'Exciting Worship Opportunity' -- or Dancing With the Devil? By Dr. Paul M. Elliott

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1 From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase Scripture and the Church 'Exciting Worship Opportunity' -- or Dancing With the Devil? By Dr. Paul M. Elliott The 2012 "Experience Conference" displays utter contempt for Scripture's command to "worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." The ad on the next page arrived in my inbox recently with the subject line, "Exciting Worship Opportunity! Sadly, thousands of church leaders think it is, and they just can t wait to sign up for this "Experience Conference. No doubt the Devil and his minions will be singing and dancing among them. Article continues after the picture on the next page... 1

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3 This conference includes workshops with these titles (and explanations): What To Say In-Between Songs? Learn the Skills of Improv From a Comic's Point of View [To be a great "worship leader" you have to develop the skills of a comedian.] Am I Good Enough? Dealing With Shame ("...explore some of the attitudes, values, and skills that will propel you into greatness" as a "worship leader") What's Your Strong Suit? A Look at Redemptive Gifts ("These are seven aspects of God's nature that each of us carries to varying degrees.") [A workshop based on the false teachings of "New Breed Movement" psychotheologian Arthur Burke.] Lighting Design for the Experience [The emphasis is always on creating an environment that appeals to the flesh.] Hendrix in Worship ("This informative class lives up to its title.") [Rock star drug addict Jimi Hendrix, who died at 27 by choking on his own vomit during a binge, spoke often of the "Electric Church" - his claim that electric rock music produced a "spiritual high".] Utilizing Click Tracks, Loops and Stem Tracks in Worship [All these are terms from the rock/pop music world.] In contrast to the sinful ugliness of such worship falsely so-called, the Word of God commands us to "worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" (1 Chronicles 16:29, Psalm 29:2, 96:9). A "New Song" or the World's Song? The people who sponsor and attend such travesties of Biblical worship, and put such "worship skills" as they learn there into practice in their churches, constantly make this false claim: "We are not changing the message, just the method. We are simply giving the church 'a new song' to sing." But what does Scripture say about the "new song" of the true believer? Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth. 3

4 Sing to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come into His courts. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth. (Psalm 96:1-9) The "new song" of the redeemed is a song that proclaims the one true Gospel. It declares God's glory, not man's. One of its keynotes is "fear" - that the God who is above all gods must be approached in reverence, and His holiness is such that the mass of sinful humanity should tremble before Him! Another keynote is "beauty" - that the beauty of our worship must be in accord with the beauty of our Lord's holy sanctuary in Heaven. It is "the beauty of holiness" - that which is pleasing to the eye of God, not the eye of sinful man. The "new song" of authentic Biblical worship is the polar opposite of the fallen world's idolatrous, flesh-centered worship. Worship in the Beauty of Holiness The Holy Place of the Old Testament tabernacle pictures the beauty of true worship for us (see Exodus chapters 25, 28, and 29; Leviticus chapters 6, 10, and 16). In the symbolism of the tabernacle, God articulates a number of key principles, and one of the most important is this: The Holy Place tells us that our worship must be untainted by the influences of the world. Here the priest came to worship and to serve 4

5 and to fellowship with God. "God is Spirit, Jesus said, "and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24) The priest who came into the Holy Place had been cleansed of sin, and he was coming into a place where he was physically and visually separated from all outside influences that would distract or defile. There was not even light from the outside. The only light was that of the lampstand ordained by God, kept alight by fire from the altar which God Himself had kindled which was never to be permitted to go out, and fueled by the oil which symbolizes the Holy Spirit. Biblical Worship: What Is Beautiful to God - Not To Fallen Man The Holy Place pictures for us the principle of sanctified worship. This must be the constant goal of the people of God: Worship in truth unmingled with falsehood. The flame of worship must not be kindled by "strange fire". When Aaron's son's brought their own fire instead of God's, it was so serious a matter that "fire went out from the Lord and devoured them" (Leviticus 10). Worship must be unmingled with the things of the flesh. It must be unmixed with the elements of the fallen world-system that is under the sway of Satan, and is moving inexorably toward destruction. "Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Worship the Lord in the beauty of setapartness. Holy worship, sanctified worship, is a beautiful thing in the eyes of God, and it should be a beautiful thing in the eyes of every true believer. Anything else - and certainly what we see in many, many churches today - is an ugly horror to the eyes of our holy God. He will not look on it with favor. It is an act of pure mercy that He does not consume those who dare to do it. Or perhaps it simply indicates that God has given those who practice it over to the dictates of their reprobate minds, since they have not retained knowledge of the true and living God of Scripture (Romans 1:28). Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself condemns them: 5

