Justin
Martyr Christian Worship
Dialogue of Justin Martyr, with Trypho, a Jew: That Jesus Christ is the One God of the Old Testament Part One.....Part Two
[a.d. 110-165.] Justin was a Gentile, but born in Samaria, near Jacob's well. He must have been well educated: he had traveled extensively, and he seems to have been a person enjoying at least a competence. After trying all other systems, his elevated tastes and refined perceptions made him a disciple of Socrates and Plato. So he climbed towards Christ. As he himself narrates the story of his conversion, it need not be anticipated here. What Plato was feeling after, he found in Jesus of Nazareth. The conversion of such a man marks a new era in the gospel history. The subapostolic age begins with the first Christian author,-the founder of theological literature. It introduced to mankind, as the mother of true philosophy, the despised teaching of those Galileans to whom their Master had said, "Ye are the light of the world."
Chapter LXV.-Administration of the Sacraments.
But we, after we have thus washed him who has been convinced and has assented to our teaching, bring him to the place where those who are called brethren are assembled, in order that we may offer hearty prayers in common for ourselves and for the baptized person, and for all others in every place, that we may be counted worthy, now that we have learned the truth,
by our works also to be found good citizens and keepers of the commandments,
so that we may be saved with an everlasting salvation. Having ended the prayers, we salute one another with a kiss.
There is then brought to the president of the brethren
(Translator's Notes: 142 tw proestwti twn adelfwn. This expression may quite legitimately be translated, "to that one of the brethren who was presiding.")
bread and a cup of wine mixed with water;
[Our Note: The "fruit of the vine" was preserved unintoxicating in the form of a concentrate boiled down. This killed the yeast and concentrated the sugar content so that it would not ferment and then rot or turn into vinegar. "Wine" or the fruit of the vine was consumed by mixing water -- sometimes up to 20 to 1 -- to restore the concentrate to normal juice. The water was not "adding" through custom to that which Jesus had specificially designated as "the fruit of the vine."
Raisins could be re-hydrated and still considered the Fruit of the Vine.]
The WINE was added in Babylon but the Passover never prescribed it. Esther tried to ease the pain. The four cups of intoxicating wine was again a symbol of God's wrath. Haman was intoxicated and received the death sentence he had planned for Mordecai. Click for the story.
Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper on the day BEFORE the regular Passover. He used one cup divided 11 ways and it was called "the fruit of the vine." In the adopted Babylonian Passover, the FIFTH cup was not INTOXICATED.
and he taking them, gives praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and offers thanks at considerable length for our being counted worthy to receive these things at His hands.
And when he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all the people present express their assent by saying Amen. This word Amen answers in the Hebrew language to genoito [so be it]. And when the president has given thanks, and all the people have expressed their assent,
those who are called by us deacons give to each of those present to partake of the bread and wine mixed with water over which the thanksgiving was pronounced, and to those who are absent they carry away a portion.
The later Catholic system involved the priest handing the bread to the individual.
Chapter LXVI.-Of the Eucharist.
And this food is called among us [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partakebut the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been
washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration,
and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.
For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.
For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said,
"This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body; "and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, "This is My blood; "and gave it to them alone.
Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same thing to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn.
Editor's Note: "This passage is claimed alike by Calvinists, Lutherans, and Romanists; and, indeed, the language is so inexact, that each party may plausibly maintain that their own opinion is advocated by it.[But the same might be said of the words of our Lord himself; and, if such widely separated Christians can all adopt this passage, who can be sorry?]
The expression, "the prayer of His word," or of the word we have from Him, seems to signify the prayer pronounced over the elements, in imitation of our Lord's thanksgiving before breaking the bread. [I must dissent from the opinion that the language is "inexact:"
he expresses himself naturally as one who believes it is bread, but yet not "common bread."
So Gelasius, Bishop of Rome (A.D. 490), "By the sacraments we are made partakers of the divine nature, and
yet the substance and nature of bread and wine do not cease to be in them," etc. [See original in Bingham's Antiquities, book xv. cap. 5. See Chryost., Epist. ad. Caesrium, tom. iii. p. 753. Ed. Migne.) Those desirous to pursue this inquiry will find the Patristic authorities in Historia Transubstantionis Papalis, etc., Edidit F. Meyrick, Oxford, 1858.The famous tractate of Ratranin (A. D. 840) was published at Oxford, 1838, with the homily of Aelfric (A. D. 960) in a cheap edition.]
