Theological term
Formalism
2 sermons · All terms
Judges 17
Judges 17 exposes a pattern of religious apostasy that pervades Israel in the period of the judges: a facade of devotion to Yahweh maintained through idolatry, syncretism, and unauthorized worship. The chapter traces corruption from Micah's household through the Levitical priesthood, demonstrating that doing what is right in one's own eyes is identical to doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord. Three dangers pressing on the contemporary church emerge from the text — the folly of idolatry, the persistence of syncretism, and the subjectivism that treats worship as a matter of personal preference — and the sermon calls hearers to submit to divine regulation of worship rather than construct religion on their own terms.
A Question About Fasting
Zechariah 7 records a delegation from Bethel arriving in Jerusalem to ask the priests whether the fasts commemorating the destruction of the temple should continue now that the temple is being rebuilt. Rather than answering the calendar question directly, God through Zechariah exposes the deeper problem: these fasts had been observed as empty external rites, not as genuine heart devotion to God. The sermon works through the text in three movements — the question posed, the divine answer exposing formalism, and the necessity of genuine religion marked by justice, mercy, and compassion — and closes with a call to believe the gospel before the heart becomes too hardened to hear.