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I look forward to learning more from you!
Well, I guess I am trying to inform you so that you won't fall into the pitfalls of a lot of what I personally consider to be conceptual lapses about the Nature of God.
The link above is to a site about the Assyrians, they have a very interesting history to say the least and I would find it interesting just how much of that Cohanim Y-Chromosome is floating around in that population as they were the people that conquered the Northern Kingdom and are responsible for the "Lost Tribes" of the Hebrews
At any rate, the admonition to not use the Lord's name in vain is central to the cultural artifact of omitting vowels and dancing around the name of God in conversation by supposedly devout people. The point I feel most strongly about is when someone evokes the name of God and then is deceptive or duplicitous in their actions; is not doing the work of God. Another would be to deny one's true faith, whatever that may be.
As to the first premise in the preceding paragraph, you have to ask, "Why should a divine being that is infinite have any need for a name in the first place?" The use of God's name is for the convenience of his created beings and quite often pertains to the role He is playing at that particular point in time. For example, we could talk about "The Eternal God", "The God of Creation" or "The God of Mercy" and then ponder that since there are more than one name being used; there must be more than one person. (This is in fact an interpretation that many scholars have when analysing the Bible.) I'm pretty sure that God knows who He is at all times. We on the other hand might be confused at times. :wink:
Which brings us back to the topic of this thread...
There are similar words used in different languages that denote the same or simlar concepts and these are referred to as [i:326ee58713]cognates[/i:326ee58713]. For example, we have several cognates for Jesus such as Joshua, Yeshua and Eashoa', yet they all mean the same thing and that is: "The one who saves us." It is no more or less correct to use any word more than another given your particular primary language. No one is more Holy or in touch with God if they use one cognate in preference to another. On the other hand, you might be somewhat deceptive if you pretend to be something you are not by using an archaic style of speech.
Another problem I see is the denial of affiliation with Christ Himself. This is similar to the denial of Peter on the Gospels before the rooster crowed in the morning. Peter did a normal thing and distanced himself from Jesus when his life was at stake. Point here is that a Christian should identify with Christ regardless of the consequences...even if it costs your life. It is much less to ask that Christians identify with Christ when it could cost only a possible convert. However, I strongly feel that converts are being lost due to the dishonest practices of some sects of Christianity.
Christians were to separate themselves from many practices of the Mosaic Law. No animal sacrifice was needed, tithing wasn't either, some foods were no longer forbidden etc etc... In short, you can't practice Judaism and still be a Christian. This topic is addressed time and again in the New Testament. I don't know how anyone could miss it.
Many people believe that the Law was a burden to the Hebrews and that once Jesus came along, it was no longer needed at all. I believe that the Mosaic Law was in fact a gift to the Children of Israel and you might think of it as a Cultural Survival kit. There are a lot of good, practical things about it and it goes a long way in explaining why the Hebrews were able to occupy such a strategic spot for so long without dying out. It simply gave them an advantage over their heathen neighbors. It was not an arbitrary set of rules as a lot of people seem to think. You can use them to have good guidelines by which to live by; but don't expect that you will be scoring brownie points with God if you use them and are a Christian. (It might be different for a Jewish person, but I wouldn't know about that since I'm not Jewish.)
Finally, I think a lot of people need to wake up to the fact that they do not know more about Biblical Prophecy than God does. I do believe that much of what is going on with regard to the modern State of Israel and Christian involvement is a mistaken belief that God needs a lot of help and He really isn't quite sure of how to do things anymore...He's kinda old and senile and needs the help of His children in order to get things done. :roll: Trust me...He knows exactly what is going on and will hold everyone responsible for their actions. In my opinion, we must take the right actions and let the outcome be what it is without worry as to what it may be.