Of my Lord, the Lord and the LORD.

Which "Lord" are we talking about?

The Name of God Almighty YHWH occur 6,828 times in the Hebrew scriptures, and is rendered as "the LORD" (all capital letters) whereas the Hebrew title Adoni (my Master) is translated "Lord" (small letters) in our English bibles. Thus, the well known prophetic verse Psalm 110:1 where YHWH spoke to the Messiah, David's adoni. is rendered as follows:

The LORD (YHWH) says to my lord (adoni):“Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

When the OT was translated into Greek sometime around the 3rd century BCE (the Septuagint), a new level of ambiguity arose because the entire Greek text used only capital letters. The word "KURIOS" was used to translate both YHWH as well as adoni, with no distinction whatsoever in the letter case. It thus became somewhat difficult to make out when the Septuagint was referring to the Name of God YHWH and when it was referring to the title of adoni or my Master.

This ambiguity spilled over into the NT Greek manuscripts when the apostles quoted from the Septuagint and continued the practice of using KURIOS to refer to both YHWH and Master, using only capital letters in all their writings.

Today, we have inherited this confusion in our English translations of the Greek NT, using only "the Lord" to refer to both YHWH as well as Master.

For example, Psalm 110:1, quoted by Jesus in his question to the Pharisees in Matthew 22:44, is rendered as follows (I have used all capitals, just like in the Greek text):

‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD,
“SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND,
UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET”’?

In view of this ambiguity over the use of "the Lord" I'd like to ask a question: How do we go about identifying references to YHWH in the NT and distinguishing them from references to the title (Master) for the Messiah?

(To be continued).

Implicit Allusions vs Explicit Assertions.

I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father. (John 16:28 ESV)
I and the Father are one. (John 10:30 ESV)
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58)

I have friends who point out passages such as John 16:28 (I came from the Father), or John 8:58 (Before Abraham was, I am), or John 10:30, "I and my Father are one" to make their case for the "Divinity" of the Messiah, whether as part of a Trinity or Binity or Oneness doctrine.

At best, these arguments are based Implicit Allusions to the purported divinity of the Anointed One. For example, according to these friends, the words ". . . I am" in John 8:58, IMPLIES that Jesus is the great I AM, the Almighty God Himself. Similarly, "I and my Father are one" IMPLIES that Jesus is the same being as the Father (Oneness doctrine), and likewise "I came forth from the Father . . . going to the Father" IMPLIES that Jesus is part of the Godhead etc.

I'd like to invite my friends to leave aside for a moment their preoccupation with such Implicit Allusions and join me in examining the far more significant and undeniably obvious Explicit Assertions of the apostles who wrote the book of Acts and the Epistles in the NT. The long list of verses from Paul's and Peter's letters which I have included in my previous post are but only some of such Explicit Assertions. I reproduce some of Paul's assertions below:


2 Corinthians 1:3 NKJV
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

Ephesians 1:3 NKJV
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Colossians 1:3
We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

Romans 1:8
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

Romans 1:8-9
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ . . .God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers . . ."

Romans 7:25
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God . . .

Romans 15:5-7
Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore receive one another just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

Further examples are found in Peter's words in his first epistle.

1 Peter 1:3 NKJV
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Verses 17 through 21 is rendered very clearly and unambiguously in the Good News Translation:

1 Peter 1: 17 GNT
You call him Father, when you pray to God, who judges all people by the same standard, according to what each one has done; so then, spend the rest of your lives here on earth in reverence for him.

1 Peter 1:19, 20 GNT
 it was the costly sacrifice of Christ, who was like a lamb without defect or flaw. He had been chosen by God before the creation of the world and was revealed in these last days for your sake.

1 Peter 1:21 GNT
Through him you believe in God, who raised him from death and gave him glory; and so your faith and hope are fixed on God.

In Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2: 22 - 24 (note especially v36), Peter asserts explicitly that

• Jesus is a man: accredited by God, 
• handed over to the Jews by God's foreknowledge, 
• raised from death by God and 
• made Master and Messiah by God.

Another explicit assertion is found in Peter's testimony to the household of the centurion Cornelius in Acts 10: 34 - 43, a passage which I had commented back in April 2009. In this passage, Peter asserts explicitly that:

• It was God who anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power (v 38).
• God was with Him (v 38b).
• After he was killed, God raised him up on the third day (v 39).
• It was God who showed the resurrected Lord Jesus openly to selected witnesses (v 41), witnesses whom God had chosen, so that they could even eat and drink with Him.
• Finally, it was God who ordained the Lord to be judge of the living and the dead (v 42).

