The Regulative Principle of Worship declares that God alone is sovereign in worship. - Greg Price ow.ly/ydmmp Presbyterian Worship: Old and New by Kevin Reed swrb/newslett/actualnls/FrameWor.htm A Review and Commentary upon Worship in Spirit and Truth, a book by John Frame. Kevin Reed shows how John Frame has abandoned the Reformation, both scripturally and confessionally, in regard to worship. He also gives an excellent summary of historic Reformed views and then contrasts them with the novel idolatrous ideas now being touted by John Frame. Sadly, most Protestant churches (and even churches Reformed in their soteriology) are often closer to Rome than the Reformation in their public worship, practicing such Roman Catholic innovations in public worship as signing man-made hymns (rather than the using the hymn book God has provided in Scripture, and singing Psalms), using musical instruments (a practice abrogated, in public worship, with the rest of the ceremonial law with the coming of Christ), and keeping Popish holy days like Christmas and Easter (which violates the second and fourth commandments). The quote below illustrates how quickly Reformed people and churches have backsliden into Arminian and Romish worship patterns: In 1899, the General Assembly of the PCUS was overtured to give a pronounced and explicit deliverance against the recognition of Christmas and Easter as religious days. Even at this late date, the answer came back in a solid manner: There is no warrant in Scripture for the observance of Christmas and Easter as holydays, rather the contrary (see Gal. 4:9-11; Col. 2:16-21), and such observance is contrary to the principles of the Reformed faith, conducive to will-worship, and not in harmony with the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. - Kevin Reed, Christmas: An Historical Survey Regarding Its Origins and Opposition to It (Free Online Book), emphases added. Calvinism, or the Sovereignty of God, in Worship (Free Online Books Against Arminianism In Worship) ow.ly/vRWIu or puritandownloads/calvinism-or-the-sovereignty-of-god-in-worship-free-online-books-against-arminianism-in-worship/ The Sin of Ishtar or Easter Worship, Idolatry In the Church and God Hates False Worship by Jim Dodson, William Perkins, Greg Price, John Calvin, Dr. Steven Dilday, William Greenhill, Kevin Reed and Others (Free MP3s) ow.ly/vRVXX or puritandownloads/the-sin-of-ishtar-or-easter-worship-idolatry-in-the-church-and-god-hates-false-worship-by-jim-dodson-william-perkins-greg-price-john-calvin-dr-steven-dilday-william-greenhill-kevin-reed-and-others-free-mp3s/ The Regulative Principle of Worship declares that God alone is sovereign in worship. The Regulative Principle of Worship simply applies the principles of Calvinism (i.e. Gods sovereign Lordship) to worship, whereas the view that what God doesnt forbid in worship is permitted is applying the principles of Arminianism (i.e. mans sovereign lordship) to worship. Just as fallen man naturally seeks to impose his will in salvation (e.g. I can cooperate with God in salvation, or I have a natural freedom to choose Christ), so fallen man naturally seeks to impose his will in worship (I can cooperate with God in worship by adding what I desire so long as God doesnt specifically forbid it). But just as God condemns a man-centered salvation, so God condemns a man-centered worship (Col. 2:23 specifically condemns all will-worship, i.e. all worship instituted by man). - Greg Price, Foundation for Reformation: The Regulative Principle of Worship, p. 10, free at swrb/newslett/actualnls/REFORMATION-RPW-GP.htm or on the Puritan Hard Drive Easter Is Not Biblical - It Is A Superstitious Pagan and Roman Catholic Holy Day (Free MP3s, Books, etc.) puritandownloads/easter-is-not-biblical-it-is-a-superstitious-pagan-and-roman-catholic-holy-day-free-mp3s-books-etc/ Christmas Is A Roman Catholic Missions Strategy puritandownloads/christmas-is-a-roman-catholic-missions-strategy/ The Bible teaches that only God can lawfully institute holy days and that all man-made holy days, like Easter and Christmas, are sinful -- and God says he hates them (especially as they lead to Antichrist rather than Christ and are, ultimately, a denial of the Gospel and Christs work). Forasmuch then, as kneeling before the consecrated bread, the sign of the cross, surplice, festival days (Eater, Christ-Mass, etc. - ed.) , bishopping, bowing to the altar, administration of the sacraments in private places, etc. are the wares of Rome, the baggage of Babylon, the trinkets of the whore, the badges of Popery, the ensigns of Christs enemies and the very trophies of Antichrist: we cannot conform, communicate, and symbolize with. - George Gillespie, Scottish Commissioner to the Westminster Assembly We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas: first, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be said or sung in Latin or in English; and, secondly, because we find no scriptural warrant for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and, consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. - Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, p. 697 All human inventions which are set up to corrupt the simple purity of the Word of God, and to undo the worship