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Written by Pastor Jeffrey Meyers
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Friday, 23 July 2010 |
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 The Biblical Form of The Divine Service
Day and night they never stop saying: Holy, Holy, Holy. . . ( Revelation 4:8).
I must pause to defend the corporate nature of our liturgy, specifically the use of coordinated, congregational prayer in our service. I am referring to the responses and prayers that we recite together. My goal in this section is to discuss and defend the use of set or fixed congregational prayers—that is, printed prayers prayed in unison by the congregation. The question I want to answer in this section is a very common one: Why does the congregation often use printed, pre-composed prayers? I thought spontaneous, free prayer was more spiritual?
The Heavenly Pattern
Jesus taught us to pray “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” ( Matt. 6:10). He thereby established heaven as the pattern for what is done on earth. (Actually, this pattern is symbolized in many places in the Old Testament, beginning in Genesis 1:1-2.) This is especially the case with regard to the church’s worship. Surely the manner in which worship is conducted in heaven functions as a model for the church on earth. When the Apostle John was privileged to observe heavenly worship, as he records for us in the Revelation, he saw an orderly, formal service performed by angels, living beings, and the twenty-four elders (the precise identity of each of these beings is not our concern here). They repeated various rituals and ritual responses ( Rev. 4:9-11). They alternated responses antiphonally ( Rev. 5:11-14). They sang hymns in unison ( Rev. 5:9). They fell down together (no doubt, a prearranged liturgical action), and they jointly recited prayers of praise and thanksgiving that must have been pre-composed and memorized. How else would they have all prayed (or sung) simultaneously? Here, then, we have a biblical model for corporate Lord’s Day prayer in our worship services.
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Written by Dr Phillip Kayser
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Thursday, 22 July 2010 |
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 Before I try to prove that dressing up for church is Biblical, Ithink I need to deal with another objection that is uppermost in people’s minds. As one person (who prefers to remain anonymous) worded it, “Church finery also opens the door for economic and class distinctions which we've been told to steer clear of.”
But this socialistic thinking is far removed from the Bible. I know, I know. People will immediately quote Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” But if this is an argument for abolition of all economic and class distinctions, then the homosexuals are right, and it is also an abolition of all distinctions in sex. (Hint for those who are out of the loop: So-called “Evangelical homosexuals” claim that since there is no male and female distinction in the church, anyone can marry anyone. “To insist that males must marry only females is to fly in the face of Paul’s obliteration of distinctions.”) But our equality in Christ ( Gal. 3:28) does not remove distinctions of sex, class or social groups. It makes all people equally accessible to salvation and to church membership (notice that the context is baptism – v. 27). The Bible is replete with not only social distinctions, but with clothing that shows such distinctions. It speaks of...
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Written by Mr. Trev McCallum
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Thursday, 22 July 2010 |
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52 |
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 Through this series on government (one, two, three) I commenced building a foundation for assessing and understanding government across all of life. I have sought to illustrate how a right understanding of government flows from a right understanding and application of the covenant. It has also been argued that government is broader than deliberations in Canberra. God has ordained the governing institutions of the individual, family, church and state. Each of these institutions exercises their interdependent authority under the sovereignty of God. Further than that; authority, roles and responsibilities allocated to and within these institutions are defined in the pages of Scripture. We do not go to natural law or any other source to understand our duties toward God in any of these capacities. The revealed Law/Word of God speaks to all of faith and life. There is a pattern woven through the Bible, consisting of a rich tapestry of types and antitypes. The story is recapitulated over and over again, as the water washes up the seashore. Throughout we read of the covenant keeping God who delights in His people. Last time I asserted that when we understand the covenantal model/flow of the Bible we see that the Law of God reflects His moral character in context of individuality and corporality. In other words, the flow of the Bible is covenantal and this is from God (i.e. 1. the sovereign/transcendent) to us (His people) in order that we might be individually and socially redeemed and re-structured (i.e. 2. hierarchy) to live lives of sanctified obedience (i.e. 3. ethics) to the revealed Law/Word of God in order to glorify and enjoy Him (i.e. 4. mandates) and continually raise up godly offspring (i.e. 5. continuity).
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