Doing a little study on the Regulative Principle of worship for an upcoming class, I came across this quite helpful application in an article by Derek Thomas:
What is sometimes forgotten in these discussions is the important role of conscience. Without the regulative principle, we are at the mercy of “worship leaders” and bullying pastors who charge noncompliant worshipers with displeasing God unless they participate according to a certain pattern and manner. To the victims of such bullies, the sweetest sentences ever penned by men are:
God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in anything, contrary to His Word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship. So that to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience: and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also. (WCF 20:2)
To obey when it is a matter of God’s express prescription is true liberty; anything else is bondage and legalism.
Thomas, Derek. “The Regulative Principle of Worship.” Ligonier, November 12, 2021. Accessed 22 Jul 2024, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/regulative-principle-worship.
Pastor Travis Peterson 