There is a trend today in some evangelical Christian circles to deny that the New Testament has a category for gathered, public worship like the Old Testament did. The arguments vary. Some point to the lack of Old Testament liturgical language in reference to New Testament gathered worship, or to the application of Old Testament liturgical language to the whole of the Christian life (e.g., Romans 12:1-2). Others argue that one of the redemptive historical changes from old covenant to new, is the fulfillment of Old Testament corporate worship in…What gathered worship should look like: corporate (but…
There is a trend today in some evangelical Christian circles to deny that the New Testament has a category for gathered, public worship like the Old Testament did. The arguments vary. Some point to the lack of Old Testament liturgical language in reference to New Testament gathered worship, or to the application of Old Testament liturgical language to the whole of the Christian life (e.g., Romans 12:1-2). Others argue that one of the redemptive historical changes from old covenant to new, is the fulfillment of Old Testament corporate worship in…
Sinners (and that’s what we are) are incapable of approaching a Holy God directly. We need a mediator, a stand-between, a reconciler, an advocate who will represent us before God, and take our place, and bear our sin, and render us acceptable to God, and bring us into God’s presence with joy. In the Old Testament human priests and sacrifices symbolically fulfilled this function, but Jesus Christ is the only real mediator for the people of God. It is he who has paid the penalty for our sins and opened the way to God. Though human priests…
This is one of my very favorite hymns. I love its true and moving words. It is a glorious and realistic and emphatically Christian and spiritual meditation on God’s providence. This one is worth memorizing. “It was composed in 1641 with the heading ‘A Song of Comfort. God will care for and help everyone in His own time,’ under the text Psalm 55:22. The author was robbed by highwaymen near Magdeburg as a student and left destitute with no prospect of earning a living. At last he unexpectedly received an appointment as tutor in the…
Sometimes reverence and joy are viewed as mutually exclusive in the worship of the church. I have friends who suspect “reverence” is a code word for austere, cold, somber and dour. So, when they hear someone talking about the need for…
Christian worship is all about God. And a biblical congregational worship service should reflect that. It is all about God. It is not all about us. Or all about the preacher. Or all about the choir or praise team. Or all about the building. Or all…
“As the first Protestant missionary to China, Robert Morrison laid a foundation for what would become the imposing edifice of today’s Chinese church. Morrison was quite conscious of his role, and worked deliberately to prepare for others,…
Robert Morrison, Anglo-Scottish evangelist and first Protestant missionary to China “on July 16, 1814, at a spot on the steep hills and gullies along the shore of Macao, a place seldom reached by crowds of people, . . . baptized Cai Gao, who…
Christian congregational worship is Spirit-gathered, Spirit-dependent, Spirit-engendered, and Spirit-empowered, because left to ourselves we will not worship the right object, according to the right standard, for the right motivation(s), through the…
Dr. David L. Wykes, BSc (Dunelm), PhD (Leicester), FRHistS, is Director of Dr Williams’s Library, and Co-Director of the Dr Williams’s Centre for Dissenting Studies. He gave the second plenary of the Matthew Henry tercentenary (being…