My Israel

Absentee Dad?

 Whenever we put our faith in men above God, we are heading into danger. We likewise run into difficulty if we do not understand who God is. As I mentioned earlier the doctrine of the LDS church is that Jehovah is the pre-mortal Jesus Christ and is the God of the old testament. In fact, according to Joseph Fielding Smith Heavenly Father has had little to do with his children:

"All revelation since the fall has come through Jesus Christ, who is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. In all of the scriptures, where God is mentioned and where he has appeared, it was Jehovah who talked with Abraham, with Noah, Enoch, Moses and all the prophets. . . The Father has never dealt with man directly and personally since the fall, and he has never appeared except to introduce and bear record of the Son. Thus the Inspired Version records that 'no man hath seen God at any time, except he hath borne record of the Son'" (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1970], 1:27).

I refuse to believe we have an absentee Dad! So what is the truth? We have already established that God is unchanging. We also learn that God cannot lie. The next question to be asked is God the Father the one and ONLY God or does he have a father, a grandfather etc. (See King Follett Sermon by Joseph Smith) Isaiah is quite clear on this matter:

10 Ye are my witnesses, saith Yehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

11 I, even I, am Yehovah; and beside me there is no saviour. (Isaiah 43:10-11, italics added)

This is a serious matter, so I want to point out many more similar scriptures. (see also, Deuteronomy 4:35,39; 6:4;32:39; 2 Samuel 7:22; 1 Kings 8:60; 2 Kings 5:15; 19:15; 1 Chronicles 17:20; Nehemiah 9:6;Psalms 18:31;86:10; Isaiah 37:16,20) And as they say in the TV commercials, but wait! There's more... To learn more we have to again, go back to the original language of scripture, Biblical Hebrew. As I mentioned in the preface, many Hebrew names have a meaning connected with them, the name of our Heavenly Father is far from the exception. In fact, His name describes Him perfectly! The name Yehovah comes from three Hebrew words, verbs actually, the English equivalent of "to be." "Yehovah comes from the same root as Ehyeh: the hollow root HYH. Yehovah is actually a combination of three verb-forms: Hayah "he was", Hoveh "he is", and Yih'yeh "he is now and will continue to be in the future". Together Hayah, Hoveh, and Yih'yeh combine into the name Yehovah." (Hebrew Voices #47 – A Disastrous Misunderstanding of the Name Yehovah, Nehemia Gordon)

Did you get that? The name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and, Jacob, the Great I AM, really IS! His name declares He is the one and only eternal God, from everlasting to everlasting! He alone is the God of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ made it clear he could do nothing, unless his Father commanded him. Yeshua also stated, "Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I." (John 14:28) In fact, even Yeshua's name declares Yehovah saves! It was from Yehovah that the savior received the power to be raised from the dead. It is from Yehovah that Christ obtained the power to atone for our sins! There is NO greater! There is NO equal! Brace yourselves... Even Jesus Christ, whom we look to for a remission of our sins, is not equal to Yehovah, but sits at His right hand and is subject to Him as his second in command. We do not have an absentee Dad, we have an awesome Dad! We have a Dad that is all knowing, all powerful. It is to Him we owe our very existence and our ultimate salvation. Hallelujah! (being interpreted from the Hebrew, Praise Yehovah)