The book of Revelation is filled with symbolism. One of the biggest mistakes people make with Revelation is assuming that the imagery John saw was intended to be taken literally. Revelation itself frequently explains what its symbols represent. It explains, for example, that the seven lampstands represent the seven churches (Revelation 1:20), the seven stars represent the angels (messengers) of the seven churches (1:20), the incense represents “the prayers of the saints” (5:8; 8:3-4), the great red dragon represents Satan (12:3, 9), the seven heads and ten horns are explained later in the book (17:9-12), and the fine linen represents “the righteousness of the saints” (19:8). The imagery is symbolic, not to be interpreted literally.
We certainly do not believe that death literally rides a pale horse (Revelation 6:8), that Jesus literally has a sharp sword coming out of His mouth (1:16; 19:15), or that Christians should literally burn incense in worship because incense appears in Revelation. The book uses vivid imagery to communicate spiritual truths. No one argues that the incense in Revelation authorizes Christians to burn literal incense in worship today. By the same principle, the symbolic references to harps do not authorize the use of mechanical instruments in the church.
The references to harps are part of a larger picture that also includes the temple, altar, incense, trumpets, bowls, priests, and other elements of Old Testament worship. No one argues that all these elements should literally be restored in New Testament worship. Why should one symbolic object in an apocalyptic vision be treated as a literal authorization for church worship when the rest of the vision is not? Revelation was not written as a manual explaining how New Testament worship is to be conducted. In fact, harps appear only in Revelation’s throne-room, never in a passage addressing the church’s earthly assembly.
If we want to know how Christians are to worship under the New Testament, we should look to the passages that directly instruct the church regarding worship. Those passages tell Christians to sing: “speaking to yourselves…singing…making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19), and to let the Word dwell richly by teaching and admonishing one another in songs (Colossians 3:16). There is no passage authorizing mechanical instruments in Christian worship (cf. Matthew 26:30; Romans 15:9; 1 Corinthians 14:15; Hebrews 2:12; James 5:13). Without such authorization, the practice has no scriptural basis (Colossians 3:17). The burden of proof rests on the one claiming that the symbolic references to harps authorize a literal practice in the church, especially when the New Testament’s instructional passages never do so.
The Book of Revelation was written decades after Ephesians, Colossians, and the other epistles that instruct churches regarding worship. If Revelation were intended to change or expand those instructions by authorizing mechanical instruments, we would expect some indication that the churches were to begin using them. Instead, Revelation contains no such instruction. Its purpose was to reveal “things which must shortly come to pass” (Revelation 1:1), not to revise the worship instructions already given to the churches in the epistles.
It is also significant that those who lived closest to the apostles did not conclude from Revelation that mechanical instruments belonged in Christian worship. It is a historical fact that the early church worshiped without mechanical instruments for centuries. If Revelation had been understood as authorizing instrumental music in Christian worship, we would have expected the early church to have practiced it. Instead, history shows the opposite. For all these reasons, the symbolic visions of Revelation cannot reasonably be used to authorize mechanical instruments in New Testament worship.
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