Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 27/09/2003 14:47, Liz Fried wrote:

> .  If I
>  
>
> > > may be forgiven for waxing theological for a moment, God doesn't
> > >      
> > care what
> >    
> >
> > > you call Him; all He cares is that He hears from you once in a while! ;-)
> > >      
>
>  
>
> > >      
> > Agreed!
> >    
> Dear Peter and Dave, et. al.
> This is something that I absolutely do not agree with!
> My daughter married a Hindu, and said to me that there
> is only one god, therefore, what does it matter if you call
> him Shiva or Yahweh? Nope.
> These are different gods. You can tell that they are
> different gods. One way you can tell is that they have different names.
> Names are important.
> Best,
> Liz
>  
Don't confuse the form of the name with the identity of the addressee. I 
might use the same name to address Dave Washburn and David Donnelly, but 
that doesn't imply that I think they are the same person. When yet 
another David addressed 'ELOHIM in some of the psalms, he was not 
addressing Baal or Chemosh, but others might have used the same words in 
address to the latter two. When I pray "Dear God,...", I am not 
addressing Shiva, but your son-in-law might address Shiva with the same 
words. I'm sure YHWH, and Shiva if he exists, know which of them is 
being addressed without us having to use different names.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/