Dear Friends,
Step into my study. Shall I fill you a pipe? Pour you a dram? Excellent.
I want to share a passage from Justin Martyr’s First Apology that struck me profoundly, but let me explain the context for why it struck me so. Some time ago I wrote an essay called “Bishop In A Funny Hat.” I explained how and why over time I have come to hold certain former convictions much more loosely in my middle age than I did in my late teens. One of those things is called the “Regulative Principle of Worship.” It is a principle held dear by the Scottish Presbyterians and it basically produces very simple and austere worship services. If there is a liturgy, it is something very rudimentary.
This, of course, was my upbringing. For most of my life I was fairly ignorant of what goes on in “high churches.” I went to a Roman Catholic wedding once as a boy and thought the whole thing really weird—a completely different world. And its pomp and formality held little attraction for me.
Now, for various reasons I will not go into, in the last number of years the Lord in his providence has led me to something of that different world: The Anglican Church of North America. It has not been the most comfortable fit, a Scottish Presbyterian boy in a world of vestments and candles and strict liturgical procedures. Much of what the Anglicans do the Scots would call the “doctrines and commandments of men.” Why, I wonder, is the liturgy so strict? Do we have to do all of these things every Sunday? There’s not a lot of flexibility, you might say. The Nicene Creed is recited every single week. The Prayers of the People rarely change. I had no idea what the “passing of the peace” was, but it’s a much stranger sort of “turn and greet your neighbor” thing like they do in some Evangelical churches. Why does the Deacon read the Gospel reading? Why do we stand? Why do these people keep calling the Lord’s Supper the Eucharist? Why do they mix water with the wine? Why is this part of the service every week? On and on it goes. I’ve been told my whole life that many of these things are all just the traditions of men, made up without any Scriptural warrant.
And maybe some of it is just the traditions of men without Scriptural warrant. I would take it on a case-by-case basis and, of course, a lot depends on what you make of the “Regulative Principle” as a presuppositional matter. But—and this is what I wanted to share with you—if they are just the traditions of men, they are ancient traditions. I was reading Justin Martyr’s First Apology, his defense of Christians in a letter to the Roman Emperor in around the year A.D. 155. That’s almost as “early church” as one can get.
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