Chapter LXVII.-Weekly Worship of the Christians.
And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things.
And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost.
And on the day called Sunday, (th tou Hliou legomenh hmera.) all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place,
and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.Never did faithful people SERMONIZE or further expound (private interpretation) the Inspired Word of God. Rather, preaching was simply making sure that everyone understood that which was read and exhorted to keep. To Timothy the EVANGELIST:
Till I come, give attendance to (public) reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.1Ti.4:13
Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended,
Chapter XIII.-Christians Serve God Rationally.
What sober-minded man, then, will not acknowledge that we are not atheists, worshipping as we do the Maker of this universe, and declaring, as we have been taught, that He has no need of streams of blood and libations and incense;
whom we praise to the utmost of our power by the exercise of prayer and thanksgiving for all things wherewith we are supplied, as we have been taught that the only honour that is worthy of Him is not to consume by fire what He has brought into being for our sustenance, but to use it for ourselves and those who need, and with gratitude to Him to offer thanks by invocations and hymns
for our creation, and for all the means of health, and for the various qualities of the different kinds of things, and for the changes of the seasons; and to present before Him petitions for our existing again in incorruption through faith in Him.
bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability,147 and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each [by the deacons], and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.
147 osh dunamij autw.-a phrase over which there has been much contention, but which seems to admit of no other meaning than that given above. [No need of any "contention." Langus renders, Pro virili sud, and Grabe illustrates by reference to Apost. Const., lib. viii. cap. 12. Our own learned translators render the same phrase (cap. xiii., above) "to the utmost of our power."
Some say this favours extemporary prayers, and others object. Oh! what matter either way? We all sing hymns, "according to our ability."]
Apost. Const. Then let the high priest say: It is very meet and fight before all things to sing an hymn to Thee, who art the true God, who art before all beings, "from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named;"
Of a memorial for the dead: XLII. Let the third day of the departed be celebrated with psalms, and lessons, and prayers, on account of Him who arose within the space of three days;
The HYMN of the Apostolic Constitutions was really a priest reciting the great deeds of God. It was not a song as such.
Rev 18:21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.If one belonging to the theatre
(1) come, whether it be man or woman, or charioteer, or dueller, or racer, or player of prizes, or Olympic gamester, or one that plays on the pipe, on the lute, or on the harp at those games, or a dancing-master or an huckster,
(2) either let them leave off their employments, or let them be rejected. If a soldier come, let him be taught to "do no injustice, to accuse no man falsely, and to be content with his allotted wages:"
(3) if he submit to those rules, let him be received; but if he refuse them, let him be rejected. He that is guilty of sins not to be named, a sodomite, an effeminate person, a magician, an enchanter, an astrologer, a diviner, an user of magic verses, a juggler, a mountebank, one that makes amulets, a charmer, a soothsayer, a fortune-teller, an observer of palmistry; he that, when he meets you, observes defects in the eyes or feet of the birds or cats, or noises, or symbolical sounds:
let these be proved for some time, for this sort of wickedness is hard to be washed away; and if they leave off those practices, let them be received; but if they will not agree to that, let them be rejected. Let a concubine, who is slave to an unbeliever, and confines herself to her master alone, be received;
Rev 18:22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians [Apollyon's muses or locusts] and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, [theater builders and stage managers] of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone [called a pipe, made a wistling sound to attract] shall be heard no more at all in thee;
Rev 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
Paul is never understood to preach PROPORTIONAL GIVING. No. Those WHO PROSPERED gave to those who were IN WANT. No one ever took up a collection for the poor to feed the rich:
And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president,
who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.
But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead.
The command to keep the Sabbath was for REST and never for worship. By restricting everyone close to home they were prevented from travelling to the Babylon- inspired "churches" which were religions. The Synagogue held in any large community was A SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE and not a worship center.
Therefore, CHURCH, as synagogue could meet on Sunday because travel was necessary for a scattered flock.
For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.
