Now I brought this up in a conversion with my friends briefly and wanted some input. For the most part Im completely into the regulative principal. That all form of worship towards God is dictated in scripture.

I just wanted to hear from others here their belief on how important the RP is to christian worship.

blade

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Nathan Olaf Brandal
First Baptist Church of Kirkland

"Man is nothing: he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven, till God worketh in him to will and to do his good pleasure"
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Violations of the Regulative Principle of Worship constitute violations of the Second Commandment -- so it's pretty important. One indicator of how God views this principle -- ie., that he alone determines how he is to be worshipped acceptably -- is to look at what happened to Nadab and Abihu (Lev. 10.1-2).

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Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project

"Let your Morning Thoughts, and your last Evening Thoughts, be what shall become of you to all Eternity." -- Matthew Poole

... and to compare that incident with this statement:

Hebrews 12:28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

It is important. Calvin sums up the high place the Regulative Principle of Worship holds, or should hold, in the Christian religion.

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Chris Coldwell, Lakewood Presbyterian Church (PCA), Member
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The Regulative Principle: Samuel Miller gives a succinct statement of this principle when he writes that since the Scriptures are the “only infallible rule of faith and practice, no rite or ceremony ought to have a place in the public worship of God, which is not warranted in Scripture, either by direct precept or example, or by good and sufficient inference.”

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Here is another quote from Calvin's Necessity of Reforming the Church,which follows shortly after the one given above.

Q: What is the chief end of man?

A: To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Pretty important...I second Andrew's allusion to Nadab and Abihu. Also keep in mind Cain & Abel (God said to Cain, "Had you done what was right..." denoting that God had, at some point, commanded in what way He was to be sacrificed to) and Uzzah, etc.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Attending CCRPC, Member of TRBC
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Just wondering why Martin Luther (if I'm not mistaken) had such a different view about what constitutes acceptable worship? How did he justify his teaching about worship in light of some of the things already mentioned about the RP?

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Bob Howes
Framingham, MA

A reoccurring thought:

Rev 22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Bob, I'd say maybe he was a bit more emphasizing on other things, at the cost of the right way in which to worship...but I'll leave that to the stellar Theolog HIstorical buffs of the PB to answer...

Luther's greatest contribution to the Reformation was his reaffirmation of the principle of justification by faith alone through grace. That was the pillar of God's Word upon which he stood, and that was the major battle that he fought (he fought others as well).

As to worship, he viewed the fundamental problem with Roman rites as being obligatory and required to please God rather than adiaphora, as he saw it. He thought that ceremonies and rituals might have a place in worship as long as they were not forced upon the conscience or tied to our righteous standing before God.

Calvin understood the nature of true worship much better than Luther. He saw that right worship at its core must involve apprehension of God as he is revealed to us in the word by faith and according to the manner which God has ordained for us to approach him. Anything else is presumption on our part.

Comparing the two, I would simply say that Calvin was more consistent than Luther in applying the principle of sola scriptura to worship. True religion is neither adding to nor taking away from God's Word. The traditions of men in worship always supplant God's word and therefore make such religion vain will-worship.

There is further helpful explanation of Lutheran inconsistencies in the area of worship to be found here.

See, Bob? That was much better than I could have dreamt of doing!

Actually, I was just about to write what Andrew had written almost verbatim, but I didn't want to steal his thunder. :P

Wow, I'm very impressed with the knowledge that you held back from sharing. The comments you would have written were very helpful.

Thanks, Andrew.

You're welcome, Bob.

Yeah...well Andrew's got to get his experience in message board posting. Who am I to stand in the way of a rookie poster?

I have become more and more convinced the RPW is EXTREMELY important to how we worship God. Nadab and Abihu. Uzzah.

Our God does NOT ACCEPT worship that comes from our own imaginations. In fact, he gets rather angry when this happens.

It is in fact idolatry to worship God in any other way.

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Jeff Bartel
Mechanical Engineer
Member - Trinity Reformed Church - RPCNA

"To believe in the power of man in the work of regeneration is the great heresy of Rome, and from that error has come the ruin of the Church. Conversion proceeds from the grace of God alone, and the system which ascribes it partly to man and partly to God is worse than Pelagianism" (The Reformation in England (London, 1962), Vol. 1, p. 98)

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Preference is idolatry.

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Scott Roberts
Ruling Elder, Lakeside Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Southlake, Texas