Romans 14

Ronnie Norman proposes to destroy the peace so that he can impose the immoral practices of the Roman sects Paul excludes from the discussion in the asssemblies.  Edification in the church is only through speaking and excludes music.

How edification is to take place in the ekklesia or church:

Aedificatio, III. Figurative, building up, instructing, edification. Absolute: loquitur ad Aedificationem Ecclesiae, Vulg. 1 Cor. 14, 12 ; ib. Eph. 4, 12.

The phrase loquitur ad Aedificationem Ecclesiae defines THE meaning of the ekklesia or church and the same METHOD excludes music of any kind--more later.

Loquor to talk, whisper; to speak, talk, say in the language of common life, in the tone of conversation;  instruction. The assured edification of his church. --Bp. Hall.

The PLACE where this quiet, calm non-pleasuring "teaching of one another" is the:

Ecclesia ekklêsia, an assembly of the people.

As common sense would indicate, all of the SPEAK words are EXCLUSIVE in saying "the opposite of poetry or music.

Those who were weak in the faith in Rome should not be rejected from attending the ekklesia or church in Rome based on their DIET and keeping other DAYS.  The sole purpose of the church was to instill strong faith by rejecting their old worship rituals and speaking that which is written just as the elders are commanded to teach that which had been taught.  Peter defined that miracle--attested Word of God as the PATTERN to be followed so that it would MARK as false teachers those who "spoke on their own" Jesus defined as the sons of the Devil. 

The worship rituals of all three sects were NOT to be included: doubtful disputations excluded any role in the assembly for the ideas derived from the minds of man and excluded from dialog or speaking those who were so identified as self seeking.

They were not impure simply because they ate different foods and observed different days. We would not hesitate to preach to a Seventh Day Adventest because they are vegetarians and observe the seventh day. They were not  to be excluded because their knowledge of THE FAITH was not strong: ALL were to be accepted as students of the Word (only).  However, Paul silenced them from dialog or preaching because they were included in the group specificially to receive the Word of God and never the word of a human.

I HAVE BEEN ASKED TO REVIEW RONNIE NORMAN'S USE OF ROMANS 14 TO JUSTIFY IMPOSING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ON A NONE-INSTRUMENTAL CHURCH OF CHRIST.  This is a quick review. This is one of abouth half a dozen of the churches of those who set out to restructure all of the churches of Christ: they got only their own out of over 13,000 congregations.  Too bad, too sad.

You may click to see the time line to imposing instruments and the Shepherding Movement on First Colony Church of Christ.

AT ANOTHER LEVEL 

People identified by diet in the marketplaces might ALSO engage in the religious worship of the Sect of Orphic or Pythagoreans who were vegetarians, or the Dionysus worshipers who ate any kind of meat and drank wine. 

If they were participants in the WORSHIP of these sects they were not permitted to attend the assembly for the purpose of disputing or DISCUSSING their doubtful religion. The church would certainly not provide a PLACE for them to carry out their musical and therefore perveted worship.

Because their PREFERENCE was singing and playing instruments to disconnect themselves from the rational or spiritual world, no literate preacher or elder would allow any musical SECTARIAN to take over the assembly.

Does Ronnie Norman and the SHEPHERDING ELDERS invite those Paul excluded?

The phythagorans: They had a large number of superstitious abstinences and dos and don'ts. They abstained from beans, did not break bread, did not eat from a whole loaf, and did not eat the heart (of their sacrifices). Example superstitions, such as not touching a white cock, not stepping over a crossbar, not stirring a fire with an iron, not plucking a garland etc. are too tedious to list here but can be seen in Burnet (ibid., p. 96).

There is no doubt this concept was entirely religious and selective. They also viewed music and astronomy as sister sciences. They used music to purge the soul and medicine to purge the body. Such methods of purifying the soul were familiar in the Orgia of the Korybantes and thus explains the Pythagorean interest in Harmonics (Burnet, pp. 97-98).

Of the Dionysius meat eaters and wine drinkers.

Instruments, especially flutes and drums, were used to induce ecstasy, or frenzy, in the worshippers of certain deities. The devotees of Thracian Dionysus (Bacchus) engaged in orgies at night. Members of the society were seized with a divine madness as they danced to the music and would seize an animal who was believed to be the incarnation of the god, tear the body limb from limb, and eat it on the spot. By this sacred communion they hoped to attain union with their god and themselves become Baccoi. There was a wave of Bacchic enthusiasm that swept Italy in 185 B.C. and created such a scandal that it was sternly repressed by the Roman senate." (Green, William M., The Church Fathers and Musical Instruments" unpublished paper, p. 32).

