Music in Worship
Pastor: What about music in Heaven? You Know the harps and trumpets and etc... You would think that a God who was creator of all, would use for His glory what He created. Just thinking about the the battle of Jericho where God wanted trumpets blown for the Victory to be completed. Odd huh?Now, Pastor, if you find you some walls needing broken down then perhaps this is a good example. But, then you will have to march and shout and have the priests blow the trumpets where "blow" is describes the lady who found here enemy ASLEEP and drove a tent peg into his head.
People in the church needing to confiscate a church to turn it into "a theater for holy entertainment" have discovered that if they TEAM ATTACK the church with frazzling ditties, shouting, hand waving and hand clapping and some with instruments that the OLD OWNERS are chased out and the invaders can TAKE THE CITY. Sure, still works.
The blowing was to create panic and here is the Hebrew word:
Taqa (h8628) taw-kah'; a prim. root; to clatter, i. e. slap (the hands together), clang (an instrument); by anal. to drive (a nail or tent-pin, a dart, etc.); by impl. to become bondsman (by hand-clasping): - blow ([a trumpet]), cast, clap, fasten, pitch [tent], smite, sound, strike, * suretiship, thrust.
Harps in heaven? Be my guest (joke) but you have to kill yourself and be a virgin. Then you have to "hold" your harp and bow to the ground and play at the same time. If the "bowls" of incense are figurative of our prayers, what are the harps figurative of? Well, most church fathers thought that they were called "the harps of God" which is the "instrument" Paul commanded in his "singing" passages. In the Dead Sea Scroll fulfillment of the prophecy of Psalm 41 that Judas and clergy would try to triumph over Jesus with music, the clergy used the MILITARY MUSICIANS who were always "under the king and commanders of the army." However, in victory, Jesus would praise God on the organic harps or zithers of mouth, lips and spirit.
http://www.piney.com/DSSPsa41.html
I have collected some data FOR THE DEAD in the book of revelation here:
http://www.piney.com/MuHarpRev.html
In the Greek world John was addressing in highly figurative language, the message of the DEAD VIRGINS is that they are now in a state of happiness with NO EARTHLY responsibilities. However, the message to the LIVING is "preach the gospel." Note in this research that the LIVING ARE never playing the harps pictured on the tombstones. They are 100% symbolic of idle happiness and symbols don't need to be played.
Pastor: Ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
I learn the message: if the enemy church needs to be taken then instrumentalists are having great fun confiscating non-instrumental churches of Christ with real instruments or look-alike MUSICAL BANDS.
Churches of Christ, and the majority of the world's "worshipers" never had to learn: they just followed the universal practice from the garden of Eden onward. The serpent was a "musical enchanter" and the "people's congregation" of NEVER worshiped with instruments even in the Old Testament.
The King and Commanders of the army regulating the Levitical singers performed STATE or civil rituals and the general population was LOCKED OUT of the process. The common Israelite always "assembled" for instruction and prayer and there was NEVER A PRAISE SERVICE IN THE SYNAGOGUE. This did not mean that music was evil: it just had no part to play in BIBLE STUDY and PRAYER.
When you repeat that in the church you restore the "clergy" and place the general population out of the process and on the OTHER SIDE of both the sacrifice of Christ and the Laver of cleansing. Both the musical "noise" and sacrifices were OUTSIDE of the Holy Place which was tpical of the churche. Again, the musical noise was always on the UNWASHED side of the temple process. The "musicians" were engaged in HARD BONDAGE and were NEVER permitted in "church."
The Jewish liberal synagogue always repudiated instruments until AD 1815 when an organ was added but a non-Jew had to play it because they understood that it was STILL unbiblical for a Jew to play instruments on the holy day. They went to court and divided the synagogue. See under Jewish Liturgical Music
See our notes on Amos.
And how the temple was LIKE THE NATIONS and not according to God's ideal
The Synagoge
See the Organ on the Sabbath: divided Synagogues before churches.
Our Notes on Jewish Liturgical Music
Jewish liturgical music the music used in the religious services of the Jews.See The Encomiast as Babylonian-like Praise Leader
The Catholoc Precentor: The first wide-spread heresy
Catholic LiturgyNon-Catholic influenced protestants never tried to "learn" about music from the Bible until about a.d. 1878.
Catholic Encyclopedia on Instrumental Musical Worship
- Catholic Encyclopedia Instrumental Music in Worship
- Catholic Encyclopedia Singing
- Catholic Encyclopedia Congregational Singing
- Catholic Encyclopedia Ecclesiastical Music No Instruments for the Pope
- Catholic Encyclopedia The Mass - Restoration of Levitical Liturgical Music
Musical Minister - Catholic Precentor - First Heresy- See The Encomiast as Babylonian-like Praise Leader
See the Origin in BabylonA "pastor" feeds the flock and you cannot feed the flock with fluff. Here is my collection of material which churches of Christ don't know either. This first one is chronologically ordered. I am preparing the BEGINNIG article which proves without a doubt that Satan introduced musical seduction in the garden of Eden.
http://www.piney.com/MUIndex.html
The next index is arranged topically. Notice the table at the top which ALWAYS connects music with the Biblical JUBAL family or the Babylonian GENUN composite. The Babylonian tablets show that EA the second incarnation meaning LAMECH was the father of instrumental music and INANNA was the female goddess now worshiped as Sophia or Zoe or Eve-Mary by Catholics.
http://www.piney.com/MuIndex2.html
At the bottom of the page you will see religioous groups (the world's majority) which STILL do not use instruments including some Baptists and lots of Presbyterians.
You have 100% of the Biblical and historical evidencing showing that music is the product of Satan silencing the WORDS of God and always connect with people saying: "We will not listen to the Words of God."
Is that a fact? I don't know: I know only what the Bible and history records. But, why would one feel ready to sow discord and divide brethren over a religious practice which is almost totally associated with Satan's attack on the word, panic noise of warfare, social frolicing or even LITURGICAL or CIVILIAN prostitution?
Pastor: We still Love you churches of Christ, but we believe one day in Heaven, you will be rejoicing to music. After all it is going to be there. Another point? Why would God enjoy it in heaven and not want His children to have it on Earth?Crazy sounding? If Satan can glorified through it, why can's God the creator of all be glorified. PSALM 150
Well, I don't enjoy most music now so maybe God will let be get by with skipping the singing, clapping and playing harps and tell me GOD-TO-MAN how He created something out of nothing. Or, please, explain black holes and how the matter in my body can be in two places at once.
Well, churches of Christ don't love me: they are just as addicted to CCM (contemporary hymns) and complex harmony as you are to choirs and machines. Tell one of "ourn" that the Bible commands teaching with the Biblical text and they will--spite of hell--fight you tooth and nail as those who do the same thing with machines. Both are TRADITIONS with COMPLEX HARMONY and MACHINES rising from the ground in the 19th century. The Britannica notes:
"Melody as 'tunefulness' belongs to the 19th century and depends on symmetries of harmony and rhythm which seldom occurs in music written before the 16th century...
By the beginning of the 20th century a melody was considered to be the surface line in a series of harmonies. Harmonic rationality and symmetrical rhythm thus combined to produce a tuneful melody that helped to generate the sonata form." (Britannica, Melody, 1965) (A sonata is: "a major work, a symphony or concert music.)
