INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC - UNITY
M. Watterworth

When Moses in anger struck the rock instead of speaking to it as God told him to do, Israel got water, but he lost Palestine. When Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire, the displeasure of the Lord was immediately expressed against them (Lev. 10:1-2). When David substituted the new cart for God’s way of transporting the ark of the covenant, the result was tragic (2 Sam. 6:7).

In the foregoing cases there was transgression against the specific instruction of God. But when David selected two hundred and eighty-eight expert Levite musicians with psalteries and harps and cymbals for the service of the house of God, he was not in the least condemned for doing so. There was no specific instruction from God for this service. Music is not a religious institution, but is a fine art. To the elders of the church at Corinth it was optional (1 Cor. 14:26). The basic meaning in psalm is a mechanical musical instrument, and Paul is here directing the elders in the worship service. Whether there be this kind of music is thus a matter of choice, being left to human judgment. There are many illustrations of this in the Bible.

God gave Israel the essentials for life and worship through Moses, but the administration of the law was carried out by Jethro’s organization (Exodus 18). The benevolent association of Acts 6 was created by the brethren to do a good work that needed to be done. Once again it is a case of the church deciding on the best way to proceed.

We Christians, who have opposed everything from the organ to the missionary society, have failed to discern between faith in the explicit word of God and human opinion, where we so often misinterpret and misunderstand. When we have a “Thus says the Lord” let us follow it faithfully, and let us avoid unlearned questions that cause strife. “For the servant of the Lord must not strive” (2 Tim. 2:24).

We are all one people before God, but we have belittled ourselves by our disputes and ugly separations. Our separate groups boast of being one million in size, or two million, or three million, when we should think of ourselves as one great brotherhood of six million souls.

We must rise above our childish contentions and see wider horizons. Cardinal Bea of the Roman Catholic Church had such a vision when he said: “All validly baptized people are Christians and therefore brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.” Here we have the key to the unity we seek.

Speaking for myself, I certainly do not insist on instrumental music in worship. I would gladly do without it if it would help our brethren to a wider Christian fellowship in the love of Christ. But I fear the problem is not so easily solved. Our main problem is like the one Luther and Zwingli had when they argued so much as to divide their forces. We too have divided so much through our quarrels that we have worked ourselves into an incredible hysteria of sectarianism. So our real need is to repent of this bitterness against each other.

God’s lovely way of uniting Christians is given to us in Eph. 4:32. “Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.”

Mr. M. Watterworth, 2005 Bronson Blvd., Kalamazoo, Mich., is author of a booklet entitled Christian Unity With Ourselves, which you may order from Restoration Review office at 25 cents each, and it is highly worth reading and passing along to others. — The Editor.