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Archive for the ‘Worship, True & False’ Category
Prof. Murray on headcoverings
Posted in John Murray, Worship, True & False on August 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »
[A letter by Professor John Murray]
Badbea, Bonar Bridge, Ardgay, Ross-shire IV2 43AR, Scotland
16 November 1973
Mr. V. Connors
Presbytery Clerk
Evangelical Presbyterian Church
Australia
Dear Mr. Connors,
I am in receipt of your letter of the 8th. I very deeply appreciate your request even though I may not be able to provide any definitive advice on the questions asked. Allow me to give my judgement on the second question first.
If the Presbytery becomes convinced that a head covering for women belongs to the decorum governing the conduct of women in the worship of God, then I think Presbytery should declare accordingly. I would not suppose it necessary expressly to legislate. I think it would be enough to make a resolution for the instruction and guidance of ministers, sessions, and people. A higher judicatory has both right and duty to offer to those under its jurisdiction, guidance respecting divine obligation. This has been recognised in Reformed Churches throughout the world.
Your main question turns, of course, on the interpretation of I Corinthians 11:2-16. Permit me to offer some of my reflections in order.
1. Since Paul appeals to the order of creation (vss. 3b, vss. 7ff.), it is totally indefensible to suppose that what is in view and enjoined had only local or temporary relevance. The ordinance of creation is universally and perpetually applicable, as also are the implications for conduct arising therefrom.
2. I am convinced that a head covering is definitely in view forbidden for the man (vss. 4, & 7) and enjoined for the woman (vss. 5, 6, 15). In the case of the woman the covering is not simply her long hair. This supposition would make nonsense of verse 6. For the thought there is, that if she does not have a covering she might as well be shorn or shaven, a supposition without any force whatever if the hair covering is deemed sufficient. In this connection it is not proper to interpret verse 15b as meaning that the hair was given the woman to take the place of the head covering in view of verses 5, 6. The Greek of verse 15 is surely the Greek of equivalence as used quite often in the New Testament, and so the Greek can be rendered: “the hair is given to her for a covering.” This is within the scope of the particular argument of verses 14, 15 and does not interfere with the demand for the additional covering contemplated in verses 5, 6, 13. Verses 14 and 15 adduce a consideration from the order of nature in support of that which is enjoined earlier in the passage but is not itself tantamount to it. In other words, the long hair is an indication from “nature” of the differentiation between men and women, and so the head covering required (vss. 5, 6, 13) is in line with what “nature” teaches.
(more…)Mather to ministers: barter not the Lord’s day for men’s!
Posted in New England Puritanism, Puritans & Puritanism, Sabbatarianism & the Church Calendar, Worship, True & False on December 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »
“Since in Religion you are not Servants of Men, in true fidelity to Christ you must in your Places peaceably oppose and refuse whatever Innovations, Injunctions, or Traditions of Men. 48 4.1919. Would any change the Lord’s Day for another Day, or command other Feasts to be equally regarded; or forbid you to sanctifie the Lord’s Holy Day, or suppress the Use of his Holy Word; or set up another Rule of Faith and Judge of Controversies? do they devise new Modes of Worship, or mingle their own Fancies with his Institutions? For Conscience sake, receive them not, but obey Christ above all Men, Mic. 6.16 But still preserving the Honour due to the Persons of Superiors, and to their Authority in all all other matters, Rom, 13. 1. Faithful Magistrates will ask no more, and humble Bishops dare no more equal their Canons to His, than Apocryphal Stories to Divine Scripture. When Corruptions grow general, its time for them that are on the Lord’s side, to shew themselves for him, Exod. 32. 26.”
Cancel Christmas . . . or Christ
Posted in Authored by Site Admin, Sabbatarianism & the Church Calendar, Sacred & Secular, Secularization, Worship, True & False on December 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Cancelled services this ‘Christmas’ should be more than enough proof. Proof that Christmas observance and faithfulness to the pure worship of the one true and living God are mutually exclusive. That Christmas will, at least in part, be the death of us. And that, barring an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and a massive reformational purge of all the inventions of men in the worship of God, the West will soon be a paganized, secular wasteland.
Christmas and Christianity have admittedly coexisted for the better part of Christendom, except of course for the great Puritanic ‘pause’ from the 16th to the 18th centuries in much of English-speaking Protestantism. But how can what is fundamentally “not of heaven, but of men” (Luke 20:4), of unarguably ancient heathen and syncretistic Roman Catholic origin, ever live in peace with the Gospel of God? “And what concord [alliance] hath Christ with Belial? . . . And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols” (2 Cor. 6:15-16)?
(more…)“Pure, Primitive Devotion”
Posted in New England Puritanism, Psalmody, Psalmody in Culture, Puritans & Puritanism, Sabbatarianism & the Church Calendar, Worship, True & False, WPE Audio on November 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Exclusive psalm-singing
Posted in Audio Resources, Church of Scotland, Psalmody, Worship, True & False on May 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The first installment of my series on the distinctives of the Presbyterian Reformed Church, or the old Scottish Presbyterian doctrine, worship, government, and discipline. Below is a very lightly edited transcript (special thanks to sister Susan!).