MELODY in Greek is related to "grinding you into bits."
If we use the modern definition of MELODY then it means a series of single tones. That would absolutely demand unison singing which is what the Jews did.
Ritual music was at first only cantillation, i.e., recitative chanting, of the prose books of the Bible
Later the prayers and biblical poetry were chanted, presumably in a modal system similar to the ragas of Hindu music or the maqamat of Arab music, i.e., melodies with improvisations. Jewish Liturgical Music
Cantillation is also used in Islamic religious services in the recitation of the Qur'an and in the muezzin's call to prayer, or adhan.
Neither it nor the cantillation of the Qur'an are considered to be music, however, and music as such is forbidden in religious services.
I'll wait for the evidence that GOD ENJOYS music in heaven. The history does seem to say that in the heavenly sphere, Satan tried to silence God's word and make the host worship him. Therefore, when he was cast out into the earth as Lucifer (the king of Tyre and Babylon) and Sophia-Zoe he CAME EQUIPED with pipes and tabrets in the garden of Eden, he WHOLLY SEDUCED Eve as a musical enchanter. His sin? His sin was trying to use the pleasures of a heaven with no responsibilities on Adam and Eve who HAD EARTHLY RESPONSIBILITIES. And that is the universal story of the Bible and human duty versus music.
David was not a MUSICAL WORSHIP MINISTER but a shepherd. He could never lawfully come into the Holy Place (unless starving) which represented FOOD FELLOWSHIP, LEARNING (THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD), AND PRAYERS. The Holy Place was typical of the CHURCH and no LEVITE with or without music would dare enter into the Holy Place. I have shown the type and antitype here.
http://www.piney.com/TempleWorshipChurch.html
The music (called noise) was out there where they sacrifice animals and mockingly sacrificed Jesus Christ.
The "instruments" made NOISE and not MUSIC during the offering of sacrifice. Prophetically (Psa 41) they would MOCK Jesus while He was being sacrificed in the court. Therefore music is always related to mocking the words of Christ. No MUSICIAN would dare enter the Holy Place (church) or the Most Holy Place (heaven and our mind or spirit).
We SYNAGOGUE or do the school of the Bible in CHURCH but we worship, one at a time and in private, IN SPIRIT or in our mind according to Jesus.
For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. Psa 69:9
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isa 53:5
They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards. Psa 69:12
Negiynah (h5058) neg-ee-naw'; or nÿgÓynath neg- ee- nath'; from 5059; prop. instrumental music; by impl. a stringed instrument; by extens. a poem set to music; spec. an epigram: - stringed instrument, musick, Neginoth [plur.], song
Nagan (h5059) naw-gan'; a prim. root; prop. to thrum, i. e. beat a tune with the fingers; espec. to play on a stringed instrument; hence (gen.) to make music: - player on instruments, sing to the stringed instruments, melody, ministrel, play (-er, -ing.. s
Here are some notes on Psalm 150. You must have noted that the Psalms were originally poems and "poems tend to be poetic." Some of the instruments were not allowed in the temple court for animal sacrifices and the pipes or organ was considered obscene.
http://www.piney.com/MuEMailPs149-150.html
The sanctuary is a sacred place but not the temple. Since verse 1 is in parallel form, the sanctuary is "the firmament of his power." The LITERAL organ or uwgab was what Jubal played "without authority" in Genesis 4:1. Unlawfullly would be using instruments to INFLUENCE others with mind-alteration as in church with or without instruments. Since all of these "instruments" have BREATH scholars tend to believe that this POEM TENDS TO BE POETIC. You see, God doesn't really ride on the wings of the wind!
In Job 21 the "children" rejoice at the sound of the organ but they tell God to get lost. In Job 30:31 Job's harp and organ are used figuratively.
David always misplaced God and therefore HIS form of praise was from the Hebrew:
Halal (h1984) haw-lal'; a prim. root; to be clear (orig. of sound, but usually of color); to shine; hence to make a show, to boast; and thus to be (clamorously) foolish; to rave; causat. to celebrate; also to stultify: - (make) boast (self), celebrate, commend, (deal, make), fool (- ish, -ly), glory, give [light], be (make, feign self) mad (against), give in marriage, [sing, be worthy of] praise, rage, renowned, shine.
This LITERAL praise would be much like the LITERAL psallo where you can "psallo a fellow's head off with a sword."
The word LUCIFER is derived from this word. And it was Lucifer (female) who seduced the first parents with music.
Here is what the early scholars thought of Psalm 150 because they knew that literal instruments were always signs of paganism:
http://www.piney.com/MuAugPs150.html
Otherwise, I want you to sing and play that God will dash out the heads of little Babylonian babies. This ceases to be EVIL only if it has a figurative meaning.
We cannot SING Psalm 137 as LITURGY but if we use it as history we can TEACH the meaning of dashing out baby heads.
The DIRECT COMMAND of Paul is to SPEAK which means PREACH one to another. The resources are the Biblical inspired material and the SINGING AND MELODY are internal because "singing was a secular practice" and external melody means "TO GRIND YOU INTO BITS AND IS RELATED TO THE SOP JESUS GROUND FOR JUDAS," or the sound a twanging bowstring makes as it sends a "singing" arrow to kill you. The following article will explain why Paul DID NOT define external melody:
http://www.piney.com/Twanging.html
I get as much static from churches of Christ who don't grasp that A CAPPELLA means "in the form of the Popes castrated french singers to be used in the Sistine Chapel because it was unlawful to play REAL INSTRUMENTS in the presence of the Pope." That still held as late as 1913. Neither do churches of Christ understand that the DIRECT COMMAND is to teach the INSPIRED BIBLICAL TEXT and this is the way to be FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT.
As usual, turf battles are like the old shell and pea game. You know exactly which shell the pea is under but the fact is that the pea is under NEITHER. However, that keeps people DIVERTED from the truth that many early scholars understand Paul to NOT be defining singing in the Greek secular sense but TEACHING as the order of Scripture makes clear.
Church was SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE just like the synagogue and if you cannot find a rationale for the TEAM to perform while you preach then you shouldn't PERMIT it while Christ as our MASTER TEACHER is trying to TEACH. While Jesus was trying to PREACH, He identified the Jewish clergy (primarily) as "children piping trying to make Him sing and dance" the Dionysus, perverted singing and dancing. While He was healing the young girl, He cast out the Musical Worship Team "more or less violently."
So churches of Christ and the WORLDS MAJORITY OF WORSHIPERS do what they have done from eternity past: speak to one another with whatever we consider to be the informing documents of our faith. In practice, that is rarely the truth: rather we worship Fanny Crosby and Twila Paris by singing their sentimentality or even false doctrine.
On the other hand, instrumental and complex harmony has 0% of the Bible and history to support it. Satan as Lucifer (Sophia-Zoe) silenced God's word in the garden of Eden as represented by the king/queen of Babylon and Tyre. He will be seen as the end-time Babylonian harlot with musicians and instruments.
The word MUSIC is never used of spiritual worship in the entire Bible.
Give it a good study because we all have some learning to do. I fyou will give up the choirs and instruments, and churches of Christ will give up the identical equivalent using ORGANIC ORGANS (Organum) then we can BOTH give up the divisive MUSIC STYLES Paul alluded to in Romans 14 and meet as SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE and speak "that which is written" and "glorify God with one voice."
