Holy: Understanding It and Other Key Words Through the Analogy of Identity Theft

We all know about identity theft.  It is, I believe, the # one crime worldwide at present.  (Feel free to correct me, if I am wrong.)  In either case, I thought it was happening to me today when an unexpected charge ended up in my checking account.  Can we say bounce!   Fortunately, with the trouble that occurred the day before in my account, I had transferred nearly all my money elsewhere.  But something dawned on me.  I think this is what has happened to God's identity, the God of the Bible that is.  Not only is the identity of His holiness stolen, but  many other key words that identify who God really is, are also stolen.

Here is what I mean in terms of specifics.  The #1 most important word in the Bible is God's personal name.  His name, Yahweh, is usually seen as "LORD" and so is defined as lord in many Bible readers minds.  This is not actually who God is in terms of identity in those passages.  You might get the impression He's over-consumed with lordship.  The #2 most important word in the Bible is blessed.  This is usually defined as prosperity, but that is not accurate in Hebrew.  That is not who God is, when the Bible says "Bless Yahweh" (usually "the LORD" in translation).  The #3 most important word in the Bible is God's character summary, holy.  This is usually defined as set apart, but I can now make a tremendous case that this misses the mark by substituting holy's significance for its definition.  It is like getting not only the cart before the horse, but also in front of the driver in importance too.   The definition of holy is the greater party in this case before significance.  The #4 most important thing is not one word in English, but a group translated as "I am who I am".  This is the real key to understanding God's name, Yahweh, and what blessed means correctly.  #5 is a set of words that equal what holiness is and one of them is badly misunderstood and that word is love.  Its relationship to faith and hope is badly misunderstood.  Also in that same set of words that equal the part of holiness, the words righteousness and justice are treated wrongly as synonymous.  I wish I could present the argument for this last one right here. 

I know I have not given a great deal of evidence here.  You can find that elsewhere on my blog or you will have to trust my character for the moment, but later you will also be able to see the evidence for what I am saying.  What I am giving here is a brief summary of my conclusions.  I want you to see the results of my search and research in summary form, so you know that identity theft may have occurred and so you should be alert to what is happening.  Again, this is not the entry where I try to prove it.  That requires chapter and verse analysis.  You could call this my opening statement. 

So with these five mistaken notions, I think we can say that the identity of God in the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek of what is called the Bible is stolen.  You don't get the right identity, if you don't know the meaning of his name and his character.  Someone else has stolen His and He is not getting what he truly deserves for His real identity.  If you confuse these 5 words or groups enough, then you end up with a very sad picture of who God is in the Bible. 

I'm only interested in one God, the one in "The Book".   Have we gotten that identity right?  I think we have failed much more than many scholars and Christian leaders like to acknowledge.  The last I checked, identity theft is still a crime.  We need to catch the thieves and put them on trial for what they have done.  Then we can restore God's actual identity, so he can say again, "I am who [my name, etc.] says I am".   We might even begin to realize why God said what He did to Moses. 


In Christ,

Jon Westlund