it."[ source - Discourse on John 1:1 + Appendix by a PhD Theologian who wishes to remain Anonymous in 1999].
Of course the followers of these distorting creedal creeds say it does NOT matter what name you call God (YHWH), but as we have seen this is NOT so and an outright lie in keeping with John 8:44, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (AV).
See Part 2: