/ sola scriptura / Gentle Reformation

A Worship Revolution

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="A book on a cappella singing by John Price. For sale at Crown and Covenant for one penny more than Amazon.com!"]Old Light On New Worship by John Price[/caption]

The worship of the Triune God is not like hair. Or ice cream.

That’s why my brain circuitry fries (and sometimes my eyes roll) when worship discussions devolve into arguments about ‘preferred style’ or ‘taste.’ The first two Commandments flit through my head as I hear fiery rhetoric pitting ‘contemporary’ worship against the ‘more traditional’ kind. And my stomach knots because – once again – we’re arguing from tradition (what fulfills us) rather than mission (our calling to glorify God in all we do) by embracing what God commands. We were taught to ask the wrong questions about God’s worship.

But I think a worship revolution is underway.

There’s a young, restless, and Reformed generation embracing “Sola Scriptura” – God’s Law and Gospel writ large. This generation of ‘New Calvinists’ is embracing the Biblical wisdom of the Puritans, the Reformers, and the Church Fathers. And some of them are listening as these Biblical expositors of old make the case that love _for _God translates into loyalty _to _him – and his specific commands about worship. A remarkable number – compelled by the Text – are wholeheartedly embracing the conviction that Biblical worship is instituted by God himself and therefore limited by His own revealed will, a conviction commonly known as the ‘regulative principle.’ Others aren’t convinced, but listening. Instead of asking questions rooted in personal preference or tradition, we are recovering the white-hot question that caused the Reformation to glow with spiritual power – what worship would glorify our God? In other words, we’re adopting the radical notion that Scripture is sufficient to direct the Bride of Christ in honoring her King as he has prescribed.

That’s why John Price’s book _[Old Light On New Worship: Musical Instruments And The Worship of God](http://www.crownandcovenant.com/product_p/ds214.htm)_ is gaining a wide audience. This 250-page book tackles head on the challenging question of the Bible’s teaching about musical instruments in New Covenant, public worship. A helpful and thought provoking forward by Pastor Edward Donnelly (Reformed Theological College in Belfast, Ireland) observes that “the overwhelming consensus of the church has been that these instruments were an integral part of the _ceremonial_ worship fulfilled and abrogated in Christ.”

Like a patient bricklayer Price (a Reformed Baptist from Rochester, New York) builds a three-tiered case of “a theological, historical, and psychological study” in support of _a cappella _singing without musical accompaniment. His foundational argument is a Biblical-theological one tracing the development of divine worship through three epochs: the worship of the Tabernacle (with God commanding through his mediator Moses), then some 400 years later in the elaborate ceremonies of the Temple (under the direction of David), and finally, the “in spirit and truth” worship of the New Covenant (established by Christ and his apostles).

I won’t try to rehash Price’s argument in this brief article, but observe that Price thoroughly and persuasively argues that for all believers “the central concern of worship should not be what men find desirable and pleasing, but what God desires. We may know his will only through His word. Only in bringing those elements commanded in the Scriptures can we be certain that our worship is acceptable to Him.”

May the church recover her attentiveness to the words of her Master and the sure footing of worship practices that flow from the Word of God.