which he demands and approves, are true sacrileges, in which the Christian man cannot participate without blaspheming God, and trampling his honour underfoot. - John Calvin, emphases added. Singing the Psalms With Jesus and the Idols (Man Made Hymns) of John and Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, the Trinity Hymnal, Fanny Crosby, and Others By Jim Dodson, John Calvin, W.J. Mencarow, Westminster Divines, Greg Price, Dr. Reg Barrow, et al ow.ly/y3WQn Acts of the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland on Festival Days 1. Festival days not commanded nor warranted by scripture. General Assembly seeks total abolition not reformation of abuses only December 10, Session 17, 1638. And next in particular, concerning festival days findeth that in the explication of the first head of the first book of discipline it was thought good that the feasts of Christmas, Circumcision, Epiphany, with the feasts of the Apostles, Martyrs and Virgin Mary be utterly abolished because they are neither commanded nor warranted by Scripture and that such a observe them be punished by Civil Magistrates. Here utter abolition is craved and not reformation of abuses only and that because the observation of such feasts have no warrant from the word of God. In the General Assembly held at Edinburgh Anno 1556 the large confession of Helvetia was approved but with special exception against the same five days which are now urged upon us. It was not then the Popish observation only, with the Popish opinion of worship and merit, which was disallowed; (for so the reformed Kirk in Helvetia did not observe them) but simpliciter all observation. For this end was read a letter in Latin, sent at that time by some of our divines to certain divines in these parts to this purpose. In the Assembly holden 15 5. in August, complaint was made against the Ministers and Readers beside Aberdeen; because they assembled the people to preaching and prayers upon certain festival days: So that preaching and prayers upon festival days was judged rebukable. It was ordained likewise, that complaint be made to the Regent, upon the town of Drumfreis, for urging and convoying a Reader to the Kirk with Cabrfet and Whistle, to read Prayers, all the holy days of Christmas, upon the refusal of their own Reader. Among the articles directed by this Assembly to the Regent: It was craved that all holy days hereto-fore keeped holy, beside the Lords day, such as Yooleday, and Saints days, and such others may be abolished, and a certain penalty appointed for banqueting, playing, feasting upon these days. In the Assembly held in April, Anno 1577. It was ordained that the visitors with the advice of the Synodal Assembly, should admonish Ministers, preaching or administrating the Communion at Easter, or Christmas, or other like superstitious times, or Readers reading, to desist, under the pain of deprivation. In the ninth head of the first book of Discipline, the reason is set down against Easter Communion. Your honours are not ignorant how superstitiously the people run to that action at Pascheven; as if the time gave virtue to the Sacrament, and how the rest of the whole year, they are careless and negligent as if it appertained not to them, but at that time only. And for this reason, other times were appointed by that book, for that holy action. In the Assembly holden 1596, begun in March 1595, at which time the Covenant was renewed, superstition and idolatry breaking forth in observing festival days; setting out of bonfires, singing carols, are reckoned amongst the corruptions which were to be amended: And the pulpits did sound from time to time, against all show of observing any festival day whatsoever, except the Lords day. - CHURCH OF SCOTLAND GENERAL ASSEMBLY, The Acts of the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland, 1638-1649, pp. 37-38 (republished by Still Waters Revival Books in 1997), emphases added But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. - The Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 15:9) ow.ly/y3WVw The Vain Worship Of Hypocrites and How False Worship Destroys Nations Under God's Wrath By Jim Dodson, John Calvin, Greg Price, John Knox, Kevin Reed, Westminster Divines, Dr. Steven Dilday, Thomas Watson and Others (Free MP3s) ow.ly/y3WVw That Gods word damns your ceremonies, it is evident; for the plain and straight commandment of God is, Not that thing which appears good in thy eyes, shalt thou do to the Lord thy God, but what the Lord thy God has commanded thee, that do thou: add nothing to it; diminish nothing from it. Now unless that ye are able to prove that God has commanded your ceremonies, this his former commandment will damn both you and them. With this understanding of worship, the Scottish Church cast out a multitude of the monuments of idolatry which were part of papal worship; graven images, the Mass, false sacraments, Romish liturgical ceremonies, and Roman bishops were all removed from the Church. Ecclesiastical holidays were also expelled from the Church of Scotland. - Kevin Reed, Christmas: An Historical Survey Regarding Its Origins and Opposition to It, free at swrb/newslett/actualnls/Xmas_ch2.htm. