Lots of people ask me, “Hey Ninja, how do you come to your conclusions about what’s proper to do in a worship service?” To which I reply, “Silly grasshopper, I use the Bible. Sola Scriptura!”
For those of you that have never heard of the Regulative Principle let me enlighten you: If it isn’t in the Bible it is absolutely forbidden. Do you see microphoned being used in Paul’s churches? No dice. Do you see a church office called “worship leader?” Nope. Did the Galatians use instruments in their meetings? The Bible doesn’t say they did and neither should we.
Now I know what you might be saying, “Hey Ninja, I thought we were supposed to worship in spirit and truth,” Well duh, but that didn’t stop God from giving the Law to the Israelites now did it? Yeah, I know those sacrifices aren’t needed anymore and that we are under the New Covenant, but the deal is God wanted things done a certain way. That’s exactly how it works in the NT too. If it doesn’t say it, don’t do it. If you do, you might be damned.
Capeesh?
7 Comments
November 30, 2006 at 5:56 pm
I’m pretty sure, as well, that when scripture speaks of the different ‘parts of the body’ making up the church, it could be considered that those ‘parts’ may include organs as well as limbs. By extension, it could be construed that those same scriptures could be punning prophetically, so that organs really mean pipe ‘organs’, and ergo the Pipe Organ is now included in teh Regulative principle umbrella.
November 30, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Actually, Tim Challies did a long (are they ever short?) essay recently on Regulative Principle, and the imonk did a very thoughful reply on BHT.
December 1, 2006 at 7:34 pm
Is this site for real? Is this a joke? Wow. How ridiculous!
December 2, 2006 at 5:53 pm
Fortunately, Paul had a blog on the ‘net in ephesians.
February 5, 2007 at 8:18 am
Mark; I hope you’re joking about the organs; if not, it’s the weakest line of reasoning I’ve seen in a long time.
Kevin: Assuming you’re talking about the Regulative Principle, yes, it’s quite serious. You’ll find that the churches of the Reformation (and particularly the Scottish Reformation) were quite keen on this, and many still worship this way today; the argument in Reg.Prin. circles is usually “Which parts are the circumstances of worship (ie. non-essential stuff, eg. carpet on the floor), and which are elements of worship. For example, I’ve never seen the Reg.Prin. applied to microphones before, but I have seen it applied to get rid of hymns and other human words, (and sing only psalms).
B: The regulative principle is usually only applied to worship; as long as you don’t write your blog in worship, there’s no problem
February 9, 2007 at 5:38 am
Man I’m a Christian and I love guitars, drums, and other musical instruments and I highly doubt that God is gonna condem me for playing them. But he might condem is someone who preaches material things rather than the true gospel which is Christ Jesus. To say we aren’t suppose to use instruments in Church or things that aren’t in the Bible is off the wall. If that was the case, then hey man don’t cook on a stove, use a present day toilet (dig a hole in the ground), the internet, cars, or other wise your headed for the gates of hell. Think about what your are saying, Christ calls us to worship him not some thought about using a certain thing not in the
Bible, if that is all you do is preach not using certain things not in Bible then I’m guessing the essence of the Bible has been lost in your case. Because other wise we wouldn’t be leading anyone that lives in the twenty-first century to know Christ because the LORD knows we all have TV’s and Computers! “For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” I don’t believe it reads “For the wages of death is sin for using things not in the Bible but the free gift of God is eternal life to those who ride in covered wagons through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sorry dude, your looking to deep and never gonna see the light if you don’t find the real meaning of Christ!!!
December 19, 2008 at 11:56 am
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