The Five E's Part 5

In the book I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist (or 12 Points That Show Christianity is True) by authors   Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek, evidence is given which supports the accuracy and reliability of the New Testament. This evidence is given in different types of testimony, what the authors refer to as the Five E's--Evidence that the New Testament is true. Here are the five E's:

1. Expected Testimony
Hundreds of prophecies from the Old Testament foretell in detail the birth, life, death and resurrection of the coming Messiah. These marks of identification point to and are precisely fulfilled in no one else but Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
2. Early Testimony
While most ancient documents are supported by a few surviving copies which date 500-1400 yrs. after the originals were written, the documents of the New Testament are supported by nearly 5,700 Greek manuscripts dated as early as 130 A.D. And we have good reason to believe that most or all of the books of the N.T. were written prior to 70 A.D.
3. Eyewitness Testimony
There is so much detailed eyewitness accounts in the N.T. passages that it's hard to believe they could be "made-up" stories. In fact, secular historical records and archaeology have confirmed over 30 people which are named in the N.T.
4. Embarrassing Testimony
When making up a story which includes them in the narrative, authors tend to paint themselves in a better light.  They tend to bend the truth in order to make themselves look better than they actually are. But that's not what we find in the N.T. documents. The writers of the N.T. are dim-witted, uncaring, rebuked, selfish and cowardly.
5. Excruciating Testimony
Jesus repeatedly made blasphemous statements about who he was.

We have covered the first four points in previous posts. Today we will look at #5:

Excruciating Testimony

Jesus claimed to be God! In the Jewish culture, to make any kind of statement like this was blasphemous and punishable by death. And yet, incredibly, Jesus constantly made claims that He was or was equal to Father God.

1. Jesus claimed to be the Great I AM.
Exodus 3:14
John 8:58-59

2. Jesus claimed to be Yahweh (Lord).
O.T.                 Attribute                 N.T.
Psalm 23:1       Shepherd               John 10:11
Isaiah 44:6      First and Last         Revelation 1:17
Joel 3:12            Judge                  Matthew 25:31

3. Jesus claimed to be equal with God.
Mark 2:5-7

4. Jesus claimed to be one with God the Father.
John 10:30-33

5. Jesus claimed to be Messiah-God.
O.T.                         N.T.
Isaiah 9:6             John 4:25; Mark 14:61-62

6. Jesus claimed to be worthy of honor due only to God.
John 5:22-23

7. Jesus claimed to be worthy of worship and accepted it from:
 a. The mother of James and John (Matthew 20:20)
 b. The Gerasene demoniac (Mark 5:6)
 c. A blind man (Mattew 28:17)
 d. Doubting Thomas (John 20:28)
 e. The women at the tomb (Matthew 28:9)
 f. A Canaanite woman  (Matthew 15:25)
 g. His disciples (Matthew 14:33)
 h. A healed leper (Matthew 8:2)
 i. A rich young ruler (Matthew 9:18)

8. Jesus claimed to be equal in authority with God.
Matthew 24:35
Matthew 28:18

9. Jesus claimed to be the object of prayer like God.
John 14:13-14

So what do you think? Which one of these best describes Jesus:
                 Legend, Lord, Liar or Lunatic?

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
---C.S. Lewis

Quick Praise (Ps. 147:3)

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. (Psalm 147:3)(HCSB)

Give Christ your heart; He can fix all that's broken.

The Five E's Part 4

In the book I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist or (12 Points that Show Christianity is True) by authors Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek, evidence is given to support the accuracy and reliability of the New Testament. This evidence can be found in different kinds of testimony, what the authors call the Five E's-Evidence that the New Testament is true. Here are the five E's:

1. Expected testimony
    Hundreds of prophecies from the Old Testament foretell in detail the birth, life, death and resurrection of the coming Messiah. These marks of identification point to and are precisely fulfilled by no one else but Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
2. Early testimony
    While most ancient documents are supported by a few surviving copies which date 500-1400 yrs. after the originals were written, the documents of the New Testament are supported by nearly 5,700 Greek manuscripts dated as early as 130 A.D. And we have good reason to believe that most or all of the books of the N.T. were written prior to 70 A.D.
3. Eyewitness testimony
    There is so much detailed eyewitness accounts in the N.T. passages that it's hard to believe they could be "made-up" stories. In fact, secular historical records and archaeology have confirmed over 30 people which are named in the N.T.
4. Embarrassing testimony
5. Excruciating testimony

We have covered #1-3 in earlier posts, today we will look at #4--embarrassing testimony.