Take a look at the chart on a study of Arndt-Gingrich to see that SINGING was the message of Psalms and with the exception of psalm 33 the instrumental psalms all have a negative message.
http://www.piney.com/MuArndt.html
In total respect, Backtalk easily tolerated because I have ceased being a religionists and become a DISCIPLE.
Next Mail
Pastor: Before you go any father to read what is mentioned, I want to know, do you listen to music on the radio or tape, cd or television? If you do, just remember, that instruments are associated with that. If you watch television, in the background, songs are being played, ochestrated music is being played, to what? TO USHER YOU INTO IT"S PRESENCE, IT"S MOMENT, IT"S CLIMAX and ETC...
But I don't worship to the TV or radio. It is interesting that Carol Wimber who is the musical mother of the Vineyard (wineskins) movement says that step 4 of worship is to reach something like a sexual climax with God. That was the universal meaning of pagan worshiip where music was a primary inducer of ecstasy along with wine and hard drugs. Mother Carol's step 5 is fittingly just like the pagan temples in Corinth, "giving of substance."
I don't listen to much music because I can FEEL in every nerve ending--as medical science and musicologists will confirm-- that I am being given a shot of endorphins which CREATES the artificial impulses of "fight, flight or sexual feelings." Endorphins means "morphin within."
So music is giving a drug high and that explains why the drug culture was created and nurtured by music (any kind).
People USE it to USE YOU to sell you a CD or sell you double mint gum. Look at a multi-million dollar movie with the sound shut off: you will find that there is NOTHING THERE. However, by stringing together film clips the MUSICIANS make the movie into a PRODUCT. Therefore, the music always manufactures something which is NOT THERE.
Pastor: Oh by the way, the church is not a building, it's believers..!If you are a believer, you are part of the church.The sanctuary or temple is in us now. SO just remember wherever you are, that is where church is. SO IF YOU are listening to music on tv, cd, tape, television, if you are a christian, then God is there inside you then just like HE is at church assembly..
My point has ALWAYS been that "church" is SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE. Even the Lord's Supper is to "show forth" the death of Christ. Therefore, it is less than friendly to sing, hum or clap when I am searching for leaven in my own heart.
As school of the Bible, which is a Christian Synagoge, there was no rationale for music. Only if you can let the "team" PERFORM between YOU and the CONGREGATION, can you dare let them perform and STAND IN THE HOLY PLACE when Jesus as our ONE AND ONLY Teacher is speaking through reading His words or singing HIS songs.
I can listen to the old SQUARE psaltery with MIDI music because I am ENJOYING and not DISCIPLING.
Don't misunderstand me: the evil is not in music but the evil is just like it was in the garden of Eden when the NACHASH performed: the goal was to SILENCE THE WORDS OF GOD.
And you simply cannot refute this fact: when we "sing" Twila Paris we GIVE HEED to Twila Paris and therefore by the only NT meaning, we WORSHIP TWILA PARIS.
And while we are worshiping TWILA PARIS we are expressing the total Biblical meaning of singing with instruments: "We will not listen to God's Words."
Drama works because we know that it isn't true!
We sing "at the foot of the old rugged cross" because we know that blood is not going to drip on our Easter frock as we worship Ishtar.
Yes, I am aware of the music and as an engineer and having minimal intelligence I know that you cannot "give heed" to two things at once. The only WORSHIP word Paul used means TO GIVE HEED to the Word or to GIVE ATTENDANCE TO THE WORD. Science knows that you silence any ability to discriminate between truth and a lie by music. Therefore, I know that if I want to GIVE HEED to Christ by GIVING HEED to His word I MUST, MUST, MUST shut off the music. You cannot think about two things at the same time.
And WHAT WE DO has absolutely nothing to do with the revealed Biblical Text. And if you adopt music then I have the right to adopt its universal TONI TWIN in all pagan religions: sexuality. Music is a sexual experience (or it is fight or flight).
[Added later: Carol Wimber of the Vineyard (Wineskins etc) advises that music should lead you to a sexual-like climax with God just before the last act of worship: Giving of Substance.]
Click to see the Voodoo and Wimber Climax Connection from the NEW STYLE WORSHIP MUSIC.
Pastor: PLEASE CONTINUE NOW......------>>>
Followers of Jesus Christ (Christians) are divided over the issue of using an instrument to praise God in a worship service. Briefly looking at the situation, I would like to state the following;
Most churches were not divided about music until just before and just after the CASH FLOW of the civil war provided the impulse to also have a CIVIL WAR over who could buy the grandest organ and erect the longest steeple or Asherah pole.
When some churches of the Restoration Movement in the north added instruments and divided churches of Christ, there was no division based on the Bible. David Lipscomb found that no one had ever used the Bible or the "psallo" word to authorize instruments before AD 1878. Earlier, instruments were a produce of the got-rich-over-war northern churches dividing almost totally in the northern states. Instruments and choirs were confessedly added to attract a larger audience to pay for the CONTEST of building grander buildings.
Pastor: 1) I am convinced that the Greek words used in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 permit instrumental accompaniment. These words are as follows;
A) Psalm (Greek - PSALMOS) has a meaning of singing with instrumental accompaniment.
A "song" means a metrical poem which CAN be read, spoken, chanted, sung or sung with an instrument.
In the Bible the word is ALWAYS (as far as I know) never used alone to mean "sing and play." Rather, if the Hebrew wanted to INCLUDE an instrument the instrument is alwys named. For instance NAGAN from tHe NAGASH meaning of the king of Tyre as a type of the musical harlot in the garden of Eden:
And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. Isa 23:15
Here is the way a harlot sings and makes melody:
Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. Isa 23:16
And in Amos where they musically worshiped Molech or Remphan or Chiun:
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. Am.5:23
Psallo in Hebrew reads:
Zimrah (h2172) zim-raw'; from 2167; a musical piece or song
to be accompanied by an instrument: - melody, psalm.
However, you don't use ZIMRAH to include BOTH singing and playing. Therefore, as SONG can be performed with an instrument but NEVER requires it, zimrah can be a song performed with an instrument but is NEVER used to include BOTH.
Therefore, whatever the difference between Attic and Koine Greek, you NEVER told someone to PSALLO and expect them to sing AND play an instrument.
If you tell someone to SING they would not feel invited to play the piano.
Metrical songs always means that they can be accompanied by an instrument. But poems intended to be read are often sung with instruments. However, Psallo or Zimrah does not demand and instrument unless it is specified.
Therefore, it is consistent that when SINGING or a SONG is mentioned we understand that it is composed in meter SO THAT it can be accompanied or that it fits the 3 notes of some harps.
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord, Eph 5:19
The word for PSALMS is the Greek:
Psalmos (g5563) psal-mos'; from 5567; a set piece of music, i.e. a sacred ode
accompanied with
- the voice,
- harp or
- other instrument;
a "psalm"); collect. the book of the Psalms: - psalm. Comp. 5603.
Both with a Psalm or Song, the FIRST INSTRUMENT OF CHOICE is always the human voice. The Greek language was a musiclal language and one could read Greek and write: "This concludes my song."
There was nothing similar to our harmony at the time and therefore we cannot project the Greek to mean what modern music means. Here is what singing meant to Paul:
"in music, intoned liturgical recitation of scriptural texts, guided by signs originally devised as textual accents, punctuations, and indications of emphasis.. Although first intended to clarify the reading of the texts
"Various types of cymbals originally used in the Temple were prohibited after its restoration.
