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J
Posted May 7, 2005 7:15 PM
No Musical Instruments in Worship
An article by Bob Ross.
In dealing with this topic, you need to keep in mind that not all CofCs agree on this subject. So before you begin to witness to them about musical instruments, you need to find out where they stand on the issue. It would be easy to see why a person might ask, "What's the big deal if they have musical instruments, anyway?" Well in reality, it is no big deal, to you or me, but it is to them. Such a big deal, in fact, that they say if you do have musical instruments in the worship service, then your worship is in vain! But many of the same people that say it is evil to use musical instruments in worship to God in the church service, will use musical instruments to worship God at home! It's because they see some sort of invisible, nonexistent dichotomy between the church service and everyday life. It's as though you act one way in church, and another way at home.
Their main reason for outlawing musical instruments in the church service is because they say that it is not mentioned in the Bible. The CofC slogan is, "We speak where the Bible speaks; and we are silent where the Bible is silent." Unfortunately for them, ignorance is not bliss… it's just plain folly. Unbeknownst to them, the Bible very clearly does give us permission to have musical instruments in our worship to God, whether it's in a corporate worship service or in the privacy of our own home, car or wherever the Spirit might lead. Ephesians 5:19 says "... speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs..." and correspondingly Colossians 3:16 says to, "... admonish one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs." So Paul makes it clear that we are to sing "psalms," but which psalms? Obviously he is referring to the Psalms of David! And many of the Psalms say to worship God with musical instruments, such as Psalm 150. Also, many of the Psalms were directed by David to be accompanied by a musical instrument, such as a harp or lyre. We also see that the worship of God in heaven will also include musical instruments as found in Revelation 15:2.
But let's dig a little deeper into the actual definition of the word psalm. Most serious students of the Bible own a concordance. This is simply a reference book that lists all the key words and phrases in the Bible, in alphabetic order. The most commonly used concordance is called, "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible." It's approximately 1500 pages long. It also has a Hebrew and Greek dictionary in the back, where you can actually look up certain words in the Hebrew and Greek languages, which is what the Old and New Testaments were written in, respectively. If you were to take the time to look up the word "psalm" in the Greek dictionary, you would find this definition (#5568): "A set piece of music, i.e. a sacred ode (accompanied with the voice, harp, or other instrument)." Here is a perfect example of what happens when you establish your doctrines in haste! Can you find the words "musical instruments" in the New Testament? No. "Then let's keep them out of our worship!" But wait, Brother, doesn't the word "psalm" mean: "a song accompanied by a musical instrument?" Well, at this point they will choose their tradition over the Bible, because they don't want to be confused by the facts! And if you think that's bad, you should hear some of the straws (verses) they grasp at out of context, to buttress their erroneous conclusions. There are several examples we could cite that they wrongly claim substantiates their position against musical instruments in the worship of God, but for the sake of time, we will just look at the two most common.
The first is what they call an "argument from silence." In reality it would better be described as a "straw man argument." What they say is that there were never any musical instruments used in the Temple worship, in the Old Testament. The reason that would be an issue to them is that they make a correlation between the Temple and the Church. Then you can point out that they are completely wrong in their assumption, by citing one of many scriptures, such as II Chronicles 5:12, which clearly shows musical instruments in the Temple. They will usually then come back with the moot argument that "There were no musical instruments in the Most Holy Place." Well, there were no accapella singers in the Most Holy Place, either! This is why we refer to this as a "straw man argument." It's totally without merit. It doesn't prove anything, let alone their point!
