Third, from the reformation of divine worship.
Third, from the reformation of divine worship.
§ 441. (III) From the reformation of divine worship. Whatever functioned as the norm and rule for a reformation of divine worship, that is the only norm of faith and dogmas in the Church. But in the Old Testament, a reformation of divine worship was established according to the written Word of God as the norm and rule. Therefore. The major premise is one of obvious truth because from the conforming of anything as measured and regulated to something else as a measure and rule, we conclude that that latter thing is the norm and rule in that class.
The minor premise can be confirmed with many examples. Before the Scriptures were recorded, the corruptions brought to heavenly doctrine were removed through repeated revelations. After the Law was written, however, reformations of divine worship were always instituted according to the norm of the written Law. For example: (1) According to 2 Kings 18:3-4, Hezekiah “did what was good before the Lord. He destroyed the high places, crushed the statues, and cut down the groves.” Verse 6: “He held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from Him but kept the commandments that the Lord had commanded Moses.”
(2) Josiah. 2 Kings 22:2: “Josiah did what was pleasing before the Lord and walked in all the ways of David, his father, and he did not turn aside to the left hand nor to the right.” In v. 8 the Book of the Law is discovered “in the house of the Lord.” In v. 13 Josiah listens as that book is read to him and says: “Inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all of Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book to do everything that is written to us.” In 2 Kings 23:3 the king and his nobles make a covenant before the Lord “to walk after the Lord and to keep His precepts and testimonies.” In v. 4 the idolatrous worship of Baal was rejected and a public reformation of divine worship was instituted according to that Book.
(3) Ezra and Nehemiah. In Nehemiah 8, after the return from the Babylonian captivity, the book of Moses is read before all the people, and divine worship is cleansed of its corruptions according to the norm of that book.