The Bible teaches: mechanical instruments of music are approved by God in the New Testament church

My opponent claims I have not adequately argued for my position, which is, the Bible teaches: mechanical instruments of music are approved by God in the church. It must be understood that the New Testament does not specifically say whether it is approved or not. Nor does it specifically say that instruments were or were not used in the New Testament church. Therefore, it is necessary to search throughout the Bible to find if God approves musical instruments and then prove that He would approve of instruments in the early church. This is what I have been aiming to do.I will now go over Con’s response to my first argument.There are no qualms over the first statement. God does in fact approve of instruments in the Old Testament. I do not know why my opponent would believe that God would change His mind on instruments, as there is nothing to say He did. When Christ died, did God change His opinion on right and wrong? Did God change His nature? Of course not.My opponent has issues with the second contention, claiming that, “God's word found in the Old Testament was given to different people that practiced a different worship service to God.” I ask my opponent, what is worship? I would define it as: “to have intense love or admiration.” [1] Obviously, the Bible makes it clear we can worship other things besides God, even if we aren’t singing to whatever we are worshiping. In fact, the Bible does not define worship as purely musical. Rather Paul says, “Therefore I urge you brethren, by the mercies of God, to present you bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (Romans 12:1) This is much broader than simply singing songs to Jesus. My opponent basically insists that “if we are going to take into our worship service the use of mechanical instruments music and say this is God's desire, because ‘The New Testament church establishes the Old Testament as God's Word’ We will also have to take into our worship burnt offerings and incense, these are also part of that Old Testament law.” Firstly, playing instruments is not part of Old Testament law anymore than singing is part of that law. Did God command us to sing to Him? No, He commanded us to worship Him, and continues to do so in the New Testament. Secondly, my opponent quotes the Colossians 2:14 which is (I prefer NASB) “having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” This does not say “The Old Testament has been abrogated, blotted out” but rather that the set of ‘decrees’ and specific laws such as sacrifice have been blotted out. Why sacrifice animals when Christ made the ultimate sacrifice? Christ rendered animal sacrifice useless. Worship and instruments are not remotely a part of these decrees and ordinances. Unlike the Law of Moses–stoning adulterers and such–God’s nature has remained unchanged. Thus it is still wrong to commit adultery. So Con’s statement that, “if we take part of the old law, we will have to take all of it” is quite irrelevant since worship is not a part of the “old law” referred to in Colossians 2:14. My opponent pretends as if the Old Testament does not apply to New Testament people any longer, but 2 Timothy 3:16 explicitly speaks to this. It is merely the laws and ordinances of Moses that don’t apply any longer.“of the hundreds of times [Jesus] speaks of the Old Testament and Psalms, He never refers to mechanical instruments of music. Doesn't this seem strange?” Yes, and I think this supports my position. It seems God’s approval of instruments has not changed since Jesus is in fact God.So what we have is God approving of musical instruments and there is no evidence of any change of his approval throughout the New Testament, which brings a new challenge upon Con. Since he conceded that in the Old Testament God approves of musical instruments, my opponent must show that God has changed His mind and disapproves of musical instruments. There is only evidence to the contrary. After all, if God did not approve of musical instruments in the early church, He would have made it clear because it would be contrary to what is seen in other parts of the Bible.Now on to my second argument,“A. If there will be any instruments of music in heaven, it will be because God has willed it. The reason we do not have them in the worship of the New Testament church is because God has not willed it. He never told us to play an instrument.”Does God have to explicitly command something for it to be permissible by Him? God never said we had to brush our teeth.“We don't ride horses in worship!”Nothing says incense is required for worship, but I don’t think God would disapprove of incense in worship services. Likewise, this means instruments are not required for worship. Neither is singing as I have already explained. Does God approve of riding horses? Yes. Is the horse being used as worship? Not to my knowledge, so this is irrelevant.“We find many symbols in the book of Revelation. But none of which gives us the authority to use Mechanical instruments of music in the New Testament church.”Can my opponent explain why God would symbolize the act of worship with a harp if He didn’t actually approve of its use? Third argumentPerhaps this is unnecessary, but I thought of a different perspective on all this. Again, realize that God never says, “I approve of instruments in the church.” Does this mean He doesn’t approve of instruments in the church? Certainly not. And we may conclude from other passages that God does approve of instruments in the church. The greatest commandment as told by Jesus was, “Love the LORD your God.” c1. If by playing instruments, one may praise and therefore love God, then it is in fact approved by God.David clearly did so; the Psalms are testament to this. c2. It is possible to praise God by playing instruments in the New Testament church. (Self-evident)c3. Therefore, God approves musical instruments in the New Testament church.A similar example could be that God never commanded His people to play sports, but if one loves and honors God through playing sports, then God obviously approves it.Through these simple arguments taken from different sections of the Bible, I think I made it clear that God does approve of musical instruments in the New Testament church. [1] http://www.praise-and-worship.com...