"Dionysus certainly roves more than the other gods; the traditional picture of him is not one of him sitting sedately on Olympus sipping nectar and listening to the Muses (9 females) sing.

Rather it is one of him roaming through the wilderness,thrysus (a shaken reed bound with ivy and topped with a pine cone [Phallus]) in hand,

followed by bands of ecstatic women, his Bacchants, and spreading the art of cultivation of vines and of wine-making. Other gods may leave Olympus, but it is not habitual with them as it is with dionysus.

"...this sect crowned the image of Jesus along with those of Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle. Further, there were impostors of all varieties: magicians, soothsayers, jugglers, deceivers and hypocrites, 'who appeared using mighty words with a host of unintelligible formulae and taking up with scandalous ceremonies in order to rob men of their money." (Int. Std. Bible Ency., Gnosticism, p. 1246).

"Aristotle tells us that it is the task of the initiate to suffer and to let himself be brought to a certain frame of mind.

He is not to seek to acquire knowledge and increased understanding.
The significance of ecstasy in the mysteries strikingly characterized by this statement.

The precise aim of orgies in the mysteries was to induce such a heightening of consciousness in a man that he would be receptive to the god who came to be united with him.

Such a person was then an enthusiast. Music was the most important element used to induce this condition. .. Aristotle explains that among the modes the Phrygian has the same power as the flute among instruments, for both are orgiastic and both heighten consciousness. This peculiar capability, which brought on religious ecstasy.. For that reason everything written in the Phrygian mode was. (Quasten, p 36-37)

"But perhaps nothing was more characteristic of the mystery religions than what they called ecstasy. Believers in the mystery religions sought to cultivate a magical, sensuous communion with the divine. They would do almost anything to get themselves into a semiconscious, hallucinatory, hypnotic, or orgiastic spell in which they believed they were sensually in contact with deity.

Some used wine to assist in the euphoric experience, as Paul implied in Ephesians 5:18. Whether from literal intoxication or emotional exhilaration, when worshipers fell into a state of euphoria, it was as if they had been drugged. They assumed they were in contact with God. (MacArthur, John, Charismatic Chaos, p. 164. Zondervan)

WELL IT CERTAINLY SEEMS THAT THERE IS A WELL-LAID PLAN TO DO JUST THAT?

In Romans 15 Paul will outlawed SELF-pleasure and the REPROACHES always the PREFERENCE of the Market-Driven sects.  The STRONG are those who reject the polluted Market-Driven center:

The Weak sects would want to "join" to seek and impose their own pleasure.

Rom. 15:1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, 
        and not to please ourselves.

The Strong in the Ekklesia will please other for edification or education: the purpose of the church.

Rom. 15:2 Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.

Rom. 15:3 For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.

If Jesus had joined in with the Pipers by singing and dancing he would have pleased the PERVERTED CLERGY and the meaning is that they would strip Him naked and INITIATE him into the sexual pleasures of the Romans Dionysiacs. Do we REALLY have to be SHAMED for not "receiving them?"

Psa. 69:9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me

2781. Cherpah, kher-paw´; from 2778; contumely, disgrace, the pudenda:—rebuke, reproach(-fully), shame.

2778. Charaph, khaw-raf´; a primitive root; to pull off, i.e. (by implication) to expose (as by stripping); specifically, to betroth (as if a surrender); figuratively, to carp at, i.e. defame; denominative (from 2779) to spend the winter:--betroth, blaspheme, defy, jeopard, rail, reproach, upbraid.

Remember that you are victims of the Vineyard Mother and the New Wineskins MARK. The Vineyard lady who gave you the new style praise singing shows you how to musically induce a SEXUAL-LIKE CLIMAX.

"Dionysus is the wine-god, and thus should be a pleasant fellow, a benefactor. But wine has both positive and negative aspects. It makes people drunk, causes them to behave in strange ways. The Greeks were well aware of the dual natures of wine, mirrored by the dual nature of its god.... He betrays a dual nature: being bright, joyous, and vital for life,

while also having a side that is dark, mysterious and deadly.

"The adored wife of the fallen Hector, is taken as a concubine by the authentes, who can command her domestic and sexual services. The word also occurs in a homosexual sense in a speech by Theseus, king of Athens, where love of young boys was considered a virtue rather than a vice." (Charles Trombly, Who Said Women Can't Teach, p. 174)

Paul did not permit women to participate in religious rituals because this AUTHENTIA authority would be a certain sign that something wild was going on.

"dionysus's worship is thus established by the simple means of killing the opposition. It has been suggested that every tragic hero who suffers and dies on stage at the Dionysia, the great dramatic festival at Athens, is in fact dionysus himself, being killed."

