Sunday 28 December 2008

Irreverent Worship

I mentioned in an earlier post that theological liberalism has infiltrated the evangelical church, and possesses the tendency the completely overcome it, turning it into something quite different from what the biblical Gospel describes.

In this post I wish to discover an application of this principle to another area of Christian worship. It is quite noteworthy that in today's church there is an over-familiarity with things divine. In fact, it might even be worse than than because it seems that, here again, pressure is brought to bear on ministers to accommodate rebellious youth culture in services of divine worship.

What I mean is that young people have sent out a message to churches that if they are not allowed to attend church in whatever way they want, behave how they want, and sing those songs that they appreciate, they will not attend. This implied threat by rebellious youth has been surrendered to by the churches who have said that it now does not matter how they present themselves before the sovereign Lord for the worship of His holy Name.

Time was when worshippers presented themselves before God for worship, they actually believed that He was there, that they were actually worshipping the King Who was present, and that it did matter how they turned up for worship. They believed that they were in the House of the Lord, and not a concert theatre, or flea market. They knew they were presenting themselves before the living and true God, and that they had to do so appropriately, because He was present with them, though invisible.

Now, the malignant influence of theological liberalism has robbed the church, including evangelicals, of the attitude of reverence when approaching God, Who is a consuming fire, to worship Him. Because large tracts of the church today have lost any convincing sense of God's presence in the services, anything goes.

Further, the people who refuse to prepare themselves holistically for the worship of the Triune God, are saying much about their own attitude to the Lord, and among the statements they are making is that they can worship Him any old how, and they can present themselves any old how. Not only is this true of young people, but mature adult Christians believe that have to play the same irreverent religious game, and present themselves before the Lord as casually as they can, just to fit in with the mores of rebellious youth culture.

Can you imagine a professional teacher, or lawyer, or accountant, or businessman turning up to work in the most casual attire they can put on? Can you further imagine what the boss might say, were such to happen? Or imagine someone from an evangelical church being presented to the Queen for some award or other, presenting themselves in trainers, shabby denim jeans and tee-shirt?

But then again, people like these have a much higher and more exalted view of the Queen and their professional bosses, than they do of the God they are seeking to worship!

Now what does this say about these poor disrespectful people? An awful lot, and much of which is not becoming of the Lord they claim to love and serve!

Let me make one point very clear. I am not suggesting a return to the old days of outward correctness and inner spiritual bankruptcy. Far from it! Perish the thought! But I am concerned to recover the good traditions of the Huguenots who believed that both the inward spiritual condition and outward order must go hand in hand together. Both are important, they believed, and one must not be made subservient to the other. God is the God of order, and wants everything in His church done "decently and in order."

How can this be applied to today's church? In this way: those who are spiritually alive to Christ and are walking in a right relationship with Him must be the standard setters, and demonstrate to other younger Christians how to present themselves outwardly to God when they come to worship Him. In the case of the Christian, the outward is a reflection of the inward. But in the case of the non-Christian, no matter how outwardly correct they might be, this is not a reflection of inner spiritual correctness.

Sad to say that many evangelicals do not even know who the Huguenots were, and have lost a enormous amount by such ignorance. They were the most biblically balanced theologians and ministers the world ever knew, and their balance permeated its way into every aspect of their lives and witness.

Let us get back to what these noble Christians believed and practised, and the church will be the better of such a return.

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