Hello,



The following are excerpts from reader feedback concerning the Jan. 26 Religion section story about Quail Springs Church of Christ's new worship service with musical instruments:

 

1. JoAnn Hefley, Davis, OK: I really would like to say to the church now wanting to add instruments to the worship, please change your name to something other than the Church of Christ..like maybe the Church of Instrumental Music Revised or something weird like this.   What instrumental music in any church usually means is someone has decided they have a talent they want others to admire....why not find some other avenue to show off the talent without destroying the name of the one and true church!

 

2. Mike Hale: I would like to add my comments in response to your request for input on this congregation's decision to change to instrumental music. 

 

The universal church refused to accept instrumental music for about 900 years after Christ.  They believed that it was adding to the word of God as I do.  Several of the most important reformers of the protestant church requested a return to a capella music.  We have no reference to the use of instrumental music in the worship service in the New Testament.  The New Testament says for us to sing with "melody in our hearts".  It does not say to sing with "melody from our instruments". 

 

Not only is it wrong to bring an instrument of music into the worship service, but it is wrong to cause a division among the members of that congregation.  I think this congregation will continue to decline in numbers and the ones responsible will be held accountable.  Our job as a church is to tell others the good news and not coerce them by the use of worldly things that they desire. 

 

The Churches of Christ was the fastest growing religious group in the USA during the 1940's and 1950's.  During those periods, the members taught the truth and stood up for the truth.  Any congregation that wanted to change the order of worship authorized by God, would have been challenged to a debate by many able preachers.  Sometimes we were a little too offensive in that respect, but it was all done out of love and zeal to teach others the correct way.  

3. Sam Binkley, Piedmont Church of Christ member: As a Christian, my primary concern is pleasing God. I believe the only way I can do that is to follow the doctrine He has revealed to us in the Bible.

The New Testament teaching regarding music in worship includes only singing.

As Mark Henderson states, "...when you look at references you might attribute to worship in the New Testament, you don't see them [instruments] mentioned, and people interpreted that silence as intentional."

Jesus instructed those who would worship God, "they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." John chapter 4 verse 24. According to Jesus' words in His prayer to God, recorded in John chapter 17 verse 17, "Thy word is truth." I conclude that to worship God in truth, one must worship Him according to the teaching in His word. The New Testament directs worshipers to sing. This excludes other forms of music, i.e. instrumental music. The fact that instruments are not specifically excluded does not grant us the authority to use them in worship.

  

4. Lee Shell, Paden, OK: To Mark Henderson & church, I really admire you for standing up for changes you deemed necessary to improve your church for progress. What you did takes the greatest courage alive ! Things have always been improved only after someone bucked the age old traditions of religion & stepped out to move on. It is so much easier to keep rolling with the customary flow.

Oftentimes something is neither good nor bad, right or wrong, but thinking will make it so & cause us to stack the odds against us because The Book says that "......if we deem a thing to be a sin to us (the deemer) IT IS SIN !"

If we believe in our hearts something is wrong then "....as a man thinketh in his heart so is he !" 

   I'm 81 years old & am of this persuasion that the true test of how to worship came from the Master when He said in Jo.4:23,24 "But the hour cometh,& now is,when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit & in truth:for the Father seeketh such to worship him. (24) God is Spirit : & they that worship him MUST worship him in spirit & in truth." Now the question : Can Spirit worship transpire while playing musical instruments or singing to the accompaniment of musical instruments ? I could, but only your church body can answer that for you.

        I'm convinced that He left things for us to answer for ourselves.For example,has He ever told us what mode or method of transportation we should use to go to church ? After all the only record we have of Him is walking everywhere or short trips on a ship, so maybe we should catch a boat to Church ? And did He tell us all to stand while worshipping or to sit down ?  

God bless all of you & you will certainly be in my prayers.

