{"id":8022,"date":"2020-08-03T21:06:54","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T21:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8022"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:37:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T17:37:08","slug":"lets-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8022","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLet\u2019s Party\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Views: 0<\/p>

[Note:\u00a0 <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1<\/strong>\u00a0 page.]<\/span><\/p>\n

It has finally come to this. A few years ago, a brother asserted that worship should be a party, a \u201ccelebration\u201d (Marvin Phillips, speech at Nashville, TN \u201cJubilee,\u201d July 1989). He also ridiculed the \u201ctradition\u201d of the five avenues of worship and justified the use of \u201cspecial music\u201d in worship (e.g., solos, choirs, and professional entertainment groups\u2014 especially \u201cAcappella,\u201d and \u201cGospel-Rockers\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

Incredibly, he used the occasion of the return of the prodigal son (Luke 15) as his \u201cproof text.\u201d The \u201cparty\u201d the father threw upon the return of his son allegedly suggests \u201cpartying\u201d in worship. While it still shocks me that anyone claiming to be a Gospel preacher would thus openly advocate aping Pentecostalism in worship, we should not be too surprised in this case, due to this brother\u2019s several previous compromises.<\/span><\/p>\n

Turning our worship to God into a \u201cparty\u201d is grievously wrong on many counts.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It degrades the true and living God who is to be hallowed (Mat.6:9) and before Whom we are to come \u201cdecently and in order\u201d (1 Cor. 14:40).<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. God condemned the Corinthians for turning their worship assemblies into a banquet of food for the body, a \u201cparty\u201d\u2014such behavior belongs outside <\/strong>of the worship assembly, not in it (1 Cor. 11:20\u201334).<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. To advocate a \u201cparty\u201d atmosphere in worship evinces a misconception of the purpose of worship. Worship is primarily to honor and glorify God\u2014it must concentrate on God and what He desires. The \u201cpartying\u201d devotees are narcissistic, concentrating on themselves, what pleases them, and what will draw the crowds.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. The \u201cparty\u201d atmosphere appeals to the fleshly rather than to the spiritual inclinations of men.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. It is both absurd and dangerous to treat the mere \u201cdrapery\u201d of a parable as if it had an enduring application. While the rejoicing of the father over the return of his son represents the joy of our Father when His sinful children repent, the \u201cparty\u201d in the parable is mere \u201cdrapery\u201d to make the parable \u201ctrue to life.\u201d It is totally unwarranted <\/strong>to identify this incidental detail with a worship assembly of the church.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Will this \u201cparty\/worship\u201d advocate be consistent? If so, he needs also to insist that:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Every Christian who repents should be given a \u201cbest\u201d robe, a ring, and shoes (Luke 15:22)<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. We serve a banquet of choice beef in our worship assemblies (v.23)<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. We have\u201c music [likely instrumental]and dancing\u201d in our worship assemblies (v. 25; brother Phillips would likely have no problem with these items).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      While we agree that our hearts should be filled with joy and thanksgiving in our worship as we contemplate the glory and benevolence of God, these emotions are very different from the idea that worship is or should be a \u201cparty.\u201d Our erring brother needs to ponder more fully the necessity of worshiping God in \u201cspirit and truth\u201d (John 4:23\u201324).<\/span><\/p>\n

      [Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for and it was published in The Lighthouse, <\/em>weekly bulletin of Northpoint Church of Christ, Denton, TX, July 4, 2010, of which I was editor.]<\/span><\/p>\n

      Attribution:<\/strong> From thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Views: 0[Note:\u00a0 This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1\u00a0 page.] It has finally come to this. A few years ago, a brother asserted that worship should be a party, a \u201ccelebration\u201d (Marvin Phillips, speech at Nashville, TN \u201cJubilee,\u201d July 1989)….<\/p>\n

      Continue Reading… \u201cLet\u2019s Party\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,193,200,183,410,409,334],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-false-teachersdoctrine","category-god-2","category-worship-of","category-pentecostalism","category-respect","category-special-music","category-worship-2","wpcat-18-id","wpcat-193-id","wpcat-200-id","wpcat-183-id","wpcat-410-id","wpcat-409-id","wpcat-334-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8022"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17512,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8022\/revisions\/17512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}