"Ritual music was at first only cantillation, i.e., recitative chanting, of the prose books of the Bible
"Later the prayers and biblical poetry were chanted, presumably in a modal system similar to the ragas of Hindu music or the maqamat of Arab music, i.e., melodies with improvisations.
The Britannica notes that:
"Ancient Greek was a pitched language, so melody had to be an outgrowth of the natural inflections of the spoken language.
"Greek vowels had long and short values that corresponded to long and short notes in the musical settings. Thus musical rhythms were derived from metric forms, and melodic movement was governed by the natural rise and fall of the text.
"Ancient Greece appears never to have had a developed instrumental art. Percussion, brass, wind, and string instruments were all played, but
"the two primary instruments were the aulos, a double-reed pipe that accompanied the chorus in the dithyramb, and the kithara, a hand-held lyre used to accompany solo songs.
Cantillation is also used in Islamic religious services in the recitation of the Qur'an and in the muezzin's call to prayer, or adhan.
Neither it nor the cantillation of the Qur'an are considered to be music, however, and music as such is forbidden in religious services.
In Acts 1:20 psalmos is the book of Psalms and in Rom. 15: sing is psallo.
"Psallo is best translated by chant, not sing. The Greeks sharply distinguish chanting (psalmodia) from singling (tragoudi). The first is a sacred activity; the second, a secular one. In English, unfortunately, the distinction is not sharp, and the word singing is frequently employed to refer to the sacred activity of chanting. A Greek would never, never say tragoudo (I sing), instead of psallo; the two terms have connotations and associations which are worlds apart -
- > the first is related to the earthly realm,
- > the second to the heavenly."
(Letter to James D. Bales of Harding University, September 22, 1959, from Constantine Cavarnos, of the Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 113 Gilbert Road, Belmont 78, Massachusetts.)
Psallo or "making melody" is defined by Paul as SPEAKING and the melody is "in the heart." Therefore, Paul defines the FIRST INSTRUMENT OF CHOICE for TEACHING as the human voice and human heart.
B) Hymn (Greek - HUMNOS) means singing a praise to God.
"Philo uses humnos regularly for the OT Psalms."
In the Septuaging (LXX) or Greek translation Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs were forms of the Book of Psalms. The "musical" passage in Romans 15 shows how people with diverse musical backgrounds (Dionysics and Orphics) could meet together as a school of the Bible. The commanded resource was "that which is written." In Ephesians it is the Spirit or Word of Christ (John 6:63) and in Colossians it is "the Word of Christ." Since the Spirit of Christ inspired the entire Bible, all of the "speaking" resource is the inspired text.
Pastor: C) Song (Greek - ODE) means a general word for a song, whether accompanied or unaccompanied, whether of praise or on any subject. Thus, here the adjective "spiritual" is added.
2) It is possible for the same song to be all three of the above, at the same time! Doesn't it make sense to exalt the God of creation and His Son and Savior of mankind by using whatever means He (God) permits us to have?
No, I believe that the Bible and all of church history rejects that. The DIRECT COMMAND is not to exhalt God but to TEACH. The same word as PREACH. Consistent with all NON-CLERGY or non-civil Israelites for their entire history, they SYNAGOGUED which meant that they read the WORD of God to TEACH that which was written by the Spirit of Christ.
The church meeting time and place is named after the Greek Ekklesia. This was a community meeting of mature males and was like our county courts. They heard evidence and made decisions but they did not INTRODUCE any new teachings or laws. If you brought your musical worship team into the EKKLESIA they would hoist you up and deliver you to the nearest pagan temple.
When people ASSEMBLED, a form of the word for SYNAGOGUE is used. Therefore, the people SYNAGOGUED and that made church SOLELY a school of the bible and a place of common prayer. Thomas Campbell correctly identified a non-devisive church as A SCHOOL OF CHRIST. Any time you add to that you automatically create a new sect as the musical group created a musical sect.
Christianity Today notes of a Methodist church in Birminghan which has, in their words, FIVE MUSICAL SECTS meeting in the same building.
The UNIVERSAL message of God is that music always says to Him: "we will not listen to your Word." The SERPENT was not a snake but a NACHASH: a musical enchanter.
The common meaning of worshiping God in the Old Testament boils down to 1) practicing personal right living and 2) the practice of social justice. The Spirit takes pains to repudiate SONGS WITH MUSIC and says BUT which insists on living right as the way to exhalt a righteous and just God who is never seen as a singer or musician.
But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. Is.5:16
God is just to HEAVY for us to "lift up." Therefore, in His grace He told us that He is ALREADY exalted and out token effort cannot lift Him with music:
The Lord is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. Is.33:5
When Israel rose up into musical play at Mount Sinai, God turned them over to worship the starry host (Acts 7). This is what Amos defines when He defines Remphan or Chiun or Molech worship with instruments:
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. Amos 5:23
But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Amos 5:24
Notice that their musical practices would be right IF they lived right. God says BUT this is the way to exhalt Me. God is pure or holy Spirit and there is no hint that you can appease or please a Spriit God with that which is the WORKS OF HUMAN HANDS or that which stimulates the nerve endings to create FIGHT, FLIGHT OR SEXUAL FEELINGS which is often sold as "spiritual." It is not, it is 100% a chemically-induced drug high. And God cannot be worshiped that way.
Pastor: 3) Those who oppose accompaniment in singing stand on the conviction that the above word (Psalm) did not have the accompaniment with it during the writing of the New Testament. However, to this subject, worldwide scholarship of those dealing with the etymology of words (study of words) disagree. These are people who write Dictionaries, Commentaries, Concordances, Encyclopedias, Lexicons, and serve as Professors in universities around the world. They all agree that "Psalm" meant using an instrumental accompaniment.
If we were absolute sure that the word INCLUDED musical instruments we would still be left with Paul defining the human voice and heart as the FIRST INSTRUMENT OF CHOICE. The Britannica uses about the same definition of a song but to say "sing" does not include making melody UNLESS we define the instrument: Paul defined the HARPS OF GOD given by which our spirit praises His Holy Spirit.
No, I don't agree with the last statement. We have discussed this with the Christian Church in Seattle which has infiltrated and confiscated my old church. They justifying of sowing discord and running off the old owners was based on Arndt and Gingrich which has been corrected and Lucian of Samosata claiming that he wrote 100 years after Paul. But we have shown that Lucian spoke Attic Greek wich was the language of the Aristocrats while the common people spoke the Koine language of the New Testament. The word HAD BEEN CHANGED in Koine probably because of its connection with pagan temples and the fact that it literally means TO GRIND YOU INTO BITS or TWANG YOU to death with a bow and arrow. Psallo or melody IS NOT a musical term.
Here is some research material:
http://www.piney.com/MailSerMuPsallo.html
http://www.piney.com/MusMelody.html
Psallo in the Septuagint:
http://www.piney.com/PsalloLXX.html
Pastor: 4) Now, without being cruel or nasty, the servants who say "one can not do anything in the form of worship, which is not authorized in the New Testament, "Do not practice what they preach".
A few examples might be asked - just where is there authorization in the New Testament, for;
I haven't met any church like that in my 72 years. We know that song books are not authorized but THEY DO NOT SOW DISCORD (anymore).
