6. Conclusion
In chapter 1, we saw that God created us for joyful worship and restored us to joyful worship. The world, the flesh, and the devil will do all in their power to spoil God’s joyful purposes for us and to bring us into bondage.
In chapter 2, we saw that the Regulative Principle of Worship is not a hindrance to joyful Liberty, but is God’s protection of such liberty. The moment we add to God’s laws or subtract from God’s laws (both of which the Pharisees did) we run the danger of losing some of the joy and liberty that God ordained for his people.
In chapter 5, we saw that even well-meaning godly Christians can unwittingly mar God’s purposes for liberty. If even the apostle Peter could do so on such serious issues as the Gospel (Galatians 1) and less serious issues such as food (Acts 10), it would be easy for us to do so. Granted, instrumental music is not on the same level as the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ that Paul defended in Galatians, but it was designed by God to adorn that Gospel with joy and gladness. When the apostle Paul corrected the apostle Peter on the issue of circumcision, he in no way sought to diminish Peter’s apostleship (cf. Gal. 1:17,19; 2:9) or to deny that Peter had done tremendous good for the church (Gal. 2:9). Indeed, he reaffirmed Peter’s apostleship and reaffirmed that Peter was a “pillar” (Gal. 2:9). Nevertheless, Paul made the point that even an apostle may err in his judgments. In the same way, my disagreements with godly men on the issue of music was not meant to diminish the honored status of various church fathers or esteemed theologians of the past. I love Calvin and I love the early church fathers. I have simply joined with other esteemed church fathers and theologians in demonstrating that that they have deviated from the Scriptures on this important issue of worship. They have added to God’s law a command of a cappella singing (a form of legalism) and they have taken away from God’s law numerous commands to sing accompanied with instruments (a form of antinomianism). This book is a call to be more consistent with the Regulative Principle of Worship and to properly adorn the joyful Gospel with joyful music accompanied by well-played instruments of music.
In the course of answering the three main pillars of the a cappella position, I have provided six pillars of my own in defense of instrumental music. The first pillar is to affirm that it is the instrumental position alone that fully defends the Regulative Principle of worship. It alone submits to God’s repeated commands to sing psalms accompanied with instruments.
The second pillar is to demonstrate that instrumental music was not restricted to the ceremonial law. Indeed, musical instruments were lawfully played by Levites (1 Chron. 15:16; 2 Chron. 7:6) and non-Levitical prophets (1 Sam. 10:5), kings (2 Sam. 6:4; Is. 38:20) and ordinary citizens (Ps. 33:1-3; 2 Sam. 6:5), males (1 Chron. 13:8; 15:16) and females (Ex. 15:20; Ps. 68:25). The only requirements that God set for those musicians was that they be skilled,249 have certain character qualifications,250 play from the heart (Eph. 5:19) and with a life that is not subject to serious blame (Amos 5:23).
The third pillar is to demonstrate that instrumental music was included in the synagogue worship of the Old Testament, of which the scattered Levites were the pastors, and from which the New Testament church originated. Thus instrumental music preceded the creation of the Tabernacle of Moses and it continued long after the Temple was destroyed.
The fourth pillar is to demonstrate that the Booth of David is the fullest and richest Old Testament prototype of the New Covenant church, and is applied by both Amos 9 and Acts 15 to the New Testament church. James describes the building of the New Testament church as the rebuilding of the Booth of David (Acts 15:15-17). In chapter 3, I demonstrated how the Booth of David foreshadowed the glorious privileges that we have as Jew and Gentile approaching the very throne of grace with joyful worship-music. Of all the institutions of the Old Testament, the Booth of David was most characterized by instrumental music, and as such stands as the best expression of New Testament worship.
The fifth pillar is to demonstrate that the New Testament also calls us to use instruments in corporate worship. It does so by using words that included in their meaning singing accompanied by musical instruments. These words had that meaning in the centuries leading up to Christ and in the four centuries after Christ. But we looked at other indications that the music of earth was to be patterned after the music of heaven.
The sixth pillar is to show that our interpretation is consistent with historical theology (the history of interpretation). If no church fathers had held to our interpretation, it might have legitimately been suspect. However, I would hasten to say that including chapter 5 is not intended as a concession to church tradition or as a deviation from the Reformation doctrine of Sola Scriptura. Instead, it is a humble test of our interpretation by examining the teachings of others who were driven by the doctrine of Sola Scriptura.
May this book help Christians to stand in the Perfect Law of Liberty and to thereby adorn the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that glorifies God. May God also give us charity to love others who differ with us on this position. And may God give others charity toward us to admit that their interpretation may be wrong and to not slander us with the charge of being papists and defilers of worship. We have appealed to the Scripture. May our conscience be bound by Scripture alone, and not by the fear of man. Amen.
In essentials unity,
In non-essentials liberty,
In all things charity.