To Play or Not to Play, Finale.

Wow. Ok, now I'm a little embarrased. In thinking (and ranting) about instrumental worship, I've ran across a number of books, blogs, and sermons on this same subject. Very well written, researched, and reasoned material produced by obviously wiser and more studied minds than mine. Therefore, I will now shut up about it and encourage you to carry on from here on your own. I will make only a couple of statements in parting, about the anti-instrumentalist's favorite argument against it. That is, the so-called "Law of Silence". Jesus' and the apostles' lack of writings on the issue of instruments in worship does not prove, nor in anyway imply that instruments are forbidden or unathorized. The only thing their silence should imply is that the subject was simply a non-issue. It never occured to them to mention the issue, because it simply wasn't one. Remember, Jesus and most of His apostles were Jews, had grown up under the Law of Moses, and used instruments in their own worship! If, after Jesus' death and resurrection, it had suddenly become forbidden to use them in worship, I'm about 100% sure at least one of them would have mentioned it somewhere.
Anti-instrumentalists also like to mention Revelation 22:18-19. That's the one about not "adding to the words of this book". Ok, this seems obvious to me, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Those verses have nothing to do with the Bible, at least, not the New Testament. Not in the way most people mean it. The apostle John had no idea (or else he surely would've written about it) that someday, there would be a collection of inspired writings that christians would refer to as "The Bible". In fact the Bible, as we know it, didn't even exist until many years later. The book that John is referring to must be either his own Revelation, or the Book of Life which he mentions just a couple of chapters earlier. Now, that doesn't mean we shouldn't speak where God hasn't spoken, or be silent where God has given clear decrees. And condemning instrumental music when Jesus doesn't, comes dangerously close to speaking where God was silent. The Church of Christ was born out of the Restoration movement, and one of the main goals of the movement was freedom from the deductions and inferences made by men. Yet here in the 21st century we have an example of once again living under rules inferred by man, rather than spoken by God. An example of Tradition being elevated to the level of Commandment.
And finally, what does this Law of Silence say about my God? Do you, dear reader, actually believe that the Creator of the Universe loves you enough that He would sacrifice His one and only Son just to have the faintest chance of spending Eternity with you? If you say "Yes" to that question, then can you honestly believe that this greatest of all sacrifices could be nullified simply because you failed to correctly interpret God's silence? Really? I don't know whether or not you have children, but if you did, would you give them the ultimate punishment for violating a rule you had never handed down, and that they knew nothing about? What kind of parent would that make you? Well, God is a perfect parent, and I cannot fathom the idea that He, who loved me enough to die for me, would destroy me because I didn't properly understand something He never talked about! Sorry, that's not the God I worship. The God I worship doesn't say instrumental music with christian-themed lyrics that praise and honor Him is ok to listen to at home, but not in a worship service. The God I worship loves me with a passion, and wants me to feel and express love back to Him. God loves an earnest, honest heart. He does, however, as evidenced throughout the Old and the New Testaments, hate hypocrisy. Hypocrisy? Yes, as in hypocrites. Who are they? They're the ones who'll yell and scream that I'm going to hell for having a guitar in church on Sunday morning, and then get themselves all choked up and teary-eyed when Martina McBride sings "God's Will", or when Carrie Underwood sings "Jesus, Take The Wheel".
To them, it's apparently ok to use instruments to sing about God while in the car, but not while in God's house. That, to me, is hypocrisy.