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CHAPTER II

Apostasy and Reformation

WE HAVE SURVEYED the Biblical backgrounds of worship. We have recalled the very simple patriarchal worship described in Genesis in which man responded to the immediate presence of God by bowing his head, building an altar, offering a sacrifice, planting a tree, or building a pillar. Then, in Mosaic times, we have watched the development of a complex ritual with its tabernacle, its priesthood, its prescribed offerings, its feasts, and its Day of Atonement.

When Israel entered Canaan, we saw the beginnings of a struggle with pagan worship which was destined to last for centuries. The basic question was, Would Israel worship one God, without visible representation, who insisted on ethical standards; or would Israel be attracted by a sensual, glamorous paganism?

The inroads of Baal worship were no more disastrous than was the impact of another form of apostasy—the drift into formalism in Israel's own worship. This trend the prophets fought with zeal. They insisted on spiritual worship, not measured by statistical reports of the number of animals offered, but by justice, mercy, and a humble walk with God.

After the return from a long exile, which might have been prevented if Israel had learned how to worship God, a new type of formalism known as Judaism developed. This expressed itself in law-worship, with the newly developed synagogue as the center of the cult. 

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Into this milieu Jesus came. He brushed aside the supremacy of Temple worship by insisting that God could be worshiped in spirit and truth—anywhere. He was critical of the liturgy of the synagogue. He taught a worship that involved a close relationship between man and a loving heavenly Father, who could be approached directly by any of His children.

Then we looked at the apostolic church. Its members worshiped fervently and meaningfully without benefit of buildings, priesthood, altars, or choirs. A memorial meal, prayer, testimony, singing, preaching, "prophesying," mutual encouragement—these were the ingredients of New Testament worship. The Holy Spirit was the motivating influence, and spontaneity was the prime characteristic. Ever before the worshiper was the image of a risen Lord, for whom he knew he might be called upon to give his life. In the words of Ellen White, the worship Christ established was "altogether different" from that which had existed before.

But the Biblical records of this apostolic church take us only into the last half of the first century. A period of a half century or more follows concerning which we have limited information. This period has been likened to a tunnel through a mountain range. Surrounding the entrance was the luxuriant vegetation of the apostolic period with its zeal, originality, and spontaneity. At the other end of this tunnel was a more arid landscape. The charismatic thrust of apostolic Christianity had changed, and with changes of theology came changes in the manner of worship.

From this period of transition just a few fragments of information remain regarding the worship practices of the time. There is Clement's prayer from the 53rd chapter of the First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, dated near the turn of the century. This prayer may or may not have had liturgical significance. There is the letter of Pliny, Roman governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, to the Emperor Trajan about A.D. 112. This letter was written in an endeavor to secure advice as to what to do about the Christian sect. Pliny described the worship practices of the Christians on the basis of statements made by Christian slaves whom he had submitted to torture. He said:

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They affirmed, however, the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food-but food of an ordinary and innocent kind."—Puny the Younger, Letters X, 96.

While information wrung from tortured slaves would not be considered a prime historical source, this letter suggests that Christian worship was a regularly scheduled appointment characterized by songs of praise to Christ and high ethical idealism, and including the celebration of the Lord's Supper.

A few years later an early church manual known as the Didache appeared. This manual is a very important bit of evidence regarding early Christian worship, but we must remember that it may have represented the practices of Christians in only one area. It would not be safe to assume that Christian traditions, even at this early date, were the same everywhere. Adaptations of original Christian teachings can be seen in this document.
For example, in Didache, chapter VII, we read regarding baptism:

"1. Concerning baptism, baptise thus: Having first rehearsed all these things, `baptise in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in running water; 2. but if thou hast no running water, baptise in other water, and if thou canst not in cold, then in warm. 3. But if thou hast neither, pour water three times on the head `in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.' "

Christians were told to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, and to repeat the Lord's Prayer three times a day. Regarding the Lord's Supper, the following instruction is given in chapter IX:

"1. And concerning the Eucharist, hold Eucharist thus: 2. First concerning the Cup, `We give thanks to thee, our Father, for the 

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Holy Vine of David thy child, which, thou didst make known to us through Jesus thy child; to thee be glory for ever.' 3. And concerning the broken Bread: `We give thee thanks, our Father, for the life and knowledge which thou didst make known to us through Jesus thy child. To thee be glory for ever. 4. As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains, but was brought together and became one, so let thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into thy kingdom, for thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever.' 5. But let none eat or drink of your Eucharist except those who have been baptised in the Lord's Name."

