Do you long to worship God? Join Elder Tsatalbasidis for a biblical understanding of worship and spirituality in contrast to the two great erroneous worship presuppositions that have dogged Christianity for centuries.

GYC 2011: Fill Me

<p>Do you long to worship God? Join Elder Tsatalbasidis for a biblical understanding of worship and spirituality in contrast to the two great erroneous worship presuppositions that have dogged Christianity for centuries.</p>

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2011 Seminar: Spiritual Leadership & Spiritual Worship

Karl Tsatalbasidis

Theological Foundations for Worship and Spirituality, Part 1

This message was presented at the GYC 2011 conference.

For other resources like this, visit us online at gycweb.org.

Our Father in Heaven, Lord, thank you for the great privilege that you give to us to assemble here in freedom.

Thank you that we could look at this subject called worship.

We've been guided by your word to enter in by faith into that heavenly sanctuary where you are.

You've provided for us the framework and the enemy has substituted a counterfeit through which we then process these issues of worship and a whole host of other doctrines.

So we pray that you would enlighten our minds, that you would send us your Holy Spirit, grant us the eye salve, that spiritual discernment, and as you convict us of sin and righteousness and judgment grant us the courage to be men and women of opportunity like Hezekiah to move forward quickly and so we thank you now for hearing our prayers in Jesus name amen actually my prayer is found in for you in the book of Colossians I believe and part of being led guided by the Holy Spirit is having understanding and so notice what the Apostle does as he prays and and and his heart's desire for those whom he's writing to.

It says, for this cause, Colossians 1, verse 9, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding and so as we think about the Holy Spirit the work of the Holy Spirit Paul earnestly pleaded that those whom he is ministering to might be filled with all wisdom and spiritual understanding but not just as a mental exercise if you read the next verse it says that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God And so let's look at the Holy Spirit, the scriptures, and the sanctuary as theological foundations for worship and spirituality.

Actually we're going to get to that in the second part.

Jesus said this, the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

For the Father seeketh such to worship Him.

God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." John chapter 4, verse 23 and 24.

But what exactly does that mean to worship the Father and Spirit and in truth what actually constitutes spiritual worship who determines what determines whether our worship I'm talking about our corporate worship now, not something that you might do at home or privately, but what determines whether our corporate worship together is actually a spiritual worship.

An analysis of the history of Christianity reveals that there are 3 focal points that are competing for the central place in worship.

And these 3 approaches have a direct impact on what it means to worship God in spirit and in truth.

In the Catholic Church, the Eucharist or the Mass, or we would think about it as the Lord's Supper, in the Catholic Church it is the mass that comprises the central aspect of worship and becomes the way in which the presence of God is experienced among the people so when the priest holds the wafer up and that wafer the substance of that wafer is transformed into those into the substance of the divine Son of God, that is how the congregation then experiences the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, through their form of worship.

Well, centuries later in the Protestant Reformation there was a shift.

Obviously there was a shift then from the Mass or the Eucharist being the focal point to the preaching of the Word which was the focal point and so the presence of God then would come directly through the preaching of the word and incidentally if you wanted to go if you've ever been in a Roman Catholic Church or a basilica that which occupies the central place architecturally is the Great Altar that's at the center so geographically within the church that is at the center which communicates that this is the most important thing that happens and the presence of God is experienced through that will during the Protestant Reformation that then was abandoned for the pulpit which would occupy the central place so when the pulpit is in the center geographically in the church it sends the message that hey this is paramount that's what happened during the protestant reformation however when you get to the charismatic movement music is synonymous for most charismatic music is synonymous with the presence of God, with entering into the presence of God, with experiencing the presence of God and the Holy Spirit.

And it occupies, as I was doing research for my dissertation, theologians and historians have documented these 3 major focal points.

The altar, or I should say the mass, the word, and then music as being the major focal points.

