Resources/Articles
Instrumental Music: Used & Unused
It is without dispute that two opposite positions cannot both be right. While it is possible that both can be in error, both cannot be true. This is especially true relative to religious convictions and practices. For example, if asked, most people would say that instrumental music has always been used in worship. Historical evidence shows the very opposite to be true. One would be willfully ignorant after receiving this evidence. However this is not new (2 Peter 3:5).
Christians who understand the biblical principle of AUTHORITY have always maintained that there is no authority for the use of instruments of music in the New Testament. Although most modern-day denominations use mechanical instruments in worship, history shows that initially, instruments were not used. Singing was acapella style. However, that is not the only thing history reveals. The evidence from their own documents reveals that their opposition to instruments of music was made on the same basis for which we in the church of Christ still oppose them – NO AUTHORITY! Here is some of that evidence:
“Although Josephus tells of the wonderful effects produced in the Temple by the use of instruments, the first Christians were of too spiritual a fibre to substitute lifeless instruments for or to use them to accompany the human voice.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 10, pg. 648-652).
“For almost a thousand years Gregorian chant, without any instrumental or harmonic addition was the only music used in connection with the liturgy. The organ, in its primitive and rude form, was the first, and for a long time the sole, instrument used to accompany the chant. The church has never encouraged and at most only tolerated the use of instruments. She holds up as her ideal the unaccompanied chant, and polyphonic, acapella style.” (ibid pg. 657-688).
“Pope Vitalian is related to have first introduced organs into some of the churches of Western Europe about 670 but the earliest trustworthy account is that of one sent as a present by the Greek emperor Constantine Copronymus to Pepin, king of Franks in 755” (American Encyclopedia, Volume 12, p. 688).
“There is no certain evidence of the use of instruments in the Christian liturgy until the later Middle Ages. Because of the associations of musical instruments with immorality in the pagan world, the church fathers took a very dim view of them in any setting.” (Early Christians Speak, Sweet Publishing Co., Austin, 1971, pg. 161)
Other Historical Evidence:
Bingham: “Music in churches is as ancient as the apostles, but instrumental music not so.” (Joseph Bingham, Church of England, Works, vol. 3, page 137)
“Psallo … is used, in the New Testament, only in Romans 15:9 and 1 Corinthians 14:15, where it is translated sing; in James 5:13, where it is rendered sing psalms, and in the place before us. The idea here is that of singing in the heart, or praising God from the heart” (Albert Barnes, a Presbyterian, Notes on The Testament, comment on Ephesians 5:19).
Clarke: “But were it even evident, which it is not, either from this or any other place in the sacred writings, that instruments of music were prescribed by divine authority under the law, could this be adduced with any semblance of reason, that they ought to be used in Christian worship?” (Adam Clarke (Methodist), Clarke's Commentary, Methodist, Vol. II, pp. 690.)
Coleman: “The tendency of this (instrumental music) was to secularize the music of the church, and to encourage singing by a choir. Such musical accompaniments were gradually introduced; but they can hardly be assigned to a period earlier than the fifth and sixth centuries. Organs were unknown in church until the eighth or ninth centuries. (Lyman Coleman, a Presbyterian, Primitive Church, p. 376-377)
“The church, although lapsing more and more into deflection from the truth and into a corrupting of apostolic practice, had not instrumental music for 1200 years (that is, it was not in general use before this time); The Calvinistic Reform Church ejected it from its service as an element of popery, even the church of England having come very nigh its extrusion from her worship. It is heresy in the sphere of worship.” (John Giradeau, Presbyterian professor in Columbia Theological Seminary, Instrumental Music, p. 179).
Adam Clark, Methodist: “But were it even evident, which it is not, either from this or any other place in the sacred writings, that instruments of music were prescribed by divine authority under the law, could this be adduced with any semblance of reason, that they ought to be used in Christian worship? No; the whole spirit, soul, and genius of the Christian religion are against this; and those who know the Church of God best, and what constitutes its genuine spiritual state, know that these things have been introduced as a substitute for the life and power of religion; and that where they prevail most, there is least of the power of Christianity.” (Adam Clarke (Methodist), Clarke's Commentary, Methodist, Vol. II, pp. 690-691).
“If instrumental music was not part of early Christian worship, when did it become acceptable? Several reference works will help us see the progression of this practice among churches: "Pope Vitalian introduced an organ in the church in the seventh century to aid the singing but it was opposed and was removed.” (James Hasting, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics).
Instruments were initially UN-used, and gradually began to be used in worship. A question that beg serious consideration on this matter: “Were those who opposed the use of instruments wrong for doing so?” Would any present-day member of a denominational church say that they were in error for their opposition to the instrument? If not, does it not mean that their use today is wrong? Both positions can’t be right.