Such prayers and formulas, used within a half century of the apostles, have a different ring from that of the New Testament. Christian church leaders were now being told what they should say and what they should pray.

We have often read the first clear description of Sunday worship related by Justin Martyr. Our concern has been that of the day of worship; but this paragraph is very enlightening as to the way of worship in the mid-second century. Justin says:

"And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons."—The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 186.

When one studies carefully all of the evidence of the second century regarding Christian worship, he is impressed with how fragmentary it is. A liturgy cannot be reconstructed on the basis of the few documents we possess. It seems evident, however, that the same sort of gradual process which was bringing about a change

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in the day of worship was also modifying the way of worship. This process will become more obvious as we turn our attention to the third and fourth centuries.

During these early centuries, Christianity in the Roman Empire was in constant competition with other religions and philosophies. This was the day of the mystery religions, of Gnosticism, of emperor worship, of Diaspora Judaism, and of various other cults. Christianity was influenced by these competitive philosophies, not only theologically but in its manner of worship. The natural development of Christianity also brought modifications in worship practices. The cessation of persecution made public worship possible. The growth in numbers and wealth was accompanied by the construction of church buildings. Contemporary culture was exerting a greater influence on the Christian cultus.

As we shall see later, it is to this era—the third and fourth centuries—that many Protestants of today are turning for their models of worship. An endeavor is made to "read back" these patterns into apostolic times. The attempt to build a philosophy of worship on third- and fourth-century patterns and give it apostolic sanction is almost identical to the attempt to justify Sunday worship because it was practiced during the third and fourth centuries, then to try to "read it back" into the Biblical source materials.

From the fourth century onward, the historian of Christian worship notes the development of various rites. The first complete liturgy that we possess is the Clementine Liturgy of the Eastern Church, dated from about A.D. 380. About the sixth century there developed the Roman Rite, on which was built the medieval Catholic mass. As we view the sweep of Christian worship practices from the early centuries to the Protestant Reformation, we see certain specific developments that are extremely significant:

1. The arrangement of the place of worship. The early Christian churches are thought to have been built after the pattern of Roman basilicas—court and merchandising halls—which were rectangular in shape with a semicircular extension at the end. The presiding officer sat on the platform in the semicircular extension, which contained seats and a pulpit. In front of him, possibly on a 

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lower platform, was the Communion table. "One of the best established facts about the whole history of worship is that the early Christian ministers sat behind the table, and that the table was unmistakably a table, not an altar and not treated as such."—A Historical Approach to Evangelical Worship, p. 104. The symbolism was that of the ministry and the people as equals surrounding the Lord's table.

But a change took place. Somehow—we are not sure just how—the table was pushed against the back wall and became an altar. The minister's seat was moved to one side between the altar and the people, and the leader of worship officiated with his back to the people, facing the altar. The symbolism changed. Rather than a Communion service with the minister and the people surrounding the Lord's table as equals, now the celebration of the Communion became "a priestly act, one in which the minister turns his back upon the people and goes to an altar as their intermediary to do for them what they are not privileged to do for themselves."—Ibid. This transformation of the Communion table into an altar and the minister into a priest was one of the most noteworthy changes during the early centuries of Christianity.

2. The changes in liturgy. Certain factors were common to the various liturgies from the fourth century to the Reformation. All were divided into two parts, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Upper Room. The Liturgy of the Word included reading the Scripture, prayers, singing, preaching (sometimes), confession of faith, almsgiving, and some sort of congregational participation. The Liturgy of the Upper Room included the bringing of the elements, thanksgiving, the recital of the institution, prayer of consecration, fraction, and delivery. Communion was based on the theological tenet of transubstantiation, a belief that the priest performed the miracle of transforming the emblems into the body and blood of Christ. This belief made of the Communion service a mystery rather than a memorial.

