Doxology

Well, I suppose that I will wrap up this series on what ended up being a Regulative/Normative/Biblical Principle study by giving a few qualifying and summarizing bullets:

**Fight to stay in biblical balance

**Don’t make man’s interpretation the end-all to your application.  Learn from man’s teaching but never let it replace your own personal study of the scriptures.  That includes what I’ve written here.  Only let these blog entries spur you on to get into the Bible for yourself and wrestle through it.

**I’ve probably ticked off both extremes in this series.  That’s probably a good thing.  If I’m only offending one extreme it may mean that I’m on the other extreme and out of balance.

**Singing in church is in obedience to a command.  It’s not an option.  But singing is also a joyful privilege and a worshipful honor.

**Just as singing is commanded in scripture so is using instruments.  That doesn’t mean that all singing has to be with instruments but to declare instruments as illegal is in direct opposition to scripture.

**Folks who are a capella- and psalms-only proponents have to sing psalms that command the use of instruments.  What a contradiction.

**Drama may not be expressly forbidden in scripture but should be handled wisely and kept in a “non-endorsed” category.

**There should be a running list of “Endorsed Means”, “Non-Endorsed Means”, and “Forbidden Means” in your church.  For instance, preaching and singing are clearly endorsed by scripture.  Drama and video aren’t clearly endorsed nor are they expressly forbidden (at least in correct context).  Open speaking in tongues without an interpreter is clearly forbidden (1 Cor. 14:27, 28).

**Imagery should also be handled very carefully in church services.  Images of a pre-Revelation Jesus should be avoided.  Scripture doesn’t give any depiction of what Jesus looked like in the gospels and I believe that to be intentional.

**Instruments serve singing—not the other way around.

**You can’t see God-honoring ends (that pleases God) without God-sanctioned means.  Worship God while in the means and as the end.

**Music in the church must never replace preaching and teaching.  In other words, not all sanctioned means are equal.  See 1 Cor. 14

**Be careful to look upon those who are still developing in their biblical understanding but still have some blind spots with great humility and grace.  Otherwise, you reveal your own short-sightedness and immaturity.

**Treat God’s silence very carefully.  Don’t put words in His Mouth.

**There are overarching principles that must guide our dealing with God’s silence.  Body edification and love are the two chief principles.

**You can have all of your means in order and still miss God.  All of God’s means and ends are about His being treasured in the hearts of men.  Exteriors don’t guarantee Interior success.

**Interior good intentions don’t excuse unbiblical exteriors.  Obedience is better than sacrifice.  (1 Sam. 15:22)

**Unbiblical exteriors may actually be revealing bad intentions. (Rom. 1:16)

**Fight to stay in biblical balance.  (Yes, I meant to repeat myself.)

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In my last post in this series, I focused on the central issue of means and ends in corporate worship, specifically worship through music.  That central issue is of the heart.  Having all of our means/ends correct does not guarantee that our hearts are right (in the sense of striving after the glory of God through faith).  Conversely, having our hearts right doesn’t guarantee that our means/ends are biblical.

Today, I wish to look at three reasons why our services might be out of step with God’s Word.

Ignorance.  To put it plain and simple, many pastors/ministers just don’t enough of the scriptures to know any better.  To be totally honest, in my own ministry, I’ve done things that I wouldn’t do today.  I meant well in doing them, but I now know better.  I say that meaning to convey a deep gratitude to God and to men who have pastored me through my ignorance.  I do believe my heart was right at the time, but my means (at least) weren’t.

For instance, I used to believe that I had a direct connection to leading a congregation into the “holy of holies” in worship.  I thought that as we began to sing, we were inviting God to join the service and as we sang more and more (especially with repetition) I was assisting a congregation to get closer and closer to God.

I now know that to be an unbiblical notion.  As I have studied God’s Word, I now see that it is Christ Who ushers us into the Most Holy Place through the work of His death and resurrection (Mark 15:38; Heb. 4:14-16) and that as a congregation sings it merely expresses a deeper and more concentrated affection God-ward during a song service.  That may seem to be a subtle difference of language, but it is a substantial contrast of thinking.

Immaturity.  While in ignorance (blissful? LOL) and when confronted with the truth of God’s Word that challenges our understanding of leading music—or anything else for that matter—our reaction initially may be one of offense, skepticism, or uncertainty.  Most of the time, we are so engrained in our own understanding, we can’t begin to accept a teaching that would question our own.

Because of that, many continue on in their own unbiblical way of doing things simply because they don’t yet have the maturity to humble themselves before God’s Word.  Repentance and admission of the need to correct one’s own practice is usually humbling.  Pride demands that we never admit that our own man-made means and ends are wrong.

