Why Jesus’ Name? Why Not Allah When People Curse?

This is An Answer to World Net Daily’s Editor Joseph Farah’s question: What if filmmakers used ‘Allah’ as a curse word? Editor Joseph Farah cites Ray Comfort who interviewed people on the street, asking if they ever cursed using Jesus’ name? Most have, but they deny using Allah’s name that way. Why?

Farah acknowledges a historical figure that Christians know as Jesus Christ. They believe he fulfilled Bible prophecy to die the death that we deserve in our place to reconcile us to God who loves us and forgives our sins when we accept His love and plan of salvation that includes seeking His help to live for Him and truth as we progressively understand it.

But why do people, who don’t even believe in Christ, use his name to curse or swear? We might consider the Bible teaching that as humans, we wrestle against powers of darkness—demons who seek to control us. It’s not hard to find examples of some who have given the control of their lives to demonic forces in areas of alcohol, drugs, appetite, sex, perversions, crime, greed, gambling or hatred.

That’s a reality of life in this world, but why is the name of Jesus connected to a loss of self-control? We are not to take God’s name in vain. We have heard others say, God damn it, vainly asking God to forbid what just happened.

Actually God is a generic word translated from the Hebrew word, El, Eloha,  or Elohim meaning God. But “God” is not a name. According to Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian,  in his classic book, Wars of the Jews, the “sacred name [engraven on the High Priest’s golden crown]…consists of four vowels.”

This impacts our topic of Christ’s name, because Christ said, “I am come in my Father’s name and you receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.” John 5:43.

If the Father’s name was Zeus, then Italians say it right as they pronounce Christ’s name as Yea Zeus! In Latin America they pronounce the Savior’s name as Hey Zeus. We say Gee Zus!

But the Father’s name was not Zeus. Zeus was the savior god of Greek mythology who saved everyone who appealed to him with no need of repentance. Philosophically, this idea appeals to most people in our world and is why, in the end-times, “when another shall come in his own name [Zeus], Jesus will be personated by the devil who will sit in the [rebuilt] temple and claim homage from the whole world as 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10 supports, though it does not mention the name.

God’s plan of salvation is not based on a simple appeal and claim in the name of Jesus. It is based on “a deal” we make with Christ to give him our lives so that he becomes Lord as well as Savior. Many don’t understand it that way, but in the end, we must repent of our way of doing things and choose his ways, not living in sin, but saving us from it. A life of repentance is proof of God’s power to save.

Because there are demons struggling for the mastery of every human being (Ephesians 6:12), when we lose self-control and exclaim, Jesus Christ! or God damn it, we may be reflecting a demon force that  acknowledges his master as an odd form of praise.

Moishe Rosen is author of Y‘shua the Jewish way to say Jesus. Why is it a “Jewish way to say Jesus”? Because Jews know the real Messiah could not have been named Jesus. There is no J letter or sound in the Hebrew language. Jesus is a translated name, but names (proper nouns) should not be translated. They should be transliterated to give the same sounds. President Bush was not called “little shrub” in China. They called him Bush so he would recognize his name.

Oddly enough, Christ said “Not one yod” should pass from the law (which had God’s name) but translators removed God’s entire name which began with a yod. As the introduction to the Goodspeed Bible says, Wherever we see LORD or GOD in all caps, translators removed God’s name (four vowels). Can we see a problem for those who think the King James Bible is perfect?

The apostle Paul encountered the Greeks on Mars Hill who had many gods–they even had one image to the Unknown God. Paul wanted to tell them about God and he later commented, “the times of this ignorance God winked at, but commands everyone to repent in a time of judgment.” Acts 17:30,31.

When we know better, we should go by the best information we have. This is safe. God knows our intent, and the times ahead will test our willingness to suffer for His name when the vast majority will acclaim the name of Jesus when the savior is impersonated by one working miracles on the throne in Jerusalem. When it happens, the biggest clue to his identity will be his name, a derivative of Zeus.

This is not an issue now, but it will be then, or why would God have taken the trouble to encode the true name of the Savior in the Old Testament prophecies in equidistant letter sequences as explained in a book titled Yeshua Is My Name by Yacov Rambsel? This is explained by Grant Jeffrey in his book, The Signature of God on Jeffrey’s website, though Jeffery does not understand Jesus and Yeshua are not equal, though they are treated as equal for now by those who don’t understand the above issue.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured photo is by Onderwijsgek. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Netherlands license.