Music

I did not expect anyone to agree with me. Hopefully I can make you think about it though.
These passages come directly from a book.

Departures from the word of God heave centered in 3 major things--organization, doctrine, and worship. Departure in organization came first. It was a gradual development and resulted in the Roman Catholic Church. Departure in doctrine came second. It was also gradual and finally resulted in the Pops's claim of infalliability and the right to change the law of God. Then came the departure in the realm of worship.

The first organ was introduced into teh worship of any body of people claimimg to be christians was 670 years after Christ. It was introduced by Pope Vitalian I. It threatened division in the Roman Catholic Church. They took it out to preserve the unity of the church. Eight hundred years after Christ the organ was reintroduced into Roman Catholic worship over some opposition. The Greek Catholic Church refused it and still reject it. They do not use it today.

Martin Luther rejected teh use of the organ. He said: " The organ in the worship of God is a sign of Baal." John Calvin, the organizer of the Presbyterian Church, and author of the calvinistic creed , said of the organ in the worship: " It is no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting of tapers or the rivivalof the other shadows of the law. the Roman Catholics borrowed it from the Jews."

When John Wesley, founder of Methodism, was asked about the use of the organ, he tersley said: " I have no objection to the organ in our chapels provided it is neither herad nor seen."

Skipping a couple of sections now.

In ephesians 5:19 we are commanded to speak" one to another in psalms and hymns and spirtual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord." The expression making melody is the greek word psallontes, a derivitive
of teh Greek verb psallo. The word psallo occurs in teh new testament 5 times. In Ephesians 5:19 it is translated "making melody." In I Corinthians 14:15 its found twice and translated "sing." In Romans 15:9 it is translated "sing." In James 5:13 it is translated "sing praises." So the word psallo is used 5 times in the New Testament. 4 times it is translated "sing" 1 time it is translated "making melody." But not satisfied with the english translation, not satisfied with twh meaning 148 of the worlds riest scholars gave to the word psallo, some seek to find authority for instrumental music by going to greek lexicons. What do lexicons say the word psallo means? The lexicons define it as to pluck, to twang, to pull, to cause to viberate. Since psallo means to pluck, one must have something to pluck in order to psallo. So the word has had various uses. A hunter plucked the bowstring to shoot the arrow. He psalloed the bow string. The workman plucked the carpenters line. It was even aplied to plucking the beard, and pulling teh hair. But teh musician plucke dthe chords of a musical instrument. That was psalloing the instrument. Now, Paul commands us all to psallo. What did he mean? Did he mean to pull the hair? When Paul tells us to psallo, did he mean toplay a mechanical instrument of music? he tells what he meant. He does not leave it to guess. He says, " singing and psalloing [psallontes]with your heart."Now when a man pulls back he is "salloing"the bow string. When a carpenter pulls a line to make a chalk mark he is "salloing"that carenters line. When a mucician plays an instrument he is "psalloing" that instrumnet. But in this passage Paul says when Christians sing they psallo the heart- make melody in the heart. It is spiritual "psalloing", "psalloing" the heart. It is a spiritual use of the word.

If the word psallo in the New Testament includes the mechanical instrument, the only one who performs the act of psalloing is the one who plays tehinstrument. The organist is the only one who obeys the command. Paul tells us all topsallo. All can do it, but none by proxy.

I could type much more but for brevity's sake I will stop for now. I hope you all read this throughly and not just dismiss it because you have always had music in church.

I'll just do a cut and paste if you don't mind.


ANOTHER LOOK AT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC AND THE SILENCE OF THE SCRIPTURE



Copyright © 2003, by John Lankford, Fort Smith, Arkansas



[size=+1]In a previous article (A Closer Look at the Silence of Scripture), an attempt was made to show that "silence-in-context" is the correct approach to its understanding. This means that when statements are collected on a topic a coherent picture may emerge that "explains" why some things are not-mentioned. The emphasis is to FIRST get positive facts and then interpret the silence from there. This contrasts with the automatic use of silence to either allow or forbid something separate from its context (see Note 1 below).

First, the issue of music in worship must be understood in the context of the design of the New Covenant as contrasted with the Old Covenant. The New Covenant will be different than the Old Covenant as per worship (John 4:21ff). The physical of the Old Covenant pointed to or stood for the "true" of the New (Hebrews 10:1ff). In particular, the Temple of the Old Covenant has been replaced by the bodies of Christians (1 Corinthians 6:19). Each person is the TRUE TEMPLE or "house of prayer" (Mark 11:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:17). And in this NEW TEMPLE the Spirit of God dwells (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19; Acts 2:38). Now, just as the OLD Temple had physical instruments of music to accompany the singing/sacrifices (2 Chronicles 29:25ff; Psalm 150), these have been replaced in the NEW TEMPLE with a NEW KIND of instrument to accompany the singing. It is the "vibrating strings" of the heart [Greek psallo, translated "making melody" in Ephesians 5:19, basically means "to twang, to pluck, to vibrate," but only the context tells what is to receive the action. In Ephesians 5:19, it is "the heart," see R1, R2]. Hence, the text literally means "sing accompanied by the vibrating strings of the heart" (note the instrument has changed from physical to spiritual). Also, this NEW TEMPLE is mobile (a person) and continually carries with it all the musical apparatus needed for daily worship (e.g., Acts 16:25). When all the pieces are put together, it shows that the simplicity of the NEW TEMPLE is by DIVINE DESIGN. Hence, it should not be modified. (Deuteronomy 4:2; Hebrews 8:5; 1 Corinthians 4:7).

