The regulative principle

Worship as God appoints

The regulative principle grows from the conviction that God decides not only whom we worship but how. The Heidelberg Catechism teaches that the second commandment requires "That we in nowise make any image of God, nor worship him in any other way than he has commanded in his Word" Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 96. Moses commanded:

See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

Deuteronomy 12:32

Nadab and Abihu died when they "offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to His command" (Leviticus 10:1); Jesus rebuked those who "worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men" (Matthew 15:9); and Paul warns against "self-prescribed worship" (Colossians 2:23). On the second commandment Matthew Henry writes: "All kinds of superstition are here forbidden, and the using of mere human inventions in the worship of God" Matthew Henry.

The principle is not meant to make worship narrow. It gives assurance that worship pleases God, and frees the conscience from rules of human making. So the Reformed distinguish the ‘elements’ of worship from its ‘circumstances’. Elements such as the reading and preaching of the word, prayer, singing and the sacraments are set by Scripture; circumstances common to every human gathering, such as time, place and order, are settled by Christian prudence according to the general rules of the word Westminster Confession 1.6.

How the church came to say it

The principle grew at the Reformation, as Zwingli and Calvin cleared worship of rites and images that had no ground in Scripture, and it was sharpened in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England as the Puritans contended over the vestments and ceremonies of the established church. The Westminster Confession states it:

But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited to his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.

Westminster Confession 21.1

The Westminster Directory for Public Worship (1645) ordered worship accordingly around the reading and preaching of the word, prayer, the sacraments and the Lord's Day, and set other holy days aside The Directory for the Public Worship of God.

Where the traditions differ

How strictly to apply the principle is debated among the Reformed themselves. Calvin's Geneva is known for singing mainly metrical psalms without instruments The Genevan Form of Prayers, and some Presbyterian churches in Scotland and North America still sing only psalms, unaccompanied. Most Reformed and Presbyterian churches read "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" (Colossians 3:16) more broadly, sing hymns, and accept instruments as a circumstance that helps the singing. Most Korean Presbyterian churches sing hymns with accompaniment and keep Christmas and Easter.

Lutherans and Anglicans follow the normative principle: rites that Scripture does not forbid and that agree with the word may be used for good order and edification, and they need not be the same everywhere Augsburg Confession, arts. 7 and 15 Thirty-Nine Articles, art. 34. The Catholic and Orthodox churches receive their liturgical tradition as a treasured inheritance of the church. Many evangelical churches stand somewhere between the two principles. All agree that worship must accord with God's word and seek God's glory rather than our own pleasure. Reformed worship is taught in the lesson Worship centred on the Word.