Pastoral Letter Concering Sacred Names

An Open Pastoral Letter to the Partners of The Apostolic Assemblies of the House of Israel From the desk of the Founding Apostolic Overseer First Harvest Ministries International Beloved Partners, I am writing about one matter, and I am going to name it in the first breath so that nobody has to guess what this letter is for. There is a spirit rising in this house concerning the Sacred Names of the Father and the Son — and it is not the Spirit of YAHWEH. It does not announce itself. It works in whispers. It shows up when I invite a man into this pulpit to preach, or a sister onto this platform to sing, and they open their mouth and say "God," or they say "Jesus" — and before the benediction there are murmurs going around about why I let them up there at all. I know it is happening. I know roughly where it is coming from. And I am going to put an end to it in this letter. The Traveler and the Two Measures Imagine a man who has spent his entire life measuring the world in meters and kilometers. It is the only system he has ever been handed. It is the only system he has ever been taught. He is not a rebel. He is not a deceiver. He simply received what was given him. Then he arrives in America, where we measure in inches, and feet, and miles. He stops on the roadside and asks, "How many kilometers to the next town?" Now — every American within earshot knows exactly what that man is asking. We do not pretend confusion. We do not withhold the directions until he has been re- educated. We do not stand in the road and lecture him on the superiority of the mile while the sun goes down and he is still lost. We answer him. We point him down the road. And as we walk with him, he learns. And here is the part our critics forget: the road was the same road. The town was the same town. The distance never changed because the man said the wrong word for it. Now let me take that picture apart, so nobody in this house mistakes what I am doing with it. The traveler is the sister who stands on my platform and pours out her whole heart in song to "Jesus." The kilometers are the only words she was ever handed — by her mother, by her hymnal, by every preacher she ever sat under, by the Bible that was placed in her hands when she was six years old. The miles are YAHWEH and YAHSHUA. And I am the man on the roadside who happens to know both. The town is the Kingdom. And the town has not moved one inch. She is walking toward the same city I am walking toward. She is asking directions in the only units she owns. And I am not going to leave that woman standing in the road at sundown because her vocabulary offends the people watching from the porch. The Theft That Was Done to Them We teach the Name. We use the Name. We honor the Name. We will go on doing so until my last breath. But hear me carefully — and hear me on the point that most men miss: "God" is not a corrupted name. It is a title standing in the place where a Name belongs. The tragedy is not that men blasphemed — the tragedy is that men were handed a substitution and were never told there was anything underneath it. That is not their crime. It is their inheritance. It is what was done to them. You do not punish a man for the theft committed against him. But You and I Have No Such Excuse Now let me turn this toward my own house, because nothing I have just said gives us any cover whatsoever. For the man who has never been shown, ignorance is not rebellion. And Torah itself makes that distinction with a precision no one in this house should have missed. Leviticus provides an offering for the soul that sins through ignorance. There was a way back. There was blood for it. But the soul that acted presumptuously — that knew, and did it anyway — that soul shall be cut off from among his people, because he hath despised the word of YAHWEH. Ignorance had an altar. Presumption had none. But you and I know this Name. The veil was pulled back. We saw what was underneath it. And for us to revert now to what we know to be incorrect would not be humility, and it would not be graciousness, and it would not be love. It would be sin. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. And the times of this ignorance YAHWEH winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent. And hear the Master Himself: that servant which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, shall be beaten with few. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. Do you see it now? This is not one standard applied loosely. It is two standards applied righteously — much required of the one who has been given much, and mercy extended to the one who has been given little. So understand exactly where the weight falls in this house. It falls heaviest on us. The Name will not leave my mouth as long as I have breath — and I will not reach into the mouth of a man who has never been told there was anything else and tear his words out of it. I am not lowering the standard for you. I am refusing to charge a man with a debt he was never told he owed. Why We Are Not "Sacred Namers" I want to make something abundantly clear to all. We are not part of the Sacred Name Movement, and I want the reason on the record. It is not because we love the Name less. It is because we refuse the spirit that has attached itself to it in