Musical Instruments

[Valerie]

The Church at large seems divided on the playing of musical instruments. I was thinking about this based on a topic yesterday of a denomination that does not allow them in or outside church services.

Had we discussed this in the past?
It seems another area where an unbeliever seeking truth would be confused by Christian churches who use instruments during their praise and worship, those who forbid them in Church services but all8w their members to play and learn instruments outside of church services, and then those that forbid instruments of a y kind in the Church or outside their church.

If I was a seeker to Christianity and exposed to these differences, what Scriptural basis support those 3 different positions?

I was probably in my late 30s be.fore I heard some denominations don't allow them but I wasn't aware of Scriptural passages as to why not.

[danfreed]

Praise the Lord!

I have no interest in arguing with other Christians about opinions on how to praise God.
But I'm 100% in favor of everyone, everywhere, giving the Lord Jesus the glory that He deserves.


Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!
Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 150 ESV Bible

[JimFoxvog]

To an unbeliever, I would just say Jesus gives us freedom. All the groups make their decisions seeking the glory of God. We mostly still love and accept one another, but Christians aren't perfect.

[Josh]

The last verse of Psalm 150 says, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. This foreshadows the New Covenant when we only need our voices to worship, not expensive instruments and fancy sound systems and paid musicians.

Amish, Holdemans, and other more traditional Anabaptists are united in avoiding the musical instrument both at home and at church.

[Praxis+Theodicy]

Conservative Anabaptists aren't the only group that avoids instruments, but they are a big portion. Some traditional Reformed (capital "R") churches do not use instruments.

A big part of it is the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW), which was a theology that sprung out of the polemics of the Reformation, and so can still be seen in churches that hold the traditions of that time very strongly (i.e. conservative anabaptists and traditional Reformed churches).

During the Reformation, much was made about all the thing that felt "wrong" about the Roman Catholic Church and its worship practices. The Mass was seen as all wrong for a number of reasons that won't go into here. The inclusion of rituals for the mass, and other things like statues and icons were hotly debated.
In general, there was a LOT of thought and argument about how the church had developed extra-biblical practices and how many of them were "wrong". A lot of this had to do with insisting that the Mass was "not a sacrifice". The specific phrases said during the Mass were suspect. Everything.
But the obvious retort is that the things the RC church did to worship God were not forbidden by God in the Bible. Some reformers worked hard to demonstrate that they WERE forbidden by God, but an easier argument was to build a theology that (1) God cares very strongly that we worship him "properly" and not carelessly or wrongly, and (2) (this is the key part), that God prescribes everything we can do to properly worship Him in his inspired scriptures. Thus, the theology of the Regulative Principle of Worship began to take shape.

(Note: I've read arguments for the RPW and I am not persuaded by them, but I want to present it fairly. But just so you're aware of my bias/opinion.

Think of the RPW this way:
We all could agree that God holds it as very important that we offer proper worship to Him and not improper worship.
Therefore, there are two ways of looking at the question: "How doe we know what is proper worship and what is improper worship?"
(1) Proper worship is anything that we offer to God with a Spirit of honoring him. Improper worship is anything offered in the wrong spirit, or untruthfully, or, more obviously, anything that is expressly forbidden by God in his word.
(2) Proper worship is only that which is expressly allowed by God in his word, and improper worship is anything (anything) that is NOT expressly allowed in his word.

The second answer to the question is the position of the RPW adherents. Basically, when we worship God corporately as a church, we are forbidden from any means or forms by default; the only things that are allowed are those that are expressly allowed by Him in his word.
RPW adherents vary on what they believe is proper/improper. Commonly, most of them do not use instruments in corporate church gatherings. Commonly, most of them don't sing hymns in their gatherings, only Psalms put to 4-part harmony in a Psalter. Sometimes, they see a difference between a Christian home and a Christian church gathering, so instruments and hymns in the home are "okay." (Luther and Zwingli wrote hymns, but they were for the HOME, not for CHURCH). Sometimes they do not recognize "holy days" of the church calendar tradition, which means they won't celebrate Easter or Christmas.

I'm not going to answer all the obvious questions like "Why are hymns/instruments okay at home and not church?" "What is wrong with celebrating Christmas?" "What Bible passages are used to argue for the RPW in the first place?"

If you find a book on proper worship by a capital-R Reformed minister, it'll probably include an argument in favor of the RPW. An evangelical reformed author likely will eschew it.
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, in her first book, Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert includes a section arguing for the RPW which includes a ban on instruments and hymns in church but not at home.
Funny Kurivilla, in his seminal work King Jesus Claims His Church dedicates the longest chapter of the book to an argument in favor of the RPW, where they don't use instruments in gatherings, but they do sing hymns, but they don't recognize religious holidays. He includes several quotes from classic theologians like Luther and Menno Simons that indicate they agree with a RPW.



