The era of “silent movies” was during the late 19-Teens and into the 1920s. According to one list, the most popular silent film was The General (1926), directed by Buster Keaton. Two that I recognized in the top five were directed by Charlie Chaplin – City Lights (1931) and The Gold Rush (1925).
Silent movies were able to convey a certain degree of plot, suspense, narrative, and so forth. You can tell by the actor’s movements what they are intending to do. Facial expressions and body language also help communicate the story line. But, a few months ago, Jewell and I watched a silent Alfred Hitchcock movie together (The Farmer’s Wife) and I fell asleep during the movie. We eventually turned it off because it was getting too late but Jewell still wants to go back and watch it. She has more tolerance for the silent movie than I do.
When it comes to spiritual matters, silence is golden. The prophet Habakkuk said, “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (2:20). The prophet Zephaniah said something similar in 1:7: “Be silent before the Lord God!
For the day of the Lord is near.”
During the history of the churches of Christ in the United States, the Restoration Movement, Thomas Campbell coined a motto that illustrates the importance and the power of being silent before God. That motto was: “Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent.”
As we look to the book of Acts and the law of the Lord that went out from Jerusalem, we ask – “At what point are we to remain silent and at what point may we speak?” Over the past 100 years, there has been some misunderstanding and confusion, both as to the practical application of this motto and as to its biblical foundation. At what point do the silence of the Scriptures allow and at what point do they forbid?
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For example, there was no Power Point in the New Testament. The New Testament is silent relative to the Power Point. But, we use it. When some leaders lead us in worship, he uses something like a pitch pipe to get the pitch of the song. There was no pitch pipe in the New Testament – but we use it. On the other hand, it is widely known that churches of Christ disagree with mechanical instruments of music in worship and, in fact, the churches of Christ split with the Christian church over the use of the instrument in worship. The reason we gave was that the New Testament is silent on mechanical instruments of music.
The principle – Speak were the Scriptures speak and be silent where the Scriptures are silent applies to more than just instruments of music but that is the most obvious element missing in our worship services, compared to denominational churches, and so we find ourselves discussing it, perhaps more frequently.
But the argument from silence is stronger than that and certainly is more internally consistent than what we may have been led to believe from previous generations’ use of the Restoration motto.
Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at this matter of the silence of the Scriptures
–Paul Holland
