Hi! First, I want to be clear at the outset that this is a genuine, sincere question, and not a "gotcha." I grew up in a part of the US that is predominantly Evangelical, but was not raised Christian myself (my parents are unobservant Jews). When I moved away for college, I encountered more "liturgical" churches, and while I still am not sure that I am fully on-board with Christianity, am absolutely in love with the Mass/Divine Service/whatever you want to call it. I started hanging out an Anglo-Catholic parish, because I love how dark and baroque and mysterious the whole thing is.

The first time I attended this particular church, I immediately understood why so many Protestants, particularly Evangelicals, are uncomfortable with Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity -- it's definitely a lot spookier and magical than whitewashed walls and praise bands. People like different things, I get that. But what I still don't understand, and this is my question, is why Evangelicals and others who espouse Biblical inerrancy don't worship like that. The Book of Revelation describes how worship appears in Heaven, and it includes hanging lamps and incense and chants like the Sanctus and Agnus Dei. And the worship described in the Old Testament is similarly arcane and esoteric.

What I'm trying to understand is how things went from being so ritualistic, ornate, and programmatic to essentially a lecture with some hymns and extemporaneous praying on either side. Again, I don't meant to offend, it just...seems so wholly unrelated to everything that came before, and perhaps this is just me having bought into something else, but, I simply don't understand why it is seen as being more pure or biblical than the form of worship that is described in the Bible.