Theological Term of the Week

regulative principle of worship
The teaching that everything done in corporate worship should be divinely warranted; that tenet that public worship should follow the directions and examples given in Scripture.

• From scripture: 
  

  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)

• From the Westminster Confession of Faith 1689:

  Chapter 21

  1… . 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.

• From The Regulative Principle of Worship by Derek Thomas:

It is important to realize that the regulative principle as applied to public worship frees the church from acts of impropriety and idiocy — we are not free, for example, to advertise that performing clowns will mime the Bible lesson at next week’s Sunday service. Yet it does not commit the church to a “cookie-cutter,” liturgical sameness. Within an adherence to the principle there is enormous room for variation—in matters that Scripture has not specifically addressed (adiaphora). Thus, the regulative principle as such may not be invoked to determine whether contemporary or traditional songs are employed, whether three verses or three chapters of Scripture are read, whether one long prayer or several short prayers are made, or whether a single cup or individual cups with real wine or grape juice are utilized at the Lord’s Supper. To all of these issues, the principle “all things should be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40) must be applied. However, if someone suggests dancing or drama is a valid aspect of public worship, the question must be asked — where is the biblical justification for it?… The fact that both may be (to employ the colloquialism) “neat” is debatable and beside the point; there’s no shred of biblical evidence, let alone mandate, for either. …

What is sometimes forgotten in these discussions is the important role of conscience. Without the regulative principle, we are at the mercy of “worship leaders” and bullying pastors who charge noncompliant worshipers with displeasing God unless they participate according to a certain pattern and manner. To the victims of such bullies, the sweetest sentences ever penned by men are, “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in anything, contrary to His Word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship. So that to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience: and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also” (WCF 20:2). To obey when it is a matter of God’s express prescription is true liberty; anything else is bondage and legalism.

Learn more:

1. Theopedia: Regulative Principle of Worship
2. Richard L. Pratt, Jr.: The Regulative Principle
3. Derek Thomas: The Regulative Principle of Worship
4. John Frame: A Fresh Look at the Regulative Principle
5. Brian Schwertley: Sola Scriptura and the Regulative Principle of Worship
6. G. I. Williamson: The Scriptural Regulative Principle of Worship
7. Trip Lee: Must All Regulative Principle Churches Look the Same?
8. Jonathan Leeman: Regulative Like Jazz
9. Sam Waldron: The Regulative Principle: Historical and Theological; The Regulative Principle: It’s Scriptural Support  (audio)
10. Reformed Forum: Discussion with Derek Thomas on the Regulative Principle (audio)

Related terms:

• authority of scripture
• sufficiency of scripture

 Filed under Ecclesiology.

Do you have a term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

One Bosom Friend

Update: Juanita links to R.C. Sproul’s I Have Friends in the comments. It fits quite nicely with Packer’s comments.

From the chapter on fellowship in 18 Words: The Most Important Words You Will Ever Know by J. I. Packer:

Christians today lack fellowship. We have many so-called ‘fellowship’ meetings, of different sorts, but the reality of fellowship is commonly absent, and, indeed, is rarely sought. That is because in our thinking we have substituted a secular, social idea of fellowship as a jolly get-together for the biblical Trinitarian idea of fellowhip as helping each other draw nearer to the Father and the Son through the power of the Holy Spirit. Hence we think we are enjoying fellowship when really we are not experiencing fellowship at all. we need a more realistic assessment of our situation in this respect.

…Christians today must seek fellowship. The Puritans used to ask God for one ‘bosom friend’, with whom they could share absolutely everything and maintain a full-scale prayer-partner relationship; and with that they craved, and regularly set up, group conversations about divine things. We should be wise to follow their example at both points.

What do you think? Do you have a ‘bosom friend’? Have you asked for one?

I’ve finished reading this book and hope to post a review shortly.

