God-given Names

God-given Names


I was born David A. Hoover on January 10, 1960 in Bowling Green, Ohio. However, I legally changed my name to David Ben-Ariel (with the help of my Jewish lawyer) during the Spring of 1989. It cost me $300.00.


It also required that I take out a small ad in a newspaper announcing my intentions 30 days beforehand. I placed my ad in the Bowling Green Sentinel.


I also had to appear before a judge (it depends on what county you were born) for him to privately question my motivations. He was assured by my lawyer that I wasn’t running from the law or trying to escape some outstanding debt, but that my reasons were religious in nature. The judge accepted that but wanted to impress upon me that I could have "trouble" with that name in America, without elaborating. I felt he meant because it was Jewish and/or could be difficult for some to know how to pronounce. I told him I wasn’t concerned about it since I planned on moving to Israel anyway.


My reasons for changing my name were religious in nature. Why? Because I honestly feel that Ben-Ariel is a God-given name. And why would I feel that way? Because after a Hebrew class where my teacher mentioned how many people change their names when they move to Israel, I went home wondering what surname I would have in Israel, knowing my first name is already Hebrew.


I had always liked the Hebrew last name of Ben-Ammi, after reading it in Leon Uris’ book Exodus, since it means "son of my people," but while thinking about it and wondering what name my father would’ve given me, if he would’ve given me a Hebrew name, I didn’t know. I then knelt down in prayer and asked God what name, IF ANY, would He give me since He's my Heavenly Father, and I couldn’t ask my dad because he died when I was twelve.


I expected God to perhaps lead or guide or influence me to like a particular name, but immediately ARIEL flashed into my mind and immediately I rejected it. Why? Because it means "the Lion of God" and I felt such a name only belongs to Jesus Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. While wondering about the name of Ariel, I remembered that Israel’s defense minister was Ariel Sharon (whom I’ve since met in Jerusalem and Hebron). I reluctantly decided to keep the name in reserve (since it was really impressed upon me!) until God or circumstances might lead me to accept another, and went to bed.


The Bible mentions MANY INCIDENTS where God chose to change someone’s name or to name them before their birth. It is unusual but it’s not unscriptural. There was Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac (Gen. 17:5, 15, 19); Ishmael (Gen. 16:11); Solomon (I Chron. 22:9) and Solomon’s nickname Jedidiah (2 Sam. 12:25); Cyrus (Isa. 44:28; 45:4); John the Baptist (Lk. 1:13); Jesus (Matt. 1:21); Peter and the two brothers James and John whom Jesus nicknamed "sons of thunder" (Mk. 3:16-17); just to name a few.


God promises to give us each a new and unique name in the Kingdom, either in place of or in addition to our current one (Rev. 2:17), as well as sharing Jesus’ new name and bearing the Father’s name as Priest-Kings (Rev. 3:12, 14; Ex. 28:36; Lev. 8:9). God has many name or titles, descriptive of His wonderful qualities and characteristics (Isa. 9:6). The Jews even teach that God’s Hebrew name Elohim (literally Gods) is plural due to the fact that God is too great to be constrained to one name, and is used in the sense of the royal "We." That’s why Elohim said "let us...." We understand that it’s also because there’s presently two God-Beings in the one Kingdom of God, like Adam and Eve were two separate people who both shared the surname Adam as one family unit (Gen. 2:24; 5:2; John 10:30).


God has His reasons why He would change someone’s name and who are we to question Him? The April 1980 issue of The Good News magazine (published by the Worldwide Church of God) carried an article called "History of the Church" that helps us to understand why Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter: "...and He gave him a surname prophetic of the moral and spiritual strength he would eventually demonstrate. Jesus bestowed upon him the new name, before he had earned it that it might be an incentive to him to realize what Jesus had expected."


After going to bed, about to fall asleep, Isaiah 29:1 flashed into my mind. What’s amazing is that I had never memorized that Scripture! It reveals that Ariel is a nickname for JERUSALEM!
I now understand why God the Father had chosen Ariel for me. Anyone who knows me knows that Jerusalem is always on my mind (Jer. 51:50), especially after my first visit there to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) in 1980, as mentioned in From Toledo to Jerusalem and Israel Work History (Worldwide Church of God).


God has shown me that He’s stirred me up and given me a burning desire for Jerusalem and Israel (Isa. 62:1, 6-7). I finally realized that God was calling me a "SON OF JERUSALEM."I got out of bed, got down on my knees with tears in my eyes, and thanked God for truly knowing us inside and out, just like His Word says, and embraced the new name God had given me! I also accepted it as a SPIRITUAL GOAL: to live worthy of one named after holy Jerusalem and all that it ideally represents.


