The Empty Titles of God!!

Jarlath Uche Opara

The Bible( Sacred scripture) Apart from personal revelation, the Church’s teachings and tradition seems to be one of the authentic sources through which we know about God, his personality and operating system.

Growing up, the image of God that I grew up with was one of a no nonsense God, whose eyes behold no evil or its semblance.

God that stands and waits in ambush with a sledge hammer to hit any earring and desident person. This of course made many of us to develop more of an internal fear for God as against love, dealing with him not from a mutual relationship that should be characterised with love, freedom, unhindered access and undue protocol as against duty, fear, trembling etc

Over time, through personal reflections, one wouldn’t be entirely wrong to hold a different view about God and how he has been profiled or rather projected to our infantile and impressionable minds, which may have been overblown out of proportion to induce either fear, morals sense or awe.

Remembering those tales told us those years about God and what one eventually discovered, one could not but chuckle, smile and shake ones head.

Such is life, and I guess it played still a good role, making one to be on ones toes, else the sledge hammer hits.

Severally I have had occasions to engage robustfully with persons who thought that the Old Testament God is very different from the God of the New Testament. The thrusts of their arguments are the yawning gabs between the God who is all loving , compassionate, kindness, Merciful etc against the God that kills, lacks mercy, encourages tit for tat, an eye for an eye etc. It may sound plausible on face value, a deeper interrogation by biblical scholars may give a different perceptive, after all all scripture is inspired

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works”.( 2Tim3:16-17)

inspired” could be literally translated “God-breathed.” God has intended and inspired every word of Scripture. He is the primary author of the Bible. And yet, God has used human authors as the agents through which He has written the Bible.

At this point I leave further discussions and interrogations of the difference between the Old Testament God and New Testament by experts on scriptures.

Now the crux of this piece “The Empty Titles of God”. An average Nigerian is one that easily given to titles. Titles that play on their emotional intelligence and push them to do things they ordinarily wouldn’t but for the title.

Is God in same mould of being easily swayed by titles? Titles that have no semblance of his nature, attributes, exploits etc? Titles like Ebenezer( God my helper)Adonia( Lord) El Shaddai ( God Almighty) Jehovah Shammah (The Lord is there) Jehovah Ra’ah ( The Lord is my Shepherd) Jehovah Rapha ( The God that heals ) Jehovah Nissi ( The Lord is our banner ) Jehovah Jireh ( The God that provides ) He is also known as omniscience ( All knowing) Omnipotence ( All powerful) Omni benevolence (Supremely good) Elohim ( God the creator ) are titles that reflect the real essence of God. What he does and the kind of impact or influence he had on the lives of people. These are not empty titles that make no logical sense. They are titles that match decently the very nature of God,

When we begin to give God titles that are bogus but do not resonate decently to the sacred nature of God it becomes more like a dancing spree of a masquerade meant to do the unthinkable by mere hyping it with titles.

God is not a masquerade nor human that gets emotionally tickled by mere verbose use of titles. What is Ogidigada? What is the one who is above and his clothes spread on the earth?( Onye no n’ ala Ogodo ya an akpu n’ ala) What is one person that recieves the greetings of multitude?( Otu onye ana asi unu abiala) What is ntu ntu mmiri na egbu ogwe?( Drizzle of rain that does wonders)What is Babahum babahum? Ogbara nkiti ogwu di nonu ya ( silent but filled with words) You can name such funny ways of trying to woo God through human language.

Wouldn’t be surprised to hear people addressing God as Gwo Gwo gwo ngwo the almighty God. We are dynamically creative in our worship no doubt . However, such creative dynamism should be expressed within the threshold of sacredness and decency.

The question is, does God get moved by such titles? Are these titles very relatable to his nature and attributes? In as much as it is encouraged for one to try to be in ones skin worshiping God, engaging God with titles that make no sacred sense is a no no.

There should be some level of ethics of worship and relationship with God. However cordial and informal our relationship with our earthly fathers is, there are certain words that is a no! no! We dare not use them in our conversation with them.

One equally sees such use of verbose titles on the Blessed Virgin Mary. Prominent among them is the title of “Mother millionaire”. Songs like Mother Mary Mother millionaire I love you, is for me one of the verbosely empty lyrics I have heard, lacking in sacredness, drained with spiritual nutrient, offering nothing but emotional tickling and hyping.

The Blessed virgin is rich with amazing and soul lifting names just like God to be addressed with such titles that would reduce her worth and essence to mere material things.

We should not allow our worship to God be watered down by our indiscriminate use of empty verbose titles that would only tickle our fancy without helping us get into a deeper understanding and appreciation of God and his previous exploits both in the lives of individuals and nations. If one finds those great names of God mentioned above not relatable enough to be used, asking God to give one an experience, a miracle etc that would inform the name one would call him without sounding condescendingly patronising with titles should rather be the way to go. Check out these underlisted titles of God by humans out of emotional surge

1)Oji obara-agha-mgbo( He who uses blood as bullet)
2)Ogba-ogu-onye-umengwu(The rescuer of a lazy man from battle)

3)Dikenadimkpa ( Strong man and brave man)

4)Onwa-netiri-oha( The moon that shines for all)

5) Egbe-ejiejeogu,( The gun for battle)

6)Obinigwe-nkeato( God of the third heaven)

I understand the emotional attachment invested in all these names,especially in the place of prayer. As quite unrelatable they are to the divine nature and attributes of God, I am utmostly sceptical if God can relate with such titles and possibly move to act. Just thinking aloud!

Jarlath Uche Opara Jarlathuche@gmail.com