The Issue is Legalism

I have been contending in speeches and writing against the assault on the church’s liberty in the gospel by the doctrine called exclusive psalmody as promoted by Rev. A. Lanning and defended by three elders, a deacon, and others who have seceded from the Reformed Protestant Churches and formed a new church. I call their doctrine exclusive psalmody simply for ease of expression. I am not against singing only the psalms in church, but that is not Reverend Lanning’s teaching. His doctrine, based on the second commandment, is that God commands in public worship that the church must sing only “the psalms, those 150 God-inspired songs,” and that to sing anything else is the dread sin of image worship.¹

I want to establish that this is his doctrine. He preached,

In the church of Jesus Christ only those things that God has commanded may belong to worship, and all of those things that God has not said anything about or that he has forbidden may not be part of the worship…The principle is not this: worship God in whatever way is not forbidden in his word, so that you’re free to do many, many things as long as God doesn’t explicitly forbid it. That regulative principle flows right out of the prohibition against graven images because a graven image is an attempt of the church to worship God in a way that appeals to her, in a way that her will inclines towards. The regulative principle is this: worship God only as he has commanded in his word, only with those elements of worship that he has said belong to that worship.²

Applying that principle to the singing of the church in public worship, Reverend Lanning says, “Do not depart from those psalms to sing something else.”³ And: “The worship of Jehovah in the matter of singing requires the psalms and exclusive psalmody.”⁴

I have contended that the principal issue in this controversy is legalism in the application of the second commandment to the worship of the church—legalism in the application of that commandment specifically to singing.

The specific form of that legalism is that Jesus Christ does not sing with his church and that his church does not sing with Jesus Christ until the church sings the psalms accurately enough, purely enough, closely enough. In that specific form Jesus Christ has been separated from his church, and the church has been separated from Jesus Christ. That is why the doctrine is so damnable and deadly. The union of Christ with his church—Christ’s dwelling in his church by his word and Spirit and his church’s being bone of Christ’s bone and flesh of Christ’s flesh—is the most precious truth about the church’s salvation. We have been separated from the perishing race of Adam and joined to Jesus Christ. With this doctrine of exclusive psalmody, the church has again been separated from her head.

With this false doctrine the church’s singing becomes the way—I use the word deliberately—in which the church sings with Jesus. To put it more simply: the specific form of legalism is that man’s activity of singing is the condition for man’s fellowship with Jesus Christ. Singing with Jesus is fellowship with Jesus. And it is man’s activity of singing that is decisive in his fellowship with Jesus.

That fact about the false doctrine is why we cannot abide it. It is offensive. It is offensive in the extreme to God, to Jesus Christ, to the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who indwells the church and by whose power the church has fellowship with Christ and by whose power she also sings. And it is an offense to the church, who has been separated from her husband. Such a thought is intolerable to the church even for a moment.

Singing with Jesus

Reverend Lanning taught that Jesus does not sing with the church and the church does not sing with Jesus until the church first sings the psalms. The basis of this teaching is that Jesus sings the psalms. I do not like that language: Jesus sings the psalms. That ends up the church in a bad spot. Many are enamored with that language, but it is not Reformed language. That is how the churches were led down the trail of legalism. They were tricked by that language: Jesus sings the psalms.

But Jesus is the one to whom we sing. Jesus is the one we worship. He sits on the mighty throne of God, and every knee bows before him, and his people say to him, “My Lord and my God,” and sing to him, “Worthy is the Lamb.” Jesus was a man. Jesus undoubtedly sang the psalms when he was on the earth. He sang a psalm with his disciples after the institution of the Lord’s supper and before they went out into the night to go to the garden.

But the idea that Jesus sings the psalms is not the key to the church’s doctrine of singing. That idea was bait. To the church of Jesus Christ, there is nothing more precious than to be with her Lord and to follow in the footsteps of her Lord. Using her love for Jesus Christ against her, the church was enticed with that language: Jesus sings the psalms.

