Over the past couple of weeks, the history of musical instruments in worship service has been briefly surveyed. This week, we’ll consider specifically the Restoration Movement.
As with other reform movements, the Restoration Movement began with a rejection of instruments in worship. The movement was based on a call to strict faithfulness to the Bible for the sake of truth and unity. Therefore, what is done in worship must be approved of in the New Testament. For the first several decades there was no great controversy regarding instruments in worship. Nevertheless, by the 1850’s the seed of the future controversy was growing. In 1851, after hearing of some congregations adding instruments to worship, Alexander Campbell publicly denounced the practice and concluded that “to all spiritually-minded Christians, such aids [i.e., instruments] would be as a cow bell in a concert” (Millennial Harbinger, September 1851). Which congregations had added instruments is not known, and they must have been few in number.
The first congregation of the Restoration Movement on record for adding instruments to worship was the congregation in Midway, KY which added a melodeon in 1860. The addition was not made without controversy both internal and external. Internally, though in the minority, there were many members opposed to instruments in worship. One such member, Adam Hidler, went so far as to break into the church building at night and steal the melodeon (The Search for the Ancient Order, vol. 2, pg. 312). While his method of protest is morally questionable, his zeal is admirable. Externally, the addition of the melodeon at Midway led to a flurry of articles and counter-articles in the various brotherhood journals. Perhaps it could be called the first battle of Midway.
The debate over instrumental worship was sidelined shortly after it began by the American Civil War. During the war years, focus was turned to the question of participating in the war and to efforts at maintaining unity in the Church as the nation was torn in two. In the decades following the Civil War, however, the debate resumed. More and more congregations began adding instruments to worship and the argument grew more and more heated.
For several decades, efforts were made to keep the congregations of the Restoration Movement united, but the reality of “irreconcilable differences” continued to exert itself. At the heart of the matter were two conflicting approaches to Scripture; the addition of instruments was really a symptom of the deeper issue. Was anything not expressly prohibited by the New Testament acceptable in worship? Or, must any practice included in worship have express New Testament permission? How one answered such questions in large part determined one’s opinion on instruments in worship. Over time, the difference in these two approaches led more and more congregations to split or break fellowship due to the addition of instruments. The division was a reality for many years before becoming official in 1906, when the U.S. census for the first time split the Restoration Movement into two groups: Disciples of Christ (those with instruments) and churches of Christ (those without instruments).
Studies in the Bible 