Pilgrim said: The biblical evidence is incontrovertible that there is to be a corporate gathering of the people of God for the specific purpose of offering worship to God which consists of the reading/preaching of the Word, prayer, praise, song and offerings.
The biblical evidence is incontrovertible that there is to be a corporate gathering on the Lord's day of the people of God, which consists of reading/preaching/discussing the word, along with prayer, psalm-singing, and offerings. I never disputed that fact. And if you want to call that a worship service, then that is what you will do. But the Scriptures never refer to either synagogue meetings or NT church meetings as worship services or anything synonymous to that, nor is the term worship applied to the individual functions performed in the synagogue or church meeting.
And it is an error to think of the NT church meeting place as a sort of scaled-down and localized version of the OT Temple. The parallel is between the church meeting and the synagogue meeting, not the church meeting and the Temple worship. The latter has been completely abrogated and has no NT counterpart. Therefore, it is erroneous to think of the NT church building as if it is a holy place and apply the nomenclature to it that applied to the Temple ("the sanctuary," "the house of God," etc.). And it is also erroneous to think of the NT church meeting as a ritualistic and formal "worship service" akin to the Temple worship.
The performing of outward rituals during brief periods in particular situations is not now, and never was, the true worship. Love of God, which is manifested by one's keeping of His commandments (all of them), and, secondarily, love to our fellow man, which is also manifested by the keeping of God's commandments (all of them), is, and always has been, the true worship. This was at least acknowledged by some of the Jews who took part in the symbolic offerings and sacrifices of the Temple worship:
"And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love [his] neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." (Mark 12:32-34)
The love of God and our fellow man is more (much more) than the performance of outward religious rituals. Jesus Christ clearly declared that the love of God and the love of our fellow man is the fulfillment of all of God's will revealed in the Holy Scriptures:
"Master, which [is] the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Mat. 22:36-40)
And how is the love of God and of our neighbour manifested? By the keeping of His commandments, not only the commandments regulating our behavior during church meetings but all of His commandments as they apply to all of life. This is a fact expressed repeatedly throughout the word of God (Exo. 20:6; Deu. 5:10, 7:9, 11:1,13,22, 19:9, 30:16; Jos.22:5; Neh. 1:5; Dan. 9:4; John 14:15,21, 15:10; 1 John 5:2-3; 2 John 1:6) The worship of God is to love Him with all the heart, soul, and mind, and that love is manifested by diligently searching out the will of God in the Scriptures and carefully applying biblical precepts to all of life. This "is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices" of ritualistic worship services. The worshippers of whom Christ said that "the Father seeketh such to worship him" are those who love Him and obey Him throughout the entirety of their lives, not those who think that they are worshipping God by performing a few hours of religious devotions while they hypocritically ignore numerous biblical precepts in everyday life.
This might seem like an inconsequential matter to some but it has greatly negative consequences in the church. Words have meaning and when we use a word that God has given us in a way that is at variance with its usage in the Scriptures, this perverts its meaning and consequently perverts our beliefs and practices. When one defines worship as something that he does only during brief periods in certain situations, or something that he does to a higher degree only during brief periods in certain situations, rather than something he does fully throughout all of his life, he is creating a dualistic belief system which invariably leads to a dualistic practice where God is only obeyed and reverenced at certain times and places, or to a higher degree at certain times and places, rather than obeyed and reverenced fully at all times and in all situations of his life. This has certainly become the norm in the denominational congregations where, in the vast majority of cases, the Bible has been partitioned off almost entirely from the congregant's life outside of his few hours of "worship service," and many have come to believe that they are not worshipping God until they enter their "house of worship."
