Is it necessary to use some special term -- and only that term -- in referring to the Creator, Jesus Christ? Must God's name be uttered only in Hebrew?
The sacred names issue has long been a stumbling block, amazingly enough, to many people. Some claim that the Hebrew tetragrammaton YHWH -- translated Lord in many English versions of the Bible -- is the only truly sacred name of God. They hold that using this word is a prerequisite by which salvation may either be attained or lost.
Does this mean that we should only read Hebrew Bibles? No, the same people who claim YHWH is the only acceptable name of God (often) use English Bible translations. As Herbert W. Armstrong has written: "In other words, they allow that we may freely translate all other words of the Bible into our English language -- except those words that are the names of the Father and the Son... But that contention is not substantiated by the Scriptures" (Good News, November-December, 1972, page3).
The apostle Peter had healed a lame man by the name and power of Jesus Christ, and was brought before a group of high-ranking Jews for questioning. "And when they had set them [John was with Peter at the time] in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them... Be it known unto you all... that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth ... doth this man stand here before you whole:.. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby ye must be saved" (Acts 4:7-12).
The New Testament was written in Greek, not Hebrew, and the Holy Spirit inspired Luke, the author of Acts, to use the Greek "Iesous" rather than some Hebrew form of God's name for Jesus Christ in verse 10. And verse 12 says there is no other name by which mankind can be accepted by God as fit for His Family!
Mr. Armstrong continues: "The Holy Spirit of God, inspiring the writing in the Greek language, inspired that only name by which we may be saved to be written in the Greek, and not in the Hebrew. The Spirit of God did not inspire those words to be written in the Greek language, except for the only name, and then inspire that name in the Hebrew, as the Hebrew names people would have done. The only name(by which we may be saved) was inspired in the same language as the rest of the writing. Therefore we should understand that same name in the language in which we read our Bibles -- the English name "Jesus Christ" of Nazareth!" (ibid., page 33).
God's Word nowhere says it is wrong for any people to read the Bible -- including the names of the Creator -- or refer to God in their own language. Salvation cannot be based on some mystical word or pronunciation, but on a person's willingness to always do what pleases God: "Not everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 7:21).
For additional information of how the New Testament was inspired to be written in Koine Greek, we offer this article on this subject: ORIGINAL NEW TESTAMENT WRITTEN IN KOINE GREEK
