Instrumental music in Christian worship is not acceptable to God or the New Testament

You beg for the vote prematurely, as we have one more round to go. Your arguments, which is true of most who take your position, are all from the Old Testament. We are discussing Christian worship, not Jewish worship. If the Old Testament applied to Christians, they could not eat pork or worship on any day but Saturday per the Levitical law and the Ten Commandments. As a Christian, one should not be bound to the old law as it was nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14). There is no command to meet on Sunday rather than Saturday in the New Testament. Are the Seven Day Adventists correct in Saturday worship? God forbid. By the example and pattern of the New Testament church, under guidance of apostles and the Holy Spirit of God, we can know that they met on Sunday to take the Lord's supper (Acts 20:7). To eat the Lord's Supper on any other day of the week is to go beyond what is written. To add or take away from "sing" and making "melody in your hearts" is unauthorized by the New Testament. Mechanical instruments are an addition; they go beyond that which is written. Though no commandment exists, it is not authorized. Please answer this argument, from the New Testament if possible. My "missing link" argument is not to indicate that some say this and some say that on the matter. This argument has no answer when W. Terry Varner spoke out against "Kingism" in his book 'Studies in Biblical Eschatology'. To know a doctrine to be false by the absence of any practice of it among the early church IS a viable argument that must be answered. Polycarp, among them, may have met John the Apostle in person and learned from him, so his shared belief in a capella music might have been founded in a teacher inspired by God. Explain why no church adopted the organ until the 8th century. It wasn't an issue of popularity, because certain musicians were used in Jewish worship, as you have proven to show. LIPSCOMB "Neither he [Paul] nor any other apostle, nor the Lord Jesus, nor any of the disciples for five hundred years, used instruments. This too, in the face of the fact that the Jews had used instruments in the days of their prosperity and that the Greeks and heathen nations all used them in their worship. They were dropped out with such emphasis that they were not taken up till the middle of the Dark Ages, and came in as part of the order of the Roman Catholic Church. It seems there cannot be doubt but that the use of instrumental music in connection with the worship of God, whether used as a part of the worship or as an attraction accompaniment, is unauthorized by God and violates the oft-repeated prohibition to add nothing to, take nothing from, the commandments of the Lord. It destroys the difference between the clean and the unclean, the holy and unholy, counts the blood of the Son of God unclean, and tramples under foot the authority of the Son of God. They have not been authorized by God or sanctified with the blood of his Son." (David Lipscomb, Queries and Answers by David Lipscomb p. 226-227, and Gospel Advocate, 1899, p. 376-377) Therefore, use of mechanical instruments is a man-made doctrine of personal taste and should not be confused with the doctrines of God (Mark 7:8). With Scripture as the only inspired guide we have today, we must speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent. If one can add mechanical instruments, why not add Buddhist prayer wheels, incense, etc. MCGARVEY "We cannot, therefore, by any possibility, know that a certain element of worship is acceptable to God in the Christian dispensation, when the Scriptures which speak of that dispensation are silent in reference to it. To introduce any such element is unscriptural and presumptuous. It is will worship, if any such thing as will worship can exist. On this ground we condemn the burning of incense, the lighting of candles, the wearing of priestly robes, and the reading of printed prayers. On the same ground we condemn instrumental music." (J.W. McGarvey, The Millennial Harbinger, 1864, pp. 511-513.) To say that we are not bound by example would throw away meeting on Sunday, the Lord's Supper on Sunday, the collection plate, etc. You seem to think some people teach it, some don't, but it is taught by those closer to the source and scholars who have an interest i following the pattern of the New Testament alone. Sola Scriptura - Bible only. CAMPBELL "[Instrumental music in worship] was well adapted to churches founded on the Jewish pattern of things and practicing infant sprinkling. That all persons singing who have no spiritual discernment, taste or relish for spiritual meditation, consolations and sympathies of renewed hearts should call for such an aid is but natural. So to those who have no real devotion and spirituality in them, and whose animal nature flags under the opposition or the oppression of church service I think that instrumental music would... be an essential prerequisite to fire up their souls to even animal devotion. But I presume, that to all spiritually-minded Christians, such aid would be as a cow bell in a concert." (Alexander Campbell, recorded in Robert Richardson's biography, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, Vol. 2., p366) MCGARVEY "It is manifest that we cannot adopt the practice with out abandoning the obvious and only ground On Which a restoration of Primitive Christianity can be accomplished, or on which the plea for it can be maintained. Such is my profound conviction, and consequently, the question with me is not one concerning the choice or rejection of an expedient, but the maintenance or abandonment of a fundamental and necessary principle." (J. W. McGarvey, Apostolic Timer 1881, and What Shall We Do About the Organ? p. 4, 10) MILLIGAN "The tendency of instrumental music is, t in , to divert the minds of many from the sentiment of the song to the mere sound of the organ, and in this way it often serves to promote formalism in Churches" (Robert Milligan, Scheme of Redemption, p. 386). PINKERTON "So far as known to me, or I presume to you, I am the only 'preacher' in Kentucky of our brotherhood who has publicly advocated the propriety of employing instrumental music in some churches, and that the church of God in Midway is the only church that has yet made a decided effort to introduce it" (L. L. Pinkerton, American Christian Review, 1860, as quoted by Cecil Willis in W. W. Otey: Contender for the Faith). STONE "We have just received an extraordinary account of about 30,000 Methodists in England, withdrawing from that church and connexion, because the Conference disapproved of the introduction of instrumental music to the churches. The full account shall appear in our next. To us, backwoods Americans, this conduct of those seceders appears be the extreme of folly, and it argues that they have a greater taste for music, than they have for religion. Editor." (Barton Stone, Christian Messenger, vol. 3, No. 2, Dec. 1828, p. 48 in bound volume) WEST "Apostasy in music among 19th century churches that had endeavored to restore New Testament authority in worship and work began, in the main, following the Civil War' In 1868, Ben Franklin guessed that there were ten thousand congregations an not over fifty had used an instrument in worship." (Earl West, Search for the Ancient Order, Vol. 2, pp. 80, 81) All quotes from http://www.bible.ca... Thank you for your consideration.