THINGS THAT BOTHER ME: I’M REFORMED… BUT PT. III

My recent experience at a ranking African-American PCA church was one of lament and frustration. Its leaders repeatedly emphasized that they were Reformed in their theology but Pentecostal in their worship. That is to say, their theology did not impact their worship format and content. Their views about God, man, sin, redemption, sanctification, glorification, predestination and election, history, and so on, did not affect their worship which they “liberated” to be determined by other theological distinctives, in this case, Pentecostal. These leaders have been making this public profession for several years now.

By being Reformed, they went on to say, we mean that God is sovereign. What did they mean by sovereign? That God is in charge of everything. Yes, that’s it!?** That is exactly how they defined and explained Reformed Theology. In a sweeping act of classic deconstructionism, they effortlessly equated Reformed Theology with one of God's attributes.

Two observations are necessary here. Firstly, the sovereignty of God is not a distinctive of Reformed thinking; rather, it is the confession of catholic evangelicalism, of universal Christianity. In other words, all Christians believe that the biblical God is the sovereign God. Secondly, there's more to the sovereignty of God than the bare declaration of His being in control. The psalmist tells us “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases," 115:3, and Daniel writes “all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?"" 4:35. From these texts and from the many other expressions of the divine sovereignty found in Scripture, for example in Isa 40:12-15, 21-31, etc., we learn that divine sovereignty necessarily includes the incommunicable attribute of Self-determination. That is to say, God is the only being in Whom that attribute inheres.

No, Reformed Theology includes more than the sovereignty of God. For introductory purposes, it is a complete system of doctrine emphasized in the 16th century Reformation and ensconced in such historic documents as The Heidelberg Catechism, The Belgic Confession, The Westminster Confession of Faith, and so on. As we said in Parts I and II, it is mostly an entire way of viewing and understanding the world. It is the lens or the framework through which we comprehend the world around us.

The ancient church employed the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi - literally, the law of prayer is the law of belief. This means that the content and manner of our prayer determine what we believe. This has been safely extended to mean that how a person worships ultimately reveals what that person really believes: our prayer and worship are sound indicators of what we believe about God, etc. This principle has many implications for us today and in the context of this writing, it principally warns us that it is the very character of God that determines our manner of worship. The way the church conducts its worship service is indicative of its theological convictions. Putting it in other way, our theology informs and instructs our doxology. If we say we are Reformed, then we have at least the responsibility to ensure that our worship is also Reformed in all its ways. This maxim applies not only to our liturgy, our order of worship, but also to the very songs we sing and to the way we reveal our emotions in response to the character of God and to His redemptive works in history, all of which have their fulfillment in the Person and in the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Since the Reformed Faith believes that the Scripture alone is our final authority in all matters of faith and life -- sola Scriptura -- then all aspects of worship, its form and its content, are to be derived from the Word of God. How has the Reformed Faith understood worship? Calvin observed that "God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by His Word." Article 32 of the Belgic Confession and Question 96 of the Heidelberg Catechism affirm the same. The Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 and the Philadelphia (Baptist) Confession of 1742 emphasize that "The acceptable way of worshiping the true God, is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures" (22.1). [These quotes were taken from Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III's "Does God Care How We Worship" in Give Praise to God: A Vision for Reforming Worship, 21, 22]. This principle has come to be known as the regulative principle of worship.

Since Reformed Theology is a worldview, it is comprehensive and it does not allow us the "privilege" of leaving any area of our faith and conduct unaffected. Particularly, in such a grave area of worship, we cannot jettison our historic teaching and opt for some other ecclesial or theological distinctive. Such a departure quickly removes the focus from our Triune God, the Subject and Object of worship, and places it on ourselves. In the end, we find ourselves worshiping our worship. This is precisely what took place that day. In full display were a form of religious pluralism fueled by a consumerist attitude of choosing the best brand that suits and pleases me; a diminished biblical theological substance of worship; a truncated view of God’s holiness; a permissive individualism enabling personal self-fulfillment; and a profound confusion between a "praise fit" and praise that is fitting. Incidentally, despite all the pervasive talk about the sovereignty of God, in that activity the creature and not the Creator/Redeemer was in charge.

Next issue: Concluding Observations of the Reformed… But Pentecostal View.