Some Notes on Liturgical Etiquette

These notes are posted here by request.

We all now live in the age of slob worship thanks to the “sixties.” I never experienced sitting for prayer until 20 years ago. Jesus was unhappy when His disciples could not watch and pray for one hour. Today’s slob Christians complain if they have to stand for five minutes. It’s pretty pathetic when you get right down to it. Our forefathers would be amazed. The only people who sat for prayer in the entire history of the church were the infirm and the elderly. Sitting for prayer is one generation old.

So, for younger readers, here are some basic rules of liturgical etiquette.
 
1. Stand for all prayers, save for communion and if possible confession. Jesus was seated when He gave thanks at the Last Supper, so that is the one instance of seated prayer in worship.
 
2. Stand at “easy attention,” hands at your sides, feet slightly apart. Or with hands raised (palms up at your shoulders, or crossed and resting on your shoulders, or pressed together over your chest).  NEVER with hands in pockets. NEVER slouching on one leg. NEVER.
 
     SHAPE UP, YOU LAZY SLOBS!!!
 
3. The normal alternative to kneeling for confession is standing.
 
4. Those who cannot stand or kneel, if kneeling is employed, should sit on the edge of their seat and lean forward with arms on the pew/chair in front of them, like everyone else, and their legs bent under them.
 
5. Kneeling is NOT crouching. We kneel at attention, back straight, looking forward or at the prayer in the book/bulletin. Crouching is for the prayer closet. In worship we kneel as an army.
 
6. Now, to be sure, all this has to be taught. Once it was, and it lasted for 1900 years. As creationists, we believe the body is supremely important, and hence so is posture. So, give instruction on it.
 
7. Also, we stand at attention for the Creed. We do not pledge attention seated.
 
8. If you’re stuck with a bad tradition in these areas, make it a matter of teaching and upshapingness.
 
So, get going!

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Biblical Horizons Conference and New Offerings

 

BIBLICAL HORIZONS

 

 

P.O. Box 1096

 

Niceville, FL 32588

 

Phone: 850/897-5299

 Internet: jbjordan4@cox.net

Website: http://www.biblicalhorizons.com

May, 2011

Dear Friends,

First, thanks to all those who send gifts to help us buy new computer equipment. Now I just have to learn how to use Windows 7!

Second, the 921st Annual Biblical Horizons Bible Conference will be held at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Valparaiso, Florida (where we always have it) at the same time we always have it, the penultimate week of July (July 18-22).

– James Jordan: Material on Zechariah

– Peter Leithart: Material on Isaiah 1-12

– Jeffrey Meyers: Material on Acts

– Richard Bledsoe: Material on Prophecy as World Exorcism

– Begins Monday evening at 7:00 pm; ends Friday at 1:00 pm.

– Registration: $100 per person; $125 per family.

– Sung Vespers each evening, with “chanted” psalmody.

– Local airport is Northwest Florida Air Terminal (VPS).

– Phone or email at above numbers for discounted motel information.

Finally, we have 7 new papers available for sale this month:

_____ $1.50 C. Van Dam, The Meaning of Bishgagah. Published in 1989, this essay is the study of what the “sin of inadvertency” in Leviticus actually was. Van Dam shows that this is a “sin of wandering astray, or of being led astray.” This material is foundational for the work that we at Biblical Horizons have done in Leviticus; BUT, unless you can read Hebrew words, you will find it difficult, though not impossible, to read this paper.

_____ $3.00 Richard M. Davidson, The Genesis Flood Narrative: Crucial Issues in the Current Debate. This is the same Richard Davidson who wrote Typology in Scripture. Published in 2004, this is the best gathering of proofs for a universal, not a local, flood. Since local floods are all the rage in evangelical circles these days, especially on the Baalogos website, we thought to make this essay more widely available. It is absolutely devastating to any notion of a local flood.

_____ $4.00 R. W. Landis, The Meaning and Use of Selah. Published in 1864 during the Civil War and virtually forgotten as a result, this is a good presentation of the view that in the Psalms “selah” means to repeat the first phrase of the psalm as a refrain. Those interested in restoring psalmody in our worship will want this essay. We offer it not as the last word on the subject, but as an idea that may well be correct and is worth considering at length.

_____ $6.00 James B. Jordan, Babylon and the Babel Project. An upgraded version of essays published in Studies in the Revelation a decade ago. The Babel project arises when pagans who usually believe in many limited gods become converted to some kind of perverse monotheism, and therefore decide to conquer the world. This essay is a history of this theme from Genesis to the Babylon of Revelation.

_____ $9.00 James B. Jordan, Special Studies in the Book of Revelation. Eighteen separate studies originally published in Studies in the Revelation, including The Angels of Revelation, The Earthquakes of Revelation, The Seven Thunders, The Gates of Nehemiah’s Holy City, Comparative Chronology of the Destruction of Jerusalem in Jeremiah and in Revelation, etc.

