INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, SACRED OR SINFUL

It's true: Jesus didn't say that the Musical Minstrels were SINNERS: He just cast them out LIKE DUNG using the came "musical term" which speaks of Lucifer the "singing and harp playing prostitute CAST AS PROFANE out of heaven."

lt's true: Jesus didn't say that the SECTARIAN HYPOCRITES were sinners. He just quoted Isaiah and Ezekiel to identify HYPOCRITES as smooth speakers, singers and instrument players. The Players speak of the ORGAN Jubal handled meaning "without authority."

It's true: Jesus didn't say that the end time chuch was sinful He just had John define them as the Holy Harlot where the singers and musicians are called SORCERS which causes God to BLOW OUT THEIR CANDLES.

He didn't say that they were SINFUL he just pointed to the Babylonian system to which God ABANDONED the Israelites because of MUSICAL IDOLATRY.

MESOPOTAMIAN CULT

In the cultic practices, humans fulfilled their destiny: to take care of the gods' material needs. They therefore provided the gods with houses (the temples) that were richly supplied with lands, which people cultivated for them. In the temple the god was present in--but not bounded by--a statue made of precious wood overlaid with gold. For this statue the temple kitchen staff prepared daily meals from produce grown or raised on the temple's fields, in its orchards, in its sheepfolds, cattle pens, and game preserves, brought in by its fishermen, or delivered by farmers owing it as a temple tax. The statue was also clad in costly raiment, bathed, and escorted to bed in the bedchamber of the god, often on top of the temple tower, or ziggurat.

To see to all of this the god had priests trained as cooks, bakers, waiters, and bathers, or as encomiasts (singers of praise) and musicians

to make the god's meals festive, or as elegists to soothe him in times of stress and grief. Diversions from the daily routine were the great monthly festivals and also a number of special occasions.

This included the SORCERERS or EXORCISTS which show up in Revelation 18.

In a footnote on the first page of Book I the editor notes that-- p,

The words insanir, m bacchari, refer to the appearance of the ancient seers when under the influence of the deity. The meaning is, that they make their asserverations with all the confidence of a seer when filled, as he pretended, with the influence of the god." (Arnibious, Ante-Nicene, VI, p. 413)

He notes that it is childish that the gods of the pagans were not interested in heavenly things but with the courser things of earth. However, he is aware that the professional religionists devised the myths and fables to fool fools. They felt this need because "we need to do something about the falling attendance." Arnobius called this HERESY.

"Nay, rather, to speak out more truly, the augurs, the dream interpreters, the soothsayers, the prophets, and the priestlings, ever vain, have devised these fables;

for they, fearing that their own arts be brought to nought,
and that they may extort but scanty contributions from the devotees, now few and infrequent,

whenever they have found you to be willing that their craft should come into disrepute, cry aloud, the Gods are neglected,
........... and in the temples there is now a very thin attendance.

For ceremonies are exposed to derision,
........... and the time-honoured rites of institutions once sacred
........... ........... have sunk before the superstitions of new religions.

And men--a senseless race--being unable, from their inborn blindness, to see even that which is placed in open light,

dare to assert in their frenzy what you in your sane mind do not blush to believes." (Arnobius, Against the Heathen, Ante-Nicene Fathers, VI, p. 418).

The old debating ploy: associate the lack of evangelism with NOT using first a little lyre, then a "chist of whistles," then a pipe organ and a professional organists at a cost to feed all of the poor of these struggling NORTHERN towns. Now, a Rock and Roll (that "F" word) derived from Voodoo to make the "spirit" come just as Inanna did in her temples she built in Babylon. As the Vineyard lady promotes and the early introducers of instruments confessed, just before the LAST act of worship called giving of means.

The issue is Bible 101aaa. Paul said nothing about MUSIC in any form. The Restoration Movement tried to restore the church as A SCHOOL OF CHRIST where worship was defined as READING and DISCUSSING the Bible.

Common sense 101bbb proves that you CANNOT even think about doing a pagan MUSICAL RITUAL which cannot teach and which PREVENTS teaching the Word of Christ, the Spirit or "that which is written." It was Alexander Campbell who RESTORED the almost universal singing or reading or GIVING HEED to the Words of God in Christ with SINGING out of his newly published song book WITHOUT SHAPE NOTES. John Calvin was literate enough to read the Bible and grasp that there was NO CEREMONY called MUSIC in the Bible. This was not related to a knee-jerk reaction against the Catholics because the Catholics NEVER used the organs in the modern MUSICAL SENSE.

The organ did processionals, interludes and set certain keynotes. However, adding instruments DID NOT mean "congregational singing with instrumtal accompaniment." This would have been UNSEEMLY.

It is important that you not be deliberately deceived into believing that opposing trying to worship a Holy Spirit God with machines, the works of human hands or in houses built by human hands is a product of foul ANTI-instrumental churches of Christ.

