The use of creeds in Reformed worship

[TheOldCourse]

With regard to secondary source material, in the nineteenth century there was a deliberate movement away from what was considered "bare worship" within Presbyterianism. These authors naturally looked to earlier reformed precedent to establish their case for liturgies and set forms of prayer, and they sometimes misapplied the primary sources. I am not saying that is necessarily the case here, but caution should be used when looking at secondary sources.

Agreed, that's why I put forth his works with something of a caveat. His sympathies seem to be somewhat high churchly. Nevertheless, he republishes sections from Calvin, Knox, and Richard Baxter which include the Creed, although his case for it's continued use in Scottish liturgy seems to be based on an assumption that they stuck to Knox's Genevan liturgy until the WA rather than any actual exemplars of the liturgies.

I should say I'm not particularly on the side of creeds in public worship, I just was reading the above work for other reasons and came across some such comments that were relevant to this topic and interesting from a historical perspective.

 

[MW]

With prayer, there is a congregational solidarity with the minister as he prays, representing the congregation to God.

As the community of faith the congregation expresses the same solidarity with regard to the preaching of the Word. So there is no difference here. The necessity of discernment comes down to the fact the minister does not infallibly preach the Word. In the same way, he does not always pray as he ought. So discernment is just as necessary in prayer. Our Lord has spoken of agreement in prayer as a condition of something else. It is not a given.

 

[TheOldCourse]

With prayer, there is a congregational solidarity with the minister as he prays, representing the congregation to God.

As the community of faith the congregation expresses the same solidarity with regard to the preaching of the Word. So there is no difference here. The necessity of discernment comes down to the fact the minister does not infallibly preach the Word. In the same way, he does not always pray as he ought. So discernment is just as necessary in prayer. Our Lord has spoken of agreement in prayer as a condition of something else. It is not a given.

That is true, I stand corrected on that point. I'll think about that some more.

As I understand what you're saying, the active cooperative reciting of a creed preempts the chance for reflection and discernment and is thus a requirement of implicit faith. But if the preached Word is to be received as the very Word of God, if ministerial preaching is authoritative (albeit fallibly), it still seems like there must be an immediate demand on the conscience to assent, prior to the opportunity to exercise discernment, there as well. That's, in part, why the RPW forbids liturgical practices which are not commanded in Scriptures even if they do not require active participation on the part of the congregations (e.g. skits, videos, etc.), no? That's why it's hard for me to understand an objection to creedal recitation based on how it affects the conscience rather than the objection based on whether its effect on the conscience is a justifiable (by express Scriptural warrant) one.

 

[MW]

it still seems like there must be an immediate demand on the conscience to assent, prior to the opportunity to exercise discernment, there as well.

"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

 

[richardnz]

Reformed churches that follow Calvin's practice of reciting the Apostles Creed make assenting to the Creed a condition of full membership in the church. Such churches therefore do not have to consider 'implicit faith' as an issue when members are reciting the Creed.

One of the original questions was:-

“2. In light of the regulative principle of worship, how did they justify this practice?”

I assume that the question is asking how they based this practice on scripture. I cannot point to any particular instance of reasoning from scripture on this issue by Calvin or others, but we know from their writings on other issues to do with worship that they were concerned to avoid adding ceremonies without biblical warrant. For example:-

“Moreover, the rule which distinguishes between pure and vitiated worship is of universal application, in order that we may not adopt any device which seems fit to ourselves, but look to the injunction of Him who alone is entitled to prescribe. Therefore, if we would have Him to approve our worship, this rule, which he everywhere enforces with the utmost strictness, must be carefully observed.” John Calvin “The Necessity of Reforming the Church”

One of the major concerns for the Reformers was the restoration of congregational participation in worship, and so it is only natural that consideration was given as to how best to respond to God, and those responses Calvin called “prayers”. There is no explicit command for the minister to lead in prayer, or the congregation to pray in unison, but as is the case with many things to do with worship we look to “good and necessary consequence” to work out what to do and so both methods of prayer can be said to have scriptural warrant. Once we start looking at the Psalms as a model for the prayers of the congregation we can see that there is a considerable variety of responses. We see David's psalms are not strictly prayers in the sense of requests, but include lamentation, confession of sin, recitation of history, some are statements of doctrine, exhortations to the faithful, promises of obedience, recounting the deeds of God etc. As long as we are running on the rails provided by the Psalms and other occasions in scripture where the people responded to God in worship we can be confident He is pleased with what we do.