God-Centered Worship

An Evaluation of Moral Therapeutic Deism in the View of the Essence of Worship in the Old Testament

An Abstract by Yoojin Kim

Christian Smith, American sociologist, researched American teenagers’ religious beliefs and attitudes through the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) in 2005. He discovered that their primary belief is Moral Therapeutic Deism (MTD). MTD shows a religious attitude that people treat God as a genie in a Disney movie who is called to solve problems in their lives. Among Christian teenagers and adults, this seems to be a common attitude which reflects a distorted view of biblical worship. As many believe and purport, people do whatever they want as long as they are happy. For them, God exists to make them happy. Do people go to church and worship God in order to be happy? Worshippers lose their identity. Their worship does not consider a biblical understanding of worship. Seeking happiness is the ultimate goal of life.

The purpose of human beings is to worship God for his glory (Isaiah 43:6–7, 21). The kind of worship that God wants is worship with a contrite heart because God cares about the condition of the worshipper’s heart. Scripture makes this clear in Psalm 51:16–17,

“For you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

The biblical motivation of worship must start with having a right relation with God, not appeasing gods to obtain needs from the deity — which reveals a pagan worship. Thus, this paper will argue, after comparing pagan worship and Hebrew worship, that biblical worship should be God-centered and requires the proper inner response of the worshippers to God rather than an adherence to the MTD philosophy, which implies that God exists to make people feel good.

To prove this argument, this paper will show how MTD relates to pagan worship. Second, it will explain the biblical understanding of worship, which includes a right relationship with God. It will also highlight the object of worship and the inner response of the worshipper based on the Old Testament. Third, it will evaluate of MTD and suggest applications for worship today.

The preceding was an abstract of a research paper written by Yoojin Kim as a part of MUMIN 7513 Research in Worship History: Old Testament, a Ph.D. Seminar in Worship at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. If this topic interests you, feel free to click the author’s name above and request a copy of the research paper.