Instrumental Music in Christian Worship – Is it God's Will?

I am sure there are millions of those who lay claim to being Christians who have never
given the subject of instrumental music in Christian worship a thought. It is just taken for
granted that it is a part of acceptable worship to God. I suspect even most of us who were
raised in a religious setting where instruments were never used in worship wondered
about it at one point in time or another. Was it really wrong to use them in worship and if
so why? Perhaps we were troubled to the point of studying the subject. If so we were to
be commended. Our religion should never be just a matter of inheritance from one
generation to another.

In studying the subject of instrumental music no man alive today can remember when
there was a time when instruments were not in common use and generally accepted
across what is called Christendom. However, it was over 600 years after Christ before
instrumental music was introduced into worship. Pope Vitalian, it is said, was the first to
add the instrument to the worship with the date being a little uncertain but it was
somewhere between 658 and 670 AD. While the Roman Catholic Church came to accept
it the Greek Catholic Church never did although that may now be changing some.

This historical fact is immensely important. It proves the introduction of instrumental

music into the worship was done by man rather than God. If of God rather than man why
did they not use the instrument from the beginning?

If it was of man who gave man the authority to bring it into the worship?

Remember when Jesus was confronted by the chief priests and elders who wanted to
know by what authority he was doing the things he was doing? He said he would answer
when they answered his question which was “The baptism of John, where was it from?
From heaven or from men?” (Matt. 21:25 NKJV) Thus we need to ask the question of
the instrument in Christian worship, where was it from, from heaven or from man? To
ask is to answer.

A man then has to ask himself some questions as he considers whether or not he wants to
worship with those who use instruments. Do I want as my authority for worship what
men gave or what God gave? They say it doesn’t matter; God doesn’t care. How can we
know this? I repeat, how can we know this? How can you be sure? Do you just know it
because your heart tells you so?

Jeremiah said, (Jer. 17:9 NKJV), “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked: who can know it?” Again the Lord says, “For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” (Isa. 55:8 NKJV) Just how
can a person know that a thing that clearly came from man, not God, is a matter of little
or no consequence with him?

The Bible is full of examples of men who thought it was a little thing to deviate a little
from what God had said with regards to the worship of him - that it would not matter.
One thinks of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons, who “each took his censer and put fire in
it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not
commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they
died before the Lord.” (Lev 10:1-2 ESV) You and I can be absolutely certain they did not
think it mattered.

Uzziah was one of the kings of Judah whom you can read about in 2 Chron. 26. The
Bible says “he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord
to burn incense on the altar of incense.” (2 Chron. 26:16 NKJV) Azariah the priest along
with 80 other priests went in after him and withstood him to the face for only the priests,
the sons of Aaron, had God authorized to perform this service. Uzziah became very
angry with them at which time leprosy broke out on his forehead from God. He remained
a leper until the day of his death living in isolation. Do you think Uzziah thought it
would matter with God if he entered the temple and burned incense? Do you think he
would have done it had he thought so?

Other examples could be given for in reality much of the problem with God’s people in
the Old Testament can be traced back to the idea that they did not think who they
worshipped or how they worshipped made much difference. One sees some of the same
tendencies in the New Testament. What is Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 11
all about if it is not about the corruption of the worship in how the Lord’s supper is to be
partaken of? Does it matter to God? Some are still saying today it does not matter. We
can do this or that with it. How can one say that in light of history? Why does Paul place
restrictions on women in the public worship if things like that do not matter?

Those who say the instrument does not matter know more than any man can possibly
know. No man can know a thing with certainty about which God has said nothing. I
once read a sermon whose message in the title has stuck in my memory now for decades.
The sermon was by a preacher named Benjamin Franklin, some distant relation to the
Benjamin Franklin of historical fame, in a book entitled The Gospel Preacher, Vol. 1.
The name of the sermon was “The Course to Pursue to be Infallibly Safe.” That sermon
had nothing to do with instrumental music but it seems to me the title is exceedingly
applicable to the subject.

Is there an infallibly safe way where a man can be right beyond any question and in
which all men would agree there is safety with regards to the subject of instrumental
music in the worship? Yes there is. No person who calls himself a Christian has ever
questioned the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with the voice only and
without the use of musical instruments. All agree this is pleasing to God without question
or doubt of any kind.

Paul says we are to speak to one another “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:19 NKJV). See also Col.
3:16. All accept the teachings of these two passages without question as being what is
good and right and acceptable and pleasing before the Lord. Yes, there is an infallibly
safe way we ought to pursue.
However, if a person chooses to be reckless, if a person desires to be a gambler, if a
person wants to take a chance he must also be prepared to take the consequences if his
heart misleads him on the matter and he finds out that God does not think as he thinks on
the last day. Consequences are in this case eternal. It is quite a gamble. Of course, if
you ask the man or woman who is involved in the worship where the instrument is used
they will tell you they are not gambling, they know it is okay. Ask them how they know
and they are not able to give a satisfactory answer only that their heart tells them so.

