Comprehending Pink’s Commandments Part 19

Foreword:

The following exerpt is taken from The Ten Commandments  by Arthur W. Pink

(BAKER BOOK HOUSE, 1994 GRAND RAPIDS, MI)

In this blog series I will work through this very important article a paragraph at a time – asking my reader comprehension style questions at the end. In our day, when people who identify themselves as Christians are so sensitive to any accusation of legalism that they tend to swing all the way out to antinomianism (that is lawlessness), it is perhaps now more than ever that we ought to prayerfully re-examine the Ten Commandments – and few do it better than Arthur Pink (1886 - 1952). I found this article to be very convicting as I first worked through it. And, lest we think we the church are not in need of this labour, let us be reminded that those whom Jesus will reject on the last Day even though they did many mighty works in his name, were accused by our Lord of not just having no intimate relationship with him (‘I never knew you’), but also that they were accused as workers of lawlessness by our Lord. The Law of God does not save, nor does it keep one saved – none the less we are called to obedience to it who are saved – but enough of me – here is Arthur Pink…

THE SECOND COMMANDMENT PART III

In the forbidding of images God by parity of reason prohibits all other modes and means of worship not appointed by Him. Every form of worship, even of the true God Himself, which is contrary to or diverse from what the Lord has prescribed in His Word, and which is called by the apostle "will worship" (Col. 2:23), together with all corruptions of the true worship of God and all inclinations of heart toward superstition in the service of God are reprehended by this Commandment. No scope whatever is here permitted to the inventive faculty of man. Christ condemned the religious washing of the hands, because it was a human addition to the Divine regulations. In like manner this Commandment denounces the modern passion for ritualism (the dressing up of simplicity in Divine worship), as also the magical virtues ascribed to, or even the special influences of, the Lord's Supper, still more so the use of a crucifix. So also it condemns a neglect of God's worship, the leaving undone the service which God has commanded.

The Scriptures have set us bounds for worship, to which we must not add, and from which we must not diminish. In the application of this principle we need to distinguish sharply between the substantials and the incidentals of worship. Anything which men seek to impose upon us as a part of Divine worship, if it be not expressly required of us in the Scriptures--such as bowing the knee at the name of Jesus, crossing ourselves, etc.--is to be abominated. But if certain circumstantials and modifications of worship are practiced by those with whom we meet, even though there be no express Scripture for them, they are to be submitted unto by us, providing they are such things as tend to decency and order and distract not from the solemnity and devotion of spiritual worship. That was a wise rule inculcated by Ambrose: "If thou will neither give offense nor take offense, conform thyself to all the lawful customs of the churches where thou comest." It is a grievous breaking of this commandment if we neglect any of the ordinances of worship which God has appointed. So too if we engage in the same hypocritically, with coldness of affection, wanderings of mind, lack of holy zeal, or in unbelief, honoring God with our lips while our hearts are far from Him.

1) Can you think of examples you have experienced, been involved with or read about where worship has been the result of the “inventive faculty of man”?

2) Consider (and give specific examples of) how an innovation which later becomes a way and then becomes a tradition and finally becomes a necessity lead to so many of the extrabiblical demands of

-         the Pharisees and Saducees

-         the Roman Catholic Church

-         the Eastern Orthodox Chirch

-         the Evangelical Church

-         your own church?

3) As we have established already, the Decalogue is given by God out of love for His creatures. Can you explain why it is destructive for people to add human innovation to God’s prescriptions regarding worship and doctrine?

4) Finally consider how vain repetition of actions, liturgical routine, mindless ritual and the like exacerbate the already precarious inclination of the flesh (as Pink puts it: “we engage in the same hypocritically, with coldness of affection, wanderings of mind, lack of holy zeal, or in unbelief, honoring God with our lips while our hearts are far from Him”). Can we see satan’s devious attack on the beleiver by putting unscriptural structures into the church system that would dull mind and fervour and yet make the worshipper think he has paid his dues by crossing himself, bowing the knee etc.