Holy Is His Name

Old Testament

Deuteronomy 6:4

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!"

"I am the Lord, that is My name."  

"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain."

"Make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth."

"You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name."

You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name.

Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts."

We will rejoice in your salvation,
And in the name of our God we will set up our banners!
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

Let them praise Your great and awesome name—He is holy.

You, O Lord, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.

"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel."

Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.... And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Might God, Everlasting father, Prince of Peace.

"Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord,
"That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper,
And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth....
Now this is His name by which He will be called:
The Lord our righteousness."

The desire of our soul is for Your name and for the remembrance of You.

All people walk each in the name of his god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.

The Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be—“The Lord is one,” and His name one.

The New Testament

"She will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." 

"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us." 

"There is born to you this day...a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." 

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

"Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"

As many as received Him, to them He gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.

"Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."

"If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."

"In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name."

"Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy."

I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True.... He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.... And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

"He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God.... I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God.... And I will write on him My new name"

And there shall be no more curse...and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.

"I and My Father are one."

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "Who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

"You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am."

The Heavenly Doctrines

Our Idea of God

The idea of God is the primary of all ideas. For such as this idea is such is a person’s communication with heaven and his conjunction with the Lord, and such is his enlightenment, his affection of truth and good, his perception, intelligence, and wisdom. For these are not from the person but from the Lord according to conjunction with Him.

A right idea of God in the church is like the sanctuary and altar in a temple, or like the crown upon the head and the scepter in the hand of a king on his throne. For on a right idea of God the whole body of theology hangs, like a chain on its first link. And if you will believe it, everyone is allotted his place in the heavens in accordance with his idea of God. For that idea is like a touchstone used to test gold and silver, that is, it tests the quality of good and truth in a person. For there can be no saving good in a person except from God, nor any truth that does not get its quality from the good deep within it.

The New Church is...to worship one visible God in whom is the invisible like the soul in the body…. Conjunction with an invisible God is like a conjunction of the eye’s vision with the expanse of the universe, the limits of which are invisible. It is also like vision in mid-ocean, which reaches out into the air and upon the sea, and is lost. Conjunction with a visible God, on the other hand, is like beholding a man in the air or on the sea spreading forth his hands and inviting to his arms. For all conjunction of God with a person must be also a reciprocal conjunction of a person with God; and no such reciprocation is possible except with a visible God.

Keeping the Name of the Lord Holy

[T]aking God's name in vain does not mean [only] His name but every single thing deriving from Him, and so every single thing belonging to the worship of Him, which must not be treated with disdain, still less be blasphemed and defiled by what is filthy.

"You shall not take the name of your God in vain" refers to instances in which the truth is profaned or blasphemed. The meaning of "the name of God" is everything with which the Lord is worshipped, thus every truth. To be precise, taking the Lord's name in vain means turning what is true into what is bad, that is, believing it to be true and yet living a bad life.

In the natural sense, which is the sense of the letter, to take the name of Jehovah God in vain means the name itself, and its abuse in various kinds of conversation, especially in false speaking or lying, and in useless oaths or oaths to exculpate one's self in evil intentions...also when employed in incantations. But to swear by God and His holiness, by the Word or the Gospel, at coronations, inaugurations into the priesthood, and inductions into offices of trust, is not to take the name of God in vain, unless he who takes the oath afterwards discards his promises as vain.

But the name of God, because it is holiness itself, must be used continually in the holy things pertaining to the church, as in prayers, psalms, and all worship, also in preaching, and in writing on ecclesiastical subjects. This is so because God is in all things of religion, and when He is solemnly invoked He is present through His name and hears. In such ways is the name of God hallowed. That the name of Jehovah God is in itself holy is evident from that name, in that the Jews since their earliest age have not dared and do not dare to utter the name Jehovah; and for their sake the writers of the Gospels and the apostles were unwilling to use it, and used the name Lord instead, as is evident from various passages transferred from the Old Testament into the New, where the name Lord is used instead of Jehovah.

That the name of Jesus is in like manner holy is known from the saying of the Apostle that at this name every knee is bowed or should be bowed in heaven and on earth; and furthermore from this, that no devil in hell can utter that name. There are many names of God that must not be taken in vain, as Jehovah, Jehovah God, and Jehovah of Hosts; the Holy One of Israel, Jesus and Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

In the spiritual sense the name of God means the whole of the church's teaching taken from the Word, and through which the Lord is invoked and worshipped. All of this is summed up in the name of God. Therefore taking the name of God in vain means using anything from this source in idle talk, false statements, lies, curses, witchcraft and spells; for this is slandering and blaspheming God, and so His name.

Jehovah God

In the Word the Lord is sometimes called simply Jehovah, sometimes Jehovah God, sometimes God of Israel, and sometimes simply God.

Jehovah alone is Love, the Being of life or Life itself, so every single things has its being and its life from Him. Nor can anyone except Jehovah alone, that is, the Lord alone, be and live from himself.

Jehovah does not dwell with somebody who merely knows and utters His name, for without any conception and recognition of His essential nature, and without any belief in it, the name by itself is a mere verbal expression.

In the Word of the Old Testament mention is frequently made of "Jehovah" and "God," also of "Jehovah" and "the Holy One of Israel," and both mean the Lord alone, "Jehovah" the Lord in relation to Divine good, and "God" and "the Holy One of Israel" the Lord in relation to Divine truth; it is thus said because of the marriage of Divine good and Divine truth in every particular of the Word.

