Byron Snapp

Book Reviews
Worshipln the Presence of God. A
collection of essays on the nature,
elements, and historic views and
practice of worship Edited by Frank].
Smith and David C. Lachman
Greenville Presbyterian UIeological
Seminary Press P.O. Box 9279
Greenville, S.c. 29604 41lpp hb
True worship must always be of
particular concern for the Christian. It
is important to God. The first five of
the Ten Conunandmentscaneasily be
seen as applying to theworship of God
and the manner of that worship. The
subject of worship continues to be
much debated today even in
confessional churches. Various
denominations are debating the role
of women in worship, paedo-
conununion, and the use of drama
and dance within the worship service.
In the opening chapter Frank].
Smithdefinesworshipas"cominginto
God's special presence, listerting to
Him, and responding to Him in
conunanded acts offaithandlove." (p.
11) In the first section entitled "What
isWorship?" thisthoughtisexamined
inexpandedfonn under such subjects
as the fear of the Lord in worship,
Worship in the Old and New
Testament and Family Worship.
The second section of the book
covers the elements of worship as they
are listed in the Westminster
Confession of Faith XXI: reading of
Scripture, prayer, preaching, singing
of psalms, the sacraments, and on
special occasions, "religious oaths,
vows, solemn fastings and
thanksgivings" (XXI. V.)
The third section of the booklooks
at the historic views and practice of
worship and includes a chapter on
worship in various Refonned creeds
and another chapter on John Knox's
view of worship and it's impact on
Scotland.
Chapter 19 itself makes the book
worth its price. Thomas Reid Jr.
examines "Recent Writings on
Worship of Particular Interest to
Refonned Christians" (p.335) His
fruitful study has a variety of
subheadings such as "singing of
Psalms", "preaching" and the "Lord's
Supper". A wealth of material is listed
with brief conunents by the author.
The editors are to be commended
for involving so many contributors
with pastoral experience. While being
wel1researched,itiswrittenina "down
to earth" style and, of course, is very
practical. For example, in his chapter
offamilyworship Douglas Kellywrites:
"Given the inescapable round of
activities of most nonnal, Christian
families in our own society, it is surely
realistic--and notin the least lacking in
true spirituality-to have a goal of
keeping evening worship (maybe
immediately after supper) to ten or
fifteenminutesinlength, andmoming
worship (maybe immediately before
breakfast) to about five minutes. In
the morning, for instance, the father
could be reading consecutively five or
tenversus through theNewTestament
without much comment. Then he
could thank God for His morning
mercies, and pray for the_ particular
needs of each child that day, and have
everyone at the table sing the Doxology
or a brief 'Scripture Song' from the
Psalms, or perhaps one verse from
Psalm 100,23,1 etc. And then the
next morning sing the second verse
and so on. This can easily be done
within five minutes. In the evening,
6 f THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon October, 1992
one can take more time for conunen-
ting, let the children more actively
participate and have somewhat longer
prayer and song. If family worship is
actually going to be observed
throughout the years, orderliness and
brevity are absolutely essential." (p.
126)
The writers come from a variety of
denominations. This broadens the
book's appeal while at the same time
reminding us of the importance of this
subject in the Refouned world today.
Each author is concerned that our
worship be regulated by God's Word.
Onlyelementsofworshipcommanded
ofGodaretobeincludedintheworship
services.
Although not every contributor
believes that only psalms are to be
sung in theworshipservice, the book's
thrust is certainly to defend exclusive
psalmody as being the Scriptural way
to worship God in song. To balance
this, the "Report of the Committee on
Song in Worship Presented to the
Thineenth and Fourteenth General
Assemblies of the Orthodox
Presbyterian Church" is included as
Appendix B. This report takes this
position that uninspired songs are
permitted ina Biblical worship service.
Dr. John Murray's minority report
defending exclusive psalmody is
published in the main body of the
book
Personally, I do not think the
authorspromoteadefinitiveanswerto
the fact that the Psalms are worked
into rhytningfonn in order to be sung.
At what point does such rearranging
make the psalm a man-made rhyme
that is faithful to the teaching of the
psalm yet not inspired? The church
todayisfaced with thedangerofsinging
few if any songs that are based closely
on the psalms. We must seek to avoid
thisdangeralso. Songssunginworship
must be faithfully based on Scripture.