The general trend of liturgical development was from the simple to the complex. The number and length of Scripture readings were increased. Prayers were increased in number and length and 

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became more elaborate. Many became fixed in form. New features were constantly being added to the liturgy. It is estimated that some of the services probably lasted three hours.

3. The changes in the basic concept of worship. The most radical change during these centuries was the transformation of the Lord's Supper of the early church into the Roman mass. The early significance of this service was fellowship, dedication, memorialization. Gradually it was transformed to a function of the priesthood, with the Supper being conceived of as an objective sacrifice by the priest in behalf of the people.

Transubstantiation had become a part of the official doctrine of the Church by the eighth century. This change was the most fundamental modification in medieval worship. Many of the variations in form were incidental; this was basic. The worship service developed into a spectacle, with the worshipers as spectators rather than participants.

4. Changes in the priesthood. During the early centuries of Christianity an effort was made to keep the ministry on the same level with the laity. This also changed. After the first four or five hundred years clergymen began to wear vestments. There was no uniformity in this process. In some cases ministerial attire was the street clothes of a previous generation. In others, specific garments were worn for utilitarian reasons. Once accepted, however, these vestments took on mystical and symbolic meanings. The basic principle involved in the development of vestments was the rise of distinction between laity and clergy, a distinction foreign to early Christian teachings.

One of the major causes of the Protestant Reformation was dissatisfaction with this Catholic worship. This being true, the Reformation was as much a revolution in worship as in theology.

Thus was inescapable, because worship is really a reflection of theology. Donald Macleod, in an article in The Chaplain of April, 1961, has the following to say on this point:

"At the core of worship of every branch of the Christian church there is a basic theological emphasis that gives shape and why-ness to the act. In the main traditions this emphasis appears as follows:

In the Eastern Orthodox Church it is the incarnation and the whole 

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subsequent drama of revelation in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Roman Catholic Church it is Christ's death upon Calvary, and in the service of the mass the perpetual reenactment of that supreme sacrifice supposedly takes place. In the Reformed churches it is the proclamation of God's Will through the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the sacraments within the community or body of which Christ is the head. This central theological emphasis in each case authenticates what is done and gives shape to the liturgy that is used."

The Protestant Reformers did not follow exactly parallel patterns in their reform of worship. Luther favored holding on to the old forms unless they seemed to be obviously wrong. He retained vestments, lights, altars, shrines, and pictures. He consented to the basilican position in conducting the Lord's Supper, but he himself turned his back to the congregation. Luther's great contribution was hymn singing. He also repudiated the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation, although he accepted a somewhat similar concept that came to be known as consubstantiation. He stressed the importance of preaching. His order of worship, published in 1526, was very simple, consisting of hymns, Scripture readings, recitation of the Apostles' Creed, sermon, and an exceedingly simple celebration of the Lord's Supper.

Zwingli departed further from traditional patterns. He looked at the Communion service more as a memorial, favored less frequent Communions, and discontinued instrumental music and congregational singing.
It was at Strasbourg under Martin Bucer that more radical changes took place. The term "Lord's Supper" replaced "mass," and "minister" replaced "priest." Worship was conducted from behind the table. Saints' days were abolished. Vestments were discontinued. Services were frequently held without Communion. Calvin was influenced by Strasbourg. His Geneva Rite of 1542 set a pattern which was followed in a general way for many years by Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, Disciples, and Presbyterians throughout the English-speaking world.

The history of Reformation worship is not complete without 

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reference to England. As we all know, the English Reformation was political rather than theological. Worship practices were not greatly altered. This situation was challenged by the Puritans, who went even beyond continental reformers in demanding changes. The Puritans opposed vestments, ceremonials, and liturgical formulas. They stressed preaching and free prayer. They desired to eliminate all unscriptural phrases in the conduct of the Lord's Supper. They wished to discontinue saints' days and the church year. Their influence was strongly felt, and left its mark on the worship of later nonconformist groups.

