DOES GOD'S SILENCE PERMIT?

When a discussion about instrumental music in worship takes place, the one in support of it will often say, "The Bible doesn't say not to?" Is there any merit in this line of argument? What can we learn from the scriptures?

What we discover in the Bible is that the silence of scripture authorizes nothing. God's silence is not permissive but it is prohibitive and to deny this puts one at odds with the Bible. Consider passages like Leviticus 10:1-3; Deuteronomy 4:2; Deuteronomy 12:32; Proverbs 30:6; Acts 15:24; 2 John 1:9; Revelation 22:18 and others like them.

Take for example when the Hebrew writer spoke of Jesus' priesthood. He wrote, "For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law:" (Hebrews 8:4) "For him of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has ofﬁciated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood" (Hebrews 7:13-14). Because of God's silence, only those of the tribe of Levi could be priests under the Law of Moses. It required a change of law in order for Jesus to serve as our High Priest (Hebrews 7:12). You see, God did not forbid those from the tribe of Judah to serve as priests, he was just silent about it.

The moment God speciﬁed what tribe was to be the priestly tribe, he excluded any other. Jeroboam, the ﬁrst king of Israel, sinned against the Lord because he did not respect the of scripture. In 1 Kings 12:31 we read where Jeroboam, "...made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi." His actions, though not speciﬁcally prohibited, were sinful nevertheless.

In the New Testament, Christians are admonished to use their lips to offer up praise to God (Hebrews 13:15), to teach and admonish with their songs (Colossians 3:16), to sing to one another making melody in their hearts unto the Lord (Ephesians 5:19). God has speciﬁed the kind of music (singing) that we are to offer unto Him and in doing so has excluded any other kind of music (instrumental).

May we all learn to respect the silence of the scripture and "not to think beyond what is written" (1 Corinthians 4:6) lest we stand condemned.

Roy Hardesty, Giddings, TX