Town Creek church of Christ

Music is one of the great arts which gratifies an esthetic desire in man. Someone has said, �Music has the power to lift the veil and let the spirit look and listen; it marks a dividing line between beasts and men; it compels mankind to put away selfishness, greed, and hate, and to discover the pathway to the soul.� Singing as one type of music is the one great art by which man is linked with eternity since Job says, �The morning stars sang together for joy� before the creation of the world. John, in the book of Revelation, wrote of the 140,000 singing praises to the Lamb of God in heaven.

It is a small wonder that in both the Hebraic and Christian traditions music has a very definite place in the worship of God. The Psalms of David make up the longest book of the Bible. He is known as the �sweet singer of

Israel

.� In the book of Matthew, singing is mentioned in connection with the institution of the Lord�s supper in the upper room (Matt. 26:26-30). One night about midnight in Philippi the intrepid preachers, Paul and Silas, were singing in prison with their feet and hands bound. Later their jailor decided he wanted the brand of religion which enabled its adherents to sing after being cruelly scourged and placed in a dungeon (Acts 16:25-34). The same Apostle Paul, in Ephesians 5:19, commanded Christians to sing and make melody in their heart to the Lord.
That music has an important part in the worship of Almighty God in the Christian age, no informed person would deny. However, there is a difference of opinion as to the kind of music which is pleasing to God for worship. We might ask the larger question, �What kind of worship is pleasing to God,� since music is but one item of worship? In every age, man�s deviation from God�s order has been due to the fact that man sought to please himself and not God. Paganism and idolatry of every description is a result of man�s trying to please a god fashioned in his own image -- and thus of trying to please himself. Cain was the first to try this and his worship was rejected. John Milton once said, �True religion is the true worship and service of God learned and believed from the word of God only. No man or angel can know how God would be worshipped and served unless God reveal it; he hath revealed and taught it to us in the holy scriptures by inspired ministers, and in the gospel by his own Son and his apostles, with strictest command to reject all other traditions whatsoever.�
In order to appreciate the kind of music we should have in Christian worship, we must understand that it is music as worship and not music as an art we are thinking about primarily. Music for its esthetic value is to be judged just like any other art, namely, whether it is pleasing or displeasing to the human senses. But music as worship, as is true of everything else used as worship to God, must be pleasing to God first -- then to men. In Christianity �we walk by faith, not by sight� (II Cor. 5:7), and �without faith it is impossible to please Him� (Heb 11:6). In Christianity, God is set forth as the One to be pleased -- not the worshipper. The Lordship of Jesus Christ in every department of our thinking and acting is basic to our faith.

Only four kinds of worship are mentioned in the New Testament -- four and only four. Let us examine them.
1) Vain Worship. Jesus said in Matt. 15:9, �But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.� �Vain� means �empty", �without meaning.� The Pharisees were charging the disciples with violating the law of Moses by not washing their hands before eating when the ceremonial act of washing hands was but one of the traditions of the Jews -- a precept of man. Jesus not only condemns them for so doing but says that anything in worship taught as doctrine that comes from the commandments of men is worthless. Lovers of God today must therefore studiously and prayerfully avoid offering, as worship to God, that which has no higher authority than the precepts of men, even though there may be nothing wrong with the act itself (such as washing hands), such is vain worship.
2) Ignorant Worship. In Acts 17:22-23 we read, �Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars� hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.�
These people were worshipping, but, due to a lack of knowledge, they were worshipping ignorantly. Only God can judge one who is worshipping Him ignorantly (through no fault of his own), but if one is �willfully ignorant,� then there is no excuse. �He that turneth away his ear from the hearing of the law, even his prayer is an abomination� (Prov. 28:9). The ignorant worship of the Athenians was no longer acceptable because Paul said, �And the times of this ignorance God winked at; (overlooked) but now commandeth all men every where to repent� (Acts 17:30).
3) Will worship is described in Colossians 2:20-23. �Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.� The expression �will worship� comes from a single original word which signifies that which has its origin in the will of men. It might even indicate greatest determination to be religious, but when not governed by the humble desire to learn and do exactly as God has decreed, it becomes utterly unacceptable.
4) True worship. In John 4:24, we read �God is a spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.� To be �in spirit� we must be conscientious and sincere. That rules out hypocrisy and meaningless forms. To be �in truth� we must do as the word of truth directs. If we do what the Word says to do, but in a grudgingly or hypocritical manner, it is unacceptable to God. If we are deeply sincere, but fail to worship as God�s word directs, that is also unacceptable. Jesus said in John 17:17, �Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.� Thus, for our worship to be acceptable to God, we must have the right spirit and we must worship as the word of truth teaches -- no more and no less.

