Reforming our Worship

The question that I would like to consider in this blog post is: how should we approach God in worship?

Does it really matter how we worship God?

Before we consider how we ought to order our worship in a way that is pleasing to God, it is important for this to be fully rooted in what the Bible teaches us about worship and to understand why worship is so important in the life of the church and the Christian. In “Reformation Worship”, co-editor Jonathan Gibson in his chapter “Worship on Earth as it is in Heaven” presents a very helpful biblical overview of worship in Scripture. He begins by explaining how the story of human history and that of creation itself is the story of worship, and that since the fall of humanity, every single person will either worship through Adam or Christ. Since fallen humanity has inherited the fallen nature of Adam, they will naturally be an idolator and have inherited a “fallen liturgical orientation towards idolatry.” Gibson comments that:

“We are born worshipping the creature, not the creator; we live our lives seeking salvation and satisfaction in pseudo-redeemers, not the redeemer. We are a restless race, wandering “east”, away from the divine sanctuary. But, through the Second Man Jesus Christ, we have the invitation to return and worship God in spirit and truth, in His presence." [1]

Sadly, we are seeing how worldly entertainment and pragmatism has taken a hold of modern church worship, as worldly practices have been brought into the modern church and inevitably this has a corrupting effect on our worship. It is now clear to see that there is a mandate for the modern church to reform her worship and teaching so that it is fully in line with Scripture, and Jonathan Gibson elaborates further to remind us of the staggering fact that our worship of God will be for all eternity:


“The consummate experience of this truth must await the final day when we will feast on, and with, the glorified Son of God Himself, at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. For now, it is right, fitting, and delightful to worship as God’s redeemed people; then, it will be right, fitting, and delightful to do so as God’s glorified people. It is why worship matters now — because it will matter then, forever.” [2]

Worship matters now because it will matter forever! This is why it matters how we worship God, and it is why the sixteenth Century reformers took a stand against the established church of their day. We will now explore the impact that the Reformation had on the church’s worship and why it still matters today.

Going back through church history over the centuries and right up to the eve of the sixteenth Century Reformation, the Roman Catholic church had all but removed the Bible from the heart of the worship and it had become little more than a dead religion steeped in superstition and heresy. The German monk Martin Luther rejected several of the teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, renouncing the idea that the Pope had supreme authority and control over the church which allowed him to infallibly exercise his authority as the supreme ruler. Luther renounced this claim that the pope had infallibility as well as the correct interpretation of the Bible, particularly as the papacy was twisting Scripture to laud power over its subjects. [3]

The question of where the authority was to be found - in the Word of God or the Pope led to the famous Latin term ‘Sola Scriptura” meaning ‘only Scripture.’ It was through the Reformation, led primarily by Martin Luther, that the Word of God was brought back to its rightful place, at the centre of the Church’s worship and teaching.

As the Reformation began to filter down into the local churches, there were two main approaches to Christian worship: the “Normative” and “Regulative” principles of worship. The “Normative” approach to worship was implemented by the reformer Martin Luther, who prescribed that the worshipper had the freedom to order their worship services in any way that they chose, just so long as it didn’t contradict the teaching of Scripture. However, in contrast, the Regulative principle which came later through the reformer John Calvin states that worship should be ordered only on what is prescribed in Scripture and nothing else.

The pastor-theologian Sam Waldron explains:

“The difference between Puritans and Anglicans may be helpfully illustrated by means of two builders intent on building the temple of God. Mr. Anglican must use the materials of the Word of God, but has no blueprint and may use other materials. Mr. Puritan must use only materials of the Word of God and has a blueprint. It takes no special genius to discern that the two completed buildings will differ drastically or to discern which will be more pleasing to God.” [4]

In practice, as Sam Waldron points out, both of those principles are going to lead to worship that looks significantly different since the Normative principle allows for freedom to experiment with worship. This worship principle has given way to another more pragmatic approach to worship called the “Inventive Principle” which states that “whatever works, do it!” This means that, instead of being guided by the Word of God, the church is ordering her worship by the whims and fancies of man - who by nature are idolatrous creatures.

