Vol 76 Issue 16

Reformed believers and churches may not differ as to the fact and importance of the regulative principle of worship. As the preceding editorial demonstrated, the regulative principle is confessional. The importance of the regulative principle, according to the confessions, is nothing less than this, that it is the truth of the second commandment of the law. Difference among Reformed and Presbyterian Christians and churches has to do with the functioning of the principle in the worship service. The difference can be divisive. The question is: How does the rule that God determines the manner of worship apply to the public...

Rev. Slopsema is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. II Timothy 1:5 These words of the apostle Paul were penned to his beloved Timothy. Paul is in prison in Rome awaiting death for the gospel’s sake. He sends this final letter to Timothy, instructing him in his work as minister of the church in Ephesus and summoning Timothy to come to him in Rome. Paul...