Worship Who?

 

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  James 4:4

I learned at the end of November that it irks me when other professing Christians worship with people of other faiths.

I am all for inviting an unbelieving friend (yes, I believe they may be our friends) for a meal or going for a walk, or shopping together. It is especially interesting for me when we can talk about faith and hear our differences. But, I draw a line at worshipping with them if they worship a god other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

The headline on the article in our local paper read, “Celebrating Thanksgiving with an interfaith service.”  The picture was of men and women sitting separately on the floor of the Islamic Center. Everyone had their shoes off and the women had their heads covered, as is the Islamic tradition.

After giving credit to the photographer the caption on the picture with the article said, “The Islamic Center of Reading, 18 S. Noble St., hosted a Thanksgiving eve interfaith service that included Christian, Buddhist and Jewish participants.”  http://readingeagle.com/article/20131129/NEWS/311299987#.UqH-yNJDuPY

So, who was worshipped? Jesus? Budda? Allah? It is impossible for one person to worship all three.  When you worship, or even acknowledge a false god or an idol, you have turned your back on Jesus Christ.

God warns us many times in the Bible that we are not to bow down before other gods, that we are to have no god but Him, that He is a jealous God who will punish His people who turn away and worship idols or false gods. I fear we have come to a time where we take His Word lightly. For the sake of “tolerance” and everyone “just getting along” (worldly, not biblical concepts)  we have sacrificed our faith in the Words of the One True God.

After Solomon had accomplished all the work of building, including completing the Temple, and he had made the necessary sacrifices to God, God appeared to him in a vision. He told Solomon that He had heard his prayers and would bless him by His presence in the Temple but He also gave him a warning. In 1 Kings 9:6 God says to Solomon, “ But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, (7)  then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.”

God has never rescinded this warning. We are no more free to worship other gods than Solomon was. God is  jealous for our affection to be only for Him. Exodus 34:14  “for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God”.

There is only one way to salvation for eternity and that is through Jesus Christ. He said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) The sad truth is that when we bow down with others to a god other than our Lord, we leave them feeling secure in their faith – when they are not secure.

If we want to show the love of God to others outside the Christian faith, we have to be willing to, gently and respectfully, let them know that our God is a God who does not accept the worship directed toward other gods. In fact, he is the One True God, there is no other god to worship or way to spend eternity in heaven.

Interdenominational services may serve to unite the body of Christ. Interfaith services ask us to follow after gods that are not God. The Word of God is clear, in fact it is the very words of God that give us the warnings. God sees it as adultery.

I’m told adultery is painful. Do we want to inflict that kind of grief on the Sovereign God of the Universe?