Spring Warrior Church of Christ

7432 S. Red Padgett Road

Perry, FL 32348
584-5176

WHAT wOULD JESUS dO? No. 26

CLEANSE THE TEMPLE OF MODERNISM by Bill

Blue

Is Christ pleased with all the works and forms of worship performed in
His name today?

One Lino Lakes, Minnesota congregation has movie-theater style seats

with cup holders (the cup holders are designed to hold the designer coffee
that will be sold at the building).

Another congregation in nearby Eden Prairie, Minnesota has swelled to

such large numbers that it has two buildings miles apart. The smaller
building features videotaped sermons and a ten-piece band.

In Essex County, New Jersey, a congregation held a football service.

Women played cheerleaders and the choir and preacher dressed in jerseys.
In Peoria, Illinois a congregation decorates its building with golf balls and
footballs, and the men huddle up at the beginning and the end of each
service.

A St. Paul congregation used to be the attendance champion because it

operated a non-alcoholic nightclub, and boasted that its slogan was
“Definitely not church as usual.”

Many Christians would oppose nightclubs and videotaped sermons, but

what about daycare centers, ten-piece bands, softball teams, Wednesday
night dinners, or three-dollar coffees? If a congregation preaches that
drinking is a sin, but builds an onsite daycare center, school, or hospital, how
can it then say that a church operated nightclub is sinful?

What would Jesus say about efforts to modernize or liberalize worship?

Paul says that we are “not to think beyond what is written” (1 Cor. 4:6).
He also says that there is only one body, one Spirit, and one faith (Eph. 4:4,
5), and because of this we should endeavor to “keep the unity of the Spirit”
(Eph. 4:3), speak the same thing with no divisions among us, and be
“perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1
Cor. 1:10). Biblical silence isn’t the same as permission (Heb. 7:14), and
Christians are admonished to not be like the world (1 John 2:15; James 4:4),
but what would Jesus do?

With respect to common meals, Jesus demonstrated in His own

ministry that He was more concerned with fulfilling spiritual needs than one’s
appetite. On the day after Jesus fed the 5,000, many of the Jews who had
been fed by Jesus the day before traveled across the Sea of Galilee to be fed
again (John 6:24, 26). Jesus did not feed them again, but said, “Do not labor
for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting
life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:27). Over and over again
Jesus stressed that it was more important to believe that Jesus was the
Christ, than to be preoccupied with their own bellies (John 6:29, 32-33, 35-
40). Paul similarly says to churches who assemble to eat common meals,
“What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? … But if anyone is
hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment” (1 Cor.
11:22, 34). Common meals can cause divisions within the church, and cause
brethren to forget why they are assembling in the first place (1 Cor. 11:17-
34). Jesus would prefer us to come together to be nourished with words of
faith and good doctrine (1 Tim. 4:6) instead of $3 coffees or spaghetti
dinners.

With respect to nightclubs, gyms, daycare centers and the like, either
all are authorized or none are authorized. What would Jesus say about these
social outreach institutions? On two occasions, Jesus cleansed the temple of
the moneychangers. On the second occasion Jesus said that the offenders
had made the Lord’s house “a den of thieves” (Matt. 21:13). On the first
occasion, however, Jesus did not accuse anyone of stealing, but said, "Take
these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of
merchandise!” (John 2:16). The moneychangers were guilty of doing
something God did not authorize. Likewise, where is the authority for a
church to spend the Lord’s treasury on daycare centers, gymnasiums,
schools, or nightclubs? Where does the Bible say that these activities are the
work of the assembly? Biblical silence is not permission (Heb. 7:14).

Which would Jesus find more offensive - selling animals necessary for
sacrifice, or selling $3 coffees at worship? The moneychangers could at least
argue that they were selling items necessary for worship. After all, everyone
under the Law of Moses had to offer an animal for sacrifice as part of their
worship to God, but God requires no one today to have daycare or coffee in
order to worship Him.

Jesus is not pleased by every form of worship performed in His name

(Matt. 7:21-23). Paul warned Timothy that Christians would gravitate away
from sound doctrine towards things that pleased themselves (2 Tim. 4:1-5).
 The problem with modern worship is that the breadth of permitted
activities grows over time because they are not confined by God’s word
which never changes (Mal. 3:6). The organ or piano introduced into some
denominations in the 19th century has given way to ten-piece bands and
choirs that sing while the congregation sits quiet (but see Eph. 5:19; Col.
3:16). In the 20th Century, women and homosexuals began filling pulpits
once reserved to righteous men (1 Cor. 14:34-35; 1 Tim. 2:11-12; 1 Cor. 6:9-
10). How far has modernism gone? In one of the congregations referenced
above, worship includes comedy sketches and rock music, but no Bibles and
no hymnals. How well can one be filled with “words of faith and good
doctrine” without Bibles (1 Tim. 4:6)? It is time to cleanse our houses of
worship of the moneychangers of daycare and gyms before our Bibles
disappear and we starve from a lack of God’s word.

Next week we will print our final article in this series.

This article is reprinted online at http://www.bibleweb.com.