While it is thought that Justin did not mention songs even as there was no singing in the synagogue and Paul defines the act as to TEACH or to PREACH with the singing and melody in the heart, the follow note sheds some light;
Why Justin Martyr and others Did Not Practice Old Testament Rituals
The Epistle of Barnabas reads:
Chapter XIV.-The Lord Hath Given Us the Testament Which Moses Received and Broke. Yes [it is even so]; but let us inquire
if the Lord has really given that testament which He swore to the fathers that He would give to the people.
He did give it; but they were not worthy to receive it, on account of their sins.
For the prophet declares, "And Moses was fasting forty days and forty nights on Mount Sinai, that he might receive the testament of the Lord for the people."( Ex. xxiv. 18.) And he received from the Lord (Ex. xxxi. 18.) two tables, written in the spirit by the finger of the hand of the Lord.
And Moses having received them, carried them down to give to the people. And the Lord said to Moses, "Moses, Moses, go down quickly; for thy people hath sinned, whom thou didst bring out of the land of Egypt." (Ex. xxxii. 7; Deut. ix. 12.)
And Moses understood that they had again (to themselves) made molten images; andhe threw the tables out of his hands, and the tables of the testament of the Lord were broken.
Moses then received it, but they proved themselves unworthy. Learn now how we have received it. Moses, as a servant, (Comp. Heb. iii. 5.) received it;
but the Lord himself, having suffered in our behalf, hath given it to us, that we should be the people of inheritance.
But He was manifested, in order that they might be perfected in their iniquities, and that we, being constituted heirs through Him, ("through Him who inherited.") might receive the testament of the Lord Jesus, who was prepared for this end, that by His personal manifestation, redeeming our hearts (which were already wasted by death, and given over to the iniquity of error) from darkness, He might by His word enter into a covenant with us
Dialogue of Justin Philosopher and Martyr, with Trypho, a Jew
Chapter XVIII.-Christians Would Observe the Law, If They Did Not Know Why It Was Instituted.
"For since you have read, O
Trypho, as you yourself admitted, the doctrines taught by our Saviour, I do not think that I have done
foolishly in adding some short utterances of His to the prophetic
statements.
Wash
therefore, and be now
clean, and put away iniquity from your souls,
as God bids you be washed in this
laver,
and be circumcised with the true circumcision.
For we too would observe the fleshly circumcision, and the Sabbaths, and in short all the feasts,
if we did not know for what reason they were enjoined you,-
namely, on account of your transgressions and the hardness of your hearts.
For if we patiently endure all things contrived against us by wicked men and demons, so that even amid cruelties unutterable, death and torments, we pray for mercy to those who inflict such things upon us, and do not wish to give the least retort to any one, even as the new Lawgiver commanded us: how is it, Trypho, that we would not observe those rites which do not harm us,-
I speak of fleshly circumcision, and Sabbaths, and feasts?
Chapter XIX.-Circumcision Unknown Before Abraham. The Law Was Given by Moses on Account of the Hardness of Their Hearts.
"It is this about which we are at a loss, and with reason, because, while you endure such things, you do not observe all the other customs which we are now discussing." "This circumcision is not, however, necessary for all men,
but for you alone, in order that, as I have already said, you may suffer these things which you now justly suffer.
Nor do we receive that useless baptism of cisterns, for it has nothing to do with this baptism of life. Wherefore also God has announced that you have forsaken Him, the living fountain, and digged for your selves broken cisterns which can hold no water.
Even you, who are the circumcised according to the flesh, have need of our circumcision; but we, having the latter, do not require the former.
For if it were necessary, as you suppose, God would not have made Adam uncircumcised; would not have had respect to the gifts of Abel when, being uncircumcised, he offered sacrifice and would not have been pleased with the uncircumcision of Enoch, who was not found, because God had translated him. Lot, being uncircumcised, was saved from Sodom, the angels themselves and the Lord sending him out. Noah was the beginning of our race; yet, uncircumcised, along with his children he went into the ark. Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High, was uncircumcised; to whom also Abraham the first who received circumcision after the flesh, gave tithes, and he blessed him: after whose order God declared, by the mouth of David, that He would establish the everlasting priest. Therefore to you alone this circumcision was necessary, in order that the people may be no people, and the nation no nation; as also Hosea,44 one of the twelve prophets, declares.
