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[Note<\/strong>:\u00a0 <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 2<\/strong>\u00a0 page.]<\/span><\/p>\n Those who divided the church over a century ago by forcing in the missionary society and the instrument had to deny the significance of Scriptural silence concerning both innovations. Now some of our brethren are carelessly doing the same thing in a new move for union with the Independent Christian Church (ICC). We expect those in the ICC to try to negate the force of Scriptural silence, but we do not <\/strong>expect our own brethren to surrender it as casually as some are.<\/span><\/p>\n “Where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent,” more than any other one<\/span>\u00a0principle of Biblical interpretation, has been responsible for the restoration and maintenance of New Testament Christianity. Through the same “breach in the dam” of Scriptural authority that was made for instrumental music (because \u201cthe Bible doesn\u2019t forbid it”), others have brought in countless other innovations (burning incense, counting beads, using milk and cornbread on the Lord\u2019s table, et al.). These folk are wrong about the use of instruments in worship and similar innovations. What they mean is, \u201cThe Bible doesn\u2019t explicitly <\/strong>forbid instrumental music in worship.\u201d They refuse to admit the fact that the Bible implicitly <\/strong>forbids things by its mere silence concerning them. It would be interesting to hear a debate between an it’s-not-condemned-in-the-Bible instrumentalist of the ICC and an ICC man who contends for milk and cornbread on the Lord’s table.<\/span><\/p>\n Respect for the silence of Scripture, involving the “law of inclusion and exclusion,” is rooted in Scripture itself. Simply put, when God specifies what He wants man to do or how He wants man to do a certain thing, He simultaneously includes <\/strong>what He wants and implicitly excludes <\/strong>(i.e., forbids) every other thing in that class. We naturally and unconsciously use this principle every day.<\/span><\/p>\n When a song leader says, “Please turn to number 100,” he implicitly excludes <\/strong>every other song by including <\/strong>the song specified. (Does anyone ever reason, \u201cHe didn\u2019t say not <\/strong>to sing number 200, which I like better, so I will sing it\u201d?) Noah respected this principle, using only gopher wood in building the ark. Although there was no explicit <\/strong>prohibition of other woods, Noah obviously understood the implicit <\/strong>prohibition (Gen. 6:14, 22). Nadab and Abihu did not respect God’s silence and God consumed them for offering “strange fire,” not because it was explicitly forbidden, <\/strong>but because it was fire “. . . which he [God] commanded them not<\/strong>” (Lev. 10:1, emp. DM). That fire was \u201cstrange\u201d (and prohibited) simply because God was silent about its use.<\/span><\/p>\n Inspired men of the first century understood and applied this principle. There was no authority <\/strong>to bind circumcision on Christians because inspired men were silent concerning it (Acts 15:24). God excluded\/prohibited any angel from being His Son or reigning at His right hand by His silence concerning any such position for them (Heb. 1:5, 13). The Christ could not be a priest in Israel (Heb. 8:4), because He was of Judah, “…as to which tribe Moses spake nothing <\/strong>[emp., DM] concerning priests” (Heb. 7:14). If inspired writers used this principle to interpret Scripture, then so must we. The Lord\u2019s people greatly need a strong renewal of emphasis on the validity of this principle.<\/span><\/p>\n [Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for and it was published in The Lighthouse, <\/em>weekly bulletin of Northpoint Church of Christ, Denton, TX, May 23, 2010, of which I was editor.]<\/span><\/p>\n Attribution:<\/strong> From thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Views: 4[Note:\u00a0 This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 2\u00a0 page.] Those who divided the church over a century ago by forcing in the missionary society and the instrument had to deny the significance of Scriptural silence concerning both innovations. Now…<\/p>\n