It should be apparent to most people that there seems to be a media push/hype for “taking a knee” these days. So much of it seems to be deliberately staged and widely publicized. Don’t you find it strange? I find it extremely off-putting. I am convinced that this is totally contrived and orchestrated as part of the NWO Agenda.
I tell you what bothers me. Kneeling/bowing has ALWAYS been a form of worship. Throughout history it is used to honor/worship/reverence The Creator God/Pagan Gods/God-Men such as Kings and Pharaohs. In today’s world they are actually beginning to outright call our movie/music Idols what they are gods and goddess and declaring their worship. Fans are cutting themselves for their idols and weeping and wailing, falling down on their faces before them. THIS IS WORSHIP!
There is only ONE who is worthy of our Praise/Worship/Reverence and that is the Creator. When we kneel and bow before God we are outwardly acknowledging the greatness of God with a physical action. Outward physical expression is evidence of our inward spiritual state/attitude/condition. We can affect our inward spiritual state/attitude/condition by our outward physical expression. As we enter into worshp, by bowing, kneeling or raising our hands, we actually begin to move ourselves into the realm of the spirit and connect with GOD.
to kneel or bow is an act of blessing or adoration. We see this literal word all throughout Scripture and in the context of praise it means to bow down in worship as an act of adoration.
But we also see it to mean bless in the same way that God “blessed” Adam and Eve, encouraging them to be fruitful and multiply.
In the praise sense, to kneel and to bow is a blessing to God. We see this in Genesis 14 when Abraham’s servant finds Rebekah (to be Isaac’s wife). He bows down and worships the Lord. We also see the Israelites bowing down to idols and other Gods all throughout their history.
Using some word pictures to paint how this looks as we enter into praise, we might find ourselves thinking of a person who takes a knee or bows when someone of great importance enters the room. As an outward sign of an inward respect and reverence one would kneel and make themselves “lower” than the person receiving the reverence. Source
I believe that all this public bowing and kneeling is preparing us to worship the Anti-Christ. For so long, especially here in America, we have been so far removed ffom worship. We have become proud/arrogant and self centered. We have not had a King in our country for over 200 years. We have forgotten what it is to reverance anyone. We used to respect the OFFICE of the Presidency, whether we liked/agreed with the current president or not. But, today, people have NO RESPECT for anyone or anything. Reverence does not exist. So bowing and kneeling is foreign to us and we have lost the symbolism and the spirit behind it.
Frankly, as selfish and proud as we are today, I am surprised that ANYONE can get any of us to BOW! That is very likely why they have had to stage all this to get the image in our heads and steer us toward acceptance of the idea. That way, when the AntiChrist demands it, we will be less likely to refuse.
Well, I can tell you right now, I will NEVER willingly bow or kneel to anyone! That is an act reserved for the ONE who is WORTHY!
Do you remember the song below?
Not Gonna Bow
| Ninety feet tall and nine feet wide Solid gold – “It must be a god!” They were told “When you hear the music play Fall on your knees and begin to pray” They were told But when the trumpet sounded The whole world bowed Three men stood there all alone They said Not gonna bow to your idols Not gonna bow, oh no Not gonna bow to your idols I won’t bow down |
All Bobby wanted was just to fit in To be accepted he must act like them He said “No!” “Everybody does it! So, what’s the fuss? Come on, Bobby, won’t’cha be like us?” He said “No!” And when the pressure came He watched them bow Bobby stood there all alone He said Not gonna bow to your idols Not gonna bow, oh no Not gonna bow to your idols I won’t bow down |
| We don’t have to give in to it We can choose to go against the crowd |
Russ Taff |
We don’t have to give in and join the crowd. We have the responsibility to choose. Our choice has consequences. We have the right to choose, certainly. but we must live with the choice we make.
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HOLY ENVY: THE HOLINESS OF KNEELING
In Judaism, or certainly in the Orthodox Jewish tradition, we’re not supposed to imitate, much less envy, the ways of the gentiles (pagans), a name we give to those outside our faith. So when Krister Stendhal, the late Bishop of Stockholm, urged believers to look for the admirable in other religions, I did not entirely know what to make of it. Does my own faith, the one true faith if I’m right, lack something? Did God give other peoples better ways to serve Him?These questions do not preoccupy me unduly. But there is one thing I particularly admire. It is, perhaps, the simplest religious act of all.
“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.” In America, a country whose religious culture is shaped by Christian ways of worship, it is the child kneeling by the bedside that often comes to mind when I think of prayer. This is so despite the fact that I recite the prescribed Jewish prayers three times a day. For Ultra-orthodox Jews, who are more insular, the dominant culture’s images play far less a role in shaping their religious imagination. But, for me, a Modern Orthodox Jew, who, in my youth, consumed the same books, movies, television shows as my fellow citizens, the image of the child knelt in prayer is strong.
