The Name That Reclaims All Names

A pattern across Asia

Across Asia, the titles people have long reserved for their deepest hopes keep getting attached to Jesus. In Iran and the Muslim world there is the Mahdi, the one expected to set the world right. In Japan and China there is Amida Buddha, the one who saves by grace. Among the Kyrgyz there is Kydyr or al-Khidr, the green and ever-living guide. There is Mesikh, Messiah, King of Kings, Prajapati, MHMD, Satguru, Jiushizhu (救世主), Maitreya, and countless other titles.

Some of these titles were withheld from him. Some were claimed by others. Yet again and again they find their way back to one man, as if they were created for him. The Bible does not name these titles one by one, but it does describe exactly this movement: the nations and their deepest treasures coming home to one person.

The list grows longer the farther you travel. Some of these are found in scripture and stone. Mishihe is carved on the Xi'an Stele, set up by followers of Jesus in China in 781. In 1875, the Bengali scholar Krishna Mohan Banerjee argued that the self-sacrificing Prajapati of the Vedas points to Jesus. Islamic tradition itself places Isa beside the Mahdi at the end of the age, and one hadith goes further: there is no Mahdi but Isa.

Others, like Amida, Maitreya and Kydyr, are titles that interpreters connect to Jesus.

The nations are his inheritance

The promise starts in the Psalms. In Psalm 2:8, God tells his chosen king to ask, and he will receive the nations as his inheritance and the ends of the earth as his possession. An inheritance is not something foreign. It is what rightly belongs to you.

Daniel saw the same thing in a vision. In Daniel 7:13–14, one "like a son of man" receives authority and a kingdom, and all peoples, nations, and languages serve him. Notice the word languages. The vision does not erase the world's tongues. It pictures each of them turning toward him, in its own words and with its own names. And sure enough, the one who earns all these titles is the one with untold variations of his name across Earth's languages.

Psalm 72 fills in the picture: kings from Tarshish, Sheba and the far coasts bring gifts, and his name lasts as long as the sun. Malachi 1:11 adds that from the rising of the sun to its setting, God's name will be great among the nations. The direction is always the same. The world brings what it has, and it brings it to him.

The name above every name

The later writings of the Bible take this promise and say plainly that it is about names. In Philippians 2:9–11, Paul writes that God gave Jesus the name above every name, so that every knee will bow and every tongue will declare who he is. Again, every tongue. People honor him in Kyrgyz, Farsi, Japanese, and Mizo, and they reach for the highest words their languages have.

Hebrews 1:2–4 says God appointed him heir of all things, and that he inherited a name greater than the angels. The writer uses the language of inheritance again. Names and titles are part of the estate, and he is the heir.

Revelation 19:12 mentions the rider on the white horse wearing many crowns. One crown would mark one kingdom. Many crowns mark many. A ruler who wears the crowns of many kingdoms also carries the titles of many kingdoms.

Taking back what was taken

Some titles were not simply waiting for him. They were held by others. Colossians 2:15 describes this as a victory: he disarmed the rulers and authorities and led them in a public triumph. In the Roman world, a triumph was a parade where the winner displayed what he had taken from the defeated. What had been held against him is now paraded as his.

Revelation 11:15 announces the result: the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of God and of his Anointed One, and he will reign forever. The kingdoms do not vanish. They change hands. Their titles change hands with them.

"King of Kings" is the clearest case. Persian and Babylonian emperors used it for themselves, as Ezra 7:12 and Daniel 2:37 record. Revelation 19:16 writes it on Jesus's robe. The Bible itself takes an emperor's title and gives it to him.

The glory of the nations, carried in

The Bible's last picture of this is also its most generous. In Revelation 21:24–26, the nations walk by the light of the new city, and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it. The glory and honor of the nations are carried in. They are not burned at the gate or left outside.

That is what I see happening across Asia. The Mahdi, Amida, Kydyr are titles from the nations representing the longings that peoples carried for centuries before they knew to whom they belonged and who they were waiting for. Now those national aspirations are brought to the one who can fulfill them.

These passages do not list Asia's titles by name. What they do is describe the movement, from Psalm 2 to Revelation 21, and tell us where it ends. Every name, in every tongue, finds its way to the name that reclaims all names.

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The verses

Quoted from the Berean Standard Bible, a modern English translation in the public domain. Where it reads "Christ," the words Anointed One appear in brackets.

Psalm 2:8. Ask Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession.

Daniel 7:13–14. In my vision in the night I continued to watch, and I saw One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

Psalm 72:8–11. May he rule from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth. May the nomads bow before him, and his enemies lick the dust. May the kings of Tarshish and distant shores bring tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts. May all kings bow down to him and all nations serve him.

Psalm 72:17. May his name endure forever; may his name continue as long as the sun shines. In him may all nations be blessed; may they call him blessed.

Malachi 1:11. For My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be presented in My name, because My name will be great among the nations," says the LORD of Hosts.

Philippians 2:9–11. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus [the Anointed One] is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Hebrews 1:2–4. But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So He became as far superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is excellent beyond theirs.

Revelation 19:12. He has eyes like blazing fire, and many royal crowns on His head. He has a name written on Him that only He Himself knows.

Revelation 19:16. And He has a name written on His robe and on His thigh: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Colossians 2:15. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Revelation 11:15. Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His [Anointed One], and He will reign forever and ever."

Revelation 21:24–26. By its light the nations will walk, and into it the kings of the earth will bring their glory. Its gates will never be shut at the end of the day, because there will be no night there. And into the city will be brought the glory and honor of the nations.

Source: Berean Standard Bible, via Bible Hub and Heartlight.