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On October 6, 2022 By In Wisdom, Worship

Living the Liturgy

I grew up in the South. The deep South. Any deeper South, I would have been in the Gulf of Mexico. I love my Southern roots. I love everything in the South;  our accents,  our food (I’m from Louisiana, inarguably the best food in the South), our obsession with sports in general and football in particular. I love the blue-collar work ethic, the relative simplicity of life, hunting, fishing, and, at times, everybody in the community knowing your business. Those same nosey neighbors will be there for you when you need them.

An indispensable aspect of this Southern culture is “going to church.” Country songs have repeatedly memorialized the place of going to church in the South. Those songs both reflect and drive the culture (as does all art). Sadly, many of them quite accurately reflect the southern culture. Going to church is just what we do along with getting drunk on Friday and Saturday and having sex with multiple people. Going to church is a relatively unexamined ritual. Again, it’s just what we do.

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On August 8, 2022 By In Theology, Worship

Popcorn, Not Parachutes

Since systematic exposition of relevant biblical texts and regular sermons on eschatology and the Christian’s one hope has not seemed to do the trick, I have decided to try a more direct approach. The doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture is not true. It is not taught in the Bible. It is, in fact, contrary to a number of things the Bible says clearly. It is a false hope, heterodox and unhelpful, even if not damnable. Some of you, no doubt, will disagree, and that is fine. We all will be mistaken about some things, and there are worse errors one might cling to than the pre-trib rapture. But it really is not serving you well. It has misplaced your hope in adversity, misled your priorities in the culture war, and caused you to miss the robust joy and cheerfulness you might have otherwise had in what God is doing at the present time. You think God packed you a parachute, but what you really need is a bag of popcorn.

No one in the history of the Church ever believed in a secret Rapture of the Church before John Nelson Darby suggested it in 1830. Dispensational scholars have tried to establish the doctrine’s pre-Darby provenance, but they read Church history anachronistically to do so. The Church’s hope has never been to escape from the present world. Such an idea is Gnostic, not orthodox. The Church’s hope was always to see the gospel of God’s glory fill the earth and to see Jesus return to raise the dead and judge the world. This is the one hope we have in Christ, not to avoid tribulation but to overcome it.

The pre-tribulation Rapture is a pious blasphemy, the belief God will withdraw his army from the battlefield before returning to recapture it. But this is not what the Bible teaches. The gates of Hades will not prevail against the Church (Matt. 16:18). That does not mean the Church will survive the Enemy’s onslaught; it means the gates of death and darkness will not withstand the Church’s campaign. Christ is not playing defense. The Church is always on offense. Even when she seems to be overrun by her enemies, time proves the sovereign Commander was acting strategically. We are not looking forward to getting out of here. We are to look around with excitement at what the Lord is doing.

An expectation of extraction rarely produces feats of gallantry. The soldier who believes his ride is on the way is more likely to keep his head down until help arrives. Christians are not waiting for angelic aviators in heavenly helicopters to airlift us out of here. Pentecost was the redemptive-historical equivalent of D-Day. Spirit-filled preachers landed on the shores of enemy-held territory and announced the King’s army had arrived. It was not a raid, but an invasion and the hosts of heaven will continue pushing forward until the coward in the bunker finally falls. This one will not escape his fate by putting a bullet in his head. He has a cell reserved in the lake of fire, and there will be no escape. There is no plan B, no retreat, no surrender. Soldiers die as they disembark the assault boats, and the enemy’s machine guns are well-placed and may seem impregnable. But the Lord did not send us here only to turn around. To adapt a pop culture reference, “We’re Christians; we’re supposed to be surrounded.”

Many believers are sure they will soon disappear, and all of the wicked will be left behind. This might seem comforting, but it is not what the Bible teaches. It misinterprets prophecy, misplaces hope, and misdirects priorities. We are not preparing to withdraw; we are commanded to press forward. We are not pulling out but digging in. Build houses, plant gardens, get married, have babies, go to Church, sing the psalms, and catechize your children. “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.”

