4. Objections Answered
Rev K M Watkins
Musical instruments were introduced and used in the worship of God only as and when God Himself appointed them. As the Old Testament’s ceremonial system grew more elaborate, especially with the building of the temple in Jerusalem, so did the instrumental accompaniment to God’s praise. But when Christ came and finished His work, the whole ceremonial system was abolished, including the use of musical instruments. Accordingly, the New Testament makes no provision for their use in the worship of the Christian Church. However, many churches today include instruments in their worship. They seek to justify their practice by raising objections against the teaching of Scripture outlined so far. This article seeks to answer those objections.
-
Some people appeal to the Psalms as a warrant for using instruments. Is it not arbitrary, they say, to sing Old Testament Psalms and reject the musical instruments often mentioned in the same Psalms? “Praise the Lord with harp: sing unto Him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings” (33:2). “Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery” (81:2). “Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm” (98:5). Even some who rarely or never use the Psalms in their praise are ready to resort to such verses to justify using instruments. The answer to this is clear. The Psalms, written during the age of types and ceremonies, naturally employ typical and ceremonial language. Some mention Jerusalem and the temple: “I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem” (116:18-19). Some speak of animal sacrifices and the altar: “Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar” (51:19). Some refer to the feasts: “Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day” (81:3). All these things have been abolished in the New Testament. The Christian Church is not to base her worship on the temple in Jerusalem, offer blood sacrifices on an altar, or keep the Jewish feasts. Although mentioned in the Psalms, these ceremonies were temporary, being withdrawn when Christ completed His work. Musical instruments are precisely the same. Even though mentioned in the Psalms, their physical use in worship was connected with the temple in Jerusalem and the priestly sacrifices; so they too were brought to an end in Christ. Psalm 150 is a favourite for those who advocate instruments in Christian worship. However, the Hallelujah psalms which close the Psalter are full of symbolism. Psalm 148 would have sun, moon, stars, fire, hail, snow, wind, mountains, trees, animals and birds, all praising the Lord! Psalm 150 itself would have everything that breathes joining in the praise (v6). Clearly, this final Psalm’s list of trumpet, psaltery, harp, timbrel, stringed instruments, organs and cymbals should not be pressed too literally. In any case, if Psalm 150 is a blueprint for Christian worship, then a single organ or piano would not suffice. Instruments would have to be multiplied: not one organ but “organs”, in the plural, along with all the rest. That would make music groups, or even whole orchestras, more Scriptural than a single organ or piano! Likewise, it would require dancing as well as instrument-playing, for the same Psalm says, “Praise Him with the timbrel and dance” (v4). Clearly, appealing to such a Psalm to justify the use of instrumental accompaniment in New Testament praise would prove far too much for many of its advocates.
-
Some assert that musical instruments improve the worship of the New Testament Church. To them, the singing of God’s praise sounds better when accompanied with instruments than unaccompanied. The first and altogether sufficient answer to this is that it is irrelevant what men think sounds good. In worship, the only sound that pleases God comes from worship that He has appointed. For Christian worship, that is the whole congregation singing with the unaccompanied human voice – for that is the only “instrument” that He tells us to use in the New Testament age (Eph 5:19, Col 3:16). In effect, those who voice this objection are setting their own personal taste against the revealed will of God. They want musical accompaniment because in their opinion it improves the worship, regardless of the fact that the Lord has not required it in His Word. “What then, is the improvement? It resolves itself into this – many like it, and therefore they must have it.”
-
Some argue that a mechanical device, such as an organ or piano, is necessary for orderly, tuneful singing, especially in larger congregations. In reply to this, if musical instruments really were necessary for the human voice to sing in an orderly manner, surely the God of order, who is “not the author of confusion” (1 Cor 14:33), would have thought of that and authorised their use. But also, it is false to say that congregations, even large ones, cannot sing appropriately without the help of a musical instrument. At the annual Mbuma Zending meeting in Holland, a congregation of some 5000 people sing unaccompanied without any problem at all. Back in the days when thousands gathered in the open air to communion seasons in Scotland, there were a number of precentors scattered through the large congregation. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. If any Christian congregation cannot sing suitably yet, the solution is for them to learn to do it, not to resort to a method unauthorised by God.
-
Some say that the sound of the organ or some other instrumental accompaniment helps them to worship, by putting them into a spiritual frame. It sets the mood, they say, for singing God’s praise with the right attitude. This is mystical and therefore invalid. Inanimate noise cannot in and of itself produce worship that is “in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:23). The best way to set the mood for singing the psalm in an appropriate way is for the one leading the worship to read the words before they are sung. It has rightly been said, “Devotional feelings cannot be produced but by conveying spiritual devotional thoughts to the soul, and those are not producible by the pipes of an organ”.
