Calvin & The Regulative Principle of Corporate Worship

In Christianity there are two opposing principles that govern corporate worship: normative and regulative. In the normative principle, the church may do anything Scripture doesn't prohibit--this would include liturgies, instruments and images. In the regulative principle, the church only does what Scripture prescribes--prayer, singing the Psalms and reading Scripture. John Calvin falls neatly on the regulative side.

Regulative worship restricts, but the purpose of restriction is not cold restraint, but freedom from sensuality. Calvin believed simple, reverent worship where the Word is central enables the church to praise God as he so desires. Controversies over the form of liturgy and congregational preference do not enter into his scheme; instead the church is free to worship simply with a clean conscience.

In his view, regulative worship offers freedom from idolatry. Calvin asserted that "the human heart is a factory of idols," and as such, people are prone to corruption even in the worship of the true God--hence simplicity was necessary. In 1543, Calvin wrote The Necessity of Reforming the Church, addressed to Emperor Charles V. He said,

But since God not only regards as fruitless, but also plainly abominates, whatever we undertake from zeal to His worship, if at variance with His command, what do we gain by a contrary course? The words of God are clear and distinct, 'Obedience is better than sacrifice.' 'In vain to they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,' (I Sam. xv. 22; Matth. xv 9). Every addition to His word, especially in this matter, is a lie. Mere "will worship" is vanity. This is the decision, and once the judge has decided, it is no longer time to debate."

To us this seems narrow-minded, perhaps legalistic. Weaned on youth group, Sunday morning praise bands and a paradigm of all-inclusiveness, we are prejudiced, culturally conditioned against his way of thinking. We are slow to hear and quick to react, saying, "How is it good, or even Scriptural, to restrict other kinds of heart-felt God worship?"

First, Calvin would warn us against excess in corporate worship, a legitimate danger. Church can become more like a rock concert than anything worshipful. There have been abuses of the normative principle in our own day, with churches playing AC-DC's "Highway to Hell" just because Scripture doesn't prohibit secular rock music in the divine service. Worship becomes banal when we lose the centrality of the Word.

Second, he would tell us regulative worship is Scriptural precisely because it doesn't go beyond what is written. What may seem to us stuffy, dull and emotionless to us may be another man's idea of pure and heart-felt worship before God.



EDIT: Commented on Jannah Lyons' Predestination and Susan Berner's Calvinism.