Daily Word: The Messiah's Name Part 2

We are spending a few days looking at the name of our Savior. This is very important because Acts 4:12 says: "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (NKJV) We need to have the correct name, because salvation is only in THE NAME. "Other names" won't work, so we continue our search for truth. Yesterday, we saw that Iesous was Greek for Jesus. Iesous is related to Ieso, the Greek goddess of healing. The abbreviated form of Iesous is Ies, or in capital letters IHS ("H" is the capital for the letter "e" in Greek). Have you ever seen the letters IHS in churches. I have, generally on the pulpit. Some believe it stands for, "In His Service." It doesn't; it stands for Ies the abbreviated form of Iesous.

IHS was the surname of the god Bacchus. Dr. E.W. Bullinger, the editor of The Companion Bible says: "Whatever meanings of...IHS may be given, the fact remains that it was part of the name Bacchus...." Bacchus was a well known sun god and was commonly referred to as Tammuz among classical writers. Calling our Savior Iesous was a way to assimilate sun worshipers into the Christian faith. They were used to giving honor to IHS, so they now would do the same for the expanded version, Iesous. We get Jesus from Iesous. M. Turretin said the following concerning Christianity in the fourth century: "that it was not so much the Empire that was brought to the Faith, as the Faith that was brought over to the Empire; not the Pagans who were converted to Christianity, but Christianity that was converted to Paganism." The reference to Empire was to the Roman Empire.


Do you want YHWH to move in our churches? Do you desire to see real revival? If so, I suggest we need to remove all aspects of sun worship and paganism from our practices. We need to be faithful and true to our heavenly Father YHWH. We need the power of the Name in our lives and that includes having the right Name. (More tomorrow.)