A People for His Name

Is "Heads Bowed, Eyes Closed . . ." Inherently an Unscriptural Manipulative Practice?

July 17, 2012

Many believers today hold that the giving of an invitation at the end of a service is inherently an unscriptural manipulative practice. They believe that this is especially the case if the minister instructs the congregation to bow their heads and close their eyes with no one looking around and then forcefully challenges people to respond to the message by coming forward. They often assert that Scripture provides little to no support for the giving of such an invitation.

Instead of using an invitation, some ministers end their services typically with a brief time of prayer in which people are encouraged to respond to what they have heard. Often, this instruction is coupled with a statement that the minister will be available after the service to talk with any people who are interested in learning more.

Does the Scripture support these perspectives about what should and should not be done in services after the preaching?

Heads Bowed, Eyes Closed?

Preachers routinely ask their people to bow in prayer with them in numerous contexts, such as before receiving the Lord’s Supper, ordaining deacons, and dedicating children. The (legitimate) assumption in these settings is that people will close their eyes when they bow their heads.

Scripture supports a sinner’s bowing his head (presumably with his eyes closed) in the presence of Deity, when approaching God, or encountering a messenger of God:

“And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, ³ And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant” (Gen. 18:2-3).

“And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, ¹⁶ And fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks: and he was a Samaritan” (Luke 17:15).

“And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13).

“And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last” (Rev. 1:17).

These passages (and others like them) support instructing people to bow their heads and close their eyes when they are approaching God in prayer. Telling lost people, many of whom have had no prior instruction about how to approach God properly, to do so makes perfect sense and is fitting with guiding them in approaching God with humility, as they must.

No One Looking Around?

Instructing people to close their eyes should make saying that no one is to be looking around unnecessary. These words probably, therefore, are spoken to put at greater ease people who want to respond but who also worry about other people’s seeing them respond to the message.

Is this a biblical perspective? The only passage in Scripture that actually records a church service taking place does not seem to support this notion:

“But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: ²⁵ And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you [plural you] of a truth” (1 Cor. 14:24-25).

The act of falling down on one’s face and reporting to the congregation what God has done in your heart does not support merely making a private response. It also does not support putting sinners at greater relative ease for making a response. (For a fuller treatment of 1 Cor. 14:23-25, see my post The Consummation of Public Worship)

Come Forward?

Telling people to come forward after a message is consistent with the response related above in 1 Corinthians 14:25 in which a sinner who is convicted in a church service publicly abases himself and publicly reports to the congregation that God has truly worked in his heart through their ministry to him. It is also consistent with other Scriptural teaching that God requires abasing oneself from those who would come to Him for forgiveness (2 Chron. 7:14; cf. Jonah 3:5, 6, 8).

Conclusion

Instructing sinners to bow their heads and close their eyes as they approach God in prayer is biblical. Informing them about pastoral availability after the service is one possible way to encourage them to go beyond praying.

Challenging sinners whom God has convicted in a service, however, to come forward is supported by epistolary teaching showing that a fitting response in such a situation involves publicly abasing oneself and informing the congregation about what God has done for them. Such a response is consistent with other passages about what God demands from sinners who would come to him for forgiveness of their sins.

Although Scripture thus supports the use of a “head bowed, eyes closed . . .” invitation, such invitations have often been misused in years past. A minister who uses such an invitation must do so with great care so that he is not manipulative in what he does.

In Evangelism, Ministry, Preaching

Vital Instruction from Jesus for Every Believer

July 14, 2012

In chronological order, Jesus gave similar teaching four times to His disciples on three occasions:

Sermon on the Mount

(1) “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40).

Instruction to the Twelve Apostles

(2) “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. ²⁵ It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? ²⁶ ¶ Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. ²⁷ What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. ²⁸ And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:24-28).

Upper Room Discourse

(3) “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. ¹⁷ If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:16-17).

(4) “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also” (John 15:20).

