Acts 2:21

(Acts 2:21)

『And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 』

 

To call on the name of the Lord, we must know the name of the Lord. The Hebrews recorded God as El in the Bible. The word God is a proper noun. But God also has a name.

In the Old Testament, when the Hebrews expressed God's name in writing, they left it blank, and when they read the name, they muttered, "Yord Bab He Bab." Later, they did not use this name.

God gave Moses his own name and said, "I am who am." (Missora Bible) The Hebrews called this name Adonai. But it was still blank in the Old Testament. The Egyptian Pharaoh (Philadelphus: Ptolemy II) drew 72 men from Israel and translated the Bible into Greek for 72 days in Alexandria. They wrote the name of God in the blank as YHWH and called it Kurius. In Latin, it is called Dominus.

 

Then the diaspora, who lived in Alexandria, switched to YHaWHai by attaching adonai's vowels a and ai to YHWH. So Yhawhai(Yahweh)  is called. Today, the English Bible says it is LORD.

In the Old Testament it is written LORD, and in the New Testament it is Lord. LORD speaks of Jehovah, and Lord represents the Son of God. He died on the cross to redeem sinners and rose in three days. Lord means Messiah. God is one (Jehovah). In the kingdom of God, LORD became the Son of God(Lord) to die on the cross in this land.

『And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.』 (Acts 2:21)

Instead of calling anyone, those who become God's people, that is, those who repent to God, can call on the name of the Lord. Repentance is to deny yourself and turn to the word of God. 『Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.』(Matthew 7:21) My Father's will is to believe what the Son says.『And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. 』 (John 6:40)

Galatians(3:23) speaks of faith.『 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 』 『 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 』 (1 John 5: 5-6)

『Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 』 (1 Peter 3: 20-21) Water means: If we had lived in Noah's day, we would have died. So baptism means the dead.

『In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 』 (Ephesians 1:7) Redemption means that God buys from Satan a repentant sinner through the death of Christ. Thus the repentant is in Christ. Those who are in Christ are redeemed and then forgiven.

Being in Christ means being united with Christ. United with the dead Jesus on the cross. Thus, those who are united with Jesus are dead for sin (Romans 6: 2), for the law (Galatians 2:19), and for the world (Galatians 6:14). Thus, those who are in Christ are saved from God. This was God's predecessor before creation.

『According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 』 (Ephesians 1: 4)

Those who are to be saved are those who repent. Repentance is one who denies self (greedy) before the word of God. Thus, the repentant do not greedy the riches of the world. Those who repent have a living conscience for God. Those with a conscience will repent of God. So they are afraid of God. The repentant realizes that he is trapped in sin. They realize that they cannot escape from sin except to die. They (soul: old man) die on the cross with Jesus.『 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 』(Romans 6: 4)

You must be a winner in your battle with yourself.『 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. 』 (Revelation 3: 5)