And so 1 guy was kind of tongue-in-cheek saying well you know in the catholic church yeah would be the alter in the protestant church the pulpit but for us charismatic see was saying it's it's it's though it's the worship bands you know the drum kit that's how people experience the presence of god and it's anonymous with the presence of god well if you've not heard about the emerging church that's the most recent phenomenon maybe 25 30 years old mostly in mostly among evangelicals and the emerging church chiefly expresses God's presence through music and leans considerably closer to the Eucharist as the focal point of worship rather than the word, alright?

So you have these different approaches that are competing then for what is central, and that is expressed architecturally as well.

Now, we're going to talk about the false foundation because unless you and I understand the false foundations and the worship principles and worship expressions that are based on those, we'll not have an idea of the true as well.

You know, there are 2 antagonistic principles that have been working themselves out throughout history throughout prophecy and so we need to trace the working of these 2 antagonistic principles and compare the 2 have you ever read the book of revelation and found out while there are a whole bunch of contrasts in the book of Revelation and the reason that is so is it's a great teaching tool because we learn best when we can compare 1 thing with another and look at the similarities and the differences all the way from the ground up so we are looking at a very false system here and this is an incredible statement and you will see the theological significance of this statement from Ellen White in the great controversy hopefully as we move on but here's what it says through the 2 great errors the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness Satan will bring the people under his deceptions now I know most of us are used to thinking about the immortality of the soul in this way the dead will you know he will impersonate the dead and they will come back and they will speak to us and they will seek to lead us away from an allegiance of the word there's no doubt about the fact that that's true and that is the modus operandi that he's going to use however There's also an interesting relationship between the doctrine of man and how we experience worship when you assume the immortality of the soul.

I'm going to try to make that clear as we move along.

It becomes an important prerequisite as to how worship is experienced and also as to how salvation is experienced so these 2 major presuppositions have given shape to Roman Catholic charismatic emerging church and emerging church worship well Protestant worship now interestingly enough ever since the they call it the liturgical movement in the 19th century ever since the liturgical movement and Vatican to which I'll talk about just briefly in the 1960s the Protestants have moved from away from something that's that something that's based on the word to the word and the Eucharist now vying for centrality ever since Vatican too so there's been confusion there so in these systems the mass music you could also put art visual representations, these are all ways and mediums through which God's presence is communicated in these systems.

They become the chief means of experiencing the Holy Spirit and the presence of God in worship.

Now I want you to remember a word that's up on the screen.

When you think about these 2 statements here about the 2 great errors the immortality of the soul and sunday sacredness I want you to think this word do all is on my dualism and I'm gonna split that up into 2 categories here.

Cosmology, the basic theory of heaven and earth, how it all comes together.

The immortality of the soul represents the doctrine of man these 2 form the framework upon which these systems of worship that I'm about this false systems are built upon and Hopefully as I get going and going and going, you'll be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Now, I want to talk about the importance of the Second Vatican Council as it relates to this subject.

This is a council that took place between 1962 and 1965.

It's a meeting where the archbishop, the cardinals, archbishops, bishops all get together and it was described as the most important document, the 1 on the Constitution on the sacred liturgy which deals with worship it was described as the most important council of the 20th century on the subject of worship it has spawned thousands of books articles conferences and doctoral theses okay this is not small and this has been attested to not just by Roman Catholics but all kinds of Protestants as well when they think of the Constitution on the sacred liturgy it's hey this is it all right now I've read 17 7th day Adventist dissertations as of 2008.

Not 1 of them deals with this phenomenon.

Because we usually think, well, those are Roman Catholics.

But the seeds that they planted at that council meeting would affect Adventists and that's what we're going to go through so very important council meeting 1 of the documents that produced to produce 16 documents the Constitution on the sacred liturgy was 1 of them now you need to understand that for 400 years from the Council of Trent which is the counter-reformation in the 16th century For 400 years Roman Catholic worship was uniform and predictable.

All the T's were crossed, all the I's were dotted, and no 1 could change a thing, okay?