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. This crimson adage is a striking truth. If ye burn any more, quaintly said one who had observed the effects of the martyrdom of Wishart on the public mind, burn them in your cellar, for the smoke infects all upon whom it is blown. - J.C. McFeeters, Sketches of the Covenanters (on the Puritan Hard Drive bit.ly/ci3g2z) ow.ly/y3X00 Gods Will Vs. Mans Will In Worship, Romanism and Arminianism In Worship Are Heresy (The Plausibility Of Will Worship To Worldly Wisdom, Colossians 2:23, the Regulative Principle Of Worship [RPW], Etc.) By Jim Dodson, John Calvin, Greg Price, et al. ow.ly/y3X00 The General Assembly taking to their consideration the manifold abuses, profanity, and superstitions committed on Yule-day and some other superstitious days following have unanimously concluded and hereby ordains; That whatsoever person or persons hereafter shall be found guilty in keeping of the foresaid superstitious days shall be proceeded against by Kirk censures and shall make their public repentance therefore in the face of the congregation where the offence is committed. - The Acts of the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland, February 13, 1645., pp. 285-286. John Calvin on the Regulative Principle of Worship ...which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. ...God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions, than that they are not commanded by God: for when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to his commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship, in which they absurdly exercise themselves, would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophets words then are very important, when he says, that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind; as though he had said, that men assume too much wisdom, when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew. - John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah 7:31 Instrumental Music in Public Worship: The Views of John Calvin To sing the praises of God upon the harp and psaltery, says Calvin, unquestionably formed a part of the training of the law and of the service of God under that dispensation of shadows and figures, but they are not now to be used in public thanksgiving.1 He says again: With respect to the tabret, harp, and psaltery, we have formerly observed, and will find it necessary afterwards to repeat the same remark, that the Levites, under the law, were justified in making use of instrumental music in the worship of God; it having been his will to train his people, while they were yet tender and like children, by such rudiments until the coming of Christ. But now, when the clear light of the gospel has dissipated the shadows of the law and taught us that God is to be served in a simpler form, it would be to act a foolish and mistaken part to imitate that which the prophet enjoined only upon those of his own time.2 He further observes: We are to remember that the worship of God was never understood to consist in such outward services, which were only necessary to help forward a people as yet weak and rude in knowledge in the spiritual worship of God. A difference is to be observed in this respect between his people under the Old and under the New Testament; for now that Christ has appeared, and the church has reached full age, it were only to bury the light of the gospel should we introduce the shadows of a departed dispensation. From this it appears that the Papists, as I shall have occasion to show elsewhere, in employing instrumental music cannot be said so much to imitate the practice of Gods ancient people as to ape it in a senseless and absurd manner, exhibiting a silly delight in that worship of the Old Testament which was figurative and terminated with the gospel.3 ENDNOTES: 1. On Ps. lxxi. 22. 2. On Ps. lxxxi. 3. 3. On Ps. xcii. 1. FROM: INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH By John L. Girardeau (Still Waters Revival Books, [1888] 2000), pp. 63, 64 -- on the Puritan Hard Drive, ow.ly/dZ3ua The Regulative Principle of Worship is Gods ordained law for worship... You see there is no neutrality in the way in which we approach God in worship. Either we approach the living God according to His revealed Word (i.e. the Regulative Principle of Worship), or we approach Him according to our revealed word. Someones word is going to expressly guide us in worship. The only question is, whose word will guide us? Gods or mans? - Greg Price, Foundation For Reformation: The Regulative Principle Of Worship, free online at swrb/newslett/actualNLs/REFORMATION-RPW-GP.htm. The Church of the Covenanters has a precious inheritance. The achievements of the past, the privileges of the present, and the victories of the future-all, all are hers, if she be faithful. The Old Blue Banner leads to the world-wide triumph of the principles it represents. This is no presumption; it is a foregone conclusion, the very language of logic. The certainty is based on Gods revealed purpose, and glows in the richest hues of prophecy. Humility forbids boasting; we have not said that the Covenanted Church shall have this honor. But the Banner of the Covenant, by whomsoever borne, will surely be glorified with victory, as Jesus Christ, the great Captain, leads His conquerors to universal conquest. - J.C. McFeeters, Sketches of the Covenanters, p. 411. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORDs house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. (Isa. 2:2, emphases added). Now, Christians, the more great and glorious things you expect from God, as the downfall of antichrist, the conversion of the Jews, the conquest of the nations to Christ, the breaking of all yokes, the new Jerusalems coming down from above, the extraordinary pouring out of the Spirit, and a more general union among all saints, the more holy, yea, the more eminently holy in all your ways and actings it becomes you to be. - Thomas Brooks, The Crown and Glory of Christianity, 1662, Complete Works (on the Puritan Hard Drive), 1867, p. 444 ow.ly/y3X36 Why Most Worship Is Actually Idolatry, Which God Hates, According To the Bible (the Second Commandment Or The Regulative Principle Of Worship, RPW) By Jim Dodson, John Calvin, Greg Price, the Westminster Assembly, Dr. Steven Dilday, John Owen, et al. ow.ly/y3X36 It is commonly objected, that we may as well keep a day for the nativity, as for the resurrection of Christ. We have answered already, that Christs Day, or the Lords Day, is the day appointed for remembrance of his nativity, and all his actions and benefits, as well as for the resurrection . - David Calderwood (Covenanter), emphases added. Inward and outward worship must be appointed by God, for who knows what will please God but himself? He is a glorious and holy spirit, infinitely and only wise, and that only must we stick unto as pleasing to him which himself appoints. Mens inventions and appointments in worship defile mens souls, and provoke divine Majesty; a godly man therefore is very tender in point of worship, and will practise nothing therein but what he has found a clear foundation for out of the Word of God . - William Greenhill, An Exposition of the Prophet Ezekiel, emphases added. All human inventions which are set up to corrupt the simple purity of the Word of God, and to undo the worship which he demands and approves, are true sacrileges, in which the Christian man cannot participate without blaspheming God, and trampling his honour underfoot. - John Calvin, emphases added. 57 Free MP3s: Puritan Worship Series by John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, George Gillespie, Greg Price, W.J. Mencarow, David Steele, Dr. Steven Dilday, Samuel Rutherford, Brian Schwertley, Dr. Reg Barrow and Others puritandownloads/57-free-mp3s-puritan-worship-series-by-greg-price-john-calvin-jonathan-edwards-george-gillespie-w-j-mencarow-david-steele-dr-steven-dilday-samuel-rutherford-brian-schwertley-dr-reg-barrow-and-others/ FREE PURITAN HARD DRIVE SOFTWARE bit.ly/fGqSB4. When God Hates Your Worship, Free MP3 and Videos puritandownloads/when-god-hates-your-worship-free-mp3-and-videos/ ow.ly/qda8N James Jordan and Other Federal Vision Heretics (like Doug Wilson), Attack Reformation Teaching and Worship by Dr. Reg Barrow ow.ly/qda8N. Are You Looking For A Covenanter Church Or Are You Interested In Covenanter Worship (Along The Lines Of The Original Intent Of The Westminster Standards)? If So, Please Email Pastor Greg Price At covpastor@gmail For More Information About How To Take Part In A Covenanter Service, From Your Location, Via Conference Call. Over 600 Free MP3 Sermons By Greg Price Are Also At sermonaudio/go/29065. All things considered, certainly it is no small condemnation of us to behold what an ardent zeal the holy martyrs had in the past, especially in comparison with the nonchalance we demonstrate. For as soon as a poor man of that time got so much as a little taste of the true knowledge of God, he did not hesitate to expose himself to the danger involved in confessing his faith. He would have preferred to be burned alive than to go so far as to commit some outward act of idolatry. - John Calvin Take heed of all occasions of idolatry, for idolatry is devil-worship. Psalm 106: 37. If you search through the whole Bible, there is not one sin that God has more followed with plagues than idolatry. The Jews have a saying, that in every evil that befalls them, there is uncia aurei vituli, an ounce of the golden calf in it. Hell is a place for idolaters. For without are idolaters. Rev 22: 15. Senesius calls the devil a rejoicer at idols, because the image-worshippers help to fill hell. - Thomas Watson, The Ten Commandments (emphases added), on the Puritan Hard Drive By all which, you see where the idolatry of worship lies. The instituting of any, though the smallest part of worship, in and by our own authority, without scripture-warrant, makes it idolatrous, as well as if we worshipped an idol (Ex: 20:5). - John Flavel, The Works of John Flavel, Vol, 4. p. 527 (on the Puritan Hard Drive). The Regulative Principle of Worship (which is really just sola Scriptura in worship - ed.) as found in Gods Word is accurately summarized for us in the Westminster Confession of Faith 21:1: But the acceptable way of worshiping 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 the holy Scripture. In like manner, carefully note the answer given to question 109 of the Larger Catechism (What are the sins forbidden in the second commandment?): The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counselling, commanding, using