Take a look at their fairly modern discussion of LITURGY and music.
Catholic Encyclopedia on Instrumental Music
The view of singing in the Catholic Encyclopedia
The Catholic Encyclopedia also defines congregational singing;

McEvilly in his "Commentary" applies them to public and private meetings. St Augustine (Ep. cxix, ch. xviii) says:

"As to the singing of psalms and hymns, we have the proofs, the examples, and the instructions of the Lord Himself, and of the Apostles". (Cf. also Col., iii, 16; I Cor., xiv, 26.)

"In the ancient congregational singing both sexes took part; the words of St. Paul imposing silence on women in church being interpreted to refer only to exhorting or instructing.

"Duchesne describes how the earliest worship of the Christians was parallel to that, not of the Temple of the Jews at Jerusalem, but of the local synagogues, the Christians borrowing thence their four elements of Divine service-

the lections (reading parts of Scripture),
the chants (of the Psalter),
the homilies (explaining those passages of scriptures),
and the prayers.

That is EXACTLY what Paul commanded!

See, even Catholics don't see SPEAK and translate it SING. That is what Paul told Timothy as a DIRECT COMMAND where "singing" was not a local, pagan issue at the time: "Give attendance to the public READING of the word, to exhorting (those passages read) and to doctrine (from those passages read.)

Why is it that people who have honored that for 2,000 years are suddenly ignorant, southern, red-necked mental basket cases?

The PEA, dear listeners, is under NEITHER walnut shell: there is no command, example or remote inference that the church SANG in the sense of TUNEFULNESS in the whole Bible which is not--even in its primative form--directly connected to Satan, prostitutes or Sodomites--little female children being the exception. The temple did not use MUSIC: Christ the Spirit called it "noise." It was used to SERVE the priests where service is defined as HARD BONDAGE while they endured the screams of innocent animals, blood, dung and burning flesh in a futile attempt to find ASSURANCE by a people who had FIRED Christ the Spirit and demanded a KING like the nations. God knew that it was so that they could WORSHIP LIKE THE NATIONS.

How do I know that: because as musicologists inform us "Melody as TUNEFULNESS belongs to the 19^th century." Harmony, on the other hand, was SYMPHONIA which meant "moving together" as in Apollo's 'music' at the homosexual symposia. There was no connection between modern HARMONY and ancient MELODY.

Even melody was a WARFARE word and never a musical word: one SHOT real arrows or "love arrows" or one SHOT out hymns. One "twanged" the bowstring or one "twanged" the vocal cords both related to the Greek words for "tendons."

The LEFT "flight feathers" and the RIGHT "flight feathers" belong to the SAME BIRD who, according to Heredotus and the advice given to Cyrus concerning men TAKEN CAPTIVE: "make them into singers and flute players and hucksters and you will see them turn into women and give you no more trouble."

A. Ralph Johnson: How can it be that the agonized prayer of Jesus for his disciples to be, "ONE, that the world might believe" (Jn. 17:21), should be disregarded in order to bind on brothers a venerated archaic tradition?

Jesus didn't pray for UNITY OF MUSICAL "WORSHIP" in a pagan sense: He praied for unity based on His WORD which was the Word of Go Incarnate.

Jesus identified his God-role as SON as the WORD of God the FATHER whose THOUGHT He reproduced 100% faithfully. That WORD then was Spirit and Life (John 6:63). Jesus identified the clergy of Pharisees (professional preacher-prayers), Scribes (book, song and lecture writers for sale) and the SECT of the Hypocrites (performing actors, singers, musicians all identified in the Greek world as PARASITES) as CHILDREN of the Devil because THEY spoke on their own and THEIR father spoke on His own.

If people disobey Paul's DIRECT COMMAND for the elders as the only pastor-teachers along with the deacons who were more mobile to "teach that which has been taught" they they CANNOT be a SON of God in the sense that Christ was a SON: speaking only what He heard from the Father within. The UNITY based on the Word was defined by Thomas Campbell and others seeking UNITY for a SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE and not a pagan worship center meant "glorifying God with ONE MOUTH and ONE MIND by speaking 'that which is written.'" That, in Romans 15 defines a synagogue of Christ where His example was not to PLEASURE Himself and that would solve the division created by two major "musical" SECTS in Rome: the Dionysiacs and Orphics.

This is the next DEBATER'S BIG LIE: the NOT playing music which is 100% the work of human hands and even Jubal and Nimrod knew SEDUCED people is a venerated archaic tradition. I may be PRICKING INTEREST and be excused because all literate Bible scholars know for a fact that MUSIC was that which Satan used to WHOLLY SEDUCE Eve in the Garden of Eden which Paul identified as a SEXUAL seduction. The serpent "parable" word which God used from the foundation of the world to fool the retailers of Divine truth (Matthew 13) would have been known to Abraham as he wrote out CUBE ROOTS on clay tablets (likely) as a ten year old kid to mean a Musical Enchanter.

