A Pilgrimage Through the Institutes 1.5.13 part 1 Those Who Adulterate Pure Religion Depart from God

A Pilgrimage Through the Institutes — “Those Who Adulterate Pure Religion Depart from the One True God” | Calvin, Owen, Van Til, Bahnsen, Schaeffer | Canadian Christian Theology & Reformed Apologetics

In this long-form teaching episode, we journey through the fierce heartbeat of Reformed theology: the conviction that any corruption of God’s revealed worship is nothing less than idolatry and a departure from the one true God. Drawing from Scripture, John Calvin, John Owen, Cornelius Van Til, Greg Bahnsen, Francis Schaeffer, and the history of the Church, this episode exposes how human imagination—however sincere—always leads to spiritual rebellion when it intrudes into the ordered worship of the Holy One.

We trace the biblical pattern from Nadab and Abihu’s strange fire, the Golden Calf, Jeroboam’s counterfeit altars, and Pharisaic traditions, showing how God consistently rejects worship “not expressly sanctioned by His Word.” From the early heresies and medieval Roman innovations to today’s progressive distortions, the theme remains: where worship is adulterated, the living God is replaced with the idol of human autonomy.

Drawing from Calvin’s Regulative Principle of Worship, Owen’s warnings against apostasy by imagination, Van Til’s insistence that all non-Christian thought is idolatry, Bahnsen’s presuppositional critique of autonomous reason, and Schaeffer’s analysis of modern cultural idols (“personal peace and affluence”), this episode argues that doctrinal corruption and worship corruption always walk hand-in-hand.

This is a Canadian-produced educational program engaging theology, history, philosophy, and Christian apologetics within a Canadian context, meeting CRTC Canadian content requirements by including Canadian analysis, Canadian cultural themes, and Canadian-based theological discussion.

Topics include:
✠ Pure worship vs. man-made religion
✠ Calvin on idolatry and church reform
✠ Owen on apostasy and counterfeit devotion
✠ Van Til & Bahnsen on presuppositional apologetics
✠ Schaeffer on cultural idols
✠ Scripture’s warnings about invented worship
✠ The Reformation’s battle against corrupted worship
✠ The danger of progressive or “relevant” innovations in the modern church
✠ The connection between the First and Second Commandments and true spiritual worship
✠ How idolatry appears in today’s churches (consumerism, entertainment, prosperity theology, nationalism, moralism, mysticism, etc.)
✠ Why adulterating worship = departing from God
✠ How the Regulative Principle guards the purity of faith
✠ Canadian Christian worldview formation in a post-Christian culture

Perfect for:
Reformed theology students • Calvinist apologetics • church history enthusiasts • Canadian Christian audiences • pastors • elders • presuppositional apologists • theology nerds • scholars of Calvin, Owen, Schaeffer, Van Til, Bahnsen • students of the Reformation • Bible study groups • Christian content creators in Canada.

Calvinist theology, John Calvin, John Owen, Cornelius Van Til, Greg Bahnsen, Francis Schaeffer, Regulative Principle of Worship, Reformed worship, idolatry, apostasy, presuppositional apologetics, Christian philosophy, Canadian Christian content, CRTC Canadian content, Reformation theology, pure religion, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Nadab and Abihu, Golden Calf, Jeroboam, strange fire, corrupt worship, biblical worship, sola Scriptura, Protestant Reformation, church history, biblical theology, Reformed apologetics Canada.