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[Note: \u00a0<\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 3<\/strong> \u00a0page.<\/span><\/p>\n I was once handed the following quotation with the request that I comment on it:<\/span><\/p>\n As I drove along the highway one Sunday morning, I came to a church house where people were gathering for worship. I stopped to join them. But instead of greeting me with \u201can holy kiss\u201d as Paul and Peter commanded, they gave me an \u201cunscriptural\u201d handshake. They met in an \u201cunscriptural\u201d house of worship and engaged in an \u201cunscriptural\u201d congregational song service, led by an \u201cunscriptural\u201d song leader who used an \u201cunscriptural,\u201d single-noted mechanical instrument called a pitch pipe. When I asked him why he did not use a multi-noted instrument, he replied, \u201cIt is unscriptural.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The writer of the foregoing piece makes the sad old error of failing to distinguish between expedient\/optional and obligatory\/authorized matters, between aids in carrying out <\/strong>Scriptural commands and additions to <\/strong>Scriptural commands. The querist implies that a \u201choly kiss\u201d is the only Scriptural greeting and labels a handshake \u201cunscriptural\u201d\u2014wrong on both counts. True, Paul and Peter commanded a kiss as a greeting (Rom. 16:16; 1 Pet. 5:14), but neither deemed a handshake unscriptural (Gal. 2:9). The statements of Paul and Peter did not bind the kiss as the only Scriptural greeting but sought to keep that traditional Middle Eastern greeting \u201choly\u201d and \u201cloving\u201d when practiced.<\/span><\/p>\n A \u201chouse of worship\u201d is not \u201cunscriptural,\u201d if by this term the writer meant \u201cunauthorized by Scripture.\u201d The command to assemble (Heb. 10:25) and the various examples of Divinely authorized assemblies for worship (e.g., Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 5:4; 11; 18\u201320; et al.) necessitate a meeting place, the details of which are obviously left to the judgment of local congregational leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n The ridiculous contention that there is no Scriptural authority for congregational singing was first made and successfully answered decades ago. If congregational singing is not authorized, neither is congregational prayer (1 Cor. 14:15). A song leader and a pitch pipe are merely aids (not additions<\/strong>) to executing the command to sing (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16) \u201cdecently and in order\u201d (1 Cor. 14:40). Furthermore, song leaders never blow the pitch-pipe during the singing<\/strong>. Such would be just as unscriptural as the use of a \u201cmulti- noted\u201d instrument during the singing<\/strong>. The number of notes on an instrument is immaterial (by the way, most pitch pipes have 13 notes); whether or not one plays the instrument with <\/strong>the singing is what matters. The Scriptures authorize singing, but they nowhere authorize singing and <\/strong>playing in Christian worship.<\/span><\/p>\n The song leader quoted in the first paragraph of this essay obviously understood the querist to be asking about the use of an instrument during the singing<\/strong>. He thus answered correctly. A pitch pipe is simply an aid <\/strong>to fulfilling the Lord\u2019s command to sing, just as is a song book (the querist apparently forgot to question the use of those \u201cunscriptural\u201d song books). However, playing an instrument with <\/strong>the singing is not merely an aid<\/strong>, but an unauthorized\u2014and thus unscriptural\u2014element added <\/strong>to the Word and worship of God. This and all other additions we must ever oppose (Rev. 22:18\u201319).<\/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, April 11, 2010, of which I was editor.]<\/span><\/p>\n Attribution:<\/strong> From www.thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, proprietor, curator, and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Views: 0[Note: \u00a0This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 3 \u00a0page. I was once handed the following quotation with the request that I comment on it: As I drove along the highway one Sunday morning, I came to a church house…<\/p>\n\n