some quarters — a spirit that measures brethren, sorts them, and finds them wanting over a syllable. A spirit that has produced more division than disciples. A spirit that would rather be correct in an empty room than be a father in a full one. That is not zeal. That is Pharisaism wearing a Hebrew coat. The Pharisees were not wrong about tithing mint and anise and cummin. They were right about that. YAHSHUA said so plainly — these ought ye to have done. Their condemnation was that they had done the small thing while leaving undone the weightier matters: judgment, mercy, and faith. They strained at the gnat and swallowed the camel whole. I will not preside over a house that strains at pronunciation and swallows contempt for the brethren. The Scriptural Precedent This is not sentiment. This is apostolic pattern. Paul stood on Mars Hill in Athens, surrounded by altars, and found one inscribed TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. He did not open by condemning the inscription. He took the very words on their pagan altar and said: Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. He began where their understanding was, and he refused to leave them there. He met men in their vocabulary and walked them out of it. John came to YAHSHUA and said: Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy Name, and we forbade him, because he followeth not us. And the answer came back: Forbid him not. He that is not against us is on our part. Paul wrote from prison that some preached Christ out of envy and strife, and some out of good will — and what did he conclude? What then? Notwithstanding, every way, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. And to Timothy he wrote that the servant of the Master must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves — that peradventure YAHWEH will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. In meekness instructing. Not in ambush. Not in whispers. Not in a raised eyebrow from the third row while a sister is singing her heart out on the platform. Now to the Matter at Hand It has come to me that there are hidden innuendos and quiet concerns circulating about who I invite into this house to sing and to preach — because some of them say "God," and some of them say "Jesus." I am asking you plainly: stop it. Not because the Name is unimportant. Because you know what they mean, and they mean the Father and the Son. You are not confused. You are not deceived. You are not endangered. You are choosing to be offended by an inheritance you yourself carried until someone loved you enough to teach you better. Ask yourself honestly: who taught you? And how did they do it? Did they humiliate you? Did they whisper about you? Did they bar you from the platform until your pronunciation cleared inspection? Or did somebody walk with you down the road until you learned the miles? Extend what was extended to you. That is not weakness. That is the whole law fulfilled in one word. And there is one more question I want laid across every conversation that has been happening about my platform. Paul asked it of people who were certain they were the careful ones: Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Understand what I am and am not doing with that verse. I am not filing the Name away as a small thing believers may take or leave — I have already told you what it is and what it costs us who know it. I am putting the question to the judge, not to the servant. That woman on my platform is not answerable to you. She is answerable to the same Master you are, and He has not appointed you to inspect her on the way in. The Harvest You Did Not See Planted Now let me stop arguing principle and put facts in front of you — because I have been doing this a long time, and some of you have only ever seen the surface of it. Over the years I have invited men and women into this ministry who were completely clueless of our message, and I invited them anyway — to minister to us out of their own realm of understanding and their own anointing. It confounded people every single time. Nobody could understand why I invited Greg Locke to preach for me four years ago. There were questions. There were raised eyebrows. There were people in this very fellowship who quietly wondered whether I had lost my discernment. Today I sat in Greg Locke's church. And what is coming out of that man's mouth now? THE SABBATH DAY. Do I claim that I produced that? Absolutely not. YAHWEH alone knows every hand that ever planted or watered that field, and I was not the only one in it. But this I know, and I will say it without blinking: I am thankful I opened that door instead of bolting it. I have sat with Sis. Vicky Yohe while she asked me question after question after question about this truth — not to argue it, but to understand it. Nobody saw that happen. It was not on a livestream. Sis. Alvear now has a great Menorah standing in her church in Brazil, and she is keeping the Passover. I have continued to host Sis. Linda Gibson Johnson and others, and I intend to go right on doing it. Now hear me, because I am not building a monument to myself. Paul planted, Apollos watered, but YAHWEH gave the increase. I do not claim the harvest. The increase belongs to Him and to no man. But I know this much, and so do you: A seed cannot be planted in a field