G. K. Wallace wrote a tract on the subject of instrumental music years ago that took an
unusual slant but one that also left a lasting impression with me. His thesis was that we
have to decide what we will be guided by. Will it be by what the Bible says or by what
the Bible does not say?

The New Testament is the new covenant of Christ under which we live today, not the Old
Testament. There were instruments of music used in Old Testament worship. Why was it
okay to use them? Because there was word from God approving such under the law of
Moses (read the Psalms). Why is it wrong to use them today? Because there is no word
from God approving such under the law of Christ under which we live today.

If a man desired to live under the law of Moses today he could not be saved. Much of the
books of Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews discuss this very issue. We cannot hope to be
saved today by animal sacrifice, by worshipping as they worshipped, by observing Jewish
festivals, etc..

Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Rom. 10:17). Where there is no word from
God there can be no faith. Yes, people believe it is okay to use instruments of music in
Christian worship but their belief is not based on the word of God and thus is not faith as
defined by the word of God (Rom. 10:17); faith based on the word of God demands word
from God. There is no word from God in the New Testament regarding men worshipping
him with instruments of music.

When the word of God is silent on a subject no matter how much you may believe what
you really have is opinion, not Bible faith. If there is no word of God on a subject there
can be no faith, only opinion. To have faith you must first hear the word of God (Rom.
10:17). This is further proof we cannot be guided by what the Bible does not say – not if
we are to walk by faith.

A foundational principle of the Christian faith is that “without faith it is impossible to

please Him (God – DS)”. (Heb. 11:6 NKJV) Faith is always dependent on evidence. We
don’t believe in little green men, pink elephants, nor ten foot tall mushrooms because
there is no evidence of their existence. We do not actually have to see a thing to believe it
but we do have to have evidence.
When it comes to instrumental music the problem is that evidence is lacking. Not a
single word about it’s usage is found in the New Testament. It is hard to have faith in a
thing that is not even mentioned or hinted at. Is silence reasonable evidence?

There is plenty of evidence, however, in the pages of the Bible about changing worship to
God. All the evidence points towards the idea that it is a very dangerous thing for man to
change the worship of God.

In Matt. 15:9 Jesus quotes Isaiah and applies it to those with whom he was speaking as
follows: “And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of
men.” (NKJV) I want you to look at some things. These people were worshipping God,
not idols. Yet, it was all in vain. Why? They were “teaching as doctrines the
commandments of men.”

Those who use instruments of music in Christian worship teach their acceptability. Is this
teaching of God or man? If of God where does the New Testament so teach the thing? If
of God why did it take 600 years after Christ's death to get it started?

Had God desired that we use instruments how hard would it have been for him to of told
us? Not very. He told the Jews but he did not tell the Christians. Where there is no word
from God there can be no scriptural faith (although there may be a lot of opinion passed
off as faith).

That said and understood what does the law of Christ teach in the New Testament about
instrumental music? Not one thing. Where is there a single passage found that gives any
support whatsoever, any command, any example of instrumental music in the worship of
Christians? The passage cannot be found.

One might go to the book of Revelation and find it there one says. But, the book of
Revelation is a symbolic book. Do we think spiritual beings play literal instruments?
Besides, if they are found in heaven what has that to do with the here and now? If they
are there I will be glad to play them with you if we both get there. Right now you and I
are living in the here and now under the law of Christ.

Brother Wallace was correct. If I use the instrument in worship I am not being guided by
what the Bible says but by what the Bible does not say. The Bible does not say not to use
them. I am being guided by what the Bible does not say. Is this the way we are to live?

Let us be guided by what the Bible does say. If I sing the Bible does say I am to sing and
I am thus being guided by what the Bible says.

If this is how I derive Bible authority for what is right, the silence of the Bible, then we
are free to bring into the worship anything not specifically prohibited by direct command.
We can again burn incense as did the Jews of old, perform Christian (?) dramas, eat
hamburgers for Jesus, and just about anything else we want to do that the heart can
imagine.
In fact, we all know this is exactly what is and has happened in the so called Christian
world of today. You name it and someone is doing it. However, ask the question whether
it is of God or man and you easily come up with the answer. No, not because they will
tell you but you are a reasonable person and can figure out that if God gave it you ought
to be able to find the book, chapter, and verse. Happy hunting.

Of course if your guide is what the Bible does not say then really who needs the Bible?
If a man does not need the Bible as a guide then of what value is it?

Paul tells us, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7 NKJV). The whole teaching of
the Bible is that a man is to hear the word of God, believe it, and obey it. In fact, this is
the bedrock of gospel obedience. You cannot obey the gospel any other way. This is the
only way a man can walk by faith – hear, believe, and obey.