Presbyterian Polity, Worship, and Sacraments — Unit 6: The Regulative Principle of Worship

Key Verse

"God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. State the regulative principle of worship in plain words and say where the Reformed confessions teach it.

2. Give the main biblical passages that support the principle and explain what each one shows.

3. Explain the difference between the elements of worship and the circumstances of worship.

4. Compare the regulative principle with the normative principle held by many Lutheran and Anglican churches.

5. State the main objections to the regulative principle and give the Reformed answer to each.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition, for students who belong to it or are studying it. It is theologically conservative. It holds that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, and it receives the Westminster Standards and the Three Forms of Unity as faithful summaries of what Scripture teaches. Where this specialization differs from the general position of Chapala Theological Seminary, the Reformed position governs here. Other Christians see these matters differently. We state their views fairly and then give our answer. Scripture says, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Why Worship Needs a Rule

Every church worships. The question is who decides how. In some churches the pastor decides, in others the congregation votes, and in others the culture around the church decides. The Reformed tradition asks a different first question: what has God Himself told us about how He wishes to be worshiped?

This question matters because worship is the first duty of the creature toward the Creator. If God is holy, then we cannot approach Him in any way we like. If God is gracious, He has not left us to guess. He has spoken. The regulative principle of worship is the Reformed answer to the question of who has authority over the worship of the church. The answer is that Christ, the King and Head of the church (see Unit 1 of this course), has that authority, and He exercises it through His written Word.

What the Principle Says

The regulative principle may be stated simply: the church may do in public worship only what God has commanded in His Word. This includes commands, but also the examples and clear implications of Scripture, drawn out by good reasoning.

The Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 21, section 1, teaches that the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is appointed by God Himself and limited by His own revealed will. We may not worship Him by the imaginations and devices of men, or by the suggestions of Satan, or in any way not prescribed in Holy Scripture. The Heidelberg Catechism says the same thing in its answer on the second commandment (Question and Answer 96): God requires that we not make images of Him, and that we not worship Him in any other way than He has commanded in His Word. The Belgic Confession, article 32, likewise rejects human inventions that bind the conscience in the order of the church. Calvin treats the matter in the Institutes, Book 4, chapter 10.

Notice what the principle is not. It does not say that worship must be dull or silent. It says that the content of public worship is set by God. Within that content there is wide room for warmth, joy and many cultures.

The Biblical Foundations

The Reformed churches did not invent this principle. They believed they found it in Scripture. Here are the main texts.

The second commandment. "You shall not make for yourself a carved image" (Exodus 20:4). The commandment forbids worship through images, but the deeper point is that the people of God must not form their own ideas of how to approach Him. The Reformed tradition has always read the second commandment as the commandment about the manner of worship, just as the first commandment is about the object of worship.

Nadab and Abihu. In Leviticus 10:1-3, two sons of Aaron offered "profane fire" before the Lord, "which He had not commanded them." Fire came out from the Lord and judged them. Moses then spoke of the holiness of God. The text does not say the fire was evil in itself. It says that God had not commanded it. Sincere but unauthorized worship offends a holy God.

Do not add or take away. In Deuteronomy 12:29-32 Israel was warned not to worship the Lord the way the nations worshiped their gods. They were told to do what God commanded and not to add to it or take from it.

The ark and the proper order. David first tried to bring the ark to Jerusalem on a cart, and Uzzah died (2 Samuel 6). Later David said that they "did not consult Him about the proper order" (1 Chronicles 15:13). Good intentions did not make up for ignoring what God had said.

Jesus on human traditions. In Matthew 15:1-9 the Lord rebuked the Pharisees. He quoted Isaiah: "And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:9). Worship that rests on human commandments is empty, however religious it looks. The same concern appears in Colossians 2:20-23, where Paul warns against self-made religion.

Worship in spirit and truth. In John 4:24 Jesus tells the woman at the well that the Father seeks worshipers who worship in spirit and truth. Reformed teachers have understood "truth" to mean worship that is according to God's revealed truth, and "spirit" to mean worship from the heart, by the help of the Holy Spirit. Worship needs both. Right form without the heart is dead; sincere feeling without the truth is blind.