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Is the Regulative Principle Scriptural?

On July 28, 2022 By In Culture, Music, Worship

The Human Body and the Regulative Principle of Worship

John Calvin’s convictions against instruments in worship developed into distinct forms of worship across the various Reformation churches. Calvin inspired a capella psalmody among the Scots via John Knox and the use of metrical psalms in the Church of England and its descendents. As Karin Maag writes a,

“John Calvin begun the project of versifying the Psalms in French during his three-year stay in Strasbourg from 1539 to 1541. But although Calvin had talents in many fields, this was not one of them. His attempts at putting the psalms into poetic meter were clunky at best, and were quickly abandoned.”

The task of Calvin’s metrical psalter was completed by his successor in Geneva, Theodore Beza, and then the first English metrical psalter was printed by Robert Crowley, who was ordained by Nicholas Ridley – whom Beza called, “the English Calvin.”

Reformation Issues with Instruments

Calvin cites several issues with instruments but his concerns could be summarized by the “Regulative Principle of Worship” which teaches that, “…God sets the bounds and gives the basic patterns for worship. We are to do what God commands, since he is the one who alone can determine how he is to be worshiped.” b Under similar convictions, Calvin concludes that the Bible did not command the use of instruments in worship and thus to use them would be prohibited. 

Some have objected to this view by citing the use of instruments in the Old Testament and for worship in the Hebrew temple. In a sermon on 2 Samuel, Calvin writes: “the musical instruments were in the same class as sacrifices…” meaning to imply that they filled a ceremonial role and had been abolished with the advent of Christ’s perfect sacrifice. It is worth noting that Roman Catholic apologists of the medieval period looked to the Old Testament patterns of worship to justify the various doctrines of a sacrificial priesthood. Calvin’s view may have been formed partly in reaction to the severity of the idolatry he saw in the medieval Roman mass. 

Did the Early Church use instruments in Worship?

Calvin’s view against instruments was not new and could find precedence in the patristic church. In his article on Church music, Paul James-Griffiths writes: “Some of the Church Fathers, like Basil the Great, thought that cithara (like a guitar) players should be excommunicated from the church, and Ambrose was concerned that if Christians turned from psalm singing to playing instruments they might lose their salvation…” 

Strangely enough, it was a Roman Pope that was most successful in curbing the influence of instrumental music in the church. As Pope Gregory I reformed the 6th century Roman church and its rite for worship, the chanting (sometimes called “Gregorian Chant” anachronistically) that would develop over the next several centuries would emphasize the “word” over its accompaniment. It was the church fathers that first brought in the idea of a capella singing of psalms via the introits, graduals, and various antiphons of the communion liturgy. John Calvin admired Pope Gregory and frequently cites his example in his Institutes — noting Gregory’s emphasis on the word was not only limited to music, but also in his emphasis on pastors as preachers and as men bound by the limits of Scripture. Calvin’s appreciation is often noted in his calling Gregory the last good pope. c

So perhaps, one might imagine that Pope Gregory would’ve joined John Knox’s “Rascal Multitude” d as they reformed the Scottish Church. Unlikely. While the Scottish reforms removed organs, they also disbanded the church choirs, destroyed noted manuscripts, and aimed to destroy Gregory’s liturgical heritage developed in the Roman Rite and Western Christendom. There is a bit of irony in Calvin and the Scots removing instruments as “too catholic” when it was the Pope himself who removed instruments first. As the phrase goes, “Is the Pope Catholic?”

Is the Regulative Principle Scriptural?

The regulative principle is further expounded upon in Chapter 21 of the Westminster Confession, “As it is the law of nature” is used to describe how the example of sabbath history forms the pattern for Sunday worship. Appealing to the “law of nature” (or natural revelation) is not foreign to our theology of worship, as St. Paul points out in Romans (1:20-21) natural revelation proclaims God’s power and that we owe Him honor, thanks, and worship. For those attempting to see how instruments may conform to the regulative principle a similar deduction may be made as the Westminster Divines approbation of a “law of nature.”

