Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Non Instrumental

Worship

My answers in “red” and my scripture in “green”

In dealing with this topic, you need to keep in mind that not all Church of Christ denominations 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. Because it is not found in the New Testament teachings. Such a big deal, in fact, that they say if you do have musical instruments in the worship service, then your worship is PAGAN! I would say that you are pagan but that you are in era.  This is also another area where we get a glimpse of the schizophrenia that so often accompanies this type of legalism. Because 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.  Let us ask a question.  Would you eat a physical meal in a church service.  In fact, you act one way in church and another at home.  You would not wear the clothing at a church service that you sometimes wear in your home, neither would everyone talk at the same time in church but in the home would. That might explain why in some Church of Christ denominations, right after the worship service is over, and they've studied the Word, and taken communion, half the congregation heads for the back door to "have a smoke." This is especially true in the southern states. This is a strange thing to me.  As a child I went to a Church of God service, a lot of the men stood out side the door smoking while the service was going on.  Some never went inside.  Where I attend today, no one smokes at church and very few of its members smoke at all.
Their main reason for outlawing musical instruments in the church service is because they say that it is not mentioned in the Bible. Yes, it is mentioned in a way.  1Co 14:15 ¶ What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. There is no understanding in playing an instrument.  One can take the same notes played on any instrument and have words of immorality, words of morality, or of worship.  An instrument does not give understanding and can not edify.  And all things are to edify. (1 Cor. 14:26) You may remember their 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. I know where and what the Bible says about music.  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..."Let us finish the verse. singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Realize that the instrument making melody is the heart.  The melody is made in the heart, not on an instrument. and correspondingly Colossians 3:16 says to, "... admonish one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs." Again let us look at the whole passage.  Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.   Again we see that we are to sing with grace in our heart.  The instrument used is the heart.  Now, if God wanted singing and playing He would have stated so.  He did so in the Old Testament.  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,"They held harps given them by God."   Well, in heaven yes.  Nothing of this earth will be in heaven.  Is there a literal sea of glass or is a figure or type as well as the harps.

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)." The root word of psalm is "psallo" which means to means to twitch, twang or pluck.. such as pluck a string of a musical instrument. The root word here gives the real meaning.  To twitch, twang or pluck the heart, not a harp or any such thing.  We even see this term used in this same context to this day: in the southern states, the old timers "psalm" (pick or pluck) cotton. Obviously, from its text and its definition, a psalm was normally accompanied with a musical instrument.

Unfortunately, this is a perfect example of what happens when you establish your doctrines in haste! Yes, one can jump to the wrong conclusion just as you did.  It seems that you decide what you want and then look for ways to justify it.  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! Let me show you something about silence. Heb 7:12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.  13 For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.  14 For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.  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.

II Chronicles 5:11-14 took place at the dedication of the Temple:

"The priests then withdrew from the Holy Place. All the priests who were there had consecrated themselves, regardless of their divisions. All the Levites who were musicians-Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives-stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD . Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang:

'He is good; His love endures forever.'

Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God."

So we clearly see God sanction the use of musical instruments in worship by endorsing the proceedings by filling the Temple with His Glory.  Yes he did.  But when we justify what we do by the Law we have fallen from Grace.   Ga 5:1 ¶ Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.  2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.  3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.  4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.  Perhaps you have fallen from grace??

The Church of Christ denomination 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! I have never done such! This is why we refer to this as a "straw man argument." Your argument is truly 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.

The funny thing about the Church of Christ denomination on this (or any other) issue is their bizarre bi-polar view of the Old Testament. As soon as you quote something out of the Old Testament, they are on you like stink on a skunk, saying, "That's the OLD Testament and we are not under the OLD Testament!" But two minutes later they quote the Old Testament to back up their position.
We only use O.T. for examples and attitudes of people and God. (I Cor. 10:6-11)  Clearly today we are to hear Christ, not Moses. (Mt. 17:5; Col. 2:14-16; Heb. 1:1-2; Heb. 10:13, and others)
So we see yet another example of how the Church of Christ denomination 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. The New Testament does not give instruction on these matters but it does on music.  Like when God told the children of Israel the sons of Aaron and the Levites were to be the priest, he did not need to say the tribe of Benjamin could not be nor could women be priest. It was not necessary.  Just as when told Noah to use Gopher wood he did not need to say don’t use oak.  The silence of the God was enough.  So is it here, he only says sing.  No matter how you try to twist it, that is all that the N.T. says.  I have friends that attend churches that worship without instruments, and I say, "More power to you!" But the Church of Christ denomination 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 Church of Christ denomination is clearly overstepping their boundaries in this case. My suggestion to the Church of Christ denomination is to take the log out of your own eye... then you'll be able to read your Strong's Concordance better!

