Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12″
One of the reasons why I prefer the King James Version to the modern corrupt-text versions of the Bible is the emphasis in the KJV of the Name of the Lord Jesus. For example, the NIV has eliminated 38 references to the Name of Jesus that are included in the KJV. What were the translators of that version thinking? If the Name of Jesus Christ is the only Name in all of creation through which salvation is available, why would they ever want to eliminate even one of the references to it. Don’t they want people to be saved? Sometimes I wonder. Just like I wonder why people are taken up with other names, names with no power to save and no support from the Word of God.
Joseph and Mary were told that the Baby she was carrying was to be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21, Luke 1:31). The Name Jesus means Saviour. And to all who have trusted in Him as Saviour, that name is most precious. We sing with the hymn writer Frederick Whitfield, ‘There is a Name I love to hear, I love to sing its worth. It sounds like music in mine ear, the sweetest Name on earth. It tells me of a Saviour’s love, Who died to set me free; it tells me of His precious blood, the sinner’s perfect plea.’ Another hymn writer, Lela B. Long, gives us the same wonderful sentiments: Jesus is the sweetest Name I know, and He’s just the same as His dear lovely name, and that’s the reason why I love Him so. These hymn writers appreciated His name, and recognized that there is none like it. But not everybody sees it that way.
The world’s religions have their names, none of which have the power to save. The Moslems, for example, have their Allah, a cruel, repressive, and vindictive god who bears no resemblance to the merciful God of the Bible. And they have their false prophet Mohammed, a deeply evil and nasty character who was so unlike the meek and lowly Jesus. The false religions and cults all have their leaders, most of them now dead, who did nothing to solve mankind’s greatest problem of sin, and who certainly never provided salvation to anyone, not even themselves. But some of them have millions – and in the case of the Moslems, a billion – adherents, all duped into trusting a name that is useless in terms of preparing for eternity.
A Name that represents the power to save is also the only Name that is worthy to be worshipped, and the only Name that is worthy for assembling the Christians. Matthew 18:20 tells us that His is the only Name to which we can gather to expect His presence. I was intrigued by a decision by a denominational church that our son attends to change their name. The primary reason was to dispose of the name Baptist, because of that organization’s departure from acceptance of the inerrancy of the Scriptures and other unscriptural practices such as women pastors. But they simply swapped one name for another, and missed the only Name that matters.
Only one Name matters. Period! -Jim MacIntosh