Dr. John Bergsma

And what I'd say is that those distinctions are helpful and they're helpful to bring clarity to the situation so that we do not

begin to give the adoration or the worship of God, which is due to him alone, to an image or to a saint, et cetera.

So those distinctions help rather than hurt the desire not to slide into idolatry.

And it became necessary because the language of scripture itself was not precise enough to make the distinction.

Because in the New Testament, for example, you have a word in Greek, proskuneo, which means both to bow down, but typically in the New Testament, specifically to worship.

And people come and they worship Jesus frequently in the New Testament.

But that same word proskuneo a couple of times is used for a person.

So in Matthew 18, the servant who was forgiven greatly

Actually, let me clarify.

In Matthew 18, that's the story of the unforgiving servant.

And he's forgiven by the king.

And then he goes out and tries to choke this guy who owes him like a hundred bucks.

And it says that that servant fell down and worshiped the other one, proskuneo, using the word that's usually used for worshiping Jesus.

Oh, interesting.

But in that parable, it's not considered wrong or that he's doing something bad.

He's just showing honor or deference to this more senior servant.

Likewise, in Revelation 3, Jesus is writing to the churches in Asia Minor.

And he talks about how in the future, those who belong to the synagogue of Satan are gonna come and proskuneo to you, the Christians of whatever church it was that he was talking to there.

And there, proskuneo is used in a sense of bowing down and showing honor or veneration the way that in ancient times people would to a king or a priest or a judge.

But then at the end of Revelation, a couple of times, John falls down and proskuneos an angel and the angel says, no, no, no, no, you can't do that.