Any sincere student would know that the UNIVERSAL literature, some written on clay tablets a thousand years before Moses, associated MUSIC with a religion of sexuality, perversion and "navigating the gates of hell." He or she would know that the Spirit of Christ used music as the MARKER of those who refused to listen to the Words of God. They would know that Jesus CAST OUT the musical minstrels just as Satan was CAST OUT of God's presence as one EJECTS DUNG. The same city officials regulated the flute-girls (prostitutes), cemetary and dung heap in Athens.

They would have connected Revelation 18:22 to the "holy whore" whose name was CIRCE in the area of John's Patmos: she is worshipped each time we think CHURCH where we fight over ANY kind of music instead of the ekklesia or synagogue or SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE Jesus died to give us to provide REST. The Greek PAUO is spring-loaded toward the demand to STOP the preaching, STOP the singing, STOP the musicians. Just STOP it and quit using MUSIC to TAKE CAPTIVE and TRIBULATE people just to get money. It is called the DOUBLE CROSS and people get the authority for MUSIC the same place they get the LAW OF GIVING.

A. Ralph Johnson: Those who insist that we imbibe this party spirit have often berated us as cowards, without the courage of our convictions, for refusing to meet in the middle of the street with six-guns ablaze to defend our cause. That does not settle who is right. It only indicates who thinks he has an edge on being able to make someone else look bad, --or who has the more fragile vanity. My daddy used to say, "when two fellows try to see who can be the dirtiest, -- the one that wins, IS!

I think this, like the beginning PREACHER'S TALE, is according to a Gallup Pole [Freudian slip: I meant poll] JUST MADE UP. Does that mean that debaters lie to make a point? Probably.

I think that Ralph and all of the new ANTI-Antis must be looking at a mirror: surely any reader can read Ralph's harsh judgmentalism of people who will not BOW OR BURN and understand that Ralph must be seeing in a mirror brightly.

The old DEBATER'S TRICK is to shoot the oponent in the heart with one of Apollo's Arrows (he is Abaddon or Apollyon and his LOCUSTS are the Muses of Revelation 18:22) and then riducule him for MAKING MELODY as he beats his heels

P. Vergilius Maro, Aeneid

She said, and from her quiver chose with speed
The winged shaft, predestin'd for the deed;
Then to the stubborn yew her strength applied,
Till the far distant horns approach'd on either side.

Music as the conflict of opposites meaning that it creates ANXIETY is based on the fact that the bow was often made of two pieces of horn joined in the middle. This was the point of GREAT TENSION [psallo, sop, grinding] which working against the great stress in the string TWANGED forth the literal arrow. The same process is at work when WORKERS shoots forth hymns in the performing sense. This is the most WORKS INTENSIVE thing done in the name of religion.

keras I. the horn of an animal, in Hom. mostly of oxen, as a symbol of strength III. anything made of horn, 1. bow, 2. of musical instruments, horn for blowing, also, the Phrygian flute, because it was tipped with horn 8. of the pêcheis of the lyre

The bowstring touch'd her breast, so strong she drew;
Whizzing in air the fatal arrow flew.
........At once the twanging bow and sounding dart
........The traitor heard, and felt the point within his heart.

Him, beating with his heels in pangs of death,
His flying friends to foreign fields bequeath.
........ The conqu'ring damsel, with expanded wings,
........ The welcome message to her mistress brings.

Euripides Ion

Strong though thy beak beyond the feather'd kind,
My bow shall reach thee. Towards the altar, see,
A swan comes sailing: elsewhere wilt thou move

Thy scarlet-tinctured foot? or from my bow
The lyre of Phoebus [Apollo, Apollyon] to thy notes attuned
Will not protect thee; farther stretch thy wings;

Go, wanton, skim along the Delian lake,
........ Or wilt thou steep thy melody in blood.

Look, what strange bird comes onwards; wouldst thou fix
Beneath the battlements thy straw-built nest?

My singing bow shall drive thee hence; begone,
Or to the banks of Alpheus, gulfy stream, grace
Or to the Isthmian grove; there hatch thy young;

Mar not these pendent ornaments, nor soil
........ The temple of the god: I would not kill you:
'Twere pity, for to mortal man you bear
........ The message of the gods; yet my due task
Must be perform'd, and never will I cease
........ My service to the god who nurtured me.

Augustine wrote of those under the burden of musical superstition. This is why lifeless instruments and carnal weapons mean the same thing.

Again, if you prefer to test the presence of God by the agreeable effects on the hearing, and not sight, or smell, or taste, harps get their strings and pipes their bones from animals; and these become musical by being dried, and rubbed, and twisted.

So the pleasures of music, which you hold to have come from the divine kingdom, are obtained from the refuse of dead animals, and that, too, when they are dried by time, and lessened by rubbing, and stretched by twisting. Such rough treatment, according to you, drives the divine substance from living objects; even cooking them, you say, does this. Why then are boiled thistles not unwholesome? Is it because God, or part of God, leaves them when they are cooked?

Paul began Romans 15 which defined a Synagogue or School of the Bible which glorified God by speaking "that which is written." The FIRST direct command to be Christ-like is DON'T PLEASURE YOURSELVES. This means to EXCITE and singing was a primary effort to EXCITE people to carry them away for the heretic's OWN USE.

