 WHAT ABOUT RAISING HANDS IN PRAYER AND RESPONSIVE READINGS?
Dear Bro. Waddey:
What does the Bible say about the practice of having responsive readings and lifting up of hands during worship? ZB
Dear Z.B:
As to responsive readings, I see nothing wrong with such. It seems to me it would be very much like all singing together. It is something we are not used to doing, but it is a practice that has been observed around
the world for hundreds of years. Such practices that are neither right nor wrong must not be allowed to become occasions of discord and division.
Lifting up of hands was a "posture" of prayer common among Jews in Bible times. "And Ezra blessed Jehovah...and all the people answered, Amen...with the lifting up of their hands and they bowed their heads and worshiped Jehovah..." (Neh. 8:6). "Let the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands..." (I Tim. 2:8). Many other verses reflect this practice. Again this
is something we have not traditionally done, but that does not make it wrong to do so. Think of it just as kneeling in prayer. Few churches do so in worship today, but a hundred years ago almost all of our churches knelt in prayer. No one should make of this an issue that causes harm to the church. We can worship acceptably without doing so. If to insist on this practice we cause confusion and division that in itself is wrong. John Waddey |