What does this act of kneeling mean? To kneel is to humble oneself. It is to show reverence. Submission. Sometimes it is to beg. Other times it is to surrender to overwhelming pain. One story I will never forget is of a great rabbi who, upon hearing that his wife of many years had passed away, fell to his knees in grief, sobbing and wrapping his arms around God’s ankles, as it were. Perhaps being on one’s knees is so compelling because it is not always a voluntary act, but an involuntary expression of being physically, emotionally, or spiritually destitute.
In Judaism, we take kneeling very seriously. In ancient times, this act took place at the Temple in Jerusalem when, on the holiest of days, the high priest pronounced the ineffable name of God. Nowadays, we reserve kneeling (and bowing down from our knees) for a few moments during the High Holidays, especially in the part of the liturgy that recounts the Temple scene. But never besides then. In refraining from kneeling at all other times, in prayer and not, we demonstrate that nothing equates to the Temple experience. (Or rather, that no one but GOD is worthy of our surrender, worship, adoration, exhaltation.) Indeed, depending on the flooring of the synagogue, we often put down a cloth or paper towel to avoid incidentally touching down on a marble or even wood surface.
Moreover, during the holiest prayers in our liturgy, including our daily recitals, we stand fully erect, feet together, in imitation of the angels who are said to appear to have only one leg (like our two legs together) and no knees. So, kneeling in prayer is not only rare for Jews but also not necessarily our most sanctified stance.
And yet—and yet—when I am feeling most humble (not often, to be sure) or desperate (not often, either, thank God) or praiseful (working on that one), I feel the urge to kneel. I don’t do it, but I almost wish I could. At those times, I am slightly jealous of my Catholic friends who kneel each week (or day) at Mass. We Jews are ever mindful of the fact that worship is not just a function of the mind and the lips, but of one’s entire being. We regularly enact the Psalmist’s image “All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee” (Psalms 35:10) by swaying back and forth as we pray. It is a characteristically Jewish image — somewhat like the Evangelical Protestant with outstretched arms, hands high in the air — a trademark of our faith that is alien to all others.
So, it is not that my tradition is insensitive to praying with one’s whole self — with heart, soul, and might devoted in concert to God. Rather, it is being schooled in a faith that values embodied worship and at the same time in a culture that has powerful depictions of knelt prayer that may explain why I am tempted to take a knee from time to time. Spontaneously. Or perhaps the urge to kneel before God is built into our nature as humans, and the God of Israel disciplines us to genuflect only before Him in His house.
As an Orthodox Jew, I will continue to kneel only in the holiest of moments and places. As God would have me do. But whenever I behold seekers of divine comfort drop to their knees in prayer, I will still be moved to a spiritual solidarity that makes this world a humbler place.
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To Kneel Or Not to Kneel? Judaism Has an Answer.
What the NFL’s protesters can learn from the ancient ‘aleinu’ prayer.
When morning dawned on Sunday, no one really knew how the day’s football protests would unfold. Sure, those taking a knee knew that they were sticking a finger in the president’s eye, but they were probably less sure about how it would play with their bosses and fans. The same is true of players who didn’t really feel like taking a stand. “Will it cost me anything in terms of respect and affection?” they perhaps thought. “Will my teammates feel let down?”
The day’s power stemmed, in no small measure, from such uncertainties, and whatever the future may hold for the Take a Knee movement, what is without question is that things will never again be as fresh or as unpredictable as they were this past weekend.
It’s an interesting coincidence that Sunday’s games came between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur—the one time of year that Jews kneel during prayer.
It wasn’t always so. The evidence is right there in the text of the Aleinu prayer: Va’anachnu korim, u’mishtachavim, u’modim, lifnei melech, malchei ham’lachim, hakadosh baruch hu. And we bend our knees, and bow down, and give thanks, before the Supreme King of Kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He.
Interpretations abound as to why kneeling during the Aleinu has become reserved for only the holiest of days. Kneeling, custom now holds, is something that pagans do—or Christians or Muslims. The ubiquity of the act becomes the argument against it. Commonness here is seen as the opposite of holiness.
There is also a second argument, one focused more on the individual than the community. The Talmud discusses the case of a person of holiness and stature discouraged from kneeling in his prayers, for if such a person were to kneel, and his prayers were not accepted, it would seem, in the eyes of the masses, as if God were unfair and unjust.
The explanations differ but they nonetheless circle around to the same idea: The act of kneeling is kept sacred by doing it only sparingly.
It’s been suggested that Colin Kaepernick himself has come to believe that his original gesture has been hyped to such an extent that if he were playing now he wouldn’t be doing it anymore.
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The “take a knee” military meaning might be different from what you’ve heard in mainstream media.
The phrase has certainly gained a lot of media attention recently after NFL players used the gesture back in 2016 to protest police brutality against African Americans during the national anthem.
The military came into the conversation when those against Kaepernick argued that taking a knee is disrespectful to active duty soldiers and military veterans.
But where did the whole thing start? What does the phrase “take a knee” really mean? Is it a military term or did it come from somewhere else?
Read on to learn more about the “take a knee” military meaning.
