All Categories |

Bible & Theology Issues 722 total votes have been cast on this survey | 92 user comments  ( edit survey )

Which of these statements best expresses your view of how we should worship? Created: 12/14/2006 | Last Vote: 10 years ago | Comment: 16 years ago

Disclaimer: These surveys are created by PLUS or FULL Members of the site and, unless specified, are not created by the SermonAudio staff nor do they necessarily reflect the site's position on any topic.  •    The Acceptable way of worshipping God is based upon scripture and the traditions of the church.   7% | 53 votes  •    The Acceptable way of worshipping God is only that worship which is prescribed for us in Scripture.   73% | 529 votes  •    As long as it doesn't blatantly contradict scripture, churches can create their own modes of worship   14% | 99 votes  •    People can worship God in whatever way feels right to them.   2% | 16 votes  •    I'm not Sure/No Answer   1% | 6 votes  •    No answer. Skip this survey, I do not care to vote on this topic.   3% | 19 votes

11 votes  |   Do you homeschool your children? • 14 years ago    105 votes  |   Is the 4th commandment binding in the New Covenant? • 14 years ago    91 votes  |   How many hours a week do you spend in your occupation providing... • 14 years ago    130 votes  |   How would you describe Brit Hume's recommendation of the... • 14 years ago    169 votes  |   Do You Celebrate The Christmas Holiday? • 14 years ago BROWSE SURVEY CATEGORIES | MORE..

1,989 votes  |   Who do you think the Anti-Christ is? • 6 months ago    2,768 votes  |   Do you believe ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED? • 11 months ago    698 votes  |   Which issue do you think most confronts the Church of today? • 11 months ago    517 votes  |   What kind of car do you drive? • 4 years ago    639 votes  |   Should Christians Observe Halloween • 4 years ago BROWSE SURVEY CATEGORIES | MORE..

9,506 votes  |   What version of the Bible do you use? • 5590 comments    6,045 votes  |   What is your view of women pastors? • 873 comments    5,907 votes  |   Do you think the Pope went to heaven? • 1482 comments    5,304 votes  |   Are you Presbyterian, Methodist, or Baptist? • 444 comments    4,558 votes  |   How old are you? To determine the SermonAudio age groups... • 111 comments BROWSE SURVEY CATEGORIES | MORE..

FORUMS | USER COMMENTS | add new

Sorting Order:   Sort by newest firstSort by oldest first

· Page 1 ·  Found: 92 user comment(s)