And Gregorian chant was the high point of the Roman Catholic mass and the Roman Catholic liturgy now it is true that when high art music came along they started in grafting that but that's pretty much almost the only change that has been made that's it now when you get to Vatican to they then take that and move it a quantum leap ahead now let's read this in certain parts of the world they state especially mission lands there are people who have their own musical traditions and these play a great part in their religious and social life.

For this reason, due importance is to be attached to their music and the suitable places to be given to it, not only in forming their attitude toward religion, but also in adapting worship to their native genius, as indicated in Articles 39 and 40.

SC doesn't stand for Steps to Christ, just to tip you off on that.

It's the Latin of the Constitution on the sacred liturgy.

So it says, therefore, when missionaries are given training in music every effort should be made to see that they become competent in promoting the traditional music of these people both in schools and sacred services as far as may be practicable now this is a quantum leap beyond as a matter of fact this caused shockwaves within the Roman Catholic Church and there are some Roman Catholics that believe that as a result of these pronouncements the chair at St.

Peter's even though occupied by other popes has essentially been vacant there were millions of Roman Catholics that woke up and said I don't recognize my church anymore because in came the rock bands in came all this kind of music during the 1960s based on these pronouncements you see it was an ecumenical work it was an ecumenical ploy in order to kind of regain influence that had been lost and gave the appearance that the Roman Catholic Church was essentially changing.

But Rome does not change, it just gave the appearance.

And so 1 Protestant asked a really key question.

How can a church which considers itself infallible and which has expressed that infallibility through certain forms of worship now suddenly change its forms of worship without endangering its claim to infallibility are you seeing the the logic here okay the church is infallible well how is that infallibility expressed It is expressed through certain forms of worship.

Now the forms of worship have changed, but yet the claim still exists.

How can you do that without contradicting yourself?

Now this is where you need to fasten your seatbelts a little bit.

But before we get to them, when you talk about corporate worship, there are 3 essential components of corporate worship.

Obviously the presence of God is the most important component of worship.

By the way, philosophy and theology have defined those attributes in contradiction to what the Bible says about him.

The place you worship, the clothes you wear, the music that you use, the prayers that you offer, anything and everything constituting ritual, these things go together in what's called corporate worship.

And so here you have the Roman Catholic Church changing its forms overnight.

And again, millions of people left the church at that point because they didn't recognize their church anymore that's how that that's how much dissonance this move made in the Roman Catholic Church and so but so how can they do that well Plato and Aristotle to the rescue and again fasten your seatbelts here according to Plato he's a Greek philosopher living around third to fourth century, fourth century BC.

So you're talking about almost 300 plus years before Jesus, all right?

And he theorized that this was the Greeks' first attempt at science, all right?

They were tired of explanations like, well, the gods did it.

Well, because the gods made the grass green.

Because the gods made it male and female.

I mean, whatever question you came up with, that was the answer.

And, you know, that's not very intellectually satisfying.

So they tried to think about why things change, why they remain the same.

He theorized that there are actually 2 worlds, a world of ultimate reality.

Now, I know you're thinking in your mind heaven, OK?

But his heaven is without time and without space.

You see, when I came into the Adventist Church I had this idea that we'd be playing on puffy clouds, you know, harps, that You'd be able to see through each other, because we're ghost-like creatures.

And we'd be playing on puffy clouds throughout all the ceaseless ages of eternity.

It lacks neither time nor space, if you can imagine such a thing and it's perfect eternal and unchangeable unchangeable in in in the sense that there is nothing that follows anything else.

You see, there's 4 seasons in Greece, and so things, you have springtime where things grow, and then you have the fall where it decays and everything dies.

So there must be something perfect somewhere that isn't subject to time disease death and decay.

All right, this is how he's reasoning well, and We live in the world of the shadows The world that you can see feel hear and touch is not really real It's just a shadow.

The substance is in this timeless realm, okay?

Theological Foundations for Worship and Spirituality, Part 2

I hope you made it through those mental gymnastics.

