Legalism Is Conditional

When the May 2023 Classis of the Reformed Protestant Churches voted not to sustain the appeal of Rev. A. Lanning, for some reason the classis did not explicitly condemn his doctrine of exclusive psalmody as conditional. The consistory of First Reformed Protestant Church had condemned his doctrine as conditional. An elder who did not shake Reverend Lanning’s hand after his March 12, 2023, sermon on the second commandment and exclusive psalmody also had condemned the doctrine as conditional. And I had condemned his doctrine as conditional. The false doctrine of Reverend Lanning is conditional, regardless of what the classis of the Reformed Protestant Churches decided. However, in essence the classis did decide that his doctrine is conditional because the classis decided that his false doctrine is legalism. All legalism is conditional in its very nature, just as all conditions in theology are forms of legalism.

For instance, that was clear in the Arminians’ doctrine at the Synod of Dordt. The fathers at Dordt saw that conditionality and pointed that out in Canons 2, error and rejection 4:

[The Synod rejects the errors of those] who teach that the new covenant of grace, which God the Father, through the mediation of the death of Christ, made with man, does not herein consist that we by faith, inasmuch as it accepts the merits of Christ, are justified before God and saved, but in the fact that God, having revoked the demand of perfect obedience of the law, regards faith itself and the obedience of faith, although imperfect, as the perfect obedience of the law, and does esteem it worthy of the reward of eternal life through grace.

Rejection: For these contradict the Scriptures: Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood (Rom. 3:24, 25). And these proclaim, as did the wicked Socinus, a new and strange justification of man before God, against the consensus of the whole church. (Confessions and Church Order, 164–65)

The Arminian doctrine regarding the role of faith in salvation is that faith is the condition that man must fulfill—that which man must do—in order to be saved. God did his part, and now man must do his part—of course, all by grace.

The Synod of Dordt not only condemned conditions as Arminian by putting the word condition in the mouths of the Arminians, but the synod also charged that the Arminians with their conditions brought in again the wicked doctrine of Socinus with regard to justification. The Socinus the synod referred to was Faustus Socinus, a contemporary of James Arminius. Socinus was generally condemned as wicked for his anti-trinitarianism and his denial of the deity of Christ. Socinus was a theological liberal, and his doctrine of justification can be summarized as that a man attains unto eternal life through bearing suffering and imitating the obedience of Christ by faith. Man comes into eternal life by his efforts. That wicked doctrine of justification the Arminians brought in again with their conditions of faith and the obedience of faith. Both false doctrines are a species of legalism, which generally can be defined as attaining the favor of God or entering into fellowship with God in the way of obedience.

The false doctrine of exclusive psalmody is likewise a species of legalism. Being legalism, the doctrine is conditional. As conditional, the doctrine must be condemned as such and by name. There is value in condemning the doctrine as conditional. The outstanding value is that a condemnation correctly identifies the error and places it under the Reformed condemnation of conditions. The legalism of the doctrine of exclusive psalmody is essentially no different from the legalism of the Protestant Reformed Churches, who make man’s fellowship with God come to man through his activities. So also with exclusive psalmody: the fellowship of the church—her singing with Jesus—is through her singing. First, she must sing the psalms, then she can sing with Jesus. This is legalism, and this is a condition, if there ever were one.

Reverend Lanning denies that he taught conditional theology or legalism. He writes,

The consistory asserts that the sermons taught “that if the congregation sings any versification of the Scriptures (other than the Psalms) then the congregation does not have God dwelling with them nor experiencing his covenant fellowship through Jesus until man’s law is met.” This assertion is entirely an invention of the consistory. The sermons taught no such thing. The sermons cannot even be misunderstood to teach any such thing. The sermons taught that Christ has already completed and fulfilled all our worship, including fulfilling the regulative principle. The sermons taught that our worship is our gratitude for salvation already accomplished. The sermons cannot be construed in any way whatsoever to be saying that the congregation does not have God dwelling with them nor experiencing covenant fellowship until man meets some law.¹

But what Reverend Lanning calls “an invention of the consistory” is precisely what Reverend Lanning taught. He taught that you can sing, but you do not sing with Jesus if you do not sing the psalms. You can sing some song other than the psalms, and Jesus will keep on singing the psalms, but he will not be singing with you. That is conditional. Singing with Jesus—if we may use that terminology for a moment—is fellowship. And you do not sing with Jesus, and Jesus does not sing with you until a condition is met: sing “the psalms, those 150 God-inspired songs.”² Therefore, you do not have fellowship with Jesus until your activity is performed. Your singing makes the difference. Your activity makes the difference.

