Words that appear once in the Bible.
I often refer to God as JAH. I also refer to God as LORD. "The Most High" is another term I use. And sometimes I refer to God as ... God. (For a closer look into the biblical names of God, see my post "Why do I refer to God as JAH?")
The creator of the universe goes by many names. Over 2,000 different languages are spoken in the world today. Not everyone calls a cup ... a cup. And not everyone will refer to the One we know as God by the same terms we use for God.
The various people groups of the world call God by many different names. However, for those of us who believe the good Book, we are not at liberty to go outside the bounds of Scripture regarding the names of God. Or to state it in the positive: We are at liberty to use all the names of God that are found in Scripture. All of them? Yes, all of them! Even if that name appears only once in the Bible. The late evangelist Dr. John R. Rice said, "One statement of the Bible should be enough for a Christian."
There are many words that appear only once in the Bible. For the sake of clarity, when I say Bible, I'm referring to the King James Version of the Bible. But just because a word appears only once in the Bible, it does not mean that word is less significant or less inspired than another word that appears many more times in Scripture.
It may surprise you to know that many words we use quite often today are found only once in the Bible, words such as busybody, coffin, greyhound, handkerchiefs, school, armageddon, corpse and longwinded. How many times does a word have to appear in the Bible before it's considered an valid Biblical word for us to use today? In my opinion, just once.
Consider the following three passages of Scripture. There is a word in each passage that appears only once in the King James Version of the Bible:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prohets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."
~ Matthew 23:37-38
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." ~ Isaiah 14:12-14
"Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him." ~ Psalm 68:1-4
What word in the three passages appear only once in Scripture? I think the picture of the chickens is a give-away. The other two are Lucifer and JAH. So these three terms: chickens, Lucifer and JAH, show up in the Bible only one time each.
But does that lessen the relevance of the term? Does the fact that they appear only once in the Bible somehow invalidates their use for us today? I think not. Have we discarded the word "chickens" because it appears only once in the Bible? Of course not!
All Christians are perfectly within the bounds of Scripture when we refer to God as JAH. For it states in the Bible, Psalm 68, that JAH is the name of the one who rides upon the heavens. The Word of God declares JAH is the name of the one who is worthy to be praised. We are called to "exceedingly rejoice" before JAH. We are called to extol JAH [extol means to sing the praises of, to exalt, to rave about]. The Bible tells us to sing praises to his name. And what is His name? JAH is His name!
JAH is gracious. JAH is awesome. JAH is Love. JAH is the Most High God. JAH is a consuming fire. JAH is kind and forgiving. JAH is the way, the truth and the life. And the name JAH is a valid term to use today. Just as valid as Lucifer and chickens.
Grace, Peace and Jahspeed!