In every Greek city the god Dionysus (New wineskin god) was worshipped by fraternities and sororities and also by mixed communities. Dionysus was a god of fruitfulness and vegetation but especially of wine. The Dionysiac festivals provided an opportunity for stepping outside of the daily routine. The festivals included not only drinking wine and engaging in sexual activity but also participating in such significant features of Greek civilization as choral singing and mimes. In many cases, only the initiated could participate in the ceremonies. As almost every Greek did join in, initiation into the Dionysiac cult might be compared to tribal initiations. It seems that initiation into the Dionysiac Mysteries was accompanied by initiation into sexual life. Britannica Members

NOW, FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORSHIP PRACTICES WHICH WE ARE TO REPUDIATE.

THEY WERE NOT TO EXCLUDE THEM FROM HEARING THE GOSPEL PREACHED

Based only on these "moral" practices the church must not consider anyone unclean or not to hear the WORD preached and "taught as it had been taught" as many had each Sabbath in the synagoges.. Such mega churches Ronnie promotes in fact declares the poor and homless impure and seeks to attrict the rich and powerful.

Acts 8:3 As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house,
        and haling men and women committed them to prison.
Acts 8:4 Therefore they that were scattered abroad
        went every where preaching the word.

DO NOT PARTICIPATE, DO NOT TOLERATE

Phil. 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God,
        without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,
        among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

No, it is not judgmental NOT to let the crooked race participate.

Perverse: G1294 diastrepho dee-as-tref'-o From G1223 and G4762 ; to distort, that is, (figuratively) misinterpret, or (morally) corrupt: perverse (-rt), turn away.

THE RELIGIOUS PRACTICES OF ALL OF THE ROMAN SECTS WERE EXCLUDED

The crooked generation FROM WHICH we are to save ourselves are specificially the perverted, musical rituals which make a Word-centered assembly impossible. ALL of the CROOKED religion was in praise of Apollo who is Apollyon who uses the Muses or dirty adulteresses John identified in Revelation 18:22-23 as SORCERS.

Skolios 1 curved, winding, twisted, tangled,  bent sideways, : metaph. crooked, i. e. unjust, unrighteous , Il., Hes., etc.; skolia prattein, eipein Plat.:--so adv. skoliôs, Hes.

Prattein, Prassô II. experience certain fortunes, achieved bondage, i.e. brought it on himself, grant power of song, get something, plot, 3. of sexual intercourse, b. esp. of secret practices and intrigues

Charis for his pleasure, for his sake, glôssês charin for one's tongue's pleasure, hy pleasure or sake,  for the sake of my flesh, for the pleasure of devouring it,  prassein, 4. love-charm, philtre, charizesthai (1.2), indulge, humour, orgêi,

Charizomai charizô in erotic sense, grant favours to a man,

INSTEAD OF A PAGAN MUSICAL RITUAL PAUL ALWAYS DEFINES THE SOLE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH.

Phil. 2:16 Holding forth the word of life;  [The ONLY role]
        that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain,
        neither laboured in vain.

The  CROOKED and PERVERSE INTEND TO SILENCE THE WORD OF GOD WITH MUSIC.

They can neither be accepted for membership nor allowed to steal your church.  This crooked musical worship is the MARK of Apollyon in Revelation who uses the Locusts (Muses) as dirty adulteresses to perform SORCERY on you.  They have taken you captive.

G4646 skolios skol-ee-os' From the base of G4628 ; warped, that is, winding; figuratively perverse:—crooked, froward, untoward.

G5157 tropē trop-ay' From an apparently primary word τρέπω trepō (to turn); a turn (“trope”), that is, revolution (figuratively variation):--turning

Tropos , ho, ( [trepô] ) turn, direction, way, IV. in Music, like harmonia, a particular mode,

Pindar, Olympian 14 [10] that is done in heaven; with their thrones set beside Pythian Apollo of the golden bow, they worship the everlasting honor of the Olympian father. [13] Lady Aglaia, and Euphrosyne, lover of dance and song, daughters of the strongest god, [15] listen now; and you, Thalia, passionate for dance and song, having looked with favor on this victory [Nike] procession, stepping lightly in honor of gracious fortune. For I have come to sing of Asopichus in Lydian melodies and chosen phrases, because the Minyan land is victorious at Olympia,

Aristotle, Poetics
There are certain arts which employ all the means which I have mentioned, such as rhythm and tune and metre--dithyrambic and "nomic" poetry, for example, and tragedy too and comedy. The difference here is that some use all these at once, others use now one now another. These differences then in the various arts I call the means of representation.

