Articles
Why Our Worship is Acapella (Part 1)
Why Our Worship is Acapella (Part 1)
Often people say, “Oh, you’re the church with no music.” I have to respond, “We have lots and lots of music, it just happens to be acapella!” For good measure I like to add, “and our choir has 100% participation!”
There are eight passages in the New Testament that mention worship in the church. None of them mention anything other than the human voice.
But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them (Acts 16:25).
I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also (1 Corinthians 14:15).
Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord (Ephesians 5:18-19).
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God (Colossians 3:16).
Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises (James 5:13, cf. Romans 15:9, Hebrews 2:12, 13:15).
It is true that the New Testament never says, “Thou shalt not use a musical instrument in worship.” Some commandments are broad, such as, “Go into all the world and preach...” leaving us many ways to fulfill God’s commandment to “go”: by plane, by car, by radio, by podcast. Some commandments are specific, such as, “...and preach the gospel,” leaving us zero latitude in what to preach: not politics, not Eastern medicine, not our minds, but only “the gospel.”
Specific commands rule out other options. When God said to Noah, “make for yourself an ark of gopher wood” (Genesis 6:14), he would not have approved of Noah using any other wood in its construction. God did not have to say, “Thou shalt NOT use oak, pine, ash, maple,” and so on through every species of tree. Since God told Noah what species to use, He automatically excluded the rest. And no human reasoning— “the oak trees were closer to the workshop,” or, “maple looks nicer when cut,”—would have excused Noah’s disobedience.
We are comfortable with similar logic when it comes to things like the emblems for the Lord’s Supper (God never said NOT to use milk and cookies), the day of the week on which to lay by in store, and from which tribe Moses said to appoint priests (Heb. 7:14). We therefore understand that the silence of God is usually prohibitive, rather than permissive.
When we consider what kind of music God wants in church, we do have God’s specific command to sing. We do not have God’s command to offer anything else. God does not have to say, “No,” to the piano, the clarinet, the guitar, and the bells—they are all excluded already. Simply stated, therefore, we only use acapella singing in our services because we seek to worship according to the New Testament. Since the New Testament leaves it out, we are confident that it is right and safe to leave it out, also. If we included instruments into our worship services, we would have to do so without God’s revealed authority.
Church History
Though extra-Biblical tradition is largely meaningless for discovering the will of God, it is interesting to point out that members of the churches of Christ are not the first people arguing against instrumental music.
Ancient documents suggest that the early church worshiped with acapella music. In fact, the term “acapella” comes from the Italian, and means “in chapel style.” Unaccompanied vocal music is the original; using instruments is the innovation!
Instruments of any kind are unknown in churches until at least the fifth century, and they were not commonly used in Catholic churches until the eighth century. Some historians attribute the introduction of instrumental music into church services to Pope Vitalian I (657–672). The Eastern Orthodox Church, which traces its roots back to the early centuries, has never used instruments. Most of the Protestant churches abandoned the practice of instrumental music. And when instruments threatened to make their way back into these Protestant churches, many of the most recognizable names in religious history vigorously opposed them, including John Calvin, John Wesley, Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, and Adam Clarke. This last, a respected scholar, said,
I am an old man, and an old minister; and I here declare that I never knew them productive of any good in the worship of God; and have had reason to believe that they were productive of much evil. Music as a science I esteem and admire; but instruments of music in the house of God I abominate and abhor... Here I register my protest against all such corruptions in the worship of the Author of Christianity” (quoted in Caldwell, Ephesians, p. 257).
-John Guzzetta