and any wise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself; tolerating a false religion; the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever... corrupting the worship of God, adding to it, or taking from it, whether invented and taken up of ourselves, or received by tradition from others, though under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion, good intent, or any other pretence whatsoever... all neglect, contempt, hindering, and opposing the worship and ordinances which God hath appointed. A short summary of the Regulative Principle of Worship is simply this: What Scripture does not authorize it forbids. Most churches (Romish churches, Orthodox churches, Anglican churches, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Evangelical, and most Reformed and Presbyterian churches) are operating on an altogether different principle from the one just stated. The principle they are operating on is: What Scripture does not forbid, it permits. Since Christ in the New Covenant has not expressly forbidden drama, dancing, candles, incense, musical instruments, uninspired hymns, crossing oneself, banners, crosses, images, etc. within the house of God, the vast majority of churches today permit these (to lesser or greater degrees) and many more practices into their worship services. However, the Regulative Principle of Worship would prevent all the above practices into the worship of God because they are all without the authorization of Christ, the mediator of the New Covenant. In other words, every religious practice or symbol in the worship of Gods people must have a divine warrant from Gods Word either by (1) command; or by (2) authorized example of the apostles; or by (3) good and necessary inference. - Greg Price, Foundation for Reformation: The Regulative Principle of Worship, on the PURITAN HARD DRIVE and free at swrb/newslett/actualnls/REFORMATION-RPW-GP.htm Doctrine is not an affair of the tongue, but of the life; is not apprehended by the intellect and memory merely, like other branches of learning; but is received only when it possesses the whole soul, and finds its seat and habitation in the inmost recesses of the heart. - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.6.4 Christmas was not celebrated by the apostolic church. It was not celebrated during the first few centuries of the church. As late as A.D. 245, Origen (Hom. 8 on Leviticus) repudiated ...the idea of keeping the birthday of Christ, as if he were a king Pharaoh. By the middle of the 4th century, many churches in the Latin west were celebrating Christmas. During the 5th century, Christmas became an official Roman Catholic holy day. In A.D. 534, Christmas was recognized as an official holy day by the Roman state.The reason that Christmas became a church holy day has nothing to do with the Bible. The Bible does not give the date of Christs birth. Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to celebrate Christmas. Christmas (as well as many other pagan practices) was adopted by the Roman church as a missionary strategy. - The Regulative Principle of Worship and Christmas by Brian Schwertley FREE BOOK at swrb/newslett/actualNLs/CHRISTMAS.htm or on the Puritan Hard Drive. Christmas: 8 New Free Reformed MP3s puritandownloads/christmas-8-new-free-reformed-mp3s/ Christmas Is A Roman Catholic Missions Strategy puritandownloads/christmas-is-a-roman-catholic-missions-strategy/ History of Holy Days (Sabbath/Lords Day, Christmas, Easter, etc.) by Dr. Steven Dilday puritandownloads/history-of-holy-days-sabbath-lords-day-christmas-easter-etc-by-dr-steven-dilday/ For even the good kings of ancient Judah, who expelled the worship of the Baals from the temple, left the Asherim and their devotees undisturbed on the hills. So rooted in communal life had these deities become, that it was unthinkable to be rid of them. In the late twentieth century the West is similarly plagued with major and minor idols, some of them all but invisible. It is hard to imagine a more important or satisfying role than to embark on the spiritual, intellectual, and political adventure of working toward stripping them, root and branch, from the land. - Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction: The Conflict of Christian Faith and American Culture (Crossway Books, 1990), pp. 334-335. Hymns of human composition are used so commonly now in public worship by Presbyterian churches that it is difficult to believe that the practice is not a hundred years old, and that in some of the churches it is of very recent date. On the supposition that it is good and dutiful and wise to sing such hymns in worship, it is equally difficult to account for the neglect of the churches at the time of the Reformation, and for generations afterwards. What could have so blinded the reformers as to make them reject hymns and sing the Psalms alone? How could the Westminster Divines, in framing their Confession of Faith and Directory for Worship, have been so unanimous in the blunder that the service of praise is to consist of the singing of Psalms? And apart from the aspect of duty, how could the Presbyterian churches, for about a hundred and fifty or two hundred years after the Westminster