# Which Christians think musical instruments are the work of the Devil? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 13, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231 "2006-11-13T14:12:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2006, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231/21 "2006-11-14T23:44:46Z")
Here’s one that doesn’t go in for musical instruments. In fact they tend to disapprove of quite a lot of things. It’s not a mainstream one though. > [@](#): > > Today the Free Church of Scotland, although much reduced in size, maintains in continuity with the Church of 1843 the system of doctrine and the form of worship adopted by the Church of Scotland at the Reformation. The singing of the Scottish Metrical Psalms unaccompanied by instrumental music is, perhaps, the most distinctive feature of its liturgy … > **[freechurchcontinuing.co.uk](http://www.freechurchcontinuing.co.uk/history.htm)** > > freechurchcontinuing.co.uk 은 Episcopal Church 및 Church Evangelical 등의 주제에 관한 정보를 방문자에게 제공하고 있습니다. Episcopal Church 및 Church Evangelical 에 관하여 만족할 만한 정보를 얻은 수많은 방문자와 함께 하시기 바랍니다. This domain may be for sale! ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231/22 "2006-11-15T00:09:24Z")
I never understood that whole thing about not using musical instruments in church. The musicians are there not there to glorify instumental prowess, but to provide guidance for all those differently-abled singers in the congregation! ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231/23 "2006-11-15T00:14:53Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] I never understood that whole thing about not using musical instruments in church. The musicians are there not there to glorify instumental prowess, but to provide guidance for all those differently-abled singers in the congregation! [/QUOTE] Those churches that disallow it don’t usually have a theory as to what’s wrong with it. They simply argue that it’s not provided for in the new testament as a proper way to conduct worship, and so is not permitted. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231/24 "2006-11-15T00:54:00Z")
If you happen to visit a congregation of good singers, the _a cappella_ harmonies can be really beautiful ---
**Author:** ![SkiDemon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@SkiDemon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkiDemon)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231/25 "2006-11-15T01:39:12Z")
> [@](#): > > This was the fallback for the Christian rock bands back when they actually had to argue for their legitimacy in the American Protestant church. Ah yes, and there are STILL churches and colleges (Bob Jones, Pensecola Christian College, and Hyles Anderson) that prohibit Contempoary Christian music! VERY STRANGE!!! ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231/26 "2006-11-15T02:01:30Z")
As a child and young man, I was a member of an Anabaptist church. We had no instrumental music (but glorious music with 4 part harmonies that trained me well to sing in choirs later), no dancing, no makeup, no movies, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231/27 "2006-11-15T02:55:47Z")
[QUOTE=spingears] YES. You order a specific make and model of automobile with spoiler, tinted windows and a fuel economy engine. The dealer delivers that and Mag Wheels, Rear Deck Spoiler, and Satelite radio. Did the dealer meet your specifications? NO. That which is specified excludes all else not specified. [/QUOTE] \*TIRES? \* Ain’t no tires in the specifications; those’ll be extra, if’n you still want 'em. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231/28 "2006-11-15T03:53:30Z")
There is a denomination of protestants that my parents forced me to attend during my teen years that refused to put a label on themselves. They did not have pastors, but numerous travelling preachers to attend to the brethern and sisters of various small assemblies throughout the UK, Europe, Canada, and just about every state in America. Musical Instruments for worship in the Sunday services and bible studies were verboten, but many had pianos at home. One elder in the assembly I attended actually owned a very successful music store loaded with various instruments. Hymns were started off with a pitch pipe. I often wondered how the early Christians, which the brethern wished to copy, managed without it. ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/0ea827/32.png) [@bluecanary22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary22)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231/29 "2006-11-15T17:09:48Z")
The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland (the Wee Wee Frees). They condemn premarital sex because it may encourage dancing (I think that’s a joke). About four years back they sacked a minister and got him expelled to the mainland because some members caught him relaxing on the sabbath - he should have been in prayer. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231/30 "2006-11-15T17:19:00Z")
[QUOTE=spingears] YES. You order a specific make and model of automobile with spoiler, tinted windows and a fuel economy engine. The dealer delivers that and Mag Wheels, Rear Deck Spoiler, and Satelite radio. Did the dealer meet your specifications? NO. That which is specified excludes all else not specified. [/QUOTE] You know, I think customer service would be vastly improved if failure to fulfill an order correctly called for damnation. “Hey, he said he didn’t want the undercoating. Take it off, my soul’s on the line here.” ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231/31 "2006-11-15T18:14:59Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] I was just going to chime in and say the churches of Christ don’t use musical instruments (as already mentioned by **Garfield226** ). However, I don’t think any of them would go so far as to say “Musical instruments are the work of the Devil.” The churches of Christ with which I’m familiar are nowhere near that strident about it. Rather, I would characterize them as trying to err on the side of caution: if the New Testament doesn’t mention musical instruments, we’d better not use them. You know, just in case. [/QUOTE] Matches my experience. A friend of mine was a harder-core CoC in his youth (he has mellowed, what with family life and all), and was very much into the no-instrumental-worship-music thing, but outside of services was quite the music buff and had no trouble with stuff featuring everything from kazoo to full symphony orchestra. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231/32 "2006-11-15T20:31:00Z")
I was raised in an East Tennessee congregation of the Church of Christ, and there wes adamantly NO instrumental music in the church. The reason given was as above, that it wasn’t specifically mentoned in the Bible. When I pointed out the passages in Psalms and asked why if lutes and cymbals were good enough for King David they’re not good enough for us, I was given a lot of hand-waving and a lecture on “rightly dividing the Word of God.” Frankly, I think it was primarily a branding issue. The C of C’s big rival in the area was the Church of God, and they used drums and guitars in their worship. They had to have a selling point that they were different–and thus, more pious–than the Church of God folks down the road. I mean, those people DANCED in their worship! Can you imagine, expressing joy in the church building? Church is about fear, not joy! They were so afraid they might offend God with a piano that they didn’t dare use it to praise Him! BTW, the music in the church I grew up in was terrible. It was supposed to be shaped-note, sacred heart-type singing, but nobody could read music or do any harmony and God forbid there was any kind of music classes! Who knows where that might lead? So everybody just kind of muddled their way through half-remembered melodies. I was amazed when I got to college and attended some churches with choirs and organs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-christians-think-musical-instruments-are-the-work-of-the-devil/380231.md?page=1)