Excessive Familiarity is Disrespect

Yesterday I wrote about Biblical support for the practice of raising one’s hands to God. I forgot to mention something.

These days, many Christians think “worship” means “music” and nothing else. Instead of calling their bands “bands,” churches call them “worship teams.” It’s a damaging misconception.

The words translated “worship” in the Bible generally don’t describe music. One Old Testament word means “serve.” A Greek word used in John means, more or less, to prostrate or otherwise humble yourself before your god. A Hebrew word used in Exodus means the same thing. These words include things like bowing and falling on one’s face. The worship they describe involves assuming postures physically to honor God, just as yoga involves assuming physical postures to honor demons and fallen angels.

Biblical figures knew they were supposed to make physical gestures of submission to God. Sometimes they fell on their faces when angels showed up. They thought the angels were God, and they knew they were supposed to prostrate themselves in God’s presence.

Obviously, raising your hands to God is worship. You can worship God while music is playing, but there is more to worship than turning church into a disco.

Kenneth Hagin was a well-known charismatic preacher. He had his flaws, and he associated with some oily, dangerous bums, but he knew a few things. He knew the prosperity gospel was trouble. He summoned a bunch of big-time charistmatic preachers in 1999 and told them they were doing the wrong thing. Of course, they didn’t listen.

He invited Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Jerry Savelle, Jesse Duplantis, and others. Copeland, Dollar, and Duplantis have disgraced themselves by asking their servants to give offerings so they can buy jets costing tens of millions of dollars. Copeland is extremely rich. Many people think he’s a billionaire.

Hagin wrote a book about the evils of the gospel of greed. It’s called The Midas Touch. I have a copy somewhere.

Hagin had a healing ministry. I saw him preaching about healing on one occasion, and he talked about working with a person who complained that God wouldn’t heal him. Kenneth asked him if he worshiped God. Then he had to explain. While he worked with the man and prepared to pray, he told him to raise his hands before he prayed, praising and calling out to God. This, to Hagin, was “worshiping.” He considered failure to worship a serious prayer flaw which could block healing.

God is humble, but he still has to be God. He has to be praised, feared, and worshiped. These things open the channel to him.

Speaking of fearing God, a lot of people have funny ideas about it. There are preachers out there who say the words translated as “fear” really mean some sort of warm, fuzzy reverence. That’s completely wrong. Go look for yourself. They mean FEAR, like the kind of fear you feel when you realize a grizzly bear is chasing you.

Fear of God is very important. It’s connected with a lot of blessings, according to the Bible.

If God loves us so much, why would he want us to fear him? I think he helped me understand. Imagine yourself in a restaurant on the top of a skyscraper, sitting hear a waist-high safety railing. You wouldn’t be shaking with fear while you sat in your chair, but you would be terrified of climbing the fence and walking over the edge. That’s how God is. You shouldn’t be in terror all the time, but you should be very afraid to cross him.

We live with all sorts of fears. If you own a gun or drive a car, you fear doing the wrong things with them. You also fear the consequences of committing crimes. You fear things like electric shocks and walking in bad neighborhoods after dark. The fears are real, but they’re dormant, not active. They’re helpful. They don’t produce stress unless you do something wrong.

Healthy kids fear their parents, even though they feel very safe near them.

God may be our friend, but he is not our beer buddy. He is very great. He is the most terrible enemy there is. No one can save you from him when he decides to fight you. Modern charismatics have a tendency to treat him as though he’s a pal. That’s not right. Fear and worship are important.

I believe the notion that I should raise my hands to God came from God, himself. Judging from the Bible, I’m in very good company.