The pastor-theologian Ligon Duncan puts it like this:

“In contrast to all human creativity and initiative, the Bible is to be our rule for how we worship God, because the Bible is our rule for how we are to think about God— and how we worship in turn impacts our concept of God. Put another way: how we worship determines whom we worship. That is why both the medium and the message, both the means and the object, must be attended to in true worship. So, the Bible (God’s own revelation regarding Himself and His worship)— and not our own innovations, imaginations, experiences, opinions and representations— is to determine how we worship God." [5]

This is why a creative and inventive approach to worship will inevitably lead the worshipper away from God because the worship is driven by our own desires and not by the Word of God. The Regulative Principle, however, orders the worship of the church on what the Scriptures actually teach us about worship and the important lessons that we can learn about what kind of worship pleases God.

The Regulative principle

This naturally leads us to explore the regulative principle of worship. The reformer John Calvin considered the worship of God to be the most important part of Christianity, even more so than salvation:

“The first foundation of righteousness undoubtedly is the worship of God. When it is subverted, all the other parts of righteousness, like a building rent asunder, and in ruins are racked and scattered.” (Institutes, Book II, Ch 8, Art. 11) [6]

Faithful worship has to be the believer’s priority and reason for living, after all, our adoption into sonship to God through Christ is “according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace” (Eph 1:5-6) So if God has created us, chosen us for adoption and redeemed us through Christ on the Cross, then surely we should approach God in worship in accordance to His will and how we are told to worship as laid before us in Scripture?

Herman Bavinck explains the relationship between God and the worshipper:

“Accordingly, if there is truly to be religion, if there is to be fellowship between God and man, if the relations between the two is to be also (but not exclusively) that of a master to his servant, of a potter to a clay, as well as that of a king to his people, of a father to a son, of a mother to her child, of an eagle to her young, of a hen to her chicks, and so forth; that is, if not just one relation but all relations and all sorts of relations of dependence, submission, obedience, friendship, love and so forth among humans find their model and achieve their fulfilment in religion, then religion must be the character of a covenant. For then God has to come down from His lofty position, condescend to His creatures, impart, reveal, and give Himself away to human beings; then He who inhabits eternity and dwells in a high and holy place must also dwell with those who are of a humble spirit (Is 57:15).” [7]

We have to remember who we are in light of who God is, He is the Almighty and omnipotent creator of everything, including us and we must play by His rules and not ours. When it comes to the worship of the Most High God, we do not get to decide how He is worshipped based on our earthly whims and fancies. Bavinck also goes on to say:

“But this set of conditions is nothing other than the description of a covenant. If religion is called a covenant, it is thereby described as the true and genuine religion. This is what no religion has ever understood; all people pantheistically pull God down into what is creaturely, or deistically elevate Him endlessly above it. In neither case does one arrive at true fellowship, at covenant, at genuine religion. But Scripture insists on both: God is infinitely great and condescendingly good; He is Sovereign but also Father; He is creator but also Prototype. In a word, He is the God of the Covenant.” [8]

This means that we do not get to pick and chose what we believe about God and salvation from Scripture, and neither do we get to choose how God is worshipped either. So the Regulative Principle asserts that the corporate worship of God is founded on the specific directions of Scripture and that, not only do we take our belief and doctrine from Scripture, but we also order our worship from the Scriptures. Since it is through the Word of God that salvation comes, so should we not also approach God in worship in line with His word?

