What’s in a Name?
When I was a child, Disney movies were considered to have exceptional moral values. The name Disney became an icon that spoke of safe entertainment for the entire family. But what about today? Can Disney be counted on to help keep the family together? When the whole of the liberal world is promoting gender confusion we would think Disney might be a good place to go for healthy fun and entertainment. Not So! What happened to their good name and the icon? The name Disney did not preserve anything.
In the great leave-taking from the Catholic church during the 1500s and 1600s CE, the name Protestant meant “one who protests” and this protest was aimed at the Catholic Church from where these brave people had finally won their struggle to serve G-d as their consciences demanded. Not so anymore! While it is true that the Protestant “Christian” churches continue to hold some of their differing ideologies, for the most part, everybody gets along and Catholic or Protestant, or liberal Jew for that matter can all hold hands while they go together to the same functions in the park on whatever religious holiday, be it Christmas or an Easter Egg Hunt. Protestants are no longer protesting and the Catholic Church decided at Vatican II that they would change their approach to the world to be more inclusive and bring the churches back into the fold.1 Now they would be more accessible, teach the people in their own language, create new worship styles and the Protestant world said: Amen! As did many Jewish congregations. So what happened to the name Protestant?
I visited a packed Reconstructionist Jewish Temple in Eugene Oregon several years ago on a Friday evening. To my surprise they had asked two Catholic lesbians to give the night’s Dvar Torah (The Dvar Torah is supposed to be a talk on the week’s Torah portion and is usually done Shabbat morning but in that temple, most congregants do not attend Shabbat Services). Their slated talk was about Social Justice.2 I walked out.
I asked myself what has happened to a Holy and separate Jewish people who would never think of forgiving Amalek, and Rome, and Hitler? Religious names mean nothing more than an indication of another branch of Ecumenical mishmash. Or Social Justice. Anything goes as long as someone is benefiting!
It seems the end of Protestantism came with Ecumenism. What is Ecumenism?
“Ecumenism… is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjective ecumenical is thus applied to any interdenominational initiative that encourages greater cooperation between Christians and their churches.”3 (This all sounds well and good, yes! Let’s all keep our differences quiet and go along to get along! And under the carpet are the secrets of how the Protestant Churches gave up their individual identification in favor of getting along with Rome and it’s new approach to religion.) And of course, I am not speaking of just Protestants here, the liberal Jewish denominations hold joint services with Christian denominations to see if everybody can get along. Again! What happened to a holy and distinct people?
And what has happened to the go along to get along mask-wearing world? I say it has something to do with this factor of giving up individual identity to create a “safe,” socially just world!
I once used an illustration in a sermon to a group of Christians. I placed a large Seven-up bottle on the table in front of me. I asked the people to tell me what the name of this soft drink was. They said “Seven-up.” I asked them if they were sure? I then proceeded to pour out some of it into a glass and asked a child to come up and drink it to be sure. It was water! Then I asked the congregation if this was still Seven-up? No! They said loudly. So what happened? The name was still on the bottle, but the contents had changed! So the moral to the story is….. What is in a name? Can a name guarantee the contents of that which holds the name? Clearly not.
In fact YHVH in his Word says something about this. He has a people who are called by His name. He calls them to live up to that name.
Exodus 20:7: Thou shalt not take the name of YHVH thy God in vain; for YHVH will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain.
This verse is not about simply blaspheming, it is about much more. Are we living up to the Name that we have taken upon ourselves. Do we represent something the Almighty can be proud to include under His name?
2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
But the sad history tells us what happened to rebellious, idol-loving Israel, just a few years after the Northern kingdom of Israel, the 10 tribes began their sun worship and child sacrifice to Molech. G-d sent them prophets but they refused to listen. They made a covenant with the nations. Finally the Assyrians took them captive and they disappeared from being a people.
2 Kings 17:18 “Therefore YHVH was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.” (The entire chapter shows the reason and to what level they had fallen).
There is a passage in the Tanakh that speaks a clear warning about not living up to the Name that is given to us.
Isa 65:15 “You shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen; For YHVH Elohim will slay you,
And call His servants by another name;” So this seems to say that a name can lose it’s significance.
Just like the downfall of Disney, the Protestant Churches, the Northern Kingdom called Israel, and almost every organization on the face of the earth, A name means nothing if what it signifies changes, just like the silly Seven-up bottle filled with water!
I personally choose to not stand under the name of any organization, I take the literal interpretation of the Torah and Tanakh as my guide, rejecting any additions or deletions made by scholars or sages, nor do I accept outside interpretations of the Torah. I refuse to call myself anything other than a Jew.
Shalom!
Ariella Tiqvah
1https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/50-years-ago-vatican-ii-changed-the-catholic-church-_-and-the-world/2012/10/10/4fedaf6c-1319-11e2-9a39-1f5a7f6fe945_story.html
2“Social justice refers to a political and philosophical theory that focuses on the concept of fairness in relations between individuals in society and equal access to wealth, opportunities, and social privileges.” https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/social-justice/