6/22/08 8:30 AM src49  | Washington state    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments Man sees what we do, God sees the heart. Our life is the vessel through which we worship and praise. My daily life, my attitude of the heart is either praise and worship of self or God. 4/23/08 3:38 PM Thinking Christian  | Ireland    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments Icon O'Clast wrote: I don't think you can seperate worship and praise any more than you can seperate fear and reverence or grace and mercy. Mr O'Clast Interesting points. I think you miss my point though. Praise is always verbal/audible. Worship is not. Do you believe that we can worship God without opening our mouths? Of course. Do you believe we can worship God in silent prayer or in our thoughts? Of course. On Revelation. Praise is there and so is worship granted. Prostrating themselves describes their posture before or even as they worshiped, but its not worship and throwing crowns was an act that resulted from worship, but not worship. Do you fall down and throw crowns in your local assembly. I think not, but it would be good fun watching. On grace and mercy, they are totally seperate. One is God giving us what we don't deserve, and the other is God not giving us what we do deserve. How are they always linked? Kindest Regards 4/16/08 11:24 PM Icon O'Clast  | Oz    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments I don't think you can seperate worship and praise any more than you can seperate fear and reverence or grace and mercy. They always go together, and are often used in that way in Hebrew poetry where they say the same thing in another way. To get a good idea of worship as it should be conducted look at the living creatures and elders in Revelation. You see in that text 4 elements of worship. The first two elements are preparatory to worship, namely having a vision of God's holiness and submitting to His dominion. The second are actual worship, casting your crowns before Him and vocally acknowledging God worhty of all glory and praise. You remove any of these 4 elements from worship and it ceases to be worship. Much of what transpires in churches today is no more worship than watching a movie is. It has all become man-centred and man-pleasing. 4/14/08 3:36 PM Thinking Christian  | Ireland    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments Just my thoughts. Worship has potentially nothing at all to do with singing, either psalms or hymns. Worship is something that takes place in the mind. It is us expressing our reverence and awe for who God is This can be done verbally or not. Praise, on the other hand, is always audible. We must not get singing praises to God mixed up with worshipping God. Worship can be part of praising, but does not always have to be. So, the question most here seem to want to answer is 'how should we praise God when christians meet together'. 3/14/08 5:43 PM Mr. J  | Australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments jago wrote: Bernard I agree with you. I agree also - there are many hymns both old and new which have all the criteria to make them suitable. Many of the old hymns were based on Psalms or were, in the case of many of Isaac Watts', Christianised Psalms. But isn't it interesting how much, if not most, of the debates on worship centre around music. Not preaching, praying, preparation of the heart etc, but music - as if this is the most important element of worship. Strangely, the texts on Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs do not mention singing, but speaking. The vocal praises in Revelation are said, not sung. Even the 'song' of the angels at Christ's birth was not a song as such. The reason why music has become the focus point is clear. It is derived from a desire to make church services more attractive to non-believers, so they do not feel out of place in church. This is where it all goes wrong, because church is not for unbelievers and if an unrepentant sinner feels comfortable in church something is hopelessly wrong. The whole 'seeker sensitive' phenomenon is based on a fundamental mistake. There is none who seeks after God. Church is where we seek God, it is the gathering of redeemed believers, and not for those who are still of this world. 3/13/08 11:54 PM jago  | australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments Bernard I agree with you. 3/13/08 7:42 PM Bernard  | Australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments Mr. J wrote: I do not support Psalms only. But I lament their passing and their being replaced. This was the point of my "baby with the bathwater" comment earlier. The Psalms should never have been ditched by churches; and have often been replaced by drivel. However, in an enthusiastic rush to purge the drivel, we must not eject modern songs which are scripturally sound and generally meet the 'good song' criteria listed below. 3/13/08 5:52 PM Icon O'Clast  | Oz    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments I get the distinct impression Bernard, Mr. j and Jago that the others care not a whit about worship. They like to beat themselves into a frenzy about how OT saints were saved or whether baptism is dipping or dripping, but when it comes to the worship of God they seem a bit indifferent. I suppose that pretty much sums up the attitude of the church in general. 3/13/08 4:48 AM Mr. J  | Australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments jago wrote: Do they also feel they cannot sing scripture as an aid to memory? Icon - the texts on Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs speaks about letting the word of Christ dwelling in you richly. The word of Christ is the Scriptures. The other one talks about teaching and admonishing each other. You cannot teach Scriptural truth on the basis of a man-made hymn. I cannot admonish someone on the basis of anything other than Scripture. Jago - I do not support Psalms only. But I lament their passing and their being replaced. Many of the old hymns are great. Much of what is sung in churches today is subjective rubbish. The problem is that both truth and error can be learned in song. Arius put his heresies in songs and much of what he taught stuck. If you want kids to learn the teachings of the Bible, teach them songs. But if the songs are full of error, it is error they will learn. I believe in worship we must bring God the best we have. Of all the Psalms, hymns, songs and choruses, which do you think is the best we have to offer? Most of the modern choruses and songs are badly written, musically poor and theologically unsound. With Psalms you know you can't go wrong - they come straight out of the Bible. 3/13/08 12:40 AM jago  | australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments Mr J, It has always puzzled me that Christians feel they must sing only psalms. There are many songs recorded in Scripture that are not in psalms. We're told to to be joyful and sing. Those who restrict themselves to psalms are, I feel, missing one of the great joys of Christianity. Do they also feel they cannot sing scripture as an aid to memory? 