The Christian Church has long contended that the instrument of music in worship is authorized in the same verse where the song book, tuning fork, and song leader are authorized. Recently a friend said to me, when I asked him for Bible authority for the church support of benevolent and missionary societies, “They are in the same verse that authorizes the church to build a meeting house.” I replied that this was the same argument the Christian Church used to prove the instrument in worship. I asked him how he would answer this argument. I got no reply except to say, “They are not the same.” But they are. The instrument is a human innovation in the worship; the societies are human innovations in the work of the church. The authority for one is the authority for the other.
I recently heard a preacher trying to prove church support of colleges and benevolent societies by the expression: “Every Good Work.” When asked how be got human institutions in that expression, he referred to Ephesians 5:19 where we are instructed to sing “spiritual songs.” He said many of these songs are written by sectarians, and none of them are named in the Bible. He also stated that the song book was produced by a human institution, and concluded that since we can use this production of a human institution, we could also use a human institution to teach the Bible and relieve the afflicted. This was in answer to the question for his authority for human organizations in the expression “Every Good Work.”
Now the fact that we are to sing spiritual songs does not prove that such songs must be given by title in the New Testament, nor that Christians must have written them. The very scholars used by this preacher to prove his point were not Christians, but they are accepted in their field of defining Greek terms. A spiritual song is not determined by who wrote it; it is determined by whether or not it is in harmony with the teaching of the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:10-16). “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Col. 1:9). It is not by “enlightened judgment” that we determine what is and what is not a spiritual song. Neither does “enlightened judgment” determine what is a good work. This is done by the word of God. Both the spiritual song and the agathos work must be determined by what the Spirit teaches. The real question is whether or not a good (agathos) work can be done by the church contributing to a human institution. The same is true of the church using the instrument in singing “spiritual songs.” A spiritual song is determined by what the Spirit says, and a good work is determined by what the Spirit says. In neither case, however, is the institution or the instrument authorized. If the song is in harmony with the doctrine of Christ and admonishes in the way of the Lord, it is a spiritual song.
Then the idea that church supported human institutions are authorized on the basis that the church uses a song book produced by a human institution is completely illogical and unscriptural. The printed New Testament is a product of a Publishing House--a human institution--just like the song book. The Lord wrote the Bible just as song writers wrote spiritual songs that harmonize with the Scripture, and the Publishing House only published them. Does this prove that the church could support the publishing houses? Or does it prove that the Bible may be taught by the church through the Christian Missionary Society?
It is good to teach the Bible anywhere. It is right to use a Bible printed by some publishing house that is in the commercial business of printing Bibles, which is itself not “Christian” in any sense, but it is not scriptural for the church to make contributions to that publishing house in order that it can print Bibles. Nor is it logical to assume that such a business owned and operated by Christians would change the principle and allow the church to operate through that human organization.
The “song book” - “human institution” point does not parallel the situation involving the church support of benevolent and missionary societies. For them to be parallel the church would have to give the “fifth Sunday contribution” to the Publishing House to enable it to publish song books.
Any good (agathos) work must be (defined by the word of God, otherwise it is not an agathos work of the Lord. The same is true of a “spiritual song.” If it does not teach the things of the Spirit, it is not a spiritual song, whoever wrote or published it. “Enlightened judgment” does not determine either what a good (agathos) work is or what a spiritual song is. In both cases the New Testament is the only standard (2 Tim. 3:l6,17).