The Regulative Principle of Worship (Edited)

The writing has been revised to speak more accurately and clearly.

It's in accord with so-called "Reformed" fundamental theological principles to emphasize continuity in the purposes and accomplishments of our redeeming God from Eden to the New Jerusalem, but not such that we are blind to the transcendent glory of the New Covenant.  We study to rightly teach the real center of the Scriptural doctrine of covenantal continuity and covenantal distinction.

On this basis it is clearly the case that our professed "Regulative Principle of Worship" (RPW) needs re-thinking.  This is because our tradition of the RPW unduly discounts the worship principles of the Old Testament when formulating the worship principles of the New.  That is, there is too much covenantal discontinuity.

In Reformation time, the thought in Lutheranism was to very conservatively reform the inherited catholicism, especially after the fruits of radicalism were seen.  The thought in "reformed" areas, on the other hand, was to almost entirely "reboot" the church on Scriptural principles, which, in liturgical detail, mainly meant New Testament principles of worship.

The downside of the "reformed" approach is that there isn't a lot of data in the New Testament which can thoroughly and cogently define what the whole, integrated New Testament order of worship should look like, in the very practical sense.  We just have pieces of it.  The implementation of the RPW on this ground tends to be accomplished by looking for things that are essential elements (such as Paul's recitation of the history of the institution of the Lord's Supper in 1 Cor 11), and making use of hints and remarks in the Scripture text about various ongoing practices in the churches.  However, these may often not be explained in enough detail to enable us to understand how to formulate a whole worship service.  Clearly, the church had a form of worship, but it is hard to tell what it was in detail from the New Testament only.

We can say for sure, however, that Jewish worship informed church worship.  And, Jewish worship which was imitated by the church wasn't limited to the synagogue, as some try to teach.  The New Testament is full of "temple language" when referring to the church, and it is therefore clear that the New Testament "synagogues of God" partook of both the practice of the synagogue and the practice of the Temple.

It has to be the case, then, that the reformation of New Testament worship must take into account the moral law inherited in the worship principles which are found in both Testaments!  The church's worship is connected with the sacrifice our Lord made as high priest in the Temple of Heaven, to which we ascend each Lord's day!

The original conception of the RPW was, I suppose, a good experiment.  But, a thorough inspection of that early history shows that in the most idealistic sense, the experiment was a failure (see Horton Davies, Worship of the English Puritans, for a sympathetic but revealing disclosure of this).  Surely, some of the reasons for this failure were due to the reaction against incorporating historic principles of worship (from the Temple) into the worship of the New Covenant.

Nowadays, most talk about the RPW among Reformed folks (or the "Church of Christ," which also has a stake in this) has hardened into a tradition -- a tradition which differs a good deal from church to church, in those churches which profess to abide by it.  Therefore, it has been, and is, an excuse for personal and corporate schism, and is so even today with some of my own friends.

This RPW tradition has historically served to drive out much art and beauty, often instruments and choirs, sometimes hymns, almost always cyclic feasts centered on the life of Christ, and much verbal congregational participation in the worship of God.  Until the liturgical revolution of the 20th century (which didn't happen in "evangelical" churches), the RPW tradition often served to make the protestant church into primarily a lecture hall.  Much of the breezy mod worship seen today, and perhaps much of pentecostalism, too, could be a reaction against this error, but they have not found the way to go.

What we need to discern in Scripture is the true RPW -- not just an aesthetic jump to ancient forms.  We need a thinking reformation of worship, which incorporates beauty and corporate response as a reflection of God and his Glory -- based on the whole Scripture.

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It is said that the last Mass in Zurich was very well attended.

After that, the activity at church meetings seems not to have been described by ordinary citizens as "worship."  It was described as "listening to sermons."  They certainly needed the sermons for their basic instruction, because Scripture teaching had been absent from the church so long.  We need the sermons, too.  But we ought to get back to a holistic conception of worship!

It's been 50 years since this goy was last invited to worship in the (conservative) synagogue (kippa and all).  And, of course, the "modern" synagogue is certainly not the ancient synagogue, but it used a prayer book, appeared to be extremely ritualistic to that low-church protestant, a good deal of everything was sung, and almost all the words were, I think, in Hebrew.