All pagans used MUSIC in their anguished worship because they believed that the gods lived inside: when you rubbed them or stroked them they SPOKE to you. That is why Habbakuk warns about trying to AWAKEN idols as David tried to awaken his harp: when God is in HIS holy temple then all of the earth should KEEP SILENCE or get out.

A. Ralph Johnson: A Word of Caution

One difficulty with writing is, to accurately convey feelings. It is also difficult, when a subject affects millions of people in different ways, to speak to the needs of each without leaving others feeling pained that they have been lumped with the "bad guys." In citing arguments made against instrumental, I do not wish to imply that all anti-instrumentalists hold to all of them.

I recognize that most anti-instrumentalists are wise enough to reject many of the really outrageous ones. I do not wish to blame all for the folly of a few.

Did you hear the parable of the Doctor and the Idiot? Well, it seems that a doctor wanted to go west and minister to the health of poor Indians. He had a friend who was the village idiot. He jumped, skipped, sang and pretended that he could cure insanity. He slobbered into his lice-infested beard and wanted the ladies to kiss him. Well, they went west and met the Indians. They burned the doctor at the stake and worshipped the idiot as a god.

I don't have space to develop it here, but the sacrifices of Cain and Abel speak volumes about the ancient fertility rituals of the agriculture society which depended on singing, dancing, playing instruments and having sex with the "gods" in the person of the "ministers of the gods."

"The development both of religion and of the arts can be traced back in a continuous line to the hunting era. The group ritual of the primeval tribesmen were the origin not only of all religious ceremonial, but also of the drama and of poetry and music, while magic gave birth to the visual arts." (H. Bamfort Parks, p. 30 Of Gods and Men).

"Awed by the mysteries of his own spirit no less than by those of nature, primitive man was likely to attribute to divine influence

any abnormal emotional state, whether above or below the usual level. Medicine men customarily went into states of trance in which they were believed to be in communication with the gods,

and many tribes supposed lunatics and sexual deviants to be divinely possessed.

A resemblance between the sacrificial garments of ancient ritual and the costume of a household jester in the Middle Ages--coxcomb, eared hood, bells, and bauble, with a motley coat--has been noted.

In most early societies, moreover, men evolved techniques for deliberaly inducing the abnormal forms of consciousness in which they supposed themselves to achieve union with divine power, sometimes by the use of drugs and other physiological stimuli, sometimes by hypnotic dances and music. The wild utterances to which they gave vent on such occasions were regarded as the words of a god and were interpreted as divine commands or predictions of future events." (Parkes, p. 32-33).

Sorry, but I just have to believe that Ralph is trying to PULL a fast something. Yet, I believe that when you reject the truth God sends a strong delusion. There is not a bit of Bible, ancient contemporaneous documents, Classical or other period writings, the church fathers or founders of denominations who will accept Ralph's claim that ANTI-instrumentalists are just evil and outrageous. At sometime this means SOUTHERN, ignorant, red necks. But, Ralph doesn't grasp that NONE of the churche sin the South USED music. Not even Catholics or Anglicans had a MUSICAL RITUAL. One needs to read the history of Jewish and Catholic Liturgical music and see that NONE of this fits the charismatic musical performance.

None of the churches of Christ in the South ever USED instruments as churches known down through church history known as THE CHURCH OF CHRIST never used instruments or any form of modern CHARISMATIC (sexual) forms of SANGING four-part Fanny.

Churches of Christ faithful to the UNIVERSAL EVIDENCE never USED music so how can Ralph and his misleaders CLAIM that they are outrageous sowers of discord. Ralph's bunch said BOW OR BURN and faithful churches did not BOW. Ralph, by association, takes on all of the BLOOD and deliberate discord sowed by INTRODUCING instruments which had NO reason to adduce a silly PSALLO argument. They said, "we gonna do it 'spite of hell and you can get with it or get out." That is a historical fact.

Now, Ralph and friends have fulfilled the Jubal or Genun prototype: they have fallen and cannot get up. The only solution was to try to FORCE others to join to feel COMFORTABLE. Blaming others is the old DEBATE game whether you speak it for God and the world to hear or write it out to continue to sow discord. This Prototype is seen in the BOOK OF ENOCH (quoted by Jesus and others at least 128 times), Book of Jubiless, books of Adam and Eve and 3 dozen other documents I have posted on my pages. This is the GENUN story: read it and weep. Jude still said that God will come with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment: the CAUSE of the fall is allowing SATAN to lead you into musical seduction.

A. Ralph Johnson: Permit me also to explain that I use the term, "anti-instrumental" rather than "non-instrumental" or "a cappella brethren," because those two terms fail to fully express the essence of our situation.

There are many who by preference, circumstance, or for other reasons, do not use instrumental music but do NOT believe that it is sinful.

One may by choice sing a-cappella.