So we're not just talking about superficial issues here when we talk about changing how worship is done.

Because all these things are completely interrelated.

So we're going to move from the false foundation now, which was based on dualism, to the true foundation And we're going to see how God has given us that foundation and its connection to worship and liturgy and thus what it means to have a spiritual worship.

So let's bow our heads for a word of prayer as we continue to move on.

Our Father in Heaven, the Apostle Paul prayed that we might be blessed with all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

I thank you for the ministry of the Holy Spirit that enables us to see the difference between truth and error.

And Lord, I just pray and ask for him to be here right now that he would take these words that are spoken and do much better than I ever could.

So thank you Father for your grace, thank you for the promise of the Spirit, and we claim that promise now in Jesus' name, Amen.

All right, the Holy Spirit, the sanctuary, the Holy scriptures, again theological foundations for worship and spirituality.

What we're going to take a look at now is the central role of the sanctuary in worship.

And I can promise you you're going to take a look at the sanctuary a little bit differently by the time we're through today and tomorrow as well.

Most of the time, we think, OK, well, it has 2 compartments.

And in the holy place, you have the table of showbread.

And that's a symbol of Christ, who is the bread of life.

And that's also symbolic of Christ, who is the light of the world.

Yes, all these things are definitely good and true and applicable.

But yet we've not mined the depths of this symbol called the sanctuary.

And the best way I know how to explain it is that it becomes the system or the software package.

It requires a software package so that you can have a printout.

And so this sanctuary we're going to discover is that system through which we should process all these ideas and it provides the proper framework for understanding God's presence who is of course the most critical for lack of a better way to say it the most critical component of worship we're not going to be calling God a component but he's without him of course there is no worship so it's the sanctuary that helps us to understand God's presence and in John chapter 1 verse 14 it says that the word was made flesh and dwelt and in the original language it actually means tabernacled among us pointing you back to the sanctuary so Jesus was had no problem existing in time and space and interacting with God's people he's more than willing and able to interact with us so it's the sanctuary that provides us the right understanding of God's presence.

It also provides us with the framework for understanding how all the components of worship should relate to each other.

It guards against polytheism and pluralism.

It makes a distinction between the holy and the profane.

And I'm only going to point to this today I'll have to amplify on it tomorrow the symbols in the sanctuary point to spiritual realities just to give you just a little bit of a hint here the sanctuary that has been revealed to us has a 2 apartment ministry.

Now if you decided that you didn't like the 2 apartments and you wanted to abolish the wall in the middle, what you would also be abolishing is the plan of salvation to which the sanctuary then points to.

So when you alter the symbol that God has given, you alter the reality to which it points to.

And we'll talk about the implications of that when it comes to worship.

So it has a very, very central role, especially for worship.

Turn with me to Exodus chapter 25 verses 8 and 9, something that I'm sure you're very familiar with.

Exodus 25 verses 8 and 9, and I'm going to go ahead, I know there's a bit of material to cover and so I'm gonna go in evangelistic style rapid fashion it says and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them according to all that I show thee after the pattern of the tabernacle of the after the pattern of all the instruments thereof even so shall ye make it where did the children of Israel get this idea of the sanctuary?

Well, they did not get it from all the surrounding nations, friends.

It was something that God had revealed to them.

And as we go through and look at the the more permanent structure will see that this is also true as well first chronicles 28 verse 19 first chronicles chapter 28 and verse 19 gave David here gives a description of the the pattern of all the the instruments in the sanctuary and that pattern it says was given by the Holy Spirit if you look in verse 12 First Chronicles chapter 28 and verse 12 was back up to verse 11 it says Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch and the houses thereof and the treasures thereof and the upper chambers thereof and the inner parlors thereof and the place of the mercy seat and the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit." We spent some time looking at the relationship between the sanctuary and the Spirit when we looked at Hezekiah's incredible reformation.

