Christopher Carter

For King and Country


More is Not Better

March 9, 2025

The Westminster Confession Chapter 21.1 says,

But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by 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 representation or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture.

In spite of this, many Reformed and Reformed-adjacent churches deviate from this regulative principle of worship at numerous points today.

  • Where in scripture did God reveal a seperate and distinct institution of “children’s church” (led by women and unqualified men) as His means of ministering to your children, in lieu of the eccelsiastical ministry of their church elders and the natural ministry of their own parents?

  • Where in scripture did God tell us to create “womens ministries”, led by female quasi-pastors, to minister to the needs of women in lieu of the natural care of their husbands and fathers and the specific, private guidance of older women in homemaking and other feminine arts?

  • Where in scripture did God allow you to sing hymns or read passages of text generated by the imaginations of men?

  • Where in scripture did God command the use of candles, or banners, or flags, or any visual elements other than Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as elements of worship?

  • Where in scripture did God allow the use images for worship?

  • Where in scripture did God institute the yearly celebration of Lent, or Easter, or Christmas, or any other religious celebration of Christ’s life, death, and ressurection other than the weekly observance of the Lord’s Day?

  • Where in scripture did God allow women to lead any aspect of public worship, including public prayer, scripture reading, preaching, or administration and governance?

  • Where in scripture did God institute offices other than the office of deacon and elder to oversee the administration and governance of the church, such as “ministry leaders”, “committees”, and “parachurch organizations”?

At the Same Time

  • In scripture, God gave us a songbook, called the Psalms. Why are Psalms almost never sung in Protestant churches anymore?

  • In scripture, God instituted the Lord’s Supper as a Sacrament, and a true element of worship. Why do we pray, preach the word, sing, and exercise every other element of worship weekly, except for the Lord’s Supper, which we just do whenever we feel like it, sometimes as rarely as only a few times a year?

  • In scripture, the practice of women wearing head coverings is clear (1 Corinthians 11). It is also historically consistent in church history. Why is this not the standard practice in the Reformed churches today?

Another Thing Scripture Says

God stuck down two men in the Old Testament who violated the regulative principle of worship, offering “strange fire” to the Lord, contrary to His command.

And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. (Leviticus 10:1-2)

Are we so prideful as to think that God will accept our own inventions of religious worship? Do we expect God’s blessing when we have the audacity to not only add, but sometimes outright replace the elements He has commanded of us? The Israel of Hosea’s time worshiped according to God’s ordinances (Hosea 2:11), yet God did not tolerate their additions of Baal-worship (Hosea 2:13). Will He tolerate our pinch of incense to the gods of feminism?

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. (Deuteronomy 4:2)

Modern evangelical worship, even in the Reformed churches, is so cluttered with traditions, extra elements, banners, candles, worship leaders, worship teams, worship bands, children’s churches, women’s ministries, men’s conferences, outreaches, man-made hymns, big-business-made contemporary Christian songs…the list goes on. We must be some of the busiest and most productive Christians in history!

The truth is, God did not tell us to do these things.

Evangelical worship is only guilded and adorned with enterprise. It is a hollow shell, propped up to hide its true, anemic, substance. We think we are a fruitful vine, but we are actually busybodied rodents, scurrying around engaged in activity, hurriedly concocting new additions to our worship, yet failing to produce true godliness, revival, and generational faithfulness. We are the wealthiest and most influential Christians on the planet, but we can’t even keep our own children.

More is not better, and there is a great danger when the inward substance of true religion is replaced with outward expressions of it.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. (Jeremiah 7:21-24)

What a dark spell we are under in America. What a trance our churches have fallen into. What has happened to us?

God help us, please, to worship in spirit and truth again.

Support Your Friendly Neighborhood Reformed Paleoconservative

Bitcoin
12VJL3YtywTEDVufkk3kbV1AUuxaQPpRz5

Monero
44V6YEA8vhP6hbyAZfJfHpaQZ5MubahHJDeyKohGxSo4FHvZ1T2WdFzM5A6PsQt9SWL4Y5gvPnJQnaKxW2iWHrFsP7J1KD5