By "anti-instrumental" I mean those opposed to religious use of instrumental music, as sinful. I have no problem with those who simply prefer to sing unaccompanied.

Ralph uses ANTI to make the old debater's sly connection between the ANTIs who use only ONE CUP and those who know that a CUP must have a handle. However, laying the predjuice trap will not catch those with EARS and EYES who know that Ralph is pitting the ENTERTAINMENT patternism of DOING church against the Bible and all other known literature. He cannot find one early theologian who endorses MUSIC in worship even though he finds some who define PSALLO with the harp. Well, they also associate it with the literal BOW. Why doesn't Ralph use the CORE MEANING of Psallo and let the TEAM shoot the "audience" with real arrows or love arrows?

Old Erasmus in introducing the pagan Believer's Baptism claimed that "all scholars prior to me were wrong." That was in 1525. Now, Ralph says that ANTI-instrumentalists are included in that mass of MODERNS who simply believe what 2,000 years of history knows for an absolute fact.

Singing with instruments is NOT sinful: the MORTAL SIN provable to all readers is that MUSIC in the public SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE AND OF CHRIST has always said to God: we WILL NOT listen to your word. If you made it past the slowest in the slow group at kindergarten you will be able to grasp that you choose NOT to hear the Word of Christ the Spirit "as it has been spoken" by telling God: We WILL NOT (for this 'worship' period) listen to YOUR WORDS. First, they are NOT the metrical material composed by Christ the Spirit to teach rather than to seduce. Second, it is a human impossibility to SPEAK and SANG at the same time. Third, it is a human impossiblity to GIVE HEED (Paul's unique 'worship' word) to the words of Christ and the performing musicians at the same time. It has always been known that MUSIC produces the impulses of FIGHT, FLIGHT or SEXUALITY. That is why musicians are USED to bring in people to put their widow's mite into the temple's colleciton plates which were called TRUMPETS.

ANYONE who MOUNTS the pulpit or bema or HIGH PLACE knows that they are the CENTER of focus and it CANNOT BE otherwise. That is why Jesus stood up at the pulpit [which held up the Bible and not the preacher], read the Bible and then had the uncommon decency to SIT DOWN and do what Paul commanded Timothy and what we have quoted from the Catholic Encyclopedia above.

Here is probably one of the oldest accounts of the fertility rituals: Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Job 21:7 Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Job 21:8 Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Job 21:9 Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. Job 21:10 They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. Job 21:11 They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. Job 21:12 [Organ instrument of the prostitute] They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Job 21: 13 The Logical conclusion is: Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Job 21:14 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? Job 21:15 Why would the "Spirit of Christ" remotely associate "musical worship" with the fertility, BREEDING rituals if He intended to COMMAND it? Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. Eze 33:30 And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, ........and they hear thy words, ........ ........ but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, ....... but their heart goeth after their covetousness. Eze 33:31 And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song (love song or erotic as many praise songs) ........ of one that hath a pleasant voice, ........ ........ and can play well on an instrument: ........ for they hear thy words, ........ ........ but they do them not. Eze 33:32 And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them. Eze 33: 33 (God had been there and gone and will not pass that way again) Judah would be brought down to again speak through their "familiar spirits." These were old wineskins or nebels or harps in which they believed they could get a better message than from God. The strangers they had collected with rituals--even burning babies to the sound of instruments--were adulterers just looking for a better gig. They were led by violent or tyrannical men. They would just burn themself up like chaff: He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites (ACTORS), as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Mark 7:6 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men (Songs). Mark 7:7 For laying aside the commandment (songs) of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. Mark 7:8 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment (songs) of God, that ye may keep (sing) your own tradition. Mark 7:9 The hypocrites were not just mistaken people: they were a major SECTARIAN group. This included rhetoricians, sOPHISts (serpents), singers, musicians and craftsmen. These were the techne [Koresh in Hebrew] and they specialized in singing, house or theater building (now how stealing) and state managing.

A. Ralph Johnson: My purpose is to expose error in these arguments, and set forth sound evidence to show that instrumental accompaniment is authorized for Christians.

This would be some trick: Ralph cannot find a single instance of God in Christ approving instruments or any form of MUSIC which is not speaking to teach "that which is written." He would have to explain why Lucifer is called the "singing and harp-playing prostitute" who was in the garden of Eden. He would have to catch a glimps of the word stranslated SERPENT in the garden of Eden to discover that this was a common term for MUSICAL ENCHANTERS. The serpent in the end times is OPIS which is included in the word sOPHISst. Rhetoricians, sOPHISts, singers and musicians practiced SORCERY in the Greek literature. Because they performed no USEFUL work they were called PARASITES.

Parasitos, ho, one who eats at the table of another, and repays him with flattery and buffoonery, parasite
........ II. of priests who had their meals at the public expense

God permitted a pagan form of ritual because the elders "fired" God and demanded a king like the nations. God understood this to means so we can worship like the nations. He declared that they would not get by with this and He facilitated their trip to Babylon.