Embarrassing Testimony

When making up a story which includes themselves in the narrative, authors tend to paint themselves in a better light. They tend to bend the truth in order to make themselves look better than they actually are. But that's not what we find in the N.T. documents. The writers of the N.T. are dim-witted, uncaring, rebuked, selfish, doubtful and cowardly.

Let's take a look at some examples.

Uncaring
Mark 14:37, 39,41  They fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane
Luke 23:50-51  They didn't give Jesus a proper burial--Joseph of Arimathea gave Jesus his tomb

Rebuked
Mark 8:33  Jesus rebukes Peter
Galatians 2:11-14  Paul rebukes Peter

Selfish
Matt. 20:20-21  The mother of James and John asks Jesus if the two brothers could sit at His right and left in His kingdom

Cowards
John 18:17,25,27  Peter denies Christ
Matt. 26:56  The other disciples deserted Him and fled
Mark 16:1-2  Women are the brave ones--in a society where women were second class citizens, what men would write that the women went to see Jesus while they were in hiding?

Doubtful
Matt. 28:16-17  They were doubtful about the resurrection even though Jesus told and taught them that it would happen
John 20:25  Thomas said he would not believe Jesus was resurrected until he saw Jesus' wounds


There is even places in the N.T. that are embarrassing for Jesus himself.
Mark 3:21, 23 His family thinks He is crazy
Matt. 13:54-58  Not honored in his hometown
Jn. 6:66  Many of Jesus' disciples desert Him
Jn. 7:5  Jesus' brothers did not believe Him
Jn. 7:12  People whispered that He was a deceiver
Jn. 8:48-49  He was called a Samaritan and demon-possessed by the Jews
Jn. 54-58   Jesus claimed to know God--His Father--and to be the great I AM from O.T.
Jn. 8:59 Jews were going to stone him because he claimed to be God
Jn. 10:29  Jesus claimed to be one with God
Mt. 11:19  He acknowledged that He was called a drunkard and a friend of tax-collectors and sinners
Mark 3:22  The teachers of the law claimed that He was possessed by Beelzebub

So there is many embarrassing events and details that just don't seem to fit in with the idea of being in a fictional account. If I were making up a story about myself or that I was a part of, I would try to paint myself in a better light. I wouldn't include all of these things that would make me look bad. Would you? This clearly shows that the N.T. accounts weren't stories just made-up. And if they weren't, then they must be the truth!

Quick Praise (Ps. 119:105)

Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path. (Psalm 119:105)(HCSB)

Let God's Word lead you through the darkness.

The Five E's Part 3

In the book I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist (or 12 Points that Show Christianity is True) by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek, evidence is given for the accuracy and reliability of the New Testament. This evidence is apparent through different kinds of testimony, what the authors call the Five E's--Evidence that the N.T. is true. Here are the five E's:

1. Expected testimony
2. Early testimony
3. Eyewitness testimony
4. Embarrassing testimony
5. Excruciating testimony

We've already taken a look at #1 & #2. Today we will look at #3, eyewitness testimony.

Eyewitness Testimony

As we saw in part two, we have a lot of evidence by which we can argue that the New Testament was written within the age of the eyewitnesses. For instance, Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome in 70 A.D. But this destruction is never even mentioned in the N.T. except for Jesus' prediction of it. So it's a safe bet to say that most or all of the N.T. was written prior to 70 A.D.

There is so much detail given in the books of the N.T. that you just can't believe that the writers are making things up. The details are many times backed up by historical and archaeological evidence. For instance, Luke 3:1-2 (HCSB)

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Phillip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, God's word came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

Does it sound like he's making up a story to you?
1. An exact date is given--A.D. 29.
2. All eight people are known from history.
3. All were known to live at this exact time.
4. This is not a "once upon a time" story (myth).

And the entire N.T. has details that are confirmed like this. There are numerous confirmed eyewitness details.

1. Acts--84 historically-confirmed eyewitness details
2. Luke includes several others in his gospel
3. John--59 historically-confirmed or historically probable eyewitness details
4. New Testament documents cite more than 30 people confirmed by secular sources or archaeology.

