It's Feast time again and tens of thousands of COG members are
gathered together around the world to hear amazing sermons and exquisite
music.
Oh sorry, wrong decade.
Let's start over.
It's Feast time again and 10's of people are gathered at various
Festival sites to hear recycled sermons and some half way well done
music.
Imagine getting to listen to well trained choirs and voices
of superb singers singing songs of praise to God. Well, we all know
those days are over. No mass choirs with orchestra
like we had in the Pocono's one year. No huge choir with a majestic
organ like we had in Jekyll Island.
I am sure there are still good singers in the COG who honestly do
try their best. Plus, who cannot help but clap for the kids when they
get up and sing!
The WCG and its various harlot daughters over the years have
jumped from clapping to no clapping and then back again, over and over.
A report came in to me today that in one area where members were forbidden to to clap for music or sermons. The
reason was:
"There is no clapping at the Feast so no one has pre-eminence above another to lift them up to give them special attention".
That's pretty strange considering how HWA thrived on the
clapping. I remember while at the huge Feast sites in Jekyll Island, Lake of
the Ozarks, Pocono's, St Petersburg, etc., clapping like lusty seals the
minute HWA or GTA's name was announced. Men and women wept at the sight
of these men mounting the stage.
Being a deacon in Pasadena I remember for years being told that
we were to initiate clapping the minute HWA, GTA, or Tkach Sr. came out
on stage. We were to immediately jump to our feet and start clapping.
It was standard practice anywhere HWA went. His handlers sometimes
would prep the sites they were visiting with instructions to make sure
people clapped.
Congregations and Feast sites even clapped for his sermons, besides his entrances and exits.
Here is a sermon in the 1980's HWA gave where the members sat there clapping when he made one of his bombastic comments:
This subject is causing a lot of trouble.“Today I would like to speak on what may be the very next attack” on the Church by Satan (ie. preventing interracial marriages from taking place in the Church).‘Satan is going to use interracial marriage as the next attack upon God’s Church’.“If we want to be with God, get on his side. Or get on Satan’s side and go into the lake of fire” with regard to this question.I will not compromise one millionth of an inch on social trends of interracial marriage.Some say we must have racial balance in this world – we will not go the way of Satan!‘But I say that for me and my family, we shall serve the eternal God’ (in relation to interracial marriages). [audience claps loudly in support]The Sin of Interracial Marriage
But then as HWA started to age he sat at home more and more and
watched services on his TV. When he started seeing the sheep clapping
after sermons by Meredith, Hoeh or Waterhouse, he started to get
perturbed. Clapping was soon banned because these men were starting to
get big heads and expected it. Meredith was could be one grumpy dude
when no one clapped after his sermons.
You can go to each of the 600 some splinter groups sites and find 600 some different ways on dealing with clapping. Most do it.
Even the Seventh Day Adventists don't have that much of an issue with it.
There is no clear evidence that this gesture was part of worship in the Old and New Testaments. In fact, I didn't find the phrase in the entire New Testament. Therefore, there does not seem to be any biblical parallel to what takes place in our churches today.
You may ask, "Why do we do it?" I'm not sure. I suspect that we incorporated clapping into our services from our cultural environment. Clapping is usually associated with the entertainment industry, but has become very popular in televised evangelical religious services. Perhaps we copied it from them.
Leaving aside the issue of cultural influence, I suppose that what really matters is that each person be fully aware of the reasons he or she claps in church. Motivation becomes extremely important in this context. Is it an expression of joy in the Lord and His saving power? Is it only a physical expression or a substitute for what used to be the audible amen? Or is it a recognition of the good performance of the singer or the preacher? Adventist Biblical Research
So why does your Feast site allow it and others don't? Why does your minister tell you not to do it when HWA and others thrived on it and expected it?
Is he really afraid that when you clap after his sermon that you are actually GLAD he is walking off the stage?
