Mechanical Instruments of Music in the Worship Assembly by Dr. Johnny O. Trail, LMFT
One of the things that many people notice when they attend the services of the churches of Christ is the absence of mechanical instruments of music being used in the worship assembly. In truth, this comes as a surprise to many, and much speculation ensues from those who might not fully understand why no instruments can be found in the context of worship. This absence stands in contradistinction from denominational groups who use various instruments in their attempt to worship God. What of this practice? Does scripture, biblical language, history, or scholarship offer any insight into this topic?
For most of the twentieth and twenty-first century, religiously minded people have debated the use of instruments in the worship assembly. This discussion is not the source of any small controversy. Suffice it to say that we must determine God’s will for His people regarding worship and seek to obey it. John 4. 24 says, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” God wants human beings to worship Him according to the standard put forth in scripture.
In addition to outlining the appropriate manner of approaching God in song, Paul underscores the need to find authorization for all that we do in worship or in life. His remarks in Colossians 3.16-17 make these things abundantly clear. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
In regards to these passages, one wonders if the Holy Spirit, in His omnipotence, did not realize that there would be controversy regarding worship and singing over and against the use of a mechanical instrument. Regardless, one needs authority for what he does in worship.
In addition to these words, Paul makes it clear that singing is the appropriate means of praising God in the worship assembly and not by the use of mechanical instruments in singing. Ephesians 5.19 says, “Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.” Paul further says in, 1 Corinthians 14:15 “What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.”
In addition to the aforementioned facts, there is no biblical support for the use of the instrument in the worship assembly. When one reads the entirety of the New Testament, it becomes apparent that there is not one single reference to an instrument of music being used in the worship assembly of the church.
Still, there are those who want to offer objections to what the Bible teaches regarding singing in worship. Just recently several large congregations that wear the title “church of Christ” have come out and publicly endorsed the use of the instrument in the worship assembly.
One of the arguments that is sometimes used is “It doesn’t say ‘not’ to do it.” This is part of a potentially deeper consideration when one considers this objection. A better way of considering this argument might be done by asking “How does one treat God when you interpret Him from silence?”
In reality, we use arguments from silence all of the time. By expressing what we want we exclude other things. If one tells a waiter in a restaurant that he wants a hamburger with ketchup only, it excludes all other toppings and condiments. If the server comes out with additional items on the hamburger, they have not done according to the request.
This having been said, there are those who want biblical examples of arguments from silence. The Hebrew writer makes an argument from silence regarding Christ and the Levitical priesthood. Hebrews 7:12-14 “For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.”
Some have tried to argue that the absence of instruments in the worship assembly is unique to the churches of Christ. There is much evidence to prove that this is a false assumption. Did you know that prior to the turn of the twentieth century in the United States the vast majority of denominations did not have instruments in their worship assemblies (Highers)? Why was this the case?
In part, the answer is that many of their leaders objected to their use! For a few moments, let us consider some of their arguments.
John Spencer Curwen was a member of the Royal Academy of Music and President of a college in London around 1880. Notice what he says about the history of instrumental music. “Men still living can remember the time when organs were very seldom found out of the Church of England. The Methodists, Independents, and Baptists rarely had them, and by the Presbyterians they were stoutly opposed.”
Adam Clarke wrote about the use of instruments in worship. He says, “I believe that David was not authorized by the Lord to introduce the multitude of musical instruments into the Divine worship of which we read, and I am satisfied that his conduct in this respect is most solemnly reprehended by this prophet [Amos 6.5—JOT]. And I further believe that the use of such instruments of music in the Christian church is without the sanction and against the will of God; that they are subversive of the spirit of true devotion, and that they are sinful…I am an old man, and an old minister; and I here declare that I never knew them productive of any good in the worship of God; and have reason to believe that they were productive of much evil. Music, as a science, I esteem and admire: but instruments of music in the house of God I abominate and abhor.”
John Calvin is one of the best known theological teachers of the past. He was also against the use of the instrument in the worship assembly. “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 [Roman Catholics—JOT] therefore, have foolishly borrowed this, as well as many other things, from the Jews.”
Charles Spurgeon was perhaps the greatest Baptist preacher who ever lived. Many scholars would support this claim to this very day. His books, writings, and sermons are still published. As a matter of fact, you can still purchase his materials in our age.
Many are shocked to learn that Spurgeon was not in favor of instrumental music in worship. The congregation that he preached for in London, the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle, did not use instruments. He states,
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 prettinesses 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.
David Benedict was one of the greatest historians of the Baptists. Notice what he says about the use of the instrument:
Staunch old Baptists in former times would have as soon tolerated the Pope of Rome in their pulpits as an organ in their galleries. And yet the instrument has gradually found its way among them and their successors in church management, with nothing like the jars and difficulties which arouse ofold concerning the bass viol and smaller instruments of music.