If man is a worshipping being “without excuse” how is he to offer and return back praise? Some say in psalms, some say hymns, some say with instruments. All demand man to offer himself in worship.

In an article for Banner of Truth, Terry Johnson writes:

“Circumstances of worship are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence. An example of a circumstance would be the question of illumination at an evening service or the need for amplification of voices to be heard by all.”

If a man using his voice to sing conforms to the regulative principle, then the amplification of this same voice also conforms to the regulative principle. Thus the voice through the tool (or instrument) of the speaker remains commanded by God for worship, despite the lack of chapter and verse for microphones, speakers, and all their various snake-like wires.

Man as the model for Instruments

Many years ago, I sat under a lecture from James B. Jordan that made the case that all human instruments are modeled after the pattern of worshipping man. He made the argument that what St. John’s describes in Revelation 4-5 is heavenly worship accompanied by instruments. e And that string, wind, and percussive instruments are, according to Jordan, derivative of the human capacity to worship.

The various instruments are certainly analogous to human anatomy:

  1. We have string-like vocal cords that compare to harp, guitars, and other plucked instruments.
  2. We have wind-filled lungs that produce pitch through the throat to the lips–not unlike flutes or trumpets.
  3. We have hands to clap, feet that stomp, and flesh to drum.

Instruments and the Image of God

One could see then that the development of instrumentation in the temple is not some reflection of sacrificial identity, but rather the image of God taking dominion over nature. Just as the Angels sing “glory” at the Nativity when God became flesh–the people of the incarnation sing as they transform the gifts of creation into tools of worship. The pseudo-spirituality of denying instruments rejects our human identity as a worshipping body of flesh and bone. We don’t “gnostically” think praise with our brains, Psalm 95 teaches us to “worship and bow down” and to “kneel before the LORD our Maker.” We worship with our bodies.

These bodies were put in creation to take dominion through tools. In Exodus, Moses describes all skilled workmanship as the work of one “filled” with the “spirit of God.” f Natural labor’s role in dominion by erecting homes and learning trades is no less spiritual than the liturgical arts in God’s world. Therefore, the acts of worshiping God deserve not a truncated vision of human dominion, but the first and fullest since the worship of God as the chief end of dominion. Israel understood this and reserved its most beautiful and precious manners of workmanship for the Temple. Solomon’s extravagant use of timbers overlaid with gold, bronze altars, precious stones, and colored curtains amplified the God of creation. In the same way, instruments of worship elevate the human gifts of lungs, lips, and limbs to proclaim loudly the glory of God. Even more, did not St. Paul’s say that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Does He not now deserve the beauty and splendor of instrumental Temple worship? A step further might be to consider how the incarnation and our union with Christ transforms our notion of Temple. Does not Scripture say, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up…But He was speaking of the temple of His body.” (John 2:19,21) Christians who worship Christ this Temple, also have Christ the great High Priest – let us bring him the greater and more glorious worship!

Beyond the Temple’s beauty, worship with instruments was to have the power of dominion. The walls of Jericho fall to the final blow of the trumpets and David’s harp bound the King’s demons. If Worship is warfare, to go unarmed in a capella singing is to ignore the clear scripture example of so many of the Bible’s sainted accompanists.

Tools for Worship-based Warfare

Even Christ’s recasting of the dominion mandate as the Great Commission in Matthew 28 is prefaced with dominion by worship. In v. 17, we read “And when they saw him they worshiped him.” The language St. Matthew uses for worship is in the greek etymologically related to “proskynesis” as in bowing down before him (or literally to kiss toward, reminding me of the end of Psalm 2.) In response, Jesus claims “all authority in heaven and on earth.” Christians ought to recognize that Christ’s pathway to “discipling the nations” (v.19) and “teaching them” begins with worshipping. Don’t go into battle unarmed.

