I AM IS
“We believe in one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
In my blog this year I’m explaining our church’s statement of faith. We started with the Bible, our final authority on all things related to our faith. The next point of our statement begins “We believe in one God…”. We’ll take up the enormous subject of God in what I hope are bite-size digestible portions.
God is NOT a name. God’s name is Yahweh -- four Hebrew consonants: YHWH. When Jews speak of God or read the Scriptures aloud and come to the name YHWH, they say “Ha-Shem” (Hebrew for “the name”) or “Adonai” (Hebrew for “master”) rather than risking mispronouncing and defiling God’s holy name.
Note: When you put YHWH into the Germanic languages, YHWH becomes JHVH. Add vowels and you get “Jehovah”, an alternate form of God’s name often preferred by English-speakers.
YHWH means “the One Who is”. Speaking from the burning bush, God uses a form of YHWH to define Himself and tells Moses “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3.14) is coming to set Israel free from slavery in Egypt.
That name, I AM, is pregnant with meaning, revealing much about God!
God – I AM – IS. He wasn’t made or created. He didn’t begin. He exists. He just IS. His “is-ness” has always been – and always will be.
He doesn’t “become”. He doesn’t change, evolve, develop, or grow. He just is what He is. He just is. I AM is.
He doesn’t stop being. He can’t stop or end. He can’t die. I AM just is.
“I AM” has life in Himself. He isn’t dependent upon other things to give Him life or maintain His life. He doesn’t need anything – no food, no drink, no sleep, no medicine. He just lives. I AM is.
The God I AM, He Who Is, is the foundation (source) of anything that exists. Philosophically, we say I AM is “the ground of all being”. That’s what it means for Him to be I AM. Anything that “is”, that exists, finds its origin, its root, its “grounding”, in some way in Him. I AM is – and because He is, so is everything else that is!
This is not just a word game. The Judaeo-Christian perspective on life, the world, history, purpose and meaning – our entire faith – begins with and depends upon the supreme and ultimate being BEING “I AM”.
In my blog this year I’m explaining our church’s statement of faith. We started with the Bible, our final authority on all things related to our faith. The next point of our statement begins “We believe in one God…”. We’ll take up the enormous subject of God in what I hope are bite-size digestible portions.
God is NOT a name. God’s name is Yahweh -- four Hebrew consonants: YHWH. When Jews speak of God or read the Scriptures aloud and come to the name YHWH, they say “Ha-Shem” (Hebrew for “the name”) or “Adonai” (Hebrew for “master”) rather than risking mispronouncing and defiling God’s holy name.
Note: When you put YHWH into the Germanic languages, YHWH becomes JHVH. Add vowels and you get “Jehovah”, an alternate form of God’s name often preferred by English-speakers.
YHWH means “the One Who is”. Speaking from the burning bush, God uses a form of YHWH to define Himself and tells Moses “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3.14) is coming to set Israel free from slavery in Egypt.
That name, I AM, is pregnant with meaning, revealing much about God!
God – I AM – IS. He wasn’t made or created. He didn’t begin. He exists. He just IS. His “is-ness” has always been – and always will be.
He doesn’t “become”. He doesn’t change, evolve, develop, or grow. He just is what He is. He just is. I AM is.
He doesn’t stop being. He can’t stop or end. He can’t die. I AM just is.
“I AM” has life in Himself. He isn’t dependent upon other things to give Him life or maintain His life. He doesn’t need anything – no food, no drink, no sleep, no medicine. He just lives. I AM is.
The God I AM, He Who Is, is the foundation (source) of anything that exists. Philosophically, we say I AM is “the ground of all being”. That’s what it means for Him to be I AM. Anything that “is”, that exists, finds its origin, its root, its “grounding”, in some way in Him. I AM is – and because He is, so is everything else that is!
This is not just a word game. The Judaeo-Christian perspective on life, the world, history, purpose and meaning – our entire faith – begins with and depends upon the supreme and ultimate being BEING “I AM”.