Worship
10 Observations Against the Style-Specific Position on Music in Worship
Thursday, June 7th, 2007I have long considered music to be one of the most precious gifts that our bountiful heavenly Father has bestowed upon the world of men. Music is the food of the soul. It is the aged and well-refined wine of the affections, and no drippings of the honeycomb could fall upon the palate with a […]
The Poetics of Rap
Tuesday, November 14th, 2006The Occasion Having experienced the manifold effects, in the fundamentalist blogosphere, of John Piper’s decision to have a rapper, Curtis Allen, perform at Bethlehem Baptist Church, I was eminently motivated to do some thinking on the nature of rap as a musical/poetic entity. Simply because, if there was one thing that bound together the various responses […]
The Regulative Principle and Psalter-Only Worship
Friday, November 10th, 2006Although historically it has never been the overwhelming Reformed concensus, there have always been a few Reformed groups and churches that use the regulative principle of worship to restrict the number of legitimate songs that may be sung in worship to the one-hundred and fifty found in the Hebrew Psalter. Is this application of the […]
On the Use of the Arts in Worship
Wednesday, May 10th, 2006I have lately noticed in discussions on ReformationTheology a controversy which is far too common today: the question of whether certain styles of worship are inherently more acceptable to God than others. This is a debate which has considerable implications for the unity of the Church at large — and on no less important a […]
Worship: a Response to the Divine Initiative
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005Introduction John Calvin’s doctrinal magnum opus, Institutes of the Christian Religion, begins with what seems at first glance to be a remarkably unoriginal statement: the knowledge of God and ourselves are interrelated. What is more remarkable is that, after a general explanation of that connection, he leaves its essential nature untouched, and begins immediately to examine […]