True Stories of the Picture "Grace"

Rhoda Enstrom Nyberg, then 86, and her brother Warren Enstrom, then 88, are shown in August 2003 with a copy of the famous “Grace” photograph taken by their father, Eric Enstrom, in Bovey. Rhoda Nyberg, who hand-colored the photograph, died last week at age 95. (Photo from Duluth News Tribune)You’ll recognize the picture in the photo on the left, known as “Grace,” as the one I use in my Thankful Thursday posts. Rhoda Nyberg, the woman who hand-colored the photograph, died last week. Here’s her story in the Duluth News Tribune. 

And here’s my “Grace” story, one I first posted a few years ago. I’ve rewritten it, and added a postscript and footnotes.

When I was growing up in the northwoods of Minnesota, many homes had a reproduction of this photograph somewhere on the wall of the kitchen or dining room. I suppose that’s not surprising, since the photograph was taken by a northern Minnesotan.

A few summers ago I stopped to purchase a print of this photo in the very same studio in the little town of Bovey, MN where the original photograph was taken. I was on my way to Hibbing to pick up my son from his cousins’ home, and the highway to Hibbing goes right through Bovey, so I thought I’d stop. The studio is in an old wooden turn-of-the-century store front building butted up to a sidewalk directly bordering the highway that is the main street through town. It’s still a working photography studio, the kind with large framed high school graduation and wedding photos lining the walls.

No one was in the lobby, so I rang the little bell on the counter and waited a few minutes before the photographer came out to help me. He fetched my print, carefully rolled it, fastened it with rubber bands, gave me a little pamphlet with the story of Grace in it, and charged me $12.50.

In 1918, the studio was owned and operated by Eric Enstrom. The man in the photograph is Charles Wilden1, who showed up at the studio peddling foot scrapers. From the pamphlet:

“There was something about the old gentleman’s face that immediately impressed me. I saw that he had a kind face… there weren’t any harsh lines in it,” Enstrom said in recalling the 1918 visit of Charles Wilden to his studio.

It happened that Enstrom, at that time, was preparing a portfolio of pictures to take with him to a convention of the Minnesota Photographer’s Association. “I wanted to take a picture that would show people that even though they had to do without many things because of the war they still had much to be thankful for,” Enstrom said.

On a small table, Enstrom placed a family book, some spectacles, a bowl of gruel, a loaf of bread, and a knife. Then he had Wilden pose in a manner of prayer… praying with folded hands to his brow before partaking of a meager meal.

To bow his head in prayer seemed to be characteristic of the elderly visitor, Enstrom recalled, for he struck the pose very easily and naturally.

I remember family conversations about the contents of that bowl. As a child, I thought it was some kind of soup, but it’s even more humble than that: It’s just a bowl of oatmeal.

The photo didn’t get much attention at the photographer’s convention in 1918, but it became popular as people driving through Bovey spotted it in the window of Enstrom’s studio and stopped to buy it. As soon as one framed print was sold, he’d make another to take its place in the studio window.

Eric Enstrom considered this photo to be his very best of the thousands that he took in the 50 years he worked as a photographer.2 He thought he had captured something special, something he described like this:

This man doesn’t have much of earthly goods, but he has more than most people because he has a thankful heart.

One morning back in 1918 an ordinary man was doing his ordinary job, selling things door-to-door, when he met another ordinary man doing his ordinary job, and the results were extraordinary.

I’ve matted and framed my print, and it’s leaning on the book shelves in the living room. It reminds me of my childhood, and it reminds me that small things done well can have lasting results. It also reminds me to be thankful for all that I have, even my morning oatmeal.

Postscript: Two summers ago, I brought the framed photo that had been in my childhood home back from Minnesota. My son and his wife have it hanging in their little home. Perhaps my little granddaughter will grow up wondering what’s in the bowl, too.

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1Of the mysterious life of Charles Wilden (Grand Forks Herald).
2Eric Enstrom was also the very first to photograph Judy Garland, back when she was still Frances Gumm.