I end my prayers facing Jerusalem every night with "Yerushalayim shel Zahav" (Jerusalem of Gold), a plea for Jerusalem to fulfill its calling (2 Chron. 6:38-39; Dan. 6:10).


Later, I began to understand how Ariel can also refer to Judah and King David. Since my family tree is traced back to the British and Scottish Royal Families (the Royal House of David) it’s also befitting that Ben-Ariel can mean "son of David" and "son of Judah" (whose tribal emblem is the lion).


I’m convinced that the God of the Bible, the God of Israel, and the God of my forefather David, has blessed me with the name of Ariel. Even if I chose Ariel for myself -- which I did not, I originally objected to it -- there wouldn’t be any harm in that since such a practice is Biblical: "One shall say, I am the LORD’S; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel" (Isa. 44:5).


God surnamed me Ariel back around 1982, however it wasn’t until 1989 that I finally changed my name legally. I knew that even though God had given me the name that I didn’t necessarily have to change my name. I was also hesitant to do so because I am the only son and the only Hoover males alive (that I’m aware of) were my grandfather and myself. I didn’t want the name to die out, not that I’m married and have any sons anyway (although God assures His spiritual "eunuchs" that we’ll be given excellent and eternal names - Isa. 56:5). I began to see that Hoover was possibly an Anglicized form of the German Huber (since many immigrants changed their names upon arrival in America).


I also didn’t want to hurt or offend my grandfather (Arthur Hoover of Risingsun, Ohio) or possibly get disinherited, but I made up my mind that since I was about to seek citizenship in Israel, starting a new chapter in our family history, I was going to take the lead and change my name. My grandfather ended up dying about four months before the fact, unaware of what I planned to do. So now I’ve been David Ben-Ariel for years and my family and friends are used to it.


My God-given name is ESTABLISHED BEFORE GOD who mentions Jerusalem twice in it: the City of David and Ariel.

Letter from Mrs. Raymond McNair

Re: Raymond McNair dies

Dear family and friends,

By now many of you have heard the sad news regarding the death of my dear husband, Raymond McNair. Through his five year ordeal he never complained nor asked, “Why me Lord?”

He trusted God knowing he would be delivered either through death or divine healing. “Not my will, but yours O Lord,” were words he often repeated.

My husband’s convictions were as Paul’s, “Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give me at that last day; and not to me only, but unto all men also that love His appearing.

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith!” (2Tim. 4:8 & 7).

I wish to thank all who have so kindly and passionately reached out to comfort me in my distress. The future for me will be difficult at first, and at times lonely. But the hope in me will keep me going, remembering God’s promises that my husband and I will be together again, standing before our Father and Jesus Christ to hear those familiar words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servants.”

Sincerely,
Eve McNair

More on the Obama man

Blacks and Obama

Why is Africa perpetually poor? Why are so many Black Americans perpetually poor? Is it due to color of skin or content of character or both? Read what this Black African wrote and wonder:
Why Black People Have Remained Backward

And then question why anybody would want Black Marxist Obama as president...

Obama in the flesh
Another view of Obama in the flesh
Obama's not the Messiah
Obama true feelings against white people
Obama's shady deals

http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Obama in the flesh

Obama in the flesh

I saw the Messiah today (if you believe Nation of Islam cult leader Louis Farrakhan) at the Maumee Bay State Park. My friend Carl and I had just finished walking the boardwalk (a great 2 mile stretch that meanders through woods and meadows near Lake Erie), and started to walk back to my car that was parked near the yellow-taped off area where all the Sheriff and Police are stationed for Obama's visit and Barack Obama was there shaking hands with tens of people. Looks just like he does on TV! ;-)

I walked right up and wanted to hand him one of my business cards (like I gave out yesterday to media, police and people), and was only 3 feet from him but that was when he was on the way out, was turning around to get into the waiting van, the Secret Service had open for him.

I wouldn't have shaken his hand, because that's a gesture you come in peace, without a weapon, and mean well. I don't believe Obama, a foreigner and fraud, means well for the United States. How could he after being indoctrinated by Jeremiah Wright and others in hateful Black Liberation Theology for over 20 years?

I don't hate Barack Hussein Obama, but I do despise the beliefs and the murderous and treacherous attitude of those Obama is known to surround himself with (from Jeremiah Wright to Louis Farrakhan to other Communists and Socialists and terrorists) since I love the United States of America and pray God Bless America. That being said, like the lady in Holland, Ohio told Obama this past Sabbath, "I won't vote for you, but I will pray for you." Amen.

