Most people believe that Jesus is God's son, and that God sent His son down to save us from our sins. However, in some Bibles, the name of God is either mentioned as God or Lord. But those are not names, those are titles. So what is God's name?
If one were to accede to monotheism, God would not need a name, as there is no other and differentiation is not necessary or even possible.
In the Bible, God is referred to as a person, or rather, a sentient Being with a personality and consciousness. Those attributes mentioned, along with other qualities, form a person's identity. A person would need an individualized (note, individual) name in order to have an identity, otherwise, he would not truly be a person. Thus, God would have a name.
Then what makes a god? There are all sorts of gods in religions, old myths, and even fictional universes with all sorts of different abilities and natures. Furthermore, what is a name?
In this discussion, the God that we are referring to with a capital G is the god in Judaism and Christianity. A name is something that makes up the identity of a person, something that distinctly separates an individual from other individuals. Hope that clarifies things.
Exodus 6
"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."
(Old Testament) Psalms 83:18 "That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth."
Yeah, well, not quite. "Jehovah" is an English approximation to what some believe to be the correct pronunciation of יהוה. Of course, whether it is correct to pronounce the name at all is debatable.
Now I'm not sure if my original post was very clear.... I was thinking more of monotheism vs, polytheism. As there is one God, then He does not need a name because this is no other god from which to differentiate Him. However, seeing as how people worship myriad things as deities, a name would be necessary in the context of God's interaction with humans for clarification.
Even monotheists had to distinguish theirs from everyone else's deities.
