Worship in Spirit II
If you can see it, hear it, smell it or feel it, it is NOT worship in spirit. Worship has always been of only two forms: PAGAN worship directed to the human SENSES or flesh (singing, dancing, drama), and Spiritual worship directed to the Mind or SPIRIT.Dr. Jack Lewis on Instrumental Music notes that:
"Worship in the temple was carried on by the priests and Levites, and not by the congregation... At its center, temple worship was not a congregational assembly; nevertheless, by custom people did gather in the courts at the time of sacrifice. The Levites did the singing.
"By analogy, each believer is the temple of God and a priest of God. Therefore, worship takes place by and in the Christian believer's heart or mind. Furthermore, each priest-believer has the same authority to "come boldly before the throne of God."
Because of their pagan worship at Mount Sinai, the "congregation" lost a personal relationship with God Who walked in their midst and accepted the obedient faith of those like Noah and Abraham. In connection with Numbers 10:7 we noted that when the Congregation was called together it was for instructions. At these assemblies the loud musical instruments and shouting for joy were outlawed. From that time onward, the Covenant was available to anyone who would walk by obedient faith like Abraham. However, the civil or national worship at the temple was not a congregational activity although spectators watched.
"And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. Numbers 18:21
"Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die. Numbers 18:22
How did national Israel lose this right to a personal approach to God? Israel rejected God's Covenant in the heart and used external, even pagan rituals trying to drag Him into their physical play or dramatic dance. Rulership and worship "like the nations" of course must include Egyptian background. Click to see that this worship did not include the people.
Paul revealed the clue to Israel's rejection of God and their return to paganism: They refused to listen to His direct Word. Therefore, he wrote to the Hebrews:
For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, Hebrews 12:18
And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: Hebrews 12:19
Israel rejected God's Word by a rowdy lack of reverence. However, Paul said:
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace (power), whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: Hebrews 12:28
While we may come before God's throne with assurance, we cannot be loud, exalted or arrogant. Reverence means, "downcast eyes, bashfulness, modesty." Fear means "caution, devout or reverent." Indeed, boldness and confidence are always seen in a quiet, peaceful, reverent rest in God's presence. Loud is positive proof of the boasting attitude of paganism and a tip-off that the joyful assurance of Christ is us has been spoiled in the wineskins.
As the Law, in which the Jews put their trust, was coming to an end, God warned that external worship with noise would end. Habakkuk wrote:
Has not the LORD Almighty determined that the people's labor (to earn) is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing? Habakkuk 2:13
For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14
The religious rituals of Israel and the pagans were often identical. They took the literal and spiritual food of the poor and spent it on their "team" and fed the flock with "empty calories." Therefore, God had already warned Israel:
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: Amos 8:11
The cause of the loss of the Word is often attributed to ignoring God's words and substituting "carnal weapons" which are musical instruments as well as composing ones own songs and sermons:
WOE to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief (beginning, captains) of the nations (pagans), to whom the house of Israel came Am.6:1
That chant (prate or scatter words = tongues) to the sound (mouth and speech h6310) of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David; Amos 6:5
Click to see the parallel in Isaiah Five.
Remember that Israel rejected the words of God and demanded a human king to lead them into warfare and worship like the nations.
To invent means that God's plan and words were not good enough: " to plot or contrive (usually in a malicious sense) ." Instruments are both musical and military weapons of war. It is any apparatus used to force even God to speak to them or the enemy to die.
Habakkuk warned against worship which broke down the walls to paganism. They believed that great assemblies (which Jesus would never call) and doing certain physical things would satisfy the often-hostile gods who would give them the word. Habakkuk continued using the same language as Amos and said:
Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach (point or aim the finger at) Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath (spirit) at all in the midst of it. Habakkuk 2:19
But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence (hush, hold your tongue) before him. Habakkuk 2:20
To see that they literally believed that the "gods" -- into whose presence the worship facilitators (oppressors, excellers) tried to force them as chief change agents -- spoke from the musical instruments as the replacement for God Click Here. Furthermore, the familiar spirit of the Witch of Endor had the identical meaning to an empty wineskin whose hollow, empty sound was sold as the message of the gods. In First Corinthians 13-14 Paul speaks of the more sophisticated Greek "sounding brass" which was an old wineskin but made of brass. Through its echo you could convince people that it was the dead (gods or demons) speaking to them, or you could fool the enemy into thinking that you were a thousand strong when there were only ten of you.