And so here this pattern that had been given now from David to Solomon was given by the Holy Spirit and you can't have any greater authority than that but look at verse 19 it says all this in other words all all the pattern that had been shown to him all this said David the Lord made me understand who was it that made him understand the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me even all the works of this pattern so this is integrated with the when we talk about worship, it's integrated with the sanctuary.

Look at 1 Chronicles chapter 15 and verse 16 for a moment.

This is, by the way, where God reveals to David the fact that, or I should say, the instruments that should be associated with the tabernacle service, all right?

Just to back up, because I don't think I'm going to be covering this later on but in case I do I'll just mention it briefly in first Chronicles 13 you have that situation where they're bringing the ark up to Jerusalem and there's all kinds of festivities and all that and there's timbrels you can see that inverse 8 and they you know they get an a plus for enthusiasm but they violated some principles in the word of god that's what's you're not supposed to carry the ark of god on a cart and when you're always watching what the philistines do you can get in trouble pay the philistines did that that's how they bring people into their church that's how they do things let's do the same thing well you know what happened with us all right okay that's exactly what happened and and as david does a little bit of bible study he realizes in chapter 15 verse 2 it says none ought to carry the ark of god but the levi's for them has the lord chosen to carry the ark of god in the minister on to him forever in through the as a man didn't atone for the direct violation look at verses 11 through 13 David calls for all the priests I'm not gonna I'm not gonna mention all their names there in verse 12 it says and said unto them you are the chief of the fathers of the Levites sanctify yourselves both ye and your brethren that you may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel into the place that I prepared for it for because you did it not at the first the Lord our God made a breach upon us for that we sought him not after the due order and so then David then says or the scripture says in verse 16 David spoke to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be singers with instruments of music psalteries and harps and cymbals sounding by lifting up the voice with joy also if you move to the next chapter in chapter 16 and verse 4 it says he appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord to record and thank and give praise to the Lord God of Israel it mentioned some of their names and you think my last name is hard and then it says with psalteries and harps but Asaph made a sound with cymbals Benaiah also in Jehaziel the priests with trumpets continually before the ark of the covenant of God So when you talk about the arrangement of musical instruments, there are psalteries and harps, which are basically stringed instruments, then you have trumpets and cymbals.

Therefore, let's drag the trap set into this okay and they suggest on the basis of the symbol being used in the sanctuary service that then we can you know then we can drag you know the drum set along with all the syncopated forms of rhythms that come along with that into the into the service why because of the commonality of the symbol well friends even those who want to justify the use of rock and jazz in the church today are all in agreement regarding the fact that the symbol was not used to beat out the scene of the rhythm of the song or a stanza in the song they're all in agreement concerning the fact that it was not played that way so it was not play like you need to move like this it was used almost like a call to worship to announce the beginning of a song or a stanza in the song so you're not standing on very solid ground if you want to make a typological argument there because it just simply wasn't used that way at all it could have been but it wasn't more like a call to worship so the the the instruments the stringed instruments there with were the ones that were giving accompaniment to the massive choirs that were there just to nail this thing down that this with this whole arrangement was given by god let's go back and read a verse that we read in our previous session in second chronicles chapter 29 verse 25 when Hezekiah enacted his reforms and began to cleanse the sanctuary notice the immediate effect on worship in second chronicles 29 25 he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with symbols with salt reason with harps according to the commandment of David that's pretty good authority and gab the king seer and Nathan the prophet that's pretty good authority to but it continues on by saying for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets so it was God who arranged this whole thing and I believe God does things for a certain purpose and we're going to look at why he chose this liturgical arrangement and what that tells us then about worship realities and what and about a biblical philosophy of music you see God gave the blueprints for the sanctuary and God commanded which instruments were to be used and which were not and this was meant to be binding you see because in the days of in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah God's people were in Babylon and God had called them to come out of Babylon and to rebuild the temple now notice which we there in Ezra just go I guess maybe a book or 2 over, Ezra chapter 3 verse 10, they're laying the foundation here for the temple and it says, now this is 600 years after David had made this decree, and 300 years after Hezekiah, it says, when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests and their apparel with trumpets and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals to praise the lord after the ordinance of david israel now remember you had god's people in a literal location in israel at that time and hopefully will get to some of the principles because we have a worldwide church now and so people come out of every nation kindred tongue and how are we going to put all these pieces of the puzzle together without completely destroying our individuality or our culture or the Word of God.

