Por Andrew WebbIt would be a grave misunderstanding of Old SchoolPresbyterianism (OSP) to think that it is essentially a reaction againstcontemporary theological movements in the church, or simply a conservativetheological position that maintains that when it comes to the doctrine andpractice of the church, older is always better. Rather in OSP theology thecommanding principle is not is it antique, but rather is it simpleand biblical? So Old School Presbyterianism would reject the slogan Olderis Better, in favor of Biblical is Best. This principle isalso at the heart of true reformation. The original Reformation of the 16thcentury was not simply trying to correct some doctrinal and moral abuses thathad become commonplace in the church of Rome, the Reformation was a striving toreturn the church to the only authoritative source for all of our theology andpractice the Word of God. Naturally there was considerable resistance to thisreform movement, not only within the Roman church, but also within the Reformedchurches themselves. In many places, men were content to cast off the yoke ofRome and correct many of the moral and doctrinal abuses, but did not want topart with the established traditions of the church. For instance, in Englandfor over a hundred years, the Puritan party in the English church argued for athorough-going reformation that would finally do away with all the man-maderites, ceremonies, traditions, and church government that had continued. Forinstance the Reformer John ALasco in a letter to Cranmer summed up thecritical question regarding worship as whether in the pubic worship whichGod himself established in his Church with definite ceremonies, anything elsecan be used concerning which God has not prescribed nothing at all?ALascos own answer to that question was Nothing ought to be added topublic worship concerning which God has given no command. But having thatanswer and being able to implement it in the church were different thingsentirely, and Calvin himself lamented, I know how difficult it is topersuade the world that God disapproves of all modes of worship not expresslysanctioned by his word.The love of traditions, as well as ecclesiasticaland civil Politics prevented many churches from pursuing the kind of completereform that the Reformers desired and that included the churches in Scotland,England, and even Calvins Geneva. It was not until what is sometimes referredto as the Second Reformation in the 17th century that thekind of thorough-going reformation that the Puritans desired was able to beimplemented in the Reformed churches. Indeed from an Old School Perspective,the government and worship of the Presbyterian church hearkens back not to thetransitional worship of the 16th century, but the more thoroughgoingreformation of the 17th.So to appeal in the modern day to the transitionalReformed worship of the 16th century with its vestigial liturgiesand ceremonies, and say that these traditional ceremonies and rites of thechurch are Presbyterian and Reformed is to miss the historical reality thatgave rise to them and the political situation that preserved them. Later, whenthey were done away with, Puritans and Presbyterians certainly did not misstheir going as they equated them with the shadowy ceremonies of the OldTestament. As Thomas Watson was to put it in speaking