It is a vast understatement to say that the regulative principle has been the subject of much discussion in recent years. Many in the Reformed resurgence have adopted (as they should have) the regulative principle as part of the Reformed and Puritan tradition to which they are self-consciously returning.1 Others in the Reformed tradition have recoiled from it and sought to distance themselves from it.2 Still others have (in my opinion) embraced the phrase, but so re-interpreted it that it means something quite different from what it has meant in the tradition.3
My own response to the regulative principle is that it forms an important and even basic feature of both the Reformed tradition and biblical teaching. As such, it is crucial to the development of any proper doctrine of the church. That is why in my course on this subject, I devote lectures to it immediately after laying the general foundation of the doctrine of the church. I do believe, however, that the regulative principle is in need of some clarification especially with regard to its application, but clarification which, I think, is suggested by the tradition itself.
I will strive both to state and clarify the regulative principle by means of the following headings in this blog series.
- Section 1: Its Historical Meaning
- Section 2: Its Ecclesiastical Framework
- Section 3: Its Biblical Support
- Section 4: Its Necessary Clarification
- Section 5: Its Specific Application
After providing a positive development of the subject, I will respond to the attacks on and reinterpretations of the regulative principle in our day.
1 Mark Dever in The Deliberate Church adopts regulative principle. See particularly chapter 2.
2 Mark Driscoll, http://marshill.com/media/religionsaves/regulative-principle; Steve Schlissel, http://www.messiahnyc.org/ArticlesDetail.asp?id=89illustrate this tendency; R. J. Gore in Covenantal Worship: Reconsidering the Puritan Regulative Principle (Phillipsburg, PA: P&R Publishing, 2002).
3 This is my opinion of John Frame’s Worship in Spirit and Truth (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing 1996).
Dr. Sam Waldron is the Academic Dean of CBTS and professor of Systematic Theology. He is also one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Owensboro, KY. Dr. Waldron received a B.A. from Cornerstone University, an M.Div. from Trinity Ministerial Academy, a Th.M. from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1977 to 2001 he was a pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Waldron is the author of numerous books including A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, The End Times Made Simple, Baptist Roots in America, To Be Continued?, and MacArthur’s Millennial Manifesto: A Friendly Response.
