Defining the Regulative Principle

Walk into any corporate worship service today and you will almost certainly observe that the congregational singing is accompanied by instruments. There is no doubt that the common worship style of today, filled with various instruments and too often supplemented by stage lights and smoke machines, differs significantly from the worship one would have observed in a seventeenth-century Reformed church. For a large portion of those who claim to agree with John Calvin’s theology, it may (though it should not) come as a surprise that he was vehemently against the use of instruments in worship and not simply as a matter of taste. Additionally, the Psalms, rather than uninspired hymns, were given priority in worship in the Genevan church. The Regulative Principle of Worship, which asserts that we may not worship God in any way that he has not commanded, is not a term ever found in Calvin’s writing, yet the concept is certainly present, as is the practical application of the principle, which is the governing principle by which the Reformed churches conduct worship.¹ This series will define the Regulative Principle as articulated by the Reformed confessions, investigate Calvin’s own view of worship, and finally, apply Calvin’s view of worship to the modern church.

Introduction

For most of my Christian life, the idea that worship should be regulated would have seemed like putting God in a box. Who was I to say what God could or could not accept? No one but God, of course. What I failed to realize, however, is that God does indeed dictate how he should be worshipped, and his instructions should be taken seriously. They are, after all, the words of God himself. While this was a groundbreaking discovery for me, it was far from groundbreaking for historic Christianity, particularly in the Reformed tradition.

What is the Regulative Principle?

The Westminster Divines were committed to ensuring that worship in the Presbyterian churches would be conducted according to God’s standards and said as much in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647; WCF), which was conceived around eighty years after Calvin’s death. Though the Regulative Principle of Worship is not put forth in the Westminster Confession under that particular term, it articulates the principle well:

But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture. (WCF 21.1)

Prior to the Westminster Confession, other Reformed standards made statements similar in fashion. The Heidelberg Catechism (1563; HC) states, “We in no way . . . worship [God] in any other way than has been commanded in God’s Word” (HC 96). The Belgic Confession (1561; BC) says, “No one . . . ought to teach . . . other than what the Holy Scriptures have already taught us” (BC 7). The Regulative Principle asserts that “corporate worship of God is to be founded upon specific directions of Scripture,”² and “what is not commanded is not allowed in divine worship.”³ Therefore, only what God explicitly prescribes in Scripture for the worship of himself is permissible in corporate worship, and it is wrong to engage in any form of worship outside of his direct commands. In the words of the early Dutch Reformed theologian Andreas Rivetus, to “him who ought to be worshiped, no worship is shown beyond what he wills.”⁴ When one accounts for the severity with which Nadab and Abihu were treated when they offered “unauthorized fire” to God (Lev 10:1), there is no hardship in acknowledging the deep reverence that we must afford both to God and the means by which we worship him.

John Calvin’s Connection

Despite nearly a century separating John Calvin and the Westminster Divines, these statements concerning how the church ought to worship agree with what Calvin expressed in his writings. The similarities between Calvin’s view of worship and the view articulated in the Reformed confessions are natural and unsurprising. The primary antagonist of both the authors of the Reformed confessions and Calvin himself was the Roman Catholic Church, to which Calvin once pledged allegiance and had been demarcated for its priesthood.⁵

Seeing as the first edition of the Institutes was published in 1536—nineteen years after Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the chapel in Wittenberg—it is evident that the dialogue between the budding Protestants and those loyal to Rome, wishing to combat the growing Reformation, remained fresh during Calvin’s time. “The early reformers,” Alister E. McGrath writes, “believed the medieval church had become corrupted and its doctrine distorted through a departure from Scripture.”⁶ Foremost of these corruptions they were fighting against Calvin calls “the abomination of the mass.”⁷ Given the historical context and his own background, the purity of the church’s worship was of the utmost importance to Calvin.

Conclusion

The Protestant Reformers sought to purify worship in the church in response to various corruptions that had crept in, and it would be arrogant to assume that the church today is completely pure and in no need of reform. Indeed, when worship services are too often billed as entertainment instead of solemn, reverent worship offered to a thrice-holy God, it is essential to acknowledge where the church has gone wrong and to seek to right those wrongs. Though we are discussing the view of a man who lived centuries ago, John Calvin’s dedication to honoring what God has put forth in his Word and the conclusions he came to through this dedication should not be lightly cast aside. The Regulative Principle of Worship is as important today as it was in Calvin’s time. Next time, we will take a look at Calvin’s Institutes and a few of his other writings to observe his deep concern for pure worship.

Notes

1. Calvin did, however, write concerning the “regula culti,” or “the rule of worship.” Though the term “regulative principle” does not appear in his writings, his principle of worship is, in essence, that which is encompassed by the term “regulative principle.” See R. Scott Clark, “Calvin’s Principle of Worship,” in ed. David Hall, Tributes to John Calvin: A Celebration of his Quincentenary (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2010), 247–69.
2. Derek W. H. Thomas, Let us Worship God: Why We Worship the Way We Do (Sanford, FL: Ligonier, 2021), 32.
3. “The Regulative Principle of Worship,” Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, accessed April 22, 2024.
4. Andreas Rivetus, “On the Necessity and Authority of Scripture,” in Synopsis of a Purer Theology, vol. 1, ed. William den Boer and Riemer A. Faber, trans. Riemer A. Faber (Landrum, SC: Davenant Press, 2023), 190.
5. When Calvin was twelve, a chaplaincy to the altar of La Gésine in Noyon Cathedral had been obtained for him by his father. François Wendel, Calvin, 17.
6. Alister. E McGrath, Reformation Thought: An Introduction (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1999), 20.
7. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, The Library of Christian Classics, vol. 21 (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), 1445.

©Juliette Colunga. All Rights Reserved.

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Post authored by:

• Juliette Colunga

  

  Juliette is a graduate of The Master’s University (BS, Biological Sciences) and a member of a church belonging to the URCNA. Despite her not being raised Reformed and a background in the sciences, she has grown a deep appreciation for the historic Reformed confessions and is pursuing a MA in Historical Theology at Westminster Seminary California.

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