Because Jesus repeated similar teaching about disciples/servants at least four times, these words surely comprise vital instruction from Jesus to every believer!

In Discipleship

Is God's Love for a Believer Unconditional?

July 12, 2012

Jesus taught His disciples in the Upper Room Discourse, “At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God” (John 16:26-27). He seems in this teaching to say plainly that the Father Himself loves the disciples because they have loved Jesus and have believed that He came out from God.

If God’s love for a believer is unconditional, as nearly almost everyone argues that it is, how do we explain Jesus’ teaching at this time to His disciples that the cause of the Father’s love for them was that they had loved Him and had believed that He had come out from God?

In Interpretation, Theology

Learning Interpretation from an Examination of Jonah 3

July 9, 2012

The evangelistic accounts in Scripture have often been handled in ways that obscure a proper understanding of apostolic doctrine and practice. A close look at Jonah 3 brings out a key point that many believers need to pay more attention to when they handle such accounts.

Jonah “began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown’” (3:4). He briefly records their response to his preaching: “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them” (Jon. 3:5).

Jonah also informs us that the king had heeded his warning properly: “For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes” (3:6). Not only did the king respond rightly himself, but he also directed his people to do so as well:

⁷ And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: ⁸ But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. ⁹ Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

Jonah ends the account by recording that God graciously spared Nineveh: “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not” (3:10).

Several points about this account that are easily overlooked instruct us about how we should handle other evangelistic accounts as well.

First, Jonah makes clear that the people’s right response was the result of their heeding a decree from the king (and his nobles) that instructed them about what they were to do in response to Jonah’s preaching: “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth . . . For word came unto the king . . . and he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let . . .” (3:5-7a).

The people’s response, therefore, was not just due to their own response to what Jonah had preached to them; it was due both to their believing his preaching to them and to their heeding the directive they were given by the king about how they were to respond.

Second, Jonah informs us that the king directed the people to respond in at least four specific ways:

(1) Fasting – “Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water”;

(2) Covering with sackcloth – “But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth”;

(3) Praying to God – “and cry mightily unto God”;

(4) Turning from evil – “yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands” (3:7b-8).

This four-fold response may be summarized as their needing to repent and pray to God.

Third, Jonah explicitly records that the people heeded three of the four aspects of the king’s decree: fasting (“proclaimed a fast” [3:5]); covering with sackcloth (“and put on sackcloth” [3:5]); and, turning from evil (“God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way” [3:10]). He, however, provides no explicit indication that they obeyed the aspect of the decree that commanded them to pray to God.

How this lack of an explicit record of their praying should be interpreted points to a vital aspect of interpreting this evangelistic account properly: Does the lack of explicit mention of their praying to God mean that they disobeyed the king’s directive to pray? Or, did they heed his directive to pray, and the writer expects us to understand that they did so even though he does not bother to mention it explicitly?

The flow of thought from verse 5 to verses 6-10 shows that we are to hold the latter understanding as the correct one. Verse 5 is the writer’s summary statement of their response; it is not exhaustive, as verse 10 plainly shows. Verse 6 explains that what they did was because of the directive they had received from the king, which Jonah explains in verse 8 as having including direction to pray to God.

We, therefore, should hold that the Ninevehites did pray to God as part of their response to Jonah’s preaching. Furthermore, verse 10 says that God responded graciously to them, which would not have been the case had the people refused to “cry mightily unto God.”

On this reading, Jonah 3 teaches us that evangelistic accounts that say that the people believed and/or repented should be understood as summary statements that indicate that they also prayed to God, whether or not the passage records explicitly that they did so. This interpretation has important ramifications for many NT passages that some see as evidence that the people who were saved did not pray as a part of their salvation experience.

Support for this approach to interpreting evangelistic accounts is provided by a comparison of Acts 9 and 26. Acts 9:20 inform us that Paul preached in the synagogues of Damascus that Christ is the Son of God. Luke provides no information about Paul’s preaching repentance to them; should we then hold that Paul did not tell the people in Damascus to repent?