The traditional definition is that the Dithyramb was sung to a flute accompaniment by a chorus in honor of Dionysus; and that the Nomos [legalism] was a solo sung to a harp accompaniment in honor of Apollo, 

Beyond what Paul clearly defines, the religious practices of NONE of the three sects would be tolerated in the ekklesia or church.  Those RELIGIOUS practices are included by the further definition of WEAK and included by Ronnie Norman even when Jesus consigned them back to the marketplace

These doubtful disputations meaning derived from personal opinion or preferences were outlawed in the ekklesia defined inclusively and exclusively in Romans 15. In the Apostolic Constitutions written by The Church of Christ c. 200, singers, instrument players, perverts or Sodomites were EXCLUDED from the church until they had "brought forth fruits of repentance."

PREFERENCES ABSOLUTLY OUTLAWED BY THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS, THE COMMANDS OF PAUL AND MINIMAL COMMON DECENCY.

The Agora or Marketplace where Jesus consigned the pipers, singers and dancers was down on the lower level in Athens. This is the ONLY place where diet preferences could be visible: This is where all of the singers, rhetoricians selling speeches or sowing discord, instrument players and the ALWAYS musical of perverted sectarians could be found: a red-light district where you went IF you were still a slave.
 
ONLY SLAVES, PROSTITUTES OR SODOMITES PERFORMED RELIGIOUS MUSIC.

While free citizens learned music as part of warfare, only the lower classes were permitted to perform music and this would rarely be in civil society.

Only citizens were allowed to participate in the ekklesia or the weekly assembly for verbal instruction only. Slaves used the "psallo" rope polluted with red paint to MARK those who dallied around the singers, instrument players and sellers of bodies, were driven and MARKED so that when forced into the ekklesia they were polluted and NOT allowed to participate.

Only FREE CITIZENS were permitted to be elders or deacons in the local civil ekklesia.  In the church they were not permitted to bring their old PREFERENCES into the body of Christ NOR were they permitted to allow false teachers or elders turned wolves  (marked by music and perversion) to participate.

NO ONE WAS ALLOWED TO PRACTICES THESE PREFERENCES AS PART OF THEIR CHRISTIAN WITNESS.

Gal 4:7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son,
        then an heir of God through Christ.

Gal 4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God,
        ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.

Gal 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, 
        how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements,
        whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

Gal 4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
Gal 4:12 Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

SOUNDS LIKE SOMEONE IS TRYING TO TURN THE WHOLE CHURCH BACK UNDER SLAVERY: THE SHEPHERDING ELDER CONCEPT.

Lucifer called the "singing and harp playing prostitute" intended to bleed off worship from God and His Word and receive the worship for him/her/itself.

Pindar, Odes 4:[216] Aphrodite [ZOE] of Cyprus brought the maddening bird to men for the first time, and she taught the son of Aeson skill in prayerful incantations, so that he could rob Medea of reverence for her parents, and a longing for Greece would lash her, her mind on fire, with the whip of Persuasion. [220] And she quickly revealed the means of performing the labors set by her father; and she mixed drugs with olive oil as a remedy for hard pains, and gave it to him to anoint himself. They agreed to be united with each other in sweet wedlock 

Epôidê , Ion. and poet. epaoidê ,A. song sung to or over: hence, enchantment, spell Od.19.457 Pi.P.4.217 ou pros iatrou sophou thrênein epôidas pros tomônti pêmati S.Aj. 582 ; of the Magi, Hdt.1.132,

All recorded history notes the conflict between MUSIC and the SPOKEN WORD.

Plato Symposium 215c 

"You are a fleering fellow, eh? If you will not confess it, I have witnesses at hand. Are you not a PIPER?

Why, yes, and a far more marvellous one than the satyr. His lips indeed had power to ENTRANCE mankind by means of instruments; a thing still possible today for anyone who can PIPE his tunes: or the music of Olympus' flute belonged, I may tell you, to Marsyas his teacher.  "So that if anyone, whether a fine flute-player or paltry flute-girl, can but flute his tunes, they have no equal for exciting a RAVISHMENT, and will indicate (prophesy) by the divinity that is in them who are apt recipients of the deities and their sanctifications.

You differ from him in one point only--that you produce the same effect with simple prose unaided by instruments.

THE MEANING OF WEAK IN RELIGIOUS PRACTICES THEY WANT TO IMPOSE ON YOU.  

The kingdom of God does not involve what we eat in the marketplaces; it does not allow the practices of the marketplaces to go to the ekklesia which was for verbal instruction only.  Therefore, we are to receive them in the church defined INCLUSIVELY in Romans 15 but no one speaks about diet because the ekklesia is a school of the Bible.  No one is allowed to do doubtful disputations because we all "speak that which is written" and to create unity we sing with one MIND and one MOUTH.  

When Jesus said that what goes OUT of our mouth defiles us, He was speaking of the Scribes and Pharisees whom He called hypocrites.  In both Isaiah 29 and Ezekiel 33 the hypocrites which defiled were speakers, singers and instrument players.

