Many Christians who read the Chinese Union Version (和合本) of the Bible are familiar with the divine name 耶和華. In the Old Testament, this name appears thousands of times and is commonly understood as God’s personal name. Yet relatively few readers realize that the form “Jehovah” is not the original Hebrew pronunciation of God’s name, but rather the result of a long history of transmission, public reading, and translation. The origin of the name begins with the Hebrew word יהוה (YHWH), often called the Tetragrammaton, meaning “the four letters.” This is the personal name by which ...
To help us think about this question based on Scripture, it is useful to divide it into three parts: Part 1: Can we Christians pray for people who have already died? Prayer is talking to God. In prayer, our petitions ask God to use his power to take action for people. Whenever we Christians use the Lord’s Prayer, we say “your will be done.” We know that God is our Creator and we humans are his creatures, so our knowledge and ability cannot compare with his. His will is key for our origin, our present, and ...
Early on, Christians learn that Jesus died for our sins (1 Cor 15:3). Certainly, this means Jesus died for our past sins and mistakes, but does it mean he also died for our future sins? When the Bible says Jesus died for our sins, this includes all of our sins—past, present, and future. But this is not what all church leaders teach. Some of them worry that this biblical teaching will give free rein to people’s sinful nature. They think, “if we tell people Jesus died for their future sins as well as for their past ...