Do it right and we can be like Hezekiah and enact some serious reforms.

And so in Nehemiah chapter 12 verse 27 to 36 nehemiah also calls attention to the instruments of david that had been set up so here 600 years later these were meant to be binding now god has also called us out of spiritual babylon and Jerusalem is not down here on this earth, but is up in heaven.

And so we ought to look there in order to figure out what a doctrine of worship is.

I did a music worship seminar in New York not too long ago, and of course, you know, in New York, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere, right?

Now if you want to head into the music and show business and Broadway, well you're not going to go to some little town in Michigan where I was from or even a smaller town in Amity, Arkansas where I am right now.

If you really want to know how to worship God, then we're gonna go to a place where they really know how to do that.

I mean, that's where they know how to do that and so we ought to draw our principles from there so we've come out of spiritual Babylon and as God's people went through that bitter disappointment in 1844 in Revelation chapter 11 verse 1 it said rise and measure the temple of God evaluate that temple and use that as a basis for understanding the plan of salvation and how we ought to worship.

Well you know in the Old Testament you know there was a center there you know they literally had that temple there but something happens you know when you're reading all the crazy stuff that I need to read for my dissertation all of a sudden there's no longer any Center anymore and I'm like well wait a minute guys hold on a minute yes there still is a Center what about the sanctuary that is in heaven the earthly was a mere was a mere duplicate copy of that and it says in the book of Hebrews that out of all the things that I've written this is the main point in Hebrews chapter 8 verses like 1 and 2 that We have a real sanctuary where our high priest ministers up there.

The real tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man.

In Revelation chapters 4 and 5 it's a magnificent scene there And it's obviously taking place in the sanctuary of God.

There's a trumpet call to worship in Revelation chapter 4 and verse 1.

In Revelation chapter 4 verse 8, the angels cry out, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come, reminiscent of Isaiah chapter 6 where the prophet saw the Lord high and lifted up in the sanctuary.

Furthermore, they prostrate themselves and take off their crowns.

Now the harp is used as the only accompanying instrument in the book of Revelation.

That would make sense because you got stringed accompaniment, which was the shadow, which was the earthly, and so it would make sense that you have the harp as the accompanying instrument and so we'll discuss the implications of that there's a cosmic universal praise in in in that it In Revelation 4 and 5 it blends awe, holiness, with joy and praise.

Those 2 qualities must be there in any worship service.

And they are there in Revelation chapters 4 and 5.

So the singing and the instruments are connected to the reality of the heavenly sanctuary.

So just like a building is built with the foundation first and everything else goes on top of it, that's what we have here.

That's what we have now remember with Jeroboam you have I can get to it in second I'm sorry in first Kings chapter 12 verses 25 to 28 the very the very thing that Jeroboam did the drastic error that he committed was that he in setting up these 2 calves of gold, the 1 in Dan and the other in Bethel, he automatically turned his back on the sanctuary.

And when he did that, it said he took counsel, and when he took counsel he didn't get it from the first 5 books of the Bible so in this way the sanctuary and the scriptures are really interconnected Once you turn your back on the sanctuary, then the forms of worship come from nature, they come from culture, they come from human philosophy as well, as we studied in our previous session.

So we cannot afford to turn our backs on that sanctuary.