-
Some point to the absence in the New Testament of an express statement to the effect that musical instruments are not to be used in Christian worship. It is argued that if Christians were not to use instruments, surely they would have been expressly told this. Usually, this point is raised only by those for whom instrumental music is a vital element of their worship. We accept that the New Testament contains no express statement abolishing musical instruments in worship. But it is far from silent about abolishing the ceremonial system of worship that prevailed in the Old Testament. Musical instruments were part and parcel of that system; so when the system went, they went too, along with all its constituent elements.
-
Some argue that musical instruments are a mere circumstance of worship rather than a real element of worship itself, and therefore they can be used or not used as the Church sees fit, according to the common activities of men all over the world when they sing. In reply, we agree with the Westminster Confession when it acknowledges that there are such circumstances: “There are some circumstances concerning the worship of God . . . common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature, and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed” (1:6). However, God Himself did not treat instruments as mere circumstances surrounding worship, but as elements of substance in it. They had no place in Old Testament worship until He put them in it by His express command. When their presence increased in connection with temple worship, again it was only by His express appointment. In other words, God exercised total control over the matter; He did not leave it to His worshippers to bring in instruments “by the light of nature”. In exercising that control over instruments in His worship, God never put them into New Testament worship. In addition, to class something as a mere circumstance rather than a substantial element of worship, it must be common to human society and also necessary. Appointing a suitable time and place to meet for public worship is a circumstance of worship, because without that no gathering of people could be possible, and is done for all orderly public meetings. But accompanying singing with instruments is not necessary: it may be done, but it does not need to be done.
-
Some point to musical instruments as symbols of joy. Therefore they say that, in the Christian dispensation, which affords more joy to believers than under the Old Testament, instruments should have a part in worship, and indeed a more prominent part. It is true that instruments were used in temple worship to represent spiritual joy, at least in part. “With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King” (Ps 98:6). As part of ceremonial worship, musical instruments were types of that gospel joy, the increase of which was reserved for the New Testament dispensation. But that is not the same as saying that joy should still be expressed in the Old Testament way. Musical instruments were part of the system of “carnal ordinances” (Heb 9:10). A carnal, or fleshly, joy can come from the sound of musical instruments. This is not the same as the spiritual joy experienced by a sincere Christian enjoying fellowship with his Saviour. Instruments, along with all the rites and ceremonies of the Old Testament, were “imposed on them until the time of reformation” (Heb 9:10). Christians are free of that yoke. It is part of their greater privileges and freedoms that they worship without instruments. In the New Testament dispensation, Christians have the joy itself, not the symbols of it. Only two symbols have been appointed for New Testament worship: the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. It is not for the Church to add others. The gospel day has arrived; let Christians rejoice and be glad in it, by singing praise from their hearts, not by imitating it by using mechanical devices that were just a picture of it, and always meant to pass away. “Is any merry?” asks James in his Epistle (5:13). The reply could not be more characteristic of New Testament worship: “Let him sing psalms” – not play instruments!
-
Some say that it does not matter, and that musical instruments in Christian worship should not be made an issue. For the sake of unity, it is argued, let the issue just be dropped. For one thing, it is at best only a specious form of unity that can be achieved by ignoring differences in worship. It is disunity, and a breach of Christian unity, when one church worships one way, and another church worships another way. True Christian unity is unachievable without Biblical uniformity in doctrine, worship and government. All must agree on musical instruments. Either all must accept them, or all must reject them. Until then, there is a Scriptural duty to contend for the truth. This last objection also fails to comprehend the importance to the Lord of the regulative principle of worship. For the honour of the Head of the Church, pure worship must be contended for most earnestly. It matters to Christ; therefore it should matter to us. Nadab and Abihu found to their cost that the Lord takes it very seriously when people intrude things into His worship “which He commanded them not” (Lev 10:1). Musical instruments in the worship of the Christian Church are an equivalent to that strange fire. It is no love to fellow professing Christians to fail to warn them.
To conclude, when these objections are seen for what they are, none of them can overthrow or undermine the position that there is no Scriptural warrant for the use of musical instruments in New Testament worship. The Christian Church should never use them and we should never involve ourselves in their use.
True Christians are sanctified wholly, in their whole man, though they are not sanctified thoroughly. They are sanctified in every part, though they are not sanctified in the highest degree. Their whole spirit is sanctified, that is, the higher faculties of the soul, namely, the understanding and the will. Their understandings are enlightened by the Spirit unto a spiritual discerning both of good and evil, beyond what any natural man does or can attain unto. Their wills are bowed, or rather rectified and made straight, being inclined unto God and His law.
Thomas Vincent