What does “take a knee” mean in military?
In general, taking a knee in the military is a sign of respect or simply taking a rest while on a mission. It’s a gesture that many soldiers will participate in at the foot of a fallen friend’s grave and isn’t seen as a negative at all.
Additionally, a soldier in the military might take a knee as more of a defensive maneuver. Getting on one knee allows the person to be in a better position, almost like at the start of a track meet, where they able to quickly run or pivot at the drop of a hat.
With the recent news coverage claiming that kneeling during the national anthem is disrespectful to soldiers and veterans, some service members, especially within the Army find the uproar strange.
In the Army, take a knee means that you’re pausing, taking a breather, and stepping back to consider a situation. By no means is it a disrespectful gesture.
In fact, according to Mashed Radish, an etymology blog, when Kaepernick, the football player, recently took a knee during the national anthem at a major NFL game and rekindled the phrase itself, he came to an agreement with Nate Boyer, former long snapper and Green Beret by agreeing to take a knee.
See, when Kaepernick first made a demonstration as an act of protest against police brutality in the U.S. he kept seated during the national anthem. Boyer wrote to him with “frustrated understanding” and suggested he take a knee.
Since taking a knee would both honor and respect veterans and fallen soldiers who risked so much and, in some cases, sacrificed everything for the freedom of our country, the two agreed that Kaepernick could continue to protest for what he believes in while staying respectful to the armed forces.
So, when people start a rampage and get all revved up that football players who take a knee during the national anthem are disrespectful to the military and veterans, it’s quite a false statement.
The other origins of “take a knee”
Even though the phrase “take a knee” became re-popularized by Kaepernick and the NFL, its origins span from military to religion to even cultural norms.
Obviously, the definition and meaning of “take a knee”, like most words and phrases, are fluid and often changing. But its history dates back to at least 1960, firmly rooted in American football.
According to another etymology blog called Language Log, the phrase “take a knee” seems to be influenced by other “take” idioms like “take a stand”, “take a sip”, or “take a seat”.
As the blogger went back to search through old digitized newspapers, he found a clipping about the University of South Carolina Gamecocks varsity-alumni football team from 1960. After the recent passing of a beloved athletic director and longtime coach Rex Enright, one alumni player Albert “King” Dixon, Jr. decided to “take a knee” in Enright’s memory during halftime.
This type of knee-taking is reminiscent of how a soldier might “take a knee” for a fallen brother or sister. But where does this sentiment come from?
Perhaps it comes from religion. In most religions of the world, people kneel in prayer to a higher power, deity, god, or gods. Even within the football origins, teams often pray before a game in the locker room by taking a knee.
The way Dixon, Jr. took a knee for his fallen coach seems to fall under this category of prayer and reverence.
Yet, in other football references post-1960, “take a knee” referred to activities more like having a rest or gathering oneself to make a decision. Once again, especially in the Army, this expression linked with “take a knee” seems to have military roots or at least military similarities when it comes to sentiment.
Additionally, in football, a player might “take a knee” during the actual game. Also explained as “downing the ball”, a player in control of the ball would put his knee down to end the play prematurely if it was in the best interest of the team.
So, overall, in American football, one might “take a knee” in prayer before a big game, during a pep talk while listening to a coach, downing the ball and ending play, or to express a moment of solidarity in the way Kaepernick demonstrated.
Take a look at this instance when the Navy football team kneeled in prayer.
Going back to religious examples, Catholics would take a knee in front of the altar in prayer or as a symbol of their devotion. It’s an act of reverence as well as adoration. (WORSHIP)
It’s also obvious in monarchies, where subjects might take a knee to bow to their king or queen in an expression of subservience, submission, love, and obedience or a combination of the four.
Today, probably one of the most culturally accepted ways to take a knee is when one person proposes marriage to another person. Similarly, it’s a gesture of devotion, adoration, and reverence showing submission and humility.
Now, since the Kaepernick demonstration, “take a knee” is used as a way to express solidarity against the racial injustice and defiance against President Donald Trump. It’s an all-in-one phrase where you don’t necessarily have to actually put one knee on the ground. For example, one might say, “Police brutality? I’ll take a knee on that one.” This explains that you disagree without actually physically protesting anything.
It’s even a hashtag on social media in forms like #takeaknee or #taketheknee where people post about their problems with society, especially police brutality against African Americans.
It’s quite interesting how over time these meanings evolve and change based on the current political and social climate from something that was quite a simple gesture to now such a powerful movement. (the only thing that matters is the root, everything else is a cover up, a lie, a deceit. GOD TOLD ME THAT, it applies to ALL THINGS!.)
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Excerpts Only Posted Here. You can view the entire article by clicking the link above.
There are groups, of no small influence, who are trying to talk us out of kneeling. “It doesn’t suit our culture”, they say (which culture?) “It’s not right for a grown man to do this — he should face God on his feet”. Or again: “It’s not appropriate for redeemed man — he has been set free by Christ and doesn’t need to kneel any more”.