Those weak in THE FAITH would be those most likely to want to puff as rhetoricians, singers or musicians. It doesn't even matter if they are pretty bad people because in the Restoration Movement the Campbells understood that church is "A school of Christ" and worship is "reading and musing the Word of God." This will allow the really bad WEAK people to develop to their fullest potential.

Rom. 14:1 Him that is weak in THE FAITH receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations

Because faith comes by hearing the Word of God, one could not be STRONG and think that THE FAITH included the use of instrumental music.  THE FAITH in fact radicially consignes the pipers, singers and dancers to the marketplace with all of the other pollutants and where members would see each other at the food markets: this is NOT in the assembly.

The Weak according to Ronnie Norman are sensitive to scrupples and narrow. They should not be mean and prevent the INSTRUMENTALISTS with well laid plans to create the SELF-pleasure Paul outlawed by outlawing the WEAK in Romans 14 and in Romans 15 before the ekklesia and possibly be carried out.

However, all of the Bible, literature and medical science identifies the addiction to musical sounds as a moral weakness and effectively a DRUG ADDICTION. Those strong in THE FAITH and in their own faith would never be found trying to "lust their way into the presence of God" using music as a legalistic substitute for the loss of faith.

IT IS A FACT THAT SINGING, PLAYING, EATING MEATS, SELLING BODIES AND ALL COMMERCE WAS QUARANTINED TO THE AGORA OR MARKETPLACE.  

DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO PROVIDE A VENUE SO THAT THE MORALLY WEAK CAN PERFORM?

770. GREEK: astheneo, as-then-eh´-o; from 772 [figurative and moral]; to be feeble (in any sense):  be diseased, impotent folk (man), (be) sick, (be, be made) weak. asthen-eia  in moral sense, feebleness, weakness

WEAK: Latin In-firmus, Weak in mind or character, superstitious, pusillanimous, inconstant, light-minded:  very uncertain, not to be depended on, Of things, of no weight or consequence, weak, trivial, inconclusive

How can you depend on people who plan to try to force you to do something you know is polluting and which offends your well-trained conscience?

Or does Ronnie Norman say that your congregational singing is because YOU are weak-minded, pusillanimous and superstitious?

Do you want to feed Ronnie Norman to tell you that you are weak minded not to use "machines for doing hard work" and denying Grace? Speaking is the OPPOSITE of music and you will notice the meaning of the WEAK.

DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO PROVIDE A VENUE FOR PERVERTED PLEASURE?

WEAK: Delicate is Malakos path-êtikos d. = pathêtikos e. of music, soft, effeminate, harmoniai,  of reasoning, weak, loose, logos Isoc.12.4 , sullogizesthai to reason loosely,

Mousikos II. of persons, skilled in music, musical, III. of things, elegant, delicate; professional musicians,  mousikos kai melôn poêtês, hêdion ouden, harmonious [in tune], fitting, trophê

Music means Pathêtikos

1Cor. 6:8 Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
1Cor. 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
        Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
        effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
1Cor. 6:10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Arnobius defining heresies:

41. Was it for this He sent souls, that they which shortly before had been gentle

and ignorant of what it is to be moved by fierce passions,
should build for themselves markets and amphi-theatres, places of blood and open wickedness, in the one of which they should see men devoured and torn in pieces by wild beasts, and themselves slay others for no demerit but to please and gratify the spectators, [voluptatemque] and should spend those very days on which such wicked deeds were done in general enjoyment,

and keep holiday with festive gaiety; while in the other, again, they should tear asunder the flesh of wretched animals, some snatch one part, others another, as dogs and vultures do, should grind them with their teeth, and give to their utterly insatiable maw, and that, surrounded by faces so fierce and savage, those should bewail their lot whom the straits of poverty withheld from such repasts; that their life should be happy and prosperous while such barbarous doings defiled their mouths and face?

Was it for this He sent souls, that, forgetting their importance and dignity as divine, they should acquire gems, precious stones, pearls, at the expense of their purity; should entwine their necks with these, pierce the tips of their ears, bind their foreheads with fillets, seek for cosmetics to deck their bodies, darken their eyes with henna ; nor, though in the forms of men, blush to curl their hair with crisping-pins, to make the skin of the body smooth, to walk with bare knees, and with every other kind of wantonness,

both to lay aside the strength of their manhood,
and to grow in effeminacy to a woman's habits and luxury?

