One In Jesus

If one of God’s purposes is to bridge the gap between God and man, bringing heaven and earth closer together, and if the Kingdom in its fullness will be earth and heaven joined into one, then worship is anything that helps that to happen — anything that narrows the gulf between God and man.

How does that happen? When does that happen? Well, when and where is God most near to man?

In New Testament times, one answer is surely in the possession of the Holy Spirit by Christians. God the Spirit indwells the individual Christian — language that plainly harkens back to God dwelling among the Israelites in the form of the column of fire and smoke and in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle. Continue reading →

Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Senseis a marvelous book by N. T. Wright. He introduces the idea that the Bible can be read as the narrative of God’s work to unite heaven and earth.

In Eden, the two were very close together indeed — so close that God himself walked among men and that death itself was banished from the Garden.

But sin entered the world and not only separated God from man, it separated heaven from earth. Continue reading →

Genesis 1 and 2 give a couple of roles to Adam and Eve. In Gen 1:26 and 28, God gives them —

dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

“Dominion” (radah) refers to the reign of a monarch. So mankind — male and female —  serves as the “image” or “likeness” of God by — like God — reigning over the earth. But this is not about ruling autonomously and so not having to answer to a higher power. Quite the opposite. We reign on behalf of our King. God rules the earth through his image-bearers. Continue reading →

Introduction

I’m in the midst of two series, one on 1 Corinthians and one on the Sermon on the Mount, but I need a break. And what better break could there be than a study on the theology of worship?

At one point, I thought I might put together some thoughts on instrumental music, but it dawned on me that there’s a far bigger need for a theology of worship. I mean, we in the Churches of Christ are just all over the board when it comes to worship theology. We define ourselves in terms of instrumental music — either pro or con — as though Christianity were all about having the right position on instrumental music.

As a result of our obsession with a cappella singing as, quite literally, our identity, we rarely take the trouble to actually consider the larger picture. We know far more about the definition of psallo than what worship really means. Continue reading →