Common Sense: Is Not So Common.

Let He who has an ear hear….

When we talk about names in the Bible, we have to slow down and realize something very important: names were never random. In Hebrew culture a name carried covenant, prophecy, identity, and calling. It wasn’t just a label you used to get someone’s attention; it was a piece of who you were in the sight of God and man. That’s why Abraham’s name change mattered. That’s why Jacob became Israel. That’s why Yehoshua, the Son of God, came with a name that literally carried the Father’s own Name inside of it. So right away, if we hold up the name “Jesus” next to that standard, we should be asking: does it carry covenant meaning? Does it carry prophecy? Does it carry the Father’s Name? The answer is no. The name “Jesus” does not contain the covenant power or the embedded promises that the name Yehoshua does. For someone who knows the Father’s culture, that alone should raise a red flag.

Now let’s step back and ask the simple question: where did the name “Jesus” even come from? This isn’t hidden information. With only a little research anyone can see that the word “Jesus” didn’t even exist until the 1600s. The letter J itself is only about 400 years old. That means there is no possible way that Gabriel, when speaking to Miriam (Mary), could have given her that name. It didn’t exist. Right there, the whole thing should fall apart. If Gabriel spoke Hebrew, he would have said Yehoshua. Even if he was speaking in Greek, the closest word would have been Iēsous. But “Jesus”? That didn’t show up until well over a millennium later, created by men, not spoken by God.

And if we dig just a little deeper, we can see it’s not even a translation. It’s not a transliteration either. It’s not even remotely connected to Yehoshua. If you lay the words side by side, they do not match in meaning, sound, structure, or covenant weight. The average person can see this without needing a degree in biblical languages. That’s the beauty of it: it’s not complicated unless you want to make it complicated. All it takes is slowing down, opening your eyes, and realizing that the name we’ve been handed in English is not the Name the angel gave, not the Name the disciples used, and not the Name written in prophecy.

But let’s not stop at the name. Let’s look at the system that carried it to us. The word “Christian” is only mentioned three times in Scripture — and never once by God’s own mouth. It was a label outsiders gave, not a covenant identity God gave. The word “Christianity” doesn’t show up at all. If we’re honest, that alone should shake us awake. The entire system of “Christianity” as we know it didn’t come from the prophets, it didn’t come from Yehoshua, and it didn’t come from the apostles. It came from Rome. The Catholic Church, with its councils, its emperors, its papacy, and its imperial structure, birthed what we now call Christianity. That’s not an insult, that’s a matter of history.

When we look at Constantine, we see the breaking point. He took what was once called The Way — a living Hebrew relationship with the Father through His Son — and he stripped away the culture, the Hebrew roots, the feasts, the covenant signs, and everything that tied it back to God’s design. Why? To unify and control. He wanted a religion that could be managed, simplified, and turned into an empire tool. And from that point forward, the faith of the Hebrew Messiah was repackaged into a Greco-Roman system. That system gave us “Christianity.” That system gave us man-made traditions. That system gave us substitutes for what God had already given in His covenant.

If we follow the thread forward from Constantine’s time to today, the evidence piles up everywhere. Wars were fought in the name of God but carried out in the will of men. Power structures were built not to free people, but to control them. Translations were twisted, entire pieces of Hebrew culture were erased, and fear was woven into the message as a way to control the masses. If we look honestly, we can see the fingerprints of substitution all over it. And who is the master of substitution? It’s not Yahweh. It’s Satan. His strategy has always been to replace the real with the fake, to take the covenant and offer a counterfeit. When we see the name “Jesus” sitting on a foundation of man-made invention, separated from the covenant Name Yehoshua, we can see exactly what has happened.

And here’s the thing: this doesn’t take a scholar to figure out. You don’t need to read ten commentaries or memorize lexicons. You just need to follow the breadcrumbs. Ask the questions. Look at the history. Trace it back for yourself. Because once you see it, you can’t unsee it. You realize that the substitution is not a small error, not a harmless mix-up. It’s the enemy’s fingerprint on the most sacred truth: the Name given by God, the Name that carries salvation, the Name that bears the Father’s identity, was replaced. And in its place, the world was handed a counterfeit.

So when we put all of this together, the picture becomes painfully clear. The Name “Jesus” is not covenant. The word “Christianity” is not divine. The system we’ve inherited is not rooted in God’s original design. And once you step back and look, you realize something has gone terribly wrong. The will of men hijacked what was meant to be the will of God, and the world has been trained to call the counterfeit the real thing. But Yahweh is not mocked, and His Name will not be erased. Yehoshua is the Name that saves. Everything else is just substitution.