Do Not Bind Consciences With Advent

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by Rev. the Benjamin Glaser

Originally published 27 November 2022 in the Seventeen82 blog – https://seventeen82.blogspot.com/

Around this time last year I wrote a piece about why women, and unordained men, should not be leading worship either by the reading of Scripture or by speaking authoritatively from the pulpit in the Lord’s Day morning and evening service. As part of that I spoke about church authority and how Presbyterians have understood this since the Reformation. To touch another third rail on a matter related to that for Seventeen82 I’d like to posit the same principle only applied this time to the creature known as Advent. Proponents of such will tell you that these extra-biblical holy moments are adiaphora, or to put it into hillbilly English, none of my business. However, before we get into my annual “Ben Glaser hates fun and pretty things” lecture we need to revisit the question about church authority and what it means when the Session calls for worship.

To do that we will hit the ARP Directory of Public Worship first, and yes before someone posts it I know the ARP directory allows our congregations to celebrate advent, that’s a bug not a feature, but it is the teaching of the denomination so if I’m going to argue against it I might as well start there. One of the things our DPW stresses is that it sees itself as a directive rather than a book full of set forms. What that means is the content of the DPW is to:

…give certain principled freedoms to the minister and session in the planning and leading of worship with the due exercise of Christian prudence and wisdom. The Directory of Public Worship has been formulated with [the Reformed] tradition in conscious view, and thus deals primarily with principles.

That’s all well and good and I do not see a problem with that, rightly understood. Our DPW later on quotes the 1560 Scots Confession which beautifully states:

It becomes all things to be done decently and in order. Not that we think any policy and an order of ceremonies can be appointed for all ages, times, and places; for as ceremonies which men have devised are but temporal, so they may and ought to be changed, when they foster superstition rather than edify the Kirk.

This is an important notion to keep in your pocket as we work through things. The language of the 1560 is carefully crafted. Two clauses especially to remember, “…for as ceremonies which men have devised are temporal” and “…so they may and ought to be changed, when they foster superstition rather than edify the Kirk.”. Like I said, tuck those away for a latter moment. Before we go too much further there are two more quotations from the opening chapter of the DPW that are important to munch on:

It is also necessary that a due proportion of time be set apart for offering to God that worship which He has commanded all people to give.

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From the creation of the world God has set apart one day in seven as holy to Himself. It is therefore imperative for all people, especially the people of God redeemed in Christ, to gather together in public assemblies for offering to God the worship He is pleased to receive and has revealed to us in His Holy Word.

Here we see that it is the Lord Most High who calls us to worship, and to worship Him alone, according to what He has revealed to us in His Holy Word. Hopefully we all agree on that, primarily because it is merely a repeat of Deuteronomy 12:32.

Now, how do we go about in the Church finding out what is acceptable worship? Who is given control for that by our DPW? In Chapter 2, section 5 it notes, “The service of worship shall be under the authority of the minister and the session.” Not the Choir Director, not the pianist/organist, or any other person in the local church. The Elders and Minister ordained and set aside by Christ to lead the Lord’s people in all things pertaining to life and mission are alone to declare what takes place in the house of God on His Sabbath (which is the 1^st day of the week in the new covenant in remembrance and honor of the resurrection of Christ, not the 7^th as in the days of old). That’s not to say they cannot receive assistance from members of the local body, but at the end of the day what is decided by the Elders is authoritative and must be followed by the congregation. It’s a truth all people in the ARP agree to when they say their vows found in the F.O.G. 4.5.A, especially this one:

(7) In loving obedience, do you submit yourself to the government and discipline of this church, promising to seek the peace, purity, and prosperity of this congregation as long as you are a member of it?

“Government and Discipline” is a reference to the Session.

So given that we can agree that the Elders, in consultation with the Pastor, are to organize and call for worship in ways that are founded upon the word of God, and that all members of the church are bound by their vows to heed that call we need to go to another one of our subordinate standards to think about how that works.

Chapter 20 of the Westminster Confession of Faith is a keystone chapter of our faith as Presbyterians. We were born out of the crucible of the imposition of civil and ecclesiastical authority from above, especially on matters relating to worship. In section two of Ch. 20 we read this:

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.

Let’s take a step back and define some terms. What is being talked about here? Robert Shaw, a fellow Seceder minister writes in his commentary on the Confession:

From the principles laid down in this section, it manifestly follows, that a right of private judgment about matters of religion belongs to every man, and ought to be exercised by every Christian…It follows no less clearly, from the principles laid down, that when lawful superiors command what is contrary to the Word of God, or beside it, in matters of faith and worship, their commands do not bind the conscience…the design of these words is to teach that the subordination of all human power is to the sovereignty and laws of God, particularly in matters of faith and worship.

Let me reiterate something that is vital to understand at this point. How can I argue that the Session is to be the final word in the church in matters relating to worship if it sounds like the Confession, and Shaw, are saying the private judgment of individuals is? Liberty of Conscience is bound, just as the authority of the Elders, to what is revealed in the Word of God. I do not have the liberty to ignore the Elders because I think the Bible teaches credobaptism. I am in “great sin” by neglecting to have my infants baptized, as WCF 28.5 makes clear. To quote Mike Tomlin, the standard is the standard. The Session only can require of man obedience to the revealed will of God, this goes for worship as much as anything else.

So after all that let’s get back to the title of the post.

How can it be a “binding of the conscience” to have advent candle-lighting, and the like?

At this point it should be glaringly obvious.

I challenge anyone to show me a Biblical passage, or present a good and necessary consequence with how advent, and her wreaths, trees, and cantatas with no preaching are an element of worship. Sorry, no “well it draws people in”. That’s not an argument from Scripture, it’s good ole American/Elevation Church pragmatism. Neither is “people are thinking about it”. No, they are not. We don’t live in 1950 anymore. There isn’t a secular soul out there who is going to walk into a church in this day and age because they are thinking “I need to go worship somewhere it is December.” I’ve told people before that there are no liberals in the ARP and I believe that wholeheartedly. What we do have are what I like to call “mainline traditionalists”. That is men and women who maintain and continue practices that are consistent with Norman Rockwell and generic Protestantism, but are alien to the Reformed faith and her Confessions and Catechisms. Even the Anglicans and Lutherans didn’t do the stuff many churches do in the six weeks before the first of the year before the last century. So much of what is considered “normal” is not. The Advent Candle Wreath thing? Invented by a liberal German guy in the 1840s and didn’t begin to appear in America until the 1930s. “We’ve always done it this way” is not an accurate assessment of the tradition. Same could be said for fir trees in the worship space. Totally without historical precedent.

All of these things take away from the Biblical message. They obscure and hide what is ostensibly the purpose of their invention. Why do they do so? Because God in His word has neither commanded for them nor provided for them. Tradition without Christ’s warrant is idolatry. I know those are harsh and mean words. But what of violating conscience? The church is only to do that in worship which God has commanded. Does that not matter or have relevance here? Go back to the quotations from the Standards and from the DPW? What does the 1560 Scots Confession say we are to do with such things? Toss them out. They ought to be changed. Who has the authority to do that in the ecclesiastical world in which I and you live and have our being? The Elders and the Minister.

As we close in this, and I am sure most have dumped out by now, I write this not to be a nuisance or to get angry clicks, but out of genuine and earnest desire for the church to rethink why it does things and return back to the old paths which our forefathers trod in faithfulness to the Word of God, the advice and directives of the considered DPW of 1647, and in the sure and certain hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In His Strength,

Rev. Benjamin Glaser, a sinner