There are devotional practices and repetitive 'performances' that mean very little to a God who did not command them. What makes you think he is happy about them?
The rituals performed by Israel all had significance in the big scheme of things...either as a reminder of their need for sin to be forgiven (if they were truly repentant) or for the sake of hygiene or to signify remembrance of a special event, like the Passover.
Christians had no rituals to speak of. They met for study of the scriptures, which were used liberally in Jesus teachings and of the apostles as well. Their gatherings were also an interhange encouragement to keep the faith despite opposition.
Worship is not a ritual, it is a requirement....God set out his requirements to Israel, for worship, for sacrifice and for all their festivals.
They were to follow exactly what God told them to do....no more and no less. That is what obedience means.
Christianity had no such set requirements except to meet for worship, (which was not ritualistic) and to hold the commemoration of Jesus' death as he requested, once a year....it was a substitute for the Passover because Jesus was "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world". His blood would now save the faithful.....but the question was...who were these ones?
Since a ritual is defined as ..."a religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order.".....yes, IMO, that is a solid definition.
If that is all your children said to you day after day, then it would get pretty old very quickly. Why? Because speech is not the primary way to convey love for someone. If you children told you they loved you, but didn't ever show that love in tangible ways, would you believe their love was genuine?
The kind of love promoted in the Bible is "agape" which is the kind of love that can be applied even to an enemy....it doesn't only mean a warm feeling of affection, but is demonstrated in many ways. It is based on principle, meaning that you can love your enemy by not allowing hatred for him to grow in your heart. Like God, you can hate what he does, but not hate the person.
Spirituality is a quality that is inherent in all of God's intelligent creation. Angels are spiritual beings who dwell in a spiritual realm, but humans have spirituality as part of their being "made in God's image"
Its a shame that most people do not know the difference between "spiritual" and "spiritistic". They are not the same.
You show God you love him by doing as he commands....I don't believe he counts mindless performance as love. Its more about duty than an act of love.
Gathering for worship is what Christ and his disciples did. As a Jew, Jesus was bound by the Law until his death paid for a release from it. His disciples pulled away from the corrupted Jewish system and as Jesus had implemented the "new covenant", a new system of worship resulted. Rituals were not included.
You don't know much about the devil if you think he is somehow made by God. The devil is self-made....God will deal with him as only God can. How he plays into a loving religion is that he trains us to defend our faith when he is constantly trying to undermine it. By strengthening our faith we are better equipped to deal with the rubbish he throws at us.
Because prayer is not ritual.....it is a personal conversation with God that comes from the heart not the head. It is about our petitions and our concerns for our family and others....it isn't a set of words said by rote fingering a set of beads.
It makes no difference what I think...I'm just telling you what the Bible says...
What did you pray? Was it a personal conversation with God....or repeating the same prayer as everyone else?
None of that is scriptural. Statues are idols, rosaries are meaningless to God. The Lord's Prayer was never given as something to repeat, but a model for our own prayers, with Jesus stating what our priorities should be....the sanctification of God's name...the coming of his Kingdom, and God's will being done on earth, as it is in heaven....and provision of our necessities for the day. No genuflecting...no cross, and no communion on a daily or weekly basis because it was a replacement for the Passover which was held only once a year on a specific date on the Jewish calendar. (Nisan 14)
Tell me how...
Christianity doesn't stand for anything....being a Christian is physically being a footstep follower of Christ....teaching what Jesus taught, believing what he believed about God and being obedient in our form of worship, not going beyond what is written....not going beyond what God requires, and not giving these things too little attention, if you want to call yourself a Christian.
That is how I see it....
I want to talk about a specific ritual such as daily Mass. In some places Mass is only in the mornings. I used to work in other areas where Mass was morning and afternoon. Holidays, especially the Easter Vigil, it's three times every single day with other ritual observations and prayers dedicated to christ.
All of these things are worship rituals rather than those of the hypocrites. However, you really got to understand it and see other people's view in order to get it first before judging based on scripture. Unfortunately, since Paul, Jesus, and John aren't you, there's only but so much in scripture that makes sense to how I see reality. Outside of that, you would have to talk in your own words (dumb it down) since scripture doesn't speak for itself.
With that said, when a Roman/Orthodox/etc catholic (generalizing on purpose) goes to church usually they are already in a state of prayer. Which means one is in a meditative state (lbw) and communicating with god and all of this. Same thing as JW and any other person who follows the footsteps of christ.
So, they go to Church and sit in any pew, go through christ's passion and pray to god. It's preparing for mass.
When they are prepared, Mass starts (will skip the details) and the catholic is basically siting with the disciples at his lord's table. Communion is given to bring christ in Mass to come together in the body. When people take the meal, they are taking in christ.
So, whether it's daily or once a year, the same thing applies. They are in Mass to worship christ as a body.
After Mass, the catholic is still in a state of prayer. He or she has been blessed from god (as other people who follow in christ footsteps are), they go home and do god's will.
It's not the ritual that's the issue: that's the external. It's how god is moving people through the ritual.
As for the hypocrites, that's more of people putting rituals above christ or using it in place of christ. Maybe "some" people do it but I never seen it as a doctrine of the Church.
Off ball question: Are JW the only group that have a true relationship with christ?
You can skip the other post.
