True versus False Worship (John Knox and
John Calvin)
In this study, we consider some
reflections from John Knox and John Calvin, two of
the great leaders of the Protestant Reformation and founders of the Presbyterian
and Reformed churches. What is true
worship? And what does it mean to believe in Scripture alone?
John Knox, the founder of Scottish Presbyterianism, provides these insights:
Here is the test for a true versus a manmade religion. Knox
said, “man may neither make nor devise a religion that is acceptable to God; but
man is bound to observe and keep the religion that from God is received, without
chopping or changing it.”
We must neither add to nor subtract from what God has commanded in His Word.
Knox said,
May we cast away what we please and retain what we please?
If it be well remembered, Moses, in the name of God (speaking the word of God),
says to the people of Israel, “All that the Lord your God commands you to do,
that do to the Lord your God: add nothing to it nor take away from it.” (cf.
Deut. 4:2; 12:8, 30-32). By this rule I think that the church of Christ will
measure God’s religion, and not by that which seems good in their own eyes.
What does God think of manmade ceremonies and traditions not found in God’s
Word? Knox declared with boldness:
God’s word condemns your ceremonies . . . . That
God’s word damns your ceremonies it is evident, for the plain and straight
commandment of God is, “Not that thing which appears good in your eyes shall you
do to the Lord your God, but what the Lord your God has commanded you; that do;
add nothing to it; diminish nothing from it” (cf. Deut. 4:2; 12:8, 30-32). Now
unless you are able to prove that God has commanded your ceremonies, this his
former commandment will damn both you and them.
According to John Knox, all manmade or humanly devised worship, all “self-made
worship,” (Col. 2:23) is idolatry: “All worshiping, honoring, or service
invented by the brain of man in the religion of God, without His own express
commandment, is idolatry.”
Knox believed strongly that Roman Catholic worship, with all its manmade
tradition, was idolatry: “All the glistening ceremonies of the Papists are very
dung and abomination before God.”
True worship, worship which is acceptable to God, must be founded on what God
has commanded in His Word:
[R]eligion, if it be pleasing and acceptable to God,
must have His own commandment and official approval for a warrant. Otherwise,
it cannot be but odious in His presence, as a thing repugnant to His express
commandment, saying, “Not that thing which appears good in your own eyes shall
you do to the Lord your God, but what the Lord your God has commanded you, that
do: add nothing to it, diminish nothing from it” (cf. Deut. 4:2; 12:8, 30-32).
By this precept of that eternal God who is immutable [unchangeable] and can
command nothing but that which is just are all people, realms, and nations (that
will avow themselves to be the inheritance of the Lord) bound and obliged to
measure their religion; not by the example of other peoples, neither yet by
their own good intention [Col. 2:23], nor determination of men, but only by the
expressed word of God. So that what is commanded in God’s Word ought to be done
by the people of God . . . . And, therefore, we have most justly rejected the
rabble of ceremonies which the Papists held for the chief exercise of their
religion, as things which have no better ground than the invention and consent
of men.
For John Knox, the issue of true worship ought to be a chief concern of every
true Christian:
The matter is not of so small importance, as some
suppose. The question is whether God or man ought to be obeyed in matters of
religion. With their mouths, all [professing Christians] do confess that only
God is worthy of sovereignty. But after many, by the instigation of the devil
and by the presumptuous arrogance of carnal wisdom and worldly methods, have
defaced God’s holy ordinance, men fear not to follow what laws and common
consent (mother to all mischief and nurse most favorable to superstition) have
established and commended. But thus continually I can do nothing but hold and
affirm all things polluted, yes, execrable and accursed, which God by His Word
has not sanctified [set apart as holy] in His religion. God grant you His Holy
Spirit rightly to judge.
What did John Calvin, the founder of the Reformed churches in Europe,
teach about true worship?
In his tract “The Necessity of Reforming the Church,”
Calvin argues that true worship and the true doctrine of salvation are the two
chief elements of the Christian religion.
Calvin says that justly and “in order to assert his full right of dominion,” the
Lord strictly enjoins “what he wishes us to do, and at once reject[s] all human
devices which are at variance with his command. Justly, too, does he, in
express terms, define our limits, that we may not, by fabricating perverse modes
of worship, provoke his anger against us.”