The Westminster Confession of Faith says:

“But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited to 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 representations or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture” (WCF Article 22:1) [9]

This is the very opposite of the pragmatic approach of using modern culture to drive the worship, the regulative principle orders church worship around the Word of God so that the worship and teaching of the corporate church gathering are driven by Scripture and not by the culture, to be kept faithful to God. Another Reformed doctrinal document “The Belgic Confession of Faith” states that:

“We reject all human inventions, and all laws which man would introduce into the worship of God, thereby to bind and compel the conscience in any manner what-so-ever. Therefore we admit only of that which tends to nourish and preserve concord and unity, and to keep all men in obedience to God.” (BCF Article 32) [10]

When we read through the Word of God we will see time and again, God prescribed to His people the worship that is pleasing to Him. The first example we find in the Old Testament is of God’s disdain for Cain’s offering after being pleased with his brother Abel’s offering. God in His mercy and patience reasons with Cain: “Why are you angry and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?” Whilst Abel had offered the firstborn lambs from his flock, his brother Cain had not honoured God with the first fruits of his crops and instead just offered what he decided that he wanted to give, rather than that which was required by God.

Later on, in the time of Moses, God gave Moses and the Israelites the Ten Commandments, the first two commandments making it very clear that the people of Israel were to have no other gods, and nor were they to make a carved image or likeness of anything in heaven or on earth. Later on, Israel’s direct disobedience in worshipping the golden calf as they waited for Moses to return from the mountain led to God’s severe judgement on them which shows us that God’s people are not free to worship however they please. We also see as we read through the second half of Exodus and the book of Leviticus how specific God is about how He is to be worshipped, this was very significant and important because everything that the Israelites were ordered to do in the worship of God was a copy and shadow of heavenly things.

In the book of Leviticus (10:1-2) we read about the disturbing story of Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu who were struck down dead because of their unlawful worship. Throughout the Old Testament there is a very strong emphasis on worship that honours God in faithful obedience, another example of this is when God rejected King Saul because of his disobedience, and the prophet Samuel said to him:

“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.” (1 Sam 15:22 ESV)

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul addresses how public worship should be ordered, rebuking the Colossians for the self-made, religious elements in their worship (Col 2:23) and the Corinthians Christians for the chaotic nature of their gatherings (1 Cor 14:26-33). As we read through Paul’s epistles we also get a clear picture of what a church worship service should look like, there would be people gathered to sing “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” (Eph 5:19) they would sit under the Word of God being read out and preached (1 Tim 4:2;13) the church should also be a “house of prayer” (Matt 21:13) and there are also the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Matt 28;19; 1 Cor 11:23-26). [11]

Another way to look at the Regulative Principle more simply would be to ask the question: could your church hold a worship service without using electricity? If all you had was a small group of people with some hymn books and Bibles and you sang hymns and psalms, read the Word of God out loud and someone preached and prayers were offered to God, then you would be worshipping just like a New Testament church! This is also the kind of simple worship that is being faithfully offered by brothers and sisters all over the world, who are not limited by needing buildings and an energy supplier. Who knows, if and when persecution comes in the future, many of us may find ourselves in underground house churches worshipping in this way.

Footnotes:

[1] “Reformation Worship” Edited by Jonathan Gibson & Mark Earngey, (New Growth Press, 2018) p20

[2] “Reformation Worship” Edited by Jonathan Gibson & Mark Earngey, (New Growth Press, 2018) p20

[3] As explained by Matthew Barrett “God’s Word Alone: The Authority of Scripture” (Zondervan 2016) p38

[4] Sam Waldron, “How Then Should We Worship?” (Evangelical Press, 2022) pp45-46

[5] Ligon Duncan, “Does God Care How We Worship?” (Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing, 2020) p29

[6] John Calvin “Institutes of the Christian Religion” - Book II, Ch 8, Art. 11 (Hendricksen Publishers, 2008) p239

[7] Herman Bavinck “Reformed Dogmatics, Vol II, God and Creation” (Baker Academic, 2004) p569-570

[8] Herman Bavinck “Reformed Dogmatics, Vol II, God and Creation” (Baker Academic, 2004) p569-570

[9] The Westminster Confessions of Faith (Article 22.1)

[10] The Belgic Confession of Faith (Article 32)

[11] Biblical references as cited by Derek Thomas “The Regulative Principle of Worship” https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/regulative-principle-worship/