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DOES GOD DEMAND WORSHIP?
A few
days ago, the subject of worship came up in a
conversation. The discussion became lively when I
objected to the idea that man is free to worship
God according to the dictates of his conscience.
I made the comment, The Bible does not
support the idea that we can determine how and
when to worship God. On the contrary, God tells
us how and when to worship Him and willful deviation
from Gods command is rebellion. To
illustrate my point, I referred to Genesis 4. God
rejected Cains offering because Cain
rejected Gods demand God demanded
that a lamb be sacrificed, but Cain presented
fruit. The word demanded upset my friends.
They thought it would be better to say that God required
Cain to bring a lamb. I asked, OK then,
what is the essential difference between
demanding and requiring in Genesis 4? One
person responded, Maybe the word required
is not as abrasive and confrontational as the
word demanded. All
right, I conceded, It is true that
God is tactful and considerate of man. He does
not often thrust Himself into our affairs
highlighting His demands. But when God gets no
respect, He will rise to the occasion and clearly
states His demands. For evidence, I offered
this text:
Fear God and give him
glory, because the hour of his judgment has come.
Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the
sea and the springs of water.(Revelation
14:7) Almighty God has the authority and right to
demand anything He wants, and further, who
can stop Him? (Isaiah 43:13) God does grant
freedom of choice. We have the choice to submit
to His authority or refuse His demands. Before
sin occurred on Earth, Gods laws (demands)
were not in opposition to the way Adam and Eve
lived, because their sinless hearts were in
complete harmony with His demands. However, after
sin occurred, Gods demands became hard to
accept. His laws are not only contrary to the way
the worlds inhabitants live, but are also
contrary to our rebellious nature. (Romans 8:7)
As the discussion
progressed, it became apparent that my friends
were confusing the topic of religious freedom
with the topic of worship. Needless to say, my
contribution to the discussion brought some
controversy. After the smoke began to clear, we
began to differentiate between religious freedom
and the worship of God. Several interesting
issues surfaced. We came to agree that
religious liberty (not worship) is
defined as the privilege to worshiping God
according to the dictates of our conscience. In
fact, religious liberty is the highest form of
freedom a nation can offer and how wonderful and
precious is the freedom! However, religious
freedom should not be confused with the idea that
we can worship God according to the dictates of
our imagination. God not only demands worship,
but He has also given instructions about worship!
(Exodus 20: 3-11; 2 Kings 17:15; Psalms 47:2;
Malachi 1:14; Luke 4:8) God considers willful
deviation from His instructions as rebellion.
Notice, I said willful. Cain willfully
rebelled against Gods demand to sacrifice a
lamb. Abel, on the other hand, submitted to
Gods demands and God approved of his
offering.
Limited Knowledge
Our knowledge about God
is very limited. He is infinite and He made us
finite. My knowledge about God and His will for
my life has developed over my lifetime, but
everything I know about God is less than a speck
of sand in the Pacific Ocean. Nevertheless,
submission to Gods will is usually a simple
matter of one thing at a time.
Regardless of social or financial consequences,
if a person submits to the demands of the Word of
God and the Holy Spirit, that person is living in
submission to the will of God, even though that
persons knowledge of Gods will is far
from complete! For example, Daniels three
friends, Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego, knew
nothing about the Mark of the Beast, but they did
know that god demanded no one should bow down to
an image, including Nebuchadnezzars golden
idol. (Daniel 3; Exodus 20:5)
Since the laws of God
encompass every aspect of life, and since our
knowledge of Gods laws is limited, it is
true that all of us do things that are contrary
to the will of God. Sometimes we do things out of
ignorance (Leviticus 4: 13-21; 1 John 5:16) or
sometimes out of willful rebellion (Matthew
12:31,32; Hebrews 10:26). Paul wrote, For
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God. (Romans 3:23) God knows our hearts
and He also knows what is going on inside our
heads, but to Him what counts most is our
actions. (1 Samuel 16:7; Proverbs 15:3) God sees
the inner man and everything we do.
