North End Church of Christ

By: Steve Higginbotham, Via BIBLICAL STUDIES, Vol. 14, Issue 5

One of the greatest tools that I have personally found for Bible study in the reading of debate books. Attending a well-mannered debate is certainly worthwhile, but I always liked to read the debate, where you could slowly try to absorb the force of the arguments pro and con to whatever position was being discussed.

Even while I was in High School and especially in College, I tried to read as many debates as possible. While I read a number of debates on any number of topics, I remember several that dealt with the differences between the Lord’s Church and the Christian Church denomination. The Warlick-Stark Debate, the Hardeman-Boswell Debate, the Wallace-Hunt Debate, and the Highers-Blakely Debate (which I was also able to attend).

In these debates, an argument was used, the implication of which could not be adequately answered by those who were supporting the innovation of mechanical instruments of music in Christian worship.

The argument stated that if what is not explicitly forbidden in worship were permissable, then what objection could be made to such things as adding mashed potatoes and gravy to the Lord’s Supper, counting beads, burning incense, praying to Mary, and offering animal sacrifices.

In other words, if mechanical instrumental music is permissable in Christian worship because there is no passage that explicitly says, “You can’t use mechanical instruments of music,” then all these other actions listed above would also have to be allowed on the same basis.

This is an argument that has never been adequately answered and cannot be consistently answered by those who use the instrument.

In the Highers-Blakely Debate, we got a glimpse of how they planned to deal with this inconsistency. They were going to take the position that God has not regulated worship.

At the time, such an approach seemed so far fetched that I didn’t really think many would follow such a notion. How surprised I was to read the following from a preacher, not in the Christian church, but among ourselves. When this preacher was asked if it would be wrong to offer a sheep as an animal sacrifice to worship God, here in part is his answer:

“Only from the sheep’s point of view….No seriously…if you were

honestly, from your hearts, engaging in this act of worship to

express genuine thanksgiving to your God, and you both believed

this to be acceptable to Him, and it was done in such a way that

none of your brethren were caused to stumble and none who were

lost were hindered from being drawn to the Lord, and if you did

not seek to bind this practice upon others, then I would find no

reason to condemn your worshipful expression.”

Could you ever imagine? Think of it, a “gospel preacher” openly stating that he would have no reason to condemn animal sacrifices in Christian worship! Think of it, a congregation of God’s people, tolerating such blatant error from their preacher!

Brethren, God does not regulate our worship. Man has never been left to his own ingenuity to worship God as he pleases. There is a biblical trail of tragic ends to those who supposed they could approach God as they pleased.

Remember the words of Jesus in John 4:24–”God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Worshiping God “in spirit” involves engaging our “inner man” in the worship. Rituals devoid of feeling, devotion, and homage are meaningless.

Furthermore, worshiping God “in truth” demands that we worship God in a way that is consistent and in harmony with God’s revealed truth.

In other words, if we are to worship God acceptably, we must engage our spirits and we must worship according to truth, or according to his regulations.