Music means Hêdonê desires after pleasure, pleasant lusts, Ep.Tit.3.3, al. dêmêgorein [A demagogue uses the performing arts to appease the masses for profit]

For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. Tit 3:3

This is the SELF-pleasure Paul outlawed for the assembly:

Aresko (g700) ar-es'-ko; prob. from 142 (through the idea of exciting emotion); to be agreeable (or by impl. to seek to be so): - please. the STAFF borne by pornoboskoi [brothel keeper] on the stage

Exairô -lift up, lift off the earth 2. raise in dignity, exalt, magnify, exaggerate it. Rhetoric, treat in elevated style, of music

3. arouse, stir up excites thy wish to die, pervert, make away with, get rid of, to be excited, agitated. Includes: Choreia [choreuô] a dance, esp. the choral or round dance with its music.

Music MARKS the effeminate

"Now, many a man from the false religions, which are not ashamed of criticising what is noble, will ask: how can there be a feast without carousing and overeating, without the pleasant company of hosts and guests, without quantities of unmixed wine, without richly set tables and highly stacked provisions of everything that pertains to a banquet, without pageantry and jokes,

bantering and merry-making to the accompaniment of flutes and citharas, the sound of drums and cymbals and other effeminate and frivolous music of every king,

enkindling unbridled lusts with the help of the sense of hearing. For in and through the same [pleasures] those persons openly seek their joy, for what true joy is their they do not know.

WEAK: Delicate or Malakos in  Isocrates, Speeches 12 makes the same association with rhetoricians: [3] Now, however, I have completely given up these devices of rhetoric.  For I do not think it is becoming to the ninety-four years which I have lived

How you, men of Athens, have been affected by my accusers, I do not know; but I, for my part, almost forgot my own identity, so persuasively did they talk; and yet there is hardly a word of truth in what they have said. But I was most amazed by one of the many lies that they told--when they said that you must be on your guard not to be deceived by me.

ARE THOSE WHO DO NOT USE MACHINES SUPERSTITIOUS?

WEAK: Aristotle on Politics  (1339a)

1. for amusement and relaxation, as one indulges in sleep and deep drinking (for these in themselves are not serious pursuits but merely pleasant, and 'relax our care,' as Euripides says;

owing to which people actually class music with them and (sleep and deep drinking) employ all of these things,
..........sleep, deep drinking and music, in the same way,
......... and they also place dancing in the same class); (Aristotle isn't kind)

[1339b]  "And we may consider the conception that we have about the gods:
Zeus does not sing and harp to the poets himself.
But professional musicians we speak of as vulgar people, and indeed
we think it not manly to perform music, except when drunk or for fun.

Britannica: "Music, like the word, also may have symbolic meaning. The basic elements out of which musical symbolism is built are sounds, tones, melodies, harmonies,

and the various musical instruments,
........among which is the human voice.

Sound effects can have a numinous (spiritual) character and
    may be used to bring about contact with the realm of the holy.

A specific tone may call one to an awareness of the holy, make the holy present, and produce an experience of the holy. This may be done by means of drums, gongs, bells, or other instruments.

The ritual instruments can, through their shape or the materials from which they are made, have symbolic meaning. The Uitoto in Colombia, for example, believe that all the souls of their ancestors are contained in the ritual drums. (See liturgical music.) 

DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO PROVIDE A VENUE FOR SUPERSTITIOUS MUSIC?

Lucian of Samosata speaks for everyone in proving that music is a superstitious ritual for the ignorant.

"Alexander, on the other hand, preferred his native place, urging very truly that an enterprise like theirs required congenial soil to give it a start,

in the shape of 'fat-heads' and simpletons; that was a fair description, he said, of the Paphlagonians beyond Abonutichus; they were mostly superstitious and well-to-do; one had only to go there with someone to playflute, the tambourine, or the cymbals, set the proverbial mantic sieve a-spinning, and there they would all be gaping the as if he were a god from heaven.

DO YOU HAVE TO DESTROY THE PEACE AND DESTROY THE EDIFICATION-EDUCATION?

Rom. 14:18 For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.
Rom. 14:19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

1515.  eirene, i-ray´-nay;  peace (literally or figuratively); by implication, prosperity:  one, peace, quietness, rest, + set at one again.

How can you even hallucinate that you are making PEACE when you are deliberately SOWING DISCORD, driving away the owners and creating a CONFLICTING SECTARIAN DIVISION within the same body.

DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO PROVIDE A VENUE TO REPUDIATE THE PLANS OF JESUS?

MUSIC DOES NOT EDIFY BUT CREATES THE SPIRITUAL ANXIETY JESUS DIED TO REMOVE.

Aedifica-tio, speaks of building up a house or maybe church.
III. Fig., building up, instructing, edification.
(a). Absol.: loquitur ad aedificationem, Vulg. 1 Cor. 14, 3 ; 14, 26.--

1Cor. 14:3 But he that prophesieth  
       speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.

