Thursday, August 16, 2018

The Sermon on Mars Hill in Acts 17 is a problem for The Sacred Name movement.

The Sacred Name movement often overlaps with the Hebrew Roots movement.  Not only do they think you have to say the proper names of Yeshua/Jesus and/or YHWH, but that you have to even get the specific pronunciation right, which of course different groups within the movement have different opinions on.  (For the record I think the proper pronunciation of YHWH is probably Yahuah.)

Acts 17:37 tells us that at least a few people became believers from the Sermon on Mars Hill.  And yet, Paul never mentioned Jesus by name in that Sermon.

"What about all those verses about calling on the name of The LORD/YHWH to be Saved?"

The Hebrew word Shem and Greek word Onoma mean more then just a set of letters or sounds used to identify someone, they include what The Name means. When Jesus says in Revelation 3:1 that Sardis has the "Onoma" of being alive but is dead, the KJV and other translations say "Name" but some instead say something like "Reputation".  And yet "Onoma" is the same word for "Name" used in the "All who call on the Name of The Lord shall be Saved" verses like Acts 2:21 and Romans 10:13.

The Name of Yeshua/Y'shua/Yahshua/Yehoshua/Iesous/Jesus however you pronounce it means "YHWH is Salvation".  YHWH is generally agreed to in some way carry the meaning of "I AM that I Am" (Exodus 3:14) a Name which implies Eternal Timeless Divinity.  Jesus explicitly identified himself with the I AM of the Burning Bush at least once in John 8:58-59.  Of course to some extent every time Jesus said Ego Eimi (Or Ena-Nan in the Aramaic Peshita) is of interest to theologians.  But I think the second most interesting example is John 18:5-8.  Many scholars compare the I Am statements with a predicate not to Exodus but rather to various I Am statements of YHWH in Isaiah 40-55.

The Salvation that Jesus came to offer is the Resurrection of The Dead, that is The True Gospel.  And that is what the Mars Hill Sermon ends on in Acts 17:31 and what really got people's attention according to the following verses.  Eternal Life is what Jesus promises in John 3:16 and also promises us we will never die.

There are other refutations of the Sacred Name movement's arguments out there.  Christ White did a video I watched years ago, some details of which reflect views I don't agree with, but the basic premise is right.
I reject most attempts to claim certain professing Christians aren't true believers because of what ever doctrine they might have you or I might disagree with.  Because 1 John 4:15 says that everyone that confesses Jesus Christ is The Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God, and Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:3 says you cannot say that Jesus is The Lord accept by The Holy Spirit.

Philippians 2:10-11 foretells that one day at the name of Jesus every Knee shall bow and all shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  So clearly eventually everyone will be Saved.  Romans 14:11 also says every tong shall confess to God.

As a side note, NO ONE is calling on The Name of The Lord in Matthew 7:21-22, those people are doing the opposite, they are calling Him Lord (Kurios/Adonai/Mari) instead of calling Him by Name.  Doing things in His Name is not the same as calling upon it.  But that argument was more important to me back before I believed in Universal Salvation and was all about Free Grace Eternal Security.  I now view them as believers who'll be Weeping and Gnashing their teeth outside New Jerusalem, not as eternally damned.

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