That Jesus sings the psalms “is the key” to the false doctrine that was promoted in the Reformed Protestant Churches. Reverend Lanning made that the key by his own admission: “That the Lord Jesus Christ is the singer of the psalms is the key to understanding the psalms, and it’s the key to understanding this text [Psalm 18].”⁵

Following from that Reverend Lanning said this:

That [Jesus sings the psalms] has implications, too, for the church’s singing in worship. That as the church understands what those psalms are, then the church desires those psalms and is zealous for those psalms and becomes intolerant of anything replacing those psalms. The church will not suffer a hymn to come into her midst, that is, a man-made hymn. That’s not a psalm from the word of God because when the church sings that hymn and all her mouths are open and all her voices are raising to the rafters, the Lord Jesus Christ isn’t singing that song, though the church might sing it. That’s not the Lord’s psalm. It’s not the word of Christ. It’s not the word of his Spirit, and so the church will not have that hymn.⁶

And again, Reverend Lanning said, “He [Jesus] doesn’t sing with the church if her doxology is not a psalm.”⁷

Then again, he said,

The church becomes dissatisfied with versifications of the psalms that are only summaries of the psalm and that are close but not quite the psalm and that are only man’s interpretation of the psalm. That becomes after a while intolerable to the church because when she sings a man’s summary of a psalm, she’s not singing the word of Christ. And Christ isn’t singing that song with her. Only the church’s voices are heard, but the voice of Christ is not heard in heaven in that song.⁸

Understand what all of that means: It does not mean that Jesus sings the psalms in and through his church by his indwelling Spirit and word. The church’s singing is the result or fruit of her being with Jesus. That is not what the promoters of exclusive psalmody mean by Jesus sings the psalms. Rather, Jesus—wholly apart from a consideration of his church and his church’s singing—sings the psalms by himself. If the church chooses to sing the psalms, then she may sing with Jesus. But he does not sing with his church when she sings anything else besides the psalms.

That doctrine of Jesus’ singing the psalms reminds me of a husband—a stupid husband, a foolish husband, an unbelieving husband—who has his life. He has his life apart from his wife. He does not live through his wife. That is what a husband is supposed to do; he is supposed to live through his wife. He lives through his wife because they are one flesh. But this husband has his life apart from a consideration of his wife. He really lives apart from her. He charges ahead in his life, and he says to his wife, “Keep up. Keep up!” That is the Jesus who sings the psalms here; he is like that husband. Jesus is singing away, and he says to his wife, the church, “Well, you may sing with me. You may sing with me, if you do this and if you do that and if you do not do that.” And mind you, I say, if you do this and if you do that and if you do not do that because what exactly is entailed in order for the church to sing with Jesus has not been spelled out.

If Jesus sings the psalms and he does not sing with his church if she sings anything other than the psalms, then the crucial question for the church becomes, what does it mean to sing the psalms? What does it mean that Jesus sings the psalms? Does he sing the Hebrew? Does he sing the King James Version? With this false doctrine, what it means to sing the psalms becomes a vital question. That is a life-or-death question for the church. And the proponents of this false doctrine will have every one with his own idea about what it means to sing the psalms and then what it means that Jesus sings the psalms and then what it means to sing the psalms with Jesus. Reverend Lanning has already said that versifications, man’s interpretations, and man’s summaries are no good. What is Jesus singing then? Whatever he is singing, the Jesus of this false doctrine is not living in and through his church by his indwelling word and Spirit. That Jesus is not singing through his church by his indwelling word and Spirit. Jesus is singing alongside the church, and the church is invited to join with Jesus Christ.

The Proper Understanding of the Regulative Principle

That doctrine of exclusive psalmody I charge with legalism. It is legalism, first of all, because it has an erroneous view of the second commandment and the so-called regulative principle of public worship.

I want to explain the right and proper understanding of the regulative principle. I have taught this understanding of the regulative principle my entire ministry. Those who have heard my preaching know that. I have never changed in my doctrine of the regulative principle. The regulative principle teaches that the various elements of public worship are commanded by God and that what element is not commanded by God is forbidden.