So let's take a look at these historical persons cited in the N.T. Remember all of these people have been confirmed by either archaeology, secular sources or both.

1.  Agrippa I---Acts 12
2.  Agrippa II---Acts 25
3.  Ananias---Acts 23, 24
4.  Annas---Luke 3; Jn. 18; Acts 4
5.  Aretas---2 Cor. 11
6.  Bernice---Acts 23
7.  Augustus---Lk. 2
8.  Caiaphas---Mt. 26; Lk. 3; Jn. 11, 18; Acts 4
9.  Claudius---Acts 11, 18
10. Drusilla---Acts 24
11. Egyptian (false prophet)---Acts 21
12. Erastus---Acts 19
13. Felix---Acts 23
14. Gallio---Acts 18
15. Gamaliel---Acts 5
16. Herod Antipas---Mt. 14; Mk.6; Lk. 3, 23
17. Herod Archelaus---Mt. 2
18. Herod the Great---Mt. 2; Lk. 1
19. Herod Philip I---Mt. 14; Mk. 6
20. Herod Philip II--Lk. 3
21. Herodias---Mt. 14; Mk. 6
22. James---Acts 15; Gal. 1
23. John the Baptist---Mt. 3; Mk. 1; Lk. 3; Jn. 1
24. Judas of Galilea--Acts 5
25. Lysanias---Lk. 3
26. Pilate---Mt. 27; Mk. 15; Lk. 23; Jn. 18
27. Quirinius---Lk. 2
28. Porcius Festus---Acts 24, 26
29. Salome---Mt. 14; Mk. 6
30. Sergius Paulus---Acts 13
31. Tiberius Caesar---Lk. 3

The amount of evidence from all of these confirmed people from history is too much to just push aside and say that the "stories" of the N.T. are just imagined or made-up tales. And archaeology is continually finding new evidence that supports the N.T. historical references. In 1961 an engraved stone was found that named Pontius Pilate as the Prefect of Judea 26-37 A.D. A more recent find, discovered in 1990, was the Ossuary, or bone box, of Joseph Caiaphas High Priest 18-36 A.D. Any way you look at it, the overwhelming eyewitness testimony points to the credibility of the N.T. documents and the message that it proclaims.


"And I will also make every effort that you may be able to recall these things at any time after my departure. For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty." (2 Peter 1:15-16)(HCSB)

Quick Praise (Ps. 147:1)

Hallelujah! how good it is to sing to our God, for praise is pleasant and lovely. (Psalm 147:1)(HCSB)

The sound of our praises is pleasant to God's ears!

Knowing Christ

I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. (Phillipians 3:8)

Enjoy this devotional about knowing Jesus written by Charles Spurgeon:

Spiritual knowledge of Christ will be a personal knowledge. I cannot know Jesus through another person's acquaintance with him. No, I must know him myself; I must know him on my own account. It will be an intelligent knowledge--I must know him, not as the visionary dreams of him, but as the Word reveals him. I must know his natures, divine and human. I must know his offices--his attributes--his works--his shame--his glory. I must meditate upon him until I "comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge."


It will be an affectionate knowledge of him; indeed, if I know him at all, I must love him. An ounce of heart knowledge is worth a ton of head learning. Our knowledge of him will be a satisfying knowledge. When I know my Savior, my mind will be full to the brim--I shall feel that I have that which my spirit panted after. "This is that bread whereof if a man eat he shall never hunger." At the same time it will be an exciting knowledge; the more I know of my Beloved, the more I shall want to know. The higher I climb the loftier will be the summits which invite my eager footsteps. I shall want the more as I get the more. Like the miser's treasure, my gold will make me covet more. 


To conclude; this knowledge of Christ Jesus will be a most happy one; in fact, so elevating, that sometimes it will completely bear me up above all trials, and doubts, and sorrows; and it will, while I enjoy it, make me something more than "Man that is born of woman, who is of few days, and full of trouble"; for it will fling about me the immortality of the ever living Savior, and gird me with the golden girdle of his eternal joy. Come, my soul, sit at Jesus's feet and learn of him all this day.

The Five E's Part 2

In the book I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist (or 12 Points that Show Christianity is True) by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek, evidence is given for the accuracy and reliability of the New Testament. This evidence is apparent through different kinds of testimony, what the authors call the Five E's--Evidence that the N.T. is true. Here are the five E's:

1. Expected testimony
2. Early testimony
3. Eyewitness testimony
4. Embarrassing testimony
5. Excruciating testimony

We looked at #1-expected testimony in an earlier post. That had to do with the Old Testament prophecies, the "marks of identification", about the coming Messiah, which were perfectly fulfilled through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Today we will be covering #2 of the five E's.