Thinking of the ancient future church, the goal of emergent worship is to join the future with the past and by the past they don't unfortunately they don't go all the way back to the bible they go back to the early church after the death of the Apostle John and so they're seeking to unite these 2 these 2 poles together the craziness of modern worship with its music and its art and all those types of things with ancient worship meaning the the emphasis on the mass and and incense and and candles and all those types of things so they're seeking to unite all those all those elements this was a very interesting commentary and I want you to see that a lot of Christian theology is based on philosophy.

Classical theism, a way of understanding God, has been the position of Western Christian orthodoxy from Augustine, Aquinas, Scotus, Luther, Calvin, and their followers to the present.

It is undeniable that although the Bible is its source and standard, traditional Christian theology has been shaped, what word does he use next?

Significantly by the legacy of Platonic philosophy.

That's why when we discussed the Mass and the understanding of the Eucharist, it's completely integrated with platonic Aristotelian philosophy.

There are 2 strands of platonic philosophy.

For those of you that were not here, this is going to be, this may be muddy.

Reality is composed of an unbridgeable chasm between God and the world.

Things in the world are made up of matter and substance.

Well this is the basis for you know the Eucharist and Roman Catholic theology.

Now I doubted as to whether I should have this down but anyway There's another strand of platonic thought.

Have you heard the word pantheism before?

Pantheism means that there's no distinction between God and nature and the universe, none at all.

So I'm God, you're God, everything is God.

Panentheism, now that doesn't sit well with Christian theology because you know in Christian theology we believe that God created and so he must remain somehow distinct from his creation And so the idea that God is nature and nature is God doesn't sit very well.

But because most of Christian theology has been based on philosophy, you have another word which is close to pantheism and it's called panentheism.

Practical Foundations for Worship and Spirituality, Part 1

Our Father in Heaven, Lord, thank you for the awesome privilege to be here.

Thank you for the theme that helps us to realize that without you, we can do nothing.

We've often been like your disciples, Lord.

We've been trained, we've been educated, but yet at times we are just powerless to do what you're requiring us to do.

And we pray that sin and selfishness and jealousy, All of these things that would prevent us from being connected with you would be cast out.

That was what the Apostle Paul asked of the Colossians, that they would be filled with all wisdom and spiritual understanding and so we thank you for the promise of the Holy Spirit to anoint our eyes to help us to see the more deeper foundational issues and how worship is expressed so father thank you for the promise of sending your spirit now so that he can lead us and guide us into all truth.

We have time to basically look at a few things between this session and the next 1.

I'll take a look at architecture, I'll take a look at music, and I will also examine dance as well in connection with music as we think about things that are practical.

And these principles that I'm going to be talking about are broad and specific at the same time.

So I always have people ask me, well, what about this, what about that?

And I usually begin with the great theological, philosophical foundation, and then we move up.

And by the time we move up, most of you can already do the math by the time I get there.

And so we'll discuss architecture, music, and then dance in the very next session.

As I mentioned yesterday, in the Catholic Church the Eucharist is central, which means that as you walk into a Roman Catholic Church, the altar is central in the church.

It is geographically placed in the center and what that communicates of course is that this is the most important thing that happens in worship not only that but if you take the Roman Catholic Orthodox and Anglican Communions which are which most of us would think of as high church.

It is really decked with gold and pearls and I mean it's made really fancy and extravagant.

Well because of the doctrine of the real presence, which of course the Orthodox and all 3 that I've mentioned before, Catholics and Anglicans and Orthodox would agree with.

Anglicans would not agree with the transubstantiation issue, but they believe in the real presence and so the king is literally enthroned there.

His real presence is in the emblems and so you've got to make an altar that's fit for the king and that's why it's, you know, it's extravagant.

But if you come, if you're of, if you think of the Protestant Reformation with like folk like Zwingli who would practice the Lord's Supper quarterly and it was not a real presence in the the emblems it was a memorial which is what we as Adventist believe then it was a plain altar covered by a white table all right and so if why are churches the way they are at times?

Sometimes we just normally don't think about these things.

And so, in Protestantism, the Word used to be central.

