PUTTING AN END TO WORSHIP WARS - Elmer Towns

The critical group usually attacks others for being unbiblical or anti-biblical. They defend
their way of worship as the method demanded by God (God does not demand a type of worship,
but He wants the fact of worship). This group usually attacks others because they are forced by
the totalitarian focus of their exclusive methodology to negate anything that is different from
them.
The following principles will help you to interpret the various expressions of worship and
put the controversy in perspective. These principles, while not exhaustive in application to all
situations, can give guidance through the maze of "worship wars" and help you to understand
what is happening in the world.
1. Some worshippers in different expressions probably have the same worship
experience, even though they approach worship with a different form. The validity of biblical
worship is not measured by the sincerity of the heart, or the outward form of worship. Biblical
worship is valid when one worships God in spirit (total expression from the heart) and truth
(according to the truth of God in scriptures). If outward sincerity were the only true
measurement, those who sincerely bring their rice offering to Buddha, praying with weeping and
anguish, may be just as effective as the Christian. But worshipping Buddha is not biblical. The
legitimacy of worship is measured by one's relationship to God through Christ, not the sincerity
of the worshipper.
2. Worship is legitimate when God is its focus. "What did God get out of the
worship service?" may be a legitimate question. When God is worshipped in "spirit", i.e. with all
of the heart: and God is worshipped in "truth", i.e. according to the principles of Scriptures; then
God is magnified, glorified, and exalted. Technically, God cannot be magnified, because the
Word "to magnify" mean to get larger or to grow in intensity. God does not change, He is
immutable. So in that sense no worshipper can make God greater than what He is, nor can God
grow to something beyond His present nature. To magnify God, is similar to one who uses
eyeglasses to magnify the print on the page. Newsprint does not become larger, the print
becomes larger in the perception of the reader. So when God is magnified, He becomes larger in
our perception, as a result we are transformed and we live differently.
Worship is giving the "worthship" to God that is due to Him. When God is magnified or
glorified, He is getting the glory that He deserves because of His nature, and He is lifted up in the
adoration of His people because of what He has done.
In the rural Georgia church where they shout "Hallelujah" punctuating the sermons with
"Amen", worshippers can have a high regard for God. The worshipper expresses gratitude to
God when the Southern quartet sings, "I've Got a Mansion Just Up in Glory Land." The
worshippers know their home in heaven is so much greater than their home on earth. They
magnify the Lord for His provision. That act of worship can be just as uplifting as the Britisher
who enters the cathedral, kneels in prayer, and as the sunlight streams through the stained glass
window, he lifts his heart in gratitude for the greatness of God.