What, exactly, is the name of God? Some people seem to think that His name is ‘God.’ In some ways, that makes sense, after all we capitalize the word God when we are talking about Him, but, then again, we capitalize the pronouns He and Him in much the same way, and those are obviously not His name; the same term is used (without capitalization) for false gods. The capitalization just indicates that we are talking about the one true God.
When Moses asked God’s name, God told him, simply, “I am.” That can get a little awkward to deal with, as anyone can say, “I am.” The Jewish people got in the habit of referring to God by the term YHWH (which, by the way, they never actually say aloud. NOTE: Hebrew is also written right-to-left, so it would appear HWHY in Hebrew text), sometimes transliterated into English as Jehovah, but, basically, Hebrew for the phrase, “the existing one.” That’s a little easier to avoid in casual conversation than, “I am.” In any case, it didn’t really make too much difference what God told Moses His name was, anyway; no one else knew God’s name, either.
There are many references in the Old Testament to the name of God, or the name of the Lord, but all of those “names” seem to be manufactured titles, rather than proper names. A tone point, Isaiah quotes God as saying that His name is “the Lord.” El Shaddai, for example, means, “Most Powerful,” and is translated as “Almighty” throughout the Bible. There are some passages that indicate that, at some future date, God is going to reveal His name.
Jesus claimed to have manifested God’s name throughout Israel, and yet, nowhere does He mention a name of God. In the Book of Acts, Peter talks about the name of Jesus, and says that there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Paul tells us that Jesus is the One for whom the whole family in Heaven and earth is named (or, perhaps he means that the Father is the One for whom the whole family is named, but, if that’s the case, then Jesus, the Son, was named for Jesus, the Father). Jesus does tell us, in Matthew 28:19, to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Now, the term he uses, name, is singular; He’s only referring to one name. Now, if the whole family in Heaven and earth is named Jesus, then that makes sense.
It also makes sense that Jesus talked about using that name to baptize people. Paul tells us in Romans 6 that baptism allows us to put on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You can’t exactly be baptized in the likeness of the Father’s death, burial and resurrection, or the Holy Ghost’s; neither went through what the Son went through. So why did Jesus say to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, then? To make sure that His disciples knew and understood exactly who He was, and what His relationship was.
If you look through the Book of Acts, at no time do any of the apostles ever mention the Father or the Holy Ghost in the baptismal rites (Acts 2:38, Acts 8:16, Acts 10:48, Acts 19:5, and Acts 22:16). Some have said that the words recorded in scripture were not their exact words (and they’re probably right), but that the apostles were simply mentioning by whose authority they were performing baptisms. That seems like a bit of a stretch to me. They were performing Christian baptisms; the authority for that is pretty obvious. Going back to what Paul said in Romans, though, they were baptizing people into the saving power of Christ, so they used Jesus’ name.
Now I don’t claim to know if Jesus is the only name God has. In fact, the name Jesus means, “Jehovah is Salvation.” If it were not for the fact that this actually was the name that He used when He walked the earth, I’m not sure that I would consider it a proper name. Even at that, though, we are left with what Peter told us, as led by the Holy Spirit, in the Book of Acts: There is none other name, given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
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