I have a friend who has left the church to participate with a community church. Can you offer me advice on what to say to her or point me to articles already posted that I can use in hopes of restoring her?<\/p>\n
This friend thinks that too much of God’s original words or thoughts to us have been lost in translation over the years. \u00a0She is also newly married and her husband is a music major. \u00a0She thinks he will be more willing to attend services with her if he can get involved with the music department at the community church. \u00a0This particular aspect is one of the areas she thinks has been lost in translation. She believes God’s prohibition against the use of musical instruments in worship has been mistranslated.<\/p>\n
This is just a sampling of her “reasons” why she has left. \u00a0Suffice to say her base reason for leaving is her belief that the Bible, as it stands today, has lost its original meaning as it was translated from its original language to English.<\/p>\n\t
In other words, she has no proof. She has no evidence. But because the Bible stands in the way of what she wants; therefore, the Bible must have flaws because her imaginary god would never deny her something that she really wants.<\/p>\n
If she would like to show evidence of the imagined corruption there would be something to discuss, but you can’t battle a person’s imagination. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ<\/em>” (II Corinthians 10:4-5).<\/p>\n It won’t make much of an effect but challenge her to prove her point. Her “think so” is inadequate. I doubt that she will because she knows that the effort will make her face the fact that she is wrong.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I have a friend who has left the church to participate with a community church. Can you offer me advice on what to say to her or point me to articles already posted that I can use in hopes of restoring her? This friend thinks that too much of God’s original words or thoughts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[292,311],"class_list":["post-47465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-instrumental-music","tag-translations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32034,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-teach-my-fiance-that-dancing-in-worship-instrumental-music-and-women-preachers-are-a-big-deal-if-you-want-to-please-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":47465,"position":0},"title":"How do I teach my fiance that dancing in worship, instrumental music, and women preachers are a big deal if you want to please God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm getting my fiance to come to a church of Christ from being a Baptist. She had decided to study with me and learn the Word together, but it seems still a little hard to do so. For one, her mother is always in her ear and to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24877,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-instrumental-music-be-used-for-worshiping-god-on-days-other-than-sunday\/","url_meta":{"origin":47465,"position":1},"title":"Can instrumental music be used for worshiping God on days other than Sunday?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was also speaking with her regarding instruments in worship. She claimed that since it is only the first-day assembly, which is that worship was done together in one place, then to go to a place where they have instrumental music on a Wednesday night is not sinful. She\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37972,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/arguments-i-used-for-the-use-of-instrumental-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":47465,"position":2},"title":"Arguments I Used for the Use of Instrumental Music","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"(When I Was a Preacher for the Christian Church) by Dan Goddard Men have long been prone to go beyond the limitations of God's word in their zeal to serve Jehovah. Zeal for God is commendable when it is coupled with a knowledge of God's will; but when one allows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46630,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-started-the-argument-from-silence\/","url_meta":{"origin":47465,"position":3},"title":"Who Started The Argument From Silence?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Paul Earnhart The students of John L. Girardeau, professor at Columbia Seminary, South Carolina in the 1880s, asked him to explain to them why he opposed the use of instrumental music in the worship of the Presbyterian churches. In response, he wrote a book that was published in Richmond,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Girardeau-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":29060,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-you-using-the-argument-from-silence-differently-between-the-topics-of-masturbation-and-instrumental-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":47465,"position":4},"title":"Why are you using the argument from silence differently between the topics of masturbation and instrumental music?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I hope all is well! I just wanted to say that I felt your advice, backed up by Scripture, has been helpful. I'm a 23-year-old male and struggled with masturbation (without fantasizing or porn), wondering if it is a sin or not. This is an on-again\/off-again matter and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94676,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-must-you-use-instrumental-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":47465,"position":5},"title":"Why Must You Use Instrumental Music?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 19, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Author Unknown Recently, a congregation in the city where I preach decided to start using instruments in their worship assembly. Apparently, even the community realizes that among churches of Christ, this is a big deal because the local news and newspaper have done stories on it. Obviously, I love\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}