by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Ecclesiastes 1:9-11<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nI. J.D. Tant, a preacher in Texas back in the late 1800’s, often ended his articles with the\nwarning, “Brethren, we are drifting.”\n
A. Such seems to be the tendency of man.<\/p>\n B. We forget the past and just assume that what is currently done has always been\nthat way – Ecclesiastes 1:9-11\n C. Some changes are rapid and noticeable. But many are not apparent because the\ndrift covers spans of time greater than an individual’s lifetime.\n
II. Instrumental Music<\/p>\n A. There is no debate in this matter. The early church only sang in their worship\nservices\n
1. Ephesians 5:19 – Singing and making melody in your hearts<\/p>\n
2. Colossians 3:16 – Singing with grace in your hearts<\/p>\n B. Early Christian writers confirm this matter, writing extensively against instrumental\nmusic and noting that it was one of many features which distinguished Christian\nworship from Jewish worship\n 1. Clement of Alexander, around 195 A.D. wrote, “The one instrument of\npeace, the Word alone by whom we honor God, is what we employ. We no\nlonger employ the ancient psaltery, trumpet, timbrel, and flute.”\n 2. Eusebius, in the fourth century, in Commentary on Psalm 91<\/i>, wrote, “Of\nold at the time those of the circumcision were worshiping with symbols and\ntypes it was inappropriate to send up hymns to God with the psalterion<\/i> and\nkithara<\/i> and to do this on Sabbath days (breaking he rest and transgressing\nthe law concerning the Sabbath). But we in an inward manner keep the part\nof the Jew, according to the saying of the apostle … (Romans 2:28f). We\nrender our hymn with a living psalterion<\/i> and a living kithara<\/i>, with spiritual\nsongs. The unison voices of Christians would be more acceptable to God\nthan any musical instrument. Accordingly in all the churches of God, united\nin soul and attitude, with one mind and in agreement of faith and piety, we\nsend up a unison melody in the words of the Psalms.”\n C. It took nearly 700 years, but eventually the Roman Catholics add instrumental\nmusic to their worship.\n 1. Yet it continued to be rejected by the Greek Orthodox and Protestant\ndenominations. \n 2. John Calvin (1509-1564), founder of the Presbyterian Church: “Musical\ninstruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable\nthan the burning of incense, the lighting up of lamps, and the restoration of\nthe other shadows of the [Mosaic] law . . . Men who are fond of outward\npomp may delight in that noise; but the simplicity which God recommends\nto us . . . is far more pleasing to Him” (Comments on Psalm 23). \n 3. John Girardeau, a Presbyterian scholar, said, “The church, although lapsing\nmore and more into defection from the truth and into a corruption of\napostolic practice, had no instrumental music for 1,200 years (that is it was\nnot in general use before this time); the Calvinistic Reformed Church\nejected it from its services as an element of popery, even the Church of\nEngland having come very nigh to its extrusion from her worship. It is\nheresy in the sphere of worship” (Instrumental Music, page 179).\n 4. John Wesley (1703-1791), an Episcopal and a founder of Methodism: “I\nhave no objection to the instruments in our chapels, provided they are\nneither heard nor seen” (Quoted by Adam Clark).\n 5. Adam Clark (1762-1832), Methodist scholar and commentator: “I am an\nold man, and an old minister; and I here declare that I never knew them\n[musical instruments] productive of any good in the worship of God; and\nhave had reason to believe that they were productive of much evil. Music,\nas a science, I esteem and admire: but instruments of music in the house of\nGod I abominate and abhor. This is the abuse of music; and here I register\nmy protest against all such corruptions in the worship of the Author of\nChristianity” (Commentary, IV, 686, on Amos 6:5). \n 6. Robert J. Breckinridge, a Presbyterian scholar, wrote an article dated\nDecember 30th, 1851 and entitled, “Protest Against The Use Of\nInstrumental Music In The Stated Worship Of God On The Lord’s Day.” In\nit, Breckinridge said, “…the grand objection to the use of instrumental\nmusic, in the manner herein objected to, is that it is contrary to the express\nwill of God, as shown by his positive institutions for his own praise.”\n 7. Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) preached to 20,000 people every\nSunday for 20 years in the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle where\nmechanical instruments of music were never used in the services. When\nasked why, Spurgeon quoted I Corinthians 14:15: “I will pray with the\nspirit and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit,\nand I will sing with the understanding also.” He declared: “I would as soon\npray to God with machinery as to sing to God with machinery.” \n D. When brethren tried to introduce instrumental music, it was a major factor that\ncause the division at the end of 1800’s which produced the Christian Church and\nthe Disciples of Christ.\n E. Look around us and it is hard to find those who call themselves Christians, not\nworshiping with instrumental music.\n 1. It has been going on long enough that most people assume that is the way\nit has always been.\n 2. Richland Hills Church of Christ, added instrumental music services at the\nend of 2006, making national news with its departure.\n
III. Christmas<\/p>\n A. Bruce Forbes, a professor at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, published a\nbook in 2007 titled Christmas: A Candid History<\/i>. \n
1. He documents that midwinter celebrations pre-date Christianity.<\/p>\n a. For example, “yule” is the name of a mid-winter celebration in\nnorthern Europe that pre-dates Christ.\n 2. He notes that there was no Christmas observance for the first 300 years of\nChristianity.\n a. The first written record that associates the birth of Jesus with\nDecember 25 is found in an ancient calendar for the year 354.\n b. The date was likely picked because it fell in the middle of three\nRoman mid-winter celebrations.\n 3. In the 1600’s and 1700’s Christmas celebrations were banned in England\nand in the New England colonies ran by the Puritans\n a. The reason given was that the early Christians did not celebrate\nChristmas\n
b. The celebration has too many ties with Roman Catholicism<\/p>\n