In the Old Testament, the temple religion of external work existed side-by-side with a life lived in God's presence through prayer and study. God was always their personal "little sanctuary" or synagogue.
In the New Testament, this same "true" fellowship was separated from the "false" or near-pagan, self-worship of the priests. They cheated you out of your money, sold you sick lambs and then ate the meat themselves. They took away the "key to knowledge" because it served their purpose, but Christ gave the key back to a fisherman to deliver to the world. He and others wrote the key in the as Words of Christ. 2 Pet 1:12f.
Two Forms of Worship Always Existed:
One form of worship was by and for the clergy at the "temple" and the other was by and for the people in the family-like synagogue or home. One was devoted to the body and the other was devoted to the mind in contact with God's Spirit through the Word and prayer. The "called assembly" required a multitude but Jesus promised to be in the midst of two or three. "Spirit" is not a gennie in the sounding brass who gets into your body and makes it jig like a puppet on a string. It is not enthusiasm (enthus o mania, according to Philo) but something which compels the body to shut up when the Incarnate God of the universe is speaking.
Jesus said:
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63
He was not saying that His words were a "person." Rather, Spirit in both Hebrew and Greek is used to describe the mental disposition or attitude of God manifest as both Father and Son.
One: The External Priestly Worship
Remember that Saul was a human king of external things to replace the God of the heart, mind or spirit. God predicted that Saul and the secular kingdom would hinder the people. And, when Jesus came, the Jewish clergy had no higher goal than to keep Biblical knowledge out of the hands of the people and replace it with controlled, like the nations external rituals. Jesus said:Woe unto you, lawyers for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. Luke 11:52
The ancient hindrance continued and continues:
"The ancient Canaanite religions were still flourishing in Israel... the Israelites were still taking part in fertility rites and sacred sex there, as we see in the oracles of the prophet Hosea, Amos' contemporary." (Armstrong, Karen, A History of God, p. 47).
Jesus refused to go up to the opening ceremony of the Feast of Tabernacles with his unbelieving brothers because His Words would not be heard and the Jews would try to murder Him in their religious joy.
This feast was put on by the high priest who bought his office as highest bidder from the Romans. It was much like the Jubilee festival:
"the merriest of all the festivals, was the 'Feast of Drawing water'. It was the most joyous and the most musical of the temple's festivities. Its description in the Mishna text opens with the significant words: 'Whosoever has not seen the joy of the House of Water-drawing has never seen real joy in his life' (M. Suk. 5.1). After the preparations, which occupied the entire afternoon of the first day of Tabernacles, the 'men of good deeds' began to dance before the people in the temple court with burning torches. The Levites having stationed themselves upon the fifteen steps leading from the women's court to the Inner Court, took up their harps, lyres, cymbals, trumpets, pipes, flutes, clarinet, etc., all instruments greatly augmented in number, and intoned the fifteen 'Songs of Ascent.' Thus, the night passed in dancing, singing, and general merrymaking. At the sound of the first cockcrow, the priests intoned the triple blast upon their ritual trumpets. These signals ended the general frolicking, and the crowd ranged itself into an orderly procession to the well of Siloah. (Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, p. 463, Abingdon).
Water drawing festival, was celebrated during the week of Tabernacles with popular games (often fertility rituals turned into children's games) and dances in which even the elders took part, and the streets were so brilliantly illuminated with torches that scarcely an eye was closed in Jerusalem during the week." (Int. Std. Bible Ency., p. 1104)
The booths and the branches in the Jerusalem celebration are a pale reflection of the hilarious days spent in the vineyards when the grapes and the olives were being gathered in. Despite the orthodox interpretation it received later, everything suggests that throughout this period, the festival was an occasion when the whole population let themselves go in the wildest revelry. Its dominant theme was Nature's fertility and, as in only too obvious from Canaanite sources, this easily degenerated into plain debauchery." (Heaton, E. W., Everyday Life in the Old Testament, p. 229, Scribners
Like modern efforts to change the church into a neo-pagan system to help "lead worshipers into the presence of God," the Jews looked for the not-yet kingdom and
"prayed that God would now from 'the highest' heavens manifest and send that salvation in connection with the Son of David, which was symbolized by the pouring out of water."
