Times have changed. I was taught that the singing of hymns, whether by a congregation or by a college choir, is not a performance to be applauded, but that such singing is a worship experience, and quiet should prevail. Some sincere Christians today have not been so taught. They like what they have heard, and clap their hands to compliment the singers. Sometimes they stand while the singing is in progress, swaying their bodies back and forth, and loudly repeat "Praise the Lord!"

Nothing in the New Testament teaching on worship (John 4:24; Hebrews 2:12; 13:15; Ephesians 5:19) calls for hand-clapping, body movements, or shouted words. However, one preacher, sympathetic to festive exuberance, thinks he has found one New Testament word that authorizes a physical display of emotionalism in the worship assembly. The word is paneguris (Hebrews 12:22), translated by the NIV as a "joyful assembly."

Certainly every assembly of loving Christians is "joyful," but the preacher does not know that the paneguris of Hebrews 12:22-23 has nothing to say about our worship assemblies. A paneguris "properly" is "a national festal assembly" (Abbott-Smith Lexicon), "an assembly of a whole nation, especially for a public festival" (CLASSIC GREEK DICTIONARY), "a gathering of the whole people to celebrate public games or other solemnities" (Thayer).

Among the Greeks, a paneguris was a national gathering at Olympia every fourth year from 776 B.C. to 394 A.D. Among the Israelites, a paneguris was celebrated three times each year "in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles" (Deuteronomy 16:16). The paneguris for Christians is not the important assembly on the first day of the week to break bread, nor any other earthly assembly.

The only paneguris) for Christians is a trip to "the heavenly Jerusalem," to "the city of the living God" (Hebrews 12:22). There they will be in the "general assembly" (the literal translation of paneguris). There is "a peculiar fitness in the word’s employment at Hebrews 12:23; where only in the New Testament it occurs" (Trench, SYNONYMS, p. 7), where it sets

That heavenly assembly will be composed not only of other Christians of all centuries, but also of "the spirits of the righteous ones" of the patriarchal age, and of the Mosaic age, and also of "myriads of angels," and also of "God" himself, and also of "Jesus," and also of "the eternal Spirit (Hebrews 12:22-24; 9:14). What a company!

Contrary to the paneguris among the Greeks or the Israelites, the heavenly paneguris is unending, "forever and ever" (Revelation 22:5). The paneguris of Hebrews 12:22-23 is, therefore, the end-objective and the climax of the God’s "eternal purpose" (Ephesians 3:11).