Calvin and the Scriptural Rule of Worship

As mentioned in the previous post, Calvin ranked reforming worship slightly above recovery of the true gospel. Calvin was by no means minimizing the true gospel, but he emphasized what the chief end of man is, which is according to the Westminster Shorter Catechism "to glorify God and enjoy him forever." Man glorifes God the best when he worships God. According to the word of God, God is pleased with worship that accords with his revealed will regarding worship. In short, this is the scriptural rule of worship.

Returning to Calvin's The Necessity of Reforming the Church, Calvin offers more light upon this understudied and ignored biblical doctrine:

Moreover, the rule which distinguishes between pure and vitiated worship is of universal application, in order that we may not adopt any device which seems fit to ourselves, but look to the injunctions of him who alone is entitled to prescribe.

The scriptural law of worship is a very simple law: the people of God are to worship God according to his prescriptions. We bring nothing of ourselves into the worship. Man-made elements and practices are violations of the second commandment, which negatively teaches against idolatry; but it teaches postively to worship God according to what he has commanded.

We'll get more into this doctrine over the weeks because it is so crucial for the Church. Why do we gather together on the Lord's Day? We come to worship in God's special presence. It is critical that we "get worship right."

Worship: The Arena of Reformation Beginnings

When most people think of the tenor of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, they think of the recovery of the gospel summarized in those timeless slogans: sola gratia, sola fide, and sola scriptura. The gospel that has been revealed in the Holy Scriptures is a gospel of grace through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who gave his life as the ultimate payment for the sins of his people.

As I read Calvin's The Necessity of Reforming the Church, I was mildly surprised to read what Calvin believed was the most important aspect of Reformation. Calvin wrote:

If it be inquired, then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts, and consequently the whole substance of Christianity: that is, a knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is duly worshipped, and, secondly, of the source from which salvation is to be obtained.

From there, Calvin goes on to write about and defend the "scriptural law of worship," which argues that the people of God are to worship God only according to what God has commanded. Any worship that deviates from God's commandments is false worship and will-worship. This doctrine, I believe, is the most underappreciated and ignored in all of Evangelicalism. During the Reformation, worship was overhauled in accordance with the recovery of the true gospel. The clear implication, I believe, is that good theology and good worship go together. In African American Churches, worship practices are invented all of the time. Is this symptomatic of many African American Churches drifting along a sea of aberrant theology? What of the Baptist churches that confess the New Hampshire Declaration of Faith (1834)? It is moderately Calvinistic. Why is worship an "anything goes?"

I ask folk here to describe what you have seen in African American Churches, and your thoughts on what you have witnessed. Also have you ever considered the "scriptural law of worship" and its implications toward Reformation in the African American Church.

Grace and Peace,

Reformed4ever

A New Year, a New Blog

Good Afternoon, all; Happy New Year!

I am a Reformed Christian, who is African American; and who loves Christ and His Church. This is the topic of this blog. My focus will be primarily commenting on Church issues related to African American churches, and calling for repentance and Reformation in those circles.

This is my introduction, and I pray that God will use this blog as a means to bring about Reformation in African American churches. I want to have good conversation with all.

Reformed4ever.