c. And they saw it as an excuse for way too much partying <\/p>\n d. In colonial New England it was actually illegal to celebrate\nChristmas and it carried a fine.\n 4. Congress used to meet on Christmas day up until the 1850’s. New England\nschools were open on Christmas up until the 1870’s. Businesses remained\nopen through the 1800’s on Christmas day.\n 5. In fact, some churches would close their doors on Christmas lest some\ntried to make it into a religious holy day.\n a. “Major American denominations — Presbyterians, Baptists,\nQuakers, Methodists, and Congregationalists — either ignored the\nholiday or actively discouraged it up to the late 19th<\/sup> century.”\n[Bruce Forbes, ibid.]\n B. What changed things was Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol<\/i><\/p>\n 1. It became an acceptable family-centered holiday, without an overtly\nreligious significance, thus breaking the concern of connections to Roman\nCatholicism\n 2. “The mainline Protestant churches learned to accommodate Christmas. But\nthe change came from the pews rather than the pulpit.”\n 3. In other words, the leaders in denominations caved because the demand\nwas so great to have it.\n 4. Like ancient Israel, the people loved to have it so – Jeremiah 5:30-31<\/p>\n 5. Like Paul warned, people will flock to those who will tell them what they\nwant to hear – II Timothy 4:3-4\n C. This is how we ended up with a dichotomy of two approaches to Christmas:\nsecular and religious\n 1. “And the modern Christmas is especially a cultural thing, which might or\nmight not be religious. The result today is that we kind of have two\nChristmases. We have a Christian Christmas. We have a cultural Christmas.\nA lot of people do both. Some people do only one.” [Bruce Forbes, ibid.]\n 2. “Gallup polls from 1994 to 2005 consistently show that more than 90\npercent of adults say they celebrate Christmas, including 84 percent of non-Christians.” [Tom Breen, “While most Christians embrace Christmas, a few\nrecall a more complex history,” Dailypress.com, Dec. 14, 2007]\n 3. Philip Ross, an elder at the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Vienna, West\nVirginia, stated “I have a love-hate relationship with Christmas. It seems\nobvious to me that there’s nothing scriptural about it, but that’s a hard sell\nwith children.”\n D. But of course, people forget all this history.<\/p>\n 1. We have banners up in the neighborhood proclaiming “Put Christ back into\nChristmas”\n 2. But he was never there. Christmas is a man-made holiday, originating\namong the Roman Catholics to put a religious slant on existing\ncelebrations.\n 3. Rejected for centuries, it just recently became popular to celebrate it, but\npeople think it has always been celebrated.\n IV. Israel was destroyed by a lack of knowledge – Hosea 4:6<\/p>\n A. Will we let modern innovations and traditions blind us to the truth? – Matthew\n15:8-9\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 I. J.D. Tant, a preacher in Texas back in the late 1800’s, often ended his articles with the warning, “Brethren, we are drifting.” A. Such seems to be the tendency of man. B. We forget the past and just assume that what is currently done has always been that way…<\/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,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[617,1308,342,292],"class_list":["post-62290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","tag-apostasy","tag-falling-away","tag-holidays","tag-instrumental-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67169,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/instrumental-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":62290,"position":0},"title":"Instrumental Music","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 24, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Warfel","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15061,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-have-something-on-the-use-of-instrumental-music-under-the-old-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":62290,"position":1},"title":"Do you have something on the use of instrumental music under the Old Law?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you have any articles or sermons on the instrumental music used to worship under the Old Law? I understand that the Old Law has been done away with and we don't use instruments in today's worship, but I am just curious about the use of instrumental music in\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":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":62290,"position":2},"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":90633,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/instrumental-music-to-worship-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":62290,"position":3},"title":"Instrumental Music to Worship of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gary Colley The following reasons, concerning why churches of Christ do not use mechanical instruments of music in worship to God, were given recently in our Denominational Doctrines class. It has been requested that they be in our bulletin for the help of all. It can be stated without\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":15152,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/have-i-been-worshiping-in-vain-all-these-years-by-using-instrumental-music-in-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":62290,"position":4},"title":"Have I been worshiping in vain all these years by using instrumental music in worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have enjoyed your questions and answers on your web site. Thank you for your time in addressing matters that concern people. Now I would like to ask you, as many others have asked, about the restriction that your church has placed upon \"instrumental music\" in the worship of\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":15081,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-god-command-the-use-of-instrumental-music-under-the-old-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":62290,"position":5},"title":"Did God command the use of instrumental music under the Old Law?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you think there was a time in the old law that God did command the use of instruments in worship to Him? Such as II Chronicles 29:25-28. Seems like there are split thoughts on this idea. Just wondering about your thoughts. 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