Habakkuk 2:20 King James Version
20 The Lord is in his holy temple: let all
the earth keep silence before him.
The words of this text were stretched in a banner across the
front of our church when I was a kid. They were read from the pulpit, and we
were urged to exercise reverence before the Lord. Our songs were sung in
subdued voices. Only very seldom did someone in the congregation venture a
softly spoken, heart-felt “Amen!” There was definitely no running in the
sanctuary. The robed choir would sacredly chant these words as they filed
somberly in and took their places on the platform.
My grandfather was hard of hearing, so our family always sat
on the right-side, front pew. Since Dad was an honored member of the church,
his family was expected to behave with perfect decorum. Mom was very cognizant
of this expectation and did her very best to make the family live up to the
ideal. Yes, we respected the fear of the Lord—and of the razor strap behind the
bathroom door at home.
Our salvation was received with solemn acceptance under the
realization that it could be withdrawn on the slightest infraction. We trembled
lest there be a hidden sin lurking in our past that might be revealed on the
day of judgement, and we would be cast into the outer darkness, where all
unfortunates cringed weeping, wailing, and gnashing their teeth.
We read, but rejected and ignored, such verses as “You will
take up your tambourines and dance joyfully!”[1] “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye
righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.”[2]
“Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the
timbrel and harp.”[3] “Clap your hands for joy,
all peoples! Praise God with loud songs!”[4]
A visiting week of prayer pastor taught us to sing the
following with gusto (* indicates repeat three times):
I've got a home
in Glory land that (clap) outshines the sun, *
Way beyond the blue.
Do Lord, oh, do
Lord, oh, do remember me, *
Way beyond the blue.
I took Jesus as
my Savior, (clap) you take him too, *
Way beyond the blue.
Do Lord, oh, do
Lord, oh, do remember me, *
Way beyond the blue.
The next year the song was banned because it had a beat to
it, and this caused the youth to move to the music. God forbid!
Was it always this way? “I saw,” wrote Ellen White in 1850,
that “singing to the glory of God often drove the enemy, and shouting would
beat him back and give us the victory. I saw there was too little glorifying
God in Israel and too little childlike simplicity.”[5]
In Paris, Maine, in 1850, Ellen White noted: “Sunday the power of God came upon
us like a mighty rushing wind. All arose upon their feet and praised God with a
loud voice; it was something as it was when the foundation of the house of God
was laid. The voice of weeping could not be told from the voice of shouting. It
was a triumphant time; all were strengthened and refreshed. I never witnessed
such a powerful time before.”[6]
Ron Graybill noted these and many more instances in his article “Enthusiasm in
Early Adventist Worship” in the October 1991 issue of “Ministry Magazine.”[7]
John the revelator reported on Christ’s reaction to lukewarm
religion: “Because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit
you out of my mouth!”[8]
Dear Lord, build a fire under us and send us forth with
an enthusiasm that will ignite the earth!
[1]
Jeremiah 31:4 GNT
[2]
Psalm 32: 11 KJV
[3]
Psalm 149:3 KJV
[4]
Psalm 47:1 GNT
[5]
Ellen G. White to Arabella Hastings, Aug. 4,
1850 (letter 8, 1850).
[6]
Ellen G. White to The Church in Brother
Hastings' House, Nov. 7, 1850 (letter 28, 1850)
[7]
https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1991/10/enthusiasm-in-early-adventist-worship
[8]
Revelation 3:16 GNT
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