And so that altar was replaced, of course, with the pulpit to communicate the fact that the presence of God no longer mainly comes through the mass but the presence of God is now communicated through the Word of God that is being preached, which is why in the Protestant Reformation that altar was replaced.

But as I mentioned yesterday, on account of the liturgical movement in the 19th century, moving all the way up to Vatican II during the 1960s, in Protestantism, especially after Vatican II, you have 2 items then vying for the central position.

Protestants have begun a more systematic and regular use of the Lord's Supper.

So you have the word, the pulpit and the altar, kind of competing for the center now and Roman Catholics as a result of Vatican II have placed more emphasis at least in their documents on the word and and Anglicans as well but you know they call it a homily is not a sermon a homily is like 5 minutes okay that hardly communicates that the Word of God is central but yet they're moving more towards that direction all right and as we get to the Charismatic Movement, music is central.

When the music is going on for 30 to 45 minutes and it occupies that kind of space in the worship service, and it's just going on and on and on, it's communicating to you that this is a central aspect of worship and as 1 as 1 charismatic scholar had stated as he was kind of tongue-in-cheek going through what was central in Christianity he said well in ages past it was the Eucharist and that was through you know the altar and then the Protestants replaced it with the pulpit and we charismatic then have the drum kit in the central position so both of the altar and the pulpit were laid aside and now it's the worship bands that's front and center which sends the message that the presence of God, how you evaluate the presence of God now, is through the music.

And of course in the Charismatic Church a particular style of music and we'll touch on that.

In the emerging church, of course, music, art, Eucharist, they are central.

The word is not central in the emerging church.

It's an epic experience, experiential, I forget what the acronym stands for I read I read it to you yesterday, but it's a whole sensory sensory overload Way of communicating the presence of God through what you can see feel touch Why because of panentheism You guys remember that fancy word from yesterday?

Which means that God is infused in everything but at the same time God is greater than what he's infused in.

If that makes no sense then that's part of the wine of Babylon so don't worry about it I cuz cuz they wanna have their cake and eat it to you know pantheism is not a good option for Christianity I because you know to say that there's no distinction between God and creation that's not going to work so panentheism allows them to have their cake and eat it too so in the emerging church yes these are the ways that God's presence is communicated the word is not central in the emerging church now in Adventism in seeking to pattern our churches then after Willow Creek and Saddleback, the subtle message then is that we've moved away, or we've thought that we could maintain the Word as being central, but we've moved away to an entertainment more of an entertainment based worship in which god is communicated through either music is in the charismatic church which the which the mega churches were all about or some of these other things and So that's been the subtle shift then that we haven't thought about.

Also in some of our churches we have, you know, they're more like community buildings in which anything and everything happens.

And so what does that communicate to the worshiper that is in the pew when you know the place where the preacher stands and preaches Might be the place from where they shoot basketball hoops the next you know the next time Well, it communicates that there's no really no difference between the sacred and the common.

I'm glad 1 of our pastors is here because in 1 of his churches that's exactly what was going on before he got in there.

And so based on the sanctuary, based on the principles of the Sabbath, there is a distinction between the holy and the unholy that ought to be reflected somehow in our sanctuaries as well there ought to be that distinction there and when he drew a curtain in the midst of that and said you know what I know we're in the process of trying to raise funds to build a church and all that, and I know we're in this gym right now, but we've somehow got to make a distinction.

And I know that the atmosphere of the church changed on account of that.

There was more holiness, there was more reverence there, and Pastor, if I'm not mistaken, it didn't take too long to raise those funds did it not very long at all they've been trying to raise them for a long time but you know we can't compromise on his word and when we do the right thing God supplies And so in some of our churches we've had this more, you know, we can do anything and everything in the church.

We can play basketball, we can play sports, we can preach the word.

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Series

GYC 2011 Seminar: Spiritual Leadership & Spiritual Worship

Theological Foundations for Worship and Spirituality, Part 1

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GYC 2011 Seminar: Spiritual Leadership & Spiritual Worship

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