Bridge of Reason

Last week, on the Facebook page, I wrote about a discussion I had recently with a Jehovah’s Witness. The name of God inevitably came up. This issue has been done to death, I know, the usual texts thrown back and forth (what Doug Harris would call ‘Wimbledon witnessing’). He came up with the usual argument from Matthew 6, the idea in the Lord’s Prayer that we should sanctify the name. I pointed out, as I always do, that Jesus didn’t use the name in praying, to which he replied: ‘You don’t use his name when you are addressing your father.’ I must agree with him. I never used my father’s name, neither have my children used mine in addressing me. Jason Michael Learner, in the Facebook discussion, wrote: ‘To be fair, there are loads of names for God, Elohim, El Shaddai , LORD and each of these tell us something about His character and personal attributes. Abba is another example, it shows us something about the nature of God's character and the type of relationship that not only Jes...