*************

If Obama's the Messiah...

Obama's not the Messiah

If Obama's the Messiah...

Barack Hussein Obama, that foreigner and fraud, spoke in Toledo, Ohio yesterday at the Seagate Center. Afterwards I went down and distributed a few of my business cards with my book (Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall) and website address (http://www.davidbenariel.org/) on it.

Then I continued on to my favorite park in the area: Maumee Bay State Park. I had just visited Maumee Bay State Park this past Sabbath with a Black brother, Baruch, who believes as I do (against the replacement theology of Sunday for Sabbath and pagan holidays for the biblical festivals, etc.) and joked with him folks would think I was Biden and he was Obama! LOL. We go there often to walk on the boardwalk and fellowship and enjoy God's good creation. We usually see some deer, besides a variety of birds.

At the Maumee Bay Resort & Conference Center I counted over 10 State Trooper vehicles, several police cars, a big trailor for what I reckon was a temporary police headquarters for the shindig, lots of secret service (who I discovered aren't allowed to take business cards), around 5 stationed golf carts (with a police officer in each) at angles of Maumee Bay Conference Center and some boat out in the water.

Inside the lovely Conference Center I was lounging in the lobby with some dignified senior citizens (one who had declined to be interviewed or photographed by the media), and I questioned aloud, "If Obama's the Messiah, why does he need all the security?" They chuckled and nodded in approval. What a waste of taxpayers' hard-earned money!

I continued, "And if Obama's the Messiah why is he staying at this expensive place rather than at the campground they provide, since this evening starts the biblical festival of Succot (Festival of Tabernacles) and he could set up a booth like Yeshua (Jesus) would do? Of course, those who haven't been Obamatized, who aren't under Obama's sway and haven't fall for Obama's demonic appeal, who aren't smitten with delusions of Obama's grandeur, know Barack Hussein Obama is not the Messiah.

Raymond McNair dies

Raymond McNair dies



TEMECULA, Calif. -- Raymond F. McNair, 78, died Oct. 11, 2008, in Southern California. According to early reports, Mr. McNair, a 1953 graduate of Ambassador College, Pasadena, and an early evangelist in the Radio/Worldwide Church of God, died after an illness that had lasted about two and one half years. He had suffered with prostate cancer. Mr. McNair in recent years was founder and president of the Church of God 21st Century, headquartered in the San Diego area.

A Church of the Eternal God elder visiting Mr. and Mrs. McNair from his home in Summerland, B.C., Canada, Rene Messier, was present at the time of Mr. McNair's death and referred to Mr. McNair as another of the "old lions" of the Church of God movement who are passing from the scene. Another Canadian friend of the McNairs, James Ludvigson of Penticton, B.C., spoke fondly of his friend. Mr. McNair's death "saddens me," Mr. Ludvigson said, and "it just seems we're at that stage in the work where several of the old leaders are having severe health problems, as are the members.

The natural attrition in the Church of God speaks for itself. It's a sad testament, but we just have to bond together and continue praying that the developing of the work will go ahead in God's orderly plans." Mr. McNair's survivors include his wife, Eve.

Write Mrs. McNair at:
P.O. Box 893909, Temecula, Calif. 92589, U.S.A.
Visit the COG 21st Century's Web site at www.cog21.org.

A Warning for America from South Africa

Wake up fellow Americans and face harsh reality and learn from history before it's too late:

It is already too late for South Africa, but not for America if enough people strengthen their spine and take on the race terrorists, the armies of the "politically correct" and, most dangerous of all, the craven politicians who believe "compassionate conservatism" will buy them a few more votes, a few more days of peace.

White South Africans, you should remember, have been in that part of Africa for the same amount of time whites have inhabited North America; yet ultimately South Africans voted for their own suicide. We are not so very different from you.

We lost our country through skillful propaganda, pressure from abroad (not least from the U.S.A.), unrelenting charges of "oppression" and "racism," and the shrewd assessment by African tyrants that the white man has many Achilles' heels, the most significant of which are his compassion, his belief in the "equality of man," and his "love your neighbor" philosophy - none of which are part of the Third World's history.

A Warning for America from South Africa

It's A Sin To Vote For Obama!

You've been warned about Obama

President Barack Obama sound good to you?

Is Obama still playing tricks with your mind?

Obama's hate

Race Matters

http://www.davidbenariel.org/