Next topic

It's been a month since I've added something to this blog. In that month, a hurricane it my home state on Labor Day, and another hurricane hit where my in-laws live. I've been side-tracked. I do want to introduce my next topic, though. We've written about worship songs, and now it's time to write about music---more precisely, musical instruments in worship.

For the vast majority of African American Baptists, no thought is given to the propriety of musical instruments in the worship of God. As far as I know, the only group of African American Baptists who reject the use of musical instruments in worship is Primitive Baptists, who are visible mainly in the American Southeast.

For me, the use of musical instruments in worship became an issue for me as I studied the beginnings of Baptist history. When Baptists began their movement, there was no singing; therefore, there were no musical instruments in worship. As I have mentioned in an earlier blog, Calvinistic Baptists (Particular Baptists) believed that singing was a NT worship ordinance. Even then, there were no musical instruments.

What about during the reformation? No musical instruments. Is there warrant from NT? Not really. Some argue that the word psalm itself in the Greek necessarily means that the psalm itself must have musical accompaniment. This is our debate: instruments, or no instruments.

Let's be real here: instrumentation in National Baptist churches is out of hand. There are organs, pianos, guitars, trumpets, saxophones, drums, etc. Choirs are backed by professional musicians who jam. Is this what our Christ had in my mind in sanctioning worship song?

This is where we're going.