deyvid.vilela
Puritan Board Freshman
Could you list works written by Puritans on Exclusive Psalmody?
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Why doesn't the Westminster Confession of Faith mention exclusive psalmody in its part on worship (maybe it does and I don't recall it)? Was it because those who wrote it weren't agreeing with each other even back then?
You don't rule out a problem that didn't exist. The Westminster Assembly was in agreement that the element of worship involving song, was the singing of psalms (hymns singing was an aberrant and scarce practice more associated with the sects at the time), and set about to create a new psalter purged of anything but the psalms (other things of a minor nature had customarily been included). This is confirmed in their directory for worship when it is confirmed that everyone that can read should have a "psalm book", the one they were tasked to create and that the parliament was to authorize.
I'm pretty sure that OPC ministers have to agree with the whole WCF. Why isn't the OPC obliged to sing only Psalms....how has this fallen through the cracks?
Well, while I wish they still were, it is the case that OPC ministers don't vow to uphold the Westminster Confession, but the confession of faith of the OPC (that is what it is called officially) which has been changed both actually in words in places (not in this regard) but also via adopting intent (versus original intent), which does affect this matter because the PCUSA from which the OPC sprung historically changed how they understood the matter via adopting a directory of worship that including hymns explicitly. Dr. Alan Strange has written on the distinction of original intent and adopting intent and its importance.
Why doesn't the Westminster Confession of Faith mention exclusive psalmody in its part on worship (maybe it does and I don't recall it)? Was it because those who wrote it weren't agreeing with each other even back then?
XXI. Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath DayWhy doesn't the Westminster Confession of Faith mention exclusive psalmody in its part on worship (maybe it does and I don't recall it)? Was it because those who wrote it weren't agreeing with each other even back then?
I find it very likely that just as the EP folk believe "Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" to mean only inspired Psalms, so also a person could choose take the WCF's "psalms" to mean "any song of praise, inspired or not." Perhaps it depends on what the word "psalm" was taken to mean in the English of the 1600s.
They would probably mean what they knew. Since they (according to Chris) knew nothing about uninspired hymns, they would obviously define psalms to mean Psalms. You can't define something according to something you don't know anything about.
Being a Baptist, I don't have a horse in this race: as has been pointed out, the LBCF has different language in that section.
A minister of the RPCNA told me that more than 500 works on Exclusive Psalmody were written by Puritans. Does anyone have this information?
What are the names of these denominations?There a some Scottish and derivative denominations and some micro groups in this country that hold the original WCF and hold to psalm singing.
What are the names of these denominations?
A minister of the RPCNA told me that more than 500 works on Exclusive Psalmody were written by Puritans. Does anyone have this information?
Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and Associated Presbyterian Churches all have churches in North America, but are from Scotland and hold to the original Westminster Standards.
The best example of an indigenous denomination that holds to the original Westminster Standards and exclusive Psalmody is the Presbyterian Reformed Church. It's also part of NAPARC.
The RPCNA holds to the original plus its testimony which essentially makes a few modifications/qualifications to the original Westminster Standards.
There are also a few very small groups that fit these criteria. The only one I know of that still exists and is not Steelite is Reformation Presbytery of the Midwest.
You can find plenty of old threads here, and it's not worth having the conversation again in my view. Suffice to say, they're extremely small in number. Here is an example thread:What is a Steelite?
Of course not: but since I believe we are enjoined by the RPW to sing hymns as well as psalms, I do not have to wonder whether it's within the bounds of the confession.Being a Baptist does not relieve one to a principle.