Assembly, have been so insensible to the power of hymns as an attractive addition to their public services? We cannot by any means understand how it was that, if it was dutiful to use hymns in worship, the reformers did not discover the Scriptural warrant for the duty, especially as hymns had been used for centuries by the Church of Rome. Nor can we understand how they rejected the hymns and used the Psalms alone, unless on the supposition that they believed the use of hymns to be part of the will-worship of Rome. If they were wrong on this point, then Rome and our modern Presbyterian churches are right. In that case, the Puritans and Covenanters were fanatics, and Romanists were truly enlightened! And most of our Presbyterian churches of the present day were fanatical too, and did not become truly enlightened and liberal till they got back to the Romish practice! - James Dick, Hymns and Hymn Books (1883), on the Puritan Hard Drive. Colossians 2:8,20-23. The emphasis of the great apostle throughout this chapter is on forsaking the traditions and commandments of men, and rather clinging to Christ and His commandments, for in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge . . in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power (Col 2:3,9-10). Dear ones, you are not complete in yourself or in any man-made ceremonies in worship. You are complete, made full and acceptable through His work on your behalf. He is the head of the church, not you or me. He is our Prophet, Priest, and King. He alone directs our worship and presents it acceptable to the Father. Paul infers that to practice any will-worship (or self-imposed religion Col. 2:23) according to the commandments and doctrines of men (Col. 2:22) is to undermine the finished work of Christ (Col. 2:11-23) and to seek to usurp the headship over the church that rightly belongs to Christ (Col. 2:8-10,18-19). Self-imposed worship (i.e. any religious act, gesture, symbol, or ceremony in worship) is expressly condemned by Christ and His apostles. It is in fact false worship which no Christian should tolerate in the house of God without a verbal protest to the leadership and separation from this false worship until there is biblical reformation in worship (The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counselling, commanding, using, and any wise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself (The Larger Catechism, Question 109). - Greg Price, Foundation for Reformation: The Regulative Principle of Worship, free online at swrb/newslett/actualNLs/REFORMATION-RPW-GP.htm (emphases added above) Instrumental Music in Public Worship: History Surrounding the Westminster Assembly Before the Westminster Assembly of Divines undertook the office of preparing a Directory of Worship, the Parliament had authoritatively adopted measures looking to the removal of organs, along with other remains of Popery, from the churches of England. On the 20th of May, 1644, the commissioners from Scotland wrote to the General Assembly of their church and made the following statement among others: We cannot but admire the good hand of God in the great things done here already, particularly that the covenant, the foundation of the whole work, is taken, Prelacy and the whole train thereof extirpated, the service-book in many places forsaken, plain and powerful preaching set up, many colleges in Cambridge provided with such ministers as are most zealous of the best reformation, altars removed, the communion in some places given at the table with sitting, THE GREAT ORGANS AT PAULS AND PETERS IN WESTMINSTER TAKEN DOWN (emphasis added), images and many other monuments of idolatry defaced and abolished, the Chapel Royal at Whitehall purged and reformed; and all by authority, in a quiet manner, at noon-day, without tumult.1 So thorough was the work of removing organs that the Encyclopaedia Britannica says that at the Revolution most of the organs in England had been destroyed.2 When, therefore, the Assembly addressed itself to the task of framing a Directory for Worship, it found itself confronted by a condition of the churches of Great Britain in which the singing of psalms without instrumental accompaniment almost universally prevailed. In prescribing, consequently, the singing of psalms without making any allusion to the restoration of instrumental music, it must, in all fairness, be construed to specify the simple singing of praise as a part of public worship. The question, moreover, is settled by the consideration that had any debate occurred as to the propriety of allowing the use of instrumental music, the Scottish commissioners would have vehemently and uncompromisingly opposed that measure. But Lightfoot, who was a member of the Assembly, in his Journal of its Proceedings3 tells us: This morning we fell upon the Directory for singing of psalms; and, in a short time, we finished it. He says that the only point upon which the Scottish commissioners had some discussion was the reading of the Psalms line by line. ENDNOTES: 1. Girardeau cites this quotation from the Acts of Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 1644. 2. Girardeau cites Art., Organ. 