The church sings; Jesus is singing. But whether the two who are singing come together in harmonious fellowship depends on the decision and activity of the church. It is not Christ who accomplishes the harmonious fellowship. It is the church. It is not the powerful will of God that does this. It is the church’s will. It is not the powerful work of the indwelling Spirit who performs the harmonious fellowship. It is the church’s work. It is not the powerful work of the indwelling Word who makes the church sing, but it is the church’s own fickle will deciding that she will sing with Jesus.

Reverend Lanning also taught that our singing is a matter of our fellowship with God. The exact quotation from the March 12, 2023, sermon on the second commandment is this:

There is a question of the application of the regulative principle to the singing of the church, especially this question: Does the regulative principle require exclusive psalmody?

We will look at that question tonight, but that does not mean that this topic for the church of Jesus Christ is something fearful, not something to be afraid of whatsoever. This is the matter of your worship. It is the matter of God dwelling with you and bringing you into his covenant fellowship through the Lord Jesus Christ.³

I understand that when Reverend Lanning said, “This is the matter…” he meant the subject of the regulative principle and its application to singing. I also maintain that the phrase “it is the matter of God dwelling with you and bringing you into his covenant fellowship” is a false statement. Even on the most generous interpretation of the phrase, Reverend Lanning meant simply that when discussing the regulative principle, we are discussing your worship and discussing a matter of God’s dwelling with you and God’s bringing you into his covenant fellowship through the Lord Jesus Christ. Reverend Lanning, then, merely wanted to introduce into this discussion of the regulative principle the question of whether the regulative principle demanded exclusive psalmody. Thus this discussion about exclusive psalmody and the church’s singing is a matter of God’s dwelling with you and God’s bringing you into his covenant fellowship through the Lord Jesus Christ. Many apparently were convinced that this was a perfectly acceptable sense and that Reverend Lanning should not on account of that statement be condemned with conditionality. I disagree. The statement as such is wrong, and the statement is part of a larger erroneous theology of worship.

First, the statement itself is wrong. When we are discussing the regulative principle of our worship, we are not, in fact, discussing God’s bringing us into his fellowship at all. The discussion about God’s bringing us into his fellowship begins and ends with faith in Jesus Christ, wholly apart from our observance of the regulative principle. How well or how poorly we observe the regulative principle has nothing to do with God’s bringing us into his fellowship. We say the same thing about exclusive psalmody if it is part of the regulative principle. How well or how poorly we sing the psalms has nothing to do with God’s bringing us into his fellowship. God’s bringing us into his fellowship happened eternally in election and happens when he joins his elect people to Jesus Christ by the Spirit through faith. At that moment God has brought us into his fellowship, wholly of grace, wholly without works, and by faith alone. And in our consciences and experiences, we enter into that fellowship by faith alone in Jesus Christ and wholly apart from the consideration of the goodness or badness of our worship or how well or poorly we sing the psalms. When considering the law, we are not discussing God’s bringing us into fellowship. We are discussing thanksgiving for bringing us into his fellowship. That is what true worship of God is: it is thankfulness. On that understanding those who sing psalms as the way in which God brings them into his fellowship are chargeable with unbelief and gross unthankfulness.

Then further, what Reverend Lanning said about the regulative principle and singing being a matter of God’s bringing us into his fellowship, when taken together with the rest of his theology on singing, means that our fellowship with God comes through our singing. When Reverend Lanning said, “It is the matter of God dwelling with you and bringing you into his covenant fellowship through the Lord Jesus Christ,” Jesus Christ was just window dressing. Our singing, not Jesus Christ and his cross; our singing, not the Spirit of Jesus Christ; our singing, not the grace of God; our singing makes the difference in our fellowship with God. Our singing is decisive in the matter of our fellowship with God because our singing is decisive for our singing with Jesus.

In that corruption of the second commandment and in the introduction of conditional fellowship through singing, the lure of that doctrine is the promise that when we sing the psalms, we sing with Jesus. And you must note the order. The order is important. First, you sing the psalms, and then you sing with Jesus.

And I maintain that this language “singing with Jesus” is not Reformed. Whoever heard of that before? Where is that language in the creeds? Where is that language in scripture?

That doctrine of singing with Jesus is a corruption not only of the regulative principle but also of the whole concept of worship and the believer’s relationship with Jesus Christ. That very concept of singing with Jesus must be abandoned. It must be abandoned because of the implications of that concept. Even if someone could use it with the best intentions as they possibly could, the concept has been corrupted. It has been corrupted by men outside the Reformed Protestant Churches, and it has been corrupted by former members of the Reformed Protestant Churches.