  1. Karin Maag is the Director of the H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies (in Hekman Library), one of the world’s foremost collections of works on or by John Calvin.  (back)
  2. Orthodox Presbyterian Church. (2017, May 27). Q&A: Regulative Principle vs. Normative Principle. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Retrieved June 15, 2022, from https://www.opc.org/qa.html?question_id=567  (back)
  3. In Book 4, Chapter 17: “Gregory, whom you may with justice call the last Bishop of Rome…”   (back)
  4. Knox’s Iconoclasm sermon instigated a 2-day riot against St. John’s on May 11, 1559  (back)
  5. e.g. “the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp”  (back)
  6. see context of Exodus 31:1-6, e.g. “And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass…”  (back)

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On June 2, 2022 By In Culture, Theology, Worship

Holy Priest, Holy Warrior: Reflections on Psalm 110

Reading through Psalm 110, one cannot but help notice that by the end of the psalm, the dead bodies are piling up. In verse 1, Christ’s enemies are made into a footstool for his feet. In verse 2, he rules in the midst of his enemies — and has a scepter to smite them. In verse 5, he shatters kings on the day of his wrath. In verse 6, he executes nations and fills them with corpses. 

And yet right in the middle of this “messiah on the warpath” imagery, we have a reference to Christ being an eternal priest after the order of Melchizedek. It is perhaps easier for us to see how the battle imagery of the psalm fits with Jesus’ kingship. After all, we expect kings — especially Davidic kings — to be battlefield heroes. Jesus does not disappoint in that way. He strikes and smashes his enemies from the beginning to the end of this psalm. The psalm paints the portrait of an utterly victorious king.

But since the psalm also pays homage to Jesus’ priesthood, an astute reader might wonder where priestly imagery shows up in the psalm. I would contend that the battlefield imagery fits not only with the motif of Jesus as reigning king but also with him as everlasting priest. In the Bible, priests are warriors just as much as kings. Waging holy war has been a priestly calling from the beginning.

There is a lot of biblical evidence for this truth, and we will only survey a fraction of it here. Start with Adam. Adam was a priest, serving in the sanctuary of Eden. We know this because the verbs used to describe Adam’s task in Eden, “tend and keep,” or “serve and guard” (Gen. 2:15), are used later to describe the tasks of the priests at the tabernacle, e.g., Num. 3:7-8. A priestly vocabulary is used for Adam’s task from the very beginning; he is to guard and keep Eden, just as the later priests would guard and keep the tabernacle. Of course, this also came to mean that he was to guard and keep the woman (the embodiment of Eden) after she was created, just as the priests were to guard and keep the people of Israel (the living tabernacle).

When Adam was told to guard the Garden, he should have deduced that there would be an invader. And sure enough, an intruder shows up. As soon as the serpent started questioning God’s Word to the woman, Adam should have stepped between the serpent and the woman to protect her. He should have silenced the lying serpent by crushing its head. That was his priestly task, and because he failed at that priestly task, he lost both his priesthood and his sanctuary. Adam should have piled up at least one corpse in Eden; he should have made the serpent a footstool for his feet. He should have ruled in the midst of his enemy (the serpent) by shattering and executing the serpent in a show of righteous wrath. Unfortunately, he did none of those things. What should have been the day of his power became a day of weakness and failure. He failed as a priest because he failed to fight. He refused to exercise holy violence and so he lost his holy status and access to the holy place.

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On May 27, 2022 By In Discipleship, Worship

Paedo-Noises

My Christian life began as a Baptist. I grew up Baptist and went to a Baptist college. Graduated with an MDiv from a Baptist seminary, served as a Baptist youth and music minister, and finally as a Baptist pastor. That was quite a chunk of my life. While children are important to Baptists, baptistic theology views children as “outsiders” until they come to their crisis conversion experience … which probably happens from 6-8 and then again, maybe several times after puberty (because they realize that they weren’t “really” saved when they were younger). Children are to be evangelized in the most basic sense; you know, like we would do the man on the street. So, we have classes and even children’s church aimed at getting them to “ask Jesus into their hearts.”

Baptistic theology doesn’t incorporate children in the way that Reformed theology does. That’s not a slam on my Baptist brothers. It is just a fact.

