"Have You Heard" Newspaper Articles Posted with the Permission of the Streetsboro Church of Christ.
One common belief about Biblical authority is that silence authorizes.
What I mean by this is that people argue, “If the Bible doesn’t have a command against it, I’m allowed to do it.”
This is a very common belief among most religious groups today. It is also a very wrong belief. Why is that the case?
The silence of God’s Word has never authorized man to do anything. Nadab and
Abihu are a good example of this. “And Nadab and Abihu,
the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put
incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded
them not. (2) And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they
died before the LORD.” (Leviticus
10:1-2). These two men made the mistake of ignoring the silence of the
Scriptures. They offered fire that God had not commanded.
God’s silence on this
matter did not authorize them to offer strange fire. God had given them
instructions as to how to burn incense. He did not have to list the million ways
they were not allowed to do it. Therefore, they were killed for their
disobedience. There are many other examples we could give but space does not
permit.
How do people abuse the silence of the Scriptures today? Probably the most
obvious way is in the worship service. It is a plain, irrefutable fact that God
has commanded His children to sing praises unto Him. “Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your
hearts to the Lord.” (Colossians
3:16). Yet in almost every religious organization that wears the name
“Christian” we have people not only singing but
playing pianos, guitars, drums, and other instruments. They try to justify their
actions by claiming, “The Bible doesn’t tell me I can’t.”
Friend, God told us to sing. He didn’t have to tell us everything that we couldn’t do. If you’re part of a religious group that uses instruments in worship, ask your leaders about Nadab and Abihu.
-- Ralph Price --
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