Church buildings are not part of WORSHIP. Paul said that the Lord's Supper TEACHES or PREACHES the Death of Christ. Drinking the CUP (have to grind it up first) really has more AUTHORITY than instrumental music. So, while we believe that Jesus said drink the CONTENTS, why should I SOW DISCORD by infiltrating a ONE CUP congregation and DIVERT them to my belief? That is what instrumental churches are doing AS I WRITE to non-instrumental churches. I know of NO non-instrumental preacher who has INFILTRATED AND DIVERTED by stacking a membership until they can STEAL the church house of instrumental widows.
1) Song Books
I reject them as identical to PRAYER BOOKS and repudiate them because there was NEVER any Biblical imperative for them but were forced on churches PURELY AS A COMMERCIAL EFFORT OF PUBLISHERS such as Alexander Campbell. In time, the BLUE book is inspired but the GOLD BOOK is unlawful.
"The large displacement of the Psalter by other matter of praise in the Protestant Churches during the last one hundred years has been due, not so much to the lack of appreciation of the Psalms, as to the commercial enterprise of music publishers." (Int Std Bible Ency., Psalms, p. 2494B).
So, it is silly to claim to "speak where the Bible speaks" when, as one writer noted, we "don't sing where the Bible sings."
The churches out of which the RM arose used the PSALTER such as the Scotch or Watts where psalms were put into english meter to making SINGING possible without destroying the COMMANDED TEACHING.
Song books are a high handed confession that: "We will not listen to Your word" so we do not care to be "filled with the spirit" as a result.
The MUSICAL harmony which is not melody is about as divisive and about the same age of the sectarianizing of the church with instruments.
2) Charts
Now, if we give attention to reading of the word, to exhorting (to that which is read) and to doctrine (taught in the reading) then we will imitate Paul's direct command to Timothy and we won't need any charts. Don't charts REWRITE or proof-text the Scriptures to speak where the preacher speaks.
If charts cause someone to be offended "I will never use charts as long as the sun rises over Tennessee."
However, you can use charts to TEACH by showing where Babylon as the originator of musical worship is located. Didn't Jesus draw in the sand? We do not DO SOMETHING NEW or DESTROY the teaching by the use of charts.
Now, you are just DIVERTING. Ditto for the following
3) English Translations
4) Projectors
5) P.A. Systems
6) Pitch PipesSince there is NO MUSIC WORD used in the entire Bible connected to Spiritual worship then why cannot we dispense with the pitchpipe?
7) Tuning Forks
Throw the pitchers and their forks out and we will no longer sow discord or SHOW PARTIALITY which James says is a terminal sin.
If we recite or chant which is what they did wit PSALMING then we won't need a TUNE to replace the normal reflections of the Greek language.
8) Houses of Worship
God gave me credit for having enough sense to get in out of the rain. However, his APPROVED EXAMPLES throughout the Bible is that HE does not live in such houses and while He might meet with "two or three" I ahve serious doubts about two or three thousands. Didn't God tear down grand buildings about as fast as they were built?
c church did its best work before it owned any buildings. If you want a THEATER as proven by almost all buildings then it is for the 'idolatry of talent' and not for Jesus whom Paul said would be 'outside the camp."
9) Individual Communion Cups
10) Individual Communion Wafers
If they sow discord then toss them out. Anyway, we changed from being ONE CUPPERS when TB broke out and then claimed that those who didn't change are ANTIs. They cannot be ANTIS if they just keep on doing what they always did, just as non-instrumentalists cannot be honestly accused of sectariansim because they did what faithful people always did for 1850 years.
11) Week Long:
A) Revivals
Scuze me but that is garbage thinking. My ex preacher brought in a person trained by Zig Zigglar who had the power to 'REVIVE THE CHURCH." Blasphemy!
B) Seminars
Oh, God, please shut them down. Therein is CREATED the seed which people return and use to SOW ALL DISCORD with.
C) Vacation Bible Schools
The Jews were taught to teach their children in every time and place. If they cut out paper dolls then doubt that they will be SCHOOLED. Remember that at age 12 Jesus (as with many Jewish boys) could dialog and challenge the Rabbi. Josephus was called in to help the Rabbi at age 14. What do our kids know: Bishop Paulk said that "God shut Noah into the Ark of the Covenant." God comanded that we teach so we can teach anywhere and anytime.
God did not command instruments but rather condemned them vocally. Therefore, there is no way to follow the TEACH OR PREACH command by using instruments.
D) Church Camps
If the sow discord then cut them out. My kids received their peer conversion at Camp and had to be re-baptized when they made a cool, collected decision.
12) Preacher Training Schools
Get ready, this is gonna hurt. Since there is no OFFICE of preacher in the Bible then why should we have preacher training schools to indoctrinate whatever hobby began the school?
Public preaching was one of the apostacies which gained steam about AD 364 when for the first time (325) preachers received a salary from the state and the pagans trained in the Greek Theater streamed in. This happened centuries before INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC was added and by the confession of the Catholic Encyclopedia (On Candles) from the common practice of ALL PAGAN CULTS. They made no attempt to justify it and in the 1913 version (found on my home page) confessed that congregational singing was the Biblical pattern and was the goal of the Catholic church.
Most "christian schools" have totally apostasized into Post Modernism and in the end have done more harm than good.
13) Christian Colleges
I believe that this has become an oxymoron among churches of Christ. Like the Antis say, all extra Biblical instutions are doomed to more harm than good as they self-destruct.
14) Radio and TV Broadcasts
The school of the Tyrant was the TV broadcast of the ancient world. Jesus went into the temple courts and synagogues "because that is where the people weren."
15) Special Rallies
Quiet identical to the ancient religious festivals such as that of Amos 5 condemned for its music and Isaiah 5 condemned for its music.
16) Web Pages on the Internet
If you are a democrat then I assure you that Al Gore did not invent the internet. The gospel must be preached FOR A WITNESS and it is a lead pipe certainty that LOCATED EVANGELISTS (a church of Christ in Fort Worth has a "missionary in residence.") have had all of the money sucked up by mega churches which are built as "theaters for holy entertainment" and will fall just like the temples of old and the cathedras which become night clubs or museums.
Therefore, God dragged me out of retirement and said that THIS IS THE ONLY WAY that the prophecy can be fulfilled. While the church does its little unbiblical rituals (taking up a collection, preaching, leading others in prayer, singing Fanny Crosby and using 4 different groups singing 4 different sets of words with 4 different tunes at 4 different times) God has let me GO INTO EVERY COUNTRY WHERE THE SUN SHINES. And I spend lots of time warning them about churches of Christ turning musical and sending out CLOWN missionaries playing gargoylss (demons) to evangelize! Gag,
The web page DOES NOT SOW DISCORD except among my brethren and "sistern."
Pastor: 5) The above list could go on and on. No doubt, an open minded person could agree that once one starts down the road of "One must have a book, chapter, and verse for everything done in the Name of Christ" - there is no stopping.
It could go on and on and on and on but THESE will not alter the MUSICAL sowing of discord by one jot or tittle.
If you could prove that churches of Christ DO NOT do a single thing consistent with the Bible, that would not change a single word of the Bible "as it has been taught."