6 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." (Matthew 15:7-9) Worship Is Not a Performance We must also always remember that no aspect of true worship is a performance, because we are not an audience. God is the object of all true worship. He is not, as some of the false-worship hucksters seem to think, sitting on his throne and approvingly tapping his foot to a Hendrix beat. He is the Lord of glory, a consuming fire. I have the opportunity to visit many churches and to see many things in the services, some Biblical, and some not Biblical. All too often what is called worship is in reality a stage performance. But at other precious times I am privileged to witness something different - a congregation, a choir, perhaps even soloists who are, individually and collectively, vessels, channels, glorifying God and communicating His truth. They are lifting up and exalting not themselves, not musical excellence although such excellence is not wrong but exalting our great God and His infallible Word. When I see that taking place, I praise God for it. All of our worship must be untainted by the world. Untainted by the flesh. Biblical worship is the worship of those who are fit to worship God -- whose sins have truly been atoned for once and for all by the blood of Christ, and who have sought the sanctifying cleansing of the washing of water by the Word (Ephesians 5:26). In the Old Testament we find that there were times when Israel failed miserably in worship. We find, for example, in 2 Kings chapter 23 that in the time of King Josiah, the temple that had succeeded the tabernacle was full of rubbish, and full of pagan elements that had been introduced by subsequent generations under ungodly rulers. 6

7 The Israelites had erected, in the Holy Place of God, booths where the sodomy and prostitution of the pagan religions of the surrounding nations was practiced in the Holy Place of God! Josiah in his day had these things torn down. He had the temple cleansed. But in subsequent generations these evils reappeared. Satan always stands ready to reintroduce them. The people of God must always be on their guard. God Has Not Changed - Biblical Worship Has Not Changed Dear friends, today the Evangelical church needs to tear down its idols. We must remove the spiritual sodomy and prostitution from our churches. Today so much of what passes for "worship is only an appeal to the flesh. It brings the sin of the world into the church. The mindset that dominates much of the church s thinking today is that we need to reinvent the church to appeal to the world. I was talking with a man not long ago who told me that he had left a church because the pastor stopped its door-to-door evangelism program, and he started, instead, sending people out into the surrounding community to ask the unsaved this question: "What do we need to change about our church in order to get you to come? Dear friends, what we see in the symbolism of the Holy Place is the polar opposite of such thinking. God has not changed. Therefore the sanctity of Biblical worship cannot change. And man has not changed. He may think he has, but he hasn t. Man is still the same sinner he has always been, and there is still only one way to come before the holy and unchangeable God. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, of setapartness. The Holy Place of the tabernacle and temple are gone. But the Holy Place in Heaven still stands for eternity. And we believers are now the temple of the living God on earth. What kind of "Holy Place" are we? Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought 7

8 at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God s. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: [and here Paul quotes the account of the institution of the tabernacle in Exodus] "I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people. In this time of experience-based paganism within what are still deceptively called "Evangelical" churches, may the Lord preserve a faithful remnant who will still worship Him "in the beauty of holiness. We are thankful that friends of this ministry stand against the evil trends of the times. Thank you for standing with us as we seek to equip and encourage God s people in choosing the path of Biblical worship the path of the Scripture-driven church. For we are the circumcision [i.e., those separated from the unclean world and truly consecrated to God], who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh... (Philippians 3:3) sac0079 Copyright TeachingtheWord Ministries All rights reserved. This article may be reproduced in its entirety only, for non-commercial purposes, provided that this copyright notice is included. We also suggest that you include a direct hyperlink to this article for the convenience of your readers. 8