Avoiding Pagan Worship – A Kingdom Catechism

Avoiding Pagan Worship

A Kingdom Catechism

Believers must keep themselves from pagan worship.

Q 60: How do the redeemed of the Lord keep themselves from pagan devotions?

A 60: The redeemed keep themselves from pagan devotions by refusing to incorporate in their worship anything not explicitly taught in the Word of God and by maintaining their worship pure of all pagan influences. (Deut. 12:29-31; Deut. 12:2-4; Exod. 23:24; Deut. 18:9-13)

This is a challenge for believers in any day, but especially our own, when the forms of pop culture have infested and pervaded all aspects of life. The worship of God is not immune from the allure of pop paganism, especially when worship leaders lose sight of the primary objective of worship and consider that worship is, first of all, an opportunity for attracting and pleasing worshipers.

In our day the forms of contemporary culture pipe the tunes, so to speak, of Christian worship. Culture has in every age informed and shaped worship, and this is not necessarily to be avoided at all costs. But in our own day worship has become the servant of “outreach” or “fellowship” or “community,” rather than the worship of God, and so the forms and “styles” most familiar to worshipers have become, in effect, the new “regulative principle of worship.” Can this be pleasing to God?

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.