The State of Theology report asked participants to respond to the following statement: “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.” At stake in this question is not merely interreligious tolerance, but the nature of worship itself and whether worship is defined by human sincerity or divine revelation. The statement elicited a range of responses depending on single demographic characteristics or combinations of characteristics, revealing significant theological confusion shaped by belief, affiliation, and practice. Note the following:
-As expected, the difference produced between those with evangelical and non-evangelical beliefs was significant (47% agreement versus 69% agreement), suggesting that doctrinal commitments still meaningfully shape perceptions of worship, though not decisively.
-For this question (though not necessarily for others in the study), belief, affiliation, and practice had a compounding effect on one another. Evangelical beliefs had less of an effect on their own (47% agreement) than when they were combined with evangelical affiliation (31%). Evangelical belief combined with the other affiliations was significantly less influential on this measure: evangelical belief + mainline affiliation (64%), evangelical belief + black protestant affiliation (70%), evangelical belief + Roman Catholic affiliation (81%), and evangelical belief +other (60%). Combining evangelical beliefs with evangelical affiliation and attending church several times a week reduced agreement to 21%. All of these point to the importance of church affiliation and frequent church attendance (more than once per week).
-Church attendance + affiliation across all beliefs (evangelical versus non-evangelical) also influences the responses to this question. Those with an evangelical affiliation who attended church several times per week (39%) or once per week (40%) were lower than evangelical belief alone (47%). Those with other church affiliations had significantly higher agreement regardless of church attendance. For instance, 68% of those attending church several times per week for someone with a mainline affiliation agreed with the statement.
Regardless of these perceptions or how widespread they may be, we are left with the question: Does God accept the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam? To answer that question, we need to move beyond survey data to the biblical text itself. First, we need a biblical understanding of worship. Second, we need to think about what it means for God to accept something, particularly worship. Finally, we need to consider whether other religions are offering worship that might be acceptable to God.
What Is Worship?
It is possible to understand worship as involving the assignment of worth to someone or something and demonstrating that worth through your devotion to it. This description would allow us to worship a variety of different people or things, depending on how worth is assigned. In other words, it doesn’t speak to anything ultimate. As such, it is theologically insufficient. It is not a biblical description of worship because it lacks any reference to God’s self-revelation and authority.
When we think of biblical worship, we are thinking of worship that faithfully and rightly responds to the Triune God. Worship is a right response to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As I suggest in Serpents and Doves, “true worship requires a right perception of and response to God.” Old Testament Scholar Daniel Block argues that worship “involves reverential human acts of submission and homage before the divine Sovereign in response to his gracious revelation of himself and in accord with his will.” Let’s unpack all of this a bit.
1. Worship as response
Once we know God is present, we will respond to him in one way or another. We will either recognize him as infinitely more relevant than any other actor or factor, marginalize him, or reject him completely. Neutrality is not an option.
2. Worship as submission and homage before the divine Sovereign
God is the ultimate authority. There is no aspect of reality that defines itself apart from him. The submission and homage offered in worship must be directed to the divine Sovereign. Generic worship toward “something” or worship offered to a god who claims sovereignty but does not actually possess it is insufficient. It does not constitute true worship.
3. Worship and revelation
It is possible for humans to worship without an understanding of God; however, such worship cannot be rightly directed worship to the Triune God apart from revelation. To know God, we are dependent on God’s self-disclosure. Without it, we can’t be sure that we are worshipping the right God in the right way.
4. Worship and God’s will
Worship is, in some sense, participatory. When we worship, we live with the grain of the universe God has created according to God’s direction and guidance. We might say that worship is a constrained activity—not constrained by human preference, but by divine command and self-disclosure. Those limits are set by God alone.
With this summary and framework in place, let’s consider some biblical examples.
