Regulative principle of worship

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Background Christianity Reformation Protestantism
Theology Theology of John Calvin Covenant theology Republication of the Covenant of Works Baptist Covenant Theology Logical order of God's decrees Baptism Lord's Supper Regulative principle Predestination Scholasticism
Texts List of texts Institutes of the Christian Religion Geneva Bible Confessions Three Forms of Unity Westminster Standards Systematic theology Metrical psalter
Theologians List of theologians Huldrych Zwingli Johannes Oecolampadius Martin Bucer Peter Martyr Vermigli Heinrich Bullinger John Calvin John Knox Zacharias Ursinus Theodore Beza William Perkins Franciscus Gomarus William Twisse Moses Amyraut John Owen Francis Turretin Richard Baxter Jonathan Edwards Friedrich Schleiermacher Charles Hodge Abraham Kuyper Herman Bavinck B. B. Warfield John Machen Geerhardus Vos Karl Barth Reinhold Niebuhr Cornelius Van Til Jürgen Moltmann J. I. Packer Michael Horton
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The regulative principle of worship is a Christian doctrine, held by some Calvinists and Anabaptists, that God commands churches to conduct public services of worship using certain distinct elements affirmatively found in scripture, and conversely, that God prohibits any and all other practices in public worship. The doctrine further determines these affirmed elements to be those set forth in scripture by express commands or examples or, if not expressed, those implied logically by good and necessary consequence. The regulative principle thus provides a governing concept of worship as obedience to God, identifies the set of specific practical elements constituting obedient worship, and identifies and excludes disobedient practices.