ALL sacrificial altars came into disrepute: a house of merchandise and a den of thieves. Those who served these pagan altars were known as PARASITES. When animal sacrifices ceased, the priestlings and musicians just KEPT ON being parasites--even after Jesus put an end to them all.

Parasiteô 1 [from parasi_tos]

I. to play the parasite or toad-eater, Luc.
II. to be honoured with a seat at the public table, Plut.

Speaking of those seduced by music in many documents such as The Book of Enoch quoted by Jude to explain FOR WHOM God will come in judgment:

But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt [waste away from a musical note] themselves. Jude 1:10

Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain [meaning a musical note], and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. Jude 1:11

Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. Jude 1:13

These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Jude 1:12

Paul understood that one cannot SING externally and SPEAK externally at the same time. Neither could he find any basis for supposing that SING and PLAY are one word.

He also knew that there were words which meant PLAY but he did not use any of the dozen or so. For instance:

Kômôidoloicheô 1 [leichô] to play the parasite and buffoon, Ar.

Kumbal-izô , play the cymbals
Lurôideô , play the lyre
Cithari-zo kitharizô, to play on or strike the cithara

Lucian of Samosata defines instrumentalist and performers as parasites although he says that one does not require a musical instrument to be a parasite.

"This was the lady whom Dinias's parasites now associated with them; they played their subordinate part well, and between them fairly hustled the boy into a passion for Chariclea.

"Such a finished mistress of the art of perdition, who had ruined plenty of victims before, and acted love-scenes and swallowed fine fortunes without number, was not likely to let this simple inexperienced youth out of her clutches..

"The rest, of course, was easy. How was he to resist this pretty woman, with her captivating manners, her well-timed tears, her parenthetic sighs? Lingering farewells, joyful welcomes, judicious airs and graces, song and lyre,--all were brought to bear upon him. [Does that sound like Jimmy Swaggart?]

Maybe it is because MUSIC has always been an UNFAIR weapon to massage people in order to get them to fall into a charismatic state. Maybe it is NOT that they couldn't carve out a flute from bamboo. Maybe God thinks that it is EVIL to USE music in order to USE people when everyone knows that it like getting a lady drunk on a drug so you can mollest her. Maybe it is NOT because people knew that pagans used instruments and the simple-minded red-necks just wanted to OUTRAGE the people from North Palestine.

From A PORTRAIT-STUDY Lucian notes that MAYBE music and rhetorical speaking is the MARK of an effeminate performer and the "treasurers" KNOW that the best way to attract the masses is to put on a SHOW. Plato notes that music and drama always subjects the PLAYERS to "gender bleed."

"The pitch, exquisitely soft, as far removed from masculine bass as from ultra-feminine treble, is that of a boy before his voice breaks; sweet, seductive, suavely penetrating; it ceases, and still vibrating murmurs play, echo-like, about the listener's ears, and Persuasion leaves her honeyed track upon his mind.

But oh! the joy, to hear her sing,
and sing to the lyre's accompaniment.

"Let swans and halcyons and cicalas [locusts] then be mute. There is no music like hers; Philomela's self, 'full-throated songstress' though she be, is all unskilled beside her. Methinks Orpheus and Amphion, whose spell drew even lifeless things to hear them, would have dropped their lyres and stood listening in silence to that voice. What should Thracian Orpheus, what should Amphion, whose days upon Cithaeron were divided betwixt his lyre and his herd,-

what should they know of true concord, of accurate rhythm, of accentuation and time, of the harmonious adaptation of lyre and voice, of easy and graceful execution?

Clement notes that all of the musical gods were perverted: But perhaps when he was such he was a man; but now these fables seem to have grown old on our hands. Zeus is no longer a serpent, a swan, nor an eagle, nor a licentious man; the god no longer flies, nor loves boys, nor kisses, nor offers violence, although there are still many beautiful women, more comely than Leda, more blooming than Semele, and boys of better looks and manners than the Phrygian herdsman. Where is now that eagle? where now that swan? where now is Zeus himself? He has grown old with his feathers; for as yet he does not repent of his amatory exploits, nor is he taught continence. The fable is exposed before you: Leda is dead, the swan is dead. Seek your Jupiter. Ransack not heaven, but earth.

Apollo

The manifold symbols of Apollo correspond with the multitude of his attributes. The commonest is either the lyre or the bow, according as he was conceived as the god of song or as the far-hitting archer. The Delphian diviner, Pythian Apollo, is indicated by the tripod, which was also the favourite offering at his altars. Among plants, the bay, used for purposes of expiation, was early sacred to him. (See Daphné.) It was planted round his temples, and plaited into garlands of victory at the Pythian Games. The palm-tree was also sacred to him, for it was under a palm-tree that he was born in Delos. Among animals, the wolf, the dolphin, the snow-white and musical swan, the hawk, raven, crow, and snake were under his special protection; the last four in connection with his prophetic functions.

Apollo exercises an elevating and inspiring influence on the mind as god of music, which, though not belonging to him alone any more than atonement and prophecy, was yet pre-eminently his province.

