We have now briefly traced the history of the introduction and general acceptance of instrumental music in Christian worship and testimony. We have seen that it was very reluctantly accepted by the church and did not gain general approval until after the Reformation. The character of the accompaniments at first brought in was comparatively simple, being limited to that of the organ, as illustrated in the gift of Constantine to Pepin in 670. (See page 18.)
But today we find ourselves surrounded by a strange spectacle. Instrumental music in multiplied forms has not only been generally accepted by the professing church, but it has largely displaced the reading of the Word of God and the sound and solid preaching of the same. I here quote a paragraph from a four-page pamphlet entitled Music in the Assemblies.
“This is the age of hymnology. Dependence today is placed upon religious music to stir the emotions. The Word of God is given second place and the Sword of the Spirit is sheathed during fifty, sixty or more percent of radio programs. Music is placed so much to the fore and made so attractive that when the Word is finally preached, the audience has lost its desire for the Word.”
Here let us quote from 400 Questions and Answers compiled by H. B. Coder:
“As the reality of Christ departs from the soul, ritualism takes the place, and forms without life rise up on every hand. To such an extent has this grown that even the world is losing respect for a Christianity which seems more bent on entertaining than converting men. We believe, therefore, that any use of instrumental music in the worship of God, from end to end, in the Sunday school, the gospel meeting, or any other . . . will be found to have a tendency to lower the character of Christianity itself ” (pp. 212-213).
One is persuaded that the last century of church history has witnessed an accelerated decline in the tone of worship and testimony. It is our studied conviction that the increased emphasis on the use of musical instruments, coupled with secular-type hymnology, has been a major contributor to the downgrade movement.
I hope we are not doing an injustice to that much used evangelist, dear Dwight L. Moody, when we cite him as one who definitely fostered the modern approach to gospel effort. Our esteemed brother John Nelson Darby was personally acquainted with Mr. Moody and sought to be a help to him. Mr. Darby’s evaluation of Mr. Moody’s methods in gospel work is definitely prophetic. We here quote parts of his remarks as recorded in his published letters:
“I rejoice, am bound to rejoice, in every soul converted — must do so — and saved forever. Nor do I doubt Moody’s earnestness, for I know the man well. I see that God is using extraordinary means to awaken His sleeping saints, . . . but I am not carried away by it. As to the result of it as a whole, it will not last. . . . I fully judge it will foster worldliness in saints. . . . Individuals may be converted; we must rejoice at it; the effect on the church of God will be mischievous” (Letters of J. N. Darby, Vol. 2, p. 308).
“Mr. M.’s work . . . avowedly mixes up Christianity with the world and worldly influences, and uses them because it tells in favor of his work, and fosters worldliness and the evils of Christendom” (Vol. 2, p. 394).
“He mixes his activities with what was of the flesh, so as to injure Christians, and mix up the saint and the world” (Vol. 2, p. 428).
Though Mr. Moody set the example in huge choirs and musical accompaniments, all was most mild in comparison with the present pageantry in so-called “Christian” testimony. Those who arose in the generation after Mr. Moody have been insatiate in their efforts to make Christianity attractive to man in the flesh and especially to make it appealing to young people.
Fifty years ago the professing church recognized a dividing line between what was considered “worldly” and what was proper for a Christian. But today the church has vied with that great corruptress, Hollywood, in seeking to appeal to the crowd. Once the theater was regarded as belonging to the world and was expressly mentioned as that which was to be avoided by believers. But today theatricals form a definite part of professed Christian activities. So-called “fundamentalist” schools publish attractive appeals to prospective students stating their exceptional facilities for training in dramatics. Alluring titles and illustrations of purportedly “Christian” films are spread before the eye in magazine advertisements. Believers who once thought the theater belonged to the world now flock to downtown theaters to see “Martin Luther” or its like. Needless to say, all these histrionics are accompanied by elaborate musical presentations which captivate the emotions and the imagination but do not bring the listener into the presence of Him who has so faithfully said in His Word, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal” (2 Cor. 10:4).
