The great ideal of restoring New Testament Christianity in the present age must be pinpointed around certain rules of Bible study.
In understanding the Restoration Plea, one must know first that there is the realm of faith. "So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). God has spoken to man in matters of faith.
There is also the realm of opinion. This concerns subjects where God has not plainly spoken in the Bible.
In matters of faith, there must be unity; in matters of opinion, there has to be liberty; and in all things there should be love.
In understanding the Bible, one must also understand the law of exclusion. This means that when God states a way, this excludes all other ways. For example, when God told Noah, "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch," the gopher wood mentioned in this passage excluded all other kinds of wood (Genesis 6:14).
Noah would have disobeyed the Lord had he used any other kind of wood except gopher wood in the construction of the ark.
By the law of exclusion, we know the kind of bread that is to be used on the Lord's table. Jesus was at the Passover feast when he took bread (Matthew 26:26). The book of Exodus states exactly what kind of bread was used in the Passover. "Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel" (Exodus 12:15).
Since Jesus took the bread from the Passover and gave it a new meaning, he used unleavened bread, and this excludes any other type of bread which should be used in memory of the body of Christ.
God describes baptism as a burial. "Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:3, 4). This is a burial in water. "And as they went on the way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch saith, Behold, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, for he went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8:36, 38, 39). A burial excludes any other mode of baptism. Sprinkling and pouring, therefore, would be wrong.
God picked vocal music as the kind to be used in the worship of the church. "Speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19). "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God. And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Colossians 3:16, 17).
Vocal music excludes any other kind of music that can be used in worship to our Father, according to the teachings of Jesus Christ. The addition of a mechanical instrument is disobedience to God.
Just as it would have been wrong for Noah to use any other kind of wood for the ark, then it would be wrong for a Christian to use any other kind of music except singing in the worship service.
In this age, a Christian has a perfect God to serve; a perfect Bible to study and practice; a perfect Christ to follow; a perfect church of which to be a member; and he can go toward the perfect existence, Heaven. It is wonderful to be a Christian!
May you join in the great work of restoring New Testament Christianity in the present age.
Reprinted from the tract of the same title with permission of the author.