WHY DON'T YOU PEOPLE USE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS DURING WORSHIP?

By Nana Yaw Aidoo

The question that makes up the title of this note was directed to this writer after close of service one time, by a lady and her mother, who visited the church of Christ at New Bortianor one Lord's day. Anyone who has visited a church of Christ before would surely have noticed that these groups of people do not accompany their singing with mechanical instruments of music, such as is common with many other religious groups today. Like the young lady and her mother above, the question on the lips of such visitors is "why?" Even some new converts to the Lord and His one true church, due to the influence of the religious world, contemporary "Christian" music, and the general decline in fundamental teachings in the churches of Christ also ask, "why?" In this article we want to touch on some reasons why churches of Christ do not use musical instruments during worship.

Firstly, churches of Christ do not use musical instruments during worship because it is not authorized by the New Testament. The need for Bible authority for our every word and/or action is set forth in these words by the apostle Paul; "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." (Col.3:17). To do something "in the name" of the Lord Jesus Christ, is to do that thing by the power or authority that the Lord Jesus Christ has given. (Acts 4:7).

Jesus Christ, who has absolute authority over everything in heaven and on earth (Matt.28:18), sent the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-14) to inspire the apostles to teach that, due to the death of Christ on the cross (Eph.2:14-16; Col.2:14), all men living today, are amenable to the new covenant alone. (2 Cor.3:6; Heb.8:13). Unlike those of the old covenant, who were plainly commanded by the Lord to use instruments in worship to Him (2 Chron.29:25), we who have been made "...sufficient as ministers of the new covenant..." have been commanded to sing. (see Eph.5:19; Col.3:16; 1 Cor.14:15) an action which is a "...fruit of our lips..." (Heb.13:15). Even our Lord Jesus Christ is said to spiritually join the church to sing praises to the Father in the assembly of saints (Heb.2:11-12). No authority for such existing in the New Testament, churches of Christ in consequence say no to musical instruments in worship.

Secondly, churches of Christ do not use musical instruments during worship because it cannot be done by faith. It is written that "...whatever is not from faith is sin." (Rom.14:23). As a result, Christians are to "...walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Cor.5:7). Prior to these words, the apostle Paul had written that "...faith comes by...the word of God." (Rom.10:17). Therefore, to do a religious act by faith is to do only that which the word of God says to do.

We however notice that nowhere in the entirety of the New Testament, which is the standard of faith and practice in the Christian age, are musical instruments in worship mentioned. It is not written of Christ or His apostles that they sanctioned it. It is not written of the early church that they utilized it. Musical instruments in worship are conspicuous by their absence in the New Testament writings. Therefore, using musical instruments in worship is not of faith. And since whatever is not of faith is sin, churches of Christ say no to musical instruments in worship.

Finally, churches of Christ do not use musical instruments in worship because it is inconsistent with the good side of the facts of history. History bears witness in that, students of ecclesiastical history admit that the introduction of musical instruments in Christian worship is to be laid squarely at the feet of the Roman Catholic Pope Vitalian in 666AD, over 500 years after the Lord's church begun and exactly 60 years after the Roman Catholic Church was fully organized. (Chambers Encyclopedia). Men who lived prior to this "dark" period posited in their writings that the apostolic way was and is Acapella (which by the way means "in the manner of the church").

Augustine who lived in the 4th century wrote;

"Musical instruments were not used. The pipe, tabret, and harp here associate so intimately with the sensual heathen cults, as well as with the wild revelries and shameless performances of the degenerate theater and circus, it is easy to understand the prejudices against their use in worship." (354 AD).

Chrysostom who also lived around 347 - 407 AD in his exposition of Psalms 41 wrote;

"David formerly sang songs, also today we sing hymns. He had a lyre with lifeless strings, the church has a lyre with living strings. Our tongues are the strings of the lyre with a different tone indeed but much more in accordance with piety." (Readings in Music History, ed. O. Strunk, W.W. Norton and Co.: New York, 1950, pg.70).

The voice of history is unmistakably clear. Instruments of music in worship were as foreign to the Lord's church as sin to the Lord's body.

These are some reasons why churches of Christ do not use musical instruments during worship. We encourage all who desire to act in order to the unity which our Lord prayed for (cf. John 17), to reject a practice that is so clearly a commandment of men (Mark 7:7) and all other practices that are commandments of men, and to stand squarely in and within that which the Bible calls "the apostles' doctrine." (Acts 2:42). For this is the only way that is right and cannot be wrong.