A study of the Greek and Hebrew words and how they are translated shows something else—something that has misled many Christians. You are to worship [ shachah ] at a distance,. Exodus NASB When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would arise and worship [ shachah ], each at the entrance of his tent.
John God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship [ proskuneo ] in spirit and in truth. He cannot. As Bible students, we must get the facts straight. It can be toward anyone the person wants to honor, even, as we saw earlier in the case of Lot, a total stranger. The Greek and Hebrew need to be translated consistently. In practical application, superiors, kings, God, and Jesus get most of the honor or worship.
God says that it is wrong to bow down before shachah ; worship other gods Ex. That makes perfect sense. How could a person with any sincerity honor both God and demons? A different case involved Peter, who recognized that it was not appropriate for Cornelius to bow down to proskuneo ; worship him, even though Cornelius respected Peter.
Peter felt he was not superior to Cornelius, and accepting the worship would have sent the wrong message to Cornelius, so he stopped him Acts and It is perfectly appropriate to bow down to worship a king.
True worship comes from the heart. That is why Mordecai would not bow down before Haman, because Haman was an enemy of the Jews Esther ; The act of placing oneself facedown at the feet of the king showed respect and honor.
Saul had been pursuing David in order to kill him. David and his men had been avoiding Saul. One time Saul went into a cave to use the bathroom, not realizing that David and his men were also in the cave. After Saul left the cave, David came out and bowed before Saul and showed him the piece of clothing to demonstrate that he would never hurt Saul.
Bowing to the king, worshipping him, was a way of demonstrating respect to the king, which, of course, meant that the person had an intent to obey the king. Obedience, then, is an integral part of the worship of God or a king.
The outward show of bowing is not really true worship if there is no intent in the heart to obey. If a person comes before a king and bows before him but has no intention of obeying him, then the bow is hollow and deceitful. We see this in action with Adonijah. He bowed before King Solomon but he was still scheming against him.
So Adonijah came and worshipped, bowed down to, Solomon the king as an act of honor and respect, implying that he would be obedient. It should be that the act of worship comes from a heart of worship. However, in our Western society today it is not our custom to bow down to authority figures. Nevertheless, we do honor them, respect them, and in some cases should obey them. We need to understand how the biblical custom of bowing down before someone as an act of worship can be brought into our modern world.
If we honor and respect a friend, then our actions show that by us focusing on him and not just only on ourselves. And thus through Christ the circuit of beneficence is complete, representing the character of the great Giver, the law of life. Do you see how it works? This is how God ordained it. Which means that to worship God the Father, the worship must go through Jesus for it to be acceptable to the Father. Look at what Jesus said below:. John He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
So we are to honor Jesus, even as we honor the Father. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot worship the Father without the Son, or the Son without the Father. Because as Jesus said This does NOT mean they are one person, as some people like to think.
But they are so closely united by a bond that humanity cannot fully comprehend yet at this time, that we worship them "as one. Matthew How many things have been given unto the Son? ALL things. Where is the Father glorified? How do we pray? Through Jesus Christ, in His name. How do we reach the Father? Through His Son. They are united 'as one', so we cannot have or worship one without the other.
Jesus counted it as 'not robbery to be equal with God' , being 'in the form of God' Philippians Therefore it is 'not robbery' for us to worship Jesus also, along with the Father. Is Jesus 'worthy' to be worshipped? So all the fulness of the Father dwells in Christ, which Jesus confirmed Himself. So if we worship Jesus, while acknowledging the Father as the only true God , then who are we ultimately worshipping?
The Father. It's the same with following man and the traditions of man. Who are you ultimately worshipping by following man and the beast system? As long as we acknowledge the Father as the 'only true God', being the 'source of all life' John , 1 Cor. So are trinitarians or 'oneness' believers ok, because they worship Jesus too? No, because they reject the Father as being the 'only true God' and they reject Jesus Christ as being the literal Son of the one true God.
The trinity god and 'oneness god' are false gods. They are not the true Godhead of the Bible. So by worshipping a 'Jesus' who is NOT the literal Son of God, they are worshipping a different Jesus and following a different gospel. And if you are worshipping a different Jesus from the scriptures, then you are not worshipping the Father either, because He will not accept worship through a 'different Jesus'.
So what 'god' do you think we are NOT to have 'before' the one true God, as the first commandment states?
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