Towards a Recovery of Biblical Worship, Part I

Worship Acceptable to Man


One of the more vexing current issues faced by the Christian church is the demotion of public worship—and, therefore, of worship per se. It has become little more than an optional extra in the minds of many contemporary Christians. 

There are a number of confluent currents causing this problem. The first is the general attitude of our culture. Egalitarianism does not encourage reverent and holy worship. Our age is pervasively informal. “Gidday, mate” is more than just a greeting—it is an icon of our culture. There has been a great loss of the Scriptural concept of superiors and inferiors, of culture reflecting a godly hierarchy. Even as we write these words we imagine bile rising in the throats of many at the mere mention of superiors and inferiors.

New Zealanders pride themselves on our culture of easy egalitarian informality. Many of our political leaders, for example, consciously cultivate “mateship” with the electorate, of being seen as a good bloke (or “blokesse”, as the case may be). This is certainly the case with the current incumbent Prime Minister who has artfully (and genuinely, one presumes) presented himself as a good guy who would be comfortable chatting over the backyard fence with anyone. New Zealanders like that. When political leaders are more removed and reserved they risk being quickly accused of arrogance and pomposity.

It is only on formal state occasions or before the courts, where we are confronted with notions such as contempt of court, that we are jolted with a gulf between superiors and inferiors.

In such a culture, the church has easily slid into a “mateship” towards God, so that many view the public worship of God as an occasion when we say, “Gidday” to God. Public worship for many has become informal, relaxed, laid-back, casual, entertaining, and comfortable. Unfortunately, because of the high value placed upon egalitarianism in our culture, many equate such a relaxed and informal approach to public worship with truth, genuineness, and glory. More formal, hierarchical, structured and liturgical worship is regarded as not genuine, cold, formal, and removed from God. Formal worship is regarded as antithetical to true worship from the heart.

Now this dichotomy comes straight out of our culture, not out of scripture. To that extent we may say that the modern church has become squeezed into the modern world's mould.

A second current undermining true, biblical worship is a persistent and incipient neo-platonising of the Christian faith. Here we are faced with the (false) notion that the material and the outward, tangible components or aspects of life are of secondary importance. It is easy to understand how this idea has crept into the Church. Clearly God is a pure Spirit, without body, parts, or material composition. Yet He is most real; actually, infinitely real. It has been easy, therefore, to slip into the trap of thinking that truth, purity, holiness, and the heavenly realities are that which are inward, mental, attitudinal, while the physical and material aspects of reality can be shuffled off like the chrysalis of a butterfly. In fact, many Christians have become so infected with these pagan neo-platonic notions that they think that it is not until the chrysalis of the flesh and of matter is shed that the true spiritual realities can emerge.

This has encouraged the idea that when it comes to worship, outward, tangible realities are relatively unimportant.  How we conduct ourselves, or how worship is conducted is seen as immaterial: that matters is the heart and inward realities of the worshipper.  After all, it is man who looks on the outward appearance, and God alone who looks on the heart.  And it is the heart of a man where the action is.  

Clearly, a moment's reflection will confirm that setting off the material aspects of humanity from what it truly means to be human and what it truly means to be one with God (that is, the more “out-of-body we are, the closer to God) is completely wrong. After all, to redeem man, Christ took on human flesh and the material aspects of humanity; He rose bodily and is enthroned as Lord of the heavens and the earth bodily and materially; He will return to dwell upon earth forever bodily and materially. Therefore, because we are united to Christ in a resurrection like His (Romans 6:5), we too will rise and live throughout eternity in bodily form. In other words, Christ redeems and restores in holy perfection all aspects of His creation—both the material and the immaterial aspects of humanity.  Both alike were created by God.  Both alike were declared to be very good by the Creator.  When Christ redeems us, He redeems and restores all of us, not just part of us.  As one theologian put it, grace restores nature; it does not bisect it and cut the material parts off. 

Thus we are to live and worship in body, as well as in mind, soul, heart, intellect and emotions. Consequently, worship in this life (and in eternity) has both material and immaterial aspects—all are to be engaged and involved in worship. This is reinforced by extensive citations in the Scripture to bodily attitude and posture in worship: kneeling, standing, bowing, lifting eyes to heaven, and prostrating. Worship also requires the exercise of the vocal chords in confessing, reciting, reading aloud and singing. Public worship requires that these things be done together and in unison (II Chronicles 5: 12—13) so that there is one unified, harmonious sound (which of course requires hard work, practice, planning, organization, leadership, direction, etc.)

Thus, structure, planning, organization—leading to physical and material engagement with our bodies—is an essential and intrinsic part of public worship, so that the physical and material aspects are as spiritual as the mental and intellectual and emotional and volitional. Because human beings are not dualistic or tripartistic schizoid beings, all these aspects are to work together in harmonious unity by God's creation and command.

Neo-platonic, pagan thought has led many Christians to devalue or disregard entirely all these important aspects of true worship.We cannot move closer to biblical worship without dumping these pagan  accretions.