“If you're going to
study geography or algebra, you study the subject, you don't study books about
them,” he explains. “When you read Paul's epistles, if you did nothing but just
read them, that edification design would bring you through to a place of
maturity.
“You start out
reading about the 'believing Romans,' and then about the 'baby Corinthians,' and
the 'foolish Galatians,' and the 'faithful 'Ephesians,' and you get over to the
mature saints—the Colossians and the Philippians.”
*****
The problem with Christian churches for decades now has been their almost complete “dumbing down” to focus on music, drama and cute anecdotes from short sermonettes by entertaining preachers rather than just pure Bible study.
“Worship is not
singing; it’s not the song service at church,” says Jordan. “That's what the
world does with it. Evangelical, fundamental, Bible-believing Christianity
has been so permeated, and so taken over and influenced by the
Charismatic-emotional-touchy-feely- experiential-based stuff, that even the
music and the manner of church service has been taken over by Pentecostal-jitter-bug-Jesus-kind-of-stuff.
“Words mean something
and what that is is heresy. It’s the idea that, ‘We're up here singing and
worshipping God and you're just studying the Bible.’ ”
*****
The word “worship”
comes from the word “worth,” meaning “value,” and the word “ship,” meaning
“state of being.”
“When you want to
demonstrate what is valuable to you, that's what worship is, and that life as a
Believer in Jesus Christ is to be lived 24/7; it's not something you do going
to a hootenanny on Sunday mornings,” says Jordan. “It's life, is what it is.”
Now compare this
definition of worship to the one Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren, author
of the mega-bestseller “The Purpose-Driven Church,” lays out for fellow pastors who look to Warren as their mentor:
“God’s presence must
be sensed in the service. More people are won to Christ by feeling God’s
presence than by all of our apologetic arguments combined. Few people, if any,
are converted to Christ on purely intellectual grounds. It is the sense of
God’s presence that melts hearts and explodes mental barriers. Worship without
this yields few evangelistic results.”
Revealing his total
ignorance of what Paul is really communicating to the carnal Corinthians who
were hooked on faking tongue-talking, Warren writes in defense of the phony
Pentecostal practice: “Because genuine worship can have such a profound impact
on unbelievers, we need to be very sensitive to their fears, hang-ups, and
needs when they are present in our worship services.
“This is the
principle Paul taught in I Corinthians 14:23. Paul commanded that tongues be
limited in public worship. His reasoning? Speaking in tongues seems like
foolishness to unbelievers. Paul didn’t say tongues were foolish but only that
they appear foolish to unbelievers.”
Under the
sub-heading, “Making Worship Understandable,” Warren sums up: “Making a service
‘comfortable’ for the unchurched doesn’t mean changing your theology. It means
changing the environment of the service—such as changing the way you greet
visitors, the style of the music you use, the Bible translation you preach
from, and the kind of announcements you make in the service.”
In bold letters, he
emphasizes, “We must be willing to adjust our worship practices when
unbelievers are present.”
For him, Jesus Christ is not about a personal relationship; it’s a matter of “smart marketing.”
(Editor's note: New article tomorrow . . . )
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