Hallowed Be Thy Name

Jones Town Massacre In an interview in 2011, fierce pirate and rebel leader, John Togo, who had been plundering big oil corporations, was asked if he was willing to die for his cause to which he responded, “God has sent me to justify the people of Niger Delta. Therefore, I will not die. I will live and rejoice with them”, implying that, he was acting in God’s name. Ironically, he died ten days later.

Similar to John Togo, there have been many people who claimed they were acting in God’s name, yet they were abusing it: the Crusades, the Inquisitions (the Spanish Inquisition alone claiming about 32,000 lives), Heaven’s Gate (mass suicide), Jones Town Massacre (mass suicide) Warren Jeffs and the FLDS (child sex trafficking),many, many instances of sexual abuse by charismatic religious leaders as depicted in this documentary etc. are all instances where the name of God has been grossly abused.

The name of God is a great motivator because it stirs up the deepest parts of the human psyche, and people will act boundlessly for their God. As religious people, we must understand God’s name, so we do not abuse it.

The sacredness of God’s name.

Jewish people hold the name of God so sacred that they do not mention it nor write it fully. They fear that doing so will violate the Third Commandment. As a result, the actual spelling of God’s name has been lost, as many ancient texts omitted letters when writing it, leaving us with the Tetragrammaton (YHWH). However, the sacredness of God’s name goes beyond pronunciation or spelling. God’s name is sacred because it captures, in an instance, some or all of His qualities.

Tetragrammaton on Chapel of Nicholas at Carisbrooke Castle

To name something is to identify it or to assign it a quality. It is thus common in many cultures to find names like Divine, Patience, Peace, Perpetual, etc., qualities that parents hope their children will embody when they grow up. However, these qualities and all other divine qualities are sourced from God. The sacredness of God’s name lies in the fact He alone possesses these divine. He alone, all by himself, is good. The book of Isaiah puts it this way: “Jehovah our God…in You alone will we make mention of your name.” (Isaiah 26:13, KJV).

Invoking the name of God

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20

Invoking God’s name is an acknowledgement of His Divine essence (His Divine Love and Wisdom) therefore it is done in many religious activities.

Because it is holiness itself, the name of God is used constantly in the sacred activities of the church, and all aspects of worship. God is present in all aspects of religion and hears when he is called upon in worship. In these activities, the name of God is kept holy (True Christian Religion 297).

Beyond using God’s name in religious activities, we use His name in several other ways. For example, a judge swears an oath to bring justice to all matters in his court. This justice is God’s quality, so if this judge follows his pledge, he performs his duty in God’s name. The same goes for us in the qualities we bring to our workplaces, marriages, relations with other people, etc.

Furthermore, in our personal lives, we can always call upon the name of the Lord for deliverance from whatever our current trials may be. For example, we can call upon God’s courage and serenity in place of our fear and anxiety. It’s like in the movie Shazam where the protagonist gains superpowers by calling upon the name of his god, SHAZAM. If we ask for these things in His name (with a desire to embody these Godly qualities), they will be granted (John 14:13-14).

Taking the name of God in vain

We use the name of God in vain when His name is on our lips only, but His spirit or the qualities of His name are absent from our actions. We abuse his name when we use it in sorcery and magic spells, deception, curses, oath swearing with false motives, with evil intent and for our righteous anger and retribution. “God is angry with you”, we often say when in reality, we are the angry ones.

Religious leaders, especially, must be prudent in their use of God’s name. As mentioned earlier, spiritual matters stir up the larger-than-life tendencies inherent in man. It is easy to get people to act in line with our selfish desires if they are convinced that they are working in line with God’s will.

Taking of Jerusalem by the Crusaders. Emil Signol

The medival church exemplifies this. A prominent practice at the time was the selling of indulgences. Indulgences allowed people to reduce the severity of punishment faced in the afterlife by performing certain acts (e.g. going on crusades) or by paying money. As a result, many people, desperate to save their souls and the souls of their family members, consented to this practice leading to a period of bizarre corruption perpetuated in the name of God.

In Matthew 7:21-22, Jesus rebukes such “workers of iniquity” who take the name of God in vain. The third commandment has a stern warning for us when we take God’s name in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Takeaway

To act “in the name of” a person means to act as a representative of or identify as belonging to that person. Back in the day, when a woman married a man, she’d take his name, signifying that she belonged to that man. If this woman went sleeping with other men, she took the man’s name in vain.

Many beautiful things have been done in the name of the Lord. The Bible is littered with many such stories, and so is history. We can also do wonderful things if we carry the name of the Lord with integrity. We can raise our children, tend our marriages, go to work, and educate ourselves in the name of God. Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.” What amazing things will you do in the name of the Lord today?