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Writer's pictureBible Brian

Taking tips from Dracula


Although modern culture tends to romanticise vampires as people with a tragic curse, the traditional picture of vampires is that they are pure evil. They are soulless, demonic, blood-sucking corpses who terrorise their local areas.

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Although it's not the first thing we think of when we think of vampires, no instrument is closer associated with them than the organ. Who hasn't heard the classical Transylvanian melody that brings to mind a black and white, grainy movie? Perhaps you can even picture the caped creep playing it himself as bats fly around his crumbling castle.


Why is this significant? It is significant because a worryingly large number of Christians have a very clear picture in their heads about what is and isn't "acceptable" music. It varies between individuals, but on the more extreme end of the spectrum are those who oppose various types of instruments on the basis of their usage by others outside the Church, whether in this culture or another.


Biblically speaking, however, God doesn't care about the manner in which you worship Him as long as A. He has not explicitly forbidden the practice and B. it is actually Him you are worshipping. There are exactly 0 instruments and 0 music genres which are forbidden in the Bible, and thus they are not forbidden for us either. It is possible to abuse these things, but the things themselves are not sinful, just as it is possible to abuse all things, even your own body, and yet these things are not inherently sinful.


The most powerful fact in defence of diverse worship music is the fact that the sistrum, an instrument specifically designed in Egypt to worship the goddess Hathor, was successfully used to worship God. It can be assumed David's sistrum lacked the idolatrous imagery typically found on sistrums, but the Bible does tell us he used one (2 Samuel 6:5). Thus, if an instrument specifically designed for idolatry can be legitimately used in worship, so also can instruments that are not designed for idolatry be legitimately used in worship.


This does include the organ. It doesn't matter if it's so closely associated with vampires and the like, as long as you are glorifying God when you play, or listen to an organ, that is ok. But on the flip side, if you're going to claim it's evil to play drums because of some African practice of using them to summon demons, you're going to have to be consistent and get rid of your organ because of old Davy Jones to the left there. You cannot condemn one instrument on the basis of those who abuse it but refuse to condemn another for the same reason.


It is a tragic fact that for as long as mankind has been able to use instruments, they have used them for illegitimate purposes. There is not a single instrument that has not been abused by someone in some way. But these abuses are not cause to pass off the traditions of man as a commandment of God. As far as the scriptures are concerned, musical instruments are a doubtful disputation over which we must not divide. Let all who love the Lord serve Him with whatever we have been given.

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