The Name Of

J e s u s:

-1-

It’s For Life,

Not Just For Christmas

I cannot think of anything that has been used & abused more than The Name of The Lord. It is wilfully blasphemed by the world & sadly taken in vain by The Church. We call on it. We sing about it. We end our prayers with it. We address the powers of darkness using it. The Name of The Lord is precious & should be treated as such, most especially by His Church. Unfortunately, it has become little more than a magic wand with which we attempt to rubber stamp our prayers, in order to guarantee answers in our favour. That has to change. In this short series of articles we will look at what The Church has been taught by leading lights within the Charismatic movement & modern Neo-Pentecostalism. Unbiblical, irreverent claims have been made by some, on, as well as in, Jesus' Name. We have to take it back! Before we get into the nitty gritty of the falsehoods surrounding The Name of The Lord, we have to make something abundantly clear; The Name of Jesus encapsulates all that He is. Beyond the arguments about whether we say Jesus, Yeshua, Iesus or Iēsous, is the matter of which person we are actually talking about. If you go to Mexico City & open the phone book, there are thousands of individuals with the name Jesús. Are demons cast out in the name of one of those men? No. The Watchtower invokes His Name. Mormonism invokes His Name. Seventh Day Adventism invokes His Name. Christian Science invokes His Name. The Christadelphians. Are they all petitioning the same Lord Jesus Christ as the believing Church? I think not. Even within The Church at large, there is another Charismatic, Neo-Pentecostal Jesus, who is inept, having laid aside power & glory. He has to have man’s permission to act. He is bound to & restricted by the principles of the force of faith. In his death He took on the sinful nature of satan, experiencing spiritual death & torture in hell, before eventually being born again. This is not the biblical Jesus. This is not The Son of God. This is not our Saviour. In these meetings we will be examining the use & abuse of The Name of The Lord Jesus Christ. It’s quite a thing. Whatever The Church at large claims as its mission, is being done in Jesus’ Name. But is it an accurate representation of Christ?

Do you recall singing Caroline Maria Noel’s great hymn, ‘At The Name of Jesus’? It is a rousing song of praise. Find it & sing it. It’s quite a tune. ‘At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, every tongue confess Him, King of glory now; ’tis the Father’s pleasure, we should call Him Lord, Who from the beginning, was the mighty Word.’.

What about Newton’s glorious theme? ‘How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds In a believer’s ear! It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear.’. Edward Perronet’s thunderous anthem exhorts us, right out of the gate, as he blasts; ‘All hail the power of Jesus’ Name, let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all.’.

Those words are drenched in sound doctrine. Not feelings. But truth.

We could go on & on. We’re also familiar with expressions such as ‘Stop, in the name of the law.’. ‘Open up, in the name of the king.’. These are pictures of human authority, but they are a far cry from the Divine power of The Name of The Lord.

Charismatics & Neo-Pentecostals alike have fallen into a particular disposition of teaching regarding The Name of Jesus, promoted & popularised in the main by two men; E. W. Kenyon & Kenneth E. Hagin, respectively. Technically, Kenyon’s work is the main culprit, because Hagin shamelessly plagiarised the writing of Kenyon, until he was unceremoniously outed in 1983. Many thanks to Mr. D. R. McConnell’s excellent work; A Different Gospel. I wholeheartedly & enthusiastically recommend it.

With these things in view, what has The Church at large been taught concerning Jesus’ Name. Well, let’s look at what Kenneth Hagin said. ‘The only good book devoted entirely to it (the subject of The Name of Jesus) that I have found is E. W. Kenyon's The Wonderful Name of Jesus. I encourage you to get a copy. It is a marvellous book. It is revelation knowledge. It is the Word of God.’. No. It ain’t.

The Name of Jesus © copyright Kenneth Hagin 1979 (emphasis added).

Cheers Ken, but for biblical reasons I have to strongly disagree. Kenneth Hagin loved Kenyon’s book so much, that he brazenly plagiarised large portions of it & published said sections, without giving credit where credit was due. Hagin did this much in the same way that he had when he ripped off the writings of J.A. MacMillan for his book The Believer’s Authority. These issues were highlighted in our very first article ‘Betrayal: A Clarion Call to Defending The Faith Once Delivered to The Saints’.

My aim here is to properly eviscerate demonstrably false doctrine purported to The Church at large, regarding The Name & Person of Our Lord & Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Before we delve into the matter at hand, we have to look at what The Name of The Lord actually meant to those who lived in its radiance. The Name of The Lord is as much Him, as He Himself. For those who treat it with the casual abandon of a cheque guarantee card, I issue a warning. Hitherto you may have said & done things with The Name of Jesus out of ignorance. Stop it. Now.

