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Question

 

Hi Gramps,

Could you please explain, in the scriptures, the difference between Lord God the Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ? It’s my understanding that Christ is spoken of MOST of the time in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and God the Father is referenced much more sparingly. My husband says that’s because Christ (if you’ll forgive the simplistic nature of this) is kind of like the “contractor” for his Father’s work. So he’s in charge in God the Father’s name. Is that kind of correct?

Jennifer

 

Answer

 

Dear Jennifer,

Yes, that is kind of correct. You see, Jehovah, is actually the name for the Savior that He used in Old Testament times. Many people are confused by this issue, thinking that Jehovah refers to God the Father. This confusion can be rather easily clarified in the scriptures. The reference in Exodus 6:2-3, is instructive.

And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

If one reads this passage in the Hebrew, the word used for LORD is Jehovah. As a matter of fact, everywhere in the King James version of the Old Testament where the word LORD (all caps.) is used, the Hebrew word from which it is translated is Jehovah. Now, how do we know that Jehovah is not God, the Father, but the Lord, Jesus Christ. In Zechariah 12:8-10 we read,

In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.

 

And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

 

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

From the first sentence, the subject is the LORD, or Jehovah. And as is often the case in the scriptures, the LORD speaks of himself both in the third and in first person. That is so in this scripture. In the phrase, I will seek to destroy and I will pour upon the house of David, it is the LORD (Jehovah) who is speaking. So it is clear that the following statement, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, the pronoun, me, refers to Jehovah, who is speaking. This passage unequivocally identifies Jehovah as the Lord, Jesus Christ.

When God, the Father, is referred to in the Hebrew, the word used is Elohiym. This word actually means, the Gods, as –hiym is the plural ending. This concept is consistent with the creation account in the Pearl of Great Price—

And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth (Abr 4:1).

And they (the Gods) said: Let there be light; and there was light (Abr 4:3).

 

Gramps

 

 

 

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