“When living in an egotistical age, it is hard to convince people that what they give to God sincerely may not be acceptable to Him. Narcissism imagines that God must simply melt at the sight His child’s scribble-drawing, knowing how sincere the amateurish effort was. Scripture shatters this pleasantly self-satisfied view.
“We think of Aaron and Israel making a symbol of Yahweh out of gold, declaring ‘Tomorrow is a feast day unto Yahweh!’ (Exod. 32:5). God suggested to Moses that an appropriate response to this kind of worship would be to annihilate the entire nation.”
He includes 10 other Scriptural examples and ends with this line.
“The lesson from all this must be that God does not accept worship merely because it is offered in His direction.”
David de Bruyn, The Conservative Church
It would seem that the sole requirement today for our worship to be acceptable is for it to be “authentic.” Here’s a quote from D.A. Carson from the forward of Naselli & Crowley’s book “Conscience.”
“As Charles Taylor reminds us in his impressive book “A Secular Age,” we live in the age of “authenticity,” in which individuals feel they have the right to pursue and do whatever they want: that is what makes them “authentic.” Inevitably, that stance makes one suspicious of all voices of authority that seem to tug in any direction different from what makes our lives “authentic.” The source or nature of that authority does not matter: government, parents, tradition, religion, morality. Nothing trumps my right to be “authentic,” which from a Christian perspective is nothing other than the siren call of the supreme idol: Self. Combine this with a strong emphasis on individualism and the stage is set for the overthrow of a great deal of what was received from the past.”