Sometime ago I received the following Bible question, which raises a number of valuable
points for consideration. I appreciate the sincerity obvious in this question, and I know that many
readers are struggling with similar issues.
Question: In a recent worship service the congregation we visited had a change in their
activities. This included the preacher doing an interview-style situation with 3 members of the
church, who gave “testimony” as to how they became Christians or were restored to the church.
It was disheartening to us that such would be done. This has happened in two congregations where
we attended.
Answer: The unscriptural practices of man-made churches are all around us, but it is indeed
disheartening when we see them creep into the worship of the Lord’s church. Such occurrences
are usually the result of members who have been drinking too deeply from the wells of
denominationalism rather than from the word of God, coupled with an unhealthy desire to be “like
the nations round about us.”
In the first place, during public worship services the New Testament church worshiped
God. The acts of public worship are clearly delineated in the New Testament: prayer, singing,
preaching and teaching the word, the Lord’s Supper, and giving. Many examples of these could
be given, but nowhere do we find an example of the early church assembling together for the
purpose of interviewing each other or “testifying.”
The apostles were competent witnesses, who could testify concerning the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, because they had observed it themselves. “This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we
[apostles, see 1:26-2:1] are all witnesses,” (Acts 2:32). These words were spoken by Peter, one of
the apostles. One of the qualifications of an apostle of Christ was to be a witness of Christ’s
resurrection, (Acts 1:22). While any Christian can describe his or her own conversion, that is not
the sense in which the words “witness” or “testify” are used in the New Testament. These apostles
were charged with being witnesses for Jesus Christ, because they were competent to testify. “But
ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye [the apostles] shall be my
witnesses, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth,” (Acts 1:8).
The command to testify was not given to all disciples of Christ, but to his specially-selected
and qualified witnesses. These men were sent forth with Christ’s authority, and they were his
apostles. To his apostles Jesus said, ”Ye are witnesses of these things,” (Luke 24:48). The apostle
Peter would boldly testify concerning the resurrection of Christ, even after the day of Pentecost,
when the church was established. “But ye denied the holy and righteous one, and asked for a
murderer to be granted into you, and killed the Prince of life; whom God raised from the dead;
whereof we [the apostles Peter and John, see vs. 1] are witnesses,” (Acts 3:14–15). This use of the
words is consistent throughout the book of Acts: “And with great power gave the apostles their
witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,” (Acts 4:33; see also 5:32; 13:31). It was not given
to all Christians to be “witnesses” or to “testify” in the biblical sense. “And we are witnesses of all
things which he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom also they slew,
hanging him on the tree. Him God raised up the third day, and gave him to be made manifest, not
to all the people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before of God, even to us, who ate and drink
with him after he rose from the dead,” (Acts 10:39–41).
Paul’s review of his own conversion was not done as part of a worship service, but as a
legal defense in a criminal case, (Acts 9, 22 and 24). Worship services are for the purpose of
worshiping God. They are not filled with personal, subjective anecdotes, but with particular
authorized acts of worship to God, in which all members are to engage.
God has told us how he will be worshiped. If we honor and follow his word, we know
that we please him. May we leave the man-made practices to the denominations, and worship
God according to the Scriptures, as he desires and deserves.
Bible Questions and Answers