Early testimony

The N.T. manuscripts give us very early testimony when compared with other ancient documents. For example, in all other ancient literature there is a gap of 500-1400 years from the earliest known copy to the actual event or time of the writing. Not so with the N.T. manuscripts. The earliest surviving copies to date are much closer to the events that they record.

Let's take a look at some examples for comparison. This is a portion of a chart of ancient literature compiled by Matt Slick on the Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry website.

Author          Date Written        Earliest Copy       Approximate Time Span     Number of Copies
                                                                                from orig. to earliest copy
Pliny                61-113 A.D.          850  A.D.               750 yrs.                                       7
Plato               427-347 B.C.         900 A.D.                1200 yrs.                                     7
Demosthenes   4th cent. B.C.         1100 A.D.              800 yrs.                                       8
Herodutus        480-425 B.C.        900 A.D.                1300 yrs.                                     8
Aristophanes    450-385 B.C.        900 A.D.                1200 yrs.                                    10
Caesar             100-44 B.C.          900 A.D.                1000 yrs.                                    10
Tacitus             circa. 100 A.D.      1100 A.D.              1000 yrs.                                    20
Aristotle           384-322 B.C.        1100 A.D.              1400 yrs.                                    49
Sophocles        496-406 B.C.        1000 A.D.              1400 yrs.                                   193
Homer (Illiad)   900 B.C.               400 B.C.                 500 yrs.                                     643
New Test.        50-100 A.D.          cc. 130 A.D.           less than 100 yrs.                      5,686
                                                     
The exact date of the various N.T. books is debated by New Testament scholars, but from historical evidence, archaeological finds, and the events recorded or not recorded in the N.T., we have room to argue that most or all of the N.T. was written prior to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The 1st century Jewish historian, Josephus, records that James, the half-brother of Jesus, was killed in 62 A.D. The book of Acts records the death of James as if it had just occurred, which would place the date of the book of Acts at or very close to 62 A.D. But Acts doesn't record the deaths of Peter or Paul. The book of Acts, written by Luke, refers to his earlier work, his gospel account, so we know that the gospel of Luke was written before Acts. Luke is writing his gospel in an effort to also give his account, meaning that other gospels have already been written, such as the gospel of Mark.

The Apostle Paul died under the reign of Nero. History records that Nero died in 67 A.D., so Paul would have died before that. That means that all of Paul's writings, over half of the N.T.,  were written prior to 67 A.D. Nowhere in the N.T. is the destruction of Jerusalem even mentioned except in Jesus' predictions. It seems impossible that such a catastrophic occurrence would not have been mentioned. So, it is possible that most or all of the N.T. was written prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in 70 A.D.

I would like to close with a summation by Floyd McElveen from his book God's Word, Final, Infallible and Forever.

"To sum up; unless we want to throw a blanket over all of history and say that there is nothing knowable about the past, no history that can be trusted, no Grecian or Roman history, no Aristotle or Plato or Socrates, we had better not  make any claims against the historicity and accuracy of the New Testament! The New Testament documents are far more numerous, older, demonstrably more accurate historically, and have been examined by a far greater battery of scholars, both friend and foe, than all the other ancient manuscripts put together. They have met the test impeccably!"

Quick Praise (Ps. 27:4)

I have asked one thing from the Lord; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking Him in His temple. (Psalm 27:4)(HCSB)

What should we desire, and what should we seek? ...The presence of the Lord

Mere Christianity Quotes (p.17)

Here is another passage from the classic by C. S. Lewis about what all Christians believe, Mere Christianity:

"It follows that what we usually call the laws of nature--the way weather works on a tree for example--may not really be laws in the strict sense, but only in a manner of speaking. When you say that falling stones always obey the law of gravitation, is not this much the same as saying that the law only means 'what stones always do'? You do not really think that when a stone is let go, it suddenly remembers that it is under orders to fall to the ground. You only mean that, in fact, it does fall. In other words, you cannot be sure that there is anything over and above the facts themselves, any law about what ought to happen, as distinct from what does happen. The laws of nature, as applied to stones or trees, may only mean 'what Nature, in fact, does'. But if you turn to the Law of Human Nature, the Law of Decent Behavior, it is a different matter. That law certainly does not mean 'what human beings, in fact, do'; for as I said before, many of them do not obey this law at all, and none of them obey it completely. The law of gravity tells you what stones do if you drop them; but the Law of Human Nature tells you what human beings ought to do and do not. In other words, when you are dealing with humans, something else comes in above and beyond the actual facts."

