The 154th annual performance in Boston's Symphony Hall of Handel's Messiah, possibly the greatest oratorio ever written, has continued a well established tradition. Boston's Handel & Haydn Society performed the work as it was first presented—meaning that when the Hallelujah Chorus was sung few stood up.

In the UK today, however, at this point in the music it is tradition for the whole audience to stand, even though the audience did not stand when Handel first performed the piece in Dublin, Eire. Why this difference in tradition?

In England, when the King stands all stand. King George III set the UK tradition by standing during the Hallelujah Chorus out of respect for the meaning of its words ("Hallelujah" means "Praise the Lord"). At that time in Europe, Britain and early America the words of the Bible were generally respected and accepted as the Word of God by the majority.

The words of Handel's Messiah are taken from both the Old and New Testaments, and according to the program notes, "… Part 111 has no plot at all; it is actually a version of the Anglican burial service, emphasizing the resurrection of the body and Christ's victory over sin." All of Part 111 is taken from passages of Scripture: Job, 1 Corinthians, Romans and Revelation.

In Matthew 16:18 Christ promised His disciples that He would build His Church. He added that even the grave would not be victorious over it. If His word is good then His Church (His faithful servants dedicated to obeying His teachings) must still exist somewhere today.

According to the Bible it will be a dedicated body of believers that still "has the testimony of Jesus and keeps the commandments of God" (Revelation 12:17, 14:12, emphasis added throughout). In other words, it will not have changed God's commandments—including even the day of worship that Jesus kept!

From Genesis to Revelation the day God commanded for worshipping Him is the weekly Sabbath—Saturday on our calendar today. Further, when Jesus was here on earth He actually addressed this point in the second chapter of Mark. Some Pharisees who prided themselves on Sabbath keeping (with excessive, burdensome strictness) challenged a specific eating practice of Jesus disciples on that Sabbath.

In response to their unnecessary strictness Jesus told them, "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath" (verses 27-28). By that He was simply asserting that He had a better understanding of how God wanted the Sabbath to be observed than they did.

But Jesus never claimed to be the Lord of Sunday. Instead, the change from Sabbath observance to Sunday observance took place very gradually, spreading at first only to those regions that intellectually were closely associated with pagan Rome and Alexandria in Egypt, the philosophical center of the empire in that era.

This brings us to a significant question. When is tradition appropriate in Christian practice and when is it not? Paul wrote to one of his congregations, "Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us" (2 Thessalonians 3:6). Here he speaks of tradition in a positive way. Paul promoted being a diligent, self-supporting people among all of his new converts.

Paul, however, vigorously objected to human tradition being used as a foundation for Christian beliefs and practices. His warning is, "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition ... and not according to Christ" (Colossians 2:8, New Revised Standard Version).

Jesus Christ was also very critical of religious teachers who would substitute doctrinal traditions for the revealed teachings of God. He spoke boldly against such practice, saying, "'... in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.' Then He added these words, 'You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition!'" (Mark 7:7-8, NRSV, emphasis added).