Kent West on Worship

Kent West on Worship

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Kent West writes the following article. If you’d like to see more of his thoughts, visit http://kentwest.blogspot.com/


You would not use the word “baptize” in an unscriptural manner, to mean “sprinkle”.

Neither should you use the word “worship” in an unscriptural manner, which most of us have done all of our lives.

“Worship” simply means “to bow in submission”. It does not mean “sing”; it does not mean “pray”; it does not mean “give”, “assemble”, “feed the poor”, “praise”, “eat the Lord’s Supper”, “keep the first day of the week”, “encourage”, or to do any kind of service. It simply means, “bow, in submission”.

It’s like a Muslim, bowing three times a day on a prayer rug. (Or Daniel – Dan 6:10.)

The woman at the well asked Jesus, “Where should we bow, in our church, or yours?”

His answer? “It’s no longer in any physical location, in this holy place or that holy place; the time has now come for it to be in the location of your spirit, truthfully, not just going through the motions. It’s a spiritual bowing, a 24-7 submission to God, wholly, totally, completely, in truth.”

When we refer to a “Worship Service” or “Worship Hour”, we reduce Jesus’ truthful spiritual bowing to the half-Jewess’ old covenant style of submission; something to be done outwardly, for part of the week.

The New Testament never refers to a Christian assembly as a “worship service”; if you respect the idea of calling Bible things by Bible names, neither should you refer to a Christian assembly as a “worship service”.

(PS: Worship, or bowing, is what the masses did, while the priests did the service (compare 2 Chron 29:28). The people did not do the service, and the priests didn’t have time to put their faces to the ground while serving. We’ve somehow managed to mix up these two roles in our terminology, inventing the idea of a “worship service”. Such wording, and indeed the very concept, is foreign to the God-inspired scriptures.)

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