As they practiced a religion of the human senses, the Incarnate Word was ignored and then murdered
Jesus knew about superstitious periods such as "keeping of days." As the Jewish nation was losing its "place" and "law" it was getting hysterical. Jesus said: "Don't go out, the kingdom of God is within you." Lu 17:21. He knew that:
"Jingling, banging, and rattling accompanied heathen cults, and the frenzying shawms of a dozen ecstatic cries intoxicated the masses. Amid this euphoric farewell feast of a dying civilization, the voices of nonconformists were emerging from places of Jewish and early Christian worship; Philo of Alexandria had already emphasized the ethical qualities of music, spurning the'effeminate' art of his Gentile surroundings. Similarly, early synagogue song intentionally foregoes artistic perfection, renounces the playing of instruments, and attaches itself entirely to 'the word'&emdash;the TEXT of the Bible" (Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1971 ed., s.v. "Music")
Two: The Synagogue - People's Worship
See the whole Synagogue story. Jesus promised to build an ekklesia which is a synagogue or school of the Bible. There CAN BE no external rituals in the class room where Jesus promises to meet with the twos or threes whom intend to "come learn of me."The home-like meeting of the synagogue was almost totally devoted to prayer and study of the Word. It was not legal for the rabbi to "allegorize" or force the Word to "meet your need" or perform some revivalistic magic.
After each verse an Aramaic rendering was given by an interpreter, who in Palestine was bound NOT to use a written translation and not to allegorize" (The New Shaff-Herzog, Ency., p. 215).
Preaching, therefore was translating and explaining the text as, and when needed, it was being read "as it had been delivered to them."
Jesus described a system of teaching the Word which was not related to the national temple worship. Teaching took place out in the cities but the word "synagogue" appears only in Psalm 78. However, God Himself was the "little sanctuary" (Eze 11:16) and the "house of the people" (Jer 39:8). The Greek for assembly is sunagoÑgeÑ and is used in James 2:2 to warn against personality worship in the church.
The Synagogue worship, developed by and after the exile, largely substituted the book for the symbol, and thought for the sensuous or object appeal; it was also essentially popular, homelike, familiar, escaping from the exclusiveness of the priestly service" (The Int. Std, Bible Ency., Synagogue, p. 3111).
Consistent with this, the synagogue had no music as we know it. Singing is defined as "the way a boy reads the hallel." Therefore, it would be as unseemly to have designated singers as to assign someone as the surrogate husband or father. Services consisted of: 1) the recitation of the "One God" or Shema (Deut. 6:4-9; 2) prayers and the reciting of psalms; 3) reading of the Law and the Prophets; and 4) the Targum or explanation of unclear parts of that which was read.
If we are led by the Chief Shepherd we will find ourselves beside the still, quiet "water of the Word." We will be moved to green, fresh pastures of food where no shepherd would try to hand feed or parcel out bits of grass and sips of not-so-fresh water. Lambs resting beside still waters simply do not wear themselves or burn themselves out with anxiety; they cannot grow in a noisy environment.
Jesus and the Restrainers of the Word
The Lord is not like a trail boss with a whip but a Shepherd who:
maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. Psalm 23:2
Still waters are:
Menuchah (h4496) men-oo-khaw'; home; repose, peacefully; figurative consolation; comfortable, ease, quiet, still
The BURDEN laden by the clergy is defined as "spiritual anxiety created by religious rituals." ALL of the words related to MUSIC and public preaching are WARFARE words and not MUSICAL words in a good sense. The REST Jesus gave is quite literally almost dedicated to STOP THE MUSIC, STOP THE PREACHING.
