Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture has a new foundations series article. This time it's about worship. What is worship? Well, for anyone who has been paying attention to this series and is familiar with Tim's theology there is only one answer. But let's take a look.
FOUNDATIONS: WEEK 33
What Is Worship?
Key Texts: Genesis 22; Exodus 20; John 4:23–24; Colossians 3:16; Revelation 4
Today, many define worship as music.
Others define it as an emotional experience.
But how does Scripture define worship?
The first time the word appears, Abraham says:
"I and the lad will go yonder and worship..."
(Genesis 22:5)
There is no mention of music.
No choir.
No instruments.
No congregation.
Worship begins with faith, obedience, and surrender to Yahuah.
At Mount Sinai, worship is inseparable from covenant:
"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."
(Exodus 20:3)
True worship is not merely what we sing.
It is whom we serve.
Yahusha later declared:
"The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth... God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
(John 4:23–24)
Notice the balance.
Not spirit without truth.
Not truth without spirit.
Both.
Paul then encourages believers:
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to Yahuah."
(Colossians 3:16)
Music is therefore an essential beautiful expression of worship—but Scripture never limits worship to music.
Worship flows from hearts filled with His Word.
It overflows in gratitude.
It teaches.
It encourages.
It praises.
Finally, John's vision reveals worship as it truly is:
"Holy, holy, holy, Yahuah Elohim Almighty..."
(Revelation 4:8)
Heaven is filled with worship—not because of emotion alone, but because Yahuah alone is worthy.
Biblical worship is therefore much more than a song, though it does include songs.
It is a life surrendered to Yahuah...
Grounded in truth...
Filled with His Word...
Expressed in obedience...
Overflowing in praise.
Question for Discussion
If music were taken away, would your life still be an act of worship?
On the surface that sounds inoffensive enough but looking deeper the familiar pattern of Tim's doctrine can be plainly seen. Worship is "a life surrendered" to God "expressed in obedience." That is to say to worship is law keeping. It's the same old judaizing song and dance.
Note that Tim brings up Abraham.
The first time the word appears, Abraham says:
"I and the lad will go yonder and worship..."
(Genesis 22:5)
What Tim fails to mention is the worship being done here is sacrifice. Abraham and Isaac left their servants to go sacrifice to the Lord. Here is the context:
5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
And of course this is a foreshadowing and type of Christ. The Father provided himself a lamb by offering up his only Son Jesus Christ. It's sad but typical that for Tim worship has nothing to do with Jesus Christ and his finished work. For two millennia a central part of the worship of Christ has been the eucharist, the bread and wine, symbolizing the new covenant made through Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. But Tim has nothing to say about that.
Let's hear from. noted theologian Father Ted Crilly.
Ah, Philippine Fails, me lad... puts the teacup down with a quiet clink and nods slowly
I’ve read Tim’s Week 33 lesson on “What Is Worship?” and this one is a bit more careful than some of the others. He actually gets a few things right on the surface.
What’s good about itHe’s correct that worship is not just music or an emotional high. Abraham’s “worship” in Genesis 22 was an act of costly obedience. True worship involves spirit and truth (John 4). Music is a beautiful expression, but it isn’t the whole of it. Fair enough. Many modern churches could stand to hear that.
Where the familiar problem appearsEven in this softer lesson, Tim still steers everything back into his usual channel. Notice the key words he keeps circling:
- Obedience
- Surrender
- Covenant
- Truth
- Walking in His ways
In every previous Foundations lesson, those words have meant the same thing: keeping the Torah — the Sabbath, the feasts, the dietary laws, the whole system. So when he defines worship as “a life surrendered to Yahuah… grounded in truth… expressed in obedience,” what he really means is a life ordered around Torah observance.That’s the quiet redefinition again.
What’s missingThere is almost no focus on the New Testament center of Christian worship: the finished work of Christ. In the New Covenant, true worship is centered on the Lamb who was slain (Revelation 5). We worship the Father through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The cross is the great act of worship that makes all our worship acceptable. Tim never really lands there. He lands on obedience.