Like we said earlier, no one cares if the Church of Christ denomination wants to leave out musical instruments in their worship, that is their prerogative. I do judge, but rather Christ is the judge and we will be judged by his teachings and words.  The reason that this issue is so egregious is because they judge and condemn everyone else who chooses to use musical instruments like David did and as the Apostle Paul instructed.

The real issue then becomes legalism, which absolutely permeates their thinking. As an example, many people outside of the Church of Christ denomination are not aware of the extremely legalistic Church of Christ denomination position on marriage. They teach: if you were married but your spouse runs off with another man or woman (and years later you remarry) they insist that in order for you to become a member of their denomination, you must divorce your current spouse and track down your first spouse and remarry her. If she refuses to remarry you, you then must remain single for the rest of your life! We do not teach such a thing.  Again you use legalism as though it is some terrible thing.  What you do is take part of the words and teachings of the N.T. and ignore others in order uphold you position.  You use the word of God recklessly.  Just like a man who drives his car without any regards to the law of the road is driving recklessly.

I received an e-mail the other day from a frantic and frustrated lady. Her 92 year old dad (Jerry) was dying. Someone from the Church of Christ denomination sent a preacher over to see him because, although he was baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, he had not been baptized for the remission of sins. According to the preacher, Jerry was going to hell (although the old man had been a Christian for over 40 years). When the Church of Christ denomination preacher found out that Jerry's first wife had run out on him 50 years ago and that he had remarried, the preacher told him that "if he wanted to go to heaven," he would have to do TWO things:

1) Get re-baptized the Church of Christ denomination way

2) Divorce his second wife (of 45 years) and repent for remarrying.

Never mind the fact that they had three children. Never mind the fact that the man wasn't even a believer when he remarried. Never mind... anything. Just do it! And the senile old man, infused with fear and doubt, divorced his wife of 45 years. When he died, she was left penniless and brokenhearted. The Church of Christ denomination preacher, on the other hand, walked away with his head high (and nose in the air) "knowing" he just saved that man's soul. Many people outside of the Church of Christ denomination are shocked to hear the convoluted "logic" in this hyper-legalistic perspective.  Just because some people do irrational things does not mean that all do.  I am sure that there are those in you group who do irrational things.  In fact you have made many arguments that are irrational!

Remember, LEGALISM KILLS (II Corinthians 3:6)! It's a cancer than knows no bounds. You start out with a legalistic pproach to any spiritual issue and eventually everything you do is out of fear. You develop a "better safe - than sorry" perspective on life. You start thinking that God is out to get you. He is watching you, just waiting for you to step out of line so He can squash you like a bug! We follow the spirit of the Law of Christ, the teachings of Jesus and his Holy Apostles. (Acts 1:2, Eph. 3:1-6, 2 Peter 3:2)  Perfection ceases to be just a goal, it instead becomes a mandate. "If I want God to love me, I MUST be perfect." Sounds an awful lot like Mormonism. Which should not come as a surprise, because legalism is the main ingredient in every cultic organization. "It's my way, or the highway (to hell)."  I never said such a thing.  It is God’s way that is right.  When we disagree one or both may be wrong.  Between me and you, you have the right to believe whatever you want, but between me and God or you and God we do not have such a right.  Just with Cain and Abel.  Cain should have taken the matter up with God not Abel.  Am I your enemy because I tell you the truth.

Most believers are willing to tolerate a certain level of legalism. Some folks would say that I am legalistic about a few things. Each person has to determine where to draw the line. Some Christians say that you should be in church every time the doors are open, "At least Sunday morning and Sunday and Wednesday night!" If the Scriptures stated that as a standard, then I would agree. But cultural norms and human traditions should not be elevated to the same level of authority as the Bible.

In Matthew 15:7-9, Jesus said, "You nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.”  Funny you would use such.  It seems to fit your augments so perfectly.

Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees when He said that. They were the legalists of His day. I would venture to say that He would say the same thing to the Church of Christ denomination: "You nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition."   A legalist is one who desires to go right by the law.  They did not desire to go by the law, but rather taught and emphasized the part of the law that profited them.  They left off the other parts.  Jesus was more of the legalist.  He said they should not have left the other undo but should have all or both physical things as well as grace, mercy, and love.