Viewpoint Brief Bible Study #44 |
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JESUS calls US to be |
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The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide. |
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Milo Hadwin is devoting a lifetime to study of
what we're AUTHORIZED to do "in worship"
(Additional comments about Viewpoint study #27)One scholar (Milo Hadwin, at the Church of Christ, 2503 Haworth Ave., Newberg OR 97132) says that use of musical instruments "in worship" is a sin. He thinks God forbids Christians to play musical instruments or sing to the accompaniment of musical instruments when the church is met together.
His unfortunate misunderstanding of Christian worship is part of the reason why I feel led to ask every Christian to consider what the Bible says about worship. Bro. Hadwin says that Col. 3:15-17 is establishing a law forbidding the use of musical instruments in church services. I believe he's very wrong in his understanding.
CONSIDER WHAT GOD'S WORD SAYS --
Paul writes, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Does that sound to YOU like a law against use of musical instruments in church assemblies?
In Ephesians 5, Paul says the same thing, calling for us to love one another always, and to exhort one another with loving words and appropriate tunes. "Be very careful, then, how you live -- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Is this a law against use of musical instruments anywhere? Does it set up a requirement for how we conduct our meetings? Do YOU think that's what Paul is writing about in these passages?
God, speaking through Paul, is speaking to all who love Jesus to advise them about daily living. The topic is not what to do one hour a week, but what to do every hour in the week. It includes being thankful and happy because of God's goodness to us. We're invited to express our joy through song. And Hadwin wants to make the passage into a law about what we can safely do when we get together briefly once a week! For shame. That's NOT what Paul is writing about. So I asked the question. Then I answered it!
Paul does encourage those who can sing to do so. Anywhere. Everywhere. With joy in their hearts and in their voices. He invites us to sing about Jesus. He tells us to exhort and encourage one another. We should do so.
Hadwin goes to 2nd-century writings and finds that some who wrote Greek in that day opposed use of musical instruments in Christian assemblies, or by Christians anywhere. He finds that some used the Greek words (psallo for "sing" and psalm for one type of religious song) Paul used in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 as if those words meant to them that the singing MUST be unaccompanied by any musical instrument.
He writes, "In fact, the contexts in which they (in the 2nd and 3rd centuries) used those words (psalm and "psallo" the verb meaning sing) as used in the N.T. excluded instrumental music. If those words DID exclude instrumental music, then its use is explicitly condemned in Ephesians 5:18-20." That assertion might possibly be true IF it could be proved that Paul had used the word to mean "without musical instruments." But I don't see that this is yet proved. And I don't see that Paul was writing laws for church assemblies in these passages (or anywhere except where the subject is addressed in his correctives to the Corinthian church in chapters 12-14 of the first letter.)
The scholar/teacher is saying that Paul's text you read above is making a law about what Christians are allowed to do when they're together. Is that what YOU see in Paul's words? Hadwin sees that Paul was THERE saying that the Lord's people must NOT use musical instruments in public services. Because he used a word which Hadwin finds some using 150 years later to mean singing a cappella.
I don't see that Paul's subject was what type of singing is permitted in public services. What Paul said was that we should use all kinds of gospel music in honor of our Lord, whenever we think of Him and rejoice in Him and are at liberty to raise our voices in song.
But the basic problem with Hadwin's view is that he's making a law where no law is given by the inspired writer! He thinks we need specific authority to do any things we want to do for God. I think his entire concept of Christianity is different than was Paul's or the Lord's, or any other inspired man who spoke for God.
Christians want to do what will PLEASE God. ALL Christians want to do what will please God. When we assemble for what are usually called "worship services" it's because we hope that the assembly will honor and glorify the God we love as well as bless those present and participating.
Many overlook what Paul does say about HOW to best honor and praise God in our assemblies. I'm pointing out that worship is individual. The most sincere worship of Jehovah God is done by one individual alone with God, as any Bible student should readily realize. It is NOT primarily for worship that CHRISTIANS meet together. That entire premise is faulty -- not based on true facts at all.
Until we realize together that WORSHIP is not our primary aim when we come together, we'll not in our assemblies really honor and praise God.
Check out Romans 12:1,2, "Therefore, I (Paul) urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- THIS is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..." The passage is pointing out that how we LIVE every day is the worship which will please God. It's by the ugly words we DON'T SAY, by the loving words we DO say, by the kind acts we perform for others, by the mean things we refuse to do -- these are the ACTS OF WORSHIP which count with our God.
