Why do we favor satan over Yahweh?
There are a number of excuses given by born-again, Bible-believing, washed-in-the-blood, standing-on-the-promises, dedicated, heaven-bound, truth-seeking, evangelical Christians as to why we don't like to use the real Sacred Names of our Creator Yahweh and His Son, our Savior, Yahshua.
If you write me I'll give you a list of excuses you can have handy in case of an emergency. That way you won't get caught off guard when someone like me approaches you.
In the mean time, please consider our double standard. We readily, easily, and daily use the correct name of mankind's biggest adversary and diabolical destroyer of our souls, satan. And we do so without excuse.
Yes, that's right. The word s-a-t-a-n is a transliteration of the Hebrew word. In other words, when you say 'satan' it is pronounced the same in Hebrew (although, most people pronounce it say'-tan when it should probably be sah-tawn').
In other words, we balk at using the True Name of Yahweh even though it's in Scripture over 6000 times, while, in the same breath, we have no problem using the name of satan which is mentioned less than 40 times. Not only that, we insist on giving satan respect by capitalizing his name!
How can this be? We offer excuses why we don't like the real Names of the Father and the Son who loves us, Who sacrificed Himself for us, Who was tortured for us, Who died for us, but we have no reservations and no hesitations about proclaiming the real name of him who hates us!
Where is the sense in all this?
Let's review some of the characteristics of this satan.
He is a liar and the father of lies. There is no truth in him. He is a murderer from the beginning. He is a deceiver. He is a destroyer. He is the accuser of the brethren. Plus, he leads a swarm of other evil spirits just like him. He comes as an angel of light. He wants to divert our worship from Yahweh to himself.
Hmmm...as you look at satan's traits, can you begin to see that perhaps Revelation 12:9 applies not just to others, but to us as well?
"And the great dragon was cast out, the old serpent called devil, and satan, who deceives the whole world..."
Are we too arrogant to say that we have been at least partly deceived as well?
You should take note, in the above quotation I got straight from a popular Bible program, it had the devil and satan capitalized. But, you can't even find the name of Yahweh or Yahshua anywhere!
Here's something "coincidental" to think about.
It has only been the last 400 years or so that we started using L-rd, G-d, and Jesus in place of Yahweh and Yahshua. What event happened about 400 years ago? The Protestant Reformation. In an effort to derail the Reformation, could it be that satan deceived translators into thinking they were doing the right thing by replacing the names of the True Sacred Names with the names of pagan deities?
It fits his method of operation, does it not?
He comes as a trusted angel of light. He deceives mankind. He seeks to divert worship away from the Creator Yahweh and Yahshua.
Imagine for a moment how it must have happened. If you're quiet you can almost hear that slimy snake's silky smooth voice hiss in the background as it dripped its poison into an unwary translator's ear.
"Nobody speaks Hebrew these days. It's such a hard language. Surely, the people will better be able to worship when the names are ones that are familiar to them.
I hate to say it, but those names are so...Jewish sounding. People know the Jews are the ones who killed the Son. You'll turn people off from coming to church. You don't want that just because you insist on using the Hebrew, now do you?
No, you must not let their worship be laced with ill thoughts - which they surely will if they are constantly reminded of those awful Jews. Plus, word will spread in the communities that those who use your translation are Jew lovers. That will cause unrest and people could get hurt both financially as well as physically.
All this concern is so unnecessary.
Simply use the names L-rd and G-d. They are already commonly known to the people as deities. It will be easy enough to make use of them. Why, it may even seem like an open door to the many who would otherwise shun the church.
Besides, this is an accepted and proven method of evangelism. The church did something similar with Christmas and Easter by adopting traditions and celebrations in use by the general populations of the heathen, thereby making it easier to bring all them under the umbrella and the loving care of the church.
In a short while, you'll discover that the worshipers will readily take the names of L-rd and G-d into their bosom. Indeed, I dare say, there will come a time when they will fiercely reject any attempt to deprive them of the use of those names once they have become endeared to them."
Remember, about this same time satan used deception in the Catholic church to promote widespread murder in an attempt to stop the people from reading the Scriptures for themselves. Satan managed to have savage torture and murder proclaimed as a doctrine of the church.
Let's stop to see if we understand this correctly.
On the one hand, we love to give our children Hebrew names such as Aaron, Joshua, Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Joel, Adam, Sarah, Samuel, Ruth, Naomi, Micah, Zechariah, Ezra, Esther, Amos, and David to name a few.
Yet, on the other hand, we won't use the Names Yahweh and Yahshua because of the flimsy excuse we don't speak Hebrew, or "G-d understands English," or simply "I feel close to Him when I use the fake names."
Well, He does understands English, but He spoke in Hebrew. If we remove the false names our English speaking translators gave us as substitutes, this is what we'd hear directly from the mouth of our Creator,
“I am Yahweh, that is My Name, and My esteem I do not give to another, nor My praise to idols." Isaiah 42:8
The Name of Yahweh is something satan doesn't want to hear, and he doesn't want us to hear it as well. So far, he's got a lot of believers feeling the same way.
The Christian world is more comfortable with the name of their adversary satan than they are with their Creator's True Name.
Tell me this isn't straight from the pit of hell.
