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Should
unbelievers lead Christians in
worship in a church service?
This question should never arise in the Christian
church. But, unfortunately, it needs to be addressed because there
are churches in America that have unbelievers leading Christians in
worship on Sunday morning services. This is wrong and it is a sign
of apostasy in the Christian church.
First of all, worship can only be rightly
performed by believers who have been justified and sanctified by the blood
of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 2:9). Only blood-bought believers have the
right to worship God because only they have a mediator by which their
worship may be accepted (1 Tim. 2:5). The unbeliever has no
mediator. Unbelievers do not have that right to praise God for His
goodness and mercy because they are in a state of rejecting it -- which is
why they are unbelievers -- and they are unclean before God!
Remember how God rejected the sacrifice of Cain who was a murderer (Gen.
4:5), how much more the false and hypocritical worship of
unbelievers. Jesus said to the Pharisees and Scribes, "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you,
saying, 8‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their
heart is far away from Me," (Matt. 15:7). Are the
unbelievers any better off than the Pharisees and Scribes? No, they
are, like the Pharisees, under harsher judgment.
How dare the unbeliever lead the believer in
worship of the true and Holy God when he or she is in a state of rebellion
against God! May it never be! "But to the wicked God
says, “What right have you to tell of My statutes, and to take My
covenant in your mouth?" (Psalm 50:16). Can the unbeliever
praise God with the following words and not be a hypocrite? "Come,
let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. 7For
He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His
hand," (Psalm 95:6). No. He cannot! To sing
such praises is a mockery to God. Therefore, they are in the same
state as those who are condemned by Christ on the day of judgment:
"Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and
in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23"And then I
will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness,’ (Matt.
7:22-23).
Second, it is hypocritical for a pastor to have unbelieving musicians come
into the church of Lord and lead blood-bought believers in worship.
Hypocrisy is saying (singing) one thing and doing another. It is a
display of behavior of falseness. And that is exactly what the
pastor is encouraging when he has unbelievers lead believers in praises to
God because, in their hearts, they do not trust in the sacrifice of
Christ. Their words are singing praises of trust and adoration to
God when in their hearts they do not believe it. This is hypocrisy
and the pastor is encouraging it.
Furthermore, I am sure that in the great majority
of such hypocritical situations, the unbelievers are "praising
God" for money. Think about it: a pastor offers money to
unbelievers to have them come into the church of God and lead believers in
worship. Worship is supposed to be an offering to God by believers
and a means of preparation of the heart so that the Christian might
receive the word of God in the sermon. How dare a pastor pay an
unbeliever to do this!
Third, it was the Pharisees in the New Testament
who had an outward manifestation of worship but inwardly were
unregenerate. To this, Jesus condemned them as hypocrites (Matt.
15:7). If a pastor of a church is not informing the congregation of
the the fact that unbelievers are leading believers in worship (which
should never occur in the first place) then the following verses apply to
the pastor:
"But
woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind
of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these
are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 43"Woe
to you Pharisees! For you love the front seats in the synagogues, and
the respectful greetings in the market places. 44"Woe to
you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them
are unaware of it," (Luke
11:42).
If the
congregation is unaware of the unholy and unregenerate nature of those
leading them in worship, then they are inadvertently participating in the
unholy worship of hypocrites. When the Pharisees worshipped God,
their worship was rejected and condemned. Jesus, exposed the
hypocrisy of outward worship and inward disbelief and said it
"dirtied" those who followed their lead - referring to Levitical
laws of cleanness. Is this not basically the same thing
happening when unbelievers lead unsuspecting believers in worship?
In this, the congregation thinks the worship leaders are "sanctified
by Christ's blood" when, in reality they are not. And, to make
it worse, the "worship leaders" further the deception on a
weekly basis. Now, the pastor is the leader in the church. Woe
to him who leads the church into hypocritical worship to God and
encourages sinners to sin.
Fourth, we find in scripture that only believers
lead worship and are involved in true worship, never unbelievers:
- "These things I remember, and
I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God, with the voice of joy
and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival," (Psalm 42:4).
- "Ascribe to the Lord, O sons
of the mighty, Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2Ascribe
to the Lord the glory due to His name; Worship the Lord in holy
array," (Psalm 29:1).
- "But you are a chosen race, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession,
that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out
of darkness into His marvelous light," (1 Pet. 2:9).
We
find no place in the scriptures where unbelievers lead believers in
worship. It is not in the Bible and it should never happen in the
Christian church.
What of the benefit to
the unbeliever?
What about the benefit of exposing an unbeliever to the gospel by getting
him into church to participate in worship? After all, it has
probably led to conversions.
The ends do not justify the means. If God
so chooses to save someone in spite of a sinful situation, that is God's
business. The pastor is to make sure that the worship honors
God. It is not the place of evangelism. It is the place of
worship. Do not be deceived into compromising praise and worship to
God by having unbelievers participate in it.
To the pastor
If you
are a pastor who has unbelievers leading believers in worship, stop it
now. You are responsible for shepherding your church in truth,
honor, and sanctification before God. You are responsible for the
worship before the Holy Lord. This is not the realm of the
unregenerate. You must repent of this sin and confess it. You must dismiss the unbelievers from worship,
invite them to attend the church service, confess your sin to the elders
and the church, ask forgiveness and continue in humility before men and
before God.
It is far better that the worship in the church be less
than perfect on the outside than have it be stained by unbelievers with
unregenerate hearts.
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Note: all scripture quotes are from the NASB.
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