_____ $6.00 James B. Jordan, The Beasts of Revelation. Again from Studies in the Revelation, sixteen essays dealing with beasts in the Bible, starting in Genesis 3, and moving to the beasts of Revelation: the Abyss Beast, the Sea Beast, the Scarlet Beast, the Beast-Image, the Red Dragon, the Number of the Beast (not what you think!), etc.

_____ $15.00 James B. Jordan, Jesus’ First Eschatological Discourse: Matthew 23-25. A very complete Biblical-theological exposition of all three chapters, revised from material originally published in Studies in the Revelation.

　

_____Total of your order.

_____Florida residents add 6% sales tax.

_____Shipping ($3.00 under $20.01; $5.00 over $20.00)

_____Donation, if included.

_____Total enclosed.

___ Check or money order to Biblical Horizons.

___ Please charge my MasterCard Visa Discover

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An Orgy of National Celebration?

This was a one-day post. The day has passed and the post is removed. Conversation can continue under the previous post, Thoughts on the Death of bin Laden. Questions and concerns placed under this post can be reposted there for continuing discussion.

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Thoughts on the Death of bin Laden

1. On September 11, 2001, Jesus brought judgment upon the United States of America. Following His normal procedure, He used an even more evil force to do it (Habakkuk 1-3). The warning Jesus gives throughout the Bible to those He uses to punish others is that they need to repent, or they shall in time also be judged.

2. Certainly the United States has not repented. It burns Bibles sent to Afghanistan. It promotes child murder. It steals from future generations in order to preserve prosperity by increasing debt. It does all but promote homosexual activity in its military. And so forth. The election of The Fool in 2008 shows the willingness of the American people to promote antichrist through one of the most sickeningly degenerate associations of people the United States has ever known: the Democrat Party.

3. Still, as revolting as the present eurosocialist rule is in America, and as sad as are its evangelical running-dogs, Islam is a far greater evil. Islam is arguably the most fully demonized religio-cultural establishment in history, for it was demonized post-Christian, when seven worse devils have come to fill the one original exorcised. (Eurosocialism may prove even more demonic, however.)  It was the goal of Osama bin Laden to (re)-create an Islamic Caliphate in the Islamic lands, and his attack upon the United States was designed to galvanize Islamic youth to his banner; and he has not obeyed Jesus and repented.

4. Bin Laden did not understand how history moves, for that is revealed in the Bible and is under the control of Jesus Christ, who has revealed to His people how He does things. There can never again be a Caliphate because the world of human beings is quite different now from what it was then, and that is because of pervasive Christian and post-Christian influences.

5. This comforting fact does not change the reality that bin Laden was the head of an extremely evil anti-God and anti-human movement. His attack upon the United States enabled Jesus to use the United States to destroy him. Though the United States is no longer specifically committed to Jesus’ rules of warfare, it did operate correctly in this instance. Jesus makes it plain in the Bible that the fundamental principle of war is the assassination of the head of the enemy power. See the books of Judges and Samuel, and James B. Jordan, The Bible and the Nations, published by Biblical Horizons. www.biblicalhorizons.com

6. Should Christians rejoice in the death of this evil man? Of course. True, Proverbs 24:17 says not to rejoice when your (singular; thine) enemy falls, and Jesus says the same kind of thing to us as individuals in Matthew 5:44. But as regards those who rise up against God, Jesus laughs at them when He destroys them (Psalm 2), and so do His people (Exodus 15; Judges 5; many of the Psalms; Revelation 18-19).

7. We shall, of course, read many statements to the effect that we should not rejoice at the death of this evil murderous leader. Some of these people are simply ignorant of the Bible. Revelation 18:20, for instance, commands us to rejoice at the destruction of those who attack the people of God. Others, however, are not so much ignorant of the Bible as they are committed to a pharisaical otherworldly sentimental gnosticism that makes them holier than God. Such thinking was common in the 19th century as known as liberalism. Today it is all over evangelicalism, though happily not everywhere.

8. Yet, as Christians, we need to avoid being Americanists at this time. At present, the United States is spreading the evils of secular humanism, Bible burning, homosexuality, free-love, infanticide, and the myth of democracy. It is not spreading the Bible, Christocracy, servant capitalism, hard work, protection of women, and other historic American values. The Fool and his running dogs are not only anti-Christ, but anti-historical-American. Hence, as Christians we tread a tightrope between being favorable to much of what America used to stand for (because it was Biblical), and against almost everything America stands for today (because it is anti-Christ).

9. So what we stand for is Jesus and His kingship. We draw aside during the Day of the Lord to enter into the heavenlies, there to engage in liturgical warfare against principalities and powers as we chant psalms straight from the text and feed at the warfeast in front of the eyes of our demonic enemies (Psalm 23). When we do this, the King promises to crush Satan under our feet, and to do it shortly. So let us who take the Kingdom seriously continue to do this, setting aside the weights of exclusively metrical psalm paraphases, goofy choruses, and grapejuice gnostic communion, and let us always be sure to let our children dine with Jesus from their earliest years, for it is their voices and participation that the enemy fears the most (Psalm 8:2). Only in this way will the thoroughly demonized forces of both Islam and Eurosocialism (represented by The Fool) be defeated.

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