Outside Influences

Those who promoted the language and concept “singing with Jesus” in the Reformed Protestant Churches have been influenced by others outside the denomination and are parroting their language. And the promoters of it outside the Reformed Protestant Churches have told us very clearly where this concept leads, and Reverend Lanning is following them.

One such man is Michael LeFebvre in his book Singing the Songs of Jesus. Michael LeFebvre says about singing with Jesus: “These are the two unique features of the psalms. They are the church’s only inspired hymns, and they are the church’s only Christ-led hymns.” “Jesus sings the psalms alone, and he invites us to join with him.”⁴

LeFebvre writes, “The New Testament saw in Jesus the ultimate song leader for the church’s praises.”⁵ The New Testament did? Where is it found in scripture that Jesus is the ultimate song leader? The scriptures say that Jesus is our savior, our redeemer, our Lord, our king, and our eldest brother.

And Michael LeFebvre is not shy about where the concept of singing with Jesus leads. Understand what this means. Singing with Jesus means that Jesus is singing. He is singing alongside of and apart from the consideration of his church. He is that husband who carries on with his life and says to his wife, “Keep up. Keep up!” Jesus is singing, and the church may join with Jesus by her singing, if she wills to.

Michael LeFebvre says that singing “is a process that produces grace in the heart to the Lord. This grace is our praise of the Lord.”⁶ Singing produces grace. LeFebvre also says, “Singing sanctifies the heart.”⁷ “Singing”—not the Holy Spirit, not the grace of God, not the blood of Jesus Christ, and not faith—“sanctifies the heart.” This is conditional language. Man’s activities are the decisive and powerful things.

Rev. Angus Stewart of the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church in Northern Ireland also promotes this position in a published speech found on his website.⁸ He writes,

By teaching and admonishing one another with God’s own Psalms, “the word of Christ” dwells in us “richly” (Col. 3:16), so that we enjoy covenant fellowship with the Holy Trinity. Are man-made songs “the word of Christ”?⁹

Note that Rev. Angus Stewart teaches that Christ dwells in us by means of our singing the word of Christ. The result of our singing is our enjoyment of covenant fellowship with the triune God. So also, then, Reverend Stewart teaches that by means of our singing, we enjoy covenant fellowship with God. Rev. Angus Stewart is a conditional theologian with regard to singing.

He asks, “Will the church be able to stand before God on the judgment day with their uninspired hymnals and say, ‘We sang the Word of Christ’?”¹⁰ Reverend Stewart has the church coming in the final judgment with her songs and defending those songs before the Lord Jesus Christ. So the church comes and boasts, “Lord, we sang the psalms.”

The Lord will say to the person who comes on the judgment day with his psalm singing, “Depart from me, you wicked evildoer. I never knew you. All your psalm singing was a stink to me and an odor and an offense because you were going to come to me with your psalm singing and suppose that by means of that singing you could have fellowship with me.”

Even if I did sing nothing but the psalms, I would not defend that in the day of judgment because my singing, as all of my life, is full of sin.

However, the statement of Reverend Stewart gets at his mindset. He really does believe that because the church sings the psalms, God is pleased with her now; and because she sings the psalms, God will be pleased with her in the final judgment.

Rev. Angus Stewart continues,

Moreover, Ephesians 5 states that singing God’s Psalms (v. 19) is the way of being “filled with the Holy Spirit” (v. 18). This is the connection between verse 18 and verse 19 in Ephesians 5! Singing “the Lord’s song[s]” (Ps. 137:4) is a divinely-given means to be filled with the Holy Ghost and so under His blessed influence.¹¹

He states clearly what his doctrine is: singing the psalms is the means to come under the blessed influence of the Spirit. The Spirit is not given to you, so that by that Spirit you have fellowship with Jesus Christ and out of the power of that Spirit you sing to Jesus Christ and to the triune God. You have to sing the psalms first. You have to sing the psalms out of your own will. You have to sing the psalms well enough. You have to sing them purely enough. And you must sing accurately enough only the God-inspired psalms, or you will not have the Spirit.

Reverend Lanning teaches the same thing. And his doctrine falls under the same condemnation. The doctrine is conditional. You could substitute other activities of man for singing the psalms, and the doctrine would be no different than the false doctrine of the Protestant Reformed Churches with regard to fellowship with God. So you could say, “You have to repent enough, and you have to repent thoroughly enough, and by that means you have fellowship with the triune God.” The conditionalism of the doctrine I call exclusive psalmody is not less real or serious. You have to sing the psalms to sing with Jesus, and then in singing with Jesus you have fellowship with the triune God.

