Worship Wars: Revenge of the Serpent

With the camera descending amid turbulent fire and the backdrop of the ancient galactic stage, the view reveals the most daring rescue of the lost people of God. Our hero is none other than the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. The lens brings into focus the locus of history—the culmination of a struggle between good and evil. With victory won, the redeemed are given the mission of preaching the gospel; those formerly of the enemy’s camp were now pleading to the world: “Be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20b).

As the message of reconciliation spread out, the world witnessed a cause an outsider might consider lost. How could a fugitive band of rebels produce such inroads into Rome itself? Yet this message did move out, “bearing fruit and growing all over the world” (Colossians 1:6b), and those being saved responded to God’s wondrous grace in worship of the Redeemer and pledged their lives to His service.

Yet the dark lord did not take defeat well and he hatched a plan to sidetrack the mission of the church by inciting civil war within. In the early days of the war, false teachers slipped into the church and created division. Factions arose and derided the apostles and the gospel itself. Those seeking personal glory found some success in leading Christian warriors astray. After a few centuries the dark days of tyrannical church rule fell on much of the world and held the pure gospel message captive in its grip.

Nearly a thousand years later the Reformation emerged as a group of freedom fighters rallied around the foundation of biblical truth, and the gospel message resumed its mission. While initially relegated to northern territories in Europe, the Reformation grew and millions joined the cause and rediscovered worship and mission.

Once again that old serpent was not long held at bay and he plotted to destroy the church from within. More and more believers split over doctrinal differences, and worship itself became a tool for emphasizing those splits. By the twentieth century the world would have hundreds of sects all pursuing separate goals and worshipping within their clouded convictions and cultures.

Not content to merely split the larger church itself, the serpent instigated division within local churches by means of the generation gap and disputes over style of music. Satan realized that he could disable the churches if its people could not attain unity within their own congregations. This tactic has now resulted in fragmented churches with “traditional” and “contemporary” services (whatever those mean), and in the 21st century we see this separatist trend being amplified within many Christian sectors. Even now the battle over worship, its form, function, and focus is taking our eyes off of the primary mission and from the Lover of our souls.

We are at war. The stakes are high. Our dim view of the Most High and our focus on the mundane and temporary has blinded us. It is time for us to rediscover the real Force: the Holy Spirit at work within us where we are “speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music to the Lord in [our] hearts, giving thanks always for everything [without grumbling] to God the Father” where we should “submit to one another in the fear of Christ” (Ephesians 5:19-21)...

...and the saga continues. Let us pray and work towards the next episode where God is glorified in our lives, and where the world once again marvels at this "foolish" gospel.