Others go farther in their definition of the regulative principle and add the word circumstances. The elements of the public worship and the circumstances of the public worship must be commanded by God. I believe with the addition of the word circumstances that the regulative principle can be expanded to include many things that it does not include, and by that means the church can be brought into bondage to man’s scruples and whims.

The regulative principle deals with elements, the specific elements of the church’s worship. Those specific elements are the church’s main activities in her public worship of God. The regulative principle does not specify circumstances. In other words, the regulative principle does not specify how those elements are carried out. Let me give you some examples of that. We preach every Sunday; we administer the Lord’s supper only four times a year. We may do that because the administration of the Lord’s supper belongs to the circumstances of worship. It would not be wrong to have the Lord’s supper more frequently. Jesus said that there must be preaching and there must be sacraments, but the circumstances of them are up to the liberty of the church. Jesus said that there must be singing. Whether or not there is accompaniment of that singing is a circumstance. The regulative principle does not deal with circumstances. There must be a collection, but whether that collection is taken with a box in the back of church or with a plate or with a bag is simply a circumstance. These all fall under the circumstances, and so they all fall under the category of the church’s liberty. She has the liberty to arrange the circumstances of her worship of God without ever binding or compelling a conscience. This is precisely what the Reformed church fathers did in article 69 of the Reformed Church Order. Out of the principle of the church’s liberty in Christ, the Synod of Dordt regulated the singing in the church as best conducive to edification, to decency, and to order.

The elements are commanded. For the Reformed worship service this means that there is preaching, the regular administration of the sacraments, calling upon the name of God by song and prayer, and taking collections for the care of the poor (Lord’s Day 38).

The regulative principle also recognizes the centrality of the word in the church’s worship. Lord’s Day 35 of the Heidelberg Catechism recognizes that when it says that we must worship God as he commands in his word. The word is the center of the church’s worship. It is the Word who is worshiped. It is the word that is preached. It is the word that is partaken of. It is the word that is prayed. It is the word for which the church gives thanks. Worship God as he commands in his word—not the circumstances but the elements of worship.

Those elements are the timeless things by which God’s people have worshiped God in every age. The elements never change. They do not change if God’s people are worshiping him in China, the United States, Singapore, or the Philippines. The circumstances may change; the elements never change. The church is to worship God in the way he commands.

The Believer’s Whole Life

Furthermore, the regulative principle applies to the entire life of the child of God. In all my life and in every circumstance of my life, I worship God as he commands in his word. My life is not to be self-willed but subject to the will of God as laid out in his word. In order to bring in the position of exclusive psalmody, the meaning of the second commandment has been restricted to the public worship. This is never how the Reformed churches have viewed the second commandment. The second commandment has a vital application to the public worship of the church, but the commandment applies to the whole life of the believer. Putting it into the language of the Old Testament: Israel might not worship God by images—not in their homes and not in the temple—and so the church today may never be self-willed in her worship of God, whether in the home or in the public worship. It is this broad application of the second commandment that the apostle makes, for instance, in Colossians 2:20–23:

20. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

21. (Touch not; taste not; handle not;

22. Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

23. Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

From this passage the church has defined the meaning of the second commandment as forbidding self-willed worship of God devised in man’s unbelieving and carnal heart. The subject in the passage is the second commandment. In the apostle’s application of the second commandment, he speaks about the church’s life in the world, as he makes clear by the words “as though living in the world” and when he gives examples of the false doctrine against which he was contending as teaching “touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using.” He speaks about the church’s use of the whole world and thus the church’s whole life in the world. The second commandment has application to the entire life of the believer. Then the apostle speaks of those who are self-willed and attempt in their self-will to bring the church into bondage to the doctrines and the commandments of men and who spoil many.

