The Reformation, The Regulative Principle, And The Modern Church: Examining John Calvin’s Dedication To Purity In Worship (Part 3)

by on August 13, 2025 | Comment

The Exclusionary Nature Of The Regulative Principle

During the summer before my freshman year of high school, I volunteered at my church’s Vacation Bible School program to lead games for the preschoolers. Something I noticed was that the students were more likely to listen to directions to do something than directions not to do something. I remember telling a girl to please refrain from putting her hands into the water bucket. And what do you think she did? She put her hands in the water bucket. Likewise, it can be more difficult to acknowledge the abomination of not worshipping God according to his explicit decree is than it is to acknowledge the beauty and rightness of worshipping God in the way he has commanded. Nonetheless, in the third installment of this series, we will discuss why the restrictive nature of the Regulative Principle must be embraced, difficult as it might be.

Going Beyond the Commands of Scripture Is an Atrocity

That it is an atrocity to worship God in a way apart from his commands generates the Regulative Principle’s most controversial aspect. The Principle not only informs what should be practiced in worship but also what should not be practiced. It is limiting in nature. For example, the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) does not simply state that the right way to worship God is commanded in his word; it takes it a step further to asserts that God “may not be worshipped” in “any way not prescribed by Scripture,” excluding all practices that are not explicitly commanded by God’s Word (WCF 21.1).

Calvin was unyielding in his condemnation of whatever God has not conclusively and indisputably permitted in the worship of himself, writing clearly “God in many passages forbids any new worship unsanctioned by his Word.”1 He argued that the Reformation was “demanded by a strong necessity,” for when God is worshipped improperly and in fashions outside the bounds of Scriptural commands, he is “grievously offended with the presumption which invents such worship, and threatens it with severe punishment.”2 Thus, the one who has true knowledge of God should flee quickly from all forms of worship that do not arise from the instructions of God’s Word. As Calvin writes in the Institutes, a believer should be thoroughly repulsed by the very notion of offending not only his Creator, but the very one who sustains him both physically and spiritually.3

It is not easy to embrace fidelity to worship exclusively as described in Scripture. In contrast to the Normative Principle of Worship, which allows for the inclusion of whatever is not expressly forbidden, the Regulative Principle assumes the restrictive nature of worship.4 Calvin was aware of the challenge this poses to our human nature. Yet, after acknowledging how “difficult it is to persuade the world” of the gross violation it is to include unauthorized elements in worship, he proceeds with an unequivocal denunciation of such behavior.5 “God rejects and even abominates everything relating to his worship that is devised by human reason,” and those who seek to incorporate what has not been commanded by God in worship “choose to wander in a perpetual labyrinth, rather than worship God simply in spirit and in truth.”6

Calvin Against False Worship

Calvin concedes the difficulty of convincing the “world that God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by His Word.”7 Nonetheless, God “plainly abominates” and “regards as fruitless” any form of worship that is at odds with what he has required and the church ought not to participate in such conduct.8 Additionally, any “false rites” directed to God do not amount to worship of God but rather are worship and adoration of man’s own ravings. Such may be described as superstition that “mocks God . . . while trying to please him.”9 Participation in forms of worship not taken from the direct commands of God is truly reprehensible. It comes without surprise then, that in describing the unbiblical nature of both the ordination and practices of Roman Catholic priests, Calvin is unrelenting and unambiguous, writing that men consecrated as priests “[turn] from horses into asses, from fools into madmen.”10 Similarly, he calls “apes” those who recite the phrase, “receive the Holy Spirit,” over those who are being ordained as priests, an office lacking any “iota” of Scriptural support.11

Calvin’s harsh censure of false worship does not end there; he also accused all those who engage in it of having “fashioned a God to match the absurdity of their trifling.” Had they not done so, they would have never possessed the audacity to “trifle with God” with this faulty and deficient approach to worship.12 Should the church “attempt anything without his command,” Calvin contended, “strange inventions” are composite to the act and “spread evil without measure.”13 The church and her members have no right to partake in this abomination, particularly when considering the complete and comprehensive supremacy of God over all and the measureless gratitude that the Christian should have toward him because of the grace he demonstrated in the person and work of Christ. To partake in worship outside of God’s commands is decide who God is, and, therefore, to worship one’s own desires. To do so is to obfuscate true religion, which is not such “unless it be joined with truth,” and truth is only found in God’s word.14 When the church falls short of a “proper understanding and practice of worship,” she comes dangerously close to “failing to obey” the greatest commandment, to love the Lord with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength.15 So it might be said that no worship is genuine or a fulfillment of the greatest commandment unless it accords with the truth. This is yet another example of Calvin’s argument that worship should be considered carefully by the church as she endeavors to render God the glory he deserves.

Conclusion

Though it seems obvious we should not worship God in any way contrary to his commands, this truth turns out to be a hard pill to swallow, especially when one begins to understand that everything God has not commanded is prohibited and considered false worship. God requires perfection in our worship of him, which is impossible for us to accomplish on our own strength. Indeed, we fail to obey the greatest commandment daily. What a blessing, then, that in Christ, his perfect righteousness and obedience is ours! Of course, that does not give us license to approach worship flippantly. Rather, it should serve as further motivation to worship God just as he has prescribed, without the addition of human inventions, regardless of how attractive they may be.

We have spent the first part of this series focusing on Calvin’s theology of worship. In the coming installments, we will discuss how Calvin applied his theology practically, before finally addressing what lessons the church today should consider learning from the great sixteenth-century Reformer.

Notes

  1. John Calvin, The Necessity of Reforming the Church, 54.
  2. Calvin, Reforming the Church, 54.
  3. John Calvin, Institutes, 1.3.2.
  4. D. Matthew Allen and Ernest C. Reisinger, Worship: The Regulative Principle and the Biblical Practice of Accommodation, (Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2001), 10.
  5. Calvin, Reforming the Church, 54.
  6. Calvin, Reforming the Church, 54.
  7. Calvin, Reforming the Church, 11.
  8. Calvin, Reforming the Church, 11.
  9. Calvin, Institutes, 1.4.3.
  10. Calvin, Institutes, 4.19.29.
  11. Calvin, Institutes, 4.19.29–30.
  12. Calvin, Institutes, 1.4.3.
  13. Calvin, Institutes, 4.1.5.
  14. Calvin, Institutes, 1.4.3.
  15. D.G. Hart and John R. Muether, With Reverence and Awe: Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2002), 22.

©Juliette Colunga. All Rights Reserved.

You can find this whole series here.

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    Post authored by:

  • Juliette Colunga
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    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.

    More by Juliette Colunga ›

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