1Cor. 14:4 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church

Paul compared percussion and wind instruments to SPEAKING IN TONGES.

The word SPEAK is both inclusive and exclusive.
loquor, whisper; to speak, talk, say (in the language of common life, in the tone of conversation; 

(b).: ad aedificationem Ecclesiae, Vulg. 1 Cor. 14, 12 ; ib. Eph. 4, 12.

To Edify in the ASSEMBLY you must speak "that which is written" with one MIND and one MOUTH where the word Speak is: 

Logik-os, [logos] A. of or for speaking or speech, merê logikê, hê, speech, opposite to mousikê or phantasia expressed in speech,

Again, the EXCLUDED music is perverted and perverting and never edifying or educating. 

Mousikos II. of persons, skilled in music, musical, III. of things, elegant, delicate, brômata Diox.1; professional musicians,  mousikos kai melôn poêtês, hêdion ouden, oude -ôteron Philem.23 ; harmonious [in tune], fitting, trophê Delicate Malakos path-êtikos d. = pathêtikos e. of music, soft, effeminate, m. harmoniai, g. of reasoning, weak, loose, logos Isoc.12.4 , sullogizesthai to reason loosely,

EXAMPLES:

Again, Philodemus held as self deceptive the view that music mediated religious ecstasy. He saw the entire condition induced by the noise of cymbals and tambourines as a disturbance of the spirit. He found it significant that, on the whole, only women and effeminate men fell into this folly.

Accordingly, nothing of value could be attributed to music; it was no more than a slave of the sensation of pleasure, which satisfied much in the same way that food and drink did. Johannes Quasten. In Music and Worship in Pagan and Christian Antiquity, beginning on page 41

1Cor. 14:3 But he that prophesieth [TEACHES] 
        speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
1Cor. 14:4 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself;
        but he that prophesieth edifieth the church

EDIFICATION is restricted to speaking only

1Cor. 14:12 Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.

God did not give any singers or instrument players: they cannot edify. The church has no ROLE to perform "worship" rituals for which you can HAVE a preference.

Eph. 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some,
        evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Eph. 4:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
        for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Eph. 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith,
        and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man,
        unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

How can you learn about Jesus Christ by giving heed (the sole worship word) to musical performers Jesus identified as hypocrites?

Aedificationem Ecclesiae,

Ecclesia (ecclesia)  an assembly of the (Greek) people.I. Prop.: et ecclesia consentiente, senate and people, in the free cities of Greece:

This is opposite the MARKETPLACE where you eat what you wish without judgment.

Gregory Nanzianzen in Oration XXXI
But if these things are true, they ought not to be called myths, but to be proved not to be shameful; and if they are false, they ought not to be objects of wonder; nor ought people so inconsiderately to hold the most contrary opinions about the same thing,

as if they were playing in the market-place with boys or really ill-disposed men,
not engaged in discussion with men of sense, and worshippers of the Word,
though despisers of this artificial plausibility.

Luke 7:31 And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the MEN of this generation?
        and to what are they like?
Luke 7:32 They are like unto CHILDREN [boys] sitting in the marketplace,
        and calling one to another, and saying,
        We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced;
        we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.

IS EVERYTHING I HAVE SAID ABOUT RHETORICIANS, MUSIC AND PERVERTS A LIE?

Rom. 15:3 For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, 
        The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.

Psa. 69:9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up;
        and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me

2781. cherpah, kher-paw�; from 2778; contumely, disgrace, the pudenda: rebuke, reproach(-fully), shame.

2778. Charaph, khaw-raf; a primitive root; to pull off, i.e. (by implication) to expose (as by stripping); specifically, to betroth (as if a surrender); figuratively, to carp at, i.e. defame; denominative (from 2779) to spend the winter:--betroth, blaspheme, defy, jeopard, rail, reproach, upbraid. 

Psa. 69:11 I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.
Psa. 69:12 They that sit in the gate speak against me;
        and I was the song of the drunkards.

5058. Ngiynah, neg-ee-naw´; ngiynath (Psa. 61: title), neg-ee-nath´; from 5059; properly, instrumental music; by implication, a stringed instrument; by extension, a poem set to music; specifically, an epigram: stringed instrument, musick, Neginoth (plural), song

5060.  naga,  to touch, i.e. lay the hand upon (for any purpose; euphem., to lie with a woman)

DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO FINANCE AND TOLERATE THESE PEOPLE?

Spoiled Pets in the Ekklesia?

2 Peter 2:13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;

And PAY them too: that defines a PARASITE.