Second, in the Old Covenant musical instruments in worship were clearly stated as being a part of the will of God (2 Chronicles 29:25ff; Psalm 150). When writing Ephesians 5:19, Greek words in New Testament times to clearly signify playing on a physical instrument are kitharizo, auleo, or kreko. If singing is to be accompanied by a physical instrument, then the words were available to convey this idea succinctly. For example, in 1 Corinthians 14:7, Paul selected the word auleo to indicate "to play a flute" (see R3). Hence, Paul's word selection and phrasing in Ephesians 5:19 is significant because it points toward pure vocal music instead of singing accompanied by a man-made instrument.

Third, in contrast to the special priesthood of the Old Covenant, now all Christians are priests and have sacrifices to offer (1 Peter 2:5). But the sacrifices in Old Covenant worship have been replaced by a NEW KIND of sacrifice (1 Peter 2:5). The entire life is offered (Romans 12:1) and includes sacrifices of praise which are specifically the"fruit of lips" (Hebrews 13:15) . Singing precisely fulfills this (Colossians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 14:15) but instrumental music cannot. This can account for its absence in the New Testament record.

Fourth, in Ephesians 5:15-20 pagan practice is contrasted with Christian practice and the vocal nature of New Covenant music is clearly seen. The comments by the scholarly Conybeare and Howson of the Church of England state in their Life and Epistles of St. Paul (vol II, p. 408) "the whole passage is a contrast between heathen and Christian practice ... not in fullness of wine but fullness of Spirit ... not the ... songs of heathen feasts but psalms and hymns ... not the music of the lyre, but melody in the heart ... praises not of Bacchus or Venus but Jesus." In this case, instrumental music is identified with paganism and not Christian worship. That Christian practice should not be stained by the pagan world is the point (see also James 1:17; Romans 12:2). Therefore, from a view of its association with paganism, musical instruments would be expected to be absent from Christian worship.


Notice that points 1-4 each approach the subject from different viewpoints but they tie together and reinforce each other. This interweaving makes firm the emergent picture of "just singing" being the music style of the New Covenant (see R5).


TESTING 1, 2, 3 ...

A good test of any idea is its ability to explain. How does the picture above fare in this regard?

1. It fully explains the silence of the New Testament materials on musical instruments in early church worship on earth (see R5).
   
   
   
2. It best explains why "just singing" was the norm for early church writers and instruments were denounced (see R3, R4).
   
   
   
3. It best explains the long interval of time before musical instrumentals were introduced into worship [10th century according to E. Coffman, the Christian History analyst for Christianity Today (see R7). Others say Pope Vitalian (circa 660)]. [Note: the Greek Orthodox Church still omits musical instruments (see R2).]
   
   
   
4. It best explains why learned men throughout church history (Knox, Calvin, Zwingli, etc.), who differ in many areas, all unite in stating that musical instruments are out of place in Christian worship (see R9).
   
   
   
5. It best explains why phrase "A Cappella" is known by music historians as a one-word history lesson of early church music. (Dr. William M. Green, Professor of Classical Languages, University of California, Berkeley.)
   

Note above how "silence" is not the main argument, it only corroborates a design that is actually revealed in Scripture.


SUMMARY / CONCLUSION / APPLICATION

By using a clinical, historical approach it has been shown that (1) a coherent picture emerges that shows that the music style of the New Covenant is purely vocal, (2) that scriptural statements viewing worship from different perspectives all tie together to reinforce this picture, and (3) this picture best explains the silence of the New Testament and other early Christian writings on using instruments in worship. Hence, the cumulative weight of testimony is very solid. Therefore, we should follow the direction the evidence points and this rightfully excludes musical instruments (see Note 2 below).


End Notes

• Note 1 -- Often the approach is just to list all the passages that mention singing and then say there is no mention of instruments, so they are therefore excluded. This illustrates the "automatic" use of silence to exclude a matter. We believe that this is a faulty use of silence.
  
  Note 2 -- It seems that those who allow the use of a musical instrument (a) have honestly not seen/heard how the total testimony weighs against it, (b) heard it denounced by a faulty use of silence, or (c) they simply intend to follow their own wants and the facts are immaterial. Within Churches of Christ it seems that (a) and (b) are the dominant factors.
  

Recommended further study (all available in the West-Ark Church of Christ library or online)

• R1) "Psallo" defined by standard lexicons (www.studylight.org/lex/grk). Also see Kittel, TDNT Vol. 8, p. 490ff.
• R2) Letter from Greek Orthodox Church official that translates/explains Ephesians 5:19 according to the original Greek in context.
• R3) A Cappella Music (Dr. Everett Ferguson, world-recognized authority on early Christianity).
• R4) Music in Early Christian Literature (Dr. James McKinnon, Distinguished Professor of Music, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill).
• R5) Why Don't We Use Musical Instruments in Worship? (Dr. Michael Cole uses a different approach in this article that further solidifies the idea that "just singing" is the New Testament design.)
• R6) Instrumental Music and New Testament Worship (Dr. J.D. Bales)
• R7) When Was Instrumental Music First Used? (Elesha Coffman, www.christianitytoday.com)
• R8) Worship Concepts (sermon by David Chadwell)
• R9) What did early Christians believe about using instrumental music in worship? (Collection of statements, www.bible.ca./H-music.htm)

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He can't The no music in church is just the preference of himself and his denomination. Nothing wrong with that but the way he started this thread it was as if music in church is un-godly and it's not. It's just a way of worship his denomination prefers. Which is fine but nobody should condemn others for choosing music in worship.

Click to expand...

You couldn't have read it as you posted this at 1:04 and my previous post was at 1:00. The scripture is there he asked for if anyone cares to read it. What you think of it is up to you all. The question you might want to ask is where does your church get its authority from for using instruments.

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by Michael S. Cole, M.D.