�We walk by faith and not by sight� (II Cor. 5:7) is the same principle as true worship restated. In Romans 10:17we read, �Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.� To do a matter �in faith� we must have a �thus sayeth the Lord.� But many have left the main line of faith in their worship and have gone off on the bypaths of opinion. Some believe that a thing is all right for worship unless explicitly forbidden. The Bible states in II John 9, �Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.�
Suppose I were to bring an animal sacrifice to church next Sunday. The preacher would say �hold on, that is not authorized in Christianity. You don�t have God�s approval in offering that as worship.� He would be exactly right, even though the New Testament does not say you cannot offer animal sacrifices.
Why do we have the Lord�s supper as worship? Because of tradition? No, its because Jesus said, �this do in remembrance of me.� Have you ever stopped to think why we have the fruit of the vine on the Lord�s table instead of sweet milk? Who started it? The Lord Jesus did in Matthew 26. He specified the kind of beverage to be used and he didn�t say, �Thou shalt not use sweet milk.� But all agree to use it would be to go beyond the teaching of Christ -- beyond faith into opinion. This should throw light on the non-use of instrumental music in Christian worship. Did God specify music? Yes. Did he specify a particular kind? Yes. He specified vocal music in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16.

Some say, �Since David used instrumental music to praise God, isn�t that sufficient authority for our doing so today?� If so, on the same basis we could bring in the dance as an item of worship because David said, �Praise Him with psaltery and harp, praise Him with timbel and dance; praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe� (Psalm 150:3,4).
Is it acceptable to pick out of Jewish worship just what we want, leaving the rest, or rather should it not be to find out what God has seen fit to continue and sanction for Christian worship? Prayer was a part of Jewish worship, as was the burning of incense and animal sacrifice. Christians today rightly continue prayer as an act of Christian worship and reject the burning of incense and animal sacrifice on the principle that we are now living under the law of Christ in which prayer is commanded and exemplified. Burning incense and animal sacrifice are not sanctioned in Christian worship, and the New Testament is just as silent on the use of instruments of music in worship.
Under the Old Testament law were many things not in God�s original plan, nor were they continued in the New Testament. Hebrews 7:19says the Ten Commandments and the entire law of Moses made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did. That better hope is Jesus Christ and the New Testament whereby we draw nigh unto God.
Christians are not under Old Testament law which permitted instruments of music. We�re under a new law. Regarding the Old Law, we learn from Colossians 2:14: �Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.�
God says that those who try to justify something today because it was in the Law of Moses, though not in the New Testament, are fallen from grace. �Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace� (Gal. 5:4). Hence, if we try to justify any religious practice today by the Old Testament law, when Christ has not authorized it in His new law, it becomes a certain way to fall from grace. Those who say it is wrong to eat pork today, base their conclusion on the law of Moses, not the law of Christ. Paul says these are fallen from grace. Those who would put us back under the seventh day Sabbath law today, the Holy Spirit says, are fallen from grace, and he warns: �Let no man judge you...in respect of a feast day, or a new moon, or a sabbath day, which is a shadow of things to come� (Col. 2:17).
If we rightly divide the Word of Truth, we must understand that the Old Testament Law (that is, the Mosaic law, including the Ten Commandments) �...was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster� (Gal. 3:24-25).
The beautiful lesson of the Transfiguration teaches us that Christ is the only begotten son of God and to �hear him.� We do not practice circumcision as a religious rite because we are to hear Christ, not Moses. We do not use mechanical instruments of music in worship because we are to hear Christ, not David. David had eight wives, danced in worship, did not observe the Lord�s supper, and did not pray in the name of Jesus -- yet he was living up to the demands of the Law of Moses in so doing. However, if we try to take him as an example in worship by bringing in instruments of music and other shadows of the law, we are hearing Moses, not Christ; and for so doing we will be severed from Christ and ultimately lost.
Moses, with all his moral excellence, unfeigned piety, and legislative dignity, fell short of Canaan. All who cleave to him or his law today will come short of the heavenly rest. His mortal remains were buried by the Almighty in secret, and yet we will not suffer his ashes to rest in peace! He came down from heaven to give place to the Messiah, to lay down His commission at his feet; and we will not accept it! (cf. Matt. 17). Strange infatuation! Equally strange is the infatuation which will cause one to drag David�s instruments of music into Christian worship, and leave off his animal sacrifices, completely forgetting that Christ fulfilled the law. God said, �He takes away the first that he might establish the second� (Heb. 10:9), and, �...ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God� (Rom. 7:4).
We worship according to the risen Lord, not the entombed David or Moses. When we sing in worship we give honor to Christ; when we play instruments in worship we give honor to the traditions and commandments of men.

Let us now turn to the New Testament to see what Christ, our lawgiver has said on music in worship. Since God said, �Hear him,� anything Christ or His inspired apostles authorize in Christian worship, we must use. Anything without authority in the New Testament for Christian worship must be excluded from our worship because of the silence of the Scriptures on that item. Following, are all of the New Testament Scriptures on music in worship. Open your Bible and read them candidly and prayerfully.
�And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives� (Matt. 26:30; Mark 14:26).
�And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them� (Acts 16:25).
�Sing unto thy name� (

Rom.

