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Public Worship and the Reformed Faith
by Rev. Barry Gritters
II. The Regulative Principle of Worship
Reformed believers teach that our worship is to be just what God commands it to be - nothing more, nothing less. This is of utmost importance for us to understand in connection with Biblical, Reformed worship. God does not leave it up to us to determine the manner of our worship of God. God's Word regulates us in how we must worship Him.
This is the difference between the Lutheran and the Calvinistic branches of the Reformation. Followers of Luther, when reforming the extravagance of the Roman Catholic Church, held to the position that whatever was not explicitly forbidden in the Bible was permissible in church. For that reason, the Lutherans kept a good deal of Roman Catholic practices in their worship. Whether consciously taken or not, this is the position of most churches today. This is not Reformed!
The Calvinists, on the other hand, held to what is called "The Regulative Principle of Worship." That regulative principle says, "We worship God only as He has commanded us in His Word." For that reason, the worship services of Reformed churches historically have been limited to prayer, singing, sacraments, preaching, and offerings.
One can easily see how this principle speaks to the modern changes in the worship services. Trying sincerely to be up to date, or trying sincerely to attract the young people to the church, the old is pushed aside, replaced by new kinds of worship. Often one of the services is reserved for something other than preaching. The questions that are most often asked are, "What will please the congregation? What will be more stimulating? What is nice?" But the question rarely is, "What does God's Word say about it?"
People are under the delusion that as long as they are not doing something that is condemned in the Bible, as long as they are guided by proper motivations, as long as they are worshipping the true God, there is no limit as to what they may do. But they forget that God does not leave it up to us to decide how we are to worship Him. We are regulated by the Word of God in our worship. We must be so careful in the manner of our worship.
This regulative principle needs proof.
The foundation for this principle is the second commandment of God's Word. The first two commandments (actually, the first four) speak about worship. The first commandment lays down the principle that the church may not worship any other god than the LORD. The second commandment also speaks about worship, but not of whom we worship. It speaks of how we worship whom we must. It lays down the principle that we are to worship God in the manner He prescribes in His Word.
This is plain from the commandment itself which says, "Not by graven images." Violation of this commandment was the sin of the Israelites when they first came to mount Sinai. Bowing down to the golden calf, they were not violating the first commandment (worshipping other gods), at least not by their admission. They were attempting to worship God, but in a way other than how He had commanded.
The positive implication of this second commandment is that God - and God alone - will determine how we must worship Him.
The Reformed confessions bring out this principle. The Heidelberg Catechism (Lord's Day 35) gives the Reformed interpretation of the second commandment. It asks, "What does God require in the second commandment?" Its answer: "That we in no wise represent God by images, nor worship him in any other way than he has commanded in his word" (emphasis mine: BG). This is the Regulative Principle Of Worship.
The Westminster Confession of Faith, the standard of Reformed Presbyterianism, takes the same position in chapter XXI. "But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in Holy Scripture." And in the Westminster Larger Catechism Q&A 109, "The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and any wise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself" (emphasis mine: BG).
Would to God that Reformed believers understood the second commandment and the Reformed confessions concerning this point.
The Reformed fathers took this position as well. In his Sermons On The Ten Commandments, in this connection, Calvin says, "We should know that the principal service which God requires is obedience" (page 67). "Martin Bucer says, 'it is only the worship which God asks of us which really serves Him.' Bucer obviously did not understand worship as though it were some sort of creative art, as though the object of worship were to entertain God with elaborate liturgical pageants and dramas. God directs us above all to worship him by the proclamation of his word, the giving of alms, the celebration of communion, and the ministry of prayer." (Hughes Oliphant Olds, Cooperate Worship in the Reformed Tradition, page 3.)
Even John McArthur, outside of the Reformed tradition as most of us know it, says, "God will not accept deviant worship. Some would insist that any kind of sincere worship is acceptable to God, but that is not true. The Bible clearly teaches that those who offer self-styled worship are unacceptable to God, regardless of their good intentions. No matter how pure our motivation may seem or how sincere we are in our attempts, if we fail to worship God according to His revelation, He cannot bless us" (The Ultimate Priority, page 6).
There are some pointed historical examples in the Bible that bring that out. Cain was interested in bringing an offering to Jehovah. As far as he was concerned, and as far as his profession was concerned, he was worshipping the one true God. The trouble with that was that he did not bring the offering God required. For that reason God spurned the offering, and burned His wrath on it. What was Cain's sin? He did not worship God in the manner God requires in His word.