Jesus Christ Was Displaced

The concept that we sing with Jesus is purely carnal. It is as carnal as the Pharisees’ law about how many footsteps someone could take on Sunday. That was carnal. The carnality of the concept that we sing with Jesus is that it divorces the church from Jesus Christ, from his perfect righteousness, and from fellowship with God in Jesus Christ that is ours by faith only. The concept that we sing with Jesus takes the focus off Jesus Christ and his perfect work, and it turns the focus to what man must do. The concept takes the power of righteousness from the atoning death of Jesus Christ and places it in the impotent works of man.

Jesus Christ was displaced in Reverend Lanning’s sermons regarding the second commandment and exclusive psalmody, beginning with the May 2 sermon in 2021.¹² He dangled Jesus Christ before the eyes of the congregation as the prize. Reverend Lanning presented Jesus Christ as the singing Christ, who sings wholly apart from the consideration of his church and who invites the church to sing with him. That is how vulgar those sermons were. That is how carnal they were: Jesus Christ was a prize! Jesus Christ was a lure! If, and only if, you sing the psalms accurately enough and purely enough can you sing with Jesus. It is a carnal doctrine. It is a carnal doctrine of man and what man must do to have fellowship with Jesus Christ and with God. As such the doctrine is also conditional.

And besides, the doctrine corrupts Christ’s relationship to his church. With regard to all the other elements of worship, how does Jesus do them? Jesus does them. I will say that Jesus sings the psalms for the sake of argument. Jesus also preaches, so that what is preached is not the word of man but the very word of God, and in that preaching the voice of Jesus Christ is heard. Jesus administers the sacraments, so that from heaven he feeds us with his proper and natural body and blood and we eat and drink him, and with his life he devours our death. Jesus takes care of the poor too, so that the mercies of Christ are actually dispensed to the poor and indigent in the church. Jesus Christ carries out the discipline of the church, so that he opens the kingdom of heaven to believers and shuts the kingdom fast against unbelievers. How does Jesus Christ do these things? In and through his church, which is his bride, his body, and the fullness of him who fills all in all in the church. Jesus is in heaven; but by his majesty, grace, and Spirit, Jesus Christ is at no time absent from his church. He preaches and administers the sacraments in and through his church through a God-ordained minister. Jesus Christ dispenses his mercies in and through his church through God-ordained deacons. Jesus Christ exercises Christian discipline in and through God-ordained elders. Jesus Christ fills his church with his Spirit, and he operates through her. Jesus Christ does things in and through his church. Jesus sings through his church. He does not sing alongside his church; he sings through his church. Think about how wrong it would be if you were to say, “Jesus is preaching; and if you want to preach with Jesus, you have to do this, that, and the other thing. Jesus is taking care of the poor; and if you want to take care of the poor, you had better do this, that, and the other thing. Then you can take care of the poor with Jesus.”

Jesus sings in and through his church. Therefore, Jesus gives his church all her worship. Worship is not, first of all, what we bring to God. But worship is about what God gives to us in Jesus Christ. He gives us salvation, and he gives our worship to us. When the church sings a hymn or a psalm, God gave that to her. God gave that to her first in her heart. He regenerated her heart and put his Spirit in her heart. He gave righteousness, peace, and joy in her heart. He put the love and the praise of God in her heart. Do not let anybody rob you of that.

God gives me my worship. Jesus Christ gives me my worship. He gives me that worship and fellowship with him in that worship wholly apart from the consideration of my singing and on the basis of his atoning death alone.

If you sing something sinful, that did not come from Jesus Christ. That is really what those who promote exclusive psalmody have to say: “The church must sing the psalms as the only God-given praise in the church and to sing any other song is of the devil and the carnal flesh of man.” That is always the antithesis. The antithesis is between what is of God and what is of the flesh and of the devil.

Besides, in the worship of the church, singing is the end or goal. The truth of the covenant that Herman Hoeksema taught us must be applied to worship and singing. The covenant is the goal. The covenant is not a way to the goal. The covenant is the goal. The covenant is the end. When God gives you fellowship with himself in Jesus Christ, he has given to you all that he is going to give to you. That is the end or goal. So it is with singing. Singing is not a means or a way unto something. This is what Reverend Lanning teaches. Singing is a way or a means unto something. That is not what singing is. Singing is the goal. Singing is the goal of God’s election. Singing is the goal of the cross of Jesus Christ. Singing is the goal of the righteousness of Christ freely imputed to the ungodly. Singing is the goal of the indwelling Spirit and his sanctifying the believer’s heart. The goal is that the church sings. She sings, as she prays, as the chief part of her thankfulness. She sings with grace in her heart, making melody unto the Lord. She praises him out of the truth that is in her heart. That is why scripture describes heaven as singing. In heaven do the saints have to sing the psalms in order to sing with Jesus? No. When they get to heaven the saints are with Jesus. That is the goal. In thanksgiving for that the saints sing. Singing is not a means unto an end. Singing is the end.

