My name is Benjamin. Benjamin traditionally means “son of my right hand” which refers to the idea in biblical times of the “right hand” being a representation of strength, virtue, and even righteousness. Many people know and call me Ben or Benjamin, yet I doubt any of these people think of me as virtuous, strong, or righteous because of my name. While people do connect their own perception of me with the name Benjamin, my reputation is subject to every individual’s own perspective. The name Benjamin is simply a way for people to keep me distinguished from everyone else.
The name “God” for true Bible believing Christians distinguishes him from the multitude of other “gods” that people of the world refer to. For me and for many Christians I know, our God is generally referred to in only a few different names: God, Lord, Father, Heavenly Father, Holy Spirit, and Jesus. Every person that refers to this God with one or all of those names has their own perspective of who that God is. As I have grown up and grown more sound in my faith and started trying to evangelize and disciple more I have heard questions and frustrations of individuals pointed towards the ideas of not knowing or trusting “God.”
The attributes, characteristics, or ideas Christians and non-Christians alike, identify with when referring to God is becoming progressively more relative. For this person God is this and for that person God is that. Truth has been shyed away from. Yes, I recognize that there are principles from the Bible directly related to many of these perspectives. I don’t want to give the impression that I am arguing that a majority of Christian perspectives are devoid of Biblical truth because that simply isn’t true. Based on issues I have witnessed among the Church in America and around the world as well as with the people I have traveled with for 9 months I believe that many of the problems with my generation walking away from the faith or struggling to come to a view of God that is dependable and reliable can be attributed to their view of God being so subjective.
Throughout the world, in the cultural push toward perceived tolerance, equality, and individuality, a mindset of relativity has become more desired and therefore accepted. While the biggest effects of this have been in the realms of politics, civil rights and freedoms, I believe it has also made it’s presence visibly known in religion, specifically Christianity. There has been an attempt at reshaping Christianity or reshaping the deliverance of what Christianity is in order to meet this shift and therefore reach people more effectively. The result is that what makes Christianity absolutely true and incredibly powerful, the Bible, has been shyed away from. Our God has been attempted to be shaped to what people want Him to be and therefore the expectations people create are inevitably let down because they are not based upon truth.
Truth and the Bible are synonomous. Our God cannot be defined by anything but the Bible. The awesome part is that God does not leave us with simply stories that talk about something He did or said and expect us to figure Him out. God defines His character for us. He gives us truths about Himself that we can hold onto without any hesitation of let-down or disappointment.
A name in the Bible is not just a frame of reference as it is today. A name carried character and honor through reputation and by what it meant. People named children based on blessings, promises, sorrow, or tragedy. Names were changed based on significant promises and changes or simply perspective changes. God changed Abrams name to Abraham when God promised to make him father of many nations. The name Abram means “exalted father” while Abraham means “father of a multitude,” or “father of many nations.” Jesus changed the name of Simon, meaning “the one who heard” to Peter, meaning “solid rock.” There are many examples of this in the Bible, pointing towards the significance of a name.
God calls himself “YAHWEH” meaning “I AM.” Referring to, among many things, his preeminence in creation. It defines God as the one and only God. Not simply a proclamation of this but instead a revelation of character, that in a very polytheistic society, the God of Israel was declaring himself to be the ONLY true God. In the beginning chapters of Genesis God is called in Hebrew, “Elohim” meaning “Strong one(s).” It refers to God as THE creator of the heavens and the earth. It reveals God’s character to us in that he is capable of anything. How many times do we marvel at creation in awe of its beauty and complexity. A creation always reflects its creator and we can trust in that because God defines this as his character; who he is. So often in the Psalms you read the phrase, “creator of heaven and earth” following some statement of extreme complexity, desire, praise, sorrow and other things. David was so often putting his trust in the God who he believed to be the all powerful creator of heaven and earth, of which nothing is too difficult or impossible.
The name Elohim also gives us grounding for humbling ourselves. During Job’s questioning and during others questioning or frustrations with God, he replys to them with statements like, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?…” (job 38:4-5) How foolish we are to worry! To think that we should hesitate to have anything but complete trust in our God who created the heavens and the earth! Everything we see in creation is a reminder, because our God is Elohim, we can rest assured in Him.
There are many names of God: El Elyon, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rohi, Adonai, Jehovah Shalom, Jehovah Mekadesh, and many others of which I could go into detail describing but there are other much better writers than I that have already done this.
What is important is that these names in the Bible shape our view of God. The truths of our God and what He did and how men all throughout the Bible were in awe of His name cannot be overlooked. The power in the Bible is in its truth and us holding everything in the Bible as truth. It makes God bigger and us smaller. Constantly reminding us of our dependence on God and that our trust in him, if placed upon the character He reveals to us, will never fail us. For our Redeemer is faithful and true; before creation, now and forevermore.
