What is the Regulative Principle of Worship?⤒🔗

Everyone understands that a nation should be governed by its proper king or, if it doesn’t have a monarchy, by its own system of government. If a nation has to listen to its own king, as well as another king – a foreign king – we all sense that this is less than ideal, and can pose significant problems and conflicts.

So too, the church is to be governed exclusively by the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of the church. And since Christ has laid out everything in His Word necessary and suitable and proper for doctrine, worship, polity, faith, and life, the church ought to be bound or “regulated” by nothing else, other than the Word of God.

The Proper Formulation←⤒🔗

This principle of the regulative authority of the Scriptures was basic to the Calvinistic Reformation. The Westminster Confession of Faith clearly expresses it in I, 6:

The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men.

The Belgic Confession of Faith declares in Article 7:

We believe that those Holy Scriptures fully contain the will of God, and that whatsoever man ought to believe, unto salvation, is sufficiently taught therein. For, since the whole manner of worship, which God requires of us, is written in them at large, it is unlawful for anyone, though an apostle, to teach otherwise than we are now taught in the Holy Scriptures: nay, though it were an angel from heaven, as the apostle Paul saith.

Article 30:

We believe, that this true Church must be governed by that spiritual policy which our Lord has taught us in His Word...

The critical element in both the Westminster and Belgic formulations of this principle is that the Bible is sufficient and that nothing should be added that the Bible does not instruct.

This is not to say that the conclusions which all the Reformed churches have drawn from the Scriptures in the application of the principle are identical. For example, on the Continent of Europe some of them introduced elements into the worship of God that the Church of Scotland and the Puritans in England did not allow. Likewise, some Reformed churches observed in an annual calendar some of the deeds of the Lord in the history of redemption – such as the Birth, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of the Lord, as well as the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost). Meanwhile, to the present time many Scottish congregations continue to adhere to the tradition of the Reformation in Scotland, and refuse these as a form of will worship. Moreover, simply to affirm the principle does not resolve everything.

The Biblical Basis←⤒🔗

In both Old and New Testaments, the Bible clearly teaches that the Scriptures are to be regarded as authoritative for the whole of life, including worship. Consider the following points.

1. Old Testament:←↰⤒🔗

There is no doubt but that the life of the Old Testament people of God was carefully prescribed in the divine revelation given to Israel (Deut. 12:8; 17:3; 1 Sam. 15:22), and willful variations from it did not go unpunished (Lev. 10:1-3; 2 Sam. 6:6-7). Think only of how detailed the ceremonial law in the Old Testament was. By it the Lord instructed and controlled the worship of the people of God. It’s true, that the Old Testament period was a time of anticipation and therefore of type, shadow, and pre-figuration. Israel needed precepts, forms, and laws in a way that is no longer the case in this age of realization and fulfillment. Yet we should not think that the Lord was concerned with the ordering and regulating of the life of His people then, and that He is indifferent to these things in the New Testament and leaves His people now to their own devices.

2. New Testament:←↰⤒🔗

Many imagine that the New Testament was a time in which specifics did not matter, as long as the spirit of a thing was well-meant. However, the books of the New Testament, and especially the epistles of Paul, bristle with prescriptions governing the life of the church. Indeed, as stated above, there is a marked distinction between the two Testaments and their worship. Paul likens the position of the church of the New Testament to that of an heir come of age (Gal. 4:1f). The church has reached its maturity. It has responsibilities to discharge and decisions to make concerning matters that were once minutely prescribed but are no longer so completely controlled, as was the case in the Old Testament. Nevertheless in the Scriptures, particularly also in the New Testament, we are given the fundamental constitution of the church of Christ. The Scriptures are its book of worship and government as well as doctrine. Not only does the Scripture authoritatively teach the doctrines of grace and of faith, but it also regulates the whole life of God’s people. Precepts and principles are laid down for the development and cultivation of the church’s life, on the basis of which it makes its mature determinations.

3. The Second Commandment:←↰⤒🔗

It is important as well to note in this context the value of God’s explicit commandments. A permanent set of statutes is given to us in the Ten Commandments. They are a mirror of the holiness of God. They are regularly affirmed in the New Testament. In the Ten Commandments the second commandment gives us exactly what we know as the “Regulative Principle of Worship.” The second commandment denounces the use of anything in worship besides what God has commanded, no matter how well-intentioned we might imagine it to be. This is the way the Heidelberg Catechism puts it in Q&A 96:

What doth God require in the second commandment?

That we in no wise represent God by images, nor worship Him in any other way than He has committed in His Word.

The second commandment expresses the unalterable assertion of God’s sovereignty over our worship, a sovereignty which is exercised through the teaching of the Scriptures. Essentially, Paul says the same thing in 2 Timothy 3:16, 17:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

If the Scriptures render a person thoroughly furnished unto the good service of the Lord, we should not imagine that anything else in addition to the Scripture can or should serve that end.

The Practical Application←⤒🔗

True worship is the exercise of mind and heart in accordance with how God has commanded, in praise, thanksgiving, prayer, confession of sin, trust in God’s promises, and the hearing of God’s Word, read and preached. This is a personal necessity for everyone, but it is also to guide and bind the church of all times and places.

Many who call themselves Christians do not adhere to this principle. Also many who pay lip service to this principle largely ignore it in their daily life. We have entered an era when church traditions of all kinds have been broken down and experiments are increasingly being called for in worship, preaching, and church government. New departures in music, religious drama, and visual aids are being made, and many churches have gone so far as to supplement or substitute video images for a sermon.

Once we depart from the regulative principle, there is the inevitable tendency that additions will alter and take away from Scripture. Once the regulative principle is discarded, there is no limit that can be put to the introduction of the inventions of men into the government and worship of the Lord’s house. This may be denied by those who reject the principle. They may say that their additions are not contrary to Scripture, only “beside” it. Yet this kind of reasoning undermines Scripture, and the fearful corruption of worship, for which the Lord rebuked both the Old and New Testament church, is inevitable.

While the regulative principle continues to arouse controversy, its main force is not to make men controversial but God-fearing. The regulative principle is not a divisive principle. On the contrary, it is essentially a uniting principle among churches and Christians, for as far as it is truly applied, it puts away all man-appointed practice and promotes a common concern to give allegiance to Scripture alone.