CHAPTER  TEN 

WORSHIP 

Should the Reconstructionists someday impose their view of worship on society what type of worship is it likely to be?  It is likely to be considerably different than we might imagine, for although the Reconstructionists come mainly from the ranks of Reformed and Presbyterian churches, they do not share their tradition of worship.  The Reformed Christians on the continent of Europe, the Scotch Presbyterians, and the English Puritans all shared the same doctrine of worship.  And the watchword for that worship was simplicity.  They had left the Church of Rome whose worship was a convoluted maze of rituals.  They had left a Church that justified its modes of worship by the traditions of the Church and the pronouncements of the Pope.  They had risked their lives to separate from a Church whose worship they considered to be steeped in relics of paganism and idolatry.  Since the main purpose of the Church of God is to collectively and publicly worship God, they were determined to correct this.   

Heeding the commands of Christ who had warned, "But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:9), they determined to strip away everything of human origin in the worship of God, which was not authorized by the scriptures.  The razor that they used to accomplish this has come to be known as the "regulative principle of worship".  It basically states that "whatever is not commanded is forbidden."   They were determined to purify the worship of Christ's Church until nothing was left except that which He, as the only and sovereign Head of the Church, had himself commanded.  The worship that they established was, therefore, very Spartan in its simplicity.  It consisted of the reading of God's word, the preaching and public exposition of that word, the singing of psalms, public prayer, and the administration of the sacraments.  The seven sacraments of the Church of Rome were stripped down to only two, Baptism and the Lord's Supper.  A host of rituals, as well as fancy vestments, candles, holy water, holy smoke, etc. were rejected and cast aside.   

Now this process started in the sixteenth century and was completed by the middle of the seventeenth century.  And although there have been some departures from this model by Reformed Protestants over the years and some accretions to this simple order of worship, it fundamentally still remains a very simple worship to this day.  And this brings it into stark contrast with the worship that is being advocated by many of the Christian Reconstructionists.   

We have already noted the proclivity of the Reconstructionists to cling to more of the Sinaitic Covenant and the Old Testament law than is generally accepted.  Now this greater conformity to Old Testament Israel is also reflected in their doctrine of worship.  Under the ceremonial law the worship of Israel was considerably ritualistic.  The service of the tabernacle and later the temple abounded in ceremonies and rituals.  Historically the worship of Israel has been regarded as being divided into two aspects.  The one was the worship conducted in the temple under the ceremonial law and the other was the worship conducted on the weekly sabbaths in the local synagogue.  The former has generally been regarded as having passed away with the death of Christ, and the worship of the New Testament Church is seen as a continuation of the latter.  After all, in the local synagogues believers met for prayer, the reading and exposition of the scriptures, and the singing of psalms, much the same as contemporary Christians do today.  In contrast to that many of the Reconstructionists have an affinity for the more ritualistic worship of the Old Covenant.  In their doctrine of worship they are more Episcopalian than Reformed.  Ecclesiastical robes, candles, holy water, and an elaborate liturgy are advocated, and practiced, by many of them.  They reject the ceremonial law and especially its sacrificial aspects as having been fulfilled in Christ.  Yet they seek to develop a model of New Testament worship that emulates the pattern, if not the specifics, of Old Testament worship.  A good example of this is the matter of an ecclesiastical calendar.  Israel had an extensive calendar of church feasts and they believe that we should have one also.  The feasts may be different, but an ecclesiastical calendar is a necessity.  And many of them have adopted a calendar of extra-scriptural feasts such as Lent, Good Friday, Christmas, and Easter, etc. in order to conform to the Old Testament model.  Under the regulative principle of worship these had all been condemned as being unauthorized by the scriptures and as having been of pagan origin.   

One of the most contentious issues of worship introduced by the Christian Reconstructionists, however, is the practice of paedocommunion.  Historically Reformed Christians have baptized their children shortly after birth to seal them as members of the covenant community and of the visible church.  However they were not admitted to the Lord's Table until they professed their faith in the atoning work of Christ and could perform the scriptural requirements of self-examination and repentance before partaking.  But again, seeking to emulate Old Testament Israel, the Reconstructionists insist that their children be admitted to the Lord's Supper as soon as they are old enough to masticate the elements.  This is highly controversial, not only because the exact practice of Israel with respect to the Passover observance is debatable, but because there is no precedent for this in the Christian Church.  It is one thing to be Episcopalian in worship.  It may not be Reformed, but it does represent a historic branch of Christianity.  Paedocommunion however is a radical innovation that can only be controversial and divisive.   

Obviously Reconstructionists are not uniform on these issues.  They differ among themselves on many issues including worship.  I am only showing what the views of some are and what the tendencies of the system of thought are.  Systematic theology is a science.  One's views in one area have a definite impact on one's views in another area.  If the system of doctrine is to have a logical consistency, this is inevitable.  And what is being set forth here is the type of worship that has been and is likely to be developed as a result of Reconstructionist thought.  And this is the system of worship that a Reconstructionist government would be likely to impose on a society that it had come to govern.