Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

4:9-11
Him for His works in creation and history: Worthy art
Thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor
and power for Thou didst create all things, and
because of Thy will they existed, and were created.
To appreciate the full import of this forthright
affirmation of the doctrine of creation, let us contrast it
with a statement issued a few years ago by the officers of
one of the largest churches in the United States:
IN THE BEGINNING – CHOICE
In the beginning God created choice. Before God made
anything – earth, sky, or man – he had already made up his
mind that man was to have a choice. Not limited choice like
what color socks to wear today. God gave man complete
power of selection, so complete that man could choose – or
reject – God. God placed himself in a rather risky position
when he armed man with such a tool. He gave man a weapon
to use against God.
Can you imagine something you’ve made saying, “I don’t
want you, not even for a friend.” God gave man that very
option, even though he knew what man’s choice would be.
God knew that his creation would turn away from him, hate
him. But he also realized there is no better way to prove love
than by risking the alternative of rejection. Genuine love
requires decision, because genuine love cannot be demanded,
ordered, or even regulated. It must be voluntary.
This tells us something about God. God doesn’t do things
just for kicks. He must have felt, in some sense, a need of
being loved. Do you think it is fair to conclude that God
“needs” us? I think so. But he never downgrades the caliber of
his love by trying to force us to love him. . . . 33
Speaking charitably, this is blasphemous nonsense. The
only honest thing about it is its lack of Bible references.
There are many objectionable points we could
consider, but the main one for our purposes is the issue
of God’s sovereignty and independence.
Did God need to create? Is God lonely? Does He stand
in need of His creation? Let the Scriptures speak:
All the nations are as nothing before Him; they are
regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. (Isa.
40:17)
I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is
no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and
from ancient times things which have not been done, saying,
My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My
good pleasure. (Isa. 46:9-10)
The God who made the world and all things in it, since
He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples
made with hands; neither is He served by human hands, as
though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life
and breath and all things. (Acts 17:24-25)34
In their divinely sanctioned worship, the elders have
proclaimed the truth: The creation exists, not because
God needed to create, or is dependent upon His
creation in any way, but simply because it was His will
to create; it pleased Him to do so.
God is sovereign, utterly independent from the
creation. The Scriptural distinction between the
Creator and the creature is absolute.
The heavenly worship service here shows us what God
wants in earthly worship. First, worship must be
corporate. Biblical worship is not individualistic,
quietistic, or solely internal. This is not to say that
there is no place for private worship; but it does mean
that the Biblical emphasis on corporate worship is a far
cry from the bastardized “worship” of many evangelical,
who see individual worship as having a priority over
corporate worship, and who even conceive of corporate
worship as simply an aggregation of individual
worshipers. 35 Another forgotten aspect of the need for
corporate worship is the fact that the so-called “worship
services” in modern churches are, in reality, either
lecture halls or three-ring circus entertainments. In
both cases there are star performers, and there are
spectators – but the Church, as the Church, is not
worshiping corporately. In contrast, the pattern of
Biblical worship is the corporate worship service, with
full participation among the united members of the
congregation, demonstrating a harmony of unity and
diversity.
Second, worship must be responsorial. We will see more
of this as we proceed through the Book of Revelation –
which is about worship as much as anything else – but
this has already been the case with the passage we have
just studied. The elders and the four living creatures are
shown singing musical responses back and forth,
carrying on a dialogue. And, in the worship of the
Church on earth, that is what we do (or should do)
also. We respond liturgically to the reading of
Scripture, to the prayers, to the singing of Psalms and
hymns, to the teaching, and to the Sacraments. For this
is what we see in heavenly worship, and our worship
should be structured as far as possible in imitation of
the heavenly pattern, according to the prayer Christ
taught us: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
(Matt. 6:10).
Third, worship must be orderly. The elders and the living
creatures do not interrupt each other or attempt to
upstage one another. While worship should be
corporate, involving the entire Church, it must not be
chaotic. A basic standard for worship is laid down in 1
Cor. 14:40: “Let everything be done decently and in
order.” Charismatics tend to have certain correct
instincts – that worship should include the whole
congregation – but their actual practice tends toward
confusion and disorder, with everyone individually
“worshiping” all at once. The solution, recognized in
both Old and New Testaments, and by the Church
throughout history, is to provide a common liturgy,
with formal prayers and responses, so that the people
may intelligently worship together in a manner that is
both corporate and orderly.
Biblical public worship is very different from private or
33. Leaflet published c. 1978 by a church in Santa Ana, California, advertising
its Saturday Night Concerts.
34. One further point should receive at least a notice in a footnote: Is it true, as
the pamphlet alleges, that “genuine love cannot be demanded, ordered, or
even regulated”? See Deut. 6:5-6; Matt. 22:37-40; Eph. 5:25; 1 John 4:19.
35. One example of this from the Reformed camp, among many that could be
cited, is B. M. Palmer, The Theology of Prayer (Sprinkle Publications, [1894]
1980). This lengthy (352 pp.) work, which purports to provide “a full
articulation of prayer in the system of grace, “ is wholly concerned with
individual devotions alone; it does not mention corporate prayer even once.
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