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On May 26, 2022 By In Church, Family and Children, Worship

What is the Ascension of our Lord?

The Church celebrates the Ascension of our Lord today. Since most churches are not able to have Thursday services, traditionally, many of them celebrate Ascension on Sunday. But in our day, the Ascension of Jesus is barely mentioned in the evangelical vocabulary. We make room for his birth, death, and resurrection, but we tend to put a period where God puts a comma.

If the resurrection was the beginning of Jesus’ enthronement, then the ascension is the establishment of his enthronement. The Ascension activates Christ’s victory in history. The Great Commission is only relevant because of the Ascension. Without the Ascension, the call to baptize and disciple the nations would be meaningless. It is on the basis of Jesus’ enthronement at the right-hand of the Father that we image-bearers can de-throne rulers through the power and authority of our Great Ruler, Jesus Christ.

The Ascension then is a joyful event, because it is the genesis of the Church’s triumph over the world. Further, it defines us as a people of glory and power, not of weakness and shame. As Jesus is ascended, we too enter into his ascension glory (Col. 3:1) This glory exhorts us to embrace full joy. As Alexander Schmemann once wrote:

“The Church was victorious over the world through joy…and she will lose the world when she loses its joy… Of all accusations against Christians, the most terrible one was uttered by Nietzsche when he said that Christians had no joy.”

A joy-less Christian faith is a faith that has not ascended. Where Christ is we are. And we know that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father. He is ruling and reigning from his heavenly throne. The Father has given him the kingdom (Psalm 2), and now he is preserving, progressing, and perfecting his kingdom. He is bringing all things under subjection (I Cor. 15:24-26).

We know that when he was raised from the dead, Jesus was raised bodily. But Gnostic thinking would have us assume that since Jesus is in heaven he longer needs a physical body. But the same Father who raised Jesus physically, also has his Son sitting beside him in a physical body. As one author observed:

“Jesus has gone before us in a way we may follow through the Holy Spirit whom he has sent, because the way is in his flesh, in his humanity.”

Our Lord is in his incarnation body at the right hand of the Father. This has all sorts of implications for us in worship. We are worshipping a God/Man; one who descended in human flesh and who ascended in human flesh. He is not a disembodied spirit. He is truly God and truly man.

As we consider and celebrate the Ascension of our blessed Lord, remember that you are worshiping the One who understands your needs because he has a body just like you and he rejoices with you because he has a body just like you.

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On May 26, 2022 By In Theology, Worship

The Ascension

Hidden in the smoke that ascended from the altar that sat in the forecourt of the Tabernacle and Temple was a prophecy, a shadowy type of what was to come. The worshiper brought his offering to draw near to God. Indeed, the word he heard that we translate as “offering” is more literally “near-bringing.” There were several different types of these offerings or near-bringings, each with its own emphasis on what happens in our relationship with God. One of these near-bringings was called the ascension offering. Translations confuse us because they focus on the action taken upon the offering and not what the offering is doing. You will read “burnt offering,” but the Hebrew word emphasizes ascending or going up; yes, the offering goes up in fire and smoke, but it is going up.

After having drained the blood from the animal, skinned it, cut it into pieces, and washed it, the priest put the pieces that were to be offered on the altar, head first, followed by all of the other parts (see Lev 1). The fire set by God himself was a consuming fire, but it was a friendly fire. The fire turned the offering that represented the worshiper into smoke that passed through the smoke of the incense altar, which is the prayers of the saints (Rev 8.4), and united with the glory cloud of God in the Holy of Holies. The worshiper ascended through the mediation of the holy substitute to draw near to God, to join him in his enthroned rest to enjoy his work.

