The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Regulative principle

I am saying that no outward actions are really worship. Worship is of the heart, in the spirit. But I am also saying that one can manifest that heart of worship in all that he does because all that he does can be done to the glory of God. I am saying that whenever a Christian is obedient to God in any situation, he is manifesting the worship of God.




And I'm saying that when one glorifies God in all that he does, he is manifesting a spirit of worship.




I don't know why you would reach this conclusion. You yourself acknowledged that the Scriptures should regulate all that we do in all facets of life (unless I have you confused with someone else). And Paul made it clear that we can glorify God in all that we do, as you pointed out. In other words, there is no part of life which the word of God does not regulate and there is no part of life where we cannot glorify God. Therefore, I conclude that there is no part of life in which we cannot manifest the worship of God.




True. I believe that the noun constituent of worship is the renewed heart of the believer where God is worshipped "in spirit and in truth." And I believe that the verb constituent of worship is the righteous outward actions produced by that heart of worship.




From an article I wrote about worship:

"Another biblically unsupportable delineation made by some is that the Lord's Day (the first day of the week) is a day set apart for worship. It is true that the Lord's Day is not to be like the other six days of the week insofar as what Christians are permitted to do and what they are to refrain from doing. However, this does not mean that one is a day of worship while the other six are not and, indeed, it is never referred to as a day of worship in the Bible. God has commanded that the NT Sabbath Day, just as the OT Sabbath Day, is to be set apart for specific purposes but, unlike the OT Sabbath, it is no longer set apart for the performing of carnal sacrificial rites symbolically designated as worship. The purpose of the Lord's Day is for rest, fellowship, and instruction on how to be obedient to God fully at all times and in all parts of our lives. While it is true that obedience to scriptural precepts concerning the Sabbath Day and its church meeting are acts of worship in themselves, they are not any more or less acts of worship than is obedience to other scriptural precepts on other days. Christians should obey the commands to rest on the Sabbath but doing so is not an act of worship any more or less than obeying commands to labor diligently on the other six days. God's people should obey the precept to gather with the local church on the Lord's Day but doing so is not an act of worship any more or less than obeying the precept that Christians are to minister to each other's needs every day. The godly should obey commands to instruct one another when they meet on the first day of the week but doing so is not an act of worship any more or less than putting the lessons learned into practice during the other six days of the week."




The primary purpose of the Lord's day church meeting is for instruction of the saints. If you want me to prove this from the Scriptures, I will do so.




Please show me where this is taught in the Scriptures.




Yes, and my purpose for participating in this thread is to show that worship is not something that one does in a building once per week. I adhere to the "Regulative Principle of Worship" because I believe that the Scriptures regulate all facets of a believers life and that he can manifest the true worship of God in all facets of his life. Perhaps we should call your regulative principle "The Regulative Principle of Church Meetings," and my regulative principle "The Regulative Principle of Life."




Your view of the Lord's day meeting sounds very "high church" and formal. I mostly agree with the components you named but I believe that the scriptural model for church meeting instruction is that it is to take place primarily by discussion or dialogue rather than monologue.




Apparently, you see the New Testament church meeting place as a scaled-down and localized version of the Old Testament Temple, only with a simplified form of "worship." But the New Testament church meeting is similar to the synagogue meeting, not the Temple worship. The Temple and all of its symbolic worship has been completely abolished being fulfilled in Christ. It is not appropriate to think of the New Testament church meeting place as if it is a holy temple indwelt by the presence of God and that Christians enter into that presence in some mystical way when they gather together. The Temple was representative of the church (i.e., the believers) and the Spirit of God indwells His church at all times and in all places.

The concept that worship consists of performing rituals at certain times and in certain places was only a symbolic one which has been abolished. For “the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” (John 4:21, 23) It's important to recognize in these words that Christ did not replace the ritualistic and centralized Temple worship in Jerusalem with a simpler set of worship rituals to be performed in local temples all over the world. Rather, He abolished forever the concept that worshipping God was assembling to perform rituals in particular places (“neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem”), and He set forth the true spiritual nature of worship (“the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth”).

Neither the word worship, nor any synonymous term or phrase, is used in the NT Scriptures to define either the collective actions performed or the time spent in gatherings of the church. Nor is the word worship or any synonymous term or phrase applied to individual God-ordained actions performed (such as prayer, preaching, the sacraments, psalm-singing, etc.) The title of worship which designated the carnal rituals of the Temple assembly has been abolished along with the rituals themselves because these things were never the true worship but only “the figures of the true” (Heb. 9:24) spiritual worship. Now that we “worship God in the spirit” (Phil. 3:3) “by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands” (Heb. 9:11), and “offer up spiritual sacrifices” (1 Pet. 2:5) rather than perform “ordinances of divine service” in “a worldly sanctuary” (Heb. 9:1) we ought not to be defining a word of God in a way that is at variance with God's definition, by misapplying the symbolic designation of worship to the performing of certain New Testament functions, as if we are still performing the “carnal ordinances” (Heb. 9:10) of the Old Testament which are now described as “weak and beggarly elements” (Gal. 4:9) when compared to the greater New Testament revelation.