In Homer he is represented only as a player on the lyre,
while song is the province of the Muses;
but in course of time he grows to be the god, as they are the goddesses, of song and poetry, and is therefore Mousagetês (leader of the Muses) as well as master of the choral dance, which goes with music and song. And as the friend of all that beautifies life he is intimately associated with the Graces [Graces meaning CHARIS meaning Charismatic meaning the MARK of homosexual "worship"]

Mousagetês 1 [doric for Mousêgetês] leader of the Muses, Lat. Musagetes, of Apollo, Plat.

Ganymede:

"Upon hearing that Ganymede was to be cup bearer as well as Zeus' lover, the infinitely jealous Hera was outraged. Therefor Zeus set Ganymede's image among the stars as the constellation Aquarius, the water carrier. Aquarius was originally the Egyptian god over the Nile. The Egyptian god poured water not wine from a flagon.

"All of Zeus' scandalous liaisons have allegorical meanings. Zeus' torrid affair with Ganymede was a religious justification for homosexuality within the Greek culture.

Before the popularity of the Zeus and Ganymede myth spread,

the only toleration for sodomy was an external form of goddess worship. Cybele's male devotees tried to achieve unity with her by castrating themselves and dressing like women.

"While Platonic love needed women for regeneration purposes (grow the attendance)

the philosopher used this myth to justify his sexual feelings towards his all male pupils.

Cica-da

(tettix). A species of insect, frequently mentioned by the classical writers. It is originally a caterpillar, then a chrysalis, and is converted into a fly late in the spring. Its song is much louder and shriller than that of the grasshopper.

The ancient writers, and especially the poets, praise the sweetness of their song; and Plutarch says they were sacred to the Muses. According to Aelian, only the male cicada sings, and that in the hottest weather. This is confirmed by the discoveries of modern naturalists. The cicada is extremely common in the south of Italy. It is found also in the United States, being called in some parts "the harvest-fly," and in others, very erroneously, "the locust."

You CANNOT miss that Paul speaks of internal MELODY and all of the perverted "religionists" thought of HARMONY, singing and musical instruments. We have noted that the meaning of HARMONY invented by Apollo or Abaddon or Apollyon means MOVING TOGETHER as in the perverted threskia form of religion.

Then, he would have to fly over to Revelation and understand that the sOPHISts or professional, enchanting speakers are the SERPENTS or OPHIS who are enchanting or charming. He would have to grasp why John identifies the holy whore who, in his island world, was burried within view of Patmos: she was in Legend and therefore John's symbol of false religion CIRCE whom we worship every time we say the word CHURCH.

And the voice of harpers, and musicians [MUSES], and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; Rev 18:22

The MUSICIANS were the MUSES employed by Apollo or Abaddon or Apollyon. They were in the legends John used the LOCUSTS or musical performers as any reader of the Classics grasps. The craftsmen are the Greek word TECHNE: they were gifted rhetoricians, sOPHISts, singers, musicians, house builders and "stage managers."

Because the Bible does not identify SINGING in the external ODEING form it would be pretty strange if Christ authorized INSTRUMENTAL ACCOMPANIMENT for something which was NEVER DONE in the synagogue or the churches of Christ.

Singing in the external ODEING sense created mental excitement which Paul outlawed as PLEASURING one another in Romans 15. Only then by following CHRIST'S PATTERN they could speak "that which is written" with one mind and one voice. That defines a synagogue and not CHURCH as a pagan worship center.

Click here to see how singing externally is connected to LIFTING people up which in the sacrificial systems was "to cut their throat." This musical practice of making a great, crashing sound is the meaning of HERESY: using music to lift people up to carry them away for YOUR OWN USES.

Ralph will not find any form of SINGING in the ritualistic sense until Ephraim INTRODUCED singing as "an act of worship" in the mid 4th century. Justin and others speak of singing the PSALMS which is what Paul commanded. Their singing was SAYING or using the normal inflections of speech to speak GOD'S word which is the only way you can teach one another.

A. Ralph Johnson: I do so with a background of many years of facing attacks by anti-instrumentalists calling in question our intelligence, honesty and courage, but recognizing that much of this is from those who even other anti-instrumental brethren call, "Antis."

I have tried to make my response to the point, even if it sometimes seems blunt. Some people understand nothing else.

Honest research proves thar Ralph's POINT is BLUNT.

I challenge Ralph to find ONE published book which attacks the character of instrumentalists. I know of no book which does not objectively say what EVERYONE knew until the Christian church in 1878 invented the PSALLO as an authority argument. However, because of the HIGH CHURCH view which is just MADE UP theology, there was never any hint of needing an excuse.

But, since I am a retired engineer and NOT a preacher I can tell you after collecting MOST of the world's major works on MUSIC AS WORSHIP that you cannot be too bright and not see that the Bible radically repudiates external rituals in the worship of a Spirit God. ALL of the passages in the Old Testament in a religious sense relate to dedication of kings and temples or the purification of same. Because they had been virtually deserted by God as a result of the MUSICAL IDOLATRY at Mount Sinai, these temples were like the nation's temples because they wanted to worship 'like the nations."

