Pure Worship is of Great Importance to God (Commentary on the Book of Ezekiel #10), By John Calvin (Free MP3)

All human inventions which are set up to corrupt the simple purity of the Word of God, and to undo the worship which he demands and approves, are true sacrileges, in which the Christian man cannot participate without blaspheming God, and trampling his honour underfoot. - John Calvin, The Necessity of Reforming the Church (1543)

John Calvin's Commentary On Ezekiel, First Time Ever As A Free Audio Book (34 Free MP3s)

Some one will therefore ask me what counsel I would like to give to a believer who thus dwells in some Egypt or Babylon where he may not worship God purely, but is forced by the common practice to accommodate himself to bad things. The first advice would be to leave (i.e. relocate - GB) if he could... If someone has no way to depart, I would counsel him to consider whether it would be possible for him to abstain from all idolatry in order to preserve himself pure and spotless toward God in both body and soul. Then let him worship God in private (at home - ed.), praying him to restore his poor church to its right estate. - John Calvin, Come Out From Among Them, The Anti-Nicodemite Writings of John Calvin, Protestant Heritage Press, "A Short Treatise," pp. 93-94. Calvin quote (above) cited in Appendix G in The Covenanted Reformation Defended by Greg Barrow

God's Will Vs. Man's Will In Worship, Romanism and Arminianism In Worship Are Heresy (The Plausibility Of Will Worship To Worldly Wisdom, Colossians 2:23, the Regulative Principle Of Worship [RPW], Etc.) By Jim Dodson, John Calvin, Greg Price, et al.

If it be asked, then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts, and consequently the whole substance of Christianity, viz., a knowledge first, of the right way to worship God; and secondly of the source from which salvation is to be sought. When these are kept out of view, though we may glory in the name of Christians, our profession is empty and vain. - War Against the Idols, p. 198, citing from John Calvin's On the Necessity of Reforming the Church, FREE or on the Puritan Hard Drive.

FREE MP3: On Shunning the Unlawful Rites of the Ungodly by John Calvin

Herein Calvin maintains the sinfulness of outward conformity to false worship. Dealing with a major problem of his day, Calvin shows that false worship should never be tolerated or participated in (even by your bodily presence), no matter what the cost -- whether it be persecution, exile, or death.

Instrumental Music in Public Worship, The Views of John Calvin: To sing the praises of God upon the harp and psaltery," says Calvin, "unquestionably formed a part of the training of the law and of the service of God under that dispensation of shadows and figures, but they are not now to be used in public thanksgiving."1 He says again: "With respect to the tabret, harp, and psaltery, we have formerly observed, and will find it necessary afterwards to repeat the same remark, that the Levites, under the law, were justified in making use of instrumental music in the worship of God; it having been his will to train his people, while they were yet tender and like children, by such rudiments until the coming of Christ. But now, when the clear light of the gospel has dissipated the shadows of the law and taught us that God is to be served in a simpler form, it would be to act a foolish and mistaken part to imitate that which the prophet enjoined only upon those of his own time."2 He further observes: "We are to remember that the worship of God was never understood to consist in such outward services, which were only necessary to help forward a people as yet weak and rude in knowledge in the spiritual worship of God. A difference is to be observed in this respect between his people under the Old and under the New Testament; for now that Christ has appeared, and the church has reached full age, it were only to bury the light of the gospel should we introduce the shadows of a departed dispensation. From this it appears that the Papists, as I shall have occasion to show elsewhere, in employing instrumental music cannot be said so much to imitate the practice of God's ancient people as to ape it in a senseless and absurd manner, exhibiting a silly delight in that worship of the Old Testament which was figurative and terminated with the gospel.3 ENDNOTES: 1. On Ps. lxxi. 22. 2. On Ps. lxxxi. 3. 3. On Ps. xcii. 1. - FROM: INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH By John L. Girardeau (Still Waters Revival Books, [1888] 2000), pp. 63, 64, on the Puritan Hard Drive

What's Wrong With Worship In Most Churches -- False Worship (Violations Of the Second Commandment Or the Regulative Principle of Worship) and Well Intentioned Idolatry Brings God's Wrath and Even Death, By Jim Dodson, John Calvin, John Owen and Others

The principle that the church hath power to institute any thing or ceremony belonging to the worship of God, either as to matter or manner, beyond the observance of such circumstances as necessarily attend such ordinances as Christ Himself hath instituted, lies at the bottom of all the horrible superstition and idolatry, of all the confusion, blood, persecution, and wars, that have for so long a season spread themselves over the face of the Christian world. - John Owen, quoted in Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of the Church by John Girardeau, on the Puritan Hard Drive.

What Did Jesus Do? A Reformation & Iconoclastic War Against Idolatry, Lies and All Sin, By Pastor Jim Dodson (Free MP3)