If we look at history, we can see that the Greeks and Romans rejected kneeling. In view of the squabbling, partisan deities described in mythology, this attitude was thoroughly justified. It was only too obvious that these gods were not God, even if you were dependent on their capricious power and had to make sure that, whenever possible, you enjoyed their favor. And so they said that kneeling was unworthy of a free man, unsuitable for the culture of Greece, something the barbarians went in for. Plutarch and Theophrastus regarded kneeling as an expression of superstition.
Aristotle called it a barbaric form of behavior (cf. Rhetoric 1361 a 36). Saint Augustine agreed with him in a certain respect: the false gods were only the masks of demons, who subjected men to the worship of money and to self-seeking, thus making them “servile” and superstitious. He said that the humility of Christ and His love, which went as far as the Cross, have freed us from these powers. We now kneel before that humility. The kneeling of Christians is not a form of inculturation into existing customs. It is quite the opposite, an expression of Christian culture, which transforms the existing culture through a new and deeper knowledge and experience of God.
Kneeling does not come from any culture — it comes from the Bible and its knowledge of God. The central importance of kneeling in the Bible can be seen in a very concrete way. The word proskynein alone occurs fifty-nine times in the New Testament, twenty-four of which are in the Apocalypse, the book of the heavenly Liturgy, which is presented to the Church as the standard for her own Liturgy.
On closer inspection, we can discern three closely related forms of posture. First there is prostratio — lying with one’s face to the ground before the overwhelming power of God; secondly, especially in the New Testament, there is falling to one’s knees before another; and thirdly, there is kneeling. Linguistically, the three forms of posture are not always clearly distinguished. They can be combined or merged with one another.
Prostration
For the sake of brevity, I should like to mention, in the case of prostratio, just one text from the Old Testament and another from the New.
In the Old Testament, there is an appearance of God to Joshua before the taking of Jericho, an appearance that the sacred author quite deliberately presents as a parallel to God’s revelation of Himself to Moses in the burning bush. Joshua sees “the commander of the army of the Lord” and, having recognized who He is, throws himself to the ground. At that moment he hears the words once spoken to Moses: “Put off your shoes from your feet; for the place where you stand is holy” (Josh 5:15). In the mysterious form of the “commander of the army of the Lord”, the hidden God Himself speaks to Joshua, and Joshua throws himself down before Him.
Origen gives a beautiful interpretation of this text: “Is there any other commander of the powers of the Lord than our Lord Jesus Christ?” According to this view, Joshua is worshipping the One who is to come — the coming of Christ.
In the case of the New Testament, from the Fathers onward, Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives was especially important. According to Saint Matthew (22:39) and Saint Mark (14:35), Jesus throws Himself to the ground; indeed, He falls to the earth (according to Matthew). However, Saint Luke, who in his whole work (both the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles) is in a special way the theologian of kneeling prayer, tells us that Jesus prayed on His knees. This prayer, the prayer by which Jesus enters into His Passion, is an example for us, both as a gesture and in its content. The gesture: Jesus assumes, as it were, the fall of man, lets himself fall into man’s fallenness, prays to the Father out of the lowest depths of human dereliction and anguish. He lays His will in the will of the Father’s: “Not my will but yours be done”. He lays the human will in the divine. He takes up all the hesitation of the human will and endures it. It is this very conforming of the human will to the divine that is the heart of redemption. For the fall of man depends on the contradiction of wills, on the opposition of the human will to the divine, which the tempter leads man to think is the condition of his freedom. Only one’s own autonomous will, subject to no other will, is freedom. “Not my will, but yours …” — those are the words of truth, for God’s will is not in opposition to our own, but the ground and condition of its possibility. Only when our will rests in the will of God does it become truly will and truly free.
The suffering and struggle of Gethsemane is the struggle for this redemptive truth, for this uniting of what is divided, for the uniting that is communion with God. Now we understand why the Son’s loving way of addressing the Father, “Abba”, is found in this place (cf. Mk 14:36). Saint Paul sees in this cry the prayer that the Holy Spirit places on our lips (cf. Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6) and thus anchors our Spirit-filled prayer in the Lord’s prayer in Gethsemane.
In the Church’s Liturgy today, prostration appears on two occasions: on Good Friday and at ordinations. On Good Friday, the day of the Lord’s crucifixion, it is the fitting expression of our sense of shock at the fact that we by our sins share in the responsibility for the death of Christ. We throw ourselves down and participate in His shock, in His descent into the depths of anguish. We throw ourselves down and so acknowledge where we are and who we are: fallen creatures whom only He can set on their feet. We throw ourselves down, as Jesus did, before the mystery of God’s power present to us, knowing that the Cross is the true burning bush, the place of the flame of God’s love, which burns but does not destroy.
