Churches of Christ hold the view that the practice of worshipping with instruments of music is unchristian positing that the practice was unknown to the early church. This belief is premised on the conviction that there is neither command nor precept for the practice in the Scriptures. With reference to Bible passages like Acts 16:
25; Romans 15:9, 1 Cor. 14; 15; Eph. 5: 19 Col. 3: 16; Heb. 2: 12 and James 5: 13, the church claims that every single New Testament reference to music in divine worship refers to singing devoid of instruments (Acappella). It is argued further that the New Testament law of worship is set forth in John 4: 24 which states that God is Spirit and there could be no worship that can be right unless it is done in spirit and in truth. Hence Churches of Christ conclude that instrumental music in worship violates God‘s commandment on worship articulated in John 4: 24.330
Churches of Christ further maintain that examples of the use of instrumental music in worship in the Old Testament do not justify its use in the contemporary church because the Old Testament is no longer binding on Christians as a system of religious
330J. M. Tolle. 1981. Like the Early Christians She Worships in Song. Introducing the Church of Christ, Fort Worth, Texas: Star Bible Publications Inc., 46. See also L. Rushmore. Why Do Churches of Christ Not Use Instrumental Music in Worship? Gospel Gazette 7.10. Oct. 2005: 1-5 and L. Rushmore. Music of the First Century. Gospel Gazette 8. 6. July, 2006: 1-6.
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doctrine and practices as it has been nailed to the cross for the New Testament to come to force (Heb. 10: 9-10; Col. 2: 14). The Old Testament therefore, is not the appropriate place to look for what God authorized in worship for Christians. This position is informed by the Church of Christ‘s dispensational approach to biblical interpretation.
Under this hermeneutical method, the Bible is divided into three epochs: Patrichal, Mosaic and the Christian. Consequently, it is argued that the Old Testament covered the patrichal and the mosaic eras and since Christians are not under those epochs, they denied the legitimacy of the Old Testament to regulate Christian faith and practice but recognized and valued instructive lessons and teachings in its narratives (Romans 15: 4).
Churches of Christ went further to justify this hermeneutical presupposition historically by positing that the first appearance of instrumental music in Christian worship was in the sixth century A. D; that there was not a solitary reference to the use of instrumental music in any congregation of the Lord‘s people during the entirety of the apostolic age.331
Unlike Churches of Christ, most Christian denominations employ the use of instruments of music in worship services with the exception of the Presbyterian Church, the Plymouth Brethren, Old Regular Baptists, Primitive Baptists,332 Mennonites, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Christian Church and a handful of others. Most Christian denominations like the Catholic Church, Protestant Churches, Pentecostal Churches and many others justify their position on the ground that the New Testament is silent on the subject and that there is an ultimate connection between music and the Scripture. This school further extols instrumental music in worship by claiming that it helps to communicate the intellectual and emotional message of the biblical text and make the liturgy of the church accessible to everyone.333
Available historical evidences point to the fact that the first century church did not use instruments of music in worship. A survey of historical sources from the first five
331 Tolle, Like the Early Christians She Worships in Song, 48-49.
332For an irenic discussion on the inappropriateness of instrumental music in Christian worship from the perspective of the Primitive Baptists, see Z. G. Elder, Instrumental Music in the New Testament Worship.
Retrieved June 19, 2012 from .http://pb.org/pbdocs/music.html 1-11.
333C. P. St-Onge. Music, Worship and Martin Luther. Retrieved June 19, 2012 from www.stonge.intheway.org 4 of 10.