Jesus’ ascension is the fulfillment of this smoky type. His death and resurrection–his blood shed and his body transformed–were not the end of his work. All of his work was leading to his ascension and enthronement. It is no mere bland historical fact that the disciples see Jesus “lifted up” so that a “cloud” takes him out of their sight as they stare into heaven (Ac 1.9-11). Jesus is the near-bringing, the offering, that draws near to God to sit enthroned with him to enjoy his work. He is seated at the right hand of the Father after his ascension, reigning until he has put all enemies under his feet, the last of which is death, which he will conquer at our resurrection (Mk 16.19; Ac 2.34-36; Heb 12.2; 1Cor 15.20-28).

United to Christ Jesus, our substitute, we join him in his ascension, seated with Christ Jesus in heavenly places, reigning with him until our common enemies are put under our feet (Eph 1.20-22; 2.6; see also Rom 16.20). Each Lord’s Day renews this covenant, assuring us of our present and future glory. In the Spirit, we ascend into heaven, incorporated into God’s glory cloud in praise to rule with him.

Happy Ascension Day!

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On April 16, 2022 By In Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom, Worship

Holy Saturday: The Body Waiting

Holy Week, like the rest of the church calendar, gives us a multi-dimensional perspective on our present lives. We exist in tensions; tensions between what is already accomplished and what is yet to be accomplished, what is true but remains in a condition of relative immaturity and what will be true when God’s promises come to complete maturity in and for us. There is, for instance, one sense in which we live in a perpetual Easter. Christ is risen and ever lives to make intercession for us. He will never die again and, therefore, be raised again. Our bodies are in union with his body, so we have died and been resurrected with him (Rom 6.1-11). But there is another reality at work at the same time. Because Christ is the head of a body, the church, there is a sense in which he still suffers (Ac 9.4; Col 1.24) and waits for resurrection on the last day (1Cor 15). He moves with us through history until we come to have bodies like his glorious body (Phil 3.20-21). In union with Christ, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday are all present and continuing realities for the church as she moves through history, anticipating the resurrection of our bodies when union with our head will reach its fullest expression.

Holy Saturday is one perspective on our existence as the church in which we follow our head throughout history anticipating the resurrection. There is much to learn in the quiet stillness of Holy Saturday.

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On April 14, 2022 By In Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom, Worship

Maundy Thursday: The Body Given

Jesus washed the feet of his disciples on the night he instituted the Lord’s Supper and gave his new commandment to love one another as he loved us. He served us, ultimately giving his body and blood so that we might be healed, which is the result of our sins forgiven, being reconciled to God, reconciled with one another, and reconciled with the non-human creation. He gave his body to be broken in death so that as we partake of the bread he proclaims to be his body, we are united with one another in his body as his body. This union created in Christ Jesus demands of each one of us that we love one another in the same way that Christ Jesus loved us. That is what it means to be a part of the body of Christ. We share his own life, which is not only the gift of individually passing from death to life and having life after this present life is over, but it is also having life with one another.

As a body we are to share a mutual love, a love that is the opposite of everything described in Prov 6.16-19. The command to love one another assumes our union with one another because the “one another” is a certain group of people, namely, the other disciples of Christ. Love nourishes and enhances the unity and health of the body, which is just the opposite of what the seven abominations do.

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On March 10, 2022 By In Theology, Worship

Holy Worship: Psalm 99

Contemplation of God’s holiness can be terrifying. When we meditate on the blazing purity, the uncompromised integrity, the sinlessness of an all-powerful God who is also the judge of the earth, seeing our impure selves in the light of his presence is frightening. We read and, in some small measure, can identify with the story of Isaiah in the Temple, who, seeing YHWH enthroned and hearing the seraphim crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” proclaimed his desperate grief at his undone-ness because of his impurity (Isa 6.1-7).

God’s holiness is dangerous; so dangerous that during the time before Christ, he kept his people from it through distance and a veil. His purity destroys all impurity. It would seem that his holiness would not be an encouragement to worship, to draw near to him, but rather a reason not to do so. Who wants to be shamed and then destroyed? Yet there is something attractive to us about God’s holiness; something that draws us in like a moth to a flame; something so beautiful about it that, despite the pain we experience through seeing our deep impurities and dissatisfactions it reveals about us, we are drawn to it.

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