틴데일 국제대학교  Chancellor  Dr. Frank J. Smith 

The Writings of John M. Frame Against The Regulative Principle of Worship By Frank J. Smith, Ph.D., D. D. 

History undoubtedly will record that the most influential opponent of Presbyterian worship within conservative Presbyterianism in the twentieth century was John McElphatrick Frame. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, John Frame graduated from Princeton University, received his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia) in, and pursued doctoral studies at Yale University. He never completed the dissertation at Yale, however, as in he was hired to teach at Westminster Seminary.

 In,1939 Professor Frame moved to California to help start Westminster’s branch campus in Escondido. After two decades in California, he was called in to be a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida. He was recently awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree by Belhaven College. 

Because of his stature as a seminary theology professor, he has been able to develop and inculcate views that are far out of the mainstream of classical Reformed thought. Among the most distinctive of his views is the notion that “theology is application”—that is, even the very formulation of theological rubrics (categories) is somewhat  arbitrary, and represents a human endeavor, rather than, ideally, reflect ing the mind of God as revealed in scripture. 

Theology, of course, must be applied, or the result is dead orthodoxy. But  theology has always been regarded as the queen of the sciences, and, as such, as objective in nature. But the professor’s reframing of the theological enterprise recast s it in a subjectivistic direct ion. 

The implications of such are profound for theology as a whole, and it is evident that his views have profoundly affected the way in which he does theology. Indeed, Dr. Frame has promulgated his peculiar beliefs on a wide variety of topics. But in no field of theology has this warping effect been more noticeable than the area of worship. Th e result is that his views regarding worship are among the most novel within putatively conservative Presbyterian circles.