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Moses Wannabes
How did Moses get to be the Big Show among evangelicals?
by Michael Spencer

I like Moses. I didn't get up this morning and decide that I didn't like Moses. I don't have a Moses complex. I am not Mosesaphobic.

But something is awry and amiss out there in that vast amusement park known as evangelicalism. I haven't seen Moses bobblehead dolls yet.....well, maybe I have, but that's beside the point. Moses- not Jesus- has become a major focus of contemporary Christians. And not in a way that is Biblically healthy or balanced....

...The New Testament does not use the burning bush incident, or any teachings derived from it, as particularly important in the Christian life. Blackaby's discovery of the realities of EG in the Old Testament is much like Bruce Wilkinson's discovery that the key to "enlarging your territory" lay in the obscure prayer of Jabez. Evangelical Christians are surely aware that Jesus taught extensively on how we "know" God, and he does not use the burning bush episode as his focus. In the Gospels, it is in believing, abiding in Christ, obeying Christ and trusting Christ that we come to know God. God has revealed himself in Jesus in a way far clearer than in any Old Covenant example of experience. ...

...How harmful is it to teach New Testament Christians using Old Testament examples? This is not a problem, if the Bible is rightly divided. But saying that the key to knowing God is not in exclusively in Christ, but in a direct, Moses' like encounter with God, is dangerously misleading. Thousands have taken the EG course and have begun putting their focus on hearing directly from God. "God spoke to me and said..." has become the final authority for many Christians as they shape their own spiritual lives around the experience of Moses.

Can anyone imagine a New Testament writer saying that the key to experiencing God comes in a direct encounter or experience like the burning bush? Blackaby is sincere in what he says, but he is Biblically off base to teach that the burning bush experience, rather than the Holy Spirit's sovereign work in each Christian's life, is the "reality" that leads to knowing God....

...Far be it from me to attempt an explanation of the huge theme of God's glory as it is revealed in scripture. It is a magnificent topic that comprehensively ties together much in the plan of God in Christ. But to understand contemporary worship music and preaching's interest in this topic, we need go no further than the story of the Exodus, and Moses' encounters with God on Mount Sinai. Here, the glory of God was visual and observable, first to the people in acts and presence of God, and then to Moses as he spent time with God on the mountain.

It is curious that the tradition of Christian hymnody did not pick up on this theme, yet modern CCM can't get enough of it. This is probably the result of contemporary preachers applying the "glory" theme in the Exodus and Moses passages to worship and the Christian life. While this is just my theory, I think anyone can see in the song above the evidence of sermons they have heard that spoke about "mountaintop experiences,""coming down from the mountain" and so forth.

As churches have put more and more emphasis on experience in the corporate worship setting, "glory" language became more common. Revivals are the "glory" of God descending on a church. Manifestations of the Spirit are God's glory in the midst of his people. Intense and emotional worship experiences are glimpses of God's glory. The Charismatic/Pentecostal side of evangelicalism is not without stories of God's visible glory descending in a cloud during a meeting.

This hunger for a repetition of visible glory, and equating personal and corporate experiences with such glory, has made it much easier to sing about the glory of God in the way we encounter in contemporary worship music. We want to see your glory, say the songwriters. Meaning: We want to have an experience that we have labeled "the Glory of God."...