Yahweh: The Self-Existent One

Yahweh, or YHWH, is a name for God that has traditionally been considered His most holy name. The name denotes self-existence or total actuality. It speaks of God’s eternality, immutability, and necessary existence. The purpose of this essay is to explore the scriptural, philosophical, and practical implications of God’s self-existence as revealed in the name Yahweh.

Because it was originally spelled with four letters, the name Yahweh became known as the Tetragrammaton. Yahweh seems to be the preferred name of God in the Old Testament. Yahweh is the way God identified Himself to Moses at the burning bush (Ex. 3:1-17). In English, this name is simply translated “I AM.” The name Yahweh became considered too holy to even say around 500 BC. The Jews would say the name Adonai, which means “Lord,” so as to avoid saying, “Yahweh.” The name became erroneously known as Jehovah during the middle ages. Even today, scholars are unsure of exactly how this name was originally pronounced. However, Yahweh is likely the correct pronunciation. Nonetheless, Jehovah remains a common mispronunciation of this name.

Even in the New Testament Jesus identifies Himself as being one with Yahweh when He referred to Himself as “I AM.” Jesus says this on multiple occasions (John 8:28, Matthew 14:27, Mark 6:50). Christian philosopher, Meister Eckhart, put it well when he described God as “pure being” or “pure thatness.” This is to say God exists by necessity of His own nature. He is a necessary Being. That is what the name Yahweh emphasizes.

Many atheists have asked the question, “Who made God?” Indeed, the most famous atheist apologist today, Richard Dawkins, uses this as his primary objection to the existence of God. This is supposed to put the theist in an inescapable predicament. The atheist says, theists maintain that everything that exists has a cause. Since the universe exists it must have had a cause, and the cause is God. The obvious problem is that if everything needs a cause, then God must need one as well. So if God created the universe then who or what created God?

This misunderstands the theistic argument. No theist has ever maintained that everything that exists has a cause. Theists say things that begin to exist must have causes. To say everything has a cause is self-defeating. If everything needs a cause then the universe needs God, and God needs a cause, and God’s cause needs a cause, and God’s cause’s cause needs a cause on into infinity. Since it is generally accepted that real infinities cannot exist, there must be a terminator for such an infinite regress of causes and effects. God is believed to be the ultimate reality behind the universe and thus God would be eternal and uncaused.

 Traditionally atheists held that the universe was the ultimate, uncaused, reality. Theists maintained that God was the creator of the universe. It was not until the evidence started decisively favoring the idea of a cosmic beginning that atheists started saying things such as, “Who created God?” If the idea of a past-eternal universe is coherent, why challenge the idea of a past-eternal God? Theism always has understood God to be eternal. God is from “everlasting to everlasting” (Ps. 103:17). Long before philosophers and theologians developed sophisticated arguments for the existence of such a Being, the Jews already believed in the great “I AM.” Great thinkers have not discovered anything about God that was not already revealed in the Bible. God is a Being for which nonexistence is an impossible state. That is what the name Yahweh draws out about God.

By self-existent, theists do not mean merely that God has always existed. Theoretically, something could exist eternally as well as contingently. Yet, God is not a contingent Entity (Ps. 102:25-27). As stated previously, God does not exist because something outside of Himself causes Him to exist. His existence is part of His nature. That is what theists mean by self-existent.

There are three types of existence: necessary existence, contingent existence, and nonexistence. The name Yahweh means God is in the first category. But, could there be other necessarily existent things? Christian theology has held that only God is self-existent (Isa. 43:10.) In 1078, a monk, named Anslem, provided a controversial argument which, if valid, shows that God is the only necessary Being. This has been called the ontological argument. In logical form, the argument would be formulated as follows:

1: If it is possible that God exists, then God actually exist.

2: It is possible that God exists.

3: Therefore, God exists.

Obviously the first premise of the argument is immediately controversial. Why, after all, can we not substitute God for unicorn, and then say that unicorns exist? The issue is that people do not understand how God is defined in the argument. God is defined as a maximally great Being (hereafter MGB). Scripture affirms the greatness of God (Jer. 10:6, 1 Ps. 47:2, Tim. 6:16). A Being that is maximally great must possess all attributes of greatness such as omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. Such a Being cannot be greater, otherwise He would not be maximally great. Furthermore this being would have to exist in all possible worlds. (By a possible world, philosophers mean any way the world could logically be.) If the MGB existed in some possible worlds, but not all, then He would not be maximally great. But, most importantly for the purpose in question (Can there be more than one necessary Being?) there can only be one such Being. If there were another, the MGB would no longer be maximally great. Maximal greatness entails being greater than everything else. Nothing can be the equal of something that is maximally great. Thus, there can be only one MGB. So if such a Being is possible, then such a Being exists. Since a MGB is possible, then it follows that a MGB does exist. And He must be the only one. Thus, God is the only necessary thing that exists. Everything else is contingent upon Him for its existence. Yahweh is the self-existent God in which everything else has its source (Ep. 4:6).

So what are the practical implications of studying of the name Yahweh? Is it not enough that believers have faith in God and share His message with the world? Christians need to understand that God reveals Himself through different names to reveal different things about Himself. Studying God, His names, and His attributes will help Christians to have a better understanding of who God is. Christians’ worship and prayer lives will radically transform for the better when they see God for who He is. Unfortunately, the name Yahweh brings up thoughts of a vengeful, Old Testament God to many believers. They fear this name will scare prospective, unsaved people. This is a sad state of affairs for Christianity. Yahweh is God’s chosen name for Himself. Believers should neither fear it, nor should they abandon it. Christians are commanded to worship God in spirit and in truth (John. 4:24). The name Yahweh tells believers much about who God is and how great He is.