Moreover, all those righteous men already mentioned, though they kept no Sabbaths,45 were pleasing to God; and after them Abraham with all his descendants
until Moses, under whom your nation appeared unrighteous and ungrateful to God,
making a calf in the wilderness: wherefore God, accommodating Himself to that nation, enjoined them also to offer sacrifices, as if to His name, in order that you might not serve idols.Which precept, however, you have not observed; nay, you sacrificed your children to demons.
See how God will destroy the nations to the beat of instruments of music as they also are BURNED.
And you were commanded to keep Sabbaths, that you might retain the memorial of God. For His word makes this announcement, saying, `That ye may know that I am God who redeemed you.'( Ezek. xx. 12.)
Note 45 [They did not Sabbatize; but Justin does not deny what is implied in many Scriptures, that they marked the week, and noted the seventh day. Gen. ii. 3, viii. 10, 12.]
In the Apostolic Constitutions:
XXXIII. I Peter and Paul do make the following constitutions. Let the slaves work five days;
but on the Sabbath-day and the Lord's day let them have leisure to go to church for instruction in piety.We have said that the Sabbath is on account of the creation,
and the Lord's day of the resurrection.
The synagogue or church in the wilderness was never called except for instructions about the Law.
It was INCLUSIVE to mean "Rest (Sabbath), reading and rehearsing the Word.
It was EXCLUSIVE in outlawing both vocal and instrumental rejoicing.
The synagogue which existed for the civilians never had a praise service and met for instruction and prayer.
Jesus exampled the synagogue and commanded the ekklesia which was for instruction only.
Paul commanded the assembly to "give attention to the reading of the Word" and to exhortation and defining doctrine.
Chapter XX.-Why Choice of Meats Was Prescribed.
"Moreover, you were commanded to abstain from certain kinds of food, in order that you might keep God before your eyes while you ate and drank, seeing that you were prone and very ready to depart from His knowledge, as Moses also affirms:
`The people ate and drank, and rose up to play.' ( Ex. xxxii. 6.) [This was singing, dancing and playing musical instruments as they had while in Egypt for Osiris in the image of Apis the golden calf]
And again: `Jacob ate, and was satisfied, and waxed fat; and he who was beloved kicked: he waxed fat, he grew thick, he was enlarged, and he forsook God who had made him.' ( Deut. xxxii. 15.) For it was told you by Moses in the book of Genesis, that God granted to Noah, being a just man, to eat of every animal, but not of flesh with the blood, which is dead." (died of itself) And as he was ready to say, "as the green herbs," I anticipated him: "Why do you not receive this statement, `as the green herbs, 'in the sense in which it was given by God, to wit, that just as God has granted the herbs for sustenance to man, even so has He given the animals for the diet of flesh? But, you say, a distinction was laid down thereafter to Noah, because we do not eat certain herbs. As you interpret it, the thing is incredible. And first I shall not occupy myself with this, though able to say and to hold that every vegetable is food, and fit to be eaten. But although we discriminate between green herbs, not eating all, we refrain from eating some, not because they are common or unclean, but because they are bitter, or deadly, or thorny.
But we lay hands on and take of all herbs which are sweet, very nourishing and good, whether they are marine or land plants. Thus also God by the mouth of Moses commanded you to abstain from unclean and improper and violent animals: when, moreover, though you were eating manna in the desert, and were seeing all those wondrous acts wrought for you by God,
you made and worshipped the golden calf. Hence he cries continually, and justly, `They are foolish children, in whom is no faith. Deut. xxxii. 6, 20.
The reasoning of Justin is not quite clear to interpreters. As we abstain from some herbs, not because they are forbidden by law, but because they are deadly; so the law of abstinence from improper and violent animals was imposed not on Noah, but on you as a yoke on account of your sins."-Maranus.
Chapter XXI.-Sabbaths Were Instituted on Account of the People's Sins, and Not for a Work of Righteousness.
"Moreover, that God enjoined you to keep the Sabbath,
and impose on you other precepts for a sign, as I have already said,
on account of your unrighteousness, and that of your fathers,-as He declares that for the sake of the nations, lest His name be profaned among them, therefore He permitted some of you to remain alive,-these words of His can prove to you: they are narrated by Ezekiel thus:
`I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments,
and take no part in the customs of Egypt; and hallow My Sabbaths;
and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.Notwithstanding ye rebelled against Me, and your children walked not in My statutes, neither kept My judgments to do them: which if a man do, he shall live in them. But they polluted My Sabbaths.
