Why do all Protestants (including Baptists and Evangelicals) use ritual?

Question

Why do all Protestants including Evangelicals and Baptists use ritual in worship and practice such as the sinners prayer, alter call, crying out Amen to the preach when he asks for it, doing what they label as ordinances, singing at service, lighting Christimas candles and Advent candles, dressing the pastor and choir up in gowns, making the worship service a central ritual around a bible study with note taking and creating the practice of "believers baptism" to replace the biblical meaning of being born again?

30 mins and only 3 answers makes you wonder doesn't it I've touched on a very valid point. Jed the obvious is all ritual is not bad. Often Protestants are trained in answers which suggest all ritual is bad never realizing they themselves celebrate God using ritual.

Ritual plays a part in every high point of life whether it be birth, graduation, marriage or Godly worship. The real question should be why do you think God is not good enough for ritual worship?

Answer 1

I just read someone say they are Baptist but not Protestant...that's a good one. In order to not be Protestant, one must be Catholic.
Some rituals, or celebrations are biblicaly based. Singing was invented by God as a means of praising Him. It is ordained to sing praises to God. Christmas is purely a Catholic originated tradition as is the Advent thing you mentioned.
I am a Seventh-day Adventist...I really am not sure what your sinner's prayer is. Amen is a word from the Bible which has a specific meaning "God Wills It". Just as Alelujah means "Praise God!" Gowns are not worn at my church, except for special occasions like being baptized, or choir performances...and not by the minister (unless he's baptizing someone). Although at times people are baptized in their street clothes or some swimming apparel.
So why not? There were all kinds of rituals in Judaism, our root religion.

Answer 2

I'll try to answer these in the order they were mentioned.

Sinner's prayer--Not where I go to church. We believe that you have to confess your sins to God to be saved. These words have to come from the individual, and not from a teleprompter.

Altar call--Our altar is available for anyone to come and pray at any time. Making it available at the end of the service is a way to give those who wish to pray one final chance before the service ends.

Calling out Amen when the preacher asks for it--This one I have seen in our church. The preacher usually does this when he wants to make sure he got a certain point across. Unfortunately, I have heard a few preachers who use the "Can I get an Amen" as a way to boost their own egos. These men are in the pulpit for the wrong reason and need to go back to the altar.

Ordinances--These are simply listed beliefs that a church has to set boundaries for the members (i.e. abstaining from alcohol, premarital sex,etc.). I hope I haven't misunderstood your question on this one.

Singing at services--There is nothing wrong with singing God's praises; our church does it. When the singing becomes more important than the preaching, then it needs to be addressed. There are situations (I have seen them myself, and it annoys me) where people sing just because everyone one else does.

Lighting Christmas candles and Advent lights--We've had people at church who do take part in this ritual. For the most part, it is not something that our church has fully embraced.

Robes-- Not at our church. I've never understood why some churches do the whole robe thing anyway.

Making the worship service...to replace the biblical meaning of being born again--Wow. You've really put a lot into this one. Not sure what you mean by the last part of this; "believers baptism" is not a term I have heard used very often.

At the church I attend, we have weekly services. Sunday services are usually for edification, or the building up of the spirit to face the trials of the coming week. We also have a mid-week service. This is the service where we get more teaching than preaching. Nothing should ever replace the biblical meaning of being born again.

My overall comments to your question is this: A lot of things become ritual simply because they were done once, and the result was a wonderful service. If it worked once, then it will probably work again. Other rituals are brought about because people don't believe the worship of God should be a random series of events. Structure is good, but ritual is not so good.

I'm sure that other could give you a better explanation than I have, but I hope it gives you little insight as to why certain things are done.

Answer 3

Not all.
Some times, an idea catches on and grows so popular that it becomes a standard. The altar call is one such an idea. It doesn't violate any scripture and it does have a use. So, why not? But some don't care to use it, that's fine too.
Crying out amen, I don't care for. You can lose your train of thought. At least I can. Singing is common, and that has always been.
Nothing should cloud the understanding of what the Christian life is about.
Yet I think all too often, people see the external "ritual" and think that's either all there is, or that it's essential.
And yes, I have noticed a shift lately towards the more ritualized service. Interesting.

