| Why No Organ?
Visitors to our worship services, while
often complimentary of the singing, many times question as to why we
have no organ or band instruments to accompany us. It is not because
this church could not afford an organ or a guitar (it could). Nor is it
because we as individuals dislike the sound they make. But there are
reasons, and we will try to explain them in as few words as possible.
The reasons all center around our desire to please God. God is the only
One worthy of worship, and thus He is to be the focus of everything we
do (Revelation 22:8-9; John 4:24). When we worship God it must of
necessity be from the perspective of, “What does God want? How does He
desire to be worshipped?”
God speaks today through His Son, Jesus, who has been given all
authority (Hebrews 1:1-2; Matthew 28:18). “He is the mediator of the new
covenant, by means of death...” (Hebrews 9:15). This new covenant, or
“testament” (Hebrews 9:15ff) instructs us as to what God desires in
worship, including in music, commanding Christians to sing. “Let the
word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and
admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Colossians 3:16). In every
passage in the New Testament that pertains to the musical worship of God
by His people on earth, singing is specified (please see Acts 16:25;
Ephesians 5:19; James 5:13). But nowhere in the teaching of Christ is
the playing of mechanical instruments of music authorized for the
worship of the church.
When God specifies the doing of a thing, we are not at liberty to add to
or subtract from it. The Lord specified singing. If He had not
specified, but simply said, “Worship Me with music,” then we would be at
liberty to sing, whistle, beat drums, strum guitars, or do anything else
that would make music. But His word is specific in that it commands us
to sing.
Some have reasoned, “Well, the Lord didn’t say ‘not to’ play instruments
in our worship.” This is true, but neither did He say “not to” use pizza
and Pepsi as emblems for the Lord’s Supper, nor did He say “not to”
baptize unbelievers. Again, the point is that when God specifies a thing
(whether the type of music, or the elements for the Lord’s Supper, or
the subjects for baptism, or any other thing), such excludes all else.
Surely we can understand this, for we use these same basic rules of
authority in every other realm of life. For instance, if one sent his
daughter to the store with a dollar, along with the instructions, “Get
some eggs,” He doesn’t have to say, “Don’t get some gum, don’t get a
Coke, don’t get a Snickers bar.” She understands that by his specifying
eggs, such excludes anything else that she might like to buy. Yes
beloved, we can understand this. God’s commands are to be followed and
not added to, subtracted from, or substituted for. “Whoever transgresses
and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God” (2 John
9).
The church of the New Testament did not use mechanical instruments of
music. Search the pages of the New Testament and you’ll see that there
is not one instance of them being used. While there were instruments in
Jewish places of worship, there were none where disciples of Jesus met.
In fact, one has to travel six centuries outside of the history of the
Bible to find them first being introduced into worship by Catholic Pope
Vitalian in 660 AD (McClintock & Strong’s Cyclopedia, Vol.8, p.739).
Neither the pope nor any other man (or council of men) is the standard
of authority in religious matters.
“But they had instruments in the Old Testament,” some have rationalized.
This is so, but the Old Testament was “abolished” and “nailed to the
cross” when Jesus died on Calvary (Ephesians 2:14-16; Colossians 2:14).
It is not our standard of authority today, and those who go to it to
justify their practices are deemed to be “estranged from Christ” and
“fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4).
“But is this really that big of a deal?” We believe that it is to those
whose earnest desire is to worship God as He directs. This fundamental
fact needs to be remembered: We are worshiping God, not ourselves, and
just because we are pleased with our worship doesn’t mean that He is
(see Matthew 15:9).
We encourage all to worship God “in spirit and truth; for the Father is
seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:24).
--Mike Noble
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