Toward on Adventist theology of worship

The forms of Seventh-day Adventist worship must take their cue from descriptions given in the Word of how worship is carried on in heaven. Our greatest liturgical task is to provide an earthly counterpart of the worship of heaven in light of the three great unifying doctrines of Adventism the Sabbath, the high-priestly ministry of Christ, and the Second Coming.

C. Raymond Holmes, D.Min., is director of student life, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan.

What form does worship take in the very splendors of heaven itself within the very presence of God? Revelation 4 and 5 portray to us some aspects. These chapters are replete with liturgical symbols that are material, verbal, and dramatic. Material symbols include a throne around which the liturgical action takes place, white garments and golden crowns, and flashes of lightning and peals of thunder together with seven burning lamps. There is a book, seals, harps, and golden bowls. Liturgical action consists of sit ting before the throne, falling prostrate, casting of crowns, and the Lamb moving forward to take the book from the Father. The impression is of much activity and participation. Such worship elicits verbal responses in the form of the sanctus (chap. 4:8) and the doxology (chaps. 4:11; 5:9, 10,12, 13).

Christian worship is the ascription of supreme worth to God and to His Son. They are the center and focus of worship. In worship the church does not celebrate its humanity or its unity or its sanctification or its mission. It celebrates the presence of God and the Lamb. All the liturgical action in Revelation 4 and 5 takes place around the throne of God. Man is not called to glorify man. Man's worth is found in the voluntary death of Christ, not in any kind of self-exaltation. Man's rightful place is on his knees before the throne of God—"and the ... elders fell down and worshipped" (chap. 5:14). Man is to glorify God. "In thy presence is fulness of joy," says the psalmist; "at thy right hand there are pleasures for ever more" (Ps. 16:11). The psalmist's great est fear is to be separated from that presence: "Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit" (Ps. 51:11, 12, R.S.V.).* The call to worship in His presence is this: " 'Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord'" (Acts 3:19, R.S.V.).

The specifically Christian tone of worship ^enters the picture in Revelation 5 with the new song in which the note of atonement and redemption appears. It rings with praise for the work and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and in the heavenly sanctuary. This is the primary focus of Christian celebration. The gift of salvation and the worthiness of the Lamb are celebrated with singing and rejoicing. Such worship in heavenly splendor must find its counterpart in the worship of God's people on earth. Such worship is a recapitulation of salvation history. The doxologies of Revelation 5 are devoted to the praise of Christ as the victorious Lamb of God. The cross and the resurrection of Christ are at the core of Christian worship just as they are at the core of the church's preaching (see 1 Cor. 15:1-8). The preaching of the gospel makes believers who become worshipers.

Worship is a retelling of the gospel story, a liturgical dramatization in baptism, footwashing, and Communion, of the atoning sacrifice of Christ. We remember the awesome truth of it with wonder, dread, fascination, and utter dependency. We are thankful. The truth and power of it moves the church to weekly dedication. Worship thus becomes the impetus for evangelism and mission. The angels that participated in heavenly worship fly in mid-heaven with a message to proclaim to every nation on earth, an invitation to all mankind to join in the singing of the new song of redemption. It is a song of remembrance, of faith, and of hope, a song about the Lamb who was slain for the sins of the world. It is a song about His creative power, His redemptive love, His daily care from heaven, and His glorious return. To sing it together today in worship is to rehearse for that great day when, with the curtain raised on the final act in the drama of history, His people will join the heavenly hosts in everlasting praise of the Father and the Son.

Together with the Word of redemption the three ecumenical doctrines of Adventism ought to be reflected in Adventist worship: the seventh-day Sabbath, the heavenly ministry of Christ in the sanctuary, and His second advent. These are the ecumenical doctrines of Adventism because they are designed to call all of God's people to a unity based on Scripture in preparation for the eschatological events of history.