you refuse to enter. Every one of those doors opened because I did not stand in my own pulpit with a measuring stick and turn away a servant of the Most High over which word they used for Him. Had I done what a few of you are quietly wishing I would do, Greg Locke would never have stood in this house — and whatever seed fell into that ground would never have fallen at all. This is not carelessness. It is strategy. It is a vision larger than some of you have ever been expected to carry. My calling is to plant the Kingdom message everywhere I can get it into the soil — and especially into the hands of those whose platforms are large enough to thrust this end-time warning out to the nations of the world. You cannot carry a message to the nations while auditing the vocabulary of everyone who walks through your door. The Standard of This House Let this be understood and let it settle every question of the kind: 1. We hold the Name. We teach it, we honor it, we do not hide it, and we do not water it down. Anyone who sits under this ministry will learn it. 2. We do not weaponize it. The Name of YAHWEH was never given to us as a club to swing at the ignorant. It was given as a testimony to carry to them. 3. We educate — we do not eviscerate. Every believer who walks through these doors saying "God" and "Jesus" is a field ready for harvest, not an enemy at the gate. 4. The responsibility for this pulpit rests with me. I am the Overseer of this house, and I will answer to YAHWEH for whom I set before His people. If you have a sincere concern about someone I invite, bring it directly to me. I will hear you, and I will not hold it against you. But do not carry it into corners, group chats, and whispered conversations. Innuendo is not a spiritual gift. 5. Maturity is not measured by precision alone. It is revealed by what a man does with truth once he possesses it. A man who has the Name and lacks charity has nothing. He is sounding brass. He is a tinkling cymbal. He is right, and he is empty. And let no one twist a single line of this letter into something I did not say. None of this means that every doctrine is acceptable. It does not mean every teacher belongs in this pulpit. It does not mean sincerity turns error into truth. I am speaking about one specific thing and one only: brethren who love the Father and the Son but have not yet been given the restoration of Their Names. Discernment remains. Doctrine remains. The standard remains. What leaves this house is contempt. We Are Sons of Light Let me say the hard thing now, and let me say it as the man who built this house. I will not allow this beautiful movement to become Torah-thumping terrorists. I have watched it happen elsewhere. It never begins with cruelty. It begins with carefulness — a right zeal, a real restoration, a genuine love for the Name. And then somewhere along the road the zeal turns inward, and the people who were supposed to be a light to the nations become a checkpoint. Every visitor gets searched. Every song gets audited. Every brother becomes a suspect. And the movement that started out carrying a Name ends up guarding a border. That is not the House of Israel. That is a militia. We are SONS OF LIGHT. Not sons of inspection. Not sons of suspicion. YAHSHUA said, While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. Paul said, Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Light does not interrogate the room. Light fills it. And understand what is actually at stake when a man is made to feel small in this house over how he pronounces a Name: I would rather a thousand men mispronounce the Name than for one man to embarrass it. The Name is not damaged by an accent. The Name is damaged by arrogance wearing the Name like a badge. When a visitor leaves this house believing that YAHWEH's people are cold, superior, and impossible to please, the Name has been blasphemed — and it was not the visitor who did it. For the Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you. Paul wrote that to the people who were most certain they had the truth. Read it again slowly. Through you. My Charge to You Beloved, we cannot expect every voice that lifts a song in this house to already know what we know. AGAPE covers their ignorance — and let me tell you something sobering: it is the same AGAPE that covered yours, and covers mine still, in the ten thousand places where my own understanding is not yet finished. None of us arrived here by our own brilliance. Every one of us was carried here. So be patient. Be kind. Be longsuffering. Take every opportunity to teach and none to tear down. Love all men — not the version of them they will be after we have corrected them, but the version standing in front of us right now, singing with everything they have to a Father whose Name they have not yet been told. That is the spirit of this house. I will guard it — and if I must choose between guarding the pronunciation of the Name and guarding the honor of the Name, I will guard the honor every single time. A mispronounced Name can be corrected in an afternoon. An embarrassed Name takes a generation. Your servant and your father in the faith, Rev. John Shane Vaughn Founding Apostolic Overseer First Harvest Ministries International The Apostolic Assemblies of the House of Israel P.O. Box 2757, Bay St. Louis, MS 39521