LORD GOD ALMIGHTY

The compound names of God form a rich field of study. Individually the names are wonderful, but when combined with other appellations of the Deity, they take on a new character. Like the blending of primary colours on the artist’s palette to form a spectrum, these names provide a rainbow of truth for the soul. Thomas Newberry wrote: ‘Each separate title of God may be regarded as one letter, complete in itself, while all arranged and combined together, spell out in full the one grand and wondrous Name of the God of the Bible’.

In our English Bible, a distinction is made to show which name of God is in the text, especially as used in the Hebrew Scriptures. Where we find the name ‘GOD’, when linked with ‘Adonai’, or ‘LORD’ printed in capitals, the original is generally ‘Jehovah’; see Gen 2. 4, 5, 7, 8. When we find ‘God’, as in Genesis 1, it is ‘Elohim’. Where we find ‘Lord’, as in Genesis 15. 2; 18. 3,27,30-32, it is ‘Adonai’. Thus ‘LORD God’, Gen. 2.4,5, 7,8, is ‘Jehovah Elohim’. But ‘Lord GOD’, as in Genesis 15. 2, is ‘Adonai Jehovah’.

When ‘Jehovah’ stands alone, as in Genesis 4.1, 3, 4, 6, 9, or is joined with ‘Elohim’, Gen. 2.4,5,6, it is always written in Hebrew with the vowel points of ‘Adonai’. Where ‘Adonai’ is joined to ‘Jehovah’, as in Genesis 15. 2, ‘Jehovah’ is written with the vowel points of ‘Elohim’. The Jews refused to speak the name‘Jehovah’, always reading ‘Adonai’ for ‘Jehovah’ except where ‘Adonai’ is joined to ‘Jehovah’, as in Gen. 15. 2. Today, they refer to Him simply as ‘the Name’. What a day when they discover God has ‘given Him [Jesus] the name which is above every name’, Phil. 2. 9, NKJV.

The title ‘Lord God Almighty’ is found only in the Revelation. It links the words kurios, theos, and pantokrator. Pantokrator is the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew shaddai. The first scene, chapter 4, presents Him as the worthy Creator; the second, as the rightful Sovereign; the third, as the victorious Redeemer; the fourth, as the righteous Judge; and the final scene as the glorious Temple, the worship centre of the universe. ‘He is thy Lord; and worship thou him’, Ps. 45.11.