He continues:
I know how difficult it is to persuade the world
that God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by his
Word. The opposite persuasion which cleaves to them, being seated, as it
were, in their very bones and marrow, is, that whatever they do has in itself a
sufficient sanction, provided it exhibits some kind of zeal for the honor of
God. But since God not only regards as fruitless, but also plainly
abominates, whatever we undertake from zeal to his worship, if at variance with
his command, what do we gain by a contrary course? The words of God are
clear and distinct, “Obedience is better than sacrifice.” “In vain do they
worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” (1 Samuel 15:22;
Matthew 15:9). Every addition to his Word, especially in this matter, is a
lie. Mere “will worship” [self-made worship, Colossians 2:23]
is vanity. This is the decision, and when once the judge has decided, it is no
longer time to debate. (emphasis added)
Calvin believed that the manmade ceremonies observed throughout the churches
were “a mere mockery of God. A new Judaism, as a substitute for that which God
had distinctly abrogated, has again been reared up by means of numerous puerile
extravagancies, collected from different quarters; and with these have been
mixed up certain impious rites, partly borrowed from the heathen, and more
adapted to some theatrical show than to the dignity of our religion.”
How do we determine if worship is true or false? Calvin says, “. . . the Word
of God is the test which discriminates between his true worship and that which
is false and vitiated [corrupt].”
What does God think of manmade traditions and self-made worship?
Calvin writes, “God rejects, condemns, abominates all fictitious
worship, and employs his Word as a bridle to keep us in unqualified obedience.
When shaking off this yoke, we wander after our own fictions, and offer to him a
worship, the work of human rashness, how much soever it may delight ourselves,
in his sight it is vain trifling, nay, vileness and pollution. The advocates of
human traditions paint them in fair and gaudy colors; and Paul certainly admits
that they carry with them a show of wisdom; but as God values obedience more
than all sacrifices, it ought to be sufficient for the rejection of any mode
of worship, that it is not sanctioned by the command of God” (emphasis
added).
According to Calvin, Reformed churches are God-centered, not man-centered.
No superstitions are allowed:
Since, therefore, in our [Reformed] churches, only God
is adored in pious form without superstition; since his goodness, wisdom, power,
truth, and other perfections, are there preached more fully than anywhere else;
since he is invoked with true faith in the name of Christ, his mercies
celebrated both with heart and tongue, and men constantly urged to a simple and
sincere obedience; since, in fine, nothing is heard but what tends to promote
the sanctification of his name, what cause have those who call themselves
Christians to be so inveterate against us?”
Yet, Calvin warns that religious hypocrites cannot tolerate such a reformation
of worship:
. . . loving darkness rather than light, they cannot
tolerate the sharpness with which we, as in duty bound, rebuke the gross
idolatry which is everywhere beheld in the world. When God is worshiped in
images, when fictitious worship is instituted in his name, when supplication is
made to the images of saints, and divine honors paid to dead men’s bones;
against these, and similar abominations, we protest, describing them in their
true colors. For this cause, those who hate our doctrine inveigh against us,
and represent us as heretics who have dared to abolish the worship of God, as of
old approved by the church.”
. . . we, who have brought back the worship of the one God to the
rule of his word—we, who are blameless in this matter, and have purged our
churches, not only of idolatry but of superstition also—are accused of violating
the worship of God . . .
Calvin continues to speak regarding true worship:
. . . since as I have observed, God in many passages
forbids any new worship unsanctioned by his word; since he declares that
he is grievously offended with the presumption which invents such worship, and
threatens it with severe punishment; it is clear that the reformation which
we have introduced was demanded by a strong necessity. . . .
I am not unaware how difficult it is to persuade
the world that God rejects and even abominates everything relating to his
worship that is devised by human reason. The delusion on this head is owing
to several causes: “Every one thinks highly of his own,” as the old proverb
expresses it. Hence the offspring of our own brain delights us, and besides, as
Paul admits, this fictitious worship often presents some show of wisdom
[Colossians 2:23]. Then, as it has for the most part an external splendor which
pleases the eye, it is more agreeable to our carnal nature, than that which
alone God requires and approves, but which is less ostentatious. But there is
nothing which so blinds the understandings of men, and misleads them in their
judgments in this matter, as hypocrisy. For while it is incumbent on
true worshipers to give the heart and mind, men are always desirous to invent a
mode of serving God of a totally different description, their object being to
perform to him certain bodily observances, and keep the mind to themselves.
Moreover, they imagine that when they intrude upon him external pomp, they have,
by this artifice, evaded the necessity of giving themselves. And this is the
reason why they submit to innumerable observances which miserably fatigue them
without measure and without end, and why they choose to wander in a perpetual
labyrinth, rather than worship God simply in spirit and in truth . . . .
(emphasis added)
Calvin’s work of reformation was accused of causing schism or disunity in the
church. He writes, “The last and principal charge which they bring against us
is, that we have made a schism in the church. And here they boldly maintain
against us, that in no case is it lawful to break the unity of the church.”
Yet, he notes that “heresies and schisms . . . arise when a return is not made
to the origin of truth, when neither the Head is regarded, nor the doctrine of
the heavenly Master preserved.”
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