But Pastor, you have come to believe your own propoganda about THE LAW OF SILENCE. This was invented by the instrumentalists knowing that they were SOWING DISCORD this way: "The Bible does not say, 'Thou shalt not play the organ.' Therefore, the law of silence lets us add instruments and even gives us authority to SOW DISCORD AMONG BRETHEREN because the Bible doeth not say: "thou shalt noe SOW DISCORD unless you do it with machines."
> Non-instrumentalist DO NOT DO something in the aggressive sense for which it has no authority.
> By not using instruments churches of Christ do not ADD something not included in the Bible.
> Nor do churches of Christ do something NEW and AGAINST the truth held en toto for 2,000 years.
> By teaching the Word through singing churches of Christ have several DIRECT COMMANDS, the practice of the pre-Christian Synagogues, the post Christian synagogues, the church fathers and all of the church for hundereds of years.
> Not using instruments has never SOWED DISCORD; adding instruments ALWAYS SOWED DISCORD.
> A SECTARIAN improvizes something NEW which is contrary to the long-held practice and thereby creates A NEW SECTARIAN DIVISION.
> Escaping from something which OFFENDS is not being SECTARIAN.
All of your EXAMPLES are the use of THE LAW OF SILENCE. However, the BIBLE and church history is ABSOLUTELY NOT silent about the use of instruments. Too long the claim to being a New Testament church has shown utter contempt for the Old Testament which is CHAPTER ONE and is necessary for understanding CHAPTER TWO.
For instance, it was prophesied that Judas would try to TRIUMPH OVER Jesus which means WITH MUSIC.
If God loves music why would he warn that Judas and clergy would try to TRIUMPH OVER Jesus? Triumph over or alarm means "play wind instruments and 'make a joyful noise before the Lord.'" This was the universal "like the nation's" WARRIOR chant. God said don't try to panic people's mind with music when they assemble (Numbers 10:7)
Jesus repudiated the Jews as children playing the musical fertility games of "wedding and funeral" by piping trying to induce singing and dancing.
If God loves music why would He implicate music with ALWAYS trying to silence His Word?
The clergy MOCKED Jesus with the music which was "under the king and commanders of the Army" in fulfillment of Psalm 41.
If Jesus loved music then why didn't He tell them to wait until the CHURCH WAS FOUNDED and then they could sing and pipe IN CHURCH?
After all, they had a highly trained team ready to go.
Jesus tossed out "more or less violently" the musical worship team which performed at weddings, deaths and funerals to appease the "gods" or the spirit of the dead girl and to PERFORM the ritual of mourning. Jeremiah notes that these musical worship teams were used for the effect of "bringing on tears" even as modern teams are used for bringing on both tears and joy in the same breath.
We have the example: Jesus cast them out more or less violently.
Why wouldn't Jesus just tell them: "This is not the right time for a musical worship team" with instruments. Please wait outside.
The BEGINNING TIME worship was the Babylonian "musical enchanter." The end time Babylonian harlot worship uses the only MUSIC word in the New Testament to say that the musicians and harps will go back into Sheol with HER.
Why would the Spirit Christ implicate musicians and music with the end-time Babylon Harlot worship if God loves instrumental music?
Pastor: 6) Isn't it much more reasonable to agree that Jesus gave the Church the Great Commission (Taking the Gospel to all mankind), but left the means up to the individual and congregations. He did not say to use the printing press, but printed materials have won millions to the Lord. He did not say to use the airways, but is it sinful?
Sure, the command is to GO. Paul walked, probably did donkey rides, rode on boats and if he had a Four Wheeler he could still do the GO. However, the GO denies that you can STAY and preach the gospel.
Jesus didn't locate evangelists. Rather the ONLY commission is to GO and to PREACH;
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15
Kerusso (g2784) kay-roos'-so; of uncert. affin.; to herald (as a public crier), espec. divine truth (the gospel): - preach (-er), proclaim, publish.
A herald is sent by the KING to the deployed troups or other people. The king writes the message and the HERALD does not open it or add his own words. It is postage paid and he never tries to collect on the receiving end. He wold be run through with a sword if he went into the distant court and brought along a musical band and a praise team to PRESENT THE message from one ruler to another.
You cannot locate in North Church and be a Paul Revere. You must go and deliver the message: no time for a musical performance team at Concord!
If you use the printing press to print cut N paste messages then Christ does not authorize the printing press. He told the elders that they must "teach the Word as it has been taught." And isn't it somewhat presumptious to claim that YOU cannot understand the Word unless I become MEDIATOR as musical worship teams claim to be "mediators between man and God"? They all believe it even if they don't say it.
But HE SAID dozens of times by example: Don't pervert my word or change its meaning or disregard it by the use of MUSIC.
Paul said PREACH OR TEACH the "revealed Words of Christ" with the singing and melody the RESULT and in the heart. You cannot teach with a musical band. No.
That is a direct command so we don't get sidetracked by all of the examples.
Pastor: 7) He did not say to erect Houses of Worship for millions of dollars and use them for a congregational gathering a few hours a week for formal services, but our culture calls for a nice meeting place. Thus, is it a sin to have a church building?
He said that He didn't dwell in temples made with human hands. And I would say that a THEATER for performance in preaching or music is a mortal sin. It is ineffective and divisive and silences the church as SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE because when you go to STUDY directly from a MUSICAL PERFORMANCE you have had your brain dissociated and disabled.
Pastor: 8) Even if God had not given us authority via "Psalm" to use accompaniment in our singing praises to Him, would it be sin? A person has to really have a "closed mind" to arrive at this conclusion.
The DIRECT COMMAND is not to PSALM but to
PREACH OR: LALEO (g2980) lal-eh'-o; a prol. form of an otherwise obsol. verb; to talk, i.e. utter words: - preach, say, speak (after), talk, tell, utter. Comp. 3004.
The SINGING is ADO which never includes instruments.
Therefore, you are caught in a logical trap if PSALMING and ADO are both EXTERNAL. Isn't that understandable, as early scholars grasped it, that BOTH singing and melody are IN THE HEART?
Paul did not say "sing" and "sing with instruments" in the same breath.
TEACH was the FIRST ACT TO BE PRFORMED. Laleo is what you probably do when you PREACH. Preach or say is one thing, sing is quite another just as LECTURE is one thing and PERFORM MUSICALLY is radically different.
It is a physical impossibility to LECTURE and SING at the same time or words have no meaning:
EXTERNAL: Therefore, Paul said LECTURE one another with the Biblical text.
INTERNAL: Then SING and MAKE MELODY IN YOUR HEART.
Jesus said that God only accepts worship IN SPIRIT and that means in the MIND or HEART. In addition it must be IN TRUTH and that is repudiated if we sing Twila Paris and therefore "worship" Twila Paris.
RESULT: AND DIRECT THAT INTERNAL ACT TO GOD.
However, you can PREACH, TEACH OR LECTURE externally and if you SPEAK the inspired Word of God then you will find yourself SINGING in yoour heart. And you cannot sing EXTERNALLY and IN YOUR HEART at the same time.
Pastor: 9) To deny a person, who has talent to play an instrument, from using it to Praise God during a Worship Service is going beyond the Scriptures, to say the least!
The only traditions about the invention of mix-sex choirs and instrumental music was to divert people away from God.