The Five E's Part 1

In the book I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist (or 12 Points that Show Christianity is True) by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek, evidence is given for the accuracy and reliability of the New Testament of the Bible. Some of the evidence mentioned is different types of testimony, what the authors call The Five E's--Evidence that the N. T. is true. Here are the five E's:

1. expected testimony
2. early testimony
3. eyewitness testimony
4. embarrassing testimony
5. excruciating testimony

Before we start looking at the five E's though let's address a question that is popping up more and more often these days thanks to books like Bart Erhman's Misquoting Jesus. The question is this: Do we have an accurate copy of the original N. T. documents? The answer is YES.

We have earlier manuscripts.
--25 year gap vs. 1000 year gap
Most ancient historical and non-historical documents have a much larger gap between when they were written and the earliest found copies. The New Testament manuscripts are much closer to the events they record.

We have more manuscripts.
--5700 copies vs. 10-20 copies
We simply have way more complete and partial manuscripts from the New Testament than from any other ancient writing.

We have more accurately copied manuscripts.
--99.9% accuracy vs. 90-95% accuracy

We have more abundantly supported manuscripts.
--18,000 non-Greek manuscripts and 36,000 quotations
It has been noted that almost the entire new testament can be reconstructed from the quotes of the early church leaders.

There is also an uncanny harmony between the books of the entire Bible, Old and New Testament. Consider this passage from Floyd McElveen's book, God's Word--Final, Infallible and Forever:

"Imagine 40 men, separated by centuries, coming from many different cultures, towns and backgrounds, some having limited access to a part of the work done by the others, some having no such access, working on a statue of Jesus. Each has his particular part of the statue to carve; one a toe; one an ear; another the neck; another the chin; a leg; a shoulder blade; and so on. After thousands of years, all these carvings are brought to one place and put together. Incredibly, they all fit perfectly, and a beautiful statue of Jesus is formed. Impossible, by chance! Possible only by a superintending act of a supervising God. This is exactly what we have in the Bible. Some 40 to 50 authors, working over a period of from 1500 to 1600 years, men educated and uneducated; ignorant to intellectual; from shepherds to statesmen; writing 66 books, come up with a perfectly unified book portraying one perfect person, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is absolutely no dissonance, no contradictions, but perfect harmony."

Now back to the Five E's. I'm going to break this down into five parts, so let's take a look at #1 in this post:

Expected Testimony

This has to do with prophecies from the Old Testament. The prophecies of the coming Messiah are fulfilled in only one person, Jesus. The Bible gives over 300 prophecies about Jesus. Most of these are written many centuries before He was born. Isaiah chapter 53, for example, gives detailed prophecies about Jesus written about 700 years before He came.

Here are some of the many prophecies fulfilled in Jesus:

Gen. 3:15--human race
Jer. 23:5; 33:15--line of David
Micah 5:2--in Bethlehem
Isa. 9:6--God and man
Mal. 3:1--visits Temple
Isa. 53:5-6--suffers for us
Zech. 12:10--hands and feet pierced (Jn. 19:18, 37)
Ps. 22:18--garments to be divided and lots cast for his clothing (Matt. 27:35)
Ps. 69:21--offered gall and vinegar to drink (Matt. 27:34)
Isa. 53:12--would die with criminals
Dan. 9:24--dies in 33 A.D.
Isa. 53:9--buried in a rich man's tomb (Matt. 27:57-60)
Isa. 53:11--rises from the dead

For a very detailed and complete list of prophecies and their fulfillment in Christ, go to the website--godandscience.org and click on prophecies of Christ.

I will close this post with this. Floyd McElveen gives us another good illustration of what he calls "marks of identification" in his book God's Word--Final, Infallible and Forever. See if this makes good sense to you.

