“Y’all don’t believe in music, do you?” “You’re the ones that don’t use music, right?” “Why doesn’t your church use instruments?” Let me add the following caveat: my earliest years were spent in the Baptist Church. If you remember Ray Stevens and his song “The Mississippi Squirrel Revival,” the video was shot in the little Baptist Church I attended with my grandfather. New Hope Baptist Church in Hermitage, TN. Then, the church had a pianist and choir. As they grew, a full band, the choir, soloists, etc. My wife grew up Roman Catholic, and they also had their instruments. The first time I went to a church of Christ, I asked, “Where’s the choir supposed to stand?”
The short answer to why we don’t praise God with instruments hinges on identity. We aim to be as close to how the church was in the New Testament as we can observe. Scripturally and historically, the early church never used instruments in their worship. The Temple cult had instrumentalists and singers until its demolition by the Romans in AD 70. Also the pagan cults used them as well. The early church wanted to do as much as possible to distance themselves from both Judaism and paganism, though they more resembled the former rather than the latter. And by that, I mean the early church meetings were similar to synagogue meetings in many ways. Many scholars assert that the synagogue was the precursor to the church in organization, liturgy, etc.
They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food–but ordinary and innocent food.
Pliny, Letters 10.96-97 (AD 111-113)
The first question one tends to have is if using them is sinful or not. I don’t think in those terms. That’s like asking, “What’s the least amount I have to do or that I can get away with?” Again, for me, it’s about identity. I want to be as they were in the first century. If only I had some apostles and prophets around …
“Acapella” has been defined since the twentieth century as “unaccompanied vocal music.” Still, the etymology of the term itself is of Italian derivation and means “in the manner of the chapel [church]” or “according to the chapel” and was used in older church music (pre–1600) written for unaccompanied voices. Therefore, if the very term we use for singing without instruments means “according to the chapel” or “church,” then the word defines the music style used by the church.
For the first decade of Christianity, the only Christians were Jewish. They often met in either houses or synagogues (James 2:2), so the service would naturally resemble what occurred in a synagogue. Prayers, the law, and the prophets were read. An interpreter would translate what was read in Hebrew to those who didn’t understand it. The prayers were chanted or intoned. There were no hymns sung, unlike at the Temple. Yet, that changed, and in the assembly, Christians sang (1 Cor. 14:15; Eph. 5:18–19; Col. 3:16–17; Heb. 13:15; James 5:13). Ambrose of Milan, so I’ve read, introduced instruments in the West in the fourth century but was met with opposition. The organ was introduced in the West in the mid-eighth century, but instruments were widely used in the West by the tenth century. The East never adopted them (i.e., the Orthodox Church). The commonality of instruments in denominations only goes back 150 years, give or take. So, I might ask, “Why does your church use them?”
Many people don’t know that respected teachers in their denominations opposed them. Their main opposition was because it was “Catholic” to use them. Read what they had to say.
- The instrument in worship is an ensign of Baal. (Martin Luther [Catholic, then founder of the Lutheran Church])
- 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 other shadows of law. The Papists, therefore, have foolishly borrowed this, as well as many other things, from the Jews. Men who are fond of outward pomp may delight in that noise; but the simplicity which God recommends to us by the apostle is far more pleasing to him. (John Calvin [Puritans, Presbyterians, and earlier Baptists follow his theology] commenting on Psalm 33:2)
- I am an old man, and an old minister; and I here declare that I never knew them [instruments] productive of any good in the worship of God; and have reason to believe 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. (Adam Clarke [Methodist] commenting on Amos 6:5)
- I have no objection to instruments of music in our chapels, provided they are neither HEARD nor SEEN. (John Wesley, as quoted by Adam Clarke in Amos 6:5)
- I would just as soon pray with machinery as to sing with machinery. (Charles Spurgeon [Baptist] commenting on Psalm 42)
- 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 arose of old concerning the bass viol and smaller instrument of music. (David Benedict, in his book Fifty Years Among the Baptists)
- More important than explicit opposition to instruments is the simple fact that they are not used in the patristic period [A.D. 100-450]. (James W. McKinnon [Catholic] wrote this in his dissertation “The Church Fathers and Musical Instruments”)
Represented are Lutherans, Presbyterians, Wesleyans (Methodists and Church of Nazarene), Baptists, and Catholics—all of whom did not esteem instruments in Christian worship.
Once more, I point out the short answer: we don’t use instruments in worship because the early church didn’t either. We simply don’t use them because we seek to be as much like them as possible. Some people believe it adds to worship. We might disagree, but worshipping God shouldn’t be like a concert. If you look at passages depicting heaven (cf. Isaiah 6; Revelation 4-5), the hosts always praise God with their voices. I guess you could say we use instruments, but only the ones God created.
A Minister's Study 