Sacred Name movement

   Members of the Sacred Name movement use the original Hebrew names and terms for the Lord, God, and/or Jesus in their translations, prayers, and/or church names. Since the start of the 20th century, Adventist churches have been concerned about the true name of the Lord. The origin of the question is not known, but its first important manifestation was the adoption of the name Jehovah by followers of Charles Taze Russell. In 1931, Russell's successor renamed his Bible student movement Jehovah's Witnesses.

   By that time, Bible scholars had come to believe that in the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament), the Lord's name, spelled YHWH, was probably pronounced Yahweh (though Jews do not speak that name when reading the Scriptures). Some Christians now wanted to use that name in English translations wherever it was printed in the Hebrew text, and also to replace the English word God and even the Anglicized name Jesus with the Hebrew originals, Elohim and Yahshua. Many were particularly offended by the use of God, derived from the pagan German Gott.

   In the 1930s, leaders in the Church of God (Seventh-day) began to use the Sacred Names exclusively. They formed the Faith Bible and Tract Society (1938), the Assembly of YHWH, a congregation in Michigan, and The Faith, a monthly periodical launched by Elder C. O. Dodd (1899-1955). One of the regular contributors to The Faith, A. B. Traina, began work on a Sacred

   Name Bible, which was published in installments as the New Testament (1950), the Old Testament (1963), and the complete Holy Name Bible (1980). More recently several other Sacred Name Bibles have appeared.

   The movement has remained relatively small and splintered as individuals disagreed over exactly how the names should be spelled. The largest group is the Assemblies of Yahweh founded by Jacob O. Meyer (b. 1934) in Bethel, Pennsylvania. Meyer began a radio ministry in 1966 and publishes two periodicals, the Sacred Name Broadcaster and the Narrow Way. The Assemblies fellowship includes more than 75 congregations in the united States and has affiliated members in more than 100 counties.

   See also Adventism.

   Further reading:

   ■ A. N. Dugger and C. O. Dodd, A History of the True Church (Jerusalem, Israel: the authors, 1968)

   ■ Jacob O. Meyer, The Memorial Name - Yahweh (Bethel, Pa.: Assemblies of Yahweh, 1978)

   ■ Richard Nickels, "Origin and History of the Sacred Name Movement." Available online. uRL: http://www.give-share.org/churchhistory/sacrednamehistory.html

   ■ A. B. Traina, The Holy Name Bible (Brandywine, Md.: Scripture Research Association, 1980).