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centuries indicates that the early church fathers found a cappella music pleasing to God than music accompanied with instruments and generally regarded musical instruments as inappropriate in Christian worship.334 The second century saw the beginning of allegorical references to musical instruments in the writing of the fathers but there were no drastic changes in the opinion of the fathers on the absence of instruments of music in worship. For instance, Ignatius of Antioch (AD 50-110) made allegorical references to musical instruments; Justin Martyr in a description of worship in his Apology rejected instruments in worship; Anthenagoras (AD 175) expressed the need for music to be in harmony with spiritual discipline rather than any emphasis on instrument while Irenaeus (AD 130-200), Bishop of Lyons, made an allegorical representation between the Church‘s reaction to music and Roman Gnosticism.335
Opposition to the use of instruments grew into a significant movement in the third century. Clement of Alexandria (AD 165-215) in his allegories argued for a spiritual use of music rather than for licentious purposes. Novatian (AD 258), Tertullian (AD 160-220) and Origen (AD 185-251) all argued that the musical instruments of the Old Testament are not compatible with Christian worship. The general disdain of the early church fathers for the use of musical instrument continued through the fourth and the fifth century. James McKinnon avers that the church fathers‘ vehemence in their polemic against instruments was borne of the fact that it was associated with sexual immorality and closely connected to false religion.336
The following factors were said to have influenced the early church fathers‘
disdain for the use of musical instruments. First, Judaism banned instrumental music since the destruction of the temple to mourn the obliteration. In order for those who listen to their homilies on the psalms not to complain about the prohibition of instrumental
334E. Werner. 1959. The Sacred Bridge: The Interdependence of Liturgy and Music in Synagogue and Church during the First Millennium. New York: Columbia University Press, 336. See also John Price.
2005. Old Light on New Worship: Musical Instruments and the Worship of God, A Theological, Historical and Psychological Study. Avinger, Texas: Simpson Publishing, 82, corroborates Werner‘s view that musical instruments were not featured in Christian worship during the apostolic era.
335E. Routley. 1950. The Church and Music: An Enquiry into the History, the Nature and the Scope of Christian Judgment on Music. London: Duckworth & Co., 50.
336J. McKinnon. 1998. The Temple, the Church Fathers and Early Western Chant. Brookfield: Ashgate Variorum, 69.
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music, the fathers resorted to the use of allegories. Second, the fathers also opposed instrumental music to curb the corruptive influence of the Roman culture which flourishes in music and reveling in baths, arenas, theaters and private homes. Third, the fears of the fathers that Christians could be influenced to accept philosophical benefits of pagan art and the propensity of instrumental music to cause social decay explained their lackadaisical attitude towards its use. Fourth, is the need to preserve unity between the eastern and the western churches as the anti-instrument sentiment was so strong in the East.337
Church historians are not at consensus as to the specific date of the adoption of instrumental music in Christian worship, but all agreed that it was several centuries after the New Testament was completed. Philip Schaff provides the following testimony,
The use of organs in churches is ascribed to Pope Vitalian (657-672). Constantine Copronymous sent an organ with other presents to King Pepin of France in 767. Charlemagne received one as a present from the Caliph Haroun al Rashid, and had it put up in the cathedral of Aixia-Chapelle… The attitude of churches toward the organ varies. It shared to some extent the fate of images, except that it never was an object of worship… The Greek Church disapproved the use of organs. The Latin Church introduced it generally, but not without the protest of eminent men, so that in the Council of Trent a mention was made, though not carried, to prohibit the organ at least in the mass.338
From the testimony of Schaff above, although organs were donated to Pope Vitalian, Emperor Constantine Copronymus and Charlemagne between seventh and eight centuries, the Eastern Orthodox Church opposed any use of organ or any other instruments in their worship. In fact, opposition to the use of musical instruments in worship was one for the reasons for the schism of 1054 among other factors like the supremacy of the Pope, celibacy and the use of three-dimensional statues in worship.
Thomas Aquinas (AD 1274) testified in his Bingham’s Antiquities that instruments were not used in the churches he worshipped. The Reformers in the sixteenth century at first rejected the use of instruments, but later slowly reintroduced it. Although Martin Luther
337D. VanBrugge. An Analysis of the Ancient Church Fathers on Instrumental Music. Retrieved June 19, 2012 from www.biblicalspirituality.fileswordpress.com 13-19 of 24.
338P. Schaff, History of the Christian Church Vol. 4, 439.
