By Jeff Himmel
as originally published in Life
Lines
[part 2 of a 4 part series]
In a previous article we discussed what the history books say about instrumental music in Christian worship. Their testimony is summed up by Anglican writer Joseph Bingham: "Music in churches is as ancient as the apostles, but instrumental music not so" (Works, III, 137). Singing was the only form of music in worship for hundreds of years after the time of Jesus. Not only do historians confirm it, but also early Christian writers. Here's what some "church fathers" had to say.
Justin Martyr (A.D. 139): "The use of [instrumental] music was not received in the Christian churches, as it was among the Jew, in their infant state, but only the use of plain song. . . . Simply singing is not agreeable to children [the aforementioned Jews], but singing with lifeless instruments and with dancing and clapping is. On this account the use of this kind of instruments and of others agreeable to children is removed from the songs of the churches, and there is left remaining simply singing."
Tertullian (c. A.D. 200): "Musical concerts with viol and lute belong to Apollo, to the Muses, to Minerva and Mercury who invented them; ye who are Christians, hate and abhor these things whose very authors themselves must be the object of loathing and aversion."
Eusebius (260-340): "Of old at the time those of the circumcision were worshiping with symbols and types it was not inappropriate to send up hymns to God with the psalterion and kithara . . . But we in an inward manner keep the part of the Jew, according to the saying of the apostle . . . [Romans 2:28f]. We render our hymns with a living psalterion and a living kithara, with spiritual songs. The unison voices of Christians would be more acceptable to God than any musical instrument" (Comments on Psalm 92:2-3).
Chrysostom (345-407): "Just as the Jews are commanded to praise God with all musical instruments so we are commanded to praise him with all our members-the eye, the tongue, ear, the hand. These instruments were then allowed because of the weakness of the people, to train them to love and harmony" (Comments on Psalm 150).
Catholic churches finally began using instrumental music (usually an organ) during the Middle Ages, but it was largely opposed as unscriptural and was slow to gain acceptance. Not until the 1200s could it be found in widespread use. Even then the Catholic scholar Thomas Aquinas wrote, "Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaize" (Bingham's Antiquities, III, 137).
Alright, so why is all of this important?
"It is evident . . . that the post-apostolic churches did not worship with musical instruments because they recognized that the practice was part of an out-worn system that ended with the coming of Christ. For them, the use of such instruments was not an advance, but a step back in history" (Paul Earnhart in Christianity Magazine, 9/87, 10).
If these men of old believed instrumental music to be unauthorized and inappropriate in New Testament worship, why do so many professing Christians today see no problem with it?
Next time we'll hear the statements of leaders and scholars from the Reformation and beyond. Some of them may surprise you. Stay tuned!