Theos-Talk Archives (February 1997 Message tl00440)

 WHAT'S IN A NAME?

The Three Keys:

1. The hidden meaning found in proper names
2. The hidden meaning found in certain key words
3. The hidden meaning found in certain key numbers

The First Key:

Now, I am going to place in your hands three keys that will open doors that have
heretofore remained locked to you. The first "key" is to be found in the
meanings of proper names in the Bible. Name means nature in the Bible. "In His
name" means according to His nature. Every Hebrew proper name, whether of a
person or a place, will reveal to you a state of consciousness. You will find
that as the state of consciousness changes in the story, the person's name will
change. Thus, Abram becomes Abraham, Sarai becomes Sarah, Saul becomes Paul,
etc. They cannot keep their names once their nature or character has changed
because these proper names all have a deeper meaning than just a name.

Names Are States of Consciousness.

One day, while looking in the index of my large reference Bible, King James
Version, I noticed that following each and every Hebrew name there was, in
parenthesis, an interpretation of that name. Each one was a state of
consciousness or a description of an invisible quality. With high excitement, I
began to reread some of the familiar Bible stories. To my great interest, I
found that the battles were all between certain states of consciousness where
the divine faculties in man made war with the human materialistic concepts of
man. I read on avidly, half afraid that some of the names would spoil my theory.
They never did. Like the names of the places in The Pilgrims Progress, they gave
a greater meaning, a meaning that made more sense. Each time the story proved
out. No character was miscast. Each served a purpose in a story of consciousness
leading up to the birth of the Christ, the awareness of the Divine Son-ship.

Thus translation of names becomes the first KEY in unlocking the mystery of the
Bible. Reread the Bible in the light of the meaning of proper names alone and a
vast new import will be apparent.

The Nature of God --

So when we are talking about a name, we are talking about the nature of the
person or thing spoken about. We are talking about a total concept that is known
and understood. As you open your mind to receive spiritual unfoldment, you will
find that the nature of God, about which thousands and thousands of volumes have
been written. When you read God, you call to mind what God has come to mean to
you.

Thus every time we speak of 'the name of God,' we are speaking of 'the nature of
God.' Look up some of the references to 'name' with the aid of your concordance
and you will feel almost as if you had discovered a secret code giving you
access to buried treasure. Take Exodus 3:15 where we find the Lord saying to
Moses, "this is my name forever..." and read it 'this is my nature forever; take
Psalms 9:10, "they that know thy name [nature]...trust in thee,,,"; and Psalms
111:9, "holy and reverend is his name [nature]", and Isaiah 42:8, "I am the Lord
[law]: that is my name [nature] of ... our God..." This is only a beginning, but
it will give you an idea of how to use the second Key.

Name Means Nature.

If the Bible is complicated to us, it is because we don't know the Hebrew
language. We just don't know what the Scriptures are sometimes talking about.
This is what we miss when we try to make these stories into historical
documents. When we use the true names, signifying natures, then real meaning is
revealed to us. The stories are not just about ancient peoples, but stories of
direct meaning for each one of us.

Take any of the Bible genealogies and trace them back, taking each name and
looking up its Hebrew meaning. By putting in the meaning rather than the names,
you will find that the genealogies are an unfoldment of ideas.

Each Place Is a Place in Consciousness.

Egypt signifies 'bondage'; Eden, 'delight or bliss'; Bethel stands for the
'house of God, consciousness of the all Good'; the tower of Babel or Babylon, as
you can guess, means 'confusion'. The people who dwell in these lands represent
the kind of consciousness from which they originate; their children are always
thoughts springing from the parent thought. To the Hebrew storyteller, each
story had a deeper meaning. Do you begin to see 'WHAT'S IN A NAME?'

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What if you slept,
and what if in your sleep you dreamed,
and what if in your dream you went to heaven
      and there you plucked a strange
      and beautiful flower,
and what if when you awoke
      you had the flower in your hand ?
What then ?

Let There Be Light -- Always in All Ways,   e.j. {:-)
   http://home.earthlink.net/~ejlight/index1.html
"Matter is energy & energy is Light --
therefore we are Light Beings." A. Einstein