The New Testament pattern. The apostolic church "continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42). Paul gave Timothy his charge: "Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine" (1 Timothy 4:13). Paul also describes psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19) and gives rules for order in the assembly (1 Corinthians 14:26-40). The New Testament does not leave worship without a form. It names the parts, and the churches in turn are to keep to them.

Elements and Circumstances

The most important tool for understanding the principle is the difference between elements and circumstances.

An element of worship is an act that has its own religious meaning, offered to God as worship. Scripture must give a warrant for each element. The Westminster Confession (21.3-5) names the main ones: prayer, the reading of Scripture, the preaching and hearing of the Word, the singing of psalms with grace in the heart, and the right administration and receiving of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Other duties, such as solemn vows, fasting and thanksgiving, are used on special occasions. The giving of offerings (1 Corinthians 16:1-2) is also part of the gathering of the church. Unit 7 will look at these elements one by one.

A circumstance is a detail that belongs to any human gathering and has no meaning of its own as worship. Examples are the time of the service, the length of the sermon, the building, the seating, the order of the parts, the language spoken, and the use of a microphone. The Westminster Confession (1.6) says that some circumstances concerning worship and church government are common to human actions and societies, and are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed. Paul gives one such general rule: "Let all things be done decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:40).

This distinction answers a common worry. The regulative principle does not require that Scripture give us the hour of the service or the color of the walls. It requires that the acts of worship be those God has appointed. In a Spanish-speaking church, the use of Spanish is a circumstance. The singing of the Psalms in Spanish is an element carried out in that language. The church is free to order the circumstances wisely, always with an eye to edification and reverence.

A Short History

Course 1 of this specialization tells the larger story of the Reformation, so a short summary is enough. The Reformers agreed that medieval worship had added much that had no warrant in Scripture. They did not all remove the same things. Martin Luther kept practices that Scripture did not forbid and that did not contradict the gospel. The Swiss Reformers, Zwingli and later Calvin and Bullinger, were stricter and removed what Scripture did not command.

The question became sharp in England, where the Puritans said that certain ceremonies kept by the Church of England had no warrant in Scripture. At the Westminster Assembly the Directory for the Public Worship of God (1645) set out a plain order of worship, and the Westminster Confession gave the principle its classic form in chapter 21. Through missions the principle passed to Presbyterian churches in Mexico, Brazil, Korea and Africa.

The Normative Principle

Many Christians, including most Lutherans and Anglicans, hold what is called the normative principle. It says that the church may include in worship anything that Scripture does not forbid, as long as it is not against the Word and serves the good order of the church. Scripture then is a norm that guards against error, not a list of what is permitted.

The strength of the normative principle is that it gives freedom to the church to use its wisdom and culture, and it avoids the burden of deciding whether each practice has a warrant. Its weakness, in the Reformed view, is that it opens the way to what Jesus condemned in Matthew 15: the commandments of men taught as worship. The Reformed tradition holds that the principle that rules the church must be stricter than "whatever we like," because God is the One being worshiped, and He has the right to set the terms.

Objections and Answers

A pastor must be ready for honest questions. We state each objection as its holders would, and then answer.

Objection 1: The Bible nowhere states the regulative principle.

Critics say that no verse says, "The church may only do what is commanded," and that the principle is an inference.

Our answer. It is true that the principle is a conclusion drawn from many passages and not one verse. But so is the doctrine of the Trinity, which the same critics accept. Scripture teaches the principle by example (Nadab and Abihu, Uzzah), by warning (Deuteronomy 12:32), and by the Lord's own word in Matthew 15:9.

Objection 2: The principle is not applied consistently.

Critics point out that Reformed churches use pulpits, bulletins, microphones and Sunday schools, none of which is commanded, and say the line between element and circumstance is arbitrary.

Our answer. We admit that the line is sometimes hard to draw and that Reformed churches have disagreed in applying it. A microphone is not an act of worship; it carries the voice. The difficulty of applying a principle is not a proof that it is false. The principle still does its work: it makes a church ask of each act, "Where has God asked for this?"