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(1484-1546) was quoted as saying that ―the organ in the worship is the insignia of Baal,‖
there were other statements attributed to him that encouraged the use instruments in worship.339 St-Onge notes that Luther was a trained musician who enjoyed singing and playing his lute at home and ―approved of using of instruments to enhance the music of the church‘s liturgy, including Organ.‖340
There were testimonies that Luther‘s contemporaries in the Reformed Movement like John Calvin (1509-1564) who insisted that ―musical instruments in celebrating the praise of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting up of lamps, the restoration of other shadows of the law‖ and Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531), also a trained musician versatile in the use of several instruments but insisted that instruments were a shadow of the old law and using it today amounts to ―wicked perversity.‖ Erasmus (1466-1536) deplored the use of instruments in worship while the Bishops of the Church of England voted in 1562 against the use of instruments of music in worship until Queen Elizabeth I overruled them in 1564. John Wesley was quoted as saying, ―I have no objection to instruments of music in chapels provided they are neither heard nor seen‖341
Traces of organ accompaniment of music in Christian worship were seen in the Latin Church after the eight century but were not common among the Protestants until the eighteenth century. Abundant quotations and evidences could be mounted from church history to support the fact that a cappella342 is the highest type of church music.343 As
339P. D. Haynie. A Brief History of Instrumental Music in Christian Worship. Retrieved June 19, 2012 from http://www.harding.edu/phaynie/instrumantalmusic.htm 1-7.
340St-Onge, Music, Worship and Martin Luther, 3.
341 Haynie, A Brief History of Instrumental Music in Christian Worship, 4-5.
342―A cappella‖ is an Italian word which means ―in the manner of the chapel‖ that has come to be used to denote exclusively vocal music in contradistinction to the use of instruments of music.
343For some of these quotations and evidences see, N/A, Instrumental Music in Worship-Historical Quotations. Retrieved June 19, 2012 from www.kc-cofc.org/Articles/Quotes 1-11; William Woodson, History of Instrumental Music. Retrieved on June 19, 2012 http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/1271-history-of-instrumental 1-5; Danny Corbitt, The Early Church on Instrumental Music. Retrieved on June 19, 2012 from http://wineskins.org pp.1-4; W. M. Green. 1957. Ancient Comment on Instrumental Music in Psalms. Restoration Quarterly 1.1: 3-8; W. M. Green. 1966. The Church Fathers and Musical Instruments. Restoration Quarterly 9.1: 31-42 and W. M. Green. 1969. New Material on New Testament Musicology. Restoration Quarterly 12. 2: 114-118.
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Everett Ferguson insightfully observes, ―Historian may not agree on an exclusive stand, but they do agree that this is the classic form of church music‖344
The position of the Church of Christ that the practice of worshipping with instruments of music was not known to the early church was tested in a research question and the following are the responses of the respondents:
Table 10: The practice of worshipping with instruments of music is unchristian because the early church did not make use of such.
Research Question Response
Agree Disagree Neutral Total The practice of worshipping with
instruments of music is unchristian because the early church did not make use of such
449 15 6 470
95.5% 3.2% 1.3% 100%
Source: Field Survey, 2011
The above figures shows that 95.5% of the respondents agreed that the practice of worshiping with instruments of music is unchristian and was unknown to the early church, 3.2% of the respondents disagreed with this view and 1.3% were neutral. The figures reveal that most members of the church hold the view that the use of instruments of music in worship is unchristian.
A survey of historical sources from the first five centuries as reviewed above indicates that musical instruments were generally regarded as inappropriate to Christian worship. Justin Martyr (A.D 100-165) in a description of worship in his Apology rejected instruments in worship. Anthenagoras (AD 175) expressed the need for music to be in harmony with spiritual discipline rather than any emphasis on instruments. Irenaeus (AD 130-200), bishop of Lyons, made an allegorical representation between the Church‘s reaction to music and Roman Gnosticism. Clement of Alexandria (AD 165-215) in his allegories argued for a spiritual use of music rather than for licentious purposes.
Similarly, Novatian (AD 258), Tertullian (AD 160-220) and Origen (AD 185-251) all argued that the musical instruments of the Old Testament were not compatible with Christian worship. The church fathers‘ vehemence in their polemic against
344E. Ferguson. Lifting Our Voices. Gospel Advocate. February 2000: 12-13.
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instruments was born of the fact that it was associated with sexual immorality and the need to curb the corruptive influence of the Roman culture which flourishes in music and reveling in baths, arenas, theaters and private homes. Accordingly, the odd was against the use of instruments of music in the public worship of the early church, although instruments of music was introduced around the eighth century but not commonly used until the eighteenth century. There were overwhelming evidences from the writings of the church fathers to support the position of the Church of Christ that the classic form of music in the public worship of the early church was A cappella-music devoid of the use of musical instruments. And it is on this ground that I take my stand.