The Bishop, the Name and the Ocean
At COGIC's 118th Holy Convocation, Presiding Bishop J. Drew Sheard taught which name belongs in baptism and why some young people are leaving. Don Jackson challenges him directly, quoting him as verified against the recording: the baptisms in Acts 8, 10 and 19 that break his reading of Acts 2:38, John 4:2's 'Jesus himself baptized not,' Paul's 'were ye baptized in the name of Paul?', the 1611 King James that printed 'Iesus,' and 1 John 5:7's absence from the early Greek manuscripts. National data show most who leave stopped believing what they were taught, and 83% of Black Americans with no religion still believe in God. Then the ocean: which name saves the wave?
Story Anchor
This episode challenges a presiding bishop by name, but only with his own verified words: he did not call Jesus-name baptisms invalid, he spoke of 'some' young people, and he told members they may go if the Lord leads them. The target is the fight itself: which words go over the water. Prodigal's view of Source is offered as an invitation to look, not a doctrine to believe.
The Pattern
Fighting Over the Map
Both sides have real verses: Matthew 28:19 for the threefold words, every baptism in Acts for Jesus' name, and the early Didache uses both. Yet John 4:2 says Jesus himself didn't baptize, Paul told a divided church he wasn't sent to baptize (1 Cor. 1:13-17), and the thief on the cross was promised paradise with no water. The name itself traveled from Aramaic Yeshua to Greek Iesous to Latin Iesus to English Jesus, and the 1611 King James printed it 'Iesus.' That Bible was a king's committee translation, and it kept 1 John 5:7, which is not in the early Greek manuscripts. In 1807 a King James-based Bible for enslaved Africans cut about 90% of the Old Testament. Men chose, cut and printed the words. Pew (Dec. 2025): the top reason people leave their childhood religion is that they stopped believing the teachings (46%); among adults under 30 raised religious, 10% switched and 35% now have none; 83% of Black Americans with no religion believe in God.
Consciousness Questions
This guide doesn't ask you to leave or join any church. It asks you to notice when a map is being treated as the territory, and to look for yourself.
- What words were you told had to be said over you, and who told you?
- If the sound of a name saves, which sound: Yeshua, Iesous, Iesus or Jesus?
- What is here before the word 'God' arrives?
- Where have you been a wave trying to save the ocean, defending God instead of resting in what God is?
Community Context
Community voices gathering.
Academy Pathways
Pathways being curated.
Transformation Practice
The Name Before Names
Write down every name you've been given, and every name you were taught for God. Then write what remains when you set them all down.
Sit, breathe, and set down your own name, then your titles, then every name for God, one by one, like coats on a chair. Rest in what's left.
Ask someone from the other side of the baptism divide what the name means to them, and listen without correcting.
Say quietly: 'Before every name, I am. The wave was never lost. It was always ocean.'
Pick your name back up. Wear it lightly.
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Campaign connections being identified.
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Four pathways forward. Which one calls to you?
Credits & Transparency
Methodology
Companion guide built from the Episode 48 script and Substack deep dive.
Sources referenced
- Bishop J. Drew Sheard, Morning Manna, 118th Holy Convocation (Nov. 5, 2026), verified against the audio
- Church of God in Christ, Statement of Faith
- King James Version (1611)
- The Didache; Justin Martyr, First Apology 61
- Pew Research Center (Dec. 15, 2025; Dec. 2025)
- PRRI, Unveiling the Exodus (2023)
- NPR and Museum of the Bible on the 1807 Slave Bible
- Meister Eckhart; Howard Thurman