Gabriel,
I agree.
..and the context of Deut 12 appears to be worship-specific. Hence, this is a good support for the RPW.
My only concern about using the Great Commision passage as a proof text for the RPW is that this passage is not worship-specific. It is applicable to all of life. Whatever application is made to worship from this passage must also be true for all of life.
So if you say:
1.Christ commanded in Mt 28:20 to observe all that he had commanded. We are to this alone and not anything more.
2. hence, we are to worship only as He has specifically commanded and do nothing else in worship (RPW).
Then you must also say:
1.Christ commanded in Mt 28:20 to observe all that he had commanded. We are to this alone and not anything more.
2. hence, we are to do, throughout our lives, only as He has specifically commanded and do nothing else in our lives (no Christian liberty -e.g., Christ didn't command us to watch TV, hence we cannot watch T.V., etc...).
Here are the proof-text of the WFC for the RPW:
[405] Deuteronomy 12:32. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. Matthew 15:9. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Acts 17:25. Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things. Matthew 4:9-10. And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Deuteronomy 4:15-20. Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day. Exodus 20:4-6. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Colossians 2:23. Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.
[Edited on 10-2-2005 by Dan....]