At ordinations prostration comes from the awareness of our absolute incapacity, by our own powers, to take on the priestly mission of Jesus Christ, to speak with His “I”. While the ordinands are lying on the ground, the whole congregation sings the Litany of the Saints. I shall never forget lying on the ground at the time of my own priestly and episcopal ordination. When I was ordained bishop, my intense feeling of inadequacy, incapacity, in the face of the greatness of the task was even stronger than at my priestly ordination. The fact that the praying Church was calling upon all the saints, that the prayer of the Church really was enveloping and embracing me, was a wonderful consolation. In my incapacity, which had to be expressed in the bodily posture of prostration, this prayer, this presence of all the saints, of the living and the dead, was a wonderful strength — it was the only thing that could, as it were, lift me up. Only the presence of the saints with me made possible the path that lay before me.
Kneeling before another
Secondly, we must mention the gesture of falling to one’s knees before another, which is described four times in the Gospels (cf. Mk 1:40; 10:17; Mt 17:14; 27:29) by means of the word gonypetein. Let us single out Mark 1:40. A leper comes to Jesus and begs Him for help. He falls to his knees before Him and says: “If you will, you can make me clean”. It is hard to assess the significance of the gesture. What we have here is surely not a proper act of adoration, but rather a supplication expressed fervently in bodily form, while showing a trust in a power beyond the merely human.
The situation is different, though, with the classical word for adoration on one’s knees — proskynein. I shall give two examples in order to clarify the question that faces the translator.
First there is the account of how, after the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus stays with the Father on the mountain, while the disciples struggle in vain on the lake with the wind and the waves. Jesus comes to them across the water. Peter hurries toward Him and is saved from sinking by the Lord. Then Jesus climbs into the boat, and the wind lets up. The text continues: “And the ship’s crew came and said, falling at His feet, ‘Thou art indeed the Son of God’” (Mt 14:33, Knox version). Other translations say: “[The disciples] in the boat worshiped [Jesus], saying …” (RSV). Both translations are correct. Each emphasizes one aspect of what is going on. The Knox version brings out the bodily expression, while the RSV shows what is happening interiorly. It is perfectly clear from the structure of the narrative that the gesture (falling on their knees) of acknowledging Jesus as the Son of God is an act of worship.
We encounter a similar set of problems in Saint John’s Gospel when we read the account of the healing of the man born blind. This narrative, which is structured in a truly “theo-dramatic” way, ends with a dialogue between Jesus and the man He has healed. It serves as a model for the dialogue of conversion, for the whole narrative must also be seen as a profound exposition of the existential and theological significance of Baptism.
In the dialogue, Jesus asks the man whether he believes in the Son of Man. The man born blind replies: “Tell me who He is, Lord”. When Jesus says, “It is He who is speaking to you”, the man makes the confession of faith: “I do believe, Lord”, and then he “[falls] down to worship Him” (Jn 9:35-38, Knox version adapted). Earlier translations said: “He worshiped Him”. In fact, the whole scene is directed toward the act of faith and the worship of Jesus, which follows from it. Now the eyes of the heart, as well as of the body, are opened. The man has in truth begun to see.
For the exegesis of the text it is important to note that the word proskynein occurs eleven times in Saint John’s Gospel, of which nine occurrences are found in Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well (Jn 4:19-24). This conversation is entirely devoted to the theme of worship, and it is indisputable that here, as elsewhere in Saint John’s Gospel, the word always has the meaning of “worship”. Incidentally, this conversation, too, ends — like that of the healing of the man born blind — with Jesus’ revealing Himself: “I who speak to you am He” (Jn 4:26).
I have lingered over these texts, because they bring to light something important. In the two passages that we looked at most closely, the spiritual and bodily meanings of proskynein are really inseparable. The bodily gesture itself is the bearer of the spiritual meaning, which is precisely that of worship. Without the worship, the bodily gesture would be meaningless, while the spiritual act must of its very nature, because of the psychosomatic unity of man, express itself in the bodily gesture.
The two aspects are united in the one word, because in a very profound way they belong together. When kneeling becomes merely external, a merely physical act, it becomes meaningless. One the other hand, when someone tries to take worship back into the purely spiritual realm and refuses to give it embodied form, the act of worship evaporates, for what is purely spiritual is inappropriate to the nature of man. Worship is one of those fundamental acts that affect the whole man. That is why bending the knee before the presence of the living God is something we cannot abandon.
In saying this, we come to the typical gesture of kneeling on one or both knees. In the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the verb barak, “to kneel”, is cognate with the word berek, “knee”. The Hebrews regarded the knees as a symbol of strength, to bend the knee is, therefore, to bend our strength before the living God, an acknowledgment of the fact that all that we are we receive from Him. In important passages of the Old Testament, this gesture appears as an expression of worship.
At the dedication of the Temple, Solomon kneels “in the presence of all the assembly of Israel” (II Chron 6:13). After the Exile, in the afflictions of the returned Israel, which is still without a Temple, Ezra repeats this gesture at the time of the evening sacrifice: “I … fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God” (Ezra 9:5). The great psalm of the Passion, Psalm 22 (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”), ends with the promise: “Yes, to Him shall all the proud of the earth fall down; before Him all who go down to the dust shall throw themselves down” (v. 29, RSV adapted).