3/12/08 8:13 PM Icon O'Clast  | Oz    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments Mr. J wrote: If you do a proper exegesis of the two parallel texts which speak on Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual songs you come to the conclusion that they speak of Psalms, Psalms and Psalms. OT Psalms was the only hymnbook the OT church knew and one of the saddest days in the history of the Protestant church waw when the Psalms were thrown out with the bathwater. How do you get Psalms, Psalms and Psalms from "Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs?" That doesn't make sense to me.After the Passover feast it says they sang a hymn. Also the apostles in prison were singing praise unto God. Revelations, among other places, talks about a new song. So are you saying these all mean Psalms? I don't think so mate! 3/12/08 1:53 AM Mr. J  | Australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments If you do a proper exegesis of the two parallel texts which speak on Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual songs you come to the conclusion that they speak of Psalms, Psalms and Psalms. OT Psalms was the only hymnbook the OT church knew and one of the saddest days in the history of the Protestant church waw when the Psalms were thrown out with the bathwater. 3/11/08 7:57 PM Bernard  | Australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments In other words, Mr J supports the singing of any Psalms, Hymns or Spiritual songs, in the following context: 1. It is God-centred and reverent. 2. It is holy; ie clearly separate from the world. 3. Words are scriptural, either by being taken directly from scripture, or by stating acceptable doctrines based on sound theology 4. Music is of high quality 5. Words are to avoid vain repetitions I don't disagree with these principles. I get frustrated by "baby with bathwater" attitudes when people become disillusioned when these principles aren't followed, and retreat to "Psalms-only" mentality. 2/25/08 12:41 AM Mr. J  | Australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments They're a lot of questions Jago and I do not have so many answers. I remember when I was at theological college we had to exegete those passages and that was the outcome. I love good hymns, but there are so many bad ones with shoddy theology. I hate choruses, not all, but most. Most of them are very poor musically and are abysmal theologically. Many of them are almost as repetitive as a mantra. I lament the standard of worship these days; casual, irreverent, people-pleasing. The music is only a symptom of that sickness. There was a time when the church was seen as seperate from and different to the world. Now we have brought the world into the church; the world's methods and the world's music. Worship is not primarily there for us, but for God. It is what HE commanded, because it must consist of what pleases HIM. The Jews always had a problem with their worship because to them it was boring. They were not allowed to get involved, just stand there and watch their sheep get burnt. Ever smell a burnt sheep? It stinks! But God says, "It is a sweet smelling savour in MY nostrils." To me that is the bottom line - who are we there to please, God or man? Once we get that sorted the music thing will sort itself out. 2/25/08 12:21 AM jago  | australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments If you are correct and only psalms should be sung, does this include the other songs recorded as sung in scripture? Are we allowed to sing them? Are we to sing scripture as an aid to memory? Do Christians who do not have a copy of the psalms (particularly those under persecution where being found with a copy is against the law) sing at all? Must we sing in Hebrew or are we allowed to alter our translations/ words, to fit our preferred type of music and meter? What is the music that God sings over his beloved children? 2/24/08 6:33 AM Mr. J  | Australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments jago wrote: I believe we have the permission of scripture to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, but some of the latter that are becoming very popular are not true to scripture. Some choruses should never be sung as part of worship. Please read the words as you sing. Mate, if you have a close look at those two texts that talk about Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs you will find they literally mean Psalms, Psalms and Psalms. To start with, it talks about speaking, not singing. Secondly it talks about let the Word of Christ dwell in you, which can only refer to Scripture. Most importantly, I think, it talks about teaching and admonishing. You cannot admonish someone on the basis of a man-made hymn or song. You cannot teach truth with an uninspired hymn or song. It is only with the auhority of Scripture that you can teach or admonish. Then again - the NT talks about singing a New Song. But personally, I lament the fact that we have lost the Psalms. They were replaced with hymns. Some of those hymns were great. Now those have been replaced with syrupy, subjective hymns and, worse still, with repetitive, badly written choruses. 2/24/08 5:41 AM jago  | australia    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments I believe we have the permission of scripture to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, but some of the latter that are becoming very popular are not true to scripture. Some choruses should never be sung as part of worship. Please read the words as you sing. 1/11/08 10:47 AM Discerning Believer    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments Even the Scottish Psalter was rewritten and modified by human composers to incorporate meters. Is it still considered inspired hymns after human hands have modified it? I love the metric psalms but it dawned on me that it isn't the exact words of God translated in the Authorized Version or even Geneva for that matter. 1/11/08 10:39 AM Warrant that    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments MurrayA wrote: Warrant that, I looked up your link, and I have bookmarked it. I haven't the time tight now to go right through it all, but the first few paragraphs have whetted my appetite..... MurrayA It seems to me that the Psalms only camp have failed ever to produce conclusive evidence on the one point which would win everyone over viz. that the Psalter is the only authorised song book of the church. They cannot even demonstrate that it was so for Israel! Just one single verse from the entire Bible to demonstrate that this is so would suffice! Simple challenge one would think. I concur with you re: the so called contemporary worship style. 1/10/08 10:30 PM Derek  | Missouri    • Add new comment • Reply to comment • Report abuse • Groups | Comments MurrayA AMEN, AMEN, AMEN!! I get so sick of carnal worldly music, in or out of church! And don't even get me started on the tight pants (or any pants on women for that matter)

There are a total of 92 user comments displayed | add new comment |