The Pharisees practiced an "outside" or body religion and didn't admit the Mind or Spirit of God into their lives. The Word was written on their scrolls but not on their mind or spirit. Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Cor 6:19 that God put His Spirit in their bodies to make them living souls. Therefore, they could not abuse the body without abusing the God-created mind or spirit. This is what Jesus told the Pharisees:
And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening (extortion) and wickedness. Luke 11:39
Ye fools (egotistical, mindless), did not he, that made that which is without, make that which is within also? Luke 11:40
By rejecting any external showmanship in the synagogues, Jesus moved beyond the temple which would, for the third time, be destroyed. He defined true practices of the synagogue or the "family" worship. He said to the experts of external things:
Woe unto you, Pharisees for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. Luke 11:43
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites (actors) for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. Luke 11:44
Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also. Luke 11:45
And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers for ye lade men with burdens (like pack animals) grievous (oppressive) to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Luke.11:46
Woe unto you, lawyers for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. Luke 11:52
The cause of the loss of the Word is often attributed to ignoring God's words and substituting "carnal weapons" which are musical instruments as well as composing ones own songs and sermons:
In the middle of this warning that the Jewish clergy was just like the priests at Samaria and the prophets of Baal and Asherah at Mount Carmel, look at the following parallel cause and results:
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. Amos 5:23
And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. Matthew 11:14
WOE to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief (beginning, captains) of the nations (pagans), to whom the house of Israel came Am.6:1
That chant (prate or scatter words = tongues) to the sound (mouth and speech h6310) of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David; Amos 6:5
The lawyers were trained a bit in the Word but spent a lifetime learning the traditions, and we kid you not, learning how to be expert change agents to shake down the "worshippers." Only then could a rabbi parcel out or allegorize little pieces of the free law as one might hand out little crumbs of bread to the starving or "sop" to Judas. They were the:Nomos (g3551) nom'-os; to parcel out, especially food or grazing to animals; law (through the idea of prescriptive usage
Heavy laden in Greek warns against those who would try to upset feelings just to soften people up to force changes the changer needs for his own assurance. Spiritual anxiety makes you want to buy whatever magic is being sold at the Feast of Tabernacles. However, spiritual people would run for their lives. This burden is not from Christ because it means:
phortizo (g5412) for-tid'-zo;to load up as a vessel or animal, figurative: to overburden with ceremony or spiritual anxiety: - lade, be heavy laden.
Jesus got on no lecture circuit, wrote no books and danced to no man's tune. He made a point of telling us that He would not sing and dance! How can we miss it?? He experienced death for all mankind, past, present and future to say to us:
Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (exempt you). Matt 11:28
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:30
The burden of Jesus is just the "invoice" for the load which He bore for us. Easy is from the word meaning "an oracle or to graze." Christ's burden is to accept grace as the invoice and to graze on His Words. Like the prophecy of Psalm 23, rest for the lambs is:
Anapauo (g373) an-up-ow'-o; to repose (literal or figurative: be exempt, to refresh: - take ease, refresh.
We have Christ's authority to come "outside the gates" to meet Him in a refreshing drink and to feed from His Word. The internal Word will then work its way out and change our external lives.
Jesus and Worship
By adding the "Lord's Supper," the synagogue could be used by the early church. It had no priests as intercessors. "Essentially democratic, the synagogue represents a fellowship of worshipers seeking God through prayer and study." (Britannica)
This was "Spiritual" worship in the mind or heart and devoted to truth. Jesus did not prescribe usage for anxiety-creating rituals because He came to take them off the backs of the lambs. He could not parcel out His Word like a lawyer and still be the Shepherd:
"Jesus did not Himself prescribe public worship for His disciples, no doubt assuming that instinct and practice, and his own spirit and example would bring it about spontaneously, but He did seek to guard their worship from the merely outward and spectacular, and laid great emphasis on privacy and real 'innerness' in it (Mt. 6:1-18)" (The Int. Std, Bible Ency., Synagogue, p. 3111).
Alms:
Giving was to be voluntary as alms. However, the Jewish clergy often sent people out to force you to give the leaves of the mint or spices. Jesus outlawed controlled giving by saying:
TAKE heed that ye do not your alms (compassionateness) before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 6:1
Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. Matthew 6:2
The Greek eklesia was a body of like-minded people who always looked out for their members. Giving by those with means to those who are inneed is both human and spiritual.
Prayer:
Paul did not command prayer as an "act." Rather, he warned that one praying a personal prayer in the presence of others must speak understandable words. Prayer is to be in all places and at all times. It was one of the two key features of the synagogue. Prayer is personal and we all know that it is virtually impossible to "lead" a group prayer.
The general rule, but not for Jesus, was that the participants such as the reader of the Word in the synagogue must sit. Therefore, Jesus commanded:
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites (actors perform acts) are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. Matthew 6:5
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:6
Someone has said that "we begin to pray only when our mouth runs out of words." This allows God to listen as our spirit speaks for us. However, the pagans never ran out of words such as "Lord, Lord."
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Matthew 6:7
God knows what we need and responds to prayer. However, it is vanity to think that by harassing Him we can force an answer, The earthly ruler must be importuned -- even the widow must beg. However, God, our Father, feeds us without making us beg.
