--- title: "Pagan and Worldly Worship | Worship in Spirit and in Truth" description: "Pagan and Worldly Worship — section 18 of Worship in Spirit and in Truth by Pastor Owen Anderson. Read the original text online with Scripture references and section navigation." canonical: "https://ctkrp.org/worship/worship-in-spirit-and-in-truth/pagan-and-worldly-worship/" author: "Owen Anderson" source: "https://ctkrp.org/assets/papers/worship-in-spirit-and-in-truth.pdf#page=27" --- # Pagan and Worldly Worship | Worship in Spirit and in Truth Worldly worship found among the pagans has some common characteristics. First, it is otherworldly. It is meant to take you out of this world and into a spiritual realm. Their temples and sacred places were built to direct your mind away from the world. Their teaching is that this world is evil, and that material existence is the course of sin and corruption. You don’t see this kind of architecture at the Temple of Jerusalem. It does not direct your attention “to heaven.” Instead, it directs your attention to the holiness of God and the need for vicarious atonement to enter his presence here. In keeping with this otherworldliness, the pagans used rituals to teach secret meanings that were hidden from the uninitiated. The material world and ordinary human life did not give access to these mysteries. Instead, a professional priest who was inhabited by a daemon would tell the worthy religious persons the important truths unavailable to the rest of humanity. They looked to Oracles who would reveal the secrets to the select few who could understand the riddle. By contrast, Biblical worship affirms that all of God’s works reveal his glory. The Levitical priests were a professional class but not because they were initiated into secrets but because they were to be kept holy to remind the people of the holiness of God. All believers have access to the Word of God which is read to them each Sabbath. Material existence is not something to be escaped, nor is it the cause of evil and suffering. God made the world very good, and it shows his glory to all. Pagan worship denigrates God’s creation whereas Biblical worship affirms it is His work. The earth is currently filled with the glory of God, and it will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. We are not spirits stuck in a body. We are a body-soul unity, and we will be raised from the dead and live in our resurrected body forever. The pagan worship included many devotional aids. These were statues, images, relics, repetitive prayers, outward ceremony, supposed miracles such as crying statues or talking images, all to keep the person outwardly stimulated while causing no true inner spiritual change. The pagans use droning and chanting to hypnotize and also frenzied movement to push the body into an exhausted state. These are considered “religious states of consciousness” where the person can no longer think soberly. We saw these manic behaviors in the priests of Baal and the clarity of mind in Elijah (1 Kings 18:20-40). Biblical worship is orderly and decent (1 Cor 14:40). We are to approach God with understanding, and we learn this by his Word. Whereas the pagan worship is characterized by altered mental states, Biblical worship is characterized by a clear mind that understands the truths of God. God could have given us devotional aids for use on the Lord’s Day if this was how we were to learn. He didn’t. In fact, scripture commands against their use. Instead, he gave us his perfect Word. We are to learn from the Word and the two sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We don’t know what we need, but God does. When we are to learn from God even about how we are to learn. This is what it means to approach him as a little child eager to learn from him. The willingness to set aside God’s Psalms is universally accompanied by a willingness to set aside his Word for some other devotional aid. At its heart, this is the same as the pagan worship which says it will worship on its terms and not as God provided. By contrast, when we humble ourselves and learn from God’s infallible Word, we see that he is the perfect teacher for our souls. His Psalms teach us what we need and how to live godly lives. Pagan worship was according to the flesh. The “flesh” means our fallen nature. The flesh has its definitions of what counts as “religious.” They follow what was just outlined about pagan worship. A building that directs our attention away from material existence, rituals that symbolize secret teaching, ceremonies that feel official and important, rules for how to live well now so you can depart the body at death for a spiritual realm, and worship that is according to our desires about how religion should feel. Biblical worship calls us out of the flesh. Biblical worship on the Lord’s Day assumes you are a professing Christian who is regenerated. You confess that you are a sinner and God is holy. On that basis, you understand your need for the Word of God to be instructed on how God offers you redemption and what that looks like when applied to the Christian life. You confess that your intuitions about how religion should look are fallen and that it is the infallible Word of God that tells you what worship should look like according to the will of God. Original source: [Worship in Spirit and in Truth, Owen Anderson (2025)](https://ctkrp.org/assets/papers/worship-in-spirit-and-in-truth.pdf#page=27) ## Related reading - [King Saul and King David](https://ctkrp.org/worship/worship-in-spirit-and-in-truth/king-saul-and-king-david/) - [Worship Restored: A Call to Faithful Obedience](https://ctkrp.org/worship/worship-in-spirit-and-in-truth/worship-restored-a-call-to-faithful-obedience/) Canonical page: https://ctkrp.org/worship/worship-in-spirit-and-in-truth/pagan-and-worldly-worship/