Lifting Holy Hands, Part Two, by Pastor Josh Larsen

The Positions Against Lifting Hands In Worship

          Before I attempt to address the views of those opposed to the practice of lifting hands in worship, I must admit that I have virtually no sources for what I present as the primary reasons not to lift one’s hands. This is not due to a lack of searching. I have spent a few weeks scouring books on worship, Internet publications, and periodicals in search of quotable statements against hand raising. I could not find much of anything. So I admit that this portion of my paper is based on my own experience in discussing this topic with a number of people within fundamental Baptist circles. I am also willing to consider any views that this paper does not address, should someone care to bring them to my attention.

          When I ask people who are opposed to the idea to state the reasons behind their opposition, the first response is overwhelmingly something along the lines of, “Well, that’s what the Charismatics do!” One writer who subscribes to this line of reasoning states, “Lifting hands over the head … is a taught religious practice. It does not normally happen (except in utter lostness and hopelessness) unless it is in response to a charismatic leader with whom the worshipers have developed a too-close connection.”[1]

          This argument does not appear to be grounded in anything more than reactionary rhetoric, and does not stand up to sound inspection. There are virtually no other practices we avoid as Baptists simply for the sake of reacting against the Charismatic movement. The gift of tongues may come to mind, but our reasons for not speaking in tongues go much deeper than simply, “That’s what the Charismatics do.” We avoid the practice of speaking in tongues because of our interpretation of Scripture, not out of a disdain for the Charismatic movement. The same goes for healing and prophetic utterances. Going to a priest for confession is not wrong because the Catholic Church teaches it; it is wrong because Hebrews teaches us that we have no need of a priest. We do not say that infant baptism is wrong because Presbyterians practice it; we believe it is wrong because it does not line up with Scripture. Likewise, the fact that many Charismatics and Pentecostals lift their hands while praying and singing cannot be sufficient ground for us to summarily reject the practice.

          A second line of reasoning against lifting hands in worship is that it is mainly an emotional experience. Almost inevitably, when discussing this reasoning, the words “touchy feely” make an appearance. When church members start raising their hands while they sing, this argument insists, we start careening down the slippery slope of emotionalism. Next they might start clapping and swaying to the music.

          I would wholeheartedly agree with the notion that we need to flee skin-deep emotionalism. However, I am concerned that our segment of fundamentalism has gone too far in the other direction. In an effort to flee emotionalism, many churches have discredited emotions altogether and focused mainly on the intellect. Jesus wants both the mind and the heart to be engaged in worship. Remember his conversation with the Samaritan woman by the side of the well? She was asking about authentic worship, and Jesus said that “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.”[2] God is not interested in our minds being set on him if our hearts are not engaged. The Pharisees were very good at turning everything having to do with religion into an intellectual formula. Jesus told them they were experts at cleaning the outside of the cup, but they paid no heed to the filthiness of the inside.[3] And their condition was most dire in the realm of worship. Of their heartless worship Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”[4]

          We must not be so wary of emotionalism that we disdain emotions, for our emotions are absolutely critical to true worship. J. Oswald Sanders writes, “Our emotions must be engaged. We are to put not only intellect but emotion into our worship. A cold heart cannot truly worship.”[5] He also had this to say concerning the danger of emotionalism: “One who loves with the emotions only will be a sentimentalist. One who loves with the will only will be legalistic. And one who loves with the intellect only will have little warmth. God desires the love of the whole personality.”[6] Another author I found to be passionately articulating the need for an engaging of the emotions in worship without pursuing emotionalism was John Piper:

Worship must have heart and head. Worship must engage emotions and thought. Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full (or half-full) of artificial admirers (like people who write generic anniversary cards for a living). On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship.[7]

          Third, many people insist that the raising of hands in worship is an empty gesture that is done primarily as a public show of piety. They see people with outstretched arms and hands and practically hear them shouting, “Look at me! I’m worshipping!” I concede that this is probably sometimes the case. But if we are going to ban raised hands because some people do it for the wrong reasons, we had better ban soloists as well. And all church pianists. In fact, how many people can say that they have never given a thought to how their clothes look in the eyes of others on Sunday mornings? 

         The simple fact is that everything we do in worship can be done for the wrong reasons. The pride of life and the fear of man follow us everywhere we go. This is why Jesus told us to worship in total privacy when possible.[8] He knew that we would constantly battle the temptation to put our religion on public display. But he did not intend for us to never worship publicly. We cannot search the hearts of our brothers and sisters in Christ during a worship service, but we can search ours. And I will agree that if a person is unable to lift his hands in church without striving to draw attention away from God, then he should keep his hands at his side. However, not everyone with raised hands is a religious performer. 

         One last criticism that I have heard against the raising of hands is that it is not a mandate for the church. Nowhere are Christians specifically commanded to raise our hands when singing or praying. The closest the New Testament gets to commanding this practice is in Paul’s first letter to Timothy. Paul tells Timothy that he wants men to pray “lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.”[9] Some prefer to take this figuratively. In fact, one writer put it pretty bluntly: “…he undoubtedly means this figuratively. To offer clean hands to God in a literal way, like little children showing parents that they have washed, would be preposterous.”[10]

           For now, let us assume this passage is figurative and that there is no commandment to pray or sing with hands uplifted. I am not convinced that this is a good enough reason to refuse a particular practice. After all, this is the same reasoning that many leaders in church history refused to allow instruments to be played during the worship service. Take, for example, the organ. “This instrument was first used in a North American church in 1702, not sooner because it was opposed by those with Puritan roots. Finally in 1770 the first Puritan church, probably real risk-takers, acquired one!”[11] Surely we are not really going to avoid any custom or tradition simply because it is not specifically commanded in the Bible. If we are, our worship services are in need of some considerable trimming!

           The question now becomes one of purpose. It does not necessarily matter to many people if the views against the practice are weak. Why bother doing it? What does the lifting of our hands in corporate worship signify in our churches in 2006?

to be continued…

---

[1] Kenneth Sublett. http://www.piney-2.com/LiftingHands.html

[2] John 4:23

[3] Matt. 23:25

[4] Mark 7:6

[5] J. Oswald Sanders, Enjoying Intimacy With God, (Grand Rapids: Discovery House Publishers, 2000),90.

[6] Ibid.

[7] John Piper, Desiring God (Sisters: Multnomah Books, 1996), 76.

[8] Matthew 6:6

[9] 1 Tim. 2:8

[10] Dr. Peter Masters, “Worship in the Melting Pot”,  FreedomMinistries.org.uk; available from http://www.freedomministries.org.uk/masters/hands.shtml; Internet; accessed 23 January 2006.

[11] Tom Hovestol, Extreme Righteousness (Chicago: Moody Press, 1997), 116.