It is this immature stage that serves as a crossroads.  Will I die to my own idols?  Will I joyfully admit that my way of doing things may not have been God’s way?  Even if my motives were sincere?  If the answer is “yes” then a great victory has been won and needed reforms can take place.  If the answer is “no” then the subject (to use C S Lewis’ term from Screwtape Letters) will thrust himself into the next category.

Iniquity.  While using unbiblical means ignorantly might not be sinful (John 9:41), using those means with knowledge is certainly sinful.  When we are reforming and being sanctified it means that we are never having arrived but always arriving.  I may be doing church music in certain ways today that I will one day repent of.  Hence the importance of “continuing in [Jesus’] words” (John 8:31).

I’ve encountered preachers and church musicians who would privately admit that they are manipulating congregations in the way they preach and sing (through the use of unbiblical means) but they would never admit it publicly.  It might be training choir members to raise their hands on cue (without heart engagement) or mood music to coerce folks to answer an alter call.  They just refuse to change because to do so would hurt their effectiveness and success (even though it may be false).

My pastor has had men who have publicly criticized him and our church for the means that we use at Grace Life Church (because my pastor and elders believe them to be clearly biblical) but those same men affirm him privately as being biblically correct.  Even as I read over the sentence I just typed, I don’t understand it.  But whoever said that sin is logical?

It is my prayer that as you read this you will search your own heart (as I am) and ask the Lord to show you where you are either immature or iniquitous and repent of any and all unbiblical means employed in your ministry (hence the warning to not harden our hearts–Heb. 4:7).  I also pray that where you simply are unaware, God would also reveal that and that your response would be of broken, joyful change.  Please pray that for me too!

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Freeeeeeedoooooommm????

In my last post in this series, I dealt with how I believe, in looking at the scriptures, the Regulative Principle (RP) is more conservative than God.  That’s not to say that there hasn’t been much good that has come from the RP.  However, I do believe that looking at God’s word through the lens OF the RP can take a church down some dead-end roads.

That can also be said of the Normative Principle (NP).  While the RP boasts in it’s a capella-only and psalm-texts-only (in varying degrees of strictness), to name a few ascpets, the NP boasts in its “freedom” of expression.  They say “If God didn’t forbid (fill in the blank) then we’re free to use it, right?”

Well, yes and no.  Yes, God has given much freedom in corporate worship, as has been previously mentioned.  But God’s silence isn’t necessarily a blanket endorsement upon any and all means.  Many times, what we do with God’s silence reveals more about us than at any other time.

For instance, God has not said specifically that you can’t have a firetruck baptistery (as one prominent SBC church has done).  However, one would question the wisdom in so doing as to cheapen the Ordinance.  God has not said specifically that a church must never twirl their socks during worship, but one would certainly ask the question “Is this in a manner worthy of the gospel?” (see video just below).

But there are also other times where God HAS specifically spoken about the use of a particular means.  Imagery and visuals are in an entirely separate category from the auditory senses.  In Exodus 20:4, God specifically forbids the creation of any image in heaven or earth and an object of worship.  Col. 1:15 does say that Jesus is the image of the invisible God however the scriptures are very careful not to ever give us a physical description of what Jesus, as the Son of Man, looked like.  (We are given a very detailed description of Jesus, as Son of God, in John’s Revelation (Rev. 1)), however.

Why would this be?  Because, I believe, that the power of idolatry is more quickly manifested with visual images than any other sense.  If God would have given us a detailed description of Jesus’ physical features, we would be prone to making an idol out of His appearance and not His Person.  This is the primary reason why I believe (after much repentance on my part!) that pictures, dramas, movie clips, and other imagery of Jesus is, at best, unwise, and at worst, a violation of God’s Word.

This is another reason why the argument against certain music styles on the basis of particular styles being objectively “sensual” (or as one person called a particular style “aural pornography”) breaks down.  God does not speak to music styles in the same way He speaks about visual images.  Never does God say “Thou shalt not sing along with a piano” or “Thou shalt not have rap in the church”.  It’s an “apples and oranges” argument.

But in regards to music styles, God has never spoken to the endorsement of one style or a category of styles and the condemning of others.  However, just because “all things are lawful, not all things are beneficial” (1 Cor. 10:23).  So, to my NP folks, I give a word of caution:  keep in mind that even though a music style may be legal, it may not be edifying to your congregation.  God said that all things must be for mutual edification (Rom 14:19).  The use of music styles may not be an issue of right vs. wrong or legal vs. illegal but of wise vs. unwise and loving vs. unloving.

That’s why I believe the stance of Biblical Principle (BP) would guard against the somewhat unbiblical excesses seen in the NP folks.  Again, many are well-meaning.  After all, I’ve certainly done things in the church in the name of “freedom” that I now regret—even though I had the best of intentions and with the glory of God in mind….Which leads me to my next post in this series….

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