Mechanical Instruments Are Not Authorized For Use in Christian Worship

Why wouldn't I use the Bible to assert the authority of the Bible, when the authority of the Bible comes from the Bible. Christian worship is based on the instructions and acts of worship instituted by God found in the Bible. I was illustrating what it meant, according to the Bible, for a Christian to have the authority to do something. I've come to discover that alot of individuals don't understand how important it is to accept God's word as it is and be obedient unto it. I stated names and denominations of churches who branched off somehow, from the first century church of Christ, and didn't use musical instruments in worship. Who also profess to practice the worship of the Christian God. These individuals not using musical instruments in worship even after their falling away, implies that the reason for this was because they didn't believe that the Bible authorized it. That had to have split for some type of disagreement and obviously that wasn't one of the issues. So that point was highly relevant. It's not hard at all for me to believe that you can have both singing and mechanical or instrumental music occurring simultaneously. My wife and I are musicians ourselves. I never said that the early church didn't praise god with music, I said they didn't praise Him with mechanical or instrumental music, which is a different kind of music than singing. Here's where Bible authority comes into the picture. When God gives a command, we can't add to it or subtract from it. We must do specifically what He says. If god told Con to SING the song "Amazing Grace", I'm pretty sure that Con, if he/she is a believer in Christ, would begin to verbally recite the song in some type of tune. He/She wouldn't use an instrument to SING the song. Likewise, If God told Con to PLAY the song "Amazing Grace", He/She would play a musical instrument to a tune of the song or press play on a media device containing the song. Why, because singing and music from instruments are two different types of music. God wasn't mistaken or He didn't forget to add music of instruments to His worship. He is very clear about what He wants. When God commands men to do anything specifically, everything else in the related category is excluded. For example: a) Bread and fruit of the vine are the elements God has ordained for the Lord's Supper, according to Matt 26:26-39. The specific divine requirement for these elements excludes everything else. No one would be foolish enough to insist upon adding meat and potatoes to the Lord's table because the New Testament doesn't expressly prohibit their use for this purpose. b) When God commanded the children of Israel to use a lamb for the Passover feast (Exodus 12:3), every other kind of animal was automatically excluded. God did not have to expressly mention all the animals that were not to be used; the kind specified excluded all others. There are two kinds of commands in the Bible: specific and generic. For instance, Make thee an ark of gopher wood (Gen 6:14) is a specific command. God specified the wood, and that settled the question of the kind of wood. God did not say, "Thou shalt use no other kind of wood;" but the fact that God limited the wood to gopher wood forbade use of any other kind. Now if God had said, "Make thee an ark of wood," the use of any kind of wood would have met this generic command. If the New Testament had simply said, "Make music," the commandment could have been complied with by making either vocal or instrumental music, or both. God, however, did not say that. He said sing, and that restricts the music to vocal music. The specification and limitation is as clear here as it was in the command to build an ark out of gopher wood. I know that the Bible mentions many uses of music. I never said it didn't, the question that I asked was, "Where in the inspired record of the New Testament church is there found a single reference authorizing mechanical musical instruments in worship?" All of the scripture that you've submitted regarding the use of, or mention of instruments are listed in the Old Testament. Unfortunately, the church didn't began until the book of Acts, which is in the New Testament. Like I said in my first argument, the most careful, meticulous investigation of the New Testament will not produce a single word in favor of this practice. One may search the New Testament in vain for either command, example, or inference for the use of musical instruments in worship service. Yes, the JEWS did use instruments of music in the OLD TESTAMENT but, CHRISTIANS did not use instruments of music in WORSHIP in the NEW TESTAMENT. Instead they sung to perform acts of praise in the assembly. In Ephesians 5:19, the Bible says, "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. -Well in order for everyone to speak to ourselves we would all have to be speaking. -We are to speak to ourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. -While doing the above, we are to sing while making melody in our hearts to the Lord. -None of the above requires instruments of music The Greek translation for the word melody is the word Psallo (NT was written in Greek). According to he Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Psallo means to rub or touch the surface: to twitch or twang,play on a string instrument, make melody, sing(psalms). Now, lets apply the different definitions to the verse in Ephesians -Singing and rubbing or touching the surface of your heart -Singing and twitching or twanging your heart -Singing and playing on a string instrument in your heart As we can see, that even with the Greek definitions of the word melody, there's no implications that we're to use musical instruments in worship.