Instrumental music and church music are nearly inseparable in the minds of  the average individual. The beautifully robed choirs, ornate organs, even huge orchestras that are part of religious services are seen as much a part of worship as steeples and belfries. There are a few who refuse to use mechanical instruments of music in their worship and we are among that number. The churches of Christ do not use instrumental music in worship. The only music offered to the Lord is vocal or acapella music. Many do not really understand why we do not use it in worship.

In order to clear away any possible misunderstanding it should be noted first that tradition has no part in our refusal to use organs, pianos, or any other instrument of music. Secondly, it is not due to esthetic values that we prefer vocal over instrumental music. The only basis for not using instruments of music in our worship to God is our view of the authority of Christ and His apostles. The authority of Christ is sacred and inviolate. At least that is our view of it. When Jesus spoke for the last time on earth to His disciples, He said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18).

We find three ways that this absolute and complete authority from Christ is established. First, there is a direct statement or command. Second, there is an approved apostolic example. Third, there is a necessary inference. All three of these methods of establishing Christ's authority can be implied by studying the Lord's Supper. First, Jesus authorized His disciples to eat unleavened bread and drink fruit of the vine in memory of His suffering and death (Matthew 26:26-27; I Corinthians 11:24). That is the basis for the observance of the sacred feast. But when to observe it can only be learned by reading the record of how the disciples put this into actual practice. "Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight" (Acts 20:7).

This is a record of what they did, obviously under the tutelage and supervision of the apostles. The apostles had been given the commission directly from Christ to "teach them to observe all things I have commanded you..." (Matthew 28:20). The frequency, or how often it should be observed, is learned from necessary inference. A necessary inference is a deduction that is required by facts.   Acceptance of certain facts will demand acceptance of certain implications.

In this case, since every week has a first day, and since the church of the Lord in the first century observed the feast on the first day of the week, every first day of the week is implied for observing the Supper. To take the last thought one step further, and to learn how necessary inferences differ from fair or ordinary inferences, notice the baptism of Christ. Matthew records the event by reporting on the trip Jesus made from Galilee to the Jordan river where John, the Baptist, was baptizing. When John agreed to baptize Jesus, the record only says, "Then Jesus, when He had been baptized, came up immediately from the water; and behold the heavens were opened to Him...   " (Matthew 3:16). If Jesus "came up...from the water," He had, of necessity, to have gone down into the water. Even though nothing is said of His going down into the water it is necessarily inferred. One cannot in any sense come up out of something into which one has not gone down.

When we diligently read the New Testament we find a complete lack of information on the use of instruments in congregational worship to God.  It cannot be authorized by direct statement, approved apostolic example, nor necessary inference. Upon what basis then is it authorized, if indeed it is?