The argument for the regulative principle main-tains that God has, in Scripture, revealed his zeal to direct his own worship. That it is contained in the Westminster Standards and reflected by the adherents of those standards in Scotland, England, and America is sufficient to warrant its observation by the Church. It is a mandate "from above," if you will, demonstrating that the true and living God himself, the object of worship, has revealed that he will be worshiped only in a manner consistent with his revealed (though not necessarily explicit) will (within the regulative principle one can see Christian liberty).
If you have a current subscription or current on-line account please log-in here to read the rest of this article.
1 [ Back ] Note Paul's own practice. He writes the Romans and the Corinthians about "weak" believers, calling them weak and instructing them regarding their error. He does not regard their conscientious scruples, as many apparently think today. Their erroneous opinions are to be addressed as such as being sacrosanct, confronted (lovingly) as such, and corrected, where they do not accord with biblical truth.
T. David Gordon is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and associate professor of religion at Grove City College (Grove City, Pennsylvania).
Issue: "Christian Liberty: Getting Beyond Legalism and License" March/April 2000 Vol. 9 No. 2 Page number(s): 34-37, 46
You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you do not make more than 500 physical copies. We do not allow reposting an article in its entirety on the Internet. We request that you link to this article from your website. Any exceptions to the above must be explicitly approved by Modern Reformation (webmaster@modernreformation.org).
Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: This article originally appeared in the [insert current issue date] edition of Modern Reformation and is reprinted with permission. For more information about Modern Reformation, visit www.modernreformation.org or call (800) 890-7556. All rights reserved.