In order to summarize the accomplishments of the Reformers in the area of worship, I shall paraphrase and summarize a portion of Jones's chapter on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He lists the following achievements of the Reformers:
  1. They abolished the priesthood.
  2. They substituted "minister" for "priest."
  3. They eliminated confession, absolution, indulgences, penances, officiating at a sacrifice.
  4. They restored services in the vernacular.
  5. They increased congregational participation, particularly in the form of hymn singing.
  6. They generally discontinued vestments. 
  7. They forbade prayers for the saints.
  8. They abandoned the Christian year, for the greater part. 
  9. They revived free prayer.
10. They shortened the service.
11. They introduced the central pulpit, with the Communion table in front of the pulpit.
12. They turned altars into tables, and conducted the Lord's Supper from behind the tables.
13. They changed the interpretation of the Lord's Supper.

This was a remarkable accomplishment. In a few short years the traditions of a millennium were completely changed. What motivation was powerful enough to change deeply entrenched
traditions so rapidly? The Reformers' success, I believe, was 

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achieved because they were sincerely endeavoring to restore the New Testament pattern of worship. The same warmth, spontaneity, and spiritual freedom that gave power to the New Testament church was felt, to a degree, in the Reformed churches. This new life could not be experienced until the barnacles of excessive forms, ritual, and liturgy were removed.

One of the religious movements that helped to preserve Reformation worship for modern times was the Wesleyan revival in England, which later spread to America. Warm spontaneity was especially characteristic of this movement. We are forever in debt to the early Methodists, especially for their music. Regarding this, Evelyn Underhill says:

"In those early Methodist hymns which spread through England the forgotten treasures of Christian spirituality, expressed in language which the simplest worshipper could understand, we find reminiscences of all the masters of adoring worship. . . . All was penetrated by their passionate delight in God, the adoring abandonment to His Will and Purpose, the sense of a direct and enabling relationship with the living Christ. In the greatest of these hymns, especially those of Charles Wesley, we can recognize the fervour and realism which swept the country to re-kindle the smouldering devotional life. They constitute the true liturgy of Methodism."—Worship, pp. 305, 306.

The reformation of worship reached its maturity in the United States. The spirit of freedom, the influence of Puritanism and of the evangelical revival, the religious pluralism of the American colonies, created an atmosphere that encouraged the spontaneity characteristic of New Testament and reformed worship. Early distrust of Catholicism and of the Church of England tended to place highly liturgical worship outside the normal pattern of American life. The American frontier also encouraged informality of worship. Albert Barnes, Bible commentator, described American evangelical worship as follows:

"We [evangelicals] regard the prevailing spirit of Episcopacy, in all aspects, high and low, as at variance with the spirit of the age and of this land. This is an age of freedom, and man will be

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 free. The religion of forms is the stereotyped wisdom or folly of the past, and does not adapt itself to the free movements, the enlarged views, the varying plans of this age. . . . There is a spirit in this land which requires that the gospel shall depend for its success not on solemn processions and imposing rites; not on the idea of superior sanctity in the priesthood in virtue of their office; not on genuflections and ablutions; not on any virtue conveyed by the imposition of holy hands; and not on union with any particular church, but on solemn appeals to the reason, the conscience, the immortal hopes and fear of men, attended by the holy influences of the Spirit of God."—R. Niebuhr and D. Williams, editors, The Ministry in Historical Perspectives, p. 223.

This was the "faith of our fathers" here in early nineteenth century America. When American religion rebounded from the depression following the American Revolution, when the "second awakening" swelled the churches from the Atlantic seaboard to the frontier, this evangelical, informal, spontaneous type of religion was ascendant.
Sanctuaries were constructed with a central pulpit, and the Communion table was on the floor level of the congregation. The Lord's Supper was a memorial, celebrated monthly or quarterly. Religious art, candles, and symbols were used sparingly, if at all. Ministers and laymen were kept on the same plane, and ministers generally did not adopt distinctive dress. The worship order was simple, with emphasis on the sermon. Orders of service were not standardized. Worship was strictly evangelical.

In this religious milieu Seventh-day Adventism had its beginnings. This is our religious tradition. But we hold this tradition today in a world vastly different from that of a century ago. Protestantism has changed. Church buildings have changed. Church services have changed. The past century has marked a revolution in American worship with far-reaching implications. What has brought about this change? What does it mean to us? This will be the subject of the next chapter.