In the Bible names function much more than a label. They were revered for embodying the essence of the person or thing to which they pointed to. Throughout the Bible there are a wide variety of names and descriptions for God that served to invoke God’s power, character, and presence. God’s Names are a part of God’s self-revelation so that people may come to know Him and reflect his character and glory.
However, the sheer number of divine names and epithets seems to indicate their very inability to fully capture and contain God’s essential Nature. Though God makes himself known to us by particular Names, these Names cannot confine Him. Nevertheless, God’s Names are tools for knowing Him better as a unlimited Provider and for stepping more deeply into His Nature/Character, His purposes and relationship with Him.
The Name of the One and Only true God (Joh 17:3), The God and Father of our Lord Yeshua Adonai has not been made known to anyone.
In order to address God The Father, various names have been used in the OT and in the NT. In fact, all known names only apply to the visible manifestation of God (Joh 10: 34-36) YHVH, Who was and is in fact our Lord Yeshua Adonay, The Son and not The One and ONLY true God: The Father The Most High (Jo 17:3).
Where God The Father is meant in the OT, translators have mixed up things. Take for example:
Zechariah 3:2 (NKJV)
2 And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”
LORD(capital characters) is the translation of the Hebrew word (H3068) יְהוָֹה (YHVH) or Yehōwāh/Yahweh
If you fill in the name of our Lord Yeshua, the verse should be read as follows:
Zechariah 3:2 (NKJV)
2 And the LORD YESHUA said to Satan, “The LORD YESHUA rebuke you, Satan! The LORD YESHUA who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”
Why would our Lord Yeshua say to satan: “Lord Yeshua rebuke you”, if He is One Who is speaking to satan? The translation with LORD doesn’t make any cense if there’s no distinction between God and Son. In fact our Lord Yeshua says to satan: “God The Father rebuke you satan! In that case the verse should translated en read as follows:
Zechariah 3:2 (NKJV)
2 And the LORD YESHUA said to Satan, “GOD THE FATHER rebuke you, Satan! GOD THE FATHER who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”
Because the Bible and the source codes always translates (H3068) יְהוָֹה (YHVH) Yehōwāh/Yahweh as LORD or Lord (Who is in fact Lord Yeshua Adonai) the distinction between God The Father and Son is not seen easily in the Bible. That doesn’t mean they are one and same Entity. That is what the fake pagan Catholic Church has indoctrinated believers with. Again translators endorses their own human conceptions of who God really is. Because according to trinitarians: there’s no difference between God The Father and The Son, one can use Lord for Both. First they drew up dogmas and then they translated the Bible to those human made dogmas leading people astray.
THE NAME OF GOD THE Father IS NOT KNOWN TO ANYONE, NOT EVEN TO ANGELS.
John 1:18 (NKJV)
18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
God the Father can only be declared.
All the known names of God The Father indicates only one of the many Natures or Characters of God the Father and has nothing to do with a “Personal” Name as all of us have one. In general, the word “God” is used to refer to a super natural being: not a Name.
In the OT mainly: El, YHVH, YAHWEH (Jehovah), Adonai or Elohim is used to indicate the general word for God.
1 Timothy 6:15-16 (NKJV)
15 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
BECAUSE THE FATHER IS INVISIBLE, HE ONLY CAN BE DECLARED OR EXPLAINED.
Invisible things can only be declared. In science, people do the same.
No one can see and no one has ever seen The Father in any time or any dimension , NO ONE!
God The Father ALONE has immortality and dwells in a unapproachable light.
In the Lords prayer, our Lord Yeshua teaches us praying with “Our Father”. In chapter 17 of the Gospel John our Lord again starts praying with: “Father”. If our Lord wanted us to know God’s Name He would surely started His prayer(s) with The Name of God. Instead of that He said: Abba Father.
John 17:6 (NKJV)
6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
Lord Yeshua manifested the Nature/Characters of God The Father through the works He did in the OT and also in the NT era, to us. That’s why Lord Yeshua said: “who has seen Me, has seen The Father” (Joh 14:9) and “I do what I see the Father do” (Joh 5:19). Lord Yeshua is the exact image of God The Father (2 Co 4:4) in a human fleshly body.
THROUGH the physical body (the flesh) of Lord Yeshua: The Father was present in all His fullness (Col 2:9). Through His work, in heaven and earth, Lord Yeshua manifested, declared and made The invisible God Father visible to us. In other words, He made The Father “visible” for humans through the flesh and in the “angelic-world ” (the heaven where angels dwells): in a angelic body, the body in Which Lord Yeshua was seen on mount Horeb/Sinai:
Exodus 33:23 (NKJV)
23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”
When addressing God directly: Lord Yeshua always calls God: Father. That was one of the main purpose of His coming to earth. He came to declare and teach us Who God really is, the way to God and gave us the gospel of The Kingdom of God. Why NOT declare His Name?