* * * *
Psalm 78:5 – Our Testimony, Part 1: Psalm Singing
Turn with me to Psalm 78 and verse 5, in which we read the words, For he [that is the Lord] established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children…
The Seventy-eighth Psalm opens with the words that concern the passing along, the faithful passing along, of the fear of the Lord, the right worship of God, the doctrine that had been revealed to the people of God from one generation to another. It is, as we have not too terribly long ago considered, the way of the Lord to deal through generations. Yes, he saves individuals, and there is none who are saved but individuals; and yet individuals find themselves planted by the hand of God, more oftentimes than not, within families. Indeed, we are all children of fathers and mothers, and so it pleases the Lord that, by and large, within his church there should be families, one generation succeeding the other.
Well, it was commanded Abraham that he should teach his children in the ways of the Lord and the Lord said, I know Abraham that he will command his children after him that they may keep the way of the Lord, that God might fulfill his promise that he had for them. Joshua, that courageous and valiant man, he had become old and gray-headed, and he stood before the congregation at a crossroads, when one generation was to succeed the other and he charged them: If the Lord be God then serve him, or if these other gods of the nations, if they be true, then go your ways, but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Well, Psalm 78 is a psalm in which these themes are captured, the concept of the receiving of the the truth, and passing that along to the next generation. We have a responsibility – fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters in Jesus Christ, to hold onto what God has given us; in the words of Psalm 78:5, that testimony, that witness to the truth, and to pass it along to the next generation – which means two things: We must maintain what we have received, and not let it slip though our fingers, not grow lax and careless, and we must then impart them to the next generation, that they may be faithful in the Lord.
(more…)Why do we worship this way?
Posted in Authored by Site Admin, Psalmody, Puritans & Puritanism, Worship, True & False on December 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »
The following is the text of a new leaflet introducing visitors to our worship practice.
Out of the Ordinary
Our worship practice is certainly a very different experience for many who visit us. We are certainly not your conventional evangelical church; and in many ways, we may stand out from even other modern Reformed and Presbyterian churches. To some, this worship is unique, even quaint; to others it may seem strange, overly solemn, and even off-putting.
One thing is for sure: we don’t worship this way to conform to trends, much less to attract those who already know what they want in a church. While our practice is very historic—this once was, after all, the universal practice among Reformed churches in Puritan New England, and other Reformed Churches in continental Europe—that’s not the reason either. The church, after all, is the house of God, not a museum! And just because something is ancient does not make it biblical.
(more…)My debate over Christmas
Posted in Authored by Site Admin, Sabbatarianism & the Church Calendar, Worship, True & False on November 30, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Somehow I was voted into it. Last year, on December 24 no less, I was invited by Les Lanphere to debate Rev. Joseph Spurgeon on the lawfulness of Christmas. (Other platforms.) Joseph was for, while I was against; and Les did a great job of moderating. I thought it went really well, and I came away feeling that I did a service to this unpopular position. I also endeavored to be as charitable as possible. Perhaps I overshot things by being so affable; but I’d rather fall into that error than the other way, lest folks think that being against Christmas is somehow a function of a grumpy predisposition. After all, I consider myself the merriest neo-Puritan I know. Ask my kids!
Distinctives of the Presbyterian Reformed Church
Posted in Authored by Site Admin, Church of Scotland, Church Order & Discipline, Confessional Subscription, Establishments, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Free Church of Scotland, Free Offer of the Gospel, John Murray, Practice of Piety, Psalmody, Puritans & Puritanism, Sabbatarianism & the Church Calendar, Sacraments, The Free Offer of the Gospel, The Godly Prince, The Lord's Supper, Vital Godliness, Worship, True & False on October 7, 2021| Leave a Comment »
The following is a series of messages given to lay out the distinctives of the Presbyterian Reformed Church, a denomination organized through the instrumentality of Professor John Murray in 1965, committed to the principles of historic Scottish Presbyterianism in doctrine, worship, government, and discipline, as enshrined in the original Westminster Confession of Faith (1646).
(Note: The title “Our Testimony” is merely thematic, and does not refer to a supplementary ecclesiastical document besides the Westminster Standards as is done among Reformed Presbyterian brethren.)
Original Series
Our Testimony, Part 1: Psalm Singing
Our Testimony, Part 2: Instruments in Worship
Our Testimony, Part 3: Presbyterianism
Our Testimony, Part 4: Holy Days, True & False
Our Testimony, Part 5: Confessionalism
Our Testimony, Part 6: Experimental Religion
Our Testimony, Part 7: The Free Offer of the Gospel
Our Testimony, Part 8: Religious Establishments #1
Our Testimony, Part 8: Religious Establishments #2
Our Testimony, Part 9: Head Coverings
Our Testimony, Part 10: Liberty of Conscience
Our Testimony, Part 11: Our Communion Practice
Our Testimony, Part 12: Frequency of Communion
West Port Experiment 