Caller: My question is what is the real and personal name of God, the name given by God Himself, you know, in the original form, in the real sense?
Pastor Doug: Well it sounds to me like you might be asking a loaded question. Do you know the answer to your question?
Caller: Uh see, I am a Muslim. We call Him Allah. When I speak to the Christians and I say, ‘you know, in the Koran and in the Gospel, that was really in Aramaic, and there was no Torah, the name was Allah.’ And they are sort of surprised or they disagree with it. They say, “no His name is Jehovah” or “His name is Yahweh” or “His name is Jesus” or something.
Pastor Doug: You know you’re not that far off. Let me tell you from what I understand – and Pastor Dick has studied this also.
The Hebrew and the Arabic really have the same root. The word is “EL” in Hebrew and it’s “AL” in Aramaic. They came from the same word.
Do you know how languages over the years – they make little shifts and pronunciations, maybe different spellings, slightly different and it’s like when you say, ‘one, two, three’ in several languages, it sounds very similar in the languages but they’re a little different. They all came from the same root.
Caller: Right. Like what did Jesus in His mother tongue, in the Aramaic language when He walked the earth – well how did He address – what did He call Jesus – I mean what did He call God? Did He call Him Allah?
Pastor Doug: Well one of the most common words that’s used in the Bible for God is simply “EL”, which is a short form of Elohim. That’s where you have the similarity to Allah. Elohim and Allah come from the same root.
Caller: Right.
Pastor Doug: Jesus addressed God as probably Yahweh, or some derivative of that.
Caller: But, you know, I have some problems because unintelligible the grammar – they’re attached and they have full letters unintelligible and the Jews in the past did not know and they put a warning to it – this name is not to be pronounced and over the centuries they forgot the name. Now it’s symbolic, so they assume maybe it’s Yahweh or something to that affect.
Pastor Doug: Right.
Caller: I see there’s a small phrase in the New Testament where He says, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani”, so “Eloi, Eloi,” that is “My God” or “My Lord.” That’s the same in Arabic like when we pray we say, ‘Eloi’, meaning “My God.”
Pastor Doug: That’s what I was telling you is that they come from the same root.
Caller: Right. Because I heard some guy saying, “You know, Allah is a moon god” – something to that affect and they say, “You know, that’s a pagan god.”
Pastor Doug: I haven’t heard that before.
Caller: I think his name is Robert Morey. His book is going from ministry to ministry and they’re picking up on that. And you know I’m surprised when they say since Muslims don’t believe in….
Pastor Doug: Let me take you back a little bit Solomon, and you already know this, but for our listeners’ sake, the Arabic religion of Islam and the Hebrew religion – now keep in mind Abraham was a Hebrew. He was not a Jew. The word “Jew” comes from the tribe of Judah.
Caller: Right.
Pastor Doug: And so if you go all the way back, the Islamic religion does spring from the same Hebrew roots of Abraham. The word “Hebrew” means “one who crossed over.”
Caller: Right.
Pastor Doug: Abraham crossed over the Euphrates, and that’s where you get that term.
Abraham addressed God, obviously, by the Elohim that Moses uses. And so that’s why you’ve got the similarity between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac in that name for God.
Now here’s where I want to tell you something different. In the New Testament in the Bible, God does not identify Himself by one name. God is so big, He uses many names to tell about different facets or dimensions of His character. He says His name is Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father.
Jesus said, “I am the Bread, I am the Door, I am the Way, I am the Water, I am the Shepard, I am the Ladder…” He uses many different names because they tell us different things about His character.
Caller: We have in the Islamic tradition too 99 names of Allah, but we say the name Allah is the personal name, but the others are attributes, like most people believe in
Pastor Doug: Ok well then you understand exactly what I’m saying.
Caller: But, you know, you added Jesus to the list too but unintelligible disrespect that. We say that Jesus is not God, but a prophet of God, a messiah from God, a messenger of God, but not God, not Allah in human form. Other than that, like Jesus said, you know you seek to kill me. I’m a man from God. He was addressed as a prophet. He was identified as a prophet, and that He –
Pastor Doug: Well but, this is a deep study, and I’d like to send you a book if you like for free.
Caller: Sure, sure.
Pastor Doug: Because see, this is the difference between Islam and Christianity. The typical Christian believes that Jesus was more than a man. They believe that Jesus was God become man and we believe Christ taught that.
I’d like to send you a book for free, and it’s called “The Trinity, Is It Biblical?” And it’s my book. It just came out. I think it’s my most recent book. If you call the resource number, we’ll send you my book on The Trinity, and I’d like to hear what you think after you read it.
Caller: Ok. I’ll appreciate that. Just a last, small, quick comment. Can you quote something from the lips of Jesus unintelligible where He’s saying He’s God and that there is a Trinity? Not what other people have said, but what He Himself said you know?
Pastor Doug: Well when Jesus said that they should worship Him in Matthew chapter 28, the Bible says only God should be worshiped. And again, in John chapter 1 it says, “All things were made by Him.”
And the Bible says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And so if Christ says all things were made by Him, well that starts to narrow it down who He is.
Caller: Yes. See, when I read that passage, you know my understanding is, more like, you know, our traditional understanding is that the Aramaic word is ?. The literal meaning is to prostrate and also it means to honor. Since it is forbidden in Islam to worship anyone other than Allah, so we have to keep that –
Pastor Doug: Well but when you get to the book, pardon me Solomon, when you get to Hebrews, the Bible says even the Angels worship Him.
Caller: That has to be understood, that they honored Him.
Pastor Doug: Well I tell you what, please do me a favor – I’ve taken a little more time than usual.
Caller: Ok. All right.
Pastor Doug: Read my book, it’s a small book. Take a look at it. I’d like for you to call me and tell me what you think.
Caller: I appreciate that. Thank you very much for your time. You have a nice day sir.
Co-Host: Solomon, please call this phone number in order to get that book, 1-800-835-6747.
Caller: Ok. I have that. Thank you sir.
Co-Host: All right. Thank you. God bless.
Pastor Doug: God bless. You know, I might also mention just in closing Pastor Dick, if Solomon is still listening, I’ve got an article I wrote called “The Name of God” – he asked a lot about that – and it’s just called “The Name of God.” He might enjoy that.
Amazing Facts’ Resource Number: 800-835-6747