Franklin Camp
The Basis of Acceptable Worship
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:22-24).
Truth is essential for all acceptable worship. “God said” is the basis of the Truth that must direct all acceptable worship (17:17). If one cannot know God without revelation (and he cannot), then it also follows that one cannot worship God acceptably without the Truth that comes by revelation. The Samaritans worshiped God, but it was not acceptable, because it was based on partial revelation. One’s worship must be spiritual, from man’s own spirit, and it must be as the Truth of the Gospel directs. “God said” is the basis of all acceptable worship. Some brethren today need to reconsider this fundamental Truth. This will stop some of the foolish and hurtful things that are taking place in worship today.
The Basis of All Acceptable Religious Experience
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints”(Jude 3). Jude speaks of “contending for the faith”—that is, objective faith [i.e., the Gospel], written revelation, upon which one’s faith must rest. Any “religious experience” not based upon what God has said is false. One’s religious experience must be tested by what “God said,” not by what one thinks God says through a religious experience. Testing what God says by one’s religious experience today is the basis of false religion. Abraham had a religious experience, but it must be based upon what “God said” (Gen. 22:1-13). Salvation is a religious experience, but it must be based upon what “God said.” Worship is a religious experience, but it must be based upon what “God said” (Acts 17). The Athenians were having a religious experience, but it was not acceptable upon God because it was not based upon revelation. One can find people gathered everywhere in worship going through some kind of experience, but this does not mean that that experience is acceptable to God. Every religious experience one has must be in harmony with what the Bible teaches and must rest upon what “God said.” When one has some kind of experience unknown to the Bible, that experience is false and deceptive and not accepted by God. It is time for men to turn back to the Bible and to find out what it teaches and then act upon it. The action then will be an experience, which harmonizes with what “God said.” This will be acceptable unto God. Nothing else is or can be.
The Basis of Prophecy
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Pet. 1:19-21).
And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him (Deu. 18:21-22).
Moses declared the failure of the prophecy of false prophets was proof that God had not spoken through them, but this also was proof that what the true prophet spoke was from God. The reason modernists try to re-date all the prophets is that they do not believe in inspiration or revelation in the sense in which the Bible uses these words. This is the reason the modernist attacks the book of Isaiah. The prophetic element in Isaiah is too much for modernism to swallow. Remember that “God said” is the basis of prophecy. If God could announce the promised seed, Christ, in Genesis 3:15, why should one have any problem with His speaking through Isaiahandannouncing the virgin birth seven hundred years before it happened? Isaiah 7:14 is what “God said.” Do not try to avoid it, tamper with it, or change it. Just accept it as a prophecy and the fact that all prophecy rests upon what “God said.”
The Basis of Faith
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Faith must rest upon testimony—upon what “God said.”
This is the reason Paul declared that what he presented to the Corinthians was the testimony of God (1 Cor. 2:1). He wanted their faith to rest upon the only thing that can establish and sustain faith—that is, what “God said.” This truth needs to be re-emphasized in our day, when there are those who want to tell tales and give experiences and various other things as a substitute for the testimony of God. It is time we get back to the Book, which is the only thing that can produce faith, and the obedience of faith (Rom. 1:5) is the only thing acceptable unto God.
Also, the strength of one’s faith depends upon the credibility of the testimony. One’s faith can be no stronger than the credibility of the testimony upon which it rests. The spiritual weakness of so many today is due to the fact they have allowed the babblings of men to affect their faith in the credibility of testimony.
It is my conviction that this weakness of faith is one of the main problems we face in this generation. We must re-establish the credibility of the testimony, the Scriptures, what God has said, in order for faith to be strong.