Singing:
While Jesus did not command singing as an "act," as a Jew observing Passover, He sang one of the story songs called hallel which was restricted to designated leaders for legal festivals. Hymning was quiet and even silent reciting certain Psalms and not sentimental poetry. Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs were all "the Word of Christ" in Colossians 3:16. Singing was a "one another" practice to distinguish it from the legal, Levitical performance for the worshippers. However, the ancient changers were not timid about restoring legal, Old Testament or even Pagan rituals:
The McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia not only speaks, in general terms, of 'heresy largely pervading the church and making rapid headway' at that very time, but it specifies 'the appointment of singers as a distinct class of officers in the church' with 'the consequent introduction of profane (not the Bible) music' (Kurfees, M. C., Instrumental Music in Worship, p. 123)
The modern appeal for designated or trained singing teams is based upon the fact that flawless, complex harmony has the not-too-secret power to manipulate the mind of the audience. This may be a denial of the power of prayer and the Word of Christ given into the hands of the elders of whom Paul commanded:
He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. Titus 1:9
The Lord's Supper:
Lynn Anderson, keynoter for Jubilee 99 and author of Navigating the Winds of Change shows how to move the Lord's Supper into another musical performance. The method of change agentry is this: Let the old folks have a quiet, reverent Lord's Supper one week. Next week, those who need to feel the music rather than to search out the leaven in their own hearts can get a jab of morphine-like endorphins to dull the pain and make them feel spiritual. No doubt, in the long run, the old rurals will loose and the urbans will win.
Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper as a quiet, family meal of bread and the fruit of the vine. This was not "crumbled off" bread or sop dipped in bitter herbs. Part of the Passoveras the context of the institution of the Lord's Supper was a search of the house for leaven:
The search itself was to be accomplished in perfect silence and with a lighted candle. To this search the apostle may have referred in the admonition to 'purge out the old leaven' (1 Corinthians 5:7) (Edersheim, Passover)
Corinth's assembly was "doing more harm than good" (1 Corinthians 11:17). Among other things, the two forms of worshipers existed: by those who, in silence, searched out the leaven in their heart, and by those who saw the supper as a celebration. A component of the new wineskin dogma is that worship means feeling the exhilaration. This is a form of intoxication, perhaps on pure ignorance.
Perhaps only a few understood the nature of the literal body of Christ which He gave in death so that we do not have to die. Paul said:
Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 11:27
Unworthily does not mean that we must be worthy. Rather, unworthy means irreverently. Like the Passover where the search for the house for leaven was conducted in total silence, those taking the Lord's Supper must be quiet to search their own heart for leaven. Because you cannot think about two things at the same time, Paul made the Supper a personal time of reverence -- noise is never an aid but a burden:
But let a man examine (test) himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 1 Corinthians 11:28
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily (without reverence in introspection), eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning (separate thoroughly, discriminate) the Lords body. 1 Corinthians 11:29
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 1 Corinthians 11:30.
It cannot be doubted that those who need to sing during this period need to shut out the process for others as well as themselves. Music is always a way to discern ones own body and not the body of Christ. No, that sweep of emotion is not spirituality but just the opposite: it is an injection of drugs. One "pastor" even wants to put LSD into the communion juice because music is fine but drugs are quicker.
We believe that the Lord's Supper was a designated act at a designated time to remember the Lord's Sacrifice. It, like Baptism, was more than an outward symbol. Those who refuse baptism refuse to come alive in Christ while those who disrupt the Lord's Supper get spiritually sick and die back to their old state.
Preaching:
We know that Jesus modeled evangelizing the gospel to the untaught. However, in Acts 20:7, 9 the word is dialegomai or discourse, to converse. It does not mean "preaching" in the modern sense. The common word for preaching meant to evangelize or to "publish as a herald." Jesus was the model.
Worship - Places in the Heart
Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that worship was not at her "place" or His "place" because Worship is in Spirit and in Truth. In the next article we will see that Jesus was warning against trying to find Him at certain places by performing certain rituals. Rather, His Word is the living waters as the resting place and drink for His "lambs."
Worship is in spirit (mind) and in truth. This conforms to the essentials of the synagogue and not to the temple of external rituals. If the public assembly minimizes the individual right to worship God then, as Paul told the Corinthians in 1:17, "your assemblies do more harm than good."
Indeed, worship must be "in spirit" (mind) and in truth. However, it must express itself in mutual edification as a one-another effort. It cannot be performed for others.
The Series [1][2][3][4][5] Kenneth Sublett
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