And the apostle gives the church a sharp warning about the corruption of the second commandment by men who have the appearance of godliness. Beware of men parading as spiritual and godly but whose doctrines are out of their own brains and whose religion is self-devised and self-serving. Beware of them because they come with deceptive doctrines that snake their way into the heart and will rob you of your simplicity in Christ, rob you of your joy and happiness in Christ, and rob you of your inheritance. They are thieves, these men, with their philosophies. They come with the appearance of wisdom. They have arguments and passages from scripture and appear even to have history on their side. But when you examine their doctrines, they do not harmonize with Christ and the perfection that is ours in Christ. Their doctrines do not harmonize with the truth that we are dead with Christ and complete in him.

The form that their doctrines take is ordinances: a host of ceremonies, commandments, strictures, regulations, and rules. Even more sinister, the ordinances are all those things that man must do in order to have Jesus Christ and to be pleasing to God. The false teachers withhold Christ and the loveliness, joy, comfort, and assurance of Christ from the believer until their  commandments,  strictures, regulations, and rules are performed. Thus also these false teachers come from the idea that holiness is found in an outward form, that righteousness is found in the outward deed, and that religion is a matter of do and do not do. Not satisfied with the earthly form in which Christ sanctifies his people and his rule in their lives by the Holy Spirit, so that their whole lives become holy and testimonies that they are of God, these religious philosophers and vain deceivers make holiness to consist in their commandments and in an outward form.

So the apostle asks, “Why, if you are dead with Christ, would you be subject to ordinances?” These false teachers come with their touch not, taste not, handle not; and you fall for their philosophies and their vain deceits, their doctrines and commandments of men? You allow your peace, joy, and freedom in Christ to be disturbed by the false teachers? “Touch not,” they say, and you wonder in your minds if, indeed, you cannot touch. “Taste not,” they thunder, and your consciences are disturbed about whether, indeed, it is Christian and holy to taste. And because man knows no end to his inventions of rules, regulations, commandments, and strictures, then, after you have listened to and given place to these false teachers for a moment, and they have beguiled you with their vain deceits, they also add rule upon rule and precept upon precept and command you, “Handle not!” And having given their doctrines a hearing and those doctrines having snaked their way into your minds, the false teachers plunder you of your joy, peace, comfort, hope, and freedom in Christ. And you, like them, are also subject to ordinances, and you live as those whose lives are in the world and who have not passed into heaven. Christ is erased from your very minds and thoughts, the perfection of Christ and your perfection in him fade from
view, and all you can think about is ordinances, what you must do or not do and how you must do it or not do it.

But the doctrines and commandments of men they are. That is all that these doctrines and commandments are. That is all they ever will be. Some are impious. Others are tyrannical and terrifying. Still others are silly and trifling! Some come with the appearance of right and with the weight of history. But they are all of them of man and only of man and not of God or out of his word.

And if you—who are dead with Christ from the elements of the world—would again be subject to ordinances, do you not know that the commandments and doctrines of man—not of God—that forbid you to touch, to taste, and to handle “perish with the using”? To perish with the using means that these ordinances tend to corruption. That which they corrupt is the all of religion. They corrupt the believer. They corrupt the church. They corrupt the truth. They corrupt faith. They corrupt peace, hope, and joy. They corrupt the idea of God. They corrupt Christ and his salvation. They corrupt absolutely because they lead all who follow them down into hell. The teachers of these doctrines and commandments insist so eagerly and vehemently upon them as if they were essential to salvation. But they do not bring salvation but corruption.

These false teachers, religious philosophers, and vain deceivers make so many disciples and rob many of their simplicity in Christ because they themselves and the things they teach have a “shew”; they have an appearance. They have an appearance in contrast to a reality. They are not real. They are not the truth. They are a lie. They are a deception, phantasm, legerdemain, and a conjurer’s trick. They are not real but damnable, not good but tending to corruption. Their show includes reasons, explanations, texts, logic, and arguments for their doctrines. With this reasoning and the rest, their doctrines have a show that they are good and wise and that thus only in the way of their doctrines and in the way of their commandments is the knowledge of God and eternal life.