And I said that I would pour out My fury upon them in the wilderness, to accomplish My anger upon them;
yet I did it not; that My name might not be altogether profaned in the sight of the heathen.I led them out before their eyes, and I lifted up Mine hand unto them in the wilderness,
that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries;
because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes, and polluted My Sabbaths, and their eyes were after the devices of their fathers.Wherefore I gave them also statutes which were not good, and judgments whereby they shall not live.
And I shall pollute them in their own gifts, that I may destroy all that openeth the womb, when I pass through them.' (Ezek. xx. 19-26.)
Two things were involved in polluting the worship of God in the wilderness:
First: the word "play" is defined by the naked dance of David as he separated the Ark as the symbol of God's presence and the Tabernacle.
And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets. 1Chr.13:8
Jeremiah the prophet would not, could not, do what the secular king could do:
I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation. Jeremiah 15:17
Sachaq (h7832) saw-khak'; a prim. root; to laugh (in pleasure or detraction); by impl. to play: - deride, have in derision, laugh, make merry, mock (-er), play, rejoice, (laugh to) scorn, be in (make) sport.
Second: The word pollute carries the idea of playing musical instruments to manipulate man and God:
Chalal (g2490) khaw-lal'; a prim. root [comp. 2470]; prop. to bore, i. e. (by impl.) to wound, to dissolve; fig. to profane (a person, place or thing), to break (one's word), to begin (as if by an "opening wedge"); denom. (from 2485) to play (the flute): - begin (* men began), defile, * break, defile, * eat (as common things), * first, * gather the grape thereof, * take inheritance, pipe, player on instruments, pollute, (cast as) profane (self), prostitute, slay (slain), sorrow, stain, wound.
Chapter XXII.-So Also Were Sacrifices and Oblations.
"And that you may learn that it was for the sins of your own nation, and for their idolatries andnot because there was any necessity for such sacrifices,
that they were likewise enjoined, listen to the manner in which He speaks of these by Amos, one of the twelve, saying:
`Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is this day of the Lord for you?
It is darkness and not light, as when a man flees from the face of a lion, and a bear meets him; and he goes into his house, and leans his hands against the wall, and the serpent bites him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light, even very dark, and no brightness in it? I have hated, I have despised your feast-days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies:
wherefore, though ye offer Me your burnt-offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your presence.
Take thou away from Me the multitude of thy songs and psalms; I will not hear thine instruments.
But let judgment be rolled down as water, and righteousness as an impassable torrent.
This does not mean to play instruments in an attempt to worship a Spirit God BUT do so with a good mental attitude. The word is BUT or RATHER or INSTEAD OF.
Chapter VIII.-Antiquity, Inspiration, and Harmony of Christian Teachers.
"Since therefore it is impossible to learn anything true concerning religion from your teachers, who by their mutual disagreement have furnished you with sufficient proof of their own ignorance, I consider it reasonable to recur to our progenitors, who both in point of time have by a great way the precedence of your teachers, and who have taught us nothing from their own private fancy, nor differed with one another, nor attempted to overturn one another's positions, but without wrangling and contention received from God the knowledge which also they taught to us.
For neither by nature nor by human conception is it possible for men to know things so great and divine, but by the gift which then descended from above upon the holy men, who had no need of rhetorical art, nor of uttering anything in a contentious or quarrelsome manner,
but to present themselves pure to the energy of the Divine Spirit, in order that the divine plectrum itself, descending from heaven,
and using righteous men as an instrument like a harp or lyre, might reveal to us the knowledge of things divine and heavenly.
Wherefore, as if with one mouth and one tongue, they have in succession, and in harmony with one another, taught us both concerning God, and the creation of the world, and the formation of man, and concerning the immortality of the human soul, and the judgment which is to be after this life, and concerning all things which it is needful for us to know, and thus in divers times and places have afforded us the divine instruction. (Justin's Horatory Address to the Greeks, Chapt. VIII)
Have ye offered unto Me victims and sacrifices in the wilderness, O house of Israel? saith the Lord. And have ye taken up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Raphan, the figures which ye made for yourselves?