As we leaf the pages of a present-day fundamentalist magazine, Christian Life, we are struck by the large percentage of advertising pages that set forth the claims of competing companies, offering various and elaborate musical instruments and musical devices in hymnology. The appeal is definitely sensuous.
O saints of God, may we not awaken to whether we are drifting! Christendom, and, sad to say, “fundamentalism” along with it, has reached an “all time high” in its imitation of worldly entertainment and a “new low” in spiritual power. Actors and actresses from Hollywood are featured as leading attractions at so-called evangelistic efforts, even to the requisitioning of TV heroes in the dumb animal realm. What a travesty on the standard given us in God’s Word: “My preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor. 2:4).
In many cases the infatuation with musical display has gone so far that elaborate rehearsals of purely musical talent are offered from the church platform. Instead of the earnest, solemn pleading of the Spirit-filled preacher of God’s good news concerning His blessed Son, there is heard the clatter of the xylophone, the strumming of the guitar, the plaintive wail of the violin, or the blare of the trumpet and saxophone. And all this in the name of Christ!
At this point, let us quote again from 400 Questions and Answers, H. B. Coder, pages 212-214:
“We are no foe to instrumental music. We love it if kept free from the immoralities which often attach to it, and if kept where it belongs in the circle of home and social life. But in the Christian circle — the circle of the heavenly people, who know God and approach Him in all the reality of what He is — we believe it inconsistent and irrelevant. It has been the means, we believe, of degrading Christianity to a great degree.
“Look at the effect of it in Christian congregations: It was to help them sing at first; now, dumb in praise to God, they are, instead, getting a treat for themselves from musical art. Is it any wonder if they can after that associate the theater with the church? One place gives them pleasure and so does the other.
“Again, look at its effects in modern evangelism. It has made it a new sort of entertainment, and instead of converts marked by having wept in repentance over sin, by keen separation even from the garment spotted by it, and by a spirit of prayer and devotedness to Christ, it has formed in them a trifling, pleasure-loving mind, destructive of true Christianity.”
When, in his day, Moses came from the mount to find the camp of Israel in riotous devotion to a false god, he “took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp” (Ex. 33:77And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. (Exodus 33:7)). The Spirit of God appropriates this instance to give it a Christian application in Hebrews 13:1313Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. (Hebrews 13:13): “Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.”
Early in the last century the Spirit of God exercised thousands of believers to act upon this scripture and step out of a Judaized Christian camp to find Christ in the midst of the two or three gathered to His name. They acted in full faith in the promise of Matthew 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20). God marvelously blessed them and opened up to them the Scriptures in a way they had never been opened since apostolic days. These believers left behind them religious titles, sacraments, vestments, buildings, organs, choirs, prayer books and confessionals. The New Testament became their only guide, and precious Spirit-indicted hymns of praise were gladly offered to God at all their assemblages. The introduction of any mechanical helps to their worship would have been abhorrent to them. Their gospel testimony was with simplicity but with power. No glamor accompanied their soul-to-soul work in the gospel. They sought in self-searching reality to be conformed to the Lord’s mind as expressed in Revelation 3:88I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. (Revelation 3:8): “Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name.”
Shall we, dear brethren, who are the heirs of such a holy testimony, betray our trust and yield to the pressure and pattern of the day to vitiate that precious heritage? Rather, may we hear the Spirit of God speaking to us afresh, “I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 6:13-14).
Our Lord announced to the woman of Sychar in John 4:23-2423But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23‑24) that God the Father is seeking worshippers who shall worship Him in spirit and in truth. Such was not the case in the system of Judaism. May our souls then be deeply exercised before the Lord that we may answer to His “seeking” and be found as true worshippers, not with pipe and organ, but with heart and soul. Soon He comes! Then we shall join the heavenly choir and sing His praises in the Father’s house. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”