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What does the Bible actually mean by “worship”?

That sounds like a simple question until we remember that the Bible wasn’t written in English. Behind the one English word worship is a much richer biblical vocabulary describing bowing, service, sacrifice, offerings, thanksgiving, praise, reverence, liturgical service, and more.

So when someone says, “That’s worship,” my first question is: Which one?

In Episode 5 of Pipes with Pappy, we dig into the Hebrew and Greek behind our English vocabulary, why ancient Catholic distinctions like latria, dulia, and hyperdulia weren’t invented to dodge accusations about Mary, and why translating ancient ideas into English can sometimes flatten distinctions that really matter.

We’ll also talk about statues, bowing, the American flag, praise music, sacrifice, the Mass, the Eucharist, and the question that changed the way I thought about Christian worship:

What if worship was never supposed to revolve primarily around me in the first place?

Seek deeply. Pray daily. Speak clearly. Share regularly. Serve humbly.

Veritas.

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What does the word “pray” actually mean?

For many modern Christians, prayer means one thing: talking to God. So when Catholics say they “pray to Mary” or “pray to the saints,” the conclusion can seem obvious. If prayer belongs to God, Catholics must be worshiping them.

But what if the argument begins with a definition Catholics never stopped using differently?

In this episode of Pipes with Pappy, I dig into the history of one little four-letter word. We’ll look at how pray was used in ordinary English, how it appears in the King James Bible, why the biblical languages contain a much richer vocabulary than our single English word suggests, and why Catholics still use pray in its traditional sense of asking or entreating.

Then we get into the real theological questions: Christ as the one Mediator in 1 Timothy 2:5–6, Christian intercession, the Body of Christ, the Communion of Saints, Revelation’s picture of prayer in heaven, and why asking a saint to pray for you is not the same claim as worshiping that saint.

Understanding the word doesn’t prove every Catholic claim about the Communion of Saints. It does something more basic: it gets us past an argument about definitions so we can finally discuss the actual disagreement.

I’ve been saying this since about 2006: If you want to rewrite history, you don’t have to change the words on the page. You can simply redefine them.

Steelman the position first. Then tear it apart if you can. At least then we’re actually talking to each other.

Seek deeply. Pray daily. Speak clearly. Share regularly. Serve humbly.

Veritas.

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

What exactly is “the Gospel”?

Christians use that word constantly, and Galatians 1 is often quoted to accuse Catholics of preaching “another gospel.” But before making that accusation, there’s a more basic question we need to answer: What Gospel did Paul actually preach?

In Episode 3 of Pipes with Pappy, I go back to Scripture, especially Mark 1, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 15, and Galatians 1, and then follow the Christian proclamation through the early Church and into the centuries before the Reformation.

We’ll also examine an important distinction: Is the Gospel itself “justification by faith alone,” or is justification a question about how we receive and participate in the saving work proclaimed by the Gospel?

This isn’t an episode about settling every Catholic-Protestant disagreement. It’s intentionally narrower than that.

One question:

What is the Gospel?

Jesus Christ is Lord. He died for our sins. He was buried. He rose from the dead. He reigns. He will come again.

If Catholics and Protestants agree on that proclamation, then perhaps our real disagreements are somewhere else, and those are the disagreements we should actually be discussing.

Steelman the position first. Then tear it apart if you can. At least then we’re actually talking to each other.

Seek deeply. Pray daily. Speak clearly. Share regularly. Serve humbly.

Veritas.