FAQ 394
Do Messianic Evangelicals
Have Their Feet in Both Camps?
A Question of Divine Names
Q. I read on your [web]page that you speak about Yahushua, Elohim, etc but you still talk about Jesus; do you have a foot in each camp?
A. I believe in being accurate but also keeping the lines of communication open. People are where they are in a world where language has always been, and always will be, fluid. So I talk about Elohim (God) and Yah'shua (Jesus) because of the broad spectrum of people I interact with.
I am not at war (in a 'camp') with other authentically spiritually-regenerated believers. Righteousness is predicated on faith in a Person (Messiah) leading to obedience to the mitzvot (commandments) and thence to character transformation, not the way you vibrate your larynx, purse your lips or roll your tongue.
The chances are that most messianics can't even pronounce Hebrew properly (myself included), not that Yahweh particularly cares, in my opinion. Besides in Bible days there were variations in pronunciation even within Israel (the famous shibolet(h)/sibolet(h) example being well-known in Judges 12). My sermon yesterday actually addressed (indirectly) some of these issues as far as Hebrew, Aramaic, and Imperial Babylonian Aramaic are concerned.
Even if you could get your language 100 per cent right (whatever that might be) you could still either be a saved soul or the same miserable sinner you were when you went on your quest for linguistic perfection. And it's my considered opinion that whatever 'camp' you go into you'll still find the same mix of qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) and scumbags as you do anywhere else. I seek out the saints for fellowship and call the scumbag 'believers' and unbelievers alike to repentance. The issue then becomes how Yahweh draws His boundaries and not the way we prideful souls do.
So, no, we don't have 'a foot in each camp', whatever that might mean, but I am assuming the 'camps' you allude to are 'true name messianics' (or Ultra-Messianics as we call them) and all the rest. We simply don't divide the Body of Messiah/Christ up, or put conditions on salvation, in that way so the question is sectarian and irrelevent to us. We absolutely believe in using the true Names when they are known but not in making those ignorant or undecided an offender for a sound.
This page was created on 13 March 2021
Last updated on 13 March 2021
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