Rochester Church of Christ: Instrumental Music.
Patrick Mead, defends Instrumental Music for Rochester Church of Christ #2: CD 20070627
See part one as a foundation stone.
Third on Musical Instruments
How it got started, he wants to approach the study seriously
He started pulling at the thread, a practice from treating mental illnessHe looked from Genesis to Revelation about all of the worship and instrument worship: some were shakers and bangers because God said: Make a joyful noise befor the Lord.In this sermon he asks: Why instruments DISAPPEARED from Christiang Worship.
To cut off the debate he does not plan to use instruments, on Sunday but someday on Saturday: for everyone and not just the kids.
Repeating the NACC latest mantra Patrick Mead actualy said: God not only tolerated but commanded worship with instrumental music, and He loved noise.
When speaking of Babylonian Captivity CAUSED by musical idolatry Patrick says that: When separated from instruments, they were too mournful so they hung harps in the willows so GOD COULD PLAY THEM by blowing in the winds.
By the time of Jesus, the temple sacrifices had broken down and the offices went to the highest bidder. nothing like Moses so that they had to "worship" in the synagogues (like a default fall back?)
Then, he intimates, they were forced to worship in the synagogues WITHOUT musical instruments because.
Did not have the gold and money of the temple.
Did not have instruments so how do farmers and clerks get together and worship?
They could not afford or maintain the instruments.
Why, they continue to meet in the synagogue which HAD no musical instruments NOR did they "have a praise service." Even simple minded "farmers" know you don't make loud clanging noises in the Bible class!
The psallo or plucking sound or twang was FIRSTLY made by the bow which is thought to have been a musical instrument speaking from the gods. The prophesiers--the world's OLDEST profession--used the sounds to conjur up the spirit just as the Witch of Endor used an old, empty wineskin as her familiar spirit.
A lyre was a few gut strings stretched over a flat board without a sound box: anyone could afford one if a cow died so that he could make a "lifeless instrument" or "carnal weapon."
With the help of a deer, my dog we formed something even cave men made to perform MAGIC. David had a harp and he assuredly was not wealthy. Jubal who handled the pipe "without authority" along with other musical instruments did not need to be rich.
Psalms were always sung and at no time did God say I DO NOT LIKE ISNTRUMENTS.
Well, yes He did MANY times if you remember that the Spirit OF Christ spoke through the Prophets all of who radically condemn music and make the instrument a MARK of those who say to God: "Shut your face." At least, that's what God thought when he "gave them kings in His anger and took them away in his anger."
A Psalm is a mizmor and only 57 of the mizmors are called Psalms in the Greek. 7 of these are limited to ceremonial functions and Levites: the other 50 which the Jews chanted when they quit chanting the PROSE version are not instrumental.
A psalm like a song does not include an instrument: you can read, recite, sing or use an instrument. The Bible NEVER uses the word without defining the name of the instrument to be PLUCKED.
NOTING that God never runs away from instruments, Patrick asks:
Why did the early church not continue to use instruments.
Well, no Jews ever sang with instrumental music as worship: slaughtering animals in the dung pit is never called worship. The synagogue "had no praise service" by direct command and decent obedience. No Christian would have ever experienced singing with instruments because they could not enter into the slaughter pen. Not even the Levitical Warrior Musician could enter into the Holy Places without getting executed for his arrognce and presumption.
Patric claims that they--like us--were traditionalists and just HATED to use instruments because they might loose some "members"--and boast about it, too However, most of the people, like the Athenians always hung around places like the Agora or Market-Places -- to which Jesus consigned the pipers, singers and dancers -- because that was like the local gossip center:
Acts 17:21 (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)There would have been singers, pipers and dancers who were called PARASITES: history notes that they might get "tarred and feathered" because decent society would not tolerate them
Acts 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Acts 17:25 Neither is worshipped with mens hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
Next, Patrick notes that: Church was not culturally accepted (synagogues) and could not make noise when being HUNTED.
A faithful church will NEVER be culturally accepted.
They Wanted to make a hard, sharp break with the Jews (but Jews never used instruments in synagogue)
Didn't Paul meet in many synagogues? Was there ever any hint of singing OR playing instruments. Jesus condemned the Scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites. He pointed to Isaiah and Ezekiel 33 where a hypocrite is a rhetorican in the usual preaching sense, singers and players of instruments. Furthermore, all of the Greek literature identifies performance preaching along with singers and instrumen players as hypocrites. John calls them SORCERERS in Revelation 18 who HAD DECEIVED THE WHOLE WORLD. Therefore, the PATTERN of the synagogue can ever be debated:
Luke 4:44 And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.