"Suppose I agree to meet my blind date at the Greyhound Bus Station, 464 Liberty Street, at 8:00 p.m. She will wear a green hat and a lavender dress and will carry a purple purse. She has yellow hair and blue eyes, but has a black patch over her right eye because of a recent injury. She is one-legged, having lost her left leg, and is missing the little finger of her right hand. She wears a peg-leg. She has painted it a florescent yellow, with a blinking red light built in to keep folks from stumbling over her leg. She will wear a pink stocking on her one good leg and a maroon and white saddle-oxford on her one good foot. Do you honestly think I would have any trouble identifying the right girl at the Greyhound Bus Station at 8:00 p.m.?

I only gave about 11 marks of identification concerning this girl. Yet the chances are over a million to one against there being another girl with these identification characteristics being in that particular bus station at 8:00 p.m. God gave at least 333 marks of identification about Jesus, concerning the time and place of his birth, and details about His life, death and resurrection. These "marks of identification" were given centuries before He came so that there could be no doubt about identifying Him when He came! All these 333 marks of identification were perfectly fulfilled in Jesus!"

So we have expected testimony, prophetic scripture that tells us of the coming Messiah. Only Jesus fulfilled these prophecies, and in so doing He has given us very substantial proof that the N.T. is true.

Quick Praise (Ps. 75:9)

As for me, I will tell about Him forever; I will sing praise to the God of Jacob. (Psalm 75:9)(HCSB)

Witness and Worship------Share and Sing!

Mere Christianity Quotes (p.13)

Here is another passage from Mere Christianity, the classic by C. S. Lewis that spells out what all Christians believe.

"If no set of moral ideas were truer or better than any other, there would be no sense in preferring civilized morality to savage morality, or Christian morality to Nazi morality. In fact, of course, we all do believe that some moralities are better than others. We do believe that some of the people who tried to change the moral ideas of their own age were what we would call Reformers or Pioneers--people who understood morality better than their neighbors did. Very well then. The moment you say that one set of moral ideas can be better than another, you are, in fact, measuring them both by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to that standard more nearly than the other. But the standard that measures two things is something different from either. You are, in fact, comparing them both with some Real Morality, admitting there is such a thing as real Right, independent of what people think, and that some people's ideas get nearer to that real Right than others. Or put it this way. If your moral ideas can be truer, and those of the Nazis less true, there must be something--some Real Morality--for them to be true about."

David

And David danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a priestly tunic. So David and all Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with much shouting and blowing trumpets. (2 Samuel 6:14-15)(NLT)

The following worship profile is taken from the Praise and Worship Study Bible published by Tyndale House. I highly recommend this study Bible for all who would like to learn more about worship. Let's take a look at the worship example of David:

Thomas Jefferson penned the text of the American Declaration of Independence, served two terms as president of the United States, invented useful devices, and wrote articles and treatises on a great range of subjects. But if his grave marker is any indication, he wanted most to be remembered as the founder of the University of Virginia. How would David son of Jesse want to be remembered? As the brave teenager who killed the Philistine giant, Goliath? As the greatest king in Israel's history? As the father of Solomon, the wisest of men? A compelling argument can be made that David would want to be remembered, first and foremost, as a passionate worshiper of God.

David the Worshiper

In 2 Samuel 6, King David supervised the return of the Ark of the Covenant from the house of Obed-edom to the city of Jerusalem. It was a joyous occasion, punctuated by loud music and the exuberant shouting of the Israelite people. But certainly the most striking sight was the behavior of the king. Taking off his royal robes, David led the procession, leaping and dancing "before the Lord with all his might" (2 Samuel 6:14). Such an unashamed display is hardly the behavior of someone who is trying to "establish and image" or "guard a reputation." It reveals the passionate heart of a man who loved God.

Learning from David

Read the Psalms to appreciate the great range of circumstances in which David praised God. These hymns celebrate God's love and mercy in the midst of victory, sadness, confusion, oppression, contentment, and wonder. The Psalms share a common theme: God is in control, and therefore we can trust him. How did David become such a passionate worshiper? What qualified him to be called "a man after [God's] own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14)? Perhaps the secret may be found in prayers like this one: "Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, that I may honor you. With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God. I will give glory to your name forever" (Psalm 86:11-12).

Following the Example

If your life ended today, how do you think you would be remembered? How would you like to be remembered? Why not make David's prayer your own? Commit yourself to live and worship with an undivided heart and to live a life filled with undiminished and unending praise for your Lord.