Part 2-What may happen...resisting change

Part 2-What may happen if we resist all change in music.

       By definition, a conservative tries to “conserve”.  The Christian musician who is really conservative is concerned about holding on to our biblically based music values.  Notice that I said biblically based music values, not traditional music values.  Traditions change and there is nothing inherently wrong with man’s traditions being changed.  The mere fact that some music tradition has been associated with a certain fellowship of believers certainly does not make it “True Truth”, or even a valuable worthy tradition. 

       The Karaites, a Jewish sect that came into being at the beginning of the eighth century were characterized by their belief that the Scriptures were the only source of religious law.  They chose to accept the Scriptures as the only “true truth” to the exclusion of Rabbinical tradition.  So, if I understand this concept correctly, the Karaites were Scriptural traditionalists who fought against some of the traditions established by Rabbinic law.  What resulted was a fight over tradition. Rabbinic Judaism was contending for the long collected traditions which had been laid down in layer after layer and the Karaites purposed to “build up a wall around the Torah”.

        What we can learn from this ancient fuss over tradition is that we need to be sure the traditions we contend for are truly ancient Bible landmarks of musicing unto God. It is possible that some of our musical “sacred cows” might be better left dead than resurrected.  Not everything that the previous generations of church musicians did musically was an actual ancient landmark of worship.  However, all that being said, much of what they did do is time honored and if these principles of music worship are abandoned the church will certainly be impoverished musically and spiritually.