“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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In How Many Names Do We have Salvation?
The message in His Name is Yahweh is difficult for many believers to accept at first because they have been taught that we have salvation in the name “Jesus”. That’s not true, but it is so entrenched in Christian tradition that it’s accepted as a fact. Making matters infinitely worse, preachers as a group continue to repeat the errors of the past as though it doesn’t matter.
Well, it matters to Yahweh.
First Things First
The Messiah was not given the name “Jesus” at birth. His name at birth was Yeshua. Yeshua means “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation”. Those are facts, not opinions.
Yeshua is an Aramaic name. Yehoshua is the Hebrew equivalent of Yeshua. Yehoshua means the same thing as Yeshua, and it’s translated in most English Old Testaments as “Joshua”. If Bible translators had wanted to be consistent, the Messiah’s name in English in the New Testament would have been Joshua, not Jesus. Those are facts, not opinions.
Joshua is not the Messiah’s correct name, but it’s a lot closer to being right than Jesus. The name “Jesus” was made up. That’s a hard pill to swallow for people who were brought up in Christian churches. They have difficulty believing that seminary-trained preachers could make such a critical error given what they know about salvation, but they did. Those are facts, not opinions.
Yahweh is the Messiah’s real Name, and that’s the Name in which we have salvation. That’s not my opinion, either. It’s a fact that can be verified very easily.
So, why do preachers as a group continue to use a name for the Messiah that was literally made up instead of the only Name that Yahweh said is the Name in which we have salvation? I will suggest a few possible answers. Several of them may be correct:
- They are intellectually lazy.
- They just don’t care.
- They are not very smart, and they simply parrot what they have been told without thinking.
- They know the truth, but they are afraid to tell it because it goes against entrenched Christian tradition. Telling the truth could cost them their jobs.
- They love the sound of the name “Jesus”, and they have developed a signature way of saying it.
- The name “Jesus” sells. They can use it to raise a lot of money and get rich.
- They are embarrassed, and they don’t want to admit to their congregations that they have been preaching errors in an area that is crucial: Salvation.
I’ll stop there. Preachers as a group, seminary professors, and Bible publishers are doing Yahweh and His people a great disservice. Whatever their motives for spreading false information may be, this is probably the easiest question any believer could be asked to answer: In how many names do we have salvation?
Yahweh Told Us the Answer Repeatedly in the Bible
Yahweh told Isaiah the answer in a simple, straightforward way:
“I, even I, am Yahweh. There is no savior besides Me!” (Isaiah 43:11)
The prophet Joel repeated the answer:
“And it will come about that whoever calls on the Name of Yahweh will be delivered/saved.” (Joel 2: 32)
On the day of Pentecost 50 days after the Messiah’s crucifixion, Peter preached the first sermon, and he quoted Joel verbatim:
“These men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel:….‘And it shall be that everyone who calls on the Name of Yahweh will be saved.’” (Acts 2: 15 and 21)
A short while later, Peter reiterated the message:
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4: 12)
Peter was referring to the Name “Yahweh”.
Paul delivered the same message by quoting Joel verbatim, too:
“As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile; for there is one Yahweh over all who is abundantly generous toward everyone who calls on Him; for ‘whoever calls on the Name of Yahweh will be saved.’” (Romans 10: 11-13)
The Messiah is Yahweh the Savior
Yahweh told Jeremiah the Messiah’s Name:
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch. He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. This is His Name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)
The Messiah told us who He is:
- “I have come in my Father’s Name.” (John 5:43)
- “Before Abraham existed, I AM.” (John 8: 58)
“I AM” or “I EXIST” is the meaning of the Yahweh’s Name.
As He was preparing for His crucifixion and resurrection, the Messiah told us when He will return:
“You will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the Name of Yahweh.’” (Matthew 23:39)
We Have Salvation in One Name
So, in how many names do we have salvation? The answer is 1. Yahweh is the Name in which we have salvation, and the Messiah is Yahweh.
Over the past several decades, many believers who hear this message for the first time have asked me, “Neil, are you telling me that I am not saved?”
It’s obvious that many of them are very angry with me when they ask me that question. I have seen some of their faces turn red.
I say, “No. I’m just telling you what Yahweh says in the Bible.”
Preachers, What are You Doing?
How many times have you heard this message in church? Probably never. That’s shameful, but it’s still the truth. Like I said, this isn’t my opinion. It’s a fact, and it’s repeated many times in the Bible in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Therefore, it’s a fact that can’t be refuted.
If you have never heard this message in church, you need to think about why you haven’t heard it in church. After you have thought about it, ask your preacher, and see what he has to say.
I’ve talked with many preachers and seminary professors about this issue. Most of them are embarrassingly ignorant, and I think that’s a generous assessment. Over the last 4 decades, my respect for them has practically evaporated. I have the same opinion about most Bible publishers. I have come to the conclusion that most of them are simply printing Bibles because it’s the bestselling book of all time, and there is a lot of money in it.
I love what Paul said about the Messiah in his letter to the Philippians:
“Elohim highly exalted Him [the Messiah], and bestowed on Him [the Messiah] the Name which is above every name [Yahweh], so that at the name of Yeshua [Yahweh] every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Yeshua the Messiah is Yahweh, to the glory of Elohim the Father.” (Philippians 2: 9-11)
If this was an obscure message in the Scriptures, preachers might have an excuse for not knowing it, but it’s not obscure. It’s the central message of the Scriptures.
I am becoming very frustrated with preachers, seminary professors, and Bible publishers as groups, and I’m following Yahweh’s lead. I love what Yahweh told Jeremiah:
“Therefore behold, I am going to make them know — this time I will make them know My power and My might; and they will know that My Name is Yahweh.” (Jeremiah 16:21)
When that day comes, and I think it might come soon, it will be a very bad day for most preachers, seminary professors, and Bible publishers.
“And whoever welcomes a little child like this in My Name welcomes Me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” (Matthew 18:5-6)
I said that I am becoming frustrated with preachers for not doing their jobs, but that’s not the whole truth. I was frustrated when I completed His Name is Yahweh and started talking with preachers about this message. Many of them were personal friends. By that time, I realized how pervasive this message is in the Bible. There is no conjecture in it. This message is as solid as a rock scripturally and linguistically.
One preacher friend told me, “We don’t know the correct pronunciation of the Name.”
I said, “You don’t know the correct pronunciation of the Name, but I do. Anyone who wants to know how to pronounce our Creator’s Name can find the answer if he is willing to expend a little effort. I already did the work. All you have to do is read His Name is Yahweh.”
I saw the look in his eyes. I knew that he wouldn’t read the book. This old adage is true for most of the preachers I have talked with: You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.
Over the years, my frustration turned into anger. Rarely do preachers listen to this message, check it out for themselves, and come to the truth. I am beginning to believe that most preachers relish the adulation heaped on them by their congregations, and they don’t want to do anything to upset the apple cart.
Since Yahweh told me to write the book and led me through the process of writing it, the timing of this message is His, not mine. There must be a reason why now is the right time for this message to reach His people. If I am becoming angry with preachers for not doing their jobs, I believe Yahweh is getting angry, too.
I am beginning to appreciate how Jeremiah must have felt when he delivered Yahweh’s message to the people of Judah. They rejected the message, and this is what Yahweh told him:
“You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you. You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of Yahweh their Elohim or accept correction; truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’” (Jeremiah 7:27-29)
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
