I am reading James Jordan's criticle review of Worship in the Presence of God, in which he says the following:
Was there nothing else sola scriptura that determined what was to be done in synogogue worship?
As I'm thinking about it now, it seems to me that an argument from history (concerning what the Jews actually did and did not do in the synogogue) would not suffice here, because the Regulative Principle is sola scriptura, hence extra-biblical sources are not allowed. In other words, arguing from history that the Jews sang unaccompanied psalms, read the scriptures aloud, and prayed during synogogue worship does not mean that they were doing so in accordance to the Regulative Principle. They may have been violating the regulative principle in so doing, because there was no command.
How does the Confessioanl position answer Jordan here?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Girardeau asserts that God specifically prescribed all the details of worship for Israel. What we know about the synagogue is that Leviticus 23:3 says that every sabbath day there was to be a holy convocation. Nowhere does God say what is to be going on during that convocation. There is no command to read the Scripture, so was it forbidden? I don't think Girardeau would say yes to either of these, though his principle would force him to. So we may ask this: There is no command to sing psalms in the synogogue with accompaniment on the harp, so was it forbidden? Girardeau suddenly switches ground here, and says that it was forbidden. This is not sound reasoning. On Girardeau's premises, the holy convocation on the sabbath would have been a silent gathering. Anything else would have been forbidden, because nothing else was commanded. The fact that synagogue worship was "unregulated" destroys by itself the strict form of the Regulative Principle...
Was there nothing else sola scriptura that determined what was to be done in synogogue worship?
As I'm thinking about it now, it seems to me that an argument from history (concerning what the Jews actually did and did not do in the synogogue) would not suffice here, because the Regulative Principle is sola scriptura, hence extra-biblical sources are not allowed. In other words, arguing from history that the Jews sang unaccompanied psalms, read the scriptures aloud, and prayed during synogogue worship does not mean that they were doing so in accordance to the Regulative Principle. They may have been violating the regulative principle in so doing, because there was no command.
How does the Confessioanl position answer Jordan here?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.