God also knows if we truly love Him with all our
heart, mind and soul. If we could see ourselves
as God sees us, none of us could endure the
horrible sight. Humans are full of deceit,
selfishness and rebellion. (Jeremiah 13:23;
Matthew 7:11; 15:19,20) This may sound strange,
but each person has three sides. There is the
person you think you are, there is a person you
want others to think you are, and then there is
the person you really are. God is not fooled. He
knows the person we really are even though we may
not! (Matthew 26:34) Human beings are scheming,
deviant, and self-centered. He knows the only way
we can change is by forcing us to see our own
imperfections reflected in the way we respond to
His lawful demands. (James 1:22-26) This is why
God demands (through His laws) things of us; this
is the purpose of His truth. God constantly tests
our love through conflict. His demands are in
direct opposition to the demands of this world.
As a result, His tests reveal whether our love
for Him is pure or contaminated with selfishness.
We mature spiritually as we learn from these
tests of faith. (Exodus 16:4; Ephesians 4:13;
Judges 2:22; James 1: 1-12)
Rich,
Righteous and Rebellious
Remember the rich young
ruler story? (Matthew 19) The young man could not
see any flaw within himself. (This is the guy he
thought he was.) He thought he loved God and had
kept all the commandments since childhood. (This
is the guy everyone knew.) He was also rich. The
Jews considered riches to be tangible proof of
Gods approval and the young ruler concluded
that he must be close to God. He was content with
his position in life and the material wealth he
possessed. However, Gods view of the young
man was very different from what he saw in
himself. The young man publicly asked Jesus what
he lacked in order to be saved. He expected that
Jesus would praise him before those present for
being such a fine and honorable
person. Instead, Jesus placed a simple test
before him. The rich young ruler balked and
walked. His love for God was contaminated
by his love for money-he loved wealth more than
he loved God. He could not meet the demand of the
first commandment, Thou shalt have no
other Gods before me. In our
materialistic society, are we surprised by the
failure or do we make excuses for it?
Key
Point
Even though Jesus knows
our innermost thoughts, He does not judge us on
the basis of this knowledge. He judges us on the
basis of our actions because our actions reflect
our choices and our decisions! This is a key
Point: God does not judge us on the basis of what
we believe, but instead judges us on the basis of
what we do about our belief. (2 Corinthians 5:10;
Ecclesiastes 12:14) Notice the words of Jesus: Behold,
I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I
will give to everyone according to what he has
done. (Revelation 22:12) Our actions
will be rewarded. A tree is known by its fruit.
Our response to Gods demands reveals either
our submission to God or our rebellion against
Him. Jesus made a strange statement when He said;
You are my friends if you do what I
command. (John 15:14) To be
friends with Jesus, we must submit to His
authority. God is not our equal. Obedience is the
fruit of love. Jesus said, if you love
me, you will obey what I command. (John
14:15) When we love God, His commands are not a
burden. What is more annoying than having to do
something you hate to do? Cain, for example, did
not love God supremely and willfully
refused to obey the Lord. He did not bring a lamb
for a sacrifice because his heart was rebellious.
(1 John 3:12) Cain professed to worship God, but
God was not impressed. God rejected Cains
offering on the basis that Cain violated His
demand. God is fair, not arbitrary or
temperamental. God would have accepted
Cains offering if Cains heart and
actions had been appropriate. Cains story,
as well as other evidence in Scripture, teaches
us that God does not allow anyone to dictate how
He is to be worshiped! (Genesis 4:5; John 4:24;
Luke 4:8; Mark 7:7,8)
The
Coming Antichrist
The worship of God is a
legal matter it is required by edict.
(Exodus 20:3-11) Further, God made the seventh
day of the week holy at the time of Creation and
imposed the perpetual observance of His Sabbath
by putting His demand within the Ten
Commandments. The fourth commandment (the
observance of the seventh day Sabbath) is as
important to God as the first commandment that
demands that we have no other gods before Him!
