The Challenge of Adding Instrumental Music

• Cain – Genesis 4:3-7

• Nadab and Abihu – Leviticus 10:1-2

• Uzziah – 2 Chronicles 26:16-20

• John 4:24, Matthew 15:9

Does God accept all worship sincerely offered?

NO!

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Command (Direct Statement) – Matthew 28:20, cf. Luke 10:16, e.g. Luke 13:3

Divinely Approved Example – 2 Thessalonians 2:15, e.g. Acts 20:7

Necessary Inference – Matthew 22:23-32, e.g. Hebrews 10:25

We Must Have Authority.

CEI in Acts 15

Law of Moses or the gospel of Christ?

• Acts 15:7-11 – Necessary implication• Holy Spirit baptism of Jews in Acts 2 meant day

of salvation had come for the Jews.

• Holy Spirit baptism of Gentiles in Acts 10 meant the same thing for the Gentiles – by implication.

CEI in Acts 15

Law of Moses or the gospel of Christ?

• Acts 15:12 – Divinely Approved Example• The miracles worked by Paul and Barnabas as

they preached among the Gentiles showed God’s approval of their example.

CEI in Acts 15

Law of Moses or the gospel of Christ?

• Acts 15:13-18 – Command (Direct Statement)• James taught by quoting a direct statement

promising salvation to both Jew & Gentile through the gospel (Amos 9:11-12).

• Ephesians 5:18-19 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,

• Colossians 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.

Specific Authority For Singing

Specific vs. Generic Authority

Mark 16:15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

• “Go” gives us generic authority to travel.• We may use any lawful means to do so.

• “Preach the gospel” gives us specific authority for the message.• Specific authority eliminates all other possibilities.

Arguments in Favor of Mechanical Instruments in Worship

• Instruments are inherent in psallo.

Psallo

• Thayer’s Greek English Lexicon

Psallo

Psallo

• "The Greek word 'psallo' is applied among the Greeks of modern times exclusively to sacred music, which in the Eastern Church has never been any other than vocal, instrumental music being unknown in that church, as it was in the primitive church." (McClintock & Strong’s McClintock & Strong’s Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. 8, p. 739)

• “…before the beginning of the New Testament period, it had lost this meaning. In his well-researched book, Instrumental Music in the Worship, M.C. Kurfees noted that the word psallo never is used in the New Testament or in contemporaneous literature to mean anything other than to sing.” (Eric Lyons, M. Min., The Meaning of Psallo in the New Testament, Apologetics press, http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=11&article=868 )

The instrument is specified – the heart.

Arguments in Favor of Mechanical Instruments in Worship

• Instruments are inherent in psallo.

• Musical instruments were used in the Old Testament.

The Law of Moses Has Been Superseded.

• There were mechanical instruments in the OT.• 2 Chronicles 29:25 And he stationed the Levites in the

house of the LORD with cymbals, with stringed instruments, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for thus was the commandment of the LORD by His prophets.

• Hebrews 8:7-13, Galatians 3:23-25

Arguments in Favor of Mechanical Instruments in Worship

• Instruments are inherent in psallo.

• Musical instruments were used in the Old Testament.

• The Bible doesn’t say not to use them.

Silence Doesn’t Constitute Authority

• Hebrews 7:11-14• The Levitical priesthood was not sufficient. Another,

according to the order of Melchizedec, was prophesied, and it came. 

• Since the law of Moses authorized and recognized only the priesthood "according to the order of Aaron,” the existence of the priesthood of Christ logically demands "of necessity there is also a change of the law." 

Silence Doesn’t Constitute Authority

Hebrews 7:11-14

Why?

• Moses only spoke of a priesthood from the tribe of Levi.

• Christ came from the tribe of Judah. 

• Consequently, if a new priesthood exists (and it does), then a new law also exists, since Moses "spoke nothing" (was silent) about priests from another tribe. 

Arguments in Favor of Mechanical Instruments in Worship

• Instruments are inherent in psallo.

• Musical instruments were used in the Old Testament.

• The Bible doesn’t say not to use them.

• There are instruments in The Revelation.

Instruments in The Revelation

• E.g. Revelation 5:8-10, 15:2• The Revelation is full of signs and symbols.

• Is Jesus literally a lamb? Are the prayers of the saints literally bowls of incense? What about the 4 living creatures and the 24 elders?

• These things take place in Heaven.

Arguments in Favor of Mechanical Instruments in Worship

• Instruments are inherent in psallo.

• Musical instruments were used in the Old Testament.

• The Bible doesn’t say not to use them.

• There are instruments in The Revelation.

• Instruments are an aid.

Instruments Are Not An Aid.

• Genesis 6:14 – Build the ark of gopherwood.• Saws, hammers, chisels – aids

• Oak, pine, cedar – not aids, different kinds of wood

• Aids for singing – song books, pitch pipes, song leader• Mechanical instruments create a different kind of music

than the one specified by God.

The Origins of Mechanical Instruments in Worship

• Mechanical instruments were not used by those claiming to be Christian for hundreds of years.

• Even denominational leaders and founders argued against their use.

The Origins of Mechanical Instruments in Worship

Sir John Hawkins, following the Romish writers in his erudite work on the History of Music, makes pope Vitalian, in A.D. 660, the first who introduced organs into churches. But students of ecclesiastical archaeology are generally agreed that instrumental music was not used in churches till a much later date; for Thomas Aquinas, A.D. 1250, has these remarkable words: “Our Church does not use musical 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. (McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 8, page 739)

John Calvin, Presbyterian Church

“Musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting 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 Jew. Men who are fond of outward pomp may delight in that noise; but the simplicity which God recommends to us by the apostles is far more pleasing to him. (Commentary on Psalm 33)

Martin Luther, Lutheran Church

“Luther called the organ the ensign of Baal.”

(McClintock & Strong’s Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 6, page 762).

John Wesley, Methodist Church

“I have no objection to instruments of music in our worship, provided they are neither heard nor seen” (Quoted in Adam Clarke’s Commentary, Vol. 4 page 685).

Charles Spurgeon, Baptist

“David appears to have had a peculiarly tender remembrance of the singing of the pilgrims, and assuredly it is the most delightful part of worship and that which comes nearest to the adoration of heaven. What a degradation to supplant the intelligent song of the whole congregation by the theatrical prettiness of a quartet, the refined niceties of a choir, or the blowing off of wind from inanimate bellows and pipes! We might as well pray by machinery as praise by it” (Commentary on Psalm 42:4).

Why Talk About This?

Jude 3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

Ephesians 4:11-15

This Matters!

Matthew 15:9 And in vain they worship Me,Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

2 John 9-11

Deuteronomy 4:2, Proverbs 30:6, Isaiah 8:20, 1 Corinthians 4:6,

1 Peter 4:11, Revelation 22:18-19