Because of erroneous teachings referencing The Name of The Lord, The Church at large has settled for the transactional, rather than the relational. Understanding Jesus’ Name ought to correct that, but often fails to do so because of the nature of the instruction surrounding it. If you have a copy of The Name of Jesus by Kenneth E. Hagin & or E. W. Kenyon's volume on the same subject, burn them. They make excellent kindling. Take your Bible & examine the claims these men made, in the light of The Scriptures.

⁷ Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain (Exodus 20:7). 

¹² And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD (Leviticus 19:12). 

¹¹ Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain (Deuteronomy 5:11).

Word of faith doctrine concerning The Name of Jesus has violated all of those commands. Surely the propagators of these falsehoods went to one of their favourite translations to check, before poisoning believers with damnable heresy. They will often go to their version of choice, The Amplified Bible, which says this; ‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, irreverently, in false affirmations or in ways that impugn the character of God]; for the Lord will not hold guiltless nor leave unpunished the one who takes His name in vain [disregarding its reverence and its power].’ (Exodus 20:7emphasis added).

This goes way beyond the common, popular invocation of The Saviour’s Name & title, or the exclamation oh my G’d; calling upon Deity for no real reason. In fact, taking The Lord’s Name in vain is to attach the Divine Name to any word, action or endeavour that is diabolical & diametrically opposed to the truth. False doctrine, false teaching & false prophecy all fall into this category. To take, or bear The Name of The Lord in vain, is to seek to endorse, authorise, guarantee or warrant falsehoods using His Name, as if The Lord were signing off on the undertaking. That is why whoever does this will not be held guiltless. They will not be innocent.

His Name is so holy that it is considered ineffable. Remember, The Name of The Lord is as much Him, as He Himself. If we take His Name in vain, if we attach it to falsehood, if we disregard its power, its dignity & fail to reverence it; we are in trouble & we are in real danger.

²⁰ Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. ²¹ Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. ²² But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries (Exodus 23:20-22).

The ineffable Name of The Lord holds such authority & commands such power that the Jews will not speak it. They refer to YHWH as Adonai or HaShem; The Name. God puts His Name, His authority, His dominion & His power within the angel, as a type of Christ Who would come bearing the Divine Name later. This is not to say that was an angel that later became Messiah. That is the Arian Heresy.

Jesus came in His Father’s Name. He made the ineffable, effable. He made the invisible, visible. He made the unapproachable, accessible. This is The Lord Jesus Christ. This is The Eternal Son. This is our Saviour. His Name is to be exalted. His Name is to be revered. His Name is ever to be worshipped, trusted & adored.

We who are not Jews, have little or no idea what bearing His Name means. We neither love it, nor fear it. Yet we will casually use it with a cavalier attitude. If The Church doesn’t reverence His Name, how can we expect The World to? Let’s consider carefully what we do & say in His Name. The received wisdom of word of faith doctrine concerning The Name of The Lord begins with a statement Kenyon made, which was later reiterated by Hagin. Let’s look at it.

‘E. W. Kenyon began his book The Wonderful Name of Jesus with this personal account: One afternoon, while giving an address on "The Name of Jesus" a lawyer interrupted me, asking: "Do you mean to say that Jesus gave us the power of Attorney; the Legal Right to use His Name?". I said to him, "Brother, you are a lawyer and I am a layman. Tell me—did Jesus give us the 'Power of Attorney?’. He said, "If language means anything, then Jesus gave the church the Power of Attorney.". Then I asked him, "What is the value of this Power of Attorney?". He answered," It depends upon how much there is back of it, how much authority, how much power this Name represents.". Then I began to search to find how much power and authority Jesus had. All the power, and all the authority that Jesus had is invested in His Name!.. The measure of His ability [the measure of the ability of the Lord Jesus Christ] is the measure of the value of that Name, and all that is invested in that Name belongs to us, for Jesus gave us the unqualified use of His Name.’.

The Name of Jesus © Kenneth Hagin Ministries 1981 (emphasis added).

This statement sounds feasible enough, but when examined more closely it makes little or no sense. This meshes perfectly with the word of faith movement’s obsession with legal rights & privileges. If The Lord Jesus truly gave The Church the power of attorney, or the legal right to use His Name, does this apply only to American law? What about The UK & wider Europe? What about Africa, or Asia? More to the point, if this is a question of legitimacy, surely it’s Israeli law that we should be looking into. If it is in fact the case that Kenyon’s assertion is correct. I put it to you that it is not.

I’m not talking about erecting buildings or establishing institutions. I mean discovering what The Lord actually meant when He used the phrase ‘In My Name’.

Jesus did not give The Church the unqualified use of His Name. This view is wrong. It is erroneous. It is Hellenistic. It is hedonistic. I contend that it is Jesus Christ Himself, Who possessed the power of attorney to act in His Father’s Name, because He alone is Messiah. He then sends us out to represent His Name, as ambassadors. We must not confuse the two concepts. These things will become clear as we see them in The Scriptures, not in these books filled with mistaken, misplaced & misapplied falsehoods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

copyright © by david Samuel Parkins mmxxvi all rights reserved.

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