Paul’s teaching in Romans 12:1 is clearer: presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice is our spiritual worship — and that flows out of the mercies of God shown in the gospel (the whole argument of Romans 1–11). Tim flips the order. Obedience becomes the main thing; the gospel becomes background.
Father Ted’s Plain VerdictThis lesson is less aggressive than some of the earlier ones, but the foundation is still the same. Worship is being quietly redefined as covenant loyalty expressed through law-keeping. Christ is present, but He’s not allowed to be the full and final center.
True Christian worship is not first about how carefully we keep the old system. It is about coming to the Father through the Son, by the Spirit, resting in the finished work of the cross, and then living out of that grace.Tim keeps making obedience the engine.
The New Testament makes the gospel the engine, and obedience the fruit.Down with this sort of thing, lad — even when it comes dressed in reasonable clothes.The real question isn’t only “If music were taken away, would your life still be worship?”
The deeper question is: Is your worship centered on the finished work of Christ, or on your performance of the system?
...Right, I’m off to thank the Lord that we can worship in spirit and in truth because the veil has been torn and the way is open through the blood of Jesus
.Go on, go on, go on — have a cuppa. You keep spotting the same underlying current. Tim’s Foundations keep flowing toward the law. The real river of living water flows from the cross. Keep holding fast to that. It’s far better.
Father Ted he makes no mention of the eucharist in his lesson about worship!
Ah, Philippine Fails, me lad... sits up straight and puts the teacup down with a firm clink
You’re absolutely right. And it’s a very telling omission.
In a whole lesson on what worship is, Tim never once mentions the Lord’s Supper — the Eucharist, the Communion, the breaking of bread. Not a word.
For a Catholic priest (and for most of historic Christianity), that silence is deafening.
Why it mattersFrom the earliest days of the Church, the central act of Christian worship was not a song service or a lecture on obedience. It was the gathering of the people of God around the Table — remembering the Lord’s death until He comes, feeding on Christ by faith, and offering the one sacrifice of Christ present under the signs of bread and wine.Jesus Himself instituted it.
The apostles continued in it (Acts 2:42).
Paul gave careful instruction about it (1 Corinthians 11).
The early Church fathers treated it as the heart of Sunday worship.Yet in Tim’s definition of worship — faith, obedience, surrender, spirit and truth, music, heaven’s praise — the Table is completely absent.
What that revealsThis fits the larger pattern we’ve been watching for months. Tim’s system is heavily oriented around:
- Returning to Torah
- Keeping the appointed times
- Covenant obedience
- Law as the main structure of the Christian life
In that framework, the sacraments (especially the Eucharist) don’t fit comfortably. The focus stays on what wedo — our obedience, our surrender, our keeping of the commandments — rather than on what Christ has done and continues to give us in the means of grace.
A worship that has no real place for the Lord’s Supper is a worship that has quietly shifted its center of gravity away from the cross and the finished work of Christ.
Father Ted’s Plain TakeYou’re sharp to notice it, lad. A lesson on biblical worship that never mentions the very meal Jesus commanded us to keep in remembrance of Him is already telling us something important about the system behind it.
True Christian worship is not mainly about how carefully we perform the old covenant patterns. It is about coming to the Father through the Son, in the Spirit — and at the heart of that gathering is the Table where we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Tim can talk about spirit and truth all day long. But if the Table Christ gave us is missing, something essential has been left out.
Down with this sort of thing.
Very careful now.
The Church has been gathered around that Table for two thousand years. Any “restoration” that has no real place for it is not restoring the faith of the apostles. It’s building something else.
...Right, I’m off to say a quiet prayer of thanksgiving for the gift of the Eucharist — the place where worship is not just talked about, but received.Go on, go on, go on — have a cuppa. You’re seeing the gaps clearly. Keep noticing what’s missing. Often that’s where the real theology shows itself.