Ralph should understand that, without knowing it, people speak in parables long burried in the Biblical and historical text. The very word MELODY or MUSIC is the mark of a literal, spiritual or sexual attack. The deliberately SOW DISCORD without any Biblical authority (Psallo discovered in 1878) and then SMITE and STING you because you were mortally wounded.

By focusing on the one POINT which is the ONLY point, it is easy to get BLIND SIDED by the ocean of evidence which explain why musical discorders will devote so much time and NATIONAL ORGANIZATION trying to force the reluctant dummies to bow to Baal.

Music was always repudiated because no FREE PERSON should given a for-hire rhetorical or musical performer the KEY to their emotions. This was and is held to be the KEY to one's sexual pleasure centers. A perfectly rational person can be MIND ALTERED enough by a bagpipe to march into the certain jaws of human slaughter with nothing to be gained by it. If I permitted the "holy bartender" to ply me with wine I would know that he intended to lower my resistance to take all of my money.

How can PRO-paganism gloat in telling everyone that they believe that it is the "holy" spirit vibrating their "viral membranes" and readily submit themselves and USE people who are professionals at shutting down the rational (spiritual) brain?

The BASE of all musical terms speak of ANXIETY and STRIFE.

Fragment 10, Aristotle, de mundo 5, 396b20

Things taken together are wholes and not wholes, something is being brought together and brought apart, which is in tune and out of tune; out of all things there comes a unity, and out of a unity all things.
........ The BOW is called STRIFE, but its WORK is DEATH

Fragment 209, Hippolytus Ref Ix, 9, I

They do not apprehend how being at variance it agrees with itself: there is a palintonos (counter-stretched) harmony, as in the bow and the lyre.(4)

That is the "musical" connection which is universally a WARFARE connection! And you notice the "psallo" or twanging and the counter-stretched strings bring about STRIFE but they produce HARMONY or "moving together" to get the job done.

Psallo includes: I. to touch sharply, to pluck, pull, twitch, Aesch.; toxou neuran [gut, tendon, lifeless] ps. to twang the bow-string, Eur.; belos ek keraos ps. to send a shaft twanging from the bow

Or send a SONG shooting from the lips! THAT is the musical connection!

Toxeuô

I. to shoot with the bow,
II. to shoot or hit with an arrow, to be struck by an arrow,
2. to shoot from a bow: METAPHOR to discharge, send forth, humnous.

Pindar Odes He is an eagle, his rivals are ravens and daws (O. 2.96; [p. xxxvi] N. 3.82). Bellerophon shooting his arrows from the lone bosom of the chill ether (O. 13.87) is a prefigurement of his poetic exaltation, his power, his directness, and so he never wearies of calling his songs arrows or darts

which sometimes fall in a hurtling shower; but sometimes a single arrow hits the mark, sometimes a strong bolt is kept in reserve by the Muse, for Pindar, as an aristocrat, is a man of reserves.

His lyre has a various range of notes, his quiver is full of arrows, and at times such is the shower of notes, such the rain of arrows, such the sparkle and flash and flame of the lights, such the sweet din and rumble and roar of the music of earth and the music of heaven, that the poet himself, overcome by the resources of his own art, confesses his defeat, and by one strong impulse of his light feet, swims out of the deluge of glory with which he has flooded the world of song.

Humnos, ho, hymn, ode, in praise of gods or heroes

We can shoot out HYMNS or as in PSALLO-- and its PREFERRED and primary meaning-- we can SHOOT one another with real arrows or as in all of the paganisn which "worshipped" rather than "synagogued" shoot one another with Love Arrows! And that gets you back to Apollo, Abaddon or Apollyon the "god" of the musical superstitious and fearful and Sodomites.

Plato Cratylus on the Musical Purifier and CHANGES from the ATTIC 360 B.C.

Soc. Then in reference to his ablutions and absolutions, as being the physician who orders them, he may be rightly called Apolouon (purifier);

Or: Soc. Then in reference to his ablutions and absolutions, as being the physician who orders them, he may be rightly called Apolouon (purifier); or
........ or in respect of his powers of divination, and his truth and sincerity,

which is the same as truth, he may be most fitly called Aplos, from aplous (sincere), as in the Thessalian dialect, for all the Thessalians call him Aplos;
........ also he is Ballon (always shooting),
........ because he is a master archer who never misses;

THAT is why Jesus said worship in the SPIRIT and TRUTH which is the Word of Christ. And why Paul warned that if you DON'T keep worship in the PLACE of the spirit you let Apollyon and his MUSES the DOGS will tell you to BOW or BURN.

He is Apollo, Abaddon or Apollyon:His MUSES were females whom the mother goddess had turned into LOCUSTS. Just in time the STAR has again dug up the locusts or musical performers to MARK and STING people and CHASE AWAY the believers marked with the WORD.

"And he is the God who presides over harmony, and makes all things move