Acts 15:21 For Moses of old time hath in every city
them that preach him,
being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.The Jews were even Going to Rome to persecute Christians. Jews as problems. But, as soon as they got protection the Christians persecuted Jews.Now, in the AGORA or MARKETPLACE there would always be pagan worship, singers, instrument players, dancers, meat markets and veggie stands for everyone, stump preachers and even prostitutes. The ekklesia (church) was SEPARATED from the public spectacle. Therefore, if the Christians had met in the marketplace to sing and play instruments they could have attracted the masses.
Acts 17:1 NOW when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia,
they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them,
and three sabbath days
reasoned with them out of the scriptures, Acts 17:2That is the ONLY thing you do in a synagogue or school of the Bible.
Dialegomai (g1256) dee-al-eg'-om-ahee; mid. from 1223 and 3004; to say thoroughly, i.e. discuss (in argument or exhortation): - dispute, preach (unto), reason (with), speak.
The speaking of the LOGOS means "the opposite of poetry OR music" which was reserved for the myth makers who were not allowed to write history but history as it MIGHT HAVE BEEN.
Eph 5:19a Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
Loquor I. inf. loquier, Naev. ap. Gell. 1, 24, 2), v. dep. n. and a. [Sanscr. lap-, to talk, whisper;]
Logik-os, ( [logos]
A. of or for speaking or speech, merę l. the organs of speech, Plu.Cor.38: logikę, hę, speech, opposite to mousikę,The Christians continued a Christian Synagogue: when the Jewish synagogue "had no praise service" but was a school of the Bible, why would a Christian synagogue ADD music to sow discord:
And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread,
Sunago (g4863) soon-ag'-o; from 4862 and 71; to lead together, i.e. collect or convene; spec. to entertain (hospitably): - / accompany, assemble (selves, together), bestow, come together, gather (selves together, up, together), lead into, resort, take in.
Because the Christians were always doing queer things, murder or holocaust, Patrick thinks that NOT using instruments was a way to make the Jews less than human. All of those who OPPOSED musical instruments are degraded in the worst kind of judgmentalism. Would it be more good "mental health" to find ANYONE defending instrumental music for the church and NOT making it a mark of pagan, polluted religionism where ON THE CONTRARY it is always the mark of religious prostitution including homosexual.
The sunago was where Paul outlawed DIVERSITY OF DIALOG: it was the home of the Orphics and Dionysiacs who BOTH depended heavily on mind altering music. That is why Paul outlawed SELF pleasure in Romans 15 and commanded speaking with "one MIND and one MOUTH that which was written" as the only way to praise or glorify God.Euripides, in his Bacchae (Click for), citing the Lydian usages at the same time with those of Phrygia, because of their similarity:
But ye who left Mt. Tmolus, fortress of Lydia,
revel-band of mine, euripides
women whom I brought from the land of barbariansas my assistants and travelling companions,
uplift the tambourines native to Phrygian cities,
inventions of mine and mother Rhea. [Zoe]"giving himself excessive airs of daintiness and indulging in all sorts of effeminacy;
sometimes darting his eyes about;
sometimes throwing his hands hither and thither,
and raving (Tatian to the Greeks, Ante-Nicene, Vol. II, p. 75)."Apollo at Delphi had to pay for the guilt of slaying the powers of the underworld which have their own rights.
Then there are the methods of introduction through psychological means.
Intoxication is brought about by a change of light and darkness, by ascetic fasting, by incense, sounds, music, etc." (Tillich, Paul, A History of Christian Thought, Touchstone, p. 14).
Because NONE of the Jews either played instruments in synagogue nor "did the synagogue ever have a praise service" I suppose the Jews did not MUSICATE because they were just TRATITIONALISTS. Well, they followed the "tradition" laid down for the Qahal, synagogue or church in the wilderness which outlawed either vocal or instrumental rejoicing or MAKING A LOUD NOISE. For goodness sake, who needs a law NOT to make noise in the schoool of the Bible.
Next, Patrick Mead looks at what the historical writers said AGAINST the use of instruments. The rejected instruments because they were QUEER, murderers or just plain evil and the RESTORATION movement caught its evil from them:
Early writers said that is the reason [being like the Jews]. Music not considered suitable for Christian Worshp. Therefore, the Christians opposed JEWISH worship music.
But the Spirit OF Christ had outlawed vocal and instrumental rejoicing when the assembly was called which was only for instruction. The synagogue was for the citizens while the Temple had been abandoned to the "worship of the starry host" (Acts 7 etc.) Therefore, to want to RESTORE the sacrificial NOISE which is never called music is a lust to restore the pagan (Babylonian) system prophesied to pop up about now.
Most Synagogues never adopted singing or instruments in order