Acts 26:20 states that Paul did preach repentance in Damascus, which indicates to us that Luke did not intend for us to conclude from the lack of mention of that content in his report of Paul’s preaching in Acts 9:20 that Paul in fact did not preach repentance in Damascus. The comparison of these two passages instructs us not to interpret the lack of mention of specific content in an evangelistic account as evidence that no testimony to that content was in fact given on that occasion.

Based on the evidence from Jonah 3, we should hold that evangelistic accounts that record people’s getting saved but do not say that they prayed to do so are not evidence that they did not pray as an aspect of their salvation experience. Rather, we should hold that they did pray, and that the Scripture writers expect us to understand that they did do so in spite of the lack of explicit statements in the accounts that inform us that they did pray.

In Evangelism, Interpretation

Hope for the USA Based on the Amazing Parallel between 2 Chronicles 7:14 and Jonah 3!

July 6, 2012

Hearing Jonah’s proclamation of the upcoming destruction of Nineveh (Jon. 3:4), the Ninevehites responded with faith (3:5a) and repentance (3:5b-c; cf. “And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way” [3:10a]). Because they did so, God relented of the punishment that He had purposed to bring upon them (3:10b).

The people’s right response to the warning of impending judgment was brought about by the proper response of their king (and his nobles) to that warning (the causal connection is clear from the word for that causally links 3:5 with 3:6-9):

Jon 3:5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

⁶ For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

⁷ And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

⁸ But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

⁹ Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

The king humbled himself (3:6) and directed that the entire city be given specific direction about what they were to do (3:7-8). In addition to fasting (3:7b), all were to cover themselves with sackcloth (3:8a), which would be an outward act of humbling themselves in keeping with their humbling themselves in their hearts.

The king also decreed all to “cry mightily unto God” (3:7c) and turn each one “from his evil way” and from their violence (3:7d). He explained that the intent of the decree was that they might not perish if God perhaps would relent from punishing them for their wickedness (3:9).

God did spare them from His judgment, and this analysis shows that He did so because they believed, repented, and prayed to Him (3:10).

Moreover, the decree by the king of Nineveh strikingly parallels the instruction that God had given to Solomon many years earlier:

Instruction to Solomon	Instruction in the Decree by the King of Nineveh
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves,	“So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. . . .He [the king] arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. . . . , Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth”
and pray, and seek my face,	and cry mightily unto God:
and turn from their wicked ways;	yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14).	And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not” (Jon. 3:5-10).

This parallel shows that the truth of 2 Chronicles 7:14 was fulfilled for a pagan nation that very likely had never heard anything about that great promise of God to His own people! How much more would the truth of 2 Chronicles 7:14 be fulfilled for the USA, a country which has had far more knowledge of God than the Ninehevites ever had, were we to believe God, repent, and pray to Him, as they did!

In the hope that the amazing parallel between 2 Chronicles 7:14 and Jonah 3 provides for us who are alive today in the USA, let us all humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways while there is yet time. Let us also make known to as many other people as we can the great hope that God holds out for our country if we all will believe Him, repent, and pray to Him!

In Evangelism, Exhortation, Interpretation

Culver on "The Final Destiny of the Unsaved"

July 5, 2012

The doctrine of the dreadful destiny of the lost is an unpleasant shadow across biblical doctrine. So it is not very remarkable that the surveys of religious opinion, frequently reported in the press, will relate that of the same church people, who by strong majority believe in God, immortality, the divinity of Jesus and heaven, many dissent from a belief in hell. Yet that doctrine stands behind and enforces the need for the incarnation of the Son of God, His sinless life, and especially His substitutionary atonement and present ministry of intercession. It also sustains the common moral life of mankind and is indispensable to any strong apostolic fervor in Christian missions and evangelism.

—Robert Duncan Culver, Systematic Theology: Historical and Theological, 1074

In Quotes

Psalms Reading Update 7.2.12

July 2, 2012

This year, my Bible reading project is to read through the book of Psalms 25 times. After six months, I have made it through the book 10 times.

