Read the verses carefully...all creation is giving "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power" to God who is sitting on his throne, AND to the Lamb. But the elders fell down and worshipped God. When worship is directed to God, it is proper worship.
This is the reason I asked you twice, and you didn't answer.
Why do you prefer the translators use "worship" instead of "do obeisance"?
Thank you Deeje for looking through all those verses. I think we can start the discussion at hand.
I'll be using the NASB as it is translated from the original Greek, but if you feel that the passage is being biased towards my doctrine, I'll use another translation.
Why do I make such a strong case on worship? Because as we all know, it forms an important aspect of how us, as humans, relate to God. It can take place in the form of singing, bowing down, paying tithes, giving glory, etc. The importance of the ten commandments is that we are not to worship anything as if the recipient is taking on the place of "God". Hence idolatry can take place if you worship an object (idol), material (money), or a human being.
'"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. ' Matthew 6:24
'On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. The people kept crying out, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died. ' Acts 12:21-23
So we can all agree that there is worship that is acceptable in God's eyes as long as it is done in respect, but it cannot be done as if we are worshiping a divine entity (which only belongs to Jehovah).
I think in all instances where worship is mentioned, we need to look at the context and decide for ourselves whether it is merely 'obeisance' or 'worship', which God forbade to other entities. That's why I was insistent that we should look at the context for ourselves and not let the translators decide what was and wasn't worship.
So Deeje to answer your question about the Magis 'worshiping' baby Jesus, we need to see what they thought of Jesus at the time.
'Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him." ' Matthew 2:1-2
Note that the magis thought of Jesus as the 'King of the Jews'. The Jewish people were well aware of the coming Messiah, but what they had in their minds was someone more like King David, a human being. Thus we can assume that the Magis simply thought of Jesus as a forthcoming King and not as a divine entity. The worship in this sense was simply paying homage, or giving respect, not the same degree of worship that Jehovah expects from us.
This scenario differs very much in the next passage:
'When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, "You are certainly God's Son!" ' Matthew 14:32-33
The context here is that Jesus was walking on water, and he demonstrated to his disciples that even nature was under his authority. After seeing this, they worshiped him as God's Son. Now was this simply paying homage, or were they worshiping his divinity? The arguments I've been hearing for justifying Jesus' worship is his sacrifice on the cross, but note that this is before his crucifixion. And Jesus is not directing the worship back to God, which should have been a violation of the ten commandments.
Also read the following passages in Revelation:
'
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." ' Revelation 5:11-12
'And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, " holy , holy , holy is the Lord God , the almighty , who was and who is and who is to come ." And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created." '
Revelation 4:8-11
'And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." And the four living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshiped. ' Revelation 5:13-14
So we know that this worship described in Revelation 5:13-14 was not only to Yahweh, but also to Jesus as well. This honor and glory and blessing is being attributed to both Jesus (
Revelation 5:11-12) and Yahweh (Revelation 4:8-11).
The question is just how far must worship go to violate the commandment of "You shall only serve and worship the Lord?" We see that bowing down to angels is not acceptable in the Bible, nor is confessing divinity for another human being. Surely what we are seeing in Revelation is going past simple 'obeisance'. It is one thing to acknowledge someone's authority on Earth, it is another to have myriads of angels and elders giving you honor and glory.