But the doctrines and commandments are nothing but will worship. They all come from men’s fevered brains, their unbelieving minds, and their wicked hearts. The false teachers come in their deliberate and conscious rebellion against the word and the will of God that Christ have the preeminence, that his people and all things be perfected in Christ. These deceivers have nothing in Christ, and so they seek to displace Christ with their doctrines, commandments, laws, rules, and regulations. But their doctrines and commandments have no basis in the word of God or in the will of God but in men’s wills, their self-serving and self-pleasing wills.

And all the false teachers’ show of humility is false. They do not wear certain clothes, and everyone accounts them as such pious and humble people. They abstain from some meat or drink, and many think them superior Christians. They come protesting that they are only interested in the Christian life and holiness in the church and that their great concern is for the glory of God. And all of their doctrines and commandments that they would foist on the church, they do so under the guise of admirable practices for the church, at the very least not objectionable, and even as better calculated to lead the church in the way of holiness and the antithetical life. And once you listen to the false teachers and give in to them, their list will grow, and there will be no end of outward things that you must do or not do to show that you are a Christian, to have Jesus Christ, to be pleasing to God, and to enjoy the knowledge and assurance of your salvation.

But none of the doctrines and commandments of the false teachers are of any value to God. He says, “Not in any honour.” The false teachers tell the church how pleasing to God she will be if she follows their doctrines and commandments. But none of them is of any value to God. They have no value for righteousness. The only thing that avails for righteousness before God is Christ. The doctrines and commandments of men have no value for holiness, for it is a very wicked thing to do something or to not do something, to eat something or to not eat something, or to sing something or to not sing something in order to be pleasing to God and to be with Jesus Christ. The doctrines and commandments of men—no matter what the standing of the men who introduce them and no matter how wise, pious, and humble they may seem—are absolutely worthless and without spiritual value whatsoever.

The doctrines and commandments of men do please the flesh, however. How strange is man? He flagellates himself with his invented doctrine and will never with that doctrine enter into the peace, joy, and comfort of Christ. And that pleases his flesh. He delights in his activity as that which he did to come to Jesus and to be with God. Man neglects his body and kills himself with worry, grief, and abstinence and makes himself a laughingstock by his dowdy behavior and pious pretentions, and that pleases his flesh. He prides himself that he did not do this and he did not do that, which things so many others enjoy. It is a great thing for him, and he supposes that it is a great thing to God that he does not eat a certain food, smoke a cigarette, drink beer, wear an article of clothing, or sing a hymn. Pride! That is it. Pride! Such things please the flesh because the flesh is full of pride. If the flesh can do anything for its salvation, even something so silly and trifling as not eating a piece of food, then the flesh will do that for salvation. And in that the flesh will be damned.

Reject all the doctrines and commandments of men. Resist their philosophies and expose their vain conceits. For being dead with Christ, you have been raised with him to immortality and life. You are not of the world, and your life is not in the world, but your life is hidden in heaven with Christ. And you are complete in him.

In light of this passage, what we have experienced in the exclusive psalmody controversy is that a minister of his own will and out of his own brain prescribed for the church a worship of God that God did not prescribe. The minister prescribed that worship as that alone through which God must be served. And, therefore, the minister charged as sinful anyone who stepped outside of that prescription for the worship of God. That arbitrary prescription is the will worship. The regulative principle forbids will worship. You cannot decide what pleases you about how you will worship God. God decides your worship. Now the minister has prescribed for the church. He has prescribed on his own authority, not on the authority of the word of God. He has prescribed that God cannot be worshiped apart from singing “the psalms, those 150 God-inspired songs.” My warning is that the minister and his followers could better sing hymns than to sing a psalm out of their false doctrine that when they sing psalms they sing with Jesus. This is nothing more than a doctrine and a commandment of man.

This doctrine is not only a corruption of the regulative principle, but it is also conditional. To that I turn next time.

—NJL