r/theology • u/Wesiepants BA Theology • Sep 17 '24

False Worship Biblical Theology

I'm in a college choir. Our director told us we have to put up worship hands even if it's fake. This idea makes me uncomfortable, and I want to confront him, but I want to have scripture to back me up. Thoughts??

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u/Wesiepants BA Theology Sep 25 '24

The goal of theatre is to portray a character, everyone knows you are being “fake.” In worship choirs, I think the goal should be to be as authentic as possible. Now, you might show the best version of whatever that may mean, but you should not have everyone being instructed to make worship look a certain way, no?

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u/GenericHam Sep 25 '24

There are entire large chunks of the old testament that instruct Israel what their worship should look like. Sacrifice this animal on this altar, sprinkle the blood here, face this direction, ect.

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u/Wesiepants BA Theology Nov 17 '24

Yes, except that is almost entirely old law and/or written to specific people groups, in your example being the Israelites.

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u/GenericHam Nov 17 '24

Correct. I am not using the old law to make the case that we should still do those things. I am using it as an example of worship which God at the time found pleasing. He found it pleasing even though it was very structured.

Since we worship the same God, I see no indication that he would suddenly find structured and prescribed worship offensive now because of the new covenant.

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u/Wesiepants BA Theology Nov 18 '24

You’re missing a key principle however. The worship in the text you described was inspired/prescribed by God, whereas this worship is made up by my director for show.