Paul Stringini - On the Former Use Of Hebrew Names In Scripture Songs

When I began writing my version of the Song of Moses in 1995 I had been a student of the bible through the Shepherd's Chapel, and Arnold Murray. Arnold Murray taught the Hebrew names. I thought the different Hebrew names of God were pretty cool so I used them in my songs. I have permanently stopped using them (for the most part) and this page is here to explain exactly why.

In certain places, it really made sense to use the Hebrew proper name; such as in Exodus 15: "The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name." becomes: "Yahveh is a man of war Yahveh is his name."

For those people who do not know the ways how the Old testament name of God is translated in our English bibles: I will simply state that many of the places in the old testament where the proper name, "Jehovah," or more correct, "Yahweh," was originally written; the translators put, "the Lord." I'm not going to go into the very boring technical aspects of this. I'm not interested.

When I began to use these Hebrew names of God, such as: elohim, Yahshua (Jesus)," and Yahveh, I did it innocently, I had no idea that there were people out there to whom this matter was one of life and death!

In October of 2000, when I still used to look around on the "net" for places to promote my site, I ran across this guy who calls himself "eliyah" (who says his real name is not important, but has labeled himself with a great prophet's name! Very important indeed!) and runs a site called eliyah.com. On this site they use the Hebrew names exclusively.

I offered to let him use my music on the "song harvest" section of his site. I asked him to check out my music and he emailed me back saying:

I listened to some of your music. While, I rejoice that much of it uses the sacred name, Yahweh/Yahveh.. I and many others would be opposed to the use of "God" or "Jesus". Thank you for your offer nonetheless.

With love in His service,
EliYah
"Worship Him in Spirit and in Truth" John 4:23
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A lengthy and hot e-mail debate followed, he dragged out his sack of "my name" scriptures. And I tried what I thought was logic on him, and no one convinced no one of nothing. I argued extensively with him back in 2000, and today, I wouldn't even bother,

For me, there is no argument anymore, simply because of one very simple fact: I know EliYah is deluded because when I received the baptism of the Holy Ghost; when I felt that strange and wonderful POWER on me; I was calling on this name: "JESUS," calling Him LORD and GOD. I did not call on Yahoshua, Yahushua, Yeshua, Yahweh or Elohim, (not that those names are, of themselves, bad at all, not one wit) but I pronounced it, "JEEE---SUS" and He heard me. This sect of legalists led by the great prophet eliyah, and others like him, don't have this witness which I have for myself. I called on my God and He heard me and I received the Holy Ghost exactly like the Apostles received the Holy Ghost. So I think the great prophet eliyah is nothing less than a servant of Satan.

He is a follower of the letter, the letter kills, but the spirit makes alive. He has a lot of letters in the bible that help Him in being swallowed up of his delusions. They also try to serve God by commandments (when any Christian should know that you can only please God by being as righteous as he is). They deny the baptism of the holy spirit, as I see it, so, as I see it, they cannot be of God. And, for the record, the ten commandments are abolished, in Christ. (see 2Cor3) So keeping Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, is a dead work.

There have been other events that have slowly made me steer away from the "sacred" Hebrew names. For one, ignorant people have actually asked whether I was a "Jehovah's Witness" because of my use of "Yahveh." Another is the awkward feeling I get having to explain (at performances) why I use the Hebrew names. I feel obligated to distance myself from the Yahweh only crowd, but explaining why I'm not part of the Hebrew only crowd wastes valuable time.

I do not wish to be associated with the Hebrew Only crowd, and especially not the great prophet "Eliyah," so I have stopped using the Hebrew in new songs. If I still had the resources, I would go back and rerecord all my songs; removing the Hebrew names for God in 95% of the cases. (Obviously some are way too cool to be trifled with, (parts of Isaiah 13&14 and Joel 1 come to mind). You will notice that I do change them back to English in my live performances (except, of course, the parts mentioned above).

The name of God is not in saying the proper sounds and syllables in the Hebrew tongue. He is who He is. He is making a glorious name for Himself, and it has not been fully revealed:

"And he had a name written that none but he Knew... and his name is called the word of God." (Rev 19)

Does this mean we should start calling on Jesus like this: "Oh, Word of God, we pray in thy name."? No, because it is a name that no one but he knows, (that's NO ONE!!! Including everybody but Him) and yet, it is written down, but we don't know it, but it is written down, yet we know it not.

"And I will write upon him My new name." (Rev 2 or 3) God is going to take on a new name.