This is also brought out in the matter of Saul's offerings. Saul waited impatiently for seven days for Samuel to come to Gilgal. All the while the people were scattering from him, diminishing the strength of his army. So, instead of waiting for Samuel, Saul offered the worship to God on the altar because he wanted God's blessing on his battle with the Philistines. Partly because of this, the Lord took the kingdom from him. Why? Because Saul did not worship God in the manner prescribed by Him. Only priests were ordained to sacrifice.
Most are familiar with the story of Uzzah offering God the service of reaching out his hand to steady the ark when it was in danger of falling, and God's punishment of that act with immediate death. What was Uzzah's sin? He was serving God contrary to the way God commanded in his word, for God had said that no one was to touch the ark. But that in itself is not the entire story. The root of this problem is that David had failed to conduct the return of the ark in the proper way. Uzzah's error - though serious - in other times probably would not have been serious enough to warrant the Lord smiting him dead. But when seen in the light of David's first slap-up job of attempting to bring the ark back, one can understand "Uzzah's breach." In the first attempt, David let unsanctified Levites bring the ark; they carried it on a cart pulled by oxen; and they had an unorganized parade of people following along with the ark. In the second attempt they used 1) the chief of the Levites, 2) sanctified Levites, 3) Levites carrying the ark on staves, and 4) the people in a serious and organized procession instead of a parade. And the Lord was pleased with this worship!
There is an incident in the life of Hezekiah that brings out the truth of the regulative principle of worship. We read in II Chronicles 30 that Hezekiah gave a great worship service to God in Jerusalem, which consisted of celebration of the Passover. Out of love for God, Hezekiah sent an invitation to the ten tribes of Israel. A godly remnant came and participated in that service. But when they did that, God plagued the people and made them sick. Why? Because many had not kept the ceremonial rules of cleansing themselves that God required of them in His word concerning His worship in the Passover. Only when Hezekiah prayed fervently to the Lord, pleading that they simply did not have time to sanctify themselves ceremonially, but that they had cleansed their hearts by faith, did the Lord receive their worship.
This shows that good intentions are not enough. We might make the judgment that God is sticking to technicalities here. Their hearts were right, we might say; at least David's and Hezekiah's, we would complain. "David desired the ark to be back at Jerusalem so that the people could inquire at the Lord's face once again. Hezekiah's desire was to bring back the worship of God in the Passover, remembering the symbolic blood of the Lamb that saved them. Is not God going too far here?" But who are we to stand in judgment against God? Calvin says about this kind of worship: "...we should know that it is unnecessary to parade our 'good intentions' as a cover-up for what we have invented, indeed; but on the contrary we should know that the principle service which God requires is obedience" (Sermons on the Ten Commandments, page 67).
You can be sure that David felt good in his heart about his worship of bringing the ark back to Jerusalem; that Hezekiah was moved and thrilled by the sight of so many returning to Jerusalem to worship. But God is not pleased with mere feelings that we have about man-made worship. He desires us to worship him as He has commanded.
Our worship is regulated by the Word of God.
Would to God all Reformed believers understood this basic principle of the second commandment and the Reformed confessions. Alas, most do not.
Perhaps someone has read all this so far, and responds like this: "I understand all that, I think, but I still wonder what's wrong with having an altar call at the end of the worship service." Or, "What's wrong with having a puppet show that conveys to the children a fundamental truth of God's Word?" Aside from the fact that altar calls are Arminian and not Reformed in their origin and meaning, and aside from the fact that puppet shows and other cute inventions undermine the solemnity of worship, asking those questions shows that the point of the regulative principle has been missed completely. Why? Because the regulative principle of the second commandment says, "Do not ask, 'What's wrong with it?' But ask, 'Does the Word of God command it to be done in the worship of the church?"'
True to this regulative principle, Reformed worship services have these elements: Singing of Psalms (Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 5:19, 20); offering of prayer (I Timothy 2:1-8); reading of Scriptures (I Thessalonians 5:27, I Timothy 4:13); the preaching and hearing of God's word (Romans 10:13-17, II Timothy 4:1, 2); the administration of the two sacraments (Matthew 28:19, 20, I Corinthians 11:23-29); and the giving of our offerings in the support of the ministry and the relief of the poor (I Corinthians 16:1, 2; I Corinthians 9:11-14).
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