I was reading a set of articles from the gospel coalition, one from Ligon Duncan on the RPW, and another from Rory Shiner on the RPW. My questions are about Rory Shiner's position which states:
My questions are for those who hold to the RPW as articulated in the confessions, the following:
At some level, the regulative principle has to be correct. How could it not be? God chooses how God is worshiped.
Can we believe that post-Jesus, God has become disinterested in how people worship him? Surely not! But I’d argue that the regulative principle of the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus, not by the church. A church is not the tabernacle, a pastor is not a priest, the Lord’s Supper is not a sacrifice. These are all things that Jesus alone fulfilled.
In the new covenant, God hasn’t become more permissive in his worship. He has told us exactly how to worship him. That is, through Jesus, in the Spirit, and in truth. The regulative principle of the Old Testament stands. Yet I’d argue it’s not applied to what we do in church, but to what we do through Jesus.
It seems that Rory Shiner's position is that Jesus fulfils the RPW, not the church. I think this may mean that Jesus fulfils it and it is abrogated as to us fulfilling it (perhaps in a similar way to the ceremonial law). I don't understand the outworking of this and it seems, since it's held in contrast to Ligon Duncan's, that he doesn't think those things which are not commanded are forbidden in worship.The basic principle of Old Testament worship was to discern between the holy and the common, but Leviticus isn’t the only place where people die in judgment during corporate worship. It also happens in Corinth, at the Lord’s Table (1 Cor. 11:30). Why? What holy thing have they profaned? It’s not the bread and the wine. It’s the people! “For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves” (1 Cor. 11:29).
My questions are for those who hold to the RPW as articulated in the confessions, the following:
- Does a biblical theological approach to the OT, which (rightly) aims to see Jesus as the sum and substance, necessarily result in the abrogation of the RPW?
- What is the flaw in Rory Shiner's argument? Why would we say it still applies to the church?