Another phenomenon that seemed to pop up during my lifetime is the dropping of Lord when preachers refer to our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, when I was a young man, the Lord was always referred to as Lord, in this postmodern world, He is referred to simply as Jesus e.g. Jesus said this, Jesus did that, Jesus went there etc. I realize that as we read the Scriptures and especially the Gospels, we read of the Lord as just Jesus for the purpose of literary story telling. The rational here is that since the Bible refers to Him only as Jesus, then we should be able to do so as well, really? The Gospels were written by men of God who lived at the same time as our Lord and most of whom knew the Lord personally, the one exception being Paul who met the Lord on the road to Damascus. The problem that I have at this point is making myself equal with or on the same level as these men. Yes, I am very aware that we are all equal and all are a part of the one body of Christ as per the doctrine of I Corinthians 12 and elsewhere. Nevertheless, to think that just because the disciples refer to the Lord as Jesus in their writing, does not give me the right to do so, as I do not have the same qualifications as they and will not be one of the names on the 12 foundations of the new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:14). Another consideration is that these men wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is a member of the trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Inasmuch as they are all one person and are of one essence, it would follow that the Holy Spirit would be on a first name basis with the Son. In the Gospel of John we read, “You call me teacher and Lord, and you say well for so I am.” (John 13:13). The context is when our Lord washed His disciples’ feet and after He had finished, He made that statement and went on to teach them that He had just given them an example and that they should do the same for one another. This is the essence of what it means to be a servant leader. For the purpose of our point here, the Lord stated that they called Him teacher (rabbi) and Lord and in doing so, it was well said. Regardless of how they wrote of Him in the gospels, in their private conversations, they referred to Him as Lord. The message of the gospel, includes the lordship of our Lord, “…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9) (emphasis mind). When the Philippian jailer asked what he needed to do to be saved, the answer was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31) (emphasis mind). To believe on the Lord Jesus, is to commit and submit ourselves to Him as our Lord. In that great Spirit inspired text of the doctrine of the incarnation in Philippians 2, we read at the conclusion, “…and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Vs 11). One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Him as Lord. I have often told unbelievers to confess Him as Lord now and avoid the rush later on. In the Old Testament the word Yaweh is used and is most often translated Lord. This is a word that is unique to the Hebrew people, there is no evidence that it was used by any other people group to refer to any of their gods. The word became sacred to the Hebrews and they refused to pronounce it by itself, which is where we get the word translated as Jehovah which is attached to another word to describe the significance of the Lord in that particular event such as: Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide (Genesis 22:14); Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord my banner (Exodus. 17:15); Jehovah-Shalom, the Lord my peace (Judges 6:24); Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord is there (Ezekiel 48:35); and the well-known The Lord my Shepherd (Psalm 23:1). Russell Kirk does such a great job of explaining the significance of this word, that it is worth quoting:
So far as words could express his overwhelming experience of transcendence, Moses made known to the Israelites the existence of the Other, the divine Presence, the supreme being who had revealed Himself upon Mount Sinai: the existence of One whom they came to call Yahweh (incorrectly translated as “Jehovah” in English). Yahweh, Moses told the people, is the Lord of all creation; He is God, and no other gods exist. (Three centuries before the birth of Christ, the Jews would cease even to utter the word “Yahweh”, lest they seem blasphemous, and would substitute other titles for the Lord.) Coming down from his solitary communion upon Mount Sinai with the eternal One, Moses gave Yahweh’s commandments to the Children of Israel. He told them how to order their lives, and how to dwell together in community: that is, Moses communicated the principles of personal and social order. From outside human experience, the Spirit had spoken.[1]
The Jews would not use the word for fear of being blasphemous, in our time the name of our Lord Jesus Christ is used as a swear word all the time. The question here is why is it that the Hebrew people went to extremes to reverence the name of the Lord, while those who are the Church do not even speak of Him as Lord? Then there are those who have the audacity to speak of themselves as being Jehovah’s witnesses. Dr. Harold Berry in his book What They Believe states:
Because they deny the doctrine of the Trinity, the Jehovah’s Witnesses – like The Way International, Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and Unitarian-Universalists – do not believe that Jesus Christ is God. Jehovah’s Witnesses are also fond of taking advantage of people’s ignorance of the original language of the New Testament in their reference to John 1:1. The New World translation renders this verse: “In {the} beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.” The Witnesses have added the word a in front of god in order to support their belief that Jesus Christ is not Jehovah God.[2]
The problem with that translation is that in the Greek New Testament there is no such thing as an indefinite article (a) therefore they inserted it for their own purposes of advancing their false doctrine. Not only that but they fail to be consistent with their false doctrine in their translation of the Bible. Their translation agrees with the rendering of Isaiah 40:31, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’” and their translation agrees in all four of the gospels that this prophecy is fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ (see Matt. 3:3; Mark 1:1-3; Luke 3:4 and John 1:23). Other verses in Scripture go to show how our Lord Jesus is the same as the Jehovah (Lord) in the Old Testament. Our Lord is Yaweh and ought to be referred to in the same sense of awe and reference by those of the New Testament Church as He was referred to by His Old Testament people, Israel. The reason why this is so important in our postmodern world, ought to be obvious. Our Lord is not referred to as Lord or with respect as Lord and God. In today’s world, atheism is foundational for socialism and for the wanton disobedience of the Word of God. Where there is no God, there is no Word of God. Therefore, it follows that our Lord is not God, let alone Lord. In addition to the secular humanists, we have false cult religions such as cited above who deny the Lordship of our Lord under the pretense of being Christian. Other religions deny the deity of our Lord as well, in Islam He is only one of many prophets and in Hindu, He is one of many gods. The only place in the world where Jesus Christ is Lord, is in the Church, therefore, should not that be our emphasis? This is the reason for this proposition, as part of our theology and as a part of our witness, let us proclaim Him as Lord in our speech, and in our lives.
[1] [2] Berry, Harold, What They Believe (Lincoln Ne: Back to the Bible, 1982) pgs 58-59