Sacred Name Movement

The Sacred Name Movement (SNM) began within the Church of God (Seventh-Day) in Christianity, propagated by Clarence Orvil Dodd from the 1930s, which claims that it seeks to conform Christianity to its "Hebrew Roots" in practice, belief and worship. The best known distinction of the SNM is its advocacy of the use of the "sacred name" Yahweh (Hebrew: יַהְוֶה), i.e., the reconstructed proper name of the God of Israel, and the use of the original Hebrew name of Jesus, often transliterated as Yahshua.[1] SNM believers also generally keep many of the Old Testament laws and ceremonies such as the Seventh-day Sabbath, Torah festivals, and kashrut food laws.

History

The Sacred Name Movement arose in the early 20th century out of the Church of God (Seventh Day) movement. This movement was influenced by Joseph Franklin Rutherford who changed the name of the main branch of the Bible Student movement to Jehovah's witnesses in 1931, based on his belief in the importance of the Hebrew name of God.[2] C. O. Dodd, a member of the Church of God (Seventh Day), began keeping the Jewish festivals (including Passover) in 1928, adopting sacred name doctrines in the late 1930s.[3]

The Assembly of Yahweh was the first religious organization in the Sacred Name Movement. It was formed in Holt, Michigan, in the 1930s. The Assembly of Yahweh believes the name of the Almighty Yahweh should be used along with his son's name, Yahshua. They keep the seventh day Sabbath (Friday sunset to Saturday sunset) along with all the scriptural feast days. They believe the Torah (law) was not done away with. They believe Yahshua is the son of Yahweh and that his life, death, burial, and resurrection give us salvation. They believe after a person repents of sin, they should be baptized in the name of Yahshua. They first met in private homes near Lansing, Michigan. Later the assembly was located at The Camp of Yah outside of Eaton Rapids, Michigan. The land was owned by the Smith family, and Pearl Smith was the first pastor of the assembly. For a time after her leadership, the assembly was governed by a group of male elders. Sometime in the late 1960s, Samuel Graham was made pastor. The congregation purchased a one-room school house and an additional 79 acres (0.32 km2) a few miles from the original Camp of Yah. They later put a small addition on the original building. In 2008, the group received an anonymous donation to be used for a larger building. The main meeting room now allows up to 200 to meet for worship.

Dodd began publishing The Faith magazine starting in 1937 to promote his views.[3] It is currently freely distributed by the Assembly of Yahweh. American religious scholar J. Gordon Melton wrote, "No single force in spreading the Sacred Name movement was as important as The Faith magazine."[4]

Activities

The Assembly of Yahweh publishes the Faith Magazine and the Word of Yahweh Bible. They have services every Sabbath at 10:30 am and host all Feast days. During the Feast of Tabernacles, people come from different states and other countries to observe the feast.

Beliefs

The Sacred Name Movement consists of several small and contrasting groups, unified by the use of the name Yahweh and for the most part, a Hebraic-based form Yahshua for the name of God's Son. Angelo Traina, a disciple of Dodd, undertook the translation of a Sacred Name edition of the Bible, publishing the Holy Name New Testament in 1950 (see Tetragrammaton in the New Testament) and the Holy Name Bible in 1962, both based upon the King James Version, but changing some names and words in the text to Hebrew-based forms, such as "God" to "Elohim", "LORD" to "Yahweh" and "Jesus" to "Yahshua". Most groups within the Sacred Name Movement use a Sacred Name Bible, others having been produced since Traina's.

The SNM reject Easter and Christmas as pagan in origin and observe the holy days of Leviticus 23 such as Passover and the Feast of Weeks. They are also non-Trinitarian as they reject the Trinity doctrine as unbiblical.[5] However, groups within the movement have differed on doctrinal points, such as the wearing of beards and what constitutes a Sabbath rest. The Assemblies of Yahweh (headquartered in Bethel, Pennsylvania) distanced itself from the movement because of its refusal to become doctrinally united, calling the movement a "disorganisation" and "confusion".

SNM Bibles

Individuals and groups within the Movement will use other forms of Yahshua, including "Yeshua", "Yehoshua", "Yahushua", "Yahoshua", "Yaohushua", "Y'shua" or "Yahshuah". This use of the sacred names has led to the SNM production of Bibles. These include:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Semitic philology reconstructs the Aramaic name of Jesus as Yeshua, Yehoshua or Yahshua (cf. English "Joshua" Heb 4:8).
  2. ↑ Melton, J. Gordon (1992), Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America, New York: Garland Publishing, p. 83, ISBN 978-0-8153-1140-9, OCLC 246783309
  3. 1 2 Hughey, Sam, A History of the True Church, The Reformed Reader, retrieved 2009-01-07, archived by WebCite here, The Reformed Reader web site.
  4. ↑ Melton, J. Gordon (1978), The Encyclopedia of American Religions, Wilmington, North Carolina: McGrath Publishing Company, p. 476, ISBN 978-0-7876-6384-1, OCLC 4854827
  5. ↑ Clarke, Peter. Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements. p. 543.
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