15:9).
�...I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also� (I Cor. 14:15).
�Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord� (Eph. 5:19)
�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� (Col. 3:16)
�...In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee� (Heb. 2:12).
�Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms� (James 5:13).
In these eight passages, the kind of music God specified is vocal music. Whatever might be said in favor of instrumental music, no one doubts that we are worshipping God �in truth� by simply �singing and making melody in our hearts� to God. In so doing we are allowing the Scriptures to �furnish us completely unto every good work� (II Tim. 3:16,17) and are �not going beyond the things which are written (I Cor. 4:6). The voice of inspired writers says one is walking in truth by singing in worship and leaving off the instrument. The early church fathers testify that in so doing we are adhering to the kind of music the church, for several hundred years, practiced. Religious reformers like Luther, Calvin, and Wesley bear witness that singing is the kind of worship prescribed in the law of Christ. Today, when many like to think they are �liberal� in religious thinking, those who use mechanical instruments of music in worship must admit that users of vocal music alone occupy New Testament ground in this respect, and are safe, to say the least.
In Colossians 3:17 we read, �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.� Singing, or vocal music, exalts the human voice, the instrument God made and Christ authorized for worship. This can be done �in the name of Jesus� or by His authority. Instrumental music exalts a machine, a creation of man, in an attempt to worship our Creator. This is the basic fault of idolatry which continually kept the Jews in difficulties. In the New Testament, vocal music is by the authority of Christ. Since it nowhere authorizes mechanical music, such must be by the authority of men.

In order to find out where instrumental music originated in Christian worship, we must go to history outside the Bible since the practice started hundreds of years after the writing of the Bible had been completed.
Here are two quotations from reputable encyclopedias on Church Music:
The American Encyclopedia, Vol. 12, page 688, �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 one sent as a present by the Greek emperor Constantine Copronymus to Pepin, king of Franks in 755.�
Chambers Encyclopedia, Vol. 7, page 112, says: �The organ is said to have been introduced into church music by Pope Vitalian in 666 A.D. Thus historically and scripturally, instrumental music in Christian worship represents a departure from the faith and practice of the New Testament church.�

We need to remember that music in Christian worship is not for the purpose of entertaining, but for teaching and exalting. We should have no trouble seeing why God demanded vocal music and left out instrumental music.
The human voice is capable of doing everything God commands us to do as music in worship, whereas the instrument is incapable of doing anything required by music in Christian worship except make melody, and it does not do that in the right place -- the human heart (cf. Col. 3:16: Gal. 5:19). Which is the right course? To do the thing which all admit fulfills the Scriptural requirements and pleases God or the thing that does not fulfill the Scriptural requirements and merely pleases man?
Suppose one were to take a pencil and paper and draw a line down the center of a blank page and label the column on the left Commandments of God and label the column on the right Commandments of Men. Now, with the Word of God as the guide, classify a dozen or so things which are practiced in religion today. Where would preaching be placed? Under the Commandments of God. How do we know? Because this is commanded in II Timothy 4:2. What about prayer? Taking the Lord�s Supper? Baptism? Feeding the poor? Any Bible student can readily find book, chapter and verse for such practices, proving that they are commandments of God. But what about counting beads in worship? That would have to go under commandments of men. It is unheard of (not authorized) in the New Testament. What about holy water or worshipping images? These are mere commandments of men and constitute vain worship. In all frankness, where would we have to place instruments of music? Since there is no command, example or implication of their use anywhere in the New Testament, we would be obliged to place it under the heading of Commandments of Men. It was the Lord Jesus Christ who said, �But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men� (Matt. 15:9).
It was not an oversight on the part of God that he left instrumental music out of Christian worship. God makes no mistakes. Why He left it out is none of my business. The fact is, He left it out.
In II Peter 1:3, we read, �...his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.� Instrumental music doesn�t pertain to life and godliness, else it would have been included in the things written.
In II John 9, we read, �Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.� To preach the word, pray, or sing is to abide in the teaching of Christ, but to play an instrument in worship is to �go onward and abide not in the Teaching of Christ,� and thus in that one thing, the beloved apostle John says God is not with us.
In Romans 10:17 we read that faith comes by hearing the word of God and �we walk by faith, not by sight� (II Cor. 5:7). By using the instrument in worship, it cannot be said that we are walking by faith, since the word of God doesn�t authorize it.
Casting aside all prejudice, can�t we honestly say that the reason churches have instrumental music today in worship is because of tradition and a desire to do what �we like� rather than what the Lord commands? King Saul was rejected as king because he attempted to do, as service to God, what he had not commanded (cf. I Sam. 15). Nadab and Abihu were destroyed for offering strange fire -- fire which God had not commanded (Lev. 10:1-2). In the light of such examples, can we afford to tamper with Christian worship?
Savonarola said when he preached the doctrines of human invention he pleased an impatient and fickle people but when he turned to the Bible, he shook men�s souls. Surely it is safe and right in time and in eternity to worship just as it is written in God�s Word -- without addition or subtraction.