3. Girardeau cites Works, Vol. xiii., pp. 343, 344; London, 1825. FROM: INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH By John L. Girardeau (Still Waters Revival Books, [1888] 2000), pp. 132, 133 -- on the Puritan Hard Drive, ow.ly/dZ3ua The Heresy of Instrumental Music in Public Worship With reference to the time when organs were first introduced into use in the Roman Catholic Church, let us hear Bingham:1 It is now generally agreed among learned men that the use of organs came into the church since the time of Thomas Aquinas, Anno 1250; for he, in his Summs, has these words: Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaize....Mr. Wharton also has observed that Marinus Sanutus, who lived about the year 1290, was the first who brought the use of wind-organs into churches, whence he was surnamed Torcellus, which is the name for an organ in the Italian tongue....Let us pause a moment to notice the fact, supported by a mass of incontrovertible evidence, that the Christian church did not employ instrumental music in its public worship for 1200 years after Christ....It deserves serious consideration, moreover, that notwithstanding the ever-accelerated drift towards corruption in worship as well as in doctrine and government, the Roman Catholic Church did not adopt this corrupt practice until about the middle of the thirteenth century....When the organ was introduced into its worship it encountered strong opposition, and made its way but slowly to general acceptance. These assuredly are facts that should profoundly impress Protestant churches. How can they adopt a practice which the Roman Church, in the year 1200, had not admitted...Then came the Reformation; and the question arises, How did the Reformers deal with instrumental music in the church?...Zwingle has already been quoted to show instrumental music was one of the shadows of the old law which has been realized in the gospel. He pronounces its employment in the present dispensation wicked pervicacity. There is no doubt in regard to his views on the subject, which were adopted by the Swiss Reformed churches...Calvin is very express in his condemnation of instrumental music in connection with the public worship of the Christian church...In his homily on 1 Sam. xviii. 1-9, he delivers himself emphatically and solemnly upon the subject: In Popery there was a ridiculous and unsuitable imitation [of the Jews]. While they adorned their temples, and valued themselves as having made the worship of God more splendid and inviting, they employed organs (emphasis added), and many other such ludicrous things, by which the Word and worship of God are exceedingly profaned, the people being much more attached to those rites than to the understanding of the divine Word... Whatever may be the practice in recent times of the churches of Holland, the Synods of the Reformed Dutch Church, soon after the Reformation, pronounced very decidedly against the use of instrumental music in public worship. The National Synod at Middleburg, in 1581, declared against it, and the Synod of Holland and Zealand, in 1594, adopted this strong resolution; That they would endeavor to obtain of the magistrate the laying aside of organs, and the singing with them in the churches.... The Provincial Synod of Dort also inveighed severely against their use...The Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, ...upholds an apostolic simplicity of worship. The great congregation which is blessed with the privilege of listening to his instructions has no organ to assist them in singing...The non-prelatic churches, Independent and Presbyterian, began their development on the American continent without instrumental music. They followed the English Puritans and the Scottish Church, which had adopted the principles of the Calvinistic Reformed Church...It has thus been proved by an appeal to historical facts, that the church, although lapsing more and more into defection from the truth and into a corruption of apostolic practice, had no instrumental music for twelve hundred years; and that the Calvinistic Reformed Church ejected it from its services as a element of Popery, even the Church of England having come very nigh to its extrusion from her worship. The historical argument, therefore, combines with the scriptural and the confessional to raise a solemn and powerful protest against its employment by the Presbyterian Church. IT IS HERESY IN THE SPHERE OF WORSHIP (emphasis added). ENDNOTES: 1. Works, Vol. iii., p. 137, ff. FROM: INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH By John L. Girardeau (Still Waters Revival Books, [1888] 2000), Historical Argument pp. 158, 159, 161, 165, 170, 179 -- on the Puritan Hard Drive, ow.ly/dZ3ua Forasmuch then, as kneeling before the consecrated bread, the sign of the cross, surplice, festival days (Eater, Christ-Mass, etc. - ed.), bishopping, bowing to the altar, administration of the sacraments in private places, etc. are the wares of Rome, the baggage of Babylon, the trinkets of the whore, the badges of Popery, the ensigns of Christs enemies and the very trophies of Antichrist: we cannot conform, communicate, and symbolize with. - George Gillespie, Scottish Commissioner to the Westminster Assembly
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 11:16:03 +0000
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