Objection 3: The principle is cold, narrow and legalistic.

Critics, including many in Latin America and Africa, say that it silences local music, emotion and creativity, and that it makes worship stiff and foreign.

Our answer. The principle governs what we do in worship, not whether we worship with joy. The Psalms call us to shout for joy, to sing, to bow down, to clap (Psalm 47:1; 95:1-6; 100). Hebrews 12:28-29 calls for worship with reverence and godly fear because our God is a consuming fire, and this fits with joy. Language, tune, clothing and the style of the voice are largely matters of circumstance. A church in Chiapas, Lagos or Seoul can sing the Word of God in its own language while holding to the elements God has appointed.

Objection 4: Christian liberty. The New Testament does not tie us to Old Testament patterns.

Critics say that Nadab, Abihu and Uzzah belong to Israel's ceremonial law, which ended in Christ.

Our answer. We agree that the ceremonies of the Old Testament are fulfilled in Christ and that Christians do not offer animal sacrifices. But the principle behind those events, that God is holy and sets the terms of His own worship, has not changed. The Lord Jesus applied it in the Gospels. Hebrews 12:28-29 uses the same holiness of God as the reason for reverent worship under the new covenant. Christian liberty means that the conscience is free from human commandments, not that the church is free to add its own. This is the very reason the Reformed confessions defend the principle, as the Westminster Confession (20.2) teaches that God alone is Lord of the conscience.

Where Reformed Believers Differ

The principle is common to the Reformed family, but its application is not uniform. Some hold a strict application, which allows in public worship only the elements Scripture commands and excludes anything not clearly warranted, such as uninspired hymns or instruments in some churches. Others hold a broader application, which agrees that elements need a warrant but reads the warrant more widely and gives more room to the church's judgment about circumstances and forms. Both sides appeal to the Confession and to Scripture. Some churches sing only the Psalms, and others sing hymns as well. Some use instruments and others do not. Some keep Christmas and Easter, and others keep only the Lord's Day. These differences should be held with charity. Unit 7 returns to psalmody and hymns.

Pastoral Application

A pastor in a growing Presbyterian church in a Mexican town has a good young leader in his youth group. The young man has seen churches in a nearby city where the services include skits, dance teams and long entertainment programs. He asks the pastor, "Why can't we do this? These churches are full, and the young people love it."

First, the pastor listens, and he thanks the young man for his zeal to reach his friends. The desire to reach the lost is a good gift.

Second, he does not answer only with "We have never done this." He opens Acts 2:42 and 1 Timothy 4:13 with the young man and asks, "What has God asked us to do when we come together?"

Third, he separates elements from circumstances. Many things can be done in youth gatherings, meals, drama clubs and outreach events that are not the Lord's Day worship of the church. The session can approve these as fellowship and evangelism. The public worship of the church is where the principle applies.

Fourth, he brings the matter to the session and promises the youth real service in the church, such as helping with music and teaching children.

Summary

The regulative principle teaches that the church may do in public worship only what God has commanded in His Word, by precept, example or clear implication. It is taught in Westminster Confession chapter 21 and Heidelberg Catechism Question 96. Its biblical support includes the second commandment, Nadab and Abihu, the ark, Matthew 15:9 and John 4:24. The elements of worship need a warrant in Scripture, while circumstances are ordered by prudence under the general rules of the Word. The normative principle of many Lutheran and Anglican churches permits what Scripture does not forbid. Objections say that the principle is unstated in Scripture, inconsistently applied, cold and narrow, or tied to Old Testament ceremony. Reformed teachers answer that the principle is the teaching of the whole Bible, that circumstances give wide room for culture and joy, and that the holiness of God does not change. Reformed believers apply the principle with some differences, and they hold those differences with charity.

Further Reading

• The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646-47), chapters 1, 20 and 21.

• The Westminster Larger Catechism, on the second commandment.

• The Directory for the Public Worship of God (1645).

• The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Question and Answer 96.

• The Belgic Confession (1561), article 32.

• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Beveridge translation, 1845), Book 4, chapter 10.

• The Second Helvetic Confession (1566).

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