Long story short, the RPW was a theology that sprung out of the anti-Roman-Catholic polemics of the Reformation, and although it is applied differently across different churches, one of the most universal applications among all of them has been a ban on musical instruments in corporate worship.
Although Reformed churches that don't use instruments will cite the RPW to defend their practice, I've observed most anabaptist churches won't go back and quote the arguments used by the reformers that kickstarted the tradition in the first place. They will all give many reasons, like that God loves the human voice, or that they personally love a capella singing, or that instruments are "worldly".

Although many churches have other reasons for a ban on instruments, there are theological roots to the tradition. Some churches hold to the original theological arguments (Reformed), some find those arguments no longer convincing (Evangelical), and some hold to the tradition for the sake of tradition, building new arguments for it as they forget the original arguments but still desire to hold to tradition (Anabaptist).

[Josh]

RPW has exactly zip all to do with why Amish, Holdemans, and others don't have musical instruments in their homes.

Groups of Amish or Mennonite origin that have gradually become more worldly eventually adopt the musical instrument in the home and recordings with instruments. Eventually, these things find their way into the church service as well.

[mike]

I am not opposed to musical instruments, neither is my conservative Mennonite conference, which allows them except for official church functions. Folks often play together as families, or occasionally organize a group and give public performances. I don't believe there is any explicit biblical teaching against their use for worship or recreation or entertainment.

That said, there are some valuable things about a capella singing in public worship, such as developing and maintaining a broader level of singing ability in the group. There is often a huge difference in the general singing ability of a group of people used to choral singing compared to a church where a worship team or pianist and choir lead the music. Singing in harmony is a learned skill that begins at home and is developed in school and church, and it just isn't that big a priority for many Christian cultures these days. Individuals may pursue that interest, but I would argue that many/most churches as a group would be fairly lost musically without the crutch of a band, piano, or worship leader & guitar.

I feel like our acapella music and singing ability could always use improvement, but I think that instruments would make the problems worse. Acapella music in church is generally more participatory than accompanied music, and instruments can drown out vocals pretty easily.

There is instrumental/vocal music that is fully worshipful. There are potential issues of pride and professionalism harming worship music, both acapella and otherwise. There are some real benefits in learning to play instruments. I've been part of a church where we occasionally had instruments in the service, such as a Christmas service where various people contributed special songs and readings, and with special singing groups that came in. They were all good, enjoyable, and worshipful experiences.

A cappella worship is not a hill I would die on, but I do think there are some good values associated with it.

[Sudsy]

To an unbeliever, I would just say Jesus gives us freedom. All the groups make their decisions seeking the glory of God. We mostly still love and accept one another, but Christians aren't perfect.

I agree Jim that Jesus gives us freedom. Some groups seem to me to want to wander back into states of bondage and rationalize these as commands from the Lord. We are warned in the NT regarding how we use our freedoms and these are related to actual ways of sinning. Regarding musical instruments, there is no sinning identified in the NT by the tools we can and cannot use to worship. Just as there is no specific type of head covering to be worn in worship or whether 4 part harmony singing is allowed or hand clapping, etc. However, God does want us to have the right heart in how we worship. I believe that is what God is most interested in.

When I was a youth, my father was a street preacher and we had 3 back to back street services in a double parking space the town had given us for the main night of shopping. The Salvation Army had their service first with their big drum and brass instruments, then the Pentecostals with an accordian and hand clapping music and then the Plymouth Brethren with only a pitch pipe to get started on key followed by unison, no 4 part, singing. I have never heard any unbeliever asking why we had these differences. Those seeking Christianity were mostly anxious about their eternal destination.

Some Christians seem concerned about what all they see as worldliness and other Christians concerned about their faith being put back into various forms of bondage. I believe we can fall into a ditch either way. That is why we are given the Holy Spirit to be our guide. Myself, as I get older, I have trouble focusing on God with certain styles of worship. This is a consideration for me when seeking out a place of worship. But those who can 'make a joyful noise unto the Lord' using whatever means we should do it 'unto the Lord' as He knows our hearts whether it is to Him or not.

[Josh]

Having spent most of my life around Christian circles infested with worship teams, instruments, bands, drumsets, electric guitars, and laptops on stage to generate "electronica" "music", I am very glad to be in a place that is free of those things.

But what doesn't make sense is the conservative Mennonite position that it's fine to listen to recordings of other people's church services with instruments in them; it's fine to have instruments at home; but for some odd reason we should still try to have acapella services at church.

[mike]

Having spent most of my life around Christian circles infested with worship teams, instruments, bands, drumsets, electric guitars, and laptops on stage to generate "electronica" "music", I am very glad to be in a place that is free of those things.

But what doesn't make sense is the conservative Mennonite position that it's fine to listen to recordings of other people's church services with instruments in them; it's fine to have instruments at home; but for some odd reason we should still try to have acapella services at church.

What you call "some odd reason" is actually some good values, one or two of which I alluded to above.