WORSHIP/SERVICE: EITHER-OR/BOTH-AND

The miracle of the Incarnation is the basis for our worship and service. We believe that Christ, the eternal Son of God, became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. He was and is not God who just appeared to be man, nor merely a man who became quite holy and god-like, nor half-god and half-man. Jesus Christ was and is fully God and fully man - two complete and unconfused Natures in one Person. What does this mean for our worship and service?

For well over a century we in the West have been wrestling with the liberal/conservative dilemma of focusing either on worship and dogmatic truth, or on social justice and concern for the poor. This has created in us a mindset that is actually a false dichotomy. It has led us to the false conclusion and belief that we must choose one or the other: we must either "preach the Gospel" and focus on personal salvation, or we should care for "the poor, the lame, the maimed and the blind."

Why does the current dominant secular mindset say we shouldn't "shove religion down other people's throats" when we offer care for downtrodden and hurting members of society? I believe it is because the secularists strive to maintain this dualistic worldview of the spiritual being utterly separate from and opposed to the material world, to society in general. Secularism is the effort to separate and isolate a religious (in the West largely Christian) worldview from the state and society.

Remember how Jesus Christ taught His disciples to pray:

Our Father in heaven:
May Your name be kept holy,
May Your kingdom come,
May Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.

Notice the three petitions to our heavenly Father: keep God the Father's name holy - sacred, honored and set apart, yet at same time not separating God's kingdom, not limiting the doing of His will from this earthly life. We are taught here not to limit God the Father's holy name, His kingdom and His will to the sweet bye-and-bye, pie-in-the-sky, heaven-when-we-die; but rather to honor His name, bring about His kingdom and do His will on earth just as it is in heaven.

This is the full meaning of the Incarnation: God so loves the world, He is vitally concerned with and involved in the struggles, the joy and the pain of our human existence, and He wants them to conform to His will and His kingdom in heaven AND to have everlasting life with Him in eternity. It's not an either-or proposition of choosing either an ordinary worldly life or a spiritual life separated from the world: it's both-and!

The goal of socialism and secular humanism is the separation of the mention of God's name, His kingdom and His will from society and the state, in other words, to shove "all that religious stuff" off into a corner, kept locked up in churches and not mentioned or practiced in the public square. Their goal is for mankind to rely on the power and authority of the all-wise, benevolent state to take care of all our needs and wants from the cradle to the grave.

Their means to that end are to keep Christians divided by playing one confession against another, and keep them confused with expressions such as "separation of church and state" and "don't shove your religion down other people's throats!" But in reality it is shoving secularism down the throats of Christians by controlling the political process and passing laws and court rulings that oppose traditional Christian morality.

Christians often feel like we can't compete against free stuff, our small sacrificial offerings and volunteer service can't match what the government doles out to the poor, maimed, lame and blind. But in Psalm 156:3 we read - "Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation." The political princes make promises designed to win votes, but we're finding out they can't deliver.

The nanny state that promises cradle-to-grave health care and a secure retirement until we fade away into the sunset simply cannot deliver on its promises: the money just isn't there, instead they're piling up enormous mountains of national debt that must eventually come due. The real deal, real salvation, is from the Lord, He Who made heaven and earth.

The Greek word for "salvation: is sodzo, but also the very same word means "healing." Jesus Christ came to bring salvation and healing, He preached the Gospel and healed the sick and the blind, He fed the hungry. There's no separation of the "spiritual" realm from the "material" world in genuine Christianity.

Under the guise of "freedom" and "democracy" we have been fed the lie of separation of church from the state, which nowhere appears in the U.S. Constitution. It did appear, however, in the Constitution of the U.S.S.R., which was swept into the dustbin of history twenty-five years ago. Now Russia is realizing the vital importance of spiritual values in the functioning of the state, but where are we in the West headed?

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 21 Nov. 2015.)