"We see, therefore, that the arts also are consecrated to the services of the beings who dwell in the names of their founders; taints of idolatry whose inventors have got a place among the gods for their discoveries. Nay, as regards the arts, we ought to have gone further back,
and barred all further argument by the position that the demons, predetermining in their own interests from the first, among other evils of idolatry, the pollutions of the public shows,
with the object of drawing man away from his Lord and binding him to their own service, carried out their purpose by bestowing on him the artistic gifts which the shows require'." (Tertullian, de Spectaculis, Ante-Nicene, III, p. 84).
Are musicians "agents of demons"? No, I didn't say that. However, if you want to USE TALENT the ONLY traditions which you have always carry the notion that music steals the glory from God. The "service" of the musical Levites was "abadoh" or "hard bondage." The word is very similar to the Abaddon or Apollyon or Apollo who formed an early SEEKER SYSTEM to attract money.
Why would you want to use human talent which has nothing spiritual to recommend it either in the Bible or or in tradition. See the Devil connection.
"Slightly less familiar are the Devil's musical exploits. He not only loves singing but is master of the violin, of which instrument of evil he is reputedly the inventor. By the same token he can give mastery of the violin, bartering infernal skill for the pupil's soul.
These legends are related to the larger belief in the supernatural origin of musical skill and individual songs." (Botkin, B. A., A Treasury of American Folklore, Crown Publishers, p. 718; Cf. The Devil and the Fiddle, Herbert Halpert, Hoosier Folklore Bulletin, Vol II (Dec., 1943).
Have you noticed how drug addicted the young musicians are? And have you notices that the more fame they acquire the earlier they die (generally speaking)?
Someone has called that "The Idolatry of Talent." Remember, "Nothing to the Cross I bring"? Well, you cannot.
God is not worshiped with the work of human hands. There is nothing more WORKS-INTENSIVE that a trained musician exhibiting 10 years of HARD WORK.
Since the key "worship" word is to GIVE HEED to Christ by GIVING HEED to His Words (song and sermon) there is no remote hint that TALENTED performance is WORSHIP. I claim authority to say that you CANNOT give heed to the human talent and the Word of Christ at the same time.
Of the rites of Dionysus condemned by Paul in First Corinthians using the "weapons" of warfare or even the metallic chisel to help with the clangs and booms to bring down the gods:
"And he mentions immediately afterwards the attendants of Dionysus:
one, holding in his hands the bombyces, toilsome work of the turner's chisel,
fills full the fingered melody, the call that brings on frenzy,
[Melody means to frenzy or panic or grind into a fine powder. So, don't DO it externally says Paul]
while another causes to resound the bronze-bound cotylae.
"and again, stringed instruments raise their shrill cry, and frightful mimickers from some place unseen bellow like bulls, and the semblance of drums, as of subterranean thunder, rolls along, a terrifying sound.
Yes, even the best MUSIC terrifies or "creates spiritual anxiety through religious rituals" BEFORE your body pumps the drug endorphins (morphine within) to cure your pain and give you a DRUG HIGH.
Augustine, said that when you add MELODY then you add WORKS. Psallo means to grind you into bits: you psallo off a man's head with a sword. You psallo bread to make it into SOP to feed Judas.
Jesus didn't go to Rabbinic U or Jerusalem School of Music: he found Fishermen and common people because HUMAN TALENT takes glory away from the gospel which NEEDS NO PROPPER'S UP.
Pastor: 10) The bottom line of this article is this - Are we serving God with the various talents he gives us? If not, while the Lord grants us life may we be about our Father's business. That is of course;
A) Striving to be a Seed Sower, and keeping busy watering.
B) Building up the Brethren on a regular basis.
I have looked at all of the natural and supernatural gifts given by the Spirit of Christ and I cannot locate "Talented Musician" anywhere. Didn't Paul speak of gifts in 1 Cor 12 and then go directly to 1 Cor 13:1 and equate speaking in tongues to the clangs and gongs of LIFELESS INSTRUMENTS by which he points directly to the musical weapons of warfare and the musical instruments of musical soothsayers or witches?
The FAMILIAR SPIRIT of th Witch of Endor was a dried, empty wineskin which was a musical echo chamber. The NEBEL (identified with polluted) has the same meaning. And so does the Hi-Tek Greek brass vase used as an echo chamber to amplify the panic instruments of warfare or idolatry.
The Word is the only SEED of the kingdom. You CANNOT plant the gospel to the beat of musical instruments and the new style worship music clearly identified by musicologists as both effeminate and derived in part from VOODOO. Paul never tried to preach when music was playing.
If he equates SINGING THEIR OWN SONGS OUT OF THEIR OWN SPIRIT to SPEAKING IN TONGUES, and He said that he would not speak in tongues (native unfamiliar dialects) IN CHURCH, would he then SING IN CHURCH? Well, we don't have any APPROVED EXAMPLE or even NECESSARY INFERENCE that he did.
Pastor: When one obeys the Lord in becoming a Christian, Christ adds him/her to His Church (His "Called Out Followers"). See Acts 2:47; I Corinthians 1:9. Therefore, one needs to identify with a local congregation of Bible studying and dedicated believers. One needs to do this so that a person may be nourished spiritually and can share in opportunities to use various God-given talents to serve the Lord. The local church is to be a "Lighthouse" in the community. It is in need of one's abilities and support as much as a person is in need of the church. May each of us be understanding that it is only by God's grace that anyone can be forgiven of sins and have the opportunity for heaven.
Building up the body is call EDIFICATION which is EDUCATION. You cannot build up a PANDA without feeding it lots of bamboo. The food of the Panda builds up the panda. If you feed it dog food it will probably die.
The only FOOD of the Christian is the Word of God. Paul denied the human talent except to be filled with the Spirit Word when he said: "Teach the Word as it HAS BEEN taught." Any human talent turns the VESSEL OF CLAY into a MING VASE (vaaazzeee) and we CANNOT HELP BUT worship the vessel rather than the contents.
Paul "knew only Christ and Him Crucified" and could only feed the Corinthians "milk of the word" because, for one thing, they sang their own songs from THEIR OWN SPIRIT and Paul rejected that. If they had been perfected then the MEAT would be ONLY THE WORD OF GOD. Cyrus was told that if he took captives and made them into HUCKSTERS and MUSICIANS he could build them up to becoming FEMALES and therefore no threat to Cyrus.
The Classics and church Fathers VERY OFTEN warn that music will make you weak and effeminate. Peter laid down an absolute LAW showing that there are two arenas for the collective assembly and the work of ministry:
> If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God;
> if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth:that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 1Pe.4:11
To make it possible for the Dionysic instrumentalists and the Orphic instrumentalists to meet without DISCORD Paul commanded the Christian Synagogue with NO INSTRUMENTS:
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Rom 15:4
Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: Rom 15: 5
That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom 15: 6
Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us, to the glory of God. Rom 15: 7
Unison singing creates harmony, harmonic singing plans to DIVIDE THE CHURCH into FOUR GROUPS sorta competing one with another so that you have NO OPTION but to GIVE HEED to MY PART.
Paul showed how we can RECEIVE ONE ANOTHER but if one group insists on the IDOLATRY OF TALENT, the singing our own "scripture" and playing instruments or DIVIDING UP beteen the TEAM and the AUDIENCE then we VIOLATE many, many direct commands and plan to SOW DISCORD AMONG BRETHREN. Romans 15 solves the DIVERSITY in Romans 14: leave the secular practices outside of THE SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE.
