INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

BY

SHELBY G. FLOYD

June, 2008

Although instrumental music was used in worship to God under the Old Testament, when we come to the New Testament, we find instrumental music conspicuously absent in New Testament worship. This order of things continued for seven or eight hundred years after the church was established, and then when the apostasy was in full bloom, the organ and other instruments of music were introduced into the worship services, but not without some protest. However, after a few years, instrumental music in worship to God became a settled practice in the apostate Church.

It was not until the time of The Reformation that a few men began to raise their voices against using an instrument of music in worship to God. Many of the reformers in going back to study the Bible realized that only singing is authorized in our worship to God. Instrumental music was not used in the churches of Christ during the early days of the Restoration Movement. The men who led that movement, whose motto was, “To speak where the Bible speaks, and to be silent where the Bible is silent,” realized that the Bible authorized Christians to sing and excluded the use of instruments of music. However, it was not too many years until men wanted to introduce their own opinions and doctrines in their worship to God. The result was division in the church of our Lord over the instrument of music.

In 1922, N. B. Hardeman lamented over the introduction of the instrument of music and the division which it brought. He said,

“I regret more than I can ever express to you the fact that after this movement of restoration had shaken this entire earth and made men sit up and take notice of the very fine principle, every plank in the platform on which was based upon a ‘Thus saith the Lord’ by and by a very lamentable occurrence transpired, and that was the introduction into the service and the worship of a thing untaught in the New Testament Scriptures. In the year 1869, in the city of St. Louis, there was injected into the church an instrument of music. The result was a division in what had been a happy, contented, united brotherhood.” (Hardeman’s Tabernacle Sermons, Vol. 1, p. 269.)

During, and after the division, there were many religious debates upon the subject of instrumental music, but not one advocate of instrumental music has been able to prove by the scriptures that such practice is authorized by God. Today, there are some, even in the churches of Christ that are raising their voices in favor of bringing the instrument of music into the worship to God. There have been many who have grown up in the churches who do not understand the principles whereby an action is authorized in. the scriptures.

Matthew 6:2

Instrumental music is mentioned in the New Testament scriptures, but we unequivocally affirm that it is never used in such a way as to authorize its use in worship to God. Let us notice a few instances in which we find instrumental music mentioned in the New Testament. First, it is used in Matthew 6: 2, when Jesus instructed his disciples not to sound a trumpet as the hypocrites did in the synagogues and in the streets when they gave alms to the poor. Here it is used as an illustration of making a lot of noise and fanfare about the good that we do for others. Surely no one could construe this scripture in such a way as to say it authorizes instrumental music in worship to God, for it has nothing whatsoever to do with that subject.

Matthew 11:16-17

Secondly, the instrument is mentioned in Matthew 11:16-17, where Jesus compared the generation of his day to children sitting in the marketplace and, calling unto their fellows, and saying, “We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.” Jesus compared the generation of his day to the fickleness of little children in the marketplace. The piping under consideration is something that would have been done in a marketplace and not in worship to God. Therefore, this scripture falls way short of authority for instrumental music in worship to God.

Luke 15:25

In the third place, in Luke 15: 25, when the elder son came near to his house, he heard music and dancing. The music was a part of the festivities and joy over the return of the prodigal son. Music (Greek—sumfwniaV) is a generic term. In fact, this scripture and the ones following are the only references in all of the New Testament scriptures that we find the generic term music. It would include vocal and instrumental music, but here it has reference to the social and domestic activities of a home, and not a worship service in the church. No one would deny that instrumental music is alright in the home; the contention is over its use in worship to God. Therefore, this scripture could in no way be used as authority for the instrument in worship.

1 Corinthians 13:1

In the fourth place, the apostle Paul mentions the sounding brass and. tinkling cymbal, instruments of music, in his great chapter on Christian love. In this particular context, Paul compares a man able to speak in the languages of men, and even angels, and yet not having Christian love, as one being as empty and useless as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. There is no authority in this passage for using these instruments in worship to God.

1 Corinthians 14:6-9

In the next chapter, Paul continues his comparison of speaking in languages or tongues without anyone understanding what is being said to the empty sound of certain instruments of music:

Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine? And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. (1 Corinthians 14:6-9.)

Language that is uttered and cannot be understood is just as meaningless and useless as someone playing on an instrument of music without playing by the science of harmony and distinction of sounds. Again, this passage cannot authorize instrumental music in our worship to God since it is not under consideration in this context. Copyright © 2008 Shelby Floyd All Rights Reserved