In Spirit and Truth: A Quest For The Biblical Form Of Worship

Worship is a key component of the life of the church and of the individual Christian. Lack of clarity on worship will affect both. The differences among Christians on this issue have caused confusion and perplexity in many. The ‘worship war’ over this subject that started in 1980’s has not abated. Our purpose here is not to join in the fray of this ‘war’ but to provide positive help on a subject so indispensable to the Christian faith. While the controversy over worship has focused mainly on music, and to a lesser extent on the Regulative Principle of worship, our scope encompasses public worship in church, and extending from there to other areas of the life of the church and the individual Christian. As with church government, we may ask, Is there a ‘jus divinum’ (divinely ordained) form of worship - a system of worship that is revealed in the Scripture? If the Bible is the sole authority in all matters of faith and practice, if it is sufficient and perspicuous (that is, capable of being clearly understood), there is a divinely ordained form of worship. It cannot be that there is no divinely ordained form of worship when there is a divinely ordained form of church government. The Regulative Principle is the application of the sole authority of Scripture to both worship and church government (1689 Confession:1:6). My thesis is that there is a divinely ordained form of worship taught in the Scripture which all New Testament churches must strive to uncover and adopt.