We can all SPEAK THE SAME THINGS simply by speaking or singing "that which is written."
However, the SPEAKING or SINGING is totally limited to "that which is written." This is the ONLY way to be FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT by speaking the Biblical metrical material and singing in the heart.
There is NO PLACE FOR HUMAN TALENT in the speaking or singing roles.
The work of MINISTRY as slaves and not as matinee idols is to spend the remaining 167 hours doing what we have the TALENT to do.
Paul defined the only preaching or "singing" resource as "that which is written" as "the Spirit" or as the "Word of Christ." One can prophesy in Corinth ONLY by speaking the Word of God so that he can say "thus saith the Lord."
No one has authority to SPEAK that which has not been written.
However, if one has musical talent there are lots of ways to MINISTER or serve rather than be DOMINANT when we are supposed to be speaking the Word of Christ. Do you know how many old people in rest homes could be MINISTERED TO with a daily singing session? If you COWBOY DAN then you can sing Gene Autry songs to the homeless.
But again, if you SPEAK you have no talent which can be used to PROP UP THE GOD as ancient musicians always believed that they could do.
Pastor: Each of us needs to consider being an member of the Lord's church and being open to God's leading us to be responsible servants.
The aim of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH and CHURCH OF CHRIST, is to restore the Bible's teachings. Everyone realizes that concerning the non-essentials there will be differences of opinion. If we did not have human differences, we would all like the same kind of food, entertainment, cars, houses, etc. We should, in the church however, attempt to return to the BIBLE for all instructions, and to do all things in love. WE are Christians only, but not the only Christians. Where the Bible speaks, we speak and where the Bible is silent, we strive to be silent and allow liberty.
If the Bible does not SPEAK ELOQUENTLY against instrumental music throughout the Old Testament then I suggest that the Bible does not speak with ANY authority at all. I believe that being a NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH has caused us to despise anything revealed by the WORD OF CHRIST'S SPIRIT beginning in Genesis 1:1. Haven't we been accused of SUBVERTING THE YOUNG MEN by explaining Romans and Hebrews by the Old Testament Prophets?
That is why we DO NOT know how fatal music has proven to be to the Jewish nation. Because music is evil? No. Because music is a way to SILENCE the Word of God.
The one clear DIRECT COMMAND which was practiced for centuries was to speak to one another to teach from the revealed Word of God. The "song books" are our declaration of independance form God and from Christ and we say--and it cannot be disputed--our words are more important than Your words. The way to create a Romans 15 unity between people with DIVERSE opinions in Romans 14 is to "teach that which is written" and this is the only way to "glorify God with one voice." That would immediately restore the fellowship broken by insisting on that which Romans 14 outlaws.
Paul was not silent in defining the ONLY such role in the assembly (synagogue) as TEACHING THE INSPIRED WORD. Early scholarsl clearly understood both the singing and melody to be IN THE HEART because singing in the Greek world was a purely SECULAR activity and MELODY (which is nor related to our harmony) speaks of grinding the enemy into panic. Jesus "psalloed" the SOP and hand fed it to Judas. Because the Judas Bag was "for carrying the mouthpieces of wind instruments" and because Psalm 41 prophesied that Judas would try to TRIUMPH OVER Messiah with music, Judas was "ground into bits" and he went out and hanged himself.
The Classical writers were not silent in uniformally associating music and especially both singing and playing at the same time as the weapon of the pagan prostitute religion.
The church Fathers uniformally agree and denounce music as anyway related to the Church. Their practices were to "sing the Psalms" but this was chanting or reciting them.
The church held a counsel in AD 364 to denounce using HUMAN TALENT in composing songs as a part of the Christian church.
The founders of denominations such as Luther, Zwingli and Calvin denounced self-composed songs and instruments. Zwingli reading Pauls direct command DENIED that he was speaking of EXTERNAL singing. Luther composed great hymns and they gradually took over the Lutheran church.
When self composed songs were introduced it SOWED DISCORD.
When MELODY was translated HARMONY it sowed discord.
When Instruments were added with no claim for authority DISCORD WAS SOWED.If God really COMMANDED HARMONY AND INSTRUMENTS why do you suppose that this has been the SOWING DISCORD doctrine in every denomination?
Pastor: Beliefs are sometimes founded on comments heard from childhood, with no foundation in the Word of God (The Bible). We may disagree on matters such as, "What heaven is exactly like" or "What happens immediately after death". It's good to discuss such things, but it is easy to see why we would disagree on things where the Bible does not go into detail. However, on matters concerning the teachings of Jesus Christ and salvation, there can be little disagreement Thus, in essentials, we should strive for unity; & in non-essentials, liberty and, in all things, love. The Savior of mankind prayed that all believers be united in Him (John 17:20-21). May everyone of us who claim Jesus as Savior make a real effort to do so.
That is a fact but INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC is not based on our childhood. I know that churches of Christ preachers love to say that those who refused to submit to the forced introduction of choirs and instruments actually SOWED DISCORD and became the non-instrumental SECTARIANS.
Abraham Lincoln:
"Highwayman jumps from the woods and yells, 'stand and deliver' or I will shoot you and that will make you a murderer."
But this is the GUILT CLAUSE which allowed Adam to blame Eve, and Cock Robin was to blame for permitting itself to be shot.
I have collected most of the world's literature on INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC as worship. The Bible 100% of the time associates it with prostitution or warfare or telling God to "get lost." I have posted a chonological list of some of my research here.
It leaves me SHIVERING COLD that people can deny that God condemned music as a way to SHUT HIS MOUTH and at the same time those who understand that and HAVE NEVER used instruments to try to worship a SPIRIT God, MUST affirm instrumental churches or they are labeled:
"fratricidal (murderers of brothers), traditionalist, legalists, unChristian posture, schismatic, Satanic, sectarian, idolatrous, irrelevant, just pushing junk." The same people who don't have the time or inclination to "fellowship" musical churches are said to preach an "ology" of church which is decadent and deliterious. To those without doctorates, that is rotten and destructive. Others have now been assaulted by being called pharisaical and racist for rejecting instrumental music in worship.
Savior make a real effort to do so.
FROM A PASTOR
The fact is that Jesus tore down one of the grandest musical worship centers ever built. Why do you suppose that He didn't just make the priests into preachers and the musical Levites into musical worship teams and begin with a grand bang?
It was because His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom and you cannot force your way into the Throne Room with musical instruments without getting really damaged by God. Josephus warns the musicians that they had been responsible for destroying the nation once (as claimed in the Idealized Temble beginning with Ezekiel 40) and that they were on their way to destroying the nation once again.
If I am wrong I get some consolation out of the fact that historically scholars have understood the MUSIC AS WORSHIP issue as I have explained it. One modern "liberal" scholar says that "there is no other tradition but that instruments came for demi-gods" or the Cainite family of Lamech's offspring whose names relate to musical and warrior soothsaying or enchanting people to cheat them out of their property. Look again at where we HAVE LIBERTY and DO NOT have liberty:
> If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God;
> if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth:that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 1Pe.4:11
What do you think? Are the modern, erotic praise songs truly "the oracles of God"?
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Ep.5:19
As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and
my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed,
nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever. Isaiah 59:21
Ken