Truphaô 2.revel in, LXXSi.14.4 ; delight in, .Ne.9.25. [Nehemiah called the kings-priests parasites]

A. live softly, luxuriously, fare sumptuously, of a child, leukos . Ep.Jac.5.5, Gal.6.416, etc.; paison, truphêson, zêson

paison paizô [pais] 4. to play (on an instrument),  to sport, play, jest, joke, to make sport of one, mock him,

III. give oneself airs, be dainty, fastidious, connected to the Polus, Spoiled pets: en tais ekklêsiais t. kai kolakeuesthai, of the people,

Charizô 2. gratify or indulge a humour or passion, 3. in erotic sense, grant favours to a man,

NO! Let them listen and learn. DO NOT let them TAKE OVER your Worship IN the Spirit as Paul warned because the DOGS are howling musically trying to get in to get some sheep's flesh.

The elders turned wolves in Acts 20 are those who let the perverted in to seduce and eat up the lambs.

(ll. 1-5) I prithee, clear-voiced Muse, daughter of mighty Zeus, sing of the mother of all gods and men. She is well-pleased with the sound of rattles and of timbrels, with the voice of flutes and the outcry of WOLVES and bright-eyed LIONS, with echoing hills and wooded coombes.

"Music and Mantras, therefore, were used by the Orphics
       to attract, or call down, the influence of the Mother of the Gods,

THE END-TIME MOTHER OF HARLOTS

Rev. 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev. 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev. 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev. 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. 

THE UNIVERSAL MARK OF THE LUSTED AFTER FRUITS

Rev. 18:14 And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

HOW TO IDENTIFY WHEN SOME WOMAN HAS TAKEN OVER

Rev. 18:22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians [locusts-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 [sound locates the prostitutes]
        shall be heard no more at all in thee;
Rev. 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee;
        and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee:
        for thy merchants were the great men of the earth;
        for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
Rev. 18:24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints,
        and of all that were slain upon the earth.

YOU MAY INVITE THEM IN BUT GOD WILL BURN THEM OUT AND IN REVELATION 19 THERE IS REJOICING.

And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. Amos 8:2

A basket:

Keluwb (h3619) kel-oob'; from the same as 3611; a bird-trap (as furnished with a clap-stick or treadle to spring it); hence a basket (as resembling a wicker cage): - basket, cage.

As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. Je.5:27

Keleb (h3611) keh'leb; from an unused root mean. to yelp, or else to attack; a dog; hence (by euphemism) a male prostitute: - dog.

For dogs have compassed me: the assembly [multitude, swarm] of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. Ps.22:16

Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. Is.56:11

And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy. Je.15:3

Aeschylus, Suppliant Women

Therefore I would have you bring no shame upon me, now when your youthful loveliness attracts men's gaze. The tender ripeness of summer fruit is in no way easy to protect; beasts despoil it--and men, why not?-- [1000] and brutes that fly and those that walk the earth. Love's goddess spreads news abroad of fruit bursting ripe. . . . So all men, as they pass, [1005] mastered by desire, shoot an alluring arrow of the eye at the delicate beauty of virgins. See to it, therefore, that we do not suffer that in fear for which we have endured great toil and ploughed the great waters with our ship; and that we bring no shame to ourselves and exultation to our enemies. Housing of two kinds is at our disposition, [1010] the one Pelasgus offers, the other, the city, and to occupy free of cost. These terms are easy. Only pay heed to these behests of your father, and count your chastity more precious than your life.

I will not again pass by them any more. Amos 8:2  

Defining the WOLVES:

Aristophanes Archarnians

DICAEOPOLIS
Peace, profane men! Let the basket-bearer come forward, and thou Xanthias, hold the phallus well upright.

Xanthias, walk behind the basket-bearer and hold the phallus well erect; I will follow, singing the Phallic hymn; thou, wife, look on from the top of the terrace. Forward!

Oh, Phales, [god of generation, worshipped in the form of a phallus]  companion of the orgies of Bacchus, night reveller, god of adultery, friend of young men, these past six years I have not been able to invoke thee.

CHORUS
Here is a man truly happy. See how everything succeeds to his wish. Peacefully seated in his market, he will earn his living; ....without being accosted on the public place by any importunate fellow,

neither by Cratinus, shaven in the fashion of the debauchees, nor by this musician, who plagues us with his silly improvisations, Artemo, with his arm-pits stinking as foul as a goat, like his father before him. You will not be the butt of the villainous Pauson's jeers, nor of Lysistratus, the disgrace of the Cholargian deme, who is the incarnation of all the vices, and endures cold and hunger more than thirty days in the month.

A BOEOTIAN By Heracles! my shoulder is quite black and blue. Ismenias, put the penny-royal down there very gently, and all of you, musicians from Thebes, pipe with your bone flutes 

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5.11.08