When Worship Misses the Mark
In Genesis 4, we see that “in the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering” (4:2). Abel, Cain’s brother, also brings a sacrifice. The offerings, however, are different as indicated by the relatively ambiguous phrasing used to describe Cain’s offering versus the more specific description of Abel’s offering: Cain brings “an offering of the fruit of the ground” (4:3), whereas Abel “brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions” (4:4). The distinction between a plant-based and animal-based offering is not problematic in itself. Plant-based offerings were a staple of the sacrificial system (Lev 2:1-16; 6:14-18; 7:9-10). Instead, the problem seems to be that Cain does not bring the best of his produce. He simply brings some portion of it.
Cain does not appear to bring this offering out of ignorance. God’s word to Cain seems to assume that Cain knows how to “do well” so that his offering will be “accepted” (4:6). Cain’s initial attempt to worship on his own terms fails due to God’s rejection of his offering. Abel’s offering gives God an alternative—a faithful act of worship that exposes Cain’s unfaithfulness. He can reject Cain’s offering because he has options. Rather than “do well,” Cain decides to eliminate his competition by killing Abel so that his offering will be the only offering (4:8). Again, his gambit does not work, and he is banished from the face of the Lord and from the ground he used to work (4:12-18). The Cain and Abel narrative offers a picture of inadequate sacrifice, the lengths to which some will go to worship on their own terms, and the futility of trying to do so. For a more comprehensive discussion of this narrative, you can listen to “Worshipping God on Our Own Terms?” on Thinking Christian.
In Leviticus, we see the sons of Aaron offer a sacrifice that was not commanded by the Lord: “Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them” (Lev 10:1-2). Though the text doesn’t specify exactly why the fire was “unauthorized,” it is certainly related to the command of the Lord. The offering does not conform to the Lord’s command. Their mistake costs Nadab and Abihu their lives, underscoring the gravity of worshipping God in ways he has not authorized.
Other Levitical legislation also provides insight into the necessity of right sacrifice—sacrifice that conforms to the boundaries set by God’s word. For instance, in Leviticus 7:18, we see that worshippers will not be accepted if they eat the “flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering…on the third day” (Lev 7:18; cf. 19:7). The guidelines given for sacrifice are intended to ensure that the offerings given will be acceptable as offerings that have their intended effect (Lev 22:29; 23:11; cf. Deut 12:1-4; 29-31; 1 Kgs 9:9; 11:26-40).
One might object that these examples assume a knowledge of God. It makes sense that God’s covenant people, to whom he has revealed his laws and statutes, would have guidelines for worship. After all, they are to represent God. But what about those who don’t know God? Would God accept the worship of those who worship in ignorance or even worship in opposition to his self-revelation? The answer would seem to be “no.”
When we think about Islam or even Buddhism or Confucianism, we need to recognize that these religions stand against, whether intentionally or unintentionally, God’s revelation. They contradict it and seek to shape those who practice these religions into something other than the image of Christ. Even Judaism, because it does not recognize Jesus as Lord, cannot offer right worship. The worship of these religions is not acceptable, but lamentable. Non-Christian religions deny and distort the Triune God, encouraging adherents to live in ways that do not reflect God by constructing some other image to which human behavior, character, and purpose are directed. This sort of worship is unacceptable not because the people who offer it are particularly evil, deviant, or insincere, but because worship involves responding to the Triune God via his self-revelation and in accordance with his will. Worship is to be offered on God’s terms and in alignment with who he is.
As we look out and see well-meaning, kind women and men who are doing good things in the world, it can be hard to think that God would not accept their worship. However, if they are not worshipping the Triune God on his terms, there is no basis for God to accept it. In a very real sense, it is not actually being offered to him, but to something else. It is offered to a theological substitute that cannot bear the weight of divine worth. It is being given to some conception “made with human hands” that is not actually God. Once we recognize that the worship of other religions is not really being offered to the Triune God, we understand that this worship is not simply uninformed—something that we might hope God would accept in his graciousness—but also misdirected—it is actually given to something else, thus denying the worthiness of God and ascribing it to someone or something else.
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