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"STRETCHING THE LIMITS - 2"
Larry Yarber
"And even things without life giving sounds, whether pipe or harp, except
they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or
harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to
the battle? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be
understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For ye shall speak into the
air" (1st Corinthians 14:7-9).
Here is another one of those passages in the New Testament, which
mentions the mechanical instrument of music, but in no way connects that
instrument to New Testament worship. The chapter prior to this one, references
the same type of illustrative use concerning the mechanical instrument of music,
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I
am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal" (1st Corinthians 13:1).
The trumpet, in the Old Testament, as well as various other types of
mechanical instruments of music, was used to signal various events and/or to
sound alarms, "But when the congregation is to be gathered together, ye shall
blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm. ... And if ye go to war in your land against
your enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets;
..." (Numbers 10:7-9). In the above texts (1st Corinthians 13:1 and 14:7-9), the
inspired writer is using the mechanical instrument of music for illustrative
purposes alone. In order to illustrate the confusion found in the church when
various languages were spoken to glorify the individual instead of being used to
teach the unlearned, the writer uses the uncertain sound of the trumpet, etc. .
This foreign language was to the unlearned as uncertain a sound, without any
significance, as the uncertain sound of the mechanical instrument of music found
in the Old Testament, and blown or played improperly, "There are, it may be, so
many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification,
"Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that
speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me" (1st
Corinthians 14:10-11). To use this passage to teach that the New Testament
authorizes the use of the mechanical instrument of music in New Testament
worship is to stretch the passage beyond it's contextual teaching, "And account
that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul
also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all
his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to
be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do
also the other scripture, unto their own destruction" (2nd Peter 3:15-16). Strong
defines wrest, "4761, strebloo, streb-lo-o; from a der. of 4762 stepho; to wrench,
i.e. (spec.) to torture (by the rack), but only fig. to pervert:-wrest" (STRONG, pg.
90). May we never abuse the scripture in this manner!
Furthermore, the Hebrew writer tells us that we are no longer under the
Mosaic Covenant, nor the sound of the trumpet, but that we are now under the
New Testament covenant to Christ, "For ye are not come unto the mount that
might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness,
and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voices of words; which voice
they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:
... But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general
assembly and church of the first-born, ... And to Jesus the mediator of the new
covenant, ..." (Hebrews 12:18-24). Since we are no longer under the Old
Covenant, we cannot return to it in order to learn how to approach God in New
Testament worship.
If you would like to submit a Biblical question for our consideration, please
feel free to write to: Larry Yarber - 2534 Oak Ridge Drive - Mountain Grove,
Missouri - 65711: or phone, 417-962-5229 (home) or 417-247-0017 (cell): or
email, [email protected]. We look forward to studying God's Word with
you!