 

5. Larry Baldwin, Newcastle: After the establishment of the the church on the day of Pentecost there is no record in the scriptures of the use of musical instruments at worship. Just as there is no record of the use of incense, candles or any other similar element being used for worship. Therefore, there is no biblical authority for there use. All biblical historians agreed that it was hundreds of years after the establishment of the church until the musical instrument was first introduced, it was then properly taken out and not reintroduced for several hundred more years. Later, Presbyterian founder John Calvin stated, " the musical instrument in the church is alright as long is it neither seen nor heard". 

 

Instructions for singing in worship can be easily found in the following New Testament scriptures.

 

Mark 26:30

I Corinthians 14:15

Ephesians 5:19

Colossians 3:16

James 5:13

 

6. Robert Perry, Ada: Goodness, I pray and believe the Quail Springs Church of Christ will be blessed. In Joshua 6, the armed soldiers were to march around the city of Jerico for six days. On the 7th day the priests would circle the city seven times blowing trumphets. Then with one long note, the people shout and the walls fell down. There is no physical explanation for a spiritual event.  I've been in charismatic churches that play instruments and even ones that sing old hymns in the Choctaw language. Both ways are praise and worship just like the priests blowing the trumpets before the big event.  When the walls of Jericho fell down was God crushing sin. All that was saved in that city was a prostitute that spied for the Israelites and her descendents live with them today.  Just as the music preceded the walls of Jericho falling, the praise and worship are taking down the wall of evil that stands in the way of many people receiving of the words of wisdom in the sermon that follows.

 

7. Robert A. Hefner IV: The New Testament DOES mention musical instruments when God's people gather.  It is found in 1st Corinthians 14:26 "...whenever you come together, each of you bring a psalm...."  The word psalms is derived from the Greek: Psalmoi, originally meaning "songs sung to a harp", from psallein "play on a stringed instrument", Ψαλμοί.  The church universal has set the psalms to music and made them a part of the worship service, as instructed in the verse above, since its inception.  The Church of Christ's position on this matter raises the question of when it was instituted historically.

 

It's unfortunate that God's people do not incorporate the whole council of God and often segment it for their own rationalization.  There are a lot of subjects that the Holy Scriptures are silent on, but that in of themselves does not make them a Law!  Throughout the New Testament the scripture references in regards to the gathering of God's people,  state over and over again, that the purpose for their gathering is for mutual edification and "...rightly dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15)."  If musical instruments assist in this edification, then by all means utilize them!  When Christians divide over such an issue, then they are forgetting that their position with God is all grace to begin with and not on anything inherently good in them.  Their salvation, positional righteousness, is ONLY because of God's sovereign good pleasure; not whether they use musical instruments or not!!!

 

8. Mack Lyon, Edmond: My heart is very heavy today. I am very disappointed and discouraged that some of my brothers and sisters in the Lord have made the choice which you featured on the front page of your section of The Oklahoman Saturday, Jan. 26. You asked us to write, so I am.

You see, it is not a "break from church of Christ tradition" as Mark Henderson says. Rather it is a break from biblical tradition. Second Thessalonians 3:15 exhorts Christians to "stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle."

From the article, it is clear that Mr. Henderson knows New Testament Christians did not worship God with mechanical music. Scholars and historians are agreed that it did not happen for 800 to 1,000 years. Yes, "Change" is the order of our times -- in religion, politics, government, worship, morals, etc. But for any person or group of persons to assume the wisdom and the freedom in Christ to change the church over which Jesus Christ, the Son of god, is the head, is too much!

It constitutes a "departure from the faith" (First Timothy 4:1). That church ceases to be a church of Christ (Revelation 2:5). Perhaps the church will now change its name.

If a church of Christ possesses that power, right and wisdom, then any council or conference or synod of men and women may do it with anything they like. The result is total confusion -- absolute anarchy in Christianity.

I write this in tears -- as a I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ that we may repent.   

 

 Goodness, I pray and believe the Quail Springs Church of Christ will be blessed. In Joshua 6, the armed oldiers were to march around the city of Jericho for six days. On the 7th day the priests would circle

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