Questions, Answers, and Comments

I went with a friend to a Church of Christ some 20 years ago. I asked a question to someone about the lack of
musical instramentation. I didn’t get an answer similar to what I have found here. The answer had something to do
with some person in the old testament who played some instrament and the sound annoyed or disturbed God in
some way or another. I would like to find that scripture again but have no idea what it was. Can you help me with the
chapter and verse(s)?

Ms. Lopez,Thanks for your question and your interest in this Bible topic!

The scriptures that they most likely quoted were from the prophet Amos.  In Amos 5:23.   Here it is from v 20 - 27 to
help put it in context:

Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it? “I hate, I despise your
feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will
not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.  Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I
will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.  But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a
mighty stream.  ” Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?  You also
carried Sikkuth your king And Chiun, your idols, The star of your gods, Which you made for yourselves.  Therefore I will
send you into captivity beyond Damascus,” Says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts.This is not a particularly good verse to use in the context of why we should not use instruments in the worship
services of the New Testament church.  Firstly, these words were delivered at a time when worship to God was still conducted by the teachings of the Law of
Moses, under which the use of instruments was permitted and even put in place as an official part of worship in the
temple era:

1 Chronicles 23:1-5  So when David was old and full of days, he made his son Solomon king over Israel.  And he
gathered together all the leaders of Israel, with the priests and the Levites. Now the Levites were numbered from the age
of thirty years and above; and the number of individual males was thirty-eight thousand.  Of these, twenty-four thousand
were to look after the work of the house of the LORD, six thousand were officers and judges,  four thousand were
gatekeepers, and four thousand praised the LORD with musical instruments, “which I made,” said David, “for
giving praise.”

Secondly,  Amos states “Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed
instruments.”  This tells us that it was not only the instruments that God was displeased with, it was the songs they
sang as well.  Therefore, if this verse was used as the reason to dispense with instrumental music in the New
Testament age, then we would have to dispense with all songs period.  Taken in context, this passage from Amos is
showing the displeasure that God had towards the people’s worship as a whole.  Their worship had become idle and
meaningless.  They feasted for the fun of feasting, not in praise to God.  They sang and played instruments because
they enjoyed the sounds they made, not for the purpose of worshiping the Lord, and so on.  Another passage that they may have quoted is akin to the first and is from Amos 6:3-7:

Woe to you who put far off the day of doom, Who cause the seat of violence to come near;  Who lie on beds of ivory,
Stretch out on your couches, Eat lambs from the flock And calves from the midst of the stall;  Who sing idly to the
sound of stringed instruments, And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David;  Who drink wine from
bowls, And anoint yourselves with the best ointments, But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.  Therefore they shall
now go captive as the first of the captives, And those who recline at banquets shall be removed.Again, this verse cannot be rightly applied to our worship as Christians because it was written while the law of Moses
was still in force and because it is not speaking of worship.  In context, this statement is made simply to show the lazy
and lax attitude of the people.  They had no fear of the Lord, they took life easy and indulged in its pleasures, one of
which was singing to the sound of instruments.These passages MAY (and this is solely speculation by myself and not to be taken as a Bible truth) show us part of
the reasoning behind God’s choice to change the accepted form of music to be used in worship to him in the New
Testament age.  Let me explain.  It is much harder to just sing idly or not pay attention to the song when using your
voice only.  With instrumental music, however, it is easy to simply become lost in the melody and not pay attention to
the words of praise it contains.  The whole reason for music in the context of worship is WORSHIP!  Thus the words
of Paul to the Ephesian Brethren, “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody in your heart to the Lord”  When singing with the voice we are speaking spiritual truths and praiseful
utterances to one another while instruments can only make noise… While it may be pleasant and enjoyable, it is still
noise and cannot truly ’speak’ to us the way that the human voice can.

I hope this answered your question Ms. Lopez and hope you’ll contact us again sometime!

If you would like to read more about the use of music in the church, I recommend this article by a preacher named
Johnny Elmore:

Singing and  making melody vs. instrumental musicThere is also an audio sermon or two about this subject available on our website at thegospelfortoday.com  Here are direct links to two of them:

1. “What kind of Music?”  with Wyn R. Baker2. ” Instrumental Music” with J. Wayne McKamie