He taught us: HOW the call our God (Abba) and THE Way to our God (john 3:16).
THIS WAS AND IS THE MAIN PURPOSE OF HIS COMING TO EARTH.
TO UNITE US WITH THE FATHER.
We call our Lord, Yeshua by His earthly Name: Yeshua.
But He has a heavenly Personal Name also, who no one knows (yet) but Himself.
Revelation 19:12-13 (RSV)
12 And his eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many diadems. He had a Name written down, which no one knows but Himself. 13 And he was clothed with an outer garment dipped in blood, and his name is The Word of God.
This unknown Name of the Son is also explained here and not given (yet). Let alone the Name of God The Father. A Name stands for a particular nature/character trait and therefore limited in meaning. That’s why people say God has many names even pagans do. In any way a Name would limit God The Father, but God the Father is unlimited in His Nature/Character(s). The God The Father is “all in all” (1Cor 25:28). No Name.
1 Corinthians 15:28 (NKJV)
28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.
This is why God The Father identified Himself in the OT through the visible God (YHVH, Yeshua) as: “I WILL BE, WHO I WILL BE” or “I AM, WHO I AM” (Exo 3:14). UNLIMITED ! In fact this is ultimate Nature/Characterization of His Name, unlimited in applying. He gave us the meaning not THE Name itself.
Known Natures/Characters of God The Father:
- YHWH (LORD, Yehova) : “I AM”, The One Who Is, The Self-Existent One;
- EL Elyon: God The Most High;
- El Olam: The Eternal God;
- El Roi: The God Who Sees me;
- El Shaddai: The All Sufficient One, The God of the Mountains, God Almighty;
- YHWH-Jireh: The Lord Will Provide;
- YHWH-Mekaddishkem: The Lord Who Sanctifies;
- YHWH-Nissi: The Lord is My Banner;
- YHWH-Rapha: The Lord Who Heals;
- YHWH-Rohi: The Lord is My Shepherd;
- YHWH-Sabaoth: The Lord of Hosts, The Lord of Armies;
- YHWH-Shalom: The Lord is Peace;
- YHWH-Shammah: The Lord is There, The Lord My Companion;
- YHWH-Tsidkenu: The Lord Our Righteousness;
God our Father
The phrase “God our Father” is common throughout the New Testament (Rom 1:7). “Father” is used by Lord Yeshua throughout the gospels to describe His unique relationship with God The Father as God’s own Son (John 5:19-23; John10:30; Heb 1:5). Lord Yeshua encourages his disciples to address God as Father in their prayers and to trust in His paternal care (Mat 6:9; Mat 7:11). It is only through Lord Yeshua, the Son, that people can know God the Father (Matt 11:27; John 14:6) and be adopted as one of God’s children (1 John 3:1).
The Spirit of our Lord Yeshua in us, enables believers to call God “Father” (Rom 8:15).
The Old Testament also contains a handful of references to God as Father to describe God’s relationship with the people of Israel (Deut 32:6; Isa 9:6; Jer. 3:19; Mal 2:10). But most significantly, the Old Testament predicts how Christ’s unique and divine Sonship completes His role as the Messianic descendant of King David (2 Sam 7:12-14; 1 Chron 17:11-14; cf. Ps 2:7). These predictions are cited in several New Testament passages to prove that Lord Yeshua is the Messiah (e.g. Acts 13:33; Heb 1:5). Lord Yeshua is the true “Son” that, in order to open the way for all people, through Which we can be call our selves children of God also (John 1:12-13; 2 Cor 6:18; 1 John 3:1).
Lord Yeshua declared and revealed that all believers are individually children of God by redemption. In a lesser sense, all people are children of God by creation, but in the model “Lords Prayer” (Mat 6: 9-14), only believers IN our Lord Yeshua can claim that close relationship with God The Father and call Him: Abba Father.
The Aramaic word Abba (Father) is only used three times in the New Testament, once in the Gospels (Mark 14:36) and twice by Paul (Rom 8:15 and Gal 4:6. as a reference). Abba is the most intimate term for Father, unreasoning trust, one of the first words a child would learn. It is akin to our word “Daddy.” This word indicates how close God the Father wants to be to all His children and how we ought to feel towards Him: our Father! THE ONE WHO PROVIDES AND PROTECTS.
When we call God: Father or Abba, we characterise Him with the character of someone Who takes care of and provides, have intimacy and warmth for His children. Our Father God is not a far away God, but a God close to you, ..always.
By calling God, Father or Abba we are part of His Holy family through our Lord Yeshua HaMachiach Adonai.