It is not possible for Seventh-day Adventists to think about worship, or to participate in worship, without reference to the Sabbath and its meaning. God made man a steward of time as well as of life and creation. Both material and nonmaterial aspects of creation, space, and time, are to be consecrated by their use. The Sabbath is a reminder that time is to be used to the glory of God and the edification and well-being of mankind. Time is as sacred as life itself, and as we corrupt time we corrupt life. As we maintain the holiness of time, we maintain the holiness of life. To spend time, any time, in unholy activity is to desecrate the whole concept and purpose of the holiness of time despite lip service to the sanctity of the Sabbath. A right use of Sabbath time should lead to the right use of all time. The Sabbath points to Creation and redemption, and the celebration of these twin emphases are central to worship for the last-day church. That is what the worshiping church is called to "remember" when it gathers on Sabbath morning. It reminds itself, in speech and action, of the creative power of God and of His great love that made redemption possible. It is also a reminder of creaturely dependence on Him for the gift of life, for the sustaining of life, and for the gift of salvation in Christ.

The perpetual nature of the Sabbath in time and eternity reminds us of the faithfulness of God as opposed to human unfaithfulness. The Sabbath comes faithfully week after week whether the world acknowledges it or not. God's Word becomes deed. Love for man is acted out in historic events, and faith in God must be acted out in loving service. Faith can be expressed only by specific acts in time—by entering into the holiness of time and participating in its blessings, by acting out in liturgical drama the events of holy history that are to be remembered. In worship on the Sabbath we exercise the church's historical memory and call to mind once again God's great gifts to mankind.

Yet for Seventh-day Adventists worship is not only an exercise of corporate memory. What would be reflected liturgically is not only God's past acts but His present activity in the heavenly sanctuary. How to do this constitutes one of our greatest liturgical challenges! In order to accomplish it, we need to mobilize the best minds among our theologians, pastors, and musicians who understand the need and are prepared to contribute to the effort. It seems to be easier to relate in worship to the cross, a past event in salvation history, than to a contemporary salvation event, the heavenly ministry of Christ our High Priest. Perhaps that is because the church's memory of the cross event is uncluttered by the elements of the social, political, and religious milieu of the first century A.D. The most important truth for our time, the heavenly ministry of our Lord, is difficult to concentrate upon, for to do so means we must wade through the twentieth century's bombardment of our senses and pressing issues of human survival. It seems an almost impossible task to overcome the omnipresence of these issues and be able to make that vital connection between the events of contemporary life and those of heaven. It is worship, with its musical and liturgical symbols and actions, that must help us connect with the transcendent events and values going on at the present in heaven.

Worship is not an encounter with the world, or with past salvation history alone, but with the living Lord who today is our high priest in heaven, not the crucified Lord still fixed to the cross. Our task in worship is not to penetrate beneath the surface of life, but to be lifted above the surface of life to the gates of heaven itself! Anything less does no honor to either our message or our mission, and certainly none to the Lord we worship.

For the Seventh-day Adventist, life on earth has a concrete focal point that controls and directs and defines his entire existence. That focal point is the ministry of Christ in heaven, which rests on the events of Calvary but has now shifted to the heavenly sanctuary. Worship is focused on the present activity of our Lord who has died for us and now lives for us, making intercession before the throne of God. This is our sustaining focus! When we assemble for worship, our faith must be active and reach into the realms of heaven itself. By faith we enter the heavenly sanctuary where we follow our Lord from cross to crown, from the thorns on His brow to the throne of God. In worship we share in contemporary events in heaven where history now being made will have an everlasting effect on future events on earth. As events unfold in response to the ministry of Christ in heaven, the future of the church and all mankind is determined and fulfilled.

The work of Christ in heaven takes place just prior to His second advent and the final judgment (Heb. 9:21-28). It is a purifying and cleansing work. There fore, the focus of our worship, while it takes place in earthly sanctuaries, is not to be directed so much on what takes place there, but on what is taking place in heaven. It is the heavenly ministry of our Lord that makes Adventist worship what it is. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (chap. 12:1,2, R.S.V.).