Let us not be troubled by various implicit allusions. Instead, let us turn to the explicit assertions of the apostles. May our Father in Heaven, the Only True God, grant us peace through Yeshua the Anointed One.

Does God have a God?

Does God have a God? (Something for Christian friends to ponder over)

I have just come across a remark by a "Oneness" member of a Christian discussion group that the words of Thomas in John 20:28, "My Lord and My God" should be regarded as an Apostolic proclamation: that our Master Yeshua the Anointed One is God Himself.

Many Christians today who are likewise persuaded by these brief words of Thomas fail to consider the more detailed words of our Master Himself in John 20:17 where He told Mary to "go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’"

Also, If we take Thomas' words as Apostolic Proclamation, then how should we take Paul's words, quoted below?

2 Corinthians 1:3 NKJV
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

Ephesians 1:3 NKJV
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Colossians 1:3
We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

Romans 1:8
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

Romans 1:8-9
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ . . .God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers . . ."

Romans 7:25
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God . . .

Romans 15:5-7
Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore receive one another just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

And Peter's words too:

1 Peter 1:3 NKJV
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead


And finally, here are more words spoken by the Messiah Himself, where He refers to His God no less than four times in a single verse:

Revelation 3:11-12 (KJV)
Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.


If, on the basis of one very brief exclamation of Thomas alone, we are persuaded to regard our Master Yeshua the Anointed One as our God, then on the basis of so many express statements by Paul and Peter above, would we be persuaded to regard the Father in Heaven as our God's God?

Does our God have a God?

Related post:
Thanksgiving, Prayer and Praise in the NT

Let us take Christmas out of Christ.

It is Christmas Day.

I thank my friends for all your good wishes. In my country, Christmas is a joyous celebration, an occasion of giving gifts and merry making for the Christian community. Many homes as well as shopping centres are decorated with Christmas trees while good old familiar carols are heard everywhere.

Some of my more serious and faithful Christian friends, however, would frown at the highly commercialised celebrations. They point out that the real joy of Christmas can only be found in the story of Jesus Christ, recorded in the gospel accounts of the New Testament. To them, all the celebrations, decorations and felicitations are meaningless if people forget what Christmas is really about: that God sent His Only Begotten Son to this world to save mankind from sin and to grant eternal to everyone.

Thus, we would often hear people say, "Let us put Christ back into Christmas."

I have other friends who are even more serious and faithful believers in Jesus Christ. These friends recognise a fundamental error in trying to put Christ back into Christmas. The error is that Christmas was not about Christ in the first place. Instead, the celebrations originated from some week-long pagan Roman holiday characterised by feasting, drinking and wanton sex parties.* Later, in the fourth century CE, this lawless Roman holiday was subsumed by Christianity as a celebration of the Birth of Christ.

*(Please see link below.)

As for me, I no longer celebrate Christmas, although I agree with all my friends, both Christians and non-Christians alike that it is a joyous festive occasion of giving gifts and singing Christmas carols.

Let there be a sober remembrance of the birth of Christ as recorded in the Gospel accounts WITHOUT any association with ancient pagan Roman winter holidays, from which Christmas trees and gingerbread men originated.

If possible, let us find another day to remember the events surrounding the birth of Christ, events which included the long and arduous journey of Joseph and Mary from the town of Nazareth to the city of Bethlehem to obey the decree of a heartless Roman Emperor. Of Joseph's failure to get a proper guest room for his wife who was at the point of giving birth. Of their having no place to put the newborn baby other than a manger.

And of the subsequent massacre by Herod of all boys two years old and below in Bethlehem and its surrounding neighbourhoods.

Thus, the remembrance of the birth of Christ should be both a sober and solemn occasion rather than one of feasting and merry-making. The announcements by the angels of "good tidings of great joy" should be remembered alongside the sufferings that Joseph and Mary endured and the mourning by the numerous mothers whose children were murdered by Herod's soldiers.

While some of my friends are calling for Christ to be put back into Christmas, I would like to make a different call.

I call for Christmas to be taken away from Christ.

Here's the link to Christmas - The Real Story