Sometimes Presbyterians speak as if “high church” worship is simply the product of manmade traditions and pagan syncretism.¹ Although there is truth in this assessment, there is more to the story. 

To be fair, those who defend “high church” worship can point to several passages of Scripture that seem to support their position. Of course, many of these texts belong to the Old Testament (see the book of Leviticus), at which the Reformed balk, because Christ has fulfilled the ceremonial law (see the Book of Hebrews). But it is not just the rites and rituals of the old covenant. Proponents of “high church” worship also cite the New Testament, specifically the last book of the canon. In the book of Revelation, we find white robes (Rev. 4:4), incense (Rev. 5:8), and an altar (Rev. 8:3-5). All of this raises a bracing question: if Jesus prayed, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10, KJV), then why don’t we wear vestments, carry censers full of incense, and worship before an altar? At first blush, the “high church” advocates have a point. They can say, “The worshippers in heaven wear white robes; we wear white robes. They offer incense; we offer incense. They worship before an altar; we worship before an altar.”²

It all sounds so plausible, even compelling, until you ask a key interpretive question: what is the earthly counterpart to each heavenly component? This question is necessary because Revelation is an eminently symbolic book. In the very first verse, we read that Jesus “signified it”—which could be rendered, “communicated it by symbols” or even “symbolized it.” What is the symbolic significance? The answer to this question turns the whole argument on its head. The offering of incense is a case in point. In Revelation 5:8, we learn that the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders each have “golden bowls full of incense.”³ Likewise, in Revelation 8:3, “another angel” (likely the Lord Jesus Christ in his capacity as high priest), “having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it … upon the golden altar which was before the throne.”

So far this sounds very “high church,” but remember the key interpretive question: what is the earthly counterpart to the heavenly incense? In both passages, the answer is not more incense but prayer. If you fill in the ellipsis in Revelation 8:3, it connects incense in heaven with prayers on earth: “He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints.” This association also appears in Psalm 141:2 (“Let my prayer be set before You as incense”) and in Luke 1:10 (“And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense”).

Indeed, it is not just a close connection; it is an identification. According to the rest of Revelation 5:8, incense in heaven is identified as prayers on earth: “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” The offering of prayers on earth translates to the offering of incense in heaven; they are the same thing. This identification suggests that earthly worship does not merely parallel heavenly worship but actually participates in it. Earthly and heavenly worship are not just simultaneous worship services but the same worship service. When we worship “in Spirit” on the Lord’s Day (John 4:24; Rev. 1:10), we worship in heaven. What this means is that there is an important sense in which Presbyterians do have “incense” in their worship. They offer prayers on earth that rise symbolically as incense into heaven. The application is not to add incense to our worship but to include more prayer!

The same thing applies to the rest of the apocalyptic imagery. For example, when it comes to white robes, “the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints” (Rev. 19:8, KJV), while the blowing of the trumpets represents the reading and preaching of the Word (cf. John’s eating “the little book” in Rev. 10:8–11). The proper way to apply the scenes of Revelation is not to engage in plug-and-play or cut-and-paste liturgics, but rather to identify the point of contact (i.e., the figural correspondence or symbolic relationship) between images in heaven and activities on earth.

At this point, the “high church” advocate might counter that Christians may still offer incense as a symbol of prayer. But this argument fails to reckon with the newness of the new covenant. In the gospel age, offering incense would be inappropriate because it is redemptive-historically obsolete. It belongs to the horizontal orientation of old covenant worship. After observing the external features of tabernacle and temple worship, G. Van Dooren argues, “Yet, in the old dispensation it was a horizontal sanctuary” (The Beauty of Reformed Liturgy, 17; emphasis original), while in the new covenant the pattern is vertical. This is because of the finished work of Christ, who not only fulfilled the ceremonial law of the earthly replica (including the offering of incense and wearing of priestly vestments) but ascended into the heavenly original (see Heb. 8:5–6; 9:11–15; 10:19–25).

Van Dooren continues, “This vertical ‘pattern’ seems empty in comparison with the one that Moses built. No longer any altars, no golden ark in front of the pulpit in church, nor any of the other objects and utensils. But in fact it is much fuller. This ‘pattern’ reaches through the clouds up to highest heaven, where Christ Jesus is ministering at the heavenly mercy seat” (18). That is why the author of Hebrews insists that in Lord’s Day worship we “come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22). “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).

Although beyond the scope of this essay, it is also worth noting that many scholars believe the book of Revelation (along with the rest of the NT canon) was written prior to the destruction of the temple in AD 70. On this understanding, the scenes in heaven reflect abrogated forms of old covenant worship still partially operative during the transitional period from AD 30 to 70 but no longer appropriate today. In other words, “Now what [was] becoming obsolete and growing old [was] ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:13). Regardless, offering incense is not authorized under the new covenant.

However plausible on the surface, the “high church” argument is an optical illusion that evaporates on closer examination. Under-realized and earthly-minded, it fails to account for the spirituality and simplicity of new covenant worship in the heavenly places. That is one reason the Protestant Reformation was most necessary. As Van Dooren explains, “We remember with gratitude that the Reformers cleansed the liturgy. Their main act in this respect was removing the altar together with the ‘priests’ and all other ‘old testamentic’ elements; in its place they put the pulpit in the very centre. … In contrast to the elaborate Romanist cathedrals, the Reformed liturgy is most beautiful” (The Beauty of Reformed Liturgy, 20; emphasis original).

With holy boldness, let us recover worship that is simple yet beautiful, reverent yet joyful—liturgy that is Reformed according to the Word of God. Only then will we “worship in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24, KJV). Only then will we worship “in earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10, KJV).