Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
- Exodus 3:13-15
“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
- Exodus 20:7
“Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.
- Exodus 23:13
“Names applied to God and to other beings are not used either entirely univocally or entirely equivocally …They are used according to analogy … For, from the fact that we compare other things with God as their first origin, we attribute to God such names as signify perfections in other things. This clearly brings out the truth that. as regards the giving of the names, such names are used primarily of creatures, inasmuch as the intellect that gives the names ascends from creatures to God. But as regards the thing signified by due name, they are used primarily of God, from whom the perfections descend to other beings. (Compendium of Theology L27).”
- Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was a Dominican Friar and Priest. He was prominent in his philosophy, having a school of philosophy named after him, Thomism.
He was a highly prolific writer. I have heard that Bloom’s Taxonomy, used in education and technical training fields, was really a taxonomy Thomas Aquinas had in his notes. When a researcher found it and showed people at an educational conference, Benjamin Bloom was said to have left the conference early to publish it and have the taxonomy named after him. Since this is about the name of God, names in general are important, and if I had published the aforementioned taxonomy, I would be the publisher of the Thomas Aquinas Taxonomy. But maybe that is why I am not rich and famous (infamous?).
But referring to the quote above, there are many names for God in the Bible. In searching for a list, I found the life worth living mission website (www.lwf.org). This mission was established by Adrian Rogers and they co-hosted the Adrian Rogers Preaching Conference at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. The previous post before this one has my thoughts about a sermon when I attended the Founders Day celebration during the conference (to hear the orchestra and choir, but the sermon also).
The LifeWorthLiving mission lists the following with meanings. If you go to their website, each name is a link to another page which gives examples of how that name is used in the Scriptures and the significance of using that name in that context:
- Abba – Father
- Adonai – Lord Master
- Alpha and Omega – The Beginning and End
- Attiyq Youm – The Ancient of Days
- Christos – The Anointed One
- El Chay – Living God
- El Chuwl – The God who gave you birth
- El Deah – The God of Knowledge
- El Elyon – The God most high
- El Gibhor – The Mighty God
- El Olam – The Everlasting God
- El Roi – The God who Sees
- El Shaddai – God Almighty
- Elohim – The Creator
- Immanuel – God with us
- Jehovah (Yahweh) – The Self-Existent One
- Jehovah-Bore – The Lord Creator
- Jehovah-Jireh – The Lord our Provider
- Jehovah-M’Kaddesh – The Lord who Sanctifies
- Jehovah-Nissi – The Lord our Banner
- Jehovah-Rapha – The Lord our Healer
- Jehovah-Rohi – The Lord our Shepherd
- Jehovah-Sabbaoth – The Lord of Hosts
- Jehovah-Shalom – The Lord of Peace
- Jehovah-Shammah- The Lord is There
- Jehovah-Tsidkenu – The Lord our Righteousness
- Jehovah Tsuri – The Lord our Rock
- Jesus – The Lord Saves
- Logos – The Word
- Ma’on – Our Dwelling Place
- Messiah – The Anointed One
Those in English speaking countries just have God, Lord, Jesus, Christ, and Messiah, but the Old Testament has a wide variety of Hebrew expressions that relate to God. All must not be taken lightly, but in looking at this list of 31 names (if I counted correctly), they are all talking about one God.
Now we bring in the Thomas Aquinas quote and we can see that regardless of what name we place for our God, that name must be used in reverence, but it is totally inadequate.
I have heard people call upon the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in their prayers. I have heard people call upon Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Rapha, and Jehovah-Shalom, rattling off a few names possibly due to requests in their prayers for provisions, healing, and peace. But when one God is thirty-one different things all at once, it shows how God can never be placed in a box so that we can grasp it. God is infinite, and in this life, we will never fully grasp God. He is bigger than whatever we can dream up, even those among us that think they have an intellectual grasp of infinity.
When I last worked full-time, I had three job titles, each worthy of being a fulltime job: Training Manager, Safety Director, and Quality Manager. I handled one well, another adequately in my spare time, and if I did not take work home with me, I would never have done anything on the third. Often, I neglected two functions to put out fires in the third.
But God Almighty (El Shaddai) handles all 31 functions of His existence without any problem, in every corner of our infinite universe. God is referred to by thirty-one names, according to the list above, but then there are no words that fully encompass Him.
Beyond praise and adoration, we should constantly be in awe.
If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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