Those who study the New Testament scriptures in search of "authorized" acts of worship may locate verses they can claim as God's voice telling them what they can and can't do "in worship." But they'll be wrong.
For nothing in the inspired New Testament ever instructs Christians to assemble for worship, or informs us what we are allowed to do while together. With two exceptions, perhaps.
James warns against showing partiality to the rich and beautiful who come into our gatherings. And Paul demands that we not be piggish even about using our spiritual gifts for God.
In his first letter to the Corinthian church, in chapters twelve through fourteen, Paul does address problems present in their assemblies. He's talking about their meetings, yes. But he makes no mention that they were gathered for a "worship service." Yet in our churches today, there's continual emphasis upon coming into God's house where we are able to WORSHIP in a worship service with a worship leader. But that's NOT Christianity! If that's YOUR purpose in meeting with other saints, you've just misunderstood everything about our faith.
The entire concept of "worship service" is absent from the New Testament scriptures.
Except in the one verse I quoted above, where Paul points out that the worship service is how we live in daily life.
What Jesus calls us to is not a way of gathering for weekly worship "services," but instead it's a way of serving God every day we live. The "worship service" idea so many churches have fallen in love with is a perfect waste of any Christian's time. Early Christians met to edify one another. They did this by joining in prayer, which is an act of worship. They shared together in partaking of a Meal of Remembrance. And this also is worship. They may have sung together. We like to think they did, but it's NOT mentioned as any important part of their gatherings. (The singing of which Paul speaks was NOT in "worship services" so far as the texts let us see. Nor in public meetings, except when he speaks of solos some shared in Corinthian gatherings).
If the "worship service" concept for Christians is not from God (I have affirmed that it is not), where did it come from? Why do we do it?
Somewhere along the way, the priests of God who are His saints decided they had to appoint special priests to study and serve full time. The priests set up a new priestly class called CLERGY. The entire concept of a Christian clergy is absent from the New Testament.
New Testament servers included EVANGELISTS who went where the church hadn't yet gone, but our clergymen are NOT evangelists. Evangelists were told to locate in each new congregation those older men who could keep the group together by loving counsel, who were recognized by the group as proper "shepherds," and set these capable older men apart as ELDERS or PASTORS of the "flock." But our clergymen come in all ages, some quite young and some very old. Their age has nothing to do with the duties to which they are called.
And whenever jobs needed to be done in those early congregations, capable younger men were appointed by the group to do the work they saw was needing to be done. These servants were called DEACONS. But our clergymen are not servants.
And once we turned over our priestly duties to the clergyman, then we have to keep him busy so he can earn his salary. So the priests of God work hard all week so they can pay the clergyman to conduct top-quality entertainment on Sundays, and to marry and bury, etc.during the weeks as the ONLY one qualified to be a priest of God in our churches.
If this description doesn't match what you read about in your New Testament, you're perhaps catching on that "worship services" isn't the only thing we're now doing that was NOT begun by the Lord in His church.
If we realize that the meetings to which Christians come are held for the purpose of mutual edification, we might be able to get away from the idea that there are only particular "authorized" acts of "worship" which we should feel free to engage in while together.
Every Christian is a priest of God. God LIVES IN us individually. We don't go to any building to there meet God. We take Him with us wherever we go.
The "worship service" concept is dead wrong, and it will make the church dead if we don't learn what our meetings are for according to the Bible. Anyone who wants to know the full truth about Christian worship SHOULD study the Bible. In our generation, why does it seem that most people talk a lot about the Bible but do NOT read and study the Bible itself?
Why do we fuss with one another instead of seeking light from GOD on what we can do that will please Him? A first step in repentance is that we should insist on using Bible terms for Bible things. Where in the New Testament does it EVER say that Christians are to assemble for "WORSHIP SERVICES?"
It doesn't. So let's QUIT calling our meetings by the wrong name!!!
Brief Bible Study #43 from Ray Downen. To go back to Viewpoint's first page, click < here. Or here to go on to Viewpoint Study 44. For Ray's concluding remarks, click HERE.And here's a response received when the study above
was sent out by e-mail to some in late September 1998 --From: rprugh@mebac.umr.edu
To: outreach@sofnet.com (Ray Downen) Date sent: Thu, 24 Sep 1998Subject: Re: Viewpoint Brief Bible Study #43
Ray, You have nailed that issue right on the head. Great spiritual insight. I'm a deacon in the Church of Christ, and agree with everything you've said. I wish more people would remove the veil of legalism when they read their Bibles.
Your brother in Christ, Rick Prugh