Erroneous Interpretation of Scripture

And what about Jesus’ singing the psalms? The proof that is often put forward for this conception is Hebrews 2:12: “Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.” Hebrews 2:12 is a quotation of Psalm 22:22. So it is said that Jesus in these passages is singing in the church, and the implied calling of the church is to sing with Jesus. In Hebrews 2:12 Jesus is supposedly singing the psalms and the psalms exclusively, so that in order to sing with Jesus the church must sing the psalms and must sing them exclusively.

That interpretation of the text is erroneous.

That interpretation of the text completely misses the context and the purpose of the quotation from the psalm. The quotation in Hebrews 2:12 was not given by the apostle to teach that Jesus sings the psalms and, therefore, that for the church to sing with Jesus, she must likewise sing the psalms. That is a literalistic abuse of scripture. And I would say that about all of the proof texting by the promoters of exclusive psalmody. It is just that, proof texting. It is not exegesis, which is the explanation of scripture according to the intent of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, those who proof text come to scripture with an idea or a doctrine, and they seek to find proof for that in scripture. They thought up something in their brains, and they go to scripture to find it. That is not exegesis, but that is eisegesis. Eisegesis is the interpretation of a text by forcing one’s own understanding of a passage on that passage.

So this eisegetical and literalistic use of scripture is pressed into the service of finding exclusive psalmody in scripture. For instance, as compelling and irrefutable proof of the command to sing the psalms exclusively, the churches are pointed to the words of Psalm 95:2: “Make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.” If that is how the church is going to interpret the psalms, we should also break out our timbrels and instruments of ten strings, lift up our hands, and clap and shout in church too.

Hebrews 2:12 comes in for the same eisegetical treatment. But that interpretation is an abuse of scripture to confirm one’s own idea brought to scripture for proof.

Rather, in Hebrews 2:12 the apostle quotes from Psalm 22 to establish the oneness of the church with Jesus Christ. Christ and the church are one. Christ and the church are one according to the texts because Jesus Christ became a man, and as a man he really did worship God. And being a man and worshiping God as a man, Jesus Christ became totally one with his brethren. Hebrews 2:12 points to the incarnation, not to psalm singing. The text points to the incarnation as the great and central wonder of our salvation. That is why the apostle says that Jesus sings in the great congregation. If you read Psalm 22:22 and if you read that psalm as it is quoted in Hebrews 2:12, and you say, “Ah, Jesus sings the psalms, and I have to sing them too,” you do not understand the scriptures. To establish the truth of the incarnation, God says in the psalms that Jesus sang in the great congregation. The apostle makes that perfectly clear. The whole context in Hebrews 2:10–16 reads as follows:

10. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

11. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one [that is God]: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

12. Saying [now he quotes], I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.

13. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.

14. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

15. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

16. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

Hebrews 2:12 establishes that Jesus sings in the great congregation. He is our brother. He is not an exclusive psalm singer; he is our brother. He and we are both of God. He is our brother by the incarnation, that greatest of all wonders, when God became flesh. That is the purpose of the text.

The purpose of the text, therefore, is also to establish our oneness with Jesus Christ. It is precisely this point that the false doctrine of singing with Jesus denies. We are one with Jesus Christ. There is no other way that you can sing but to sing with Jesus. Worship, the proper worship of God, is always the fruit of our fellowship with Jesus Christ. The false doctrine of exclusive psalmody places Christ outside us, separates us from our head and from the activity of our head, until we do something ourselves.

This false doctrine also presents the horrible and chilling proposition that the church could sing something good, theologically sound, God-honoring, and Christ-glorifying but that Jesus would not sing it. This is a horrible thought for the bride of Jesus Christ that she would do something apart from her head.

This false doctrine also teaches that the origin, the source, and the power of the church’s singing is not Jesus. The origin, source, and power is you: it is you and your decision to sing with Jesus.

Thus this false doctrine corrupts the gospel of God’s unconditional covenant with his elect church in Jesus Christ her head. The gospel of our singing is very clearly and simply stated in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Christ’s indwelling, not your will; Christ’s indwelling, not your singing, explains your fellowship with Jesus Christ and with God. That is why the doctrine, the false doctrine, of exclusive psalmody must be rejected. It corrupts the gospel of the unconditional covenant.