The related passage Isaiah 45:23 we shall have to consider in the context of the New Testament. The Acts of the Apostles tells us how Saint Peter (9:40), Saint Paul (20:36), and the whole Christian community (21:5) pray on their knees.
Particularly important for our question is the account of the martyrdom of Saint Stephen. The first man to witness to Christ with his blood is described in his suffering as a perfect image of Christ, whose Passion is repeated in the martyrdom of the witness, even in small details. One of these is that Stephen, on his knees, takes up the petition of the crucified Christ: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (7:60). We should remember that Luke, unlike Matthew and Mark, speaks of the Lord kneeling in Gethsemane, which shows that Luke wants the kneeling of the first martyr to be seen as his entry into the prayer of Jesus. Kneeling is not only a Christian gesture, but a christological one.
The Name above all Names
For me, the most important passage for the theology of kneeling will always be the great hymn of Christ in Philippians 2:6-11. In this pre-Pauline hymn, we hear and see the prayer of the apostolic Church and can discern within it her confession of faith in Christ. However, we also hear the voice of the Apostle, who enters into this prayer and hands it on to us, and, ultimately, we perceive here both the profound inner unity of the Old and New Testaments and the cosmic breadth of Christian faith.
The hymn presents Christ as the antitype of the First Adam. While the latter high-handedly grasped at likeness to God, Christ does not count equality with God, which is His by nature, “a thing to be grasped”, but humbles Himself unto death, even death on the Cross. It is precisely this humility, which comes from love, that is the truly divine reality and procures for Him the “name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil 2:5-10).
Here the hymn of the apostolic Church takes up the words of promise in Isaiah 45:23: “By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear’”. In the interweaving of Old and New Testaments, it becomes clear that, even as crucified, Jesus bears that “name above every name” — the name of the Most High — and is Himself God by nature. Through Him, through the Crucified, the bold promise of the Old Testament is now fulfilled: all bend the knee before Jesus, the One who descended, and bow to Him precisely as the one true God above all gods. The Cross has become the world-embracing sign of God’s presence, and all that we have previously heard about the historic and cosmic Christ should now, in this passage, come back into our minds.
The Christian Liturgy is a cosmic Liturgy precisely because it bends the knee before the crucified and exalted Lord. Here is the center of authentic culture – the culture of truth. The humble gesture by which we fall at the feet of the Lord inserts us into the true path of life of the cosmos.
There is much more that we might add. For example, there is the touching story told by Eusebius in his history of the Church as a tradition going back to Hegesippus in the second century. Apparently, Saint James, the “brother of the Lord”, the first bishop of Jerusalem and “head” of the Jewish Christian Church, had a kind of callous on his knees, because he was always on his knees worshipping God and begging forgiveness for his people (2, 23, 6). Again, there is a story that comes from the sayings of the Desert Fathers, according to which the devil was compelled by God to show himself to a certain Abba Apollo. He looked black and ugly, with frighteningly thin limbs, but most strikingly, he had no knees. The inability to kneel is seen as the very essence of the diabolical.
But I do not want to go into more detail. I should like to make just one more remark. The expression used by Saint Luke to describe the kneeling of Christians (theis ta gonata) is unknown in classical Greek. We are dealing here with a specifically Christian word. With that remark, our reflections turn full circle to where they began. It may well be that kneeling is alien to modern culture — insofar as it is a culture, for this culture has turned away from the faith and no longer knows the one before whom kneeling is the right, indeed the intrinsically necessary gesture. The man who learns to believe learns also to kneel, and a faith or a liturgy no longer familiar with kneeling would be sick at the core.
Revelation 19:10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Revelation 22:8-9 I John am he who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me; [9] but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
It is the spontaneous reaction of human beings (seen throughout Scripture) to be awed by angelic appearances or theophanies or direct manifestations of God.
In the moment you don’t think “this is just an angel.” You react with awe, which is what John did. He wasn’t thinking theologically, as we have the luxury to do in our armchairs, but he was thinking, “this is a far greater Being than I!”
Moreover (and more to the point at hand), often in the Old Testament the Lord and His Angel (“angel of the Lord”) are virtually indistinguishable, to the extent that these angels are called angels in one second and God in the next, so it wouldn’t necessarily be clear which was the case.
Even in the burning bush, there is a reference to “the Angel of the Lord” (Ex 3:2) and yet two verses later, “God called to him out of the bush.” John may have very well thought that this was a direct manifestation of God, in that sense, but was mistaken and corrected by the angel.
That’s what I think was primarily going on, in which case it wasn’t idolatry at all, because he thought it was God, or such a direct communication from God through the angel that “worship” was the proper response.
The Angel of the Lord is also equated with God (theophany) in Gen 31:11-13; Jud 2:1; but differentiated from God as well, as a representative: (2 Sam 24:16; 1 Ki 19:6-7; 2 Ki 19:35; Dan 3:25, 28; 6:23; Zech 1:8-14).