John Wesley is also known as one who was in opposition to the use of the instrument in worship. He says, “I have no objection to the organ in our chapels provided it is neither heard nor seen.”
James W. McKinnon, Ph. D. and professor of music at Columbia University was also against the use of the instrument. He says, “More important than explicit opposition to instruments is the simple fact that they were not used in the patristic period” (McKinnon). The Patristic period deals with the period of time when men wrote about the church four centuries after it was established in AD 33.
What is the implication of this statement? There is no record of the church using an instrument for several centuries after its establishment!
Furthermore, there is much linguistic evidence to demonstrate that the instrument is not authorized in scripture. The Greek word under consideration in regards to these pertinent passages is psallo (Bauer 891). The word psallo or its derivatives is found five times in scripture. It is used in Ephesians 5.19, I Corinthians 14.5 (2 times), Romans 15.9, and in James 5.13. It is translated “making melody” (Eph. 5.19), “sing,” (I Cor. 14.5; Rom. 15.9), and “sing praises” in James 5.13.
Some have argued that this word means to “play an instrument,” however every reliable English translation renders the word “sing.” Greek Lexicons render the term as “to pluck” (Thayer 891).
What does it mean for the term to be rendered in this fashion? Let us consider it in Ephesians 5:19. “Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.” The Greek phrase is ?a????te? t? ?a?d?a and it means to “pluck the heart.” In essence, we all play an instrument in worship—our hearts (Lockhart 34-37).
Moreover, there is much to be gleaned from the universal agreement of various scholars regarding the psallo. David Sain comments, “First note…that the one hundred and forty-eight scholars who translated the American Standard Version and the King James Version have said with one voice that ‘psallo’ in the New Testament means ‘sing.’ That alone should settle the matter.” In essence, it is hard to get even two scholars to agree much less one hundred and forty-eight.
Along these same lines, Hugo McCord, Th.D., chimes in regarding our consideration of this word. He says,
Furthermore, if ‘a certain Greek word, psallo, demands instrumental accompaniment to the singing,’ one wonders why the Greek Orthodox Church (100 million members) does not use instrumental music in its worship services. One of their members (a graduate student at Harvard University, talking to Everett Ferguson) gave two reasons why ‘we do not use instrumental music: it is not in the New Testament [and] contrary to the nature of Christian worship…Thus one who know the Greek language says that there ‘is not in the New Testament’ a certain word that demands instrumental accompaniment to singing. Furthermore, if there were a certain word in the Greek New Testament that demands instrumental accompaniment to singing, one wonders why all the popular English Translations have omitted it. One reads through the New Testament (260 chapter, 7,959 verses, 181,253 words in the KJV) and finds no reference to instrumental accompaniment to singing…In addition, if psallo demands instrumental accompaniment, then each worshipper must play on his individual instrument as well as do his own singing. Worship is an individual action between a human being and his God. No one can worship God by proxy, having a choir to do his singing and a piano player to do his playing. If that certain Greek word has two actions wrapped up in it, singing and playing, each Christian is commanded to do both.
The scriptural, linguistic, and historical evidence is decidedly against the use of the instrument in the worship assembly. The true question is, “Will Jesus and His word be the source of authority for what people choose to do in the worship assembly?” Colossians 3.17 says, “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”
Endnotes:
Bauer, Walter (19598). A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Benedict, David (1859, reprinted by Newman and Collins, 1913), Fifty Years Among the Baptists.
Clark, Adam (n.d.). A Commentary and Critical Notes: Joshua to Esther. Nashville, Abington
Press.
Highers, Alan E. (2004). “What About Instrumental Music in Worship?” Lecture Given at
Hartsville Pike church of Christ. 21st Century Christian.
Kurfees, M.C. (1911). Instrumental Music in the Worship: The Greek Verb Psallo Philologically
and Historically Examined. Faith and Facts Press, Indianapolis. This is an excellent
resources on the materials covered in this treatise.
Lockhard, Jay (2015). “The Significance of PSALLO.” The Spiritual Sword, Vol. 46, No. 4. pg.
34-37.
Thayer, Joseph Henry (1889). A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. (Harper and
Brothers, Chicago. American Book Company, reprint, n.d.)
McKinnon, James W. (1965). The Church Fathers and Musical Instruments (Ph.D. Dissertation,
Columbia University).
Other Resources:
Lewis, Jack P. Ferguson, Everett, and West, Earl (1987). The Instrumental Music Issue. Nashville,
Gospel Advocate.
Ferguson, Everett (1999). A Capella Music in the Public Worship of the Church. Fort Worth, Star
Bible Publications
Lewis, Jack P. (2008). “The Question of Instrumental Music in Worship.” Truth for Today,
Searcy.
Miller, Dave (2007). Richland Hills and Instrumental Music. Montgomery, Apologetic Press