The psalms provide uswiththe inspired
response of believers to a wide range of
experiences in life and thus singing
arrangements of them is important in
QUr praise of God,
The editors are to be commended
for including articles by some who do
not hold to exclusive psalmody. Also
the articles in suppon of exclusive
psalmody are written in a positive,
non-Dffensive tone and show each
author's desire to be BiblicaL
I wish the authors had included a
section on the Lord's Day itself in
regard to worship and the role of
women in public worship. Many
denominations are abandoning the
clear teaching of Scripture on these
subjects. Each falls under the umbrella
of the regulative prinCiple of worship.
There is much ignorance within
churches regarding the regulative
principle of worship. Too many are
satisfied to allow the order of worship
printed in the bulletin or local church
tradition to regulate theirworship. Such
thinking is unBiblical. God's people
need to tum to God's Word and
obediently live by what He has
commanded in worship. This
well-written book provides much help
whether or not the reader agrees with
exclusive psalmody.
Scandalum Infirmorum et
Communio Sanctorum: The Relation
between Christian Liberty andNeigh-
bor Love in tile Church, Inheritance
Publications by Nelson Deyo
Kloosterman Box 154 Neerlandia,
Alberta, Canada TOG lRO 153 pp
incl. bibliography pb. U.s. readers can
order from Inheritance Publications,
8085 Kraft Ave. S.E. CaledOnia, MI
49316
This book is easier to read than its
title. It deals with the subject of Chris-
tianliberty, an issue of extreme impor-
tance in our own day.
The author rightly begins by exam-
ining two relevant Scripture passages;
I Cor. 8: 1-11:1 and Rom. 14:1-15-3
before he discusses the views of Tho-
mas Aquinas, John Calvin, Groben
Voetius and Carl Henry on the subject
of Christian liberty.
Within his discussion the author, a
former pastor and currently (when the
book was published in 1991) a profes-
sor at Mid America Reformed Semi-
nary in Orange Qty, Iowa, establishes
a five-fold framework in which a
"strong" believer and a "weak" believer
may collide on an issue.
"Stage 1: There exist strong and
weak believers who hold a basic con-
fessionincommonbutwhodifferabout
thegospel'slifeapplicationsorit'smoral
permissions.
Stage 2: The strong believer acts
contrary to the scruple(s) of the weak
believer in the latter's absence.
Stage 3: The strong believer acts in
the presence of the weak believer.
Stage 4: The strong believer's ac-
tion generates a moral dissonance cre-
ated by the contradiction of the weak
believer's scruple(s), which often re-
sults in the weak's condemnation of
the strong.
Stage 5: The strong believer's ac-
tion induces the weak believer to imi-
tate it while he himself lacks the justi-
fying permissions which constitutes
his moral injury." (pp. 84-85)
"The moral injury which consti-
tutes scandalum infirmorum occurs in
a particular situation only when one
believer's conduct (the 'strong), al-
though it contradicts another believer's
convictions of consdence (the 'weak')
and generates moral dissonance, in-
duces the latter to violate the permis-
sions or prohibitions ofhis conscience."
(p.89)
Thus the author rightly focuses on
the strong believer's publications in an
area of Christian liberty that leads to
the weak believer panicipating in the
activity even though the weak believer
held that such activity is sin.
Kloosterman points to a solution of
the problem by developing the impor-
tant point that Christian liberty is to
serve our neighbor out oflove for that
individual. Autonomous, self-love can
well motivate the believer to use Chris-
tian liberty in an offensive way pub-
licly. This does not honor Christ nor
build up Christ's body, the Church.
The author reminds the reader the
"when people in Paradise decided to
use their freedom autonomously, they
and their offspring became isolated
together, unfree,slaves to sin, to hatred
and to death." (p. lII) Thus we by
God's grace must move away from
self-love with it's accompanying disas-
trous consequences and moved to-
ward a greater love for the Lord and for
our neighbor which will result in the
building up of God's people. This must
be our aim throughout life in all things
including the public practice of Quis-
tian liberty.
This book is a good resource for
teaching and ruling elders as they
shepherd theflockGodhas giventllem.
God's people, even within congrega-
tions, have varying views on the use of
alcohol and criteria for acceptable
movies and approved reading mate-
rial. Kloosterman reminds us of the
importance of getting our priorities in
order so that the church body as a
whole can benefit In so doing we can
betteruseourChristianlibertyforGod's
glory and for service in His kingdom.n
October, 1992 t- THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 7