Mark 3:11 And whenever the unclean spirits beheld him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”
Mark 5:33 But the woman, knowing what had been done to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.
Mark 7:25 But immediately a woman, whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell down at his feet.
Luke 8:28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beseech you, do not torment me.”
Luke 8:47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.
White People Kneel Ask Forgiveness From The Black Community | Playground Burned After Protests
“Comedian” Thinks It Is Amusing To Masquerade As a BLM Member And Humiliate A White Woman to Get on Her Knees and Apologize For Her “White Privilege” (VIDEO)
Corrected: This post has been updated to reflect that the video in question is “comedy” posted by Youtube user Smooth Sanchez who is not an official Black Lives Matter representative.
It’s supposed to be funny right? Satire. Hilarious.
But make no mistake, though it is being framed as “comedy” every single Communist wants every white person in America to do this.Policemen across the country are kneeling before far-left protesters and rioters.
A “comedian” posed as a member of BLM and approached a white woman in Manhattan and said his “CEO” told him to bring white people to their knees because they have “white privilege.”
She immediately got on her knees as he asked her to “apologize for her white privilege.”The comedian posing as a thug also forced the woman to denounce President Trump.
WATCH this the video and you decide….is it funny or foreshadowing?
The Communists want every white person in America to do this. pic.twitter.com/AHw4UtlryV
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) June 2, 2020
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Watch the video on facebook: CLICK HERE
This next series of videos/articles presents reactions from the public to these events. I all of these people have valid points and I think you will benefit from hearing what they have to say.
White Liberal Couple KISS BOOTS Of BLACK POWER GROUP UNBELIEVEABLE! THIS IS INSANE! YOU MUST SEE THIS TO BELIEVE IT! HAVE WE LOST OUR MINDS?? SERIOUSLY!
Jun 7, 2020
WHITE LIBERALS APOLOGIZE FOR SLAVERY BY KISSING BOOTS OF BLACK POWER GROUP MEMBERS
To Watch this Video on BitCHUTE: CLICK HERE
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“Proving they are sorry for what their forefathers have done.”
Paul Joseph Watson
PrisonPlanet.com
A video shows a white couple bending down and kissing the boots of black power group members to apologize for slavery.
Yes, really.
The activist members appear to be from the Black Hebrew Israelites, an organization labeled an extremist hate group by some because of its inherent anti-white and anti-Semitic racism.
Two people who had expressed an affinity with the group were responsible for the December 2019 attack on a JC Kosher Supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey which left four people dead.
The clip shows the leader of the group placing his black boot on top of a speaker before a white man bends down to kiss it followed by a blonde woman who is presumably his partner.
Robby Starbuck
✔@robbystarbuck
Oh my lord it’s depressing to realize how easily some people are manipulated into absolute madness. Vile. They actually convinced these white liberals to get on their knees, bow to them and kiss their boots. This is seriously a form of mental illness.
“Get these white women and get these white people in here man,” states the Black Israelite activist.“Keep on coming, Mr. white man, keep on going,” he says as the couple then proceed to kiss the boot of every single member of the group.
“They showing what it means to really salute a prophet and a priest,” he asserts, adding, “This is a white couple here that’s proving they are sorry for what their forefathers have done.”
At the end of the clip, the woman even gets down on her knees on the floor to kiss the boot of the cameraman.
“Give these white people a hand,” says the leader of the group at the end of the clip.
![Q8pV6Nkh_bigger Video: White Liberals Apologize For Slavery by Kissing Boots of Black Power Group Members U.S. [your]NEWS](https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1006060034135023616/Q8pV6Nkh_bigger.jpg "Q8pV6Nkh_bigger Video: White Liberals Apologize For Slavery by Kissing Boots of Black Power Group Members U.S. [your]NEWS")
![Q8pV6Nkh_bigger Video: White Liberals Apologize For Slavery by Kissing Boots of Black Power Group Members U.S. [your]NEWS](https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1225583139415896064/pu/img/X23LP2-3RxMfplsv?format=jpg&name=medium "Q8pV6Nkh_bigger Video: White Liberals Apologize For Slavery by Kissing Boots of Black Power Group Members U.S. [your]NEWS")
Desus & Mero
Ashleigh Shackleford gives a lecture titled “All White People Are Racist” to some white people. WATCH NEXT: Univision Klan …
• Here’s what happened when a white woman called the police on a #BlackLivesMatter protester in Florida, US.
MoeSoNatural
• The hypocrisy in the black community is discussed. This young lady tells it like it is. The whites in this video are not the racists why are they apologizing? Racists will still be racist. These are whites who are likely already connected with the black community or individuals.
