If I use Catholic priests as an obvious example, they call Yahshua (well Jesus) their Master/Lord/Rabbi/Sovereign/King, etc. and they do a lot in His Name like build schools, do good for their communities (bar making business for lawyers and child psychologists), even lead people away from a life of crime to a more "righteous" life, with some of their converts actually coming to know Yahweh once they've sifted through the doctrinal rubbish of the RCC. But since a number of these priests don't know Yahweh, who is Yahshua, they will be banished from His presence (Who am I to pronounce judgement??? Hmm...). Their "priorities" not being in the right place, not having a relationship with Yahweh and in reality relying on Catholic doctrine as opposed to Yahweh and His teachings. They call the God of the Torah, Prophets, Psalms and NT their God but they have mixed such an incredible amount of pagan doctrines into their beliefs that Yahweh has become practically invisible.
Yahweh is the Lord over all, He is the One, the Sovereign and Ruler of the universe but He wants us to know Him as our Father and wants us to share that familial love with others. Now the Catholic Church on the other hand teach God is holy, not set-apart but rather cannot be touched, that He is on an unreachable pedestal looking down condemning sinners while at the same time allowing Catholics to sin as they please as long as they support the Catholic Church financially and sit in their pews. They call Yahweh their Lord, and do many things in His Name, but fail to present the truth as it should be. We too acknowledge Yahweh as our Lord, meaning Ruler, Sovereign, Master, Owner, etc. but we also share the truth as it should be, we walk in the truth of His Torah and love our neighbours in the same way He loves us.
Yahweh is our Lord (not Baal but Ruler, Owner and Master), but He would prefer us to call Him by Name, and be His friends, His bride, sitting next to each other on His throne because we love each other, as opposed to bowing in cowardly fear before Him and submitting to Him because one is forced to rather than chosing to.
My point was that even guys like Peter and John referred to Yahshua as their Rabbi, as the Exalted One, the Teacher, their Master, the One who ruled over them, their Lord. In other words we shouldn't be quick to judge others even if they were to use words such as "Jesus is Lord". If we forbid using the word "lord" then we have to ask the question: who is our Lord, who is our Master, who is the One we say Rules and Reigns over the universe? Surely it is not us?! To say the phrase "Yahweh is my Father but He is not my Lord" is implying that the person rules himself, that he is his own lord.
IHN's post does have a lot of weight behind it because it explicitly speaks of the importance of knowing Yahshua on a personal level. How does the saying go? There's a difference between knowing about Yahweh and to really know Yahweh! My point was that we shouldn't be quick to consider all Christians (regardless of denomination) as walking in error and therefore unsaved, not that IHN was implying this, but that view does certainly come across to me when I read some posts. And from Swalchy's post it's possible that the placeholder KE refers to the word rab, as in Exalted One. And don't we too call Yahweh the Most High, the Sovereign, King and Saiour, like Isaiah does? So IHN's post (referring to the initial one) is right, it's about knowing Yahweh on a personal level as opposed to knowing about Him and getting one's spiritual guidance from and relying on someone, or something else (i.e. Catholic doctrine).
So what we don't want to do is make Yada, KP, etc. to be our Teacher, to be our Exalted Ones. It's a dangerous thing to rely on a flawed human being, instead we should rely on the perfect One, Who came as human being for our benefit, who is truly our Teacher and has given us His Spirit to guide us.
Now this leads into Ben's post concerning priorities and making a religion out of YY. Our priorities should be to spend time with Yahweh, to search Him, to rely upon Him and His Torah, to follow the leading of the Spirit in our own lives. This forum and associated books are excellent in helping one grow in one's relationship with Yahweh but we shouldn't turn YY into a religion and shouldn't rely on Yada, KP as we would rely on Yahweh. The Galatians debate has really brought issues to light, not everyone agrees with Yada, some saying he's wrong in claiming that Paul wrote it since there's sufficient evidence to suggest it was a forgery (in this case Paul still being a good guy), and others saying Galatians is still Scripture, whereas others have fully or at least somewhat agreed with Yada's view on Paul (being a false prophet) and Galatians. What's being said here is that we should open our minds and see what others have to say first before jumping on the bandwagon, whether Yada is right or not. Yada is truly magnificent in his approach to expounding on God's Word, as is Ken, but we need to rely on the Spirit first before bowing down and accepting their words, if you get my drift. Even both Yada and KP often stress that, that we should look to God for our guidance and that we shouldn't rely on them but should weigh up their words according to Scripture.
This forum is the best I've ever visited in regards to studying Scripture, the people are diverse and are willing to dicuss topics rationally, an environment that I think Yahweh would be proud of. Plus even when I disagree on certian topics, like me not being so concerned about the use of the word lord whereas others are, I stil feel welcome and still feel I have much to benefit from by attending this forum and reading what others have to say. We shouldn't want people to turn away, but rather for people to join in and speak their concerns. Every other day I see new people join the forum by creating accounts, but only about a few percent are active members. In a number of cases people say it has taken them a year of browsing the forum before fidning the courage to post. The question is: what's so intimidating? Swalchy's knowledge of Greek for one! No jokes ;) Maybe feeling as if Yada's gunz-a-blazing style will bite them, maybe that we'll bite their head off like we've done to Frank4YAHWEH, Greatest I am, Prophet Speaks, etc., or maybe just not being a serious poster and preferring to only read comments. I for one don't enjoy posting on Dawkins' forum because I get nervous knowing that I'll get all these nasty responses, especially from moderators who have sent me informal and formal warnings. Do I fear the religion of Dawkins' forum? You bet your tushy I do. Do some forum members feel unwelcome here by sensing a religion is being created? Possibly, but I seriously hope not.
Anyway, waaaay too much said... Just posting my thoughts.
