The Baptist Standard, a publication that bills itself as “The Newsmagazine of Texas Baptists,” devoted sizable space in its most recent edition to an article entitled, “Even in Churches of Christ, There’s No Sign of Ceasefire in Worship Wars.” Reporter Craig Bird of the Associated Baptist Press begins the piece by writing:

The raging debate over worship music has surfaced in a most unlikely place—within the Churches of Christ, which bear the historical distinction of shunning all musical instruments in worship. Over the past two years, at least five major congregations associated with the Churches of Christ have added instruments to some worship services, according to the Christian Chronicle, a 60-year-old Church of Christ newspaper. The highest-profile case involves Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, a 3,800-member congregation led by pastor and best-selling author Max Lucado.

No one is willing to predict whether these breaks from tradition signal the start of a sweeping change or are “isolated tragedies”—the description favored by Harding University professor Flavil Yeakley. But they do illustrate the ages-old tension between making the gospel message “user friendly” and defending the purity of “the truth once delivered to the saints.”

I suppose that when even our denominationalist neighbors are noticing and writing about such digressions within the body of Christ, they really must be big news.

Space won’t permit us to correct all 0f the worldly ideation in the material quoted above, so let’s focus on one simple concept: the notion that churches adding instrumental music to worship are “breaking with tradition.” While I’m certain Max Lucado and his followers like to characterize their actions in this way, they are incorrect — about this, and other points.

In reality, the opposite is true — instrumental digression is running toward tradition, not breaking with it. These people are hurtling themselves toward the traditions of the churches of men, traditions that ignore the instruction and pattern of God’s word in favor of the things that please carnal desires. They are taking up the religious tradition, almost universally common today, that says, “Forget the Bible — if it seems right, do it.” But the Scriptures plainly teach that what “seems right” to men leads to death (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25; 30:12).

For the record, “tradition” has nothing to do with the reason faithful Christians use exclusively vocal music in worship. There are only nine passages in the New Testament that refer to the activity of people worshiping God with music (Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26; Acts 16:25; 1 Corinthians 14:15; Ephesians 5:18-19; Colossians 3:16; Hebrews 2:12; Hebrews 13:15; James 5:13). All nine share one commonality — each refers to singing (Hebrews 15:13 uses the phrase, “the fruit of our lips”), but none refers to the playing of a mechanical instrument of any kind. Just as we understand that Jesus’ specification of bread and “the fruit of the vine” for the memorial feast excludes pizza and doughnuts — as fond of these as we may be — we understand that the New Testament’s specification of singing excludes all other forms of music-making — popular though these may be.

God is wonderfully clear in His communication, and He expects us to obey it (Hebrews 8:5; 2 John 9; John 15:10, 14). He expressly forbids any addition to His words (Proverbs 30:6; Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32; Revelation 22:19). It’s sad that people professing Christ can’t be content to worship Him according to His directions, instead of the vain traditions of men (Matthew 15:6-9).