The Regulative Principle and
Sufficiency of Scripture in 2 Chronicles 3

By Richard Bacon

Copyright 1998, The Blue Banner (from v. 3 #3-4, March-April 1994)

This passage gives us some detail concerning the building of the temple. We have a more detailed account of this in 1 Kings 6. Please notice a few things about this temple. It must be in the place that David had prepared: not only that David had purchased, but which had become the sign of divine protection for Israel. Remember that at the end of 1 Chronicles we read about the plague that was sent to punish Israel for her sin. It was on this very place where the temple was to stand that the sword in the hand of the angel of death had been stopped. This place had been selected by divine providence.

Notice also that God gave specific instructions for building the temple. There are numerous details we could go through both here and in 1 Kings 6. This should remind us of the details that we read in the book of Exodus when Moses was first given the instructions for the tabernacle in the wilderness. The children of Israel followed a pattern that was given to Moses on the mount and here they followed the pattern given to David and Solomon.

One of the things we can draw from this passage is the particular doctrine that we call the reformed principle of appointed worship. This doctrine of appointed worship is simply the plain reformation doctrine of Sola Scriptura as it applies to worship. That is all it is. We are not making something special out of it. We are simply saying that God has given us all the instructions that we need to do every good work. When you take away all the argumentation on both sides, what it comes down to is this: either God has told us everything that we need to do in order to do his will or he hasn’t. If we have to add something — if we have to take the decrees of counsels, or the decrees of popes, or the decrees of the minister — then what we have is something that has been added to God’s Word. At the point we add anything to God’s Word, we are not following the doctrine of Sola Scriptura or the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture.

A generation or two ago, the attack on God’s Word was against the doctrine of inspiration. In the four volume Fundamentals, for example, you saw men like Machen, Orr, Warfield and others, defending the inspiration of Scripture. But there is a more subtle attack going on against the Word of God today. It is not an attack from outside the church: it is taking place within evangelicalism. The battle today is over the sufficiency of Scripture.

2 Timothy 3:15-17 is a passage that very plainly lays it out for us. Paul told Timothy, "From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Paul said that Timothy knew the Scriptures. Since the New Testament was not available to Timothy, this is obviously referring to the Old Testament. Did Timothy have access to a copy of 1 Samuel where the writing was actually Samuel’s handwriting? Did Timothy have access to an autograph? Did he have a copy of the Pentateuch in Moses’ handwriting? No! He did not have an autograph, he had an apograph. He had a copy of it. Yet Paul here in 2 Timothy refers to that copy as holy scriptures. So we should be careful when we say that Scripture is inspired in the original autographs We must not use that as an equivocation for saying that we do not believe what we have today is inspired or sufficient.

Look at this Bible in my hand. You know it is a translation and I know it is a translation. But when I stand in this pulpit and read from this Bible week after week, I say to you, "Thus saith the Lord." When I say, "Hear now the very Word of God," even though it is a translation, it is the Scriptures. According to Paul here in 2 Timothy 3, it is the Scriptures. We understand that it is a translation. We understand that it is an apograph. We understand that it is not the original autograph. We do not have Moses’ signature at the bottom of it. But we also understand that this is sufficient unto salvation.

Paul went on to say in verses 16 and 17, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God." [And again, a generation ago that is where the battle was.] "And is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly" [thoroughly, perfectly] "furnished unto all good works." Note again: "Unto all good works." Every good work we must do we can learn about in the Scriptures.

When we look at the building of the temple, then, we realize there was a lot of detail with respect to it. God gave a lot of detail. We do not have that same level of detail in the New Testament regarding our worship. There are some who say because of that we can just make it up as we go along. There are others who say that the lack of details shows the simplicity of our worship today. There are not a lot of details given. What we are to do is very simple. We are to preach the Word of God. As reformed people, we believe — and this is significant — that when we are in the presence of the reading and preaching of God’s Word, we are in the presence of God. Remember what Cornelieus said in Acts 10:33? "Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God." As he invited his friends and his family in to hear the preaching of the Word, he knew he was coming into the presence of God. Not because Peter was there, but because the preaching of the Word was there. We need to understand that as we meet together, we are not simply meeting with one another, but that we are a covenant people meeting with a covenant God to hear his covenant Word.

This is a different view of worship than many today have. But it comes right down to this: the Bible is sufficient for every good work. If we believe that, it will affect the way we worship. If the Bible is sufficient for every good work, then we do not need to add things to the worship of God to make it pleasing and acceptable to him. What makes worship acceptable to God is that we approach him through his Son as he has directed us in his Word.

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