My tenth time was through the Books of the Bible version, which does not have any verse numbers. Using that version, I was able to read through the book in 2 days. Reading through the book in such a short time was very helpful in letting me see some things about the book that I have not seen before.

I’m planning to read through Psalms at least 3x in July.

In Bible reading

Note Transposition Chart for Guitar Songs Normally Played with a Capo 1

June 29, 2012

Much guitar music comes with capo information designed to make the playing of the song easier. The chords in the original key are much harder to play than in the transposed key.

When more than one guitarist wants to play such songs together, normally all have to use capos to play together in the new key. When someone does not have a capo or when they all want to play in the new key without using a capo, those who want to play the melody or other parts usually have a very difficult time transposing the notes to the new key.

An alternate approach that solves this problem is for guitarists to learn how to transpose mentally the notes so that they can be played in the new key without the use of a capo. My Capo 1 Note Transposition Chart shows how to do so for songs that are marked as “Capo 1”!

Using this chart and practicing such transposing opens up a vast number of additional possibilities of playing guitar songs in various keys.

In Music

Forgiveness of Sin through a Directive both to Repent and to Pray

June 26, 2012

Hearing Philip’s preaching of the gospel, Simon “himself believed also” and was then baptized (Acts 8:13). A close look at the subsequent record of his life (8:18-24) brings out an important point that is often overlooked in current discussions of evangelism.

Upon observing that believers had received the Spirit through the laying on of hands by the apostles, Simon offered them money to obtain the same authority (8:18-19). Peter sternly rebuked him for his ungodly request: “But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God” (8:20-21).

Peter then instructed Simon what he needed to do in order be forgiven by God: “Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity” (8:22-23). Simon showed that he was unrepentant by refusing to pray (8:24).

This account explicitly records an apostle’s demanding that a sinner do more than just repent (and believe) and thereby trust in the finished work of Christ. Peter demanded that Simon repent and pray to God for the forgiveness of his sin.

This passage does not support the assertions that some have made that Scripture has no evangelistic accounts where someone was directed to pray in order to receive the forgiveness of their sins. Peter’s evangelistic dealing with Simon provides us with explicit biblical basis for directing sinners to repent (and believe) and pray to receive the forgiveness of their sins.

Moreover, in the flow of thought of the passage, Peter’s directive to Simon was not just a demand that he pray generically concerning his sinfulness. Peter specified that Simon repent and pray in order that his wicked thought, which Peter had specifically confronted him about earlier (8:20), might be forgiven.

From Peter, therefore, we learn not only to direct the sinners that we evangelize to pray in addition to their repenting (and believing) but also to direct them to pray specifically for the forgiveness of their sins that God has confronted them with through the previous evangelistic ministry that they have received. The account of Peter’s evangelizing Simon thus provides valuable instruction that needs to be accounted for properly in contemporary discussions about what we should do in evangelizing sinners.

In Evangelism

Are We Overlooking an Important Element in Our Understanding of the Health Problems That Some People Face?

June 22, 2012

Scripture speaks in a number of places of people who suffered severe physical affliction that did not have “natural” causes (e.g. unhealthy lifestyle, accidents, or advanced age):

—Job had no idea that his physical affliction was caused by Satan (Job 2:7).

—Luke provides no indication to us that the woman who had been crippled for 18 years knew that her infirmity was caused by Satan, but he does record that Jesus made known (after He had healed her) that it was (Luke 13:16).

—Herod “was eaten of worms” and died because the angel of the Lord had smitten him (Acts 12:23), but we have no indication that he knew of the supernatural cause of his fatal illness.

Given this data (and other related biblical teaching), it seems to me that we need to consider more often than we probably have been doing that the serious physical afflictions that some people suffer from may be the direct result of supernatural activity that they have been the objects of without their having any knowledge of such activity.

In Health, Interpretation

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