And I will carry you away beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is the Almighty God. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria:
those who are named among the chiefs have plucked away the first-fruits of the nations:
the house of Israel have entered for themselves.Pass all of you unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye unto Hamath the great, and go down thence to Gath of the strangers, the noblest of all these kingdoms, if their boundaries are greater than your boundaries.
Ye who come to the evil day, who are approaching, and who hold to false Sabbaths; who lie on beds of ivory, and are at ease upon their couches; who eat the lambs out of the flock, and the sucking calves out of the midst of the herd;
who applaud at the sound of the musical instruments;
they reckon them as stable,
and not as fleeting,who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments,
but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
Would all of these including singing, clapping and playing musical instruments because you believe that they have MAGICAL POWER be acceptable IF you just grieved? No. All of these are wrong as worship.
Wherefore now they shall be captives, among the first of the nobles who are carried away; and the house of evil-doers shall be removed, and the neighing of horses shall be taken away from Ephraim.' ( Amos v. 18 to end, vi. 1-7.) And again by Jeremiah:
Collect your flesh, and sacrifices, and eat: for concerning neither sacrifices nor libations did I command your fathers in the day in which I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt.' Jer. vii. 21 f.
And again by David, in the forty-ninth Psalm, He thus said: `The God of gods, the Lord hath spoken, and called the earth, from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion is the perfection of His beauty. God, even our God, shall come openly, and shall not keep silence.
Fire shall burn before Him, and it shall be very temptestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Assemble to Him His saints; those that have made a covenant with Him by sacrifices. And the heavens shall declare His righteousness, for God is judge.
Hear, O My people, and I will speak to thee; O Israel, and I will testify to thee, I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; thy burnt-offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullocks out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds: for all the beasts of the field are Mine, the herds and the oxen on the mountains.
I know all the fowls of the heavens,
and the beauty of the field is Mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is Mine, and the fulness thereof.Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?Offer unto God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High, and call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.
But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare My statutes, and to take My covenant into thy mouth? But thou hast hated instruction, and cast My words behind thee.
And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted (h5689) on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours, Eze.23:5
Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself. Eze.23:7
The idols were asherah poles with which they had sexual intercourse. The word is from:
Galal (h1556) gaw-lal'; a prim. root; to roll (lit. or fig.): - commit, remove, roll (away, down, together), run down, seek occasion, trust, wallow.
And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. Eze 23:11
Agabah (h5691) ag-aw-baw'; from 5689; love (abstr.), i. e. amorousness: - inordinate love.
In the 33rd chapter God warned Ezekiel that they would treat him as an instrument playing prostitute even as they "praised" Him as if He were a prostitute:
Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. Ezekiel 33:30
And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people,
and they hear thy words,
but they will not do them:
for with their mouth they shew much love (egeb),
but their heart goeth after their covetousness. Ezekiel 33:31
And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely (egeb h5690) song of one
that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument:
for they hear thy words,
but they do them not. Ezekiel 33:32
When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst with him; and hast been partaker with the adulterer. Thy mouth has framed evil, and thy tongue has enfolded deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son.
These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I would be like thyself in wickedness. I will reprove thee, and set thy sins in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest He tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
The sacrifice of praise shall glorify Me; and there is the way in which I shall show him My salvation.'
Accordingly He neither takes sacrifices from you
nor commanded them at first to be offered
because they are needful to Him,
but because of your sins.For indeed the temple, which is called the temple in Jerusalem, He admitted to be His house or court, not as though He needed it, but in order that you, in this view of it, giving yourselves to Him, might not worship idols. And that this is so, Isaiah says: `What house have ye built Me? saith the Lord. Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool.' Isa. lxvi.1
Isa 66:1 Thus saith the LORD,
The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool:
where is the house that ye build unto me?
and where is the place of my rest?Isa 66:2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD:
but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
H6041 ‛ânıy aw-nee' From H6031 ; depressed, in mind or circumstances (practically the same as H6035 subjectively and H6041 objectively): afflicted, humble`, lowly`, needy, poor.
Isa 66:3 He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man;
he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck;
he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood;
he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol.
Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.Isa 66:4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them;
because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear:
but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.
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