Cling To The Father And His Holy Name

One of my favorite gospel songs is "Long Black Train" by Josh Turner, in it he says "Cling to the Father and his Holy Name." and for a long time I paused to wonder "why His name?" Shakespeare once famously asked "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." So what if Jesus was named Bruce? Wouldn't He still be the same savior we have trusted our souls too? 

So I started the Berean Thing and began digging into names and names of names and I've found that the answer to Shakespeare is a qualified "No, sorry Bill." A name in today's world is just a word, which explains why silly girls and boys give their children names that "Sound cool" rather than a name with meaning or dignity. These days a name is merely a word or combination of words by which a person, place, or thing is known or designated, it's what makes a noun proper. In biblical times a name is much more than a string of syllables that are used to identify grandpa. This redefinition of the concept of the word 'name' causes confusion for those that do not do the Berean Thing and members of the theology of evangelical atheism. 

One of the arguments that evangelical atheists raise is from Isaiah 7:14

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

The evangelical atheist will point out "the prophesy says the virgin will name the Messiah Emmanuel but in reality she named him Jesus" and generally follow up with a smug Well? Well all respectable bible versions (which completely leaves out The Message) do not say she will name him Immanuel, the bible cleary says she will "call His name Immanuel" - that's a huge difference. As I've said, a name in biblical times, especially in the middle east a name is much much more than what we consider a name. 

In Isaiah 7:14 the original Hebrew word used for call is qara which means to call out, cry, utter a loud sound to proclaim to call on to God. name is Shem, which means "name", but it also means designation, reputation, fame, glory, memorial, monument, and when referring to God shem means a name of God. Linguistically there is a chance the virgin could have named the child Immanuel but from what I see in my digging that she cried out that God Is With Us! which would become the child's reputation.

More important to me in my Berean digging is Romans 10:13

for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."

Here Paul says whom ever calls, and for calls he used the word epikaleō which means to summon or invoke, and when he said "name" he used the word  onoma which  is used for everything which the name covers, everything the thought or feeling of which is aroused in the mind by mentioning, hearing, remembering, the name, i.e. for one's rank, authority, interests, pleasure, command, excellences, deeds etc.In other words when you're invoking the Lord to be saved you're not just shouting out His name in our modern understanding of the word name but everything: His power, His mercy, His majesty, His love, and His Holiness. 

We are definitely not just calling out "Lord Lord", we are accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, crying out to him for his mercy and lovingkindess knowing full well we deserve neither because of our sinful nature. I think this is what Jesus meant when he said 

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. (Matthew 7:21)

Calling on the name of the Lord is more than just calling out a word, it's crying out for everything that makes up God and doing what He demands.