21st Century Calvinist
Puritan Board Junior
What should our response be then to Calvin who celebrated the evangelical feast days of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost?
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If man-instituted days of thanksgiving are permitted, what about them separates them from holidays such that the latter are forbidden to be instituted? And, secondly, are annual days of thanksgiving allowed to be made?
If the second question above is answered in the affirmative, then could not a celebrator of Christmas or Easter argue that such holidays are merely holidays thanking God for the Incarnation or for the atonement and resurrection? What about holidays makes them of a different nature than days of thanksgiving?
I have been convinced for a while that holidays are forbidden by the RPW, but I have been having a bit of trouble understanding how thanksgiving fits in with everything else.
Something has to determine what the theme or content of worship will be. How is it more fitting with the RPW for the pastor to choose a text and theme upon sheer preference than to choose a text and theme upon something that is culturally significant, such as a holiday?
This is precisely the attitude that gives rise to annual Proverbs 31 sermons...
To follow your advice, Pastors ought to be preaching a sermon each year relevant to golf on the four major tournament championship Sundays, an Indy-500 Sermon, Mothers, Fathers, Grandparents and Childrens' Days, Earth Day, etc., etc.... to pick texts as dictated by "culturally significant events" is irresponsible to say the least.
Furthermore, to characterize the choices of a pastor who doesn't follow the church calendar (or guide his text-choice by other pagan cultural events), but who has other criteria for choosing has text as "sheer preference" is slanderous, quite frankly. I suggest you avoid it.
Then, one starts adding Advent wreaths, candles, evergreen trees in the place of worship, idolatrous manger scenes, passion plays, and sentimental preaching that sounds more like Dickens than the Bible.
Glenn,
I agree with you that a systematic exposition of the Bible is the best guideline to use when choosing a text and theme for the worship elements. But I don't see how the RPW shows it to be wrong for a pastor to use an event or topic that is on the minds of the congregation (or the culture as a whole) to occassionally take a break from the regular study.
I'm not talking about "holy" days here. I doubt anyone on the PB believes the church has actual "holy" days. You can bring out all types of examples of modern churches that take it too far, but that's not what I'm arguing for. I'm talking about focusing a worship service on the Incarnation during December, the Resurrection during the spring, or the Reformation during late October. I just don't buy that the RPW forbids such.
Then, one starts adding Advent wreaths, candles, evergreen trees in the place of worship, idolatrous manger scenes, passion plays, and sentimental preaching that sounds more like Dickens than the Bible.
I agree that there are problems with passion plays and perhaps manger scenes, but it's not wrong to decorate according to the season.