Monday, September 27, 2021

I. Howard Marshall on Worship

"It is true that Christian meetings can be described from the outside as occasions for worshiping God and also that elements of service to God took place in them, but the remarkable fact is that Christian meetings are not said to take place specifically to worship God and the language of worship is not used as a means of referring to them or describing them. To sum up what goes on in a Christian meeting as being specially for the purpose of 'worship' is without New Testament precedent. 'Worship' is not an umbrella-term for what goes on when Christians gather together" ("How Far Did the Early Christians Worship God?" Churchman 99 [1985] p. 220).