WHITE PEOPLE BOWING DOWN AND BEGGING BLACKS FOR FORGIVENESS, 🖕OFFWhite people kneel, ask forgiveness from the black community in Third Ward
Neither political gestures nor more police brutality can solve a problem that calls for open debate and institutional reform
In one video, a gang of burly white men patrol the streets of Philadelphia carrying baseball bats, an unsettling echo of white supremacist vigilantism. In another clip, police punch an Aussie cameraman and lob tear gas to clear peaceful protesters from the streets of America’s capital. In another, a cop in riot gear pushes an old white man who is trying to talk to them, so that he stumbles, falls down and doesn’t get up, his head bleeding. Dozens of police then walk past him.
You could watch an endlessly varied set of moments from the US protests and reach different conclusions from each one. One video shows a black protester waylaying a black looter as he pulls open the door of a boarded-up Zara in New York. The protester tackles him to the ground, screaming: “You are not an ally!” In another, a black woman is torn between fury and tears as she recounts how a black man pulled a gun on her while she and several other black women cleaned up their neighbourhood from a night’s rioting….
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IN the wake of the New York Times debacle with the Tom Cotton op-ed, now they’re literally telling people to be emotional extortionists:
Mark Hemingway
✔@Heminator
Today, The New York Times ran an op-ed telling people to withhold affection from their relatives unless they protest or give money to anti-racism organizations.
Where does this end? I want racial equality, but I utterly disdain any person or institution endorsing such tactics.
Jonathan Kay@jonkaythis @nytimes oped instructs us to excommunicate “loved ones” until they’ve attended a protest, or paid cash to author-approved causes.
So grandparents need to risk COVID19 at a protest or pay up, or no grandkids
How did antiracism get so creepy & cultishhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/opinion/whites-anti-blackness-protests.html …
Judith Lankau@judith_lankauPart of a @nytimes op-ed today by Chad Sanders. “Texts: To your relatives and loved ones telling them you will not be visiting them or answering phone calls until they take significant action in supporting black lives either through protest or financial contributions.” LUNACY!
I have a distinct memory of the first time I heard Chris Tomlin’s song, “Holy is the Lord.” Though this was a dozen years ago, my memory is distinct because my attitude was so poor in that moment. As we sang about standing and lifting our hands, and about bowing down in worship, my jaw clenched and my body froze. All around me, people’s physical expressions mirrored the lyrics that were on their lips. But I was rigid, indignant that I would not be told how to worship with my body. How could a dictated posture truly be sincere? Isn’t God only concerned with the posture of my heart?
Fast forward a few weeks, and there was that song again! This time, my self-consciousness trumped my indignation. What would people think if I didn’t lift my hands with everyone else? Reluctantly, one hand raised (first just above waist level, then a bit higher). Though pride was a poor motive to lift my hands that day, I discovered something significant: hand raised, my soul also lifted toward Heaven a bit. Bowed low (though not all the way to the floor…let’s not get too radical!), my attitude humbled somewhat. In essence, it seemed that my actions led my soul to worship, if only slightly, that morning.
Over time, as I became increasingly acquainted with God’s Word, one thing that became apparent to me was that physical engagement just might be significant after all. Throughout the Psalms, a variety of physical expressions are invited, to help the worshiper express God’s worth. Though not a comprehensive list, among them are: clapping (Psalm 47), lifting hands (Psalm 63), bowing and kneeling (Psalm 95), standing (Psalm 119), lifting up eyes (Psalm 121), and dancing (Psalm 149-150).
The Apostle Paul exclaims a powerful Doxology in Romans 11: 33-36 (NIV):
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.Immediately after this bold exclamation of praise, Paul writes:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1NIV)
Paul’s position is that all worship is holistic; He clearly states that we are to offer our bodies to God in worship. In this one admonishment, he contradicts the Gnostic teaching that the things of the physical realm are bad. Their view was that the things of the spirit needed to be separated from the evil of the body. But Paul wrapped up body and soul together, encouraging holistic, incarnational worship.
If you wonder whether your own heart might be led to worship by physical postures, perhaps you might try this exercise:
Choose a familiar worship song.
……..I suggest Laurie Klein’s “I Love You Lord”.
Sing it through several times, using different posture every so often:
…….* Sitting
…….* Standing, hands up, face up
…….* Kneeling, with head bowedTry the exercise again with another song or hymn. I suggest Weeden & Van de Venter’s “I Surrender All”.
Did you notice whether changing your physical posture had an effect on your heart’s disposition? (Please comment on your experience below!)
A dozen years ago, my attitude kept me from raising my hands. Today, raising my hands (or kneeling, standing silent, or lying prostrate) are sometimes significant catalysts to my soul being led Heavenward. It would be simply untrue to say that I am always prepared to worship my God. When the drudgery of the day or a negative circumstance tempts me not to engage with the Lord, I choose to offer my body, a living sacrifice, to enter in to worship. In these moments, as I offer my humanness, my heart disposition is led by my physical posture.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face.
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.
(Helen H. Lemmel)
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Finally, I wanted to share this video from aman who has a family that is integrated. Still limited by their individual backgrounds and experiences the lessons he presents here may or may not be relative to other people’s experiences. We are all different and we are all limited by our own environment, experiences and relationships. We just need to learn to meet people where they are and respect each other.