The Ten Commandments are actually ten
demand-ments. Yes, the world may
treat them as ten options, but this
was never Gods intent. (Jeremiah 25: 4-7;
Ezekiel 20:21)
The Bible predicts that
the devil (the Antichrist) is going to appear on
earth during the Great Tribulation masquerading
as God. (2 Thessalonians 2; Revelation 13: 11-18)
The Bible says the devil will exalt himself as
God and to prove his assumed divinity, he will
call fire down out of Heaven in full view of men!
(Revelation 13:13) The devil will demand and
ultimately force everyone on Earth to worship
according to his laws. (Revelation 13:16) Notice
I said demand. Look at this verse: He
was given power to give breath to the image of
the first beast, so that it could speak and cause
all who refused to worship the image to be
killed. (Revelation 13:15)
Worship will become a matter of life or death
during the Great Tribulation. On the basis of
this and other texts, the Bible suggests the
devil will establish a day of worship that will
NOT align with Friday, Sabbath or Sunday. 2
Thessalonians 2:4 says, He [the
devil] will oppose [all religions] and
will exalt himself over everything that is called
[the law of] God or is worshiped, so that
he sets himself up in Gods temple
[wherever God is worshiped], proclaiming
himself to be [Almighty] God. (Insertions
mine) In other words, when the devil
appears on Earth and exercises the omnipotent
prerogatives of God (such as calling fire down
out of Heaven), he will not favor the established
religions of the world. Rather, he will force
everyone to abandon his or her former religious
systems and participate in his new
one-world religion. God has ordained that every
religion will be dissolved! God gives the Lucifer
the power to setup a one-world religion.
(Revelation 13: 14,15) A new day of
worship will force the issue of worship to
a level playing field for everyone living on
Earth. By mandating a new day of
worship, a billion Moslems who worship on Friday
cannot complain that God is favoring
a billion Catholics who worship on Sunday, and a
billion Hindu who have no particular day for
worship cannot complain that God is
favoring a billion Christians who do.
Tough
Question
When the devil demands
worship on his chosen day (and he promises death
for anyone that refuses), most Christians will
not be able to find a reason to object. This will
be the case because most Christians believe that
the Ten Commandments were abolished at the cross.
Therefore, when worship is required on the
devils holy day, most Christians will have
no lawful reason to object because they believe
there is no command (or demand) in the Bible
indicating when to worship God.
However, the circle of
prophetic picture has been completed. From the
beginning, God has demanded worship. He has
specified how and when He is to be worshiped. Of
course, we can refuse to obey God, but we cannot
escape the consequences. At an appointed time,
the devil will be granted total authority to rule
the world. Masquerading as God, the devil will
demand worship from everyone. Consequently, a
great test of faith is coming. The living will
have to make some tough choices and God will
judge the living by their actions. This scenario
is a parallel to the story of the three Hebrews
standing before the golden image and the fiery
furnace. Will we submit to the laws of the
devil-king or will we submit to the laws of the
King of kings? When worship is reduced to the
demands of law, where will we stand? The Bible
says everyone will be forced into obedience or
forced into rebellion. (Revelation 13:8)
How and when is God to be
worshiped? His instructions are found in the Ten
Commandments. The instructions are so simple that
a child can understand them read it for
yourself! God is going to test the faith of all
humankind to see who loves Him. This coming test
will center on worship and it will separate
brothers, just like it separated Cain and Abel in
the beginning. The coming test will challenge the
faith of every person. In both cases, there will
be death: If a person worships the devil and
receives the mark, Jesus will kill him or her at
the Second Coming. (Daniel 2:44; Revelation 19:
19-21) If a person worships Jesus and refuses the
mark of the beast, he or she will be a target for
destruction. (Revelation 13:15) Wow! The world is
destined for a great controversy over the issue
of worship and a few have any idea that it is
coming. Even worse, many Christians think they
are going to view the Great Tribulation from a
safe perch in Heaven.
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