Now that we have covered the variations of the Names, let's talk about titles. People that have come to the understanding that God actually has a Name and it isn't 'God' or 'LORD', sometimes go on this tangent of you can never use those titles again. They are pagan, or they are insulting, or they are names of false gods. You name it, and pretty much there is a theory about it and why you shouldn't be using them.

If you have been around for any period of time on my comics, you know I still use God quite frequently. I see no issue with it, mainly because in the opening sentence to my Bible, that is what He refers to Himself as. He is introducing us to Him as "God". You might say "Oh, but that is English, and the word in Hebrew is אלהימ (Elohim)". And you would be correct, but as a native English speaker, when I speak to other native English speakers I am going to use English. If I go up to someone who has no Hebrew vocabulary and I start spouting Hebrew words, they aren't going to know what I am talking about. As I've already pointed out in previous comics in this section, God also refers to Himself as Lord, or אדני (Adonai) in Hebrew.

I do want to cover a couple of the common objections you might hear on these titles. While not directly stating it, I've covered the "disrespectful" line of thought. If it was disrespectful to call God 'God', then He wouldn't have introduced Himself as such in the opening to His Book. Or have Himself referred to as 'God' almost 2,000 other times. Or 'Lord' almost 400 times.

There is a line of thought that 'God' originated from the Hebrew 'Gad' (according to Strong's pronounced 'gawd'), which is a false god of fortune (Isaiah 65:11). The etymology of the word 'god' in English shows that it comes from the Old High Germanic 'got', which has no evidence of being borrowed. *IF* it was borrowed from Hebrew, it would be closer to the word גת, which is used in 1 Samuel 5:8 and means winepress. What is interesting about this theory is it seems to ignore the fact that גד (Gad) is used 71 other times in Scripture, referring to either the son of Jacob, the tribe of Gad, or a prophet in David's time.

I'll leave you with this to consider. Abraham was considered a friend of God (Isaiah 41:8), and to God's face, he called Him 'Lord' (אדני) several times while pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah.

https://thestraightandnarrow.cfw.me/comics/584

#bible #bibleverse #bibleverseimages #biblestudy #biblestudynotes #church #christian #webcomic #webcomicseries #cartoon