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Viewpoint Brief Bible Study #64

JESUS calls US to be
members of His church

hand reaching out
e-mail address

The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide.

Concerning Music
To Honor Jesus

Will Althoff Thinks I May Have Said Too Much
About "Worship" During A Convention Session

(Additional comments about Viewpoint study #11)
In Matters of Opinion, Love is to be our Response


When he received Viewpoint Study #11, Bill Althoff sent me
the very fine note which follows below --

> From: WillAltoff@aol.com
> Date: Thu, 7 Aug 1997 23:52:17 -0400 (EDT)
> To: outreach@sofnet.com
> Subject: VIEWPOINT Study #11

Dear Brother,

      I have been reading outreach papers for several months. Until this one, I had never read any finger-pointing or critiquing of peoples prayers, spiritual acts of worship or preaching. I am saddened by your comments concerning this convention. Would you not have received spiritual blessings by participating rather then criticizing?

     When two or more are gathered in His name, He is there also...

      I am praying for you right now as I type that we all can look for the good in all precious efforts to worship God. Were people not worshipping in spirit and in truth?

      The first chapter of 2nd Peter should lead us to a higher plane, one that searches for those who earnestly believe in His GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES. I pray for us all that we can look for the goodness in those who follow Christ. Praise God from whom all blessings flow...

      Peace to you my brother in Christ, In his love   - Bill Althoff


I appreciated Bill's sharing his thought. But I still didn't like what was substituted there for the song service I would have enjoyed and been edified by.

To: WillAltoff@aol.com
Subject: Re: Study #11
Date sent: Fri, 8 Aug 1997 09:19:49

Bill,

     It's good to hear from you again. I'm sorry if I failed to properly express my disappointment with the fact that better things were omitted in order to use inferior methods of "working up" a crowd into a mood where they all likely wanted to hear a sermon about God and things of God.

     Participate? No, thank you. I'm grown up now and not suited for childish things. And things of which I cannot at all approve. That's what I wanted you to see from the article.

     Public prayer which is NOT public prayer is not my idea of public prayer. When all babble at once, that's NOT public prayer -- it's bedlam. There are better times to pray. What I wanted to do, except that it would have been impolite to my friend who was due to preach a few minutes later, was to get up and walk out.

    And the puerile choruses which most people don't know or want to know used over and over and taking the time that COULD have been devoted to grand hymns of the faith. Should I just jump in and join them?

    You feel that God's love might well cause me to forsake the better and applaud the poorer. I feel that I MUST speak up to say that what's chosen by some is NOT (repeat NOT) the right way to do things.

    Note that if I choose to go to a Pentecostal church, it's appropriate for me to join in what they choose to do. But I chose to NOT go to a Pentecostal church, but rather to a convention of Christians where it's reasonable to expect the services to be planned by adults for adults.

     I can't believe that it's wrong to protest against that which IS wrong. Are we to have no choices about how things are done? Do we ONLY join in with whatever is asked of us? I think we are asked to inspect fruit and SELECT.

     So I'll have to speak up against what I think is NOT good. I'll try to be even more careful to avoid doing so in an offensive manner. Thanks for your sharing!!!

From an earlier Viewpoint study, I repeat -- We don't want to lose the patient adult who is asked to put up with immature "music" because some prefer to aim their public services at grade-school mentalities. We may do much better by re-examining the scriptures to see what the primary purpose of our gatherings is to be.

     Those who now say our primary purpose is to WORSHIP may have not read 1 Corinthians, or may have overlooked the fact that Paul says in regard to our gatherings that our primary purpose there is to edify one another.

     I ask you to reconsider the message of Viewpoint study #51 in which Cecil Hook addresses this matter of "WHY do we meet?" If we seek in the O.T. psalms to learn how to conduct Christian assemblies, we'll find how to conduct pre-Christian gatherings instead. And we'll NOT have accomplished the desired objective.

    The N.T. church is NOT the O.T. church. The Jews did NOT know about the unique Son of God. They did NOT worship Him. They couldn't do so, except in promise. The songs most appropriate then are not necessarily the songs that are appropriate for Christians today. The worship in which they engaged is NOT the model for Christian assemblies.

     We used to know this simple truth. Today many seem to have forgotten it, so they call on us to join the Pentecostals in a vastly different style of assembly than is appropriate for mature and maturing saints of God who look to Jesus for salvation.

     If the goal of our "worship leader" is to help everyone present "feel good," and have a "spiritual high" they're apt to select stanzas of hymns and brief choruses they think will accomplish this objective. Obviously some today do exactly this. And they encourage clapping and arm-waving.

    And some DO then feel "good." So the goal was reached. Jesus said  something about those whose goals were "to be seen of men." I think this applies to a discussion of music styles in contemporary churches. I hope you'll think about it more with me. Thanks.


          Brief Bible Study #64 from Ray Downen. To go back to Viewpoint's first page, click < here.   Or here to go on to Viewpoint Study 65. For Ray's concluding remarks, click HERE.