Read it all through several times in several versions. The New World Translation is the most accurate. In the King James version, the word YHWH from the original manuscripts has been removed and been replaced with "Lord" and "God" (except for three places, Psalms 83:18 one of the remaining three), and many, many words have been intentionally translated incorrectly to suit the political correctness of the day. The original ancient manuscripts contained thousands of references to the real name of God, which is YHWH (JHVH in English), but only the New World Translation preserved them.
What would be wrong with just leaving in 'Lord' or 'God'
That would be like me saying hello to you every morning by saying, "Hello, person." The use of actual names makes relationships personal. It's for that very reason that God's name was removed. The false and corrupted religious leaders of the day wanted people to be personal with them, not God. They wanted people to give them money and power and love, not God, so they removed his name during the translation process. In order to get away with it, they used the bogus excuse that a lowly human didn't have the right to know God personally, or even address God directly by name. They reserved that right for they themselves, but not anyone else. This is how wicked humans controlled the populace... by lessing the reality of God while making themselves the focus instead.
The Jewish people were originally not allowed to utter the name of God, only the priests, hence the term 'inutterable name' which was often used. The fact is, the name of God as translated from the tetragrammaton (which is YHVH or YHWH) has been lost. There are no vowels, the term Jehovah or Ye-ho-wah as it probably should be pronounced is one translation, as is Yahweh.
At the end of the day, Christ never referred to God as 'Jehovah' unless quoting from the ancient scrolls. As the model of the Christian walk, he referred to God as 'Father' which is how Christians should probably refer to God. Knowing his name is important yes, but in terms of the concept of a personal relationship with God the model of Father is far more logical (do you call your dad by his name?). I don't believe the bible translators were conspirators I just believe they were reflecting the traditions of the jewish people in their translations by using a supreme and all-encompassing title to reflect the name of God.
PS - the new world translation apparently had no qualified translators on board, and didn't use any of the ancient scrolls in translation. It's a contentious translation, but I guess so is the NIV for other reasons. There are biases.
PPS - the new world translation incorrently inserts the name of Jehovah into the new testament where titles such as Lord are used. There is also an interchangeable use of the term 'Lord' about Jesus and also God the Father, and they wanted to distinguish between those even though it didn't show that in the texts. they hate this obviously because they don't believe in the trinity.
yes, Bias all around.