Answer 4

I was raised in a Baptist church and we never had a ritual Sinner's Prayer, there was no altar call, or crying out Amen, no lighting of Christmas or Advent candles, no dressing the pastor or choir up in robes BUT people were allowed and sometimes encouraged to take notes because they had relatives who could not attend that service and wished to know the content so they could have their own"Bible study" as you put it -at home, and of course, our church did have the believer's Baptism.

None of this, however,has anything do with being born again or any way interferes with it. You're born again when you accept Jesus as your personal Savior and no ritual can interfere with that.

Answer 5

I am a fundamental, Bible-believing, Independent Baptist, and I am NOT protestant.

However, as an independent Baptist, we do not hold to a church standard as such is used in the Catholic Church and Protestant Churches. My dad is a pastor of a church in Florida, and we change our services up a bit every once in a while... our Choir does not wear robes (though we ask them to be color coordinated), we do not use a "standard" sinner's prayer, we sing many different songs, we don't light Christmas candles, we do not ask people to say "Amen" but rather they will do it as each person feels led.

I believe EXACTLY what the Bible teaches, and if ANYONE can prove me wrong by simply using scripture IN CONTEXT, then I change my beliefs to match up exactly with the scriptures. I am NOT ritualistic.

Answer 6

The use of rituals is left over from the old testament. As one other writer in here wrote people feel comfortable with things that are familiar. But it also keeps order in a church service. As far as shouting amen, it should not be done just because the preacher says to, but because you are agreeing with what the preacher is saying. I have shouted amen and I have shouted praise the lord because I was happy with Gods word that was being preached.

Answer 7

All three irrational beliefs about other religions require belief that one's community & them alone are "RIGHT". There's a lack of spirituality in feeling that way about others. Also interesting that all three of those misbeliefs are bigotries & nothing more. 1. Messanics call themselves by another's religion because a.) they are clueless what Judaism actually is b.) they don't respect Judaism & belief Jews are wrong in their lack of interest in Mr. J c.) they buy into Christian replacement theology that most of Christanity now thinks is anti-semitic & needs to change. 2. Who care's what a word was used for at some point in time? Language is fluid & to get stuck on that is to reject modern science & sane understanding of the concept that time passes. Might as well get rid of their computers too. Muslims say who they are praying to, so that's what the word means! Side note, I thought it was 1.2 Billion Muslims, not 2 Billion? 3. Catholics are a form of Christianity, the original form. It shows real insecurity to have to poke fun at Catholics. I'm still thinking about this. It's all bigotry. It all comes through as extreme insecuity in their own religious beliefs. It all requires a very immature stage of development to call out other people as inadequate as a religious policy. The source is there, not in those they point to. =========== Discord7 Not practicing a religion, & practicing a DIFFERENT religion are two different things! Of course if a Jew switches to Christian beliefs they become Christain. They quesiton is why are some of those not proud of it? They are - they just use Jew to bash Jews -- and since 90% were never Jews, this makes sense (sort of). (You used to say a lot of things supportive of Judaism. Did I miss a change?) Nicolas "A person can be a Jew by blood " FALSE - that's Hitler's definition of a Jew -- NOT a Judaism's definition. All you inherit is a birthright. When someone convert's we don't give them a transfusion :). Thanks for understanding though that Messanics belief in Jesus makes them Christians.

Answer 8

Whether they are rituals, ceremonies, programs, or whatever you may call them, they are used in church services so that there would be a systematic and organized form of worship. I can see you don't even understand the real meaning of being "born again." "Believers (should be believer's or believers') baptism (that you are talking about) does not replace the meaning of being born again. Hey! Simplify or modify your question heh?

Answer 9

It is human nature to find comfort in ritual. We even create ritual in our every day lives, just observe your own actions during the day.

Answer 10

ritual is fine as long as it is Biblical - some of the Catholic rituals are fine but not all

here I'll give you one example - the yearly ritual of celebrating Mary's Bodily Assumption to Heaven - there is no reference to this in the Bible only tradition but Catholics like to take this day to celebrate and praise another human