Adventist worship also looks forward in confident hope. That hope rests firmly on the Biblical promises concerning the imminent return of Christ. Adventist worship takes place on the threshold of His coming. All three time dimensions of mankind's existence are engaged: past, present, and future. The past we can do nothing about, so it holds no threat for us. The present is here now, and though it can at times be terrifying, we have confidence because of the contemporary ministry of Christ in heaven. But the future is something else. The future threatens because it represents the unknown and the uncertain. In such a context the message concerning the return of the Lord is a great comfort to His people. In prophetic wisdom the Bible describes what can be expected in the future. It will not come as a horrible surprise for believing people. They will not be caught unprepared for the final events of history. It is in anticipation of that day that the church of the present worships. Its focus is not only on the past events of history or the present events in the sanctuary above that will determine history, but also on the fulfillment of God's Word in future historical events. As Paul wrote: "Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will trans form our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body" (Phil. 3:20, 21, N.I.V.).+

Though the church is now here in the present world and is under the present circumstances, its worship has a definite eschatological orientation. In its worship the last-day church leaves itself behind and reaches out toward that consummation that transcends the con fines of time and space. In one sense, through its worship, the church is already at that point in time when Jesus appears. His church has gathered to meet Him and in its worship every Sabbath rehearses for the day of the Lord when He shall appear in fact. In the prayers, the preaching, the hymn singing, the church is rehearsing for the day when it will see Him and speak with Him face to face, when it will hear the divine Word from the Word Himself, when it will sing the sanctus and doxology in everlasting praise of the Lamb who was slain and is worthy to receive worship and acclaim. The worship of the last-day church is taking place at that point in time when the world is passing away and the new world of God is about to come. In its worship the last-day church is on tiptoe, on the edge of its seat, on the threshold, eager to see and hear the Lord. In faith it reaches out to welcome Him. What it says and does on the Sabbath is in anticipation of that great day, and is a foretaste of the great event. Could any other activity better befit the life of the church as it waits for the Second Coming? The preparation of the church for that day is far different from the world's. Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, in word and sacrament, the Lord is preparing the church for that day. The world, on the other hand, is preparing itself for judgment by continuous rebellion and sin. As the church is getting ready for redemption and glory, the world is getting ready for judgment and death. This hastening of the church and the world toward the Second Advent is taking place as the church worships. It is in the bowed knee that the church publicly confesses its faith in God, its dependence upon Him, and its expectation of His coming again.

The worship of the last-day church expresses its deep longing for its heavenly home. The church is aware that it worships only fragmentarily and incompletely, and it longs for the time when it will be able to worship in heavenly splendor. It knows its worship is feeble and sometimes distorted, and it waits for the day when it will be able to magnify God with all the angels in perfect harmony and praise. The church is a pilgrim people on the road toward Zion. Though living on earth, its home is heaven. In worship it joins its prayers and praise with all righteous people everywhere, all who have been born again by faith in Christ. We come to Jesus as the mediator between God and man, and because of His sprinkled blood our consciences are clean. The removal of the sin that stood against us does away with the barrier between us and the Father. When we worship, we hear God address His church direct from the throne in heaven through the preaching of the Word and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The God we worship is not silent. He has a will for His people, and He communicates that will as His church keeps silence before Him and listens. The proper response to the grace of God is a grateful heart. Such worship is done with a sense of the majesty and holiness of God, the judge with whom we have to do. But this reverence and awe does not cause His people to flee from His presence, for they are the redeemed— their way has been opened, a place is being prepared for them, and they are being prepared for that place. Such is the worship of the last-day church on the threshold of the Lord's return.

* Scripture quotations marked R.S.V. are from
the Revised Standard Version of the Bible,
copyrighted 1946, 1952 © 1971, 1973.

 

 

+ Texts credited to N.I.V. are from The Holy
Bible: New International Version. Copyrighted ©
1978 by the New York International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.


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C. Raymond Holmes, D.Min., is director of student life, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan.

April 1983

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