Proxy Worship

     The two Mormon “elders” I was having discussions with agreed to continue the dialogue and attend mid-week Bible class with me if I would accompany them to one of their Thursday evening gatherings. It turned out to be a truly eye-opening experience. The entire Mormon service was a satellite broadcast from Salt Lake City, including performances by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. At the end of the meeting the whole assembly was invited to sing along, and I must admit that it was the most pitiful congregational singing I had ever heard. I realized that these people were so accustomed to letting the choir do the singing for them, they had lost the ability or desire to sing themselves.

     Years later I was having Bible studies with an Anglican vicar, and he was surprised to learn that Christian worship in the New Testament consisted of a cappella singing (i.e. without the accompaniment of musical instruments). He then relayed the following story. The organ player of this particular Anglican Church had died, and no one else in the congregation knew how to play the organ. It was suggested that a musician from the community be hired until a replacement could be found, but the conscientious clergyman would not allow an unbeliever to participate in leading their worship. He told his congregants that for too long they had relied on the organ to worship for them and that it was now time they learned how to use their voices to praise God. He then confessed to me that over the next few months, without the added organ music, the singing significantly improved. But when an organist was eventually found, they reverted to their former routine. I asked my vicar friend, “If the singing was so much better without the organ, why did you start using it again?” He had no answer.

     On another occasion, while visiting relatives out of town, my family and I went to worship with a nearby congregation. As the singing began, we discovered that a “praise team” was being used, and their voices were amplified and quite prominent. I couldn’t help but notice that a number of the people sitting around me were either barely mumbling the words or were not singing at all. It dawned on me that while the praise team may have been intended to “improve” the singing, in reality it was having the opposite effect. Many in the congregation seemed content to merely sit back and listen to others do the singing.

     These experiences have impressed upon me the wisdom of God’s elemental design. Man’s attempts to externally assist or enhance worship, particularly without scriptural direction, have so often proven to be distractions and hindrances. Worship that is supposed to be “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24), directed to God from each accountable worshiper, is generally impeded by human innovations that cater to the human senses. 

     Biblical authority is still the bottom line concerning all that we practice in religion, and the simple pattern of the New Testament just cannot be improved upon. “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 NKJV).     

--Kevin L. Moore

Related Posts: Restoring True Worship, Choral Singing

Related articles: Bill Blankschaen's Struggling to Sing


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Questions About Music in Christian Worship (Part 3 of 3)

Q: Isn’t singing without mechanical instruments just a “Church of Christ” tradition?

         The word “tradition” simply refers to something that is passed down, whether from God to man through His word (1 Cor. 11:2, 23) or from man to man through subjective preferences (Matt. 15:1-9). Is singing praises to God without musical accompaniment, as practiced by modern-day churches of Christ, based on biblical tradition or human tradition? Singing without musical instruments in Christian worship can be traced back to the NT itself, continuing on through the first several hundred years of church history. Singing with musical accompaniment in Christian worship can only be traced back to the Roman Catholic Church no earlier than the 7th-century AD and to Protestant denominations of the 19th-century AD. Which practice is based on human tradition?

Q: Does the Greek word psallô in Eph. 5:19 mean to pluck the strings of an instrument?

     If it does, then every Christian is required to play a stringed instrument while singing -- an assertion no one will make. The meaning of the Greek word psallô has undergone a number of changes through the centuries. Long before the NT was written, psallô meant “to pluck off” or “pull out,” e.g. the hair (J. H. Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon 675). Then it came to signify “to cause to vibrate by touching, to twang,” e.g. a carpenter’s line; then “to touch or strike the chord, to twang the strings,” e.g. of a stringed instrument (ibid.). What should concern us, however, is the meaning of psallô when the NT was written. Thayer says, “in the N.T. to sing a hymn, to celebrate the praises of God in song” (ibid.). After noting the original non-musical sense of the word, the Greek-English Lexicon of Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich and Danker has this to say: “In the LXX [Greek translation of the OT] ps[allô] freq. means ‘sing’, whether to the accompaniment of a harp or (as usually) not . . . . This process continued until ps[allô] in Mod. Gk. means ‘sing’ exclusively; cf. psaltês = singer, chanter, w[ith] no ref[erence] to instrumental accompaniment” (891). When Paul wrote Rom. 15:9, 1 Cor. 14:15, and Eph. 5:19, and when James wrote Jas. 5:13, the word psallô simply meant to “sing, sing praise” (ibid.). Moreover, even if the word psallô still carried the idea of “pluck,” “strike,” or “twang,” the NT never uses “on stringed instruments” as the object of this verb, but rather “in/with your heart” (Eph. 5:19). The instrument with which Christians are enjoined to “make melody” (psallô), while singing in worship, is the God-created human heart, not a man-made mechanical instrument.

Q: Does 2 Chronicles 29:25 indicate that the use of musical instruments in worship was according to divine decree?

     Even if it does, remember this pronouncement was enjoined on ancient Israel and has nothing to do with Christian activity. Nevertheless, what does this passage actually say? “Then he [Hezekiah] stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with stringed instruments, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for thus was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets.” Notice that there are two actions being considered for which there were two different commands: (1) the Levites stationed in the temple was according to the commandment of the Lord (cf. Deut. 10:8); (2) the use of musical instruments was according to the commandment of David and his cohorts (cf. 1 Chron. 15:16; 23:5). Whether or not the latter was done with divine approval is a moot point as far as NT Christians are concerned. However, the Lord’s condemnation of Israel’s luxury and revelry in Amos 6:1-5 included their use of musical instruments “like David,” bringing into question the Lord’s supposed sanction of this practice.

--Kevin L. Moore

Related posts: Music & the Bible History, Questions About Music 1, Questions About Music 2

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Questions About Music in Christian Worship (Part 2 of 3)

Q: If a person has musical talent, shouldn’t he/she use it to glorify God?

     While we should glorify God in all that we do (1 Cor. 10:13), worship is not governed by human abilities but by the revealed will of God (2 Tim. 3:16-17). A person may be a gifted athlete or a talented chef, but dunking a basketball or baking a cake while the church is assembled for worship is not a biblically sanctioned form of worship. We should be thankful for our talents, but when it comes to offering worship to God, we must do so in a manner that He prescribes (John 4:23-24). God is not particularly interested in our physical abilities, but He is concerned about the condition of our hearts. Not everyone has musical talent, but the beauty of Christianity is that everyone does have a heart that can and should be offered to God. The Bible never tells us to sing good, but it does tell us to sing from the heart (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16; 1 Cor. 14:15). God is not worshiped with human hands (Acts 17:25), but He is worshiped with human hearts. The purpose of worship is not to entertain ourselves or to give a few talented people an opportunity to perform, but for all worshipers to offer praise to the Lord that is acceptable to Him (1 Pet. 2:5; cf. Gal. 1:10).

Q: Since the Bible doesn’t directly forbid the use of mechanical instruments in Christian worship, why wouldn’t it be permissible?

     One of the primary reasons there is so much confusion and division in the religious world is because so many people feel free to do whatever is not explicitly condemned in the Bible. The Bible does not specifically prohibit cake and coffee in the Lord’s Supper, or sprinkling infants, or having a pope, or smoking marijuana to "heighten spirituality," or a host of other things people may want to do. But the issue is not what the Bible explicitly forbids, but rather what the Bible authorizes as legitimate (and consequently what it implicitly forbids). We know what the will of God is by what is revealed in the Bible (Eph. 3:3-5; 5:17), not by what is left unsaid. How did Noah understand that pine, oak, and cedar were not to be used in building the ark? God did not explicitly prohibit these types of wood, but when He specified “gopher wood” (Gen. 6:14), all other kinds were excluded. How did the Israelites know not to appoint men of Reuben, Judah or Ephraim to the priesthood? Simply because the law specifically named the tribe of Levi and was silent concerning the other tribes (Heb. 7:13-14). When the NT specifies “singing” as the kind of music to be offered in Christian worship, what human being has the right to add juggling, dancing, fireworks, guitars or pianos to it simply because the Lord has not provided a comprehensive list of prohibitions? God will hold accountable those who presumptuously add to His revealed will (1 Cor. 4:6; Rev. 22:18-19; cf. Lev. 10:1-2; Deut. 18:20).

Q: Isn’t instrumental music just an aid to singing, since it helps with the pitch, tempo, and tune, it makes the singing sound better, and one is still obeying God’s instructions to “sing” even though it happens to be with musical accompaniment?

    There are essentially only two types of music: vocal and instrumental. If God had given the generic command to simply “make music,” any type of music would be in accordance with this instruction. However, instead of a generic command, the Lord specified the kind of music He desires -- namely volitional singing. Therefore, any other kind of music is an addition to what the Lord has authorized. For example, the elements of the Lord’s Supper are unleavened bread and fruit of the vine. Things such as plates, cups, and communion trays are aids which help us observe this memorial, but they do not add additional elements to the Lord’s Supper. However, even though one may reason that jam or peanut butter or syrup or lemonade would make communion taste better, these are different kinds of food, additions to the specified elements, and are therefore unacceptable. Legitimate aids to singing are those things which help to carry out the directive to sing, such as a tuning fork (for the right pitch), or a song book (for the right words), or a song leader (for the right tempo and tune). However, a mechanical instrument supplies an entirely different kind of music and is therefore more than an aid to singing -- it is an addition. Making the singing “sound better” is a subjective opinion, and many would argue that musical instruments actually detract from the singing. The bottom line, however, is not what I like or what sounds good to me, but what God has plainly stated is acceptable to Him.

--Kevin L. Moore

Related posts: Music & the Bible History, Questions About Music 1, Questions About Music 3

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