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āIn Spirit and in Truthā
The Mosaic Vision of Worship
Daniel I. Block
Introduction
These days if people ask what kind of church you attend, they probably do not have in mind your denomination, but the worship style: is it traditional, liturgical, or contemporary? In the past the differences in worship have revolved around the use of musical instruments in worship, but they extended to other matters as well: the use of creeds, formal benedictions, confessions of sin, or prepared prayers. In our concern to satisfy peopleās liturgical and musical tastes, I sometimes wonder if we have explored seriously enough what the Scriptures have to say about acceptable worship. Yes, we acknowledge the legacy of Robert Webber in the Ancient-Future Faith movement, which seeks to recover the richness and profundity of early Christian worship. However, in evangelicalsā recent fascination with post-New Testament practices and perspectives, we observe an increasing tendency to accept early worship forms as authoritative and give decreasing attention to the theology of worship of the Scriptures. Indeed in some circles the Reformation principle of sola scriptura is threatened by enthusiasm to recover the worship of the early church, and practices become normative even when they lack explicit biblical warrant.
But even when we agree that the Scriptures alone should be our ultimate authority for Christian worship, we are divided on to which Scriptures we should appeal. Should our worship be regulated by the whole Bible or are only the teachings and practices of the New Testament determinative? While rarely explicitly declared, the latter is implied by many scholars who write on this subject. In what I consider to be one of the most important books on worship from a biblical perspective, Engaging with God: A Biblical Theology of Worship, one of David Petersonās declared goals is āto expose the discontinuity between the Testamentsā on the subject of worship. Although the book is presented as a ābiblical theology of worship,ā and although the Old Testament is three times the length of the New Testament, and probably contains ten times as much information on worship, Peterson disposes of its treatment of the subject in 56 pages, while devoting almost 200 pages to the New Testament. For Peterson, the Old Testamentās focus on place, festivals, and priestly rituals provides a foil against which to interpret New Testament worship, which is centered on a person, involves all of life, and, when it speaks of Christians gathering, focuses on edification. The problem also appears in John Piperās work. In a sermon entitled āWorship God!,ā Piper contrasts Old Testament and New Testament worship, asserting that Old Testament worship was external, involving form and ritual, while New Testament worship concerns internal spiritual experience.
Such generalizations are misleading on several counts. First, they underestimate the liturgical nature of worship in the New Testament. What can be more cultic and formal than the Lordās Supper, the worship experience par excellence prescribed by Jesus, or the ritual of baptism, called for in the Great Commission (Matt 28:19)? Acts 2:41ā42 describes the early church engaged in the external activities of baptism, instruction, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer.
Second, they misrepresent the shape of true worship as it is presented in the Old Testament. Carson is certainly correct when he interprets Jesusā prediction in John 4:21ā24 of a day when the focus of worship will shift from the place to the manner of worship and suggesting that āin spirit and in truthā (en pneumati kai alÄtheia) is āa way of saying that we must worship God by means of Christ. In him the reality has dawned and the shadows are being swept away (cf. Heb 8:13).ā Peterson is also correct in suggesting that the worship āin spirit and in truthā of which Jesus spoke contrasts āwith the symbolic and typical,ā represented by Old Testament forms. However, his portrayal of worship āin truthā as āreal and genu...