Submitting to Silence

Authority is a word that we often associate with the government(Rom. 13:1ff), parents(Eph. 6:1), or even those who enforce the law as civil servants. It's a word we think of when combating the error that lies in the trespassing of scripture when studying with others(II Thes. 5:21). For some authority means more limitations on what they can do. However, authority is liberating when approached from a scriptural perspective. For example, by God's authority set out in scripture, we can worship God in song and prayer, have fellowship, and even teach the precious message that we find in the gospel. So God's judgments in certain matters show what he has signed his name to and sometimes what he has forbade.

So what happens when there is an absence of such authority? Has God still signed his name to an act that he hasn't given authority for in scripture(II Pt 1:3)? Should we search elsewhere for that authority(Mt. 28:18; Jn. 6:66ff)? While the answers to these questions may be more obvious to most, it seems we forget them when the choice becomes ours whether to heed the silence of God or to pretend justification for our actions. In the absence of authority through the Bible, there is only limitation in what we're authorized to do.

We see this conflict more often than we might initially recognize. In fact, one of the most common excuses for justification of instrumental music in worship is, “Well, the Bible doesn't say not to use instruments!” This statement appeals, not to the authority of scripture, but the absence of an authoritative reprimand. Using this approach, along with a misunderstanding of the purpose of the New Covenant(Heb. 8:13; Gal. 3:24ff), denominations have continued the practice of vain worship for centuries.

Since its beginning in the first century, the church has been making moves away from the Bible to the left and right, disregarding God's say in things and appealing to emotion instead of scripture. If instrumental Christian music wasn't listed as an acceptable means of worship in the first century, why is it that we're so quick to make an exception for the church today? Though time and culture have changed, God's word has not, and, as far as it goes, instrumental music is not worship.

For those who wish to use such unauthorized practices for entertainment, is it not just as wrong? Why is it that a child can listen to “Christian Rock” though it is in violation of what God asked for(Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16-17)? Because we can't be edified by vain worship, there is no sense in standing by as our fellow brethren pleasure themselves on the sound of the piano, the guitar, or whatever it may be. If we don't expect children to grow up seeking instruments in worship or a coffee and donut fellowship instead of the Lord's Supper, why do we pretend that it's okay outside of the assembly?

Consequences of Compromise

What is the most dangerous and threatening enemies in the future of the Lord's Church? Many would suggest that the threat is embodied by politics, world chaos and external corruption. I submit to you that this threat lies not in the world but in the potential for internal implosion that we set up through our own spiritual apathy in dealing with those external factors. This carelessness sets in when we forget our own Christian purpose and identity.

When we forsake the original identity of the church that Christ established, we also forsake the salvation he prepared for it (Acts 2:47 & Mt. 5:19). When we live in pretense that we're following Christ while sowing destructive seeds of spiritual compromise for the future, we'll have our reward. However that reward will exist in the limits of the same pretense for which we sought to gain it (Mt. 6:2). When we downplay the value of scriptural knowledge while super-sizing our emotional appeal to the emptiness we've become, we become overzealous, underdeveloped souls of confusion (Rom. 10:2).

The Youth – the flame of the church – is affected just as extremely, if not more, when spiritual compromises such as the mechanical instruments in worship are made based on a lack of identity, knowledge, and true zeal. When we set a low standard for youth while passing them off as insignificant and unhelpful individuals, we'll end up with a dependent, complacent, apathetic group of young people who spend an overwhelming amount of their time making excuses (I Tim. 4:12). Christ's church wasn't built on excuses; it was built on faithfulness (Gal. 5:22).