austinbrown2
Puritan Board Freshman
Preface: In conjuction with my argument for new songs, a similar argument can be advanced with respect to the use of instruments. Consider the following:
1. We are commanded to praise God with instruments (1).
2. God’s people have used instruments to praise Him (2).
3. The use of instrumental praise begins in Genesis and continues on to Revelation (3).
4. Examples of instrumental worship extend outside of the Levitical priesthood and OT Temple worship (4).
5. Therefore it is proper for God’s people to use instruments to praise Him.
6. There is no command to refrain from using instruments to worship God in the New Covenant.
7. Therefore it is proper for God’s people under the New Covenant to use instruments to praise Him (5).
8. The people of God can rightly praise His name, at least in some contexts, with instruments under the New Covenant.
9. There is no explicit teaching forbidding the use of instruments in the Christian assembly.
10. Since it is right to worship God with instruments Monday through Saturday and since there is no explicit teaching forbidding the use of instruments during the Christian assembly on Sunday, then it would be proper to infer that the use of instruments to praise God’s name during the Christian assembly is valid.
Some will continue to object that the use of instruments was intimately connected with the Levitical, sacrificial system (6), and as such, we dare not utilize them for congregational worship, since they are but shadows that have been fulfilled in Christ. But as Dr. Greg Strawbridge points out,
“The burden of proof is clearly placed on those who deny the validity of OT precedents and commands for the acceptability of instrumental praise in worship. On what specific NT grounds can the use of instruments be abrogated? The covenantal hermeneutic of the Reformed faith looks for continuity. As far as claims that instruments were typological in some way (like the sacrifices), where is the NT evidence to support this? Certainly, the OT does not represent the use of instruments as exclusively connected to blood sacrificial actions.” (7)
P.S. I am beginning to see that what is really objected too is not the logic, but the overriding assumptions behind our systems. But if certain assumptions to the non-instrument paradigm aren't justifiable, then would it be admitted that this argument justfies instruments in such a way that would be consonant with the RPW?
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(1) Psalm 98:4-6; 33:3; 149:3; 150.
(2) Psalm 71:22; 43:4; 2 Sa 6:5.
(3) As Morton Smith observes, “If both the past and the future periods of the church’s worship include instruments, may we not by good and necessary consequence deduce that they may be used in this period as well?” Cited in Dr. Greg Strawbridge’s “Worship and Worship Services,” page 69.
(4) Exo 15:20; 1 Sa 10:5; 18:6; Psalm 52; 92:1-3; 108.
(5) Passages like Hebrews 13:15 could be consonant with musical accompaniment.
(6) Kevin Reed makes this point in “Biblical Worship,” page 62, 65.
(7) Cited from “Worship and Worship Services,” page 69.
1. We are commanded to praise God with instruments (1).
2. God’s people have used instruments to praise Him (2).
3. The use of instrumental praise begins in Genesis and continues on to Revelation (3).
4. Examples of instrumental worship extend outside of the Levitical priesthood and OT Temple worship (4).
5. Therefore it is proper for God’s people to use instruments to praise Him.
6. There is no command to refrain from using instruments to worship God in the New Covenant.
7. Therefore it is proper for God’s people under the New Covenant to use instruments to praise Him (5).
8. The people of God can rightly praise His name, at least in some contexts, with instruments under the New Covenant.
9. There is no explicit teaching forbidding the use of instruments in the Christian assembly.
10. Since it is right to worship God with instruments Monday through Saturday and since there is no explicit teaching forbidding the use of instruments during the Christian assembly on Sunday, then it would be proper to infer that the use of instruments to praise God’s name during the Christian assembly is valid.
Some will continue to object that the use of instruments was intimately connected with the Levitical, sacrificial system (6), and as such, we dare not utilize them for congregational worship, since they are but shadows that have been fulfilled in Christ. But as Dr. Greg Strawbridge points out,
“The burden of proof is clearly placed on those who deny the validity of OT precedents and commands for the acceptability of instrumental praise in worship. On what specific NT grounds can the use of instruments be abrogated? The covenantal hermeneutic of the Reformed faith looks for continuity. As far as claims that instruments were typological in some way (like the sacrifices), where is the NT evidence to support this? Certainly, the OT does not represent the use of instruments as exclusively connected to blood sacrificial actions.” (7)
P.S. I am beginning to see that what is really objected too is not the logic, but the overriding assumptions behind our systems. But if certain assumptions to the non-instrument paradigm aren't justifiable, then would it be admitted that this argument justfies instruments in such a way that would be consonant with the RPW?
- - - - - - - - -
(1) Psalm 98:4-6; 33:3; 149:3; 150.
(2) Psalm 71:22; 43:4; 2 Sa 6:5.
(3) As Morton Smith observes, “If both the past and the future periods of the church’s worship include instruments, may we not by good and necessary consequence deduce that they may be used in this period as well?” Cited in Dr. Greg Strawbridge’s “Worship and Worship Services,” page 69.
(4) Exo 15:20; 1 Sa 10:5; 18:6; Psalm 52; 92:1-3; 108.
(5) Passages like Hebrews 13:15 could be consonant with musical accompaniment.
(6) Kevin Reed makes this point in “Biblical Worship,” page 62, 65.
(7) Cited from “Worship and Worship Services,” page 69.