The "Lord Jehovih" is used more particularly when the help of omnipotence is sought and prayed for, as in Isaiah, "Behold, the Lord Jehovih will come with might, and His arm will exercise dominion for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. He will pasture His flock like a shepherd" (Isaiah. 40:9-11).

The Lord

[T]he name "THE LORD" is used exclusively to mean the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, and He is called the Lord without the addition of the rest of His names. Throughout heaven He is acknowledged and worshipped as Lord, since He has all power in heaven and on earth. This He also commanded when He said, "You call Me Lord, and you are right, for so I am" (John 13:13). Furthermore after the Resurrection the disciples called Him Lord.

Throughout heaven they do not know any other Father than the Lord, for They are one, as He Himself has said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father. So why do you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me" (John 14:6, 8-11).

The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and everything in it from Himself and not from nothing. People throughout the world know, and every wise person from an interior perception acknowledges, that there is one God who is the Creator of the universe. People also know from the Word that God, the Creator of the universe, is called Jehovah, so named from the verb to be, because He alone just is (see Exodus 3:13-15).... Jehovah is called the Lord from eternity because it was Jehovah who assumed a humanity in order to save people from hell. Moreover at that time He commanded His disciples to call Him Lord (John 13:13). Consequently in the New Testament Jehovah is called the Lord.

"To you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). "Christ" is used instead of 'Messiah', 'Anointed One', and 'King', and 'the Lord, instead of 'Jehovah'—'Christ' having regard to truth, and 'the Lord' to good. Anyone who does not examine the Word carefully cannot know this, for he believes that our Savior was called Lord because this was an everyday expression that was used to offer respect to Him, when in reality He was so called by virtue of His being Jehovah.

Names Reflect the Lord's Qualities

"Name" signifies quality for the reason that in heaven everyone is named according to his quality; and the quality of God or the Lord is everything that is from Him by which He is worshiped. For this reason, since no Divine quality of the Lord is acknowledged in hell, the Lord cannot be named there. And in the spiritual world His names cannot be uttered by anyone except so far as His Divine is acknowledged. For there all speak from the heart, thus from love and consequent acknowledgment.

In the Old Testament Word, Jehovah is sometimes called Jehovah, sometimes God, sometimes Lord, sometimes Jehovah God, sometimes Lord Jehovih, sometimes Jehovah Zebaoth, and always for a hidden reason which cannot be known except from the internal sense. In general when the celestial things of love, that is, when good, are dealt with, the name Jehovah is used, but when the spiritual things of faith are dealt with, the name God is used. And when both together are dealt with, the names Jehovah God are used. When however the Divine power of good, that is, when omnipotence is the subject, Jehovah Zebaoth (or Jehovah of Hosts), and also the Lord, are used; so that the names Jehovah Zebaoth and the name the Lord have the same sense and meaning.

[W]hen Jesus is mentioned by someone reading the Word, the angels perceive Divine Good, and when Christ is mentioned, Divine Truth. And when both are mentioned together they perceive the Divine marriage of good to truth, and of truth to good.

'Lord' is used to mean Divine Good and 'King' Divine Truth.

[N]o one has the Lord present with himself, unless he knows His quality. This quality the truths of the Word make manifest. For, as many truths as there are in the Word, there are just so many mirrors and ideas of the Lord. For He is the Word itself and He is the Truth itself, as He Himself says. Qualities are of two kinds: one kind belongs to the knowledge concerning the Lord Himself, that He is the God of heaven and earth, the Son of God the Father, One with the Father, that all things of the Father are in Him, in a word, that He is the Human of God the Father. The other kind belongs to the knowledges of those things that proceed from Him; and the things that proceed from Him, are Himself; as, for instance, those things which He teaches concerning charity, freedom, will, repentance, regeneration, the sacraments, and very many other things. These things also make up the idea of the Lord, because they are from Him.

In His Name

[T]hat the name of God or of the Lord means the whole doctrine of faith concerning love and charity, which is meant by 'believing in His name', is clear from these words..."Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20).

"The name of God" means every quality by which God is worshiped.... Now as His quality is manifold, for it comprises all things that are from Him, so He has many names; and each name involves and expresses His quality in general and in particular. He is called "Jehovah," "Jehovah of Hosts," "Lord," "Lord Jehovah," "God," "Messiah or Christ," "Jesus," "Savior," "Redeemer," "Creator," "Former," "Maker," "King," and "the Holy One of Israel," "the Rock" and "the Stone of Israel," "Shiloh," "Shaddai," "David," "Prophet," "Son of God," and "Son of man," and so on. All these names are the names of the one God, who is the Lord; and yet where they occur in the Word they signify some universal Divine attribute or quality distinct from the other Divine attributes or qualities. So, too, where He is called "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," three are not meant, but one God; that is, there are not three Divines, but one, and this trine which is one is the Lord.

The quality of the Lord is everything of faith and love by which He saves a person, for that quality is the essence proceeding from Him. Therefore when that quality is thought of by a person, the Lord becomes present with him, and when this quality is loved the Lord is conjoined to him. Thence it is that those who believe in His name have eternal life.... When, therefore, these names [of the Lord] are mentioned their quality must be thought of and they must live according to it. This is what is meant by the words of the Lord in Matthew: "Jesus said, If two of you on earth shall agree in My name respecting anything that they shall ask it shall be done for them by My Father who is in the heavens. For where two or three are gathered together in My name there am I in the midst of them" (18:19, 20). There is, indeed, a presence of the Lord with all and also a love towards all; and yet man cannot be led and be saved by the Lord except in the measure of his reception of the Lord by faith in Him and love to Him.