Next, they usually will cite Amos 6:5, which they claim proves that musical instruments are evil. Rather than quoting the entire chapter here, please read all of chapter six of Amos and I'm sure you will immediately see the flaws in their logic. We see in these verses that God (through the Prophet, Amos) is pronouncing woes upon those "who are at ease in Zion." And one of the sins that they were committing was that they were "inventing musical songs and instruments, just like David." First of all, if it was a sin to invent songs or instruments "like David," then it would have been a sin for David to do it, too! But this chapter also refers to them "eating beef" and "lying down on beds of ivory." Are these sins, also? NO! It is just a list of things that they were doing that revealed their apathetic hearts. It wasn't because these things were evil, in and of themselves, but because that's all they did. They were more concerned with the pleasures of their daily lives than they were with doing God's will.
So we see yet another example of how the CofC is willing to bend and stretch the Scriptures to fit their mold. But alas, anyone with "eyes to see" and "ears to hear" can quickly detect counterfeit doctrine when faced with the authentic truth of God's Word. The issue should be dealt with graciously through the words of our beloved Apostle Paul, as he attempts to deal with a similar issue in Chapter 14 of his letter to the Romans. I encourage you to stop and read the whole chapter right now. Paul simply states that on nonessential issues, such as eating meat or celebrating holidays, please don't be judgmental. If you want to eat meat or celebrate a holiday as unto the Lord, then fine. But please don't judge your brother who seeks to abstain. And I'm sure Paul would say the same thing about musical instruments, especially when he already said they were permitted in Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16! It is simply a personal preference. I have friends that attend churches that worship without instruments, and I say, "More power to you!" But the CofC says that if you include musical instruments in the worship of God, then your worship is Pagan (Godless)!
Now if Paul says not to judge your Brothers in non-essential issues, then the CofC is clearly overstepping their boundaries in this case. My suggestion to the CofC is to take the log out of your own eye... then you'll be able to read your Strong's Concordance better!
In addition to these comments by Mr.Ross, let me add my own illustration here, as I believe this issue touches on the heart of the exclusivity of Churches of Christ in general.
If one were to debate a Church of Christ member over the issue of musical instruments in worship services, they would usually begin by saying there are no historical or Scriptural references to instruments in worship services. Now, that may or may not be true, depending on what historical texts one reads, but, be that as it may, the instrumentalist will usually ask "What is wrong with introducing them?"
At this point the CofC member will usually respond with "Instruments would then be unauthorized, and what is unauthorized in worship is displeasing to God"
Then, the instrumentalist may ask "But what about all the unauthorized additions to worship the CofC currently employs?" At such a question, the CofC member will usually gasp in amazement, simply because, in their 'we are doing it all right' mindset, many have simply never had CofC doctrines questioned before, and are staggered that an implication that error is to be found in the CofC was actually submitted.
The CofC member will then ask "Such as?", at which point the instrumentalist names hymnbooks, microphones, loudspeakers, church buildings, etc, etc, as being unauthorized in Scriptural worship.
Here is where the logic of the CofC member breaks down, for they will try to say that those items, present in CofC, are simply to accompany heartfelt worship, whereas instruments are part of worship. But that simply is not true. It is a lie that CofC members have propogated amongst their own members for many years.
People in instrumental churches do not worship with instruments. They worship with their hearts. Instruments simply accompany that worship, in exactly the same way as hymnbooks and sound systems accompany the acapella worship found in CofC congregations.
The misconception being believed firmly by many CofC members is that instrumentalists have replaced heart worship with worship by instruments, which certainly is not true.
This type of arguement by the CofC member is called a straw man arguement, as already noted by Mr.Ross above. Such an arguement attempts to paint a picture of a subject which is not necessarily true, but which can be easily disputed.
In the case with musical instruments, Churches of Christ present instrumental churches in a disparaging and untruthful way. It is really just an issue of pride with them, and gives them a false sense of "we are right and they are wrong".
True Christianity has nothing to do with such devilish scheming. If the members of the CofC are going to bear true fruit for the Lord, and enjoy the Christian life as it should be enjoyed, then they need to spend a lot less time pointing out and focussing on the percieved flaws in other assemblies, and start learning to love people because of the differences, for that is exactly what our Lord has done to us. Loved us, because of the differences.
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