Instrumental Music Being Used in Church Services

We don’t use mechanical instruments during our praise to God because the New Testament doesn’t authorize it. As we study the pattern of praise as it is recorded in the New Testament, we see no practice of the church using instrumental music, even though instruments can be traced to the time of David (Psalm 150).

Another point is that the Bible demands that men follow the law that they are under and for us in 2010, that would be the New Testament (John 8:31-32; 1 Peter 4:11; Matthew 28:20; 2 Corinthians 3:5-6; 1 Timothy 6:3; 1 Timothy 4:16; 2 Tim. 1:13; 1 Cor. 11:1-2; 2 John 9-11). Nothing in the Old Testament is for the church of Jesus Christ, that is why Jesus built His church in Matthew 16:18 on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1:47) in the city of Jerusalem (Luke 24:45-47; Acts 2:5).

Singing Without Instruments in the New Testament Pattern

• Matthew 26:30“They sung a hymn and”
• Mark 14:26“They sung a hymn and”
• Acts 16:25“They sang hymns to God”
• Romans 15:9“I will sing unto Thy name”
• 1 Cor. 14:15“I will sing with the spirit”
• Ephesians 5:19“Sing and make melody”
• Colossians 3:16“Singing with grace in”
• Hebrew 2:12“I will sing Thy praise”
• James 5:13“Let him sing psalms”

Singing With Instruments in the New Testament Pattern

Scripture?

Scripture?

Objections to What the New Testament Has Shown

Question: The Bible didn’t say not to used a piano!
Answer: It didn’t have to say that. It has already told you what to do.

Question: David used instrumental music in the worship (1 Chronicles 15:28-29).
Answer: David lived and died before Jesus built His church and before the establishment of the New Testament.

Question: You have instruments at home.
Answer: A person has many things at home which he cannot use in the church. Men have pets at home, guns at home, video games at home, and go on vacations at home. Can the church have or do these things? Of course not, but that shows that what you may do as a person, is different than what the church may do.

Question: There will be instrumental music in heaven (Revelation 14:1-3).
Answer: First of all, this is a symbolic statement for the happiness and praise of victory by Christ. But even if instruments are in heaven that has nothing to do with what the Bible teaches about what we must have in church today. And by the way, if literal instruments are in heaven; do you think they are the same brands sold on earth, and do they require maintenance service?

Question: The original greek word “psallo” (melody-singing) authorizes instruments (Eph. 5:19).
Answer: No “psallo” doesn’t. It does teach that every person is to pluck the strings of the heart in order to make melody. If we accepted the view saying that instruments are authorized, then the only way it could be obeyed is, every member must pluck an instrument. And if a church has 100 members, that church would have to provide 100 instruments.

~James Baker