In Prov.
God gave
us His word, the Bible, to instruct us concerning our relationship with Him and
with each other. That means we must honor His instructions in all things. During the time before the Law of Moses, God
spoke directly to the Patriarchs (or heads of families; i.e. Job, Noah Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, etc.). Then God gave a law
especially to the Jews (or Hebrews); the 0ld Testament. But this law, too, was
only temporary. (Heb. 7:12; 8:7-13;
Jesus
said, after His crucifixion and resurrection, "All power (authority) is given unto Me
in heaven and in earth" (Matt.
28:18). And in Eph. 1:22-23 Paul wrote that God "........hath put all things under His (Christ's) feet and
gave Him (Christ) to be head over all
things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. " Jesus told the apostles that when the Holy
Spirit came they would be guided into "all
truth" (John
We are to accept nothing other than the revealed
truth. Paul wrote to the Galatians, in Gal.
1:8-10, "...though we
(himself and the other apostles) or an
angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed .........For do I now persuade men, or
God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I
should not be the servant of Christ."
God's
laws are never open for man to add to them or take away from them (see Deut. 4:2 and Rev. 22:18-19).
What does the Bible teach concerning our worship? The Old Testament is to be understood today as
a "shadow of good things to
come" (Heb. 10:1). It is given to us, even though it was a law
for the Jews, so that we might understand the law of Christ for today. (Read Gal. 3:21-29; Rom. 15:4) One thing that we can learn from the Old
Testament is that God demanded that we be very exact in our worship of Him. In Genesis
4 we find Cain worshiping by making a grain offering (that he had grown) instead
of one of Abel's animals. God rejected his
sacrifice because it was not of faith (see
also Heb. 11:4; Rom.
The
church is His (Matt.
There is
not one passage that gives authority for the use of mechanical musical
instruments in worship. Since Christ
left instrumental music out of the worship of His church, we should too.
What
causes such a difference of opinions on this subject is our approach to the
authority of the scriptures. Some today
teach that anything that the Lord has not specifically spoken against is all
right. But it doesn't take much
imagination to envision all that that would include. Almost all religious division is not over what
God has said; but what He has not said.
Many
assume that churches have always used instrumental music and the
In View of the controversies over the use of Instrumental
music in worship…It is an Interesting question whether Instruments were
employed by the primitive Christians. We know that Instruments performed an
important function In the Hebrew temple service and in the ceremonies of the
Greeks. At this point, however, a break
was made with all previous practice, ... as a general rule, the use of
Instruments in worship was condemned, many of the fathers, speaking of
religious song, make no mention of instruments; others like Clement of
Alexandria and St. Chrysostom, refer to them only to
denounce them. Dickinson,
History of Music in the Western Church, p.54)
From the
American Encyclopedia, Vol.
12, p.688, we
read:
"Pope Vitalian
is related to have first Introduced organs into some of the churches of Western
Europe about 670; but the earliest trustworthy account is that of the one sent
as a present by the Greek Emperor Constantine Copronymos,
to Pepin, king of the Franks, In 775"
From McClintock and Strongs Cyclopedia. Vol. 8, p739, we read:
But
students of ecclesiastical archaeology are generally agreed that instrumental
music was not used in churches till a much later date; for Thomas Aquinas, in
A.D. 1250, has these remarkable words: 'Our church does not use mechanical
instruments, as harps and psalteries to praise God withal, that she may not
seem to Judaize.' From this passage we are surely
warranted in concluding that there was no ecclesiastical use of organs in the
time of Aquinas.
I could multiply historians who would testify that
instrumental music in worship came many hundreds of years after the first
century. Men understood that this would
be an unacceptable addition, without authority.
Instruments
of music were introduced into worship long after the Catholic Church was
established. When men like Wesley,
Calvin, and Luther broke away from the Catholic Church they were trying to
reform it. They were trying to get them
to turn back to the Scriptures. Notice
what these first Protestants had to say:
"I have no objection to
Instruments of music to our chapels, provided they are neither heard nor
seen."
(Cited by
"Musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God
would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting up of
lamps, and the restoration of the other shadows of the law. The
papists, therefore, have foolishly borrowed this, as well as many other things,
from the Jews. Men who are fond of outward pomp may delight in that noise; but
the simplicity which God recommends to us by apostte
is far more pleasing to Him." (Calvin, Commentary:
on Psalm 33 and on 1 Samuel 18:1-9)
Finally,
I quote from Benedict, a Baptist historian: "to
my earliest intercourse among this people, congregational singing generally
prevailed among them. - The Introduction of the Organ among the Baptists - This
instrument, which from time immemorial has been associated with cathedral pomp and
prelatical power, and has always been the peculiar
favorite of great national churches, at length found its way into Baptist
sanctuaries, and the first one ever employed by the denomination In this country,
and probably In any other, might have been standing in the singing gallery of
the Old Baptist meeting house In
Pawtucket, about forty years ago when I then officiated as pastor (1840) —
Staunch old Baptists in former times would as soon tolerated the Pope of Rome
in their pulpits as an organ In their galleries, and yet the instrument has gradually found Its way among them. — How far this modern organ fever
will extend among our people, and whether it will on the whole work a
RE-formation or DE-formation in their singing service, time will more fully
develop." (Benedict, Fifty Years Among
Baptists pp.204-207)
Again, I
quote from these people not as a standard of authority, but merely to show the history
of the use of instrumental music in worship.
The Bible, however, is our only authority.
My
friend, I write these things not to be upsetting on this issue, but to let you
know why we must take a stand against the use of instrumental music in our
assemblies. Please remember that our desire should be to please God. If we
choose to add mechanical music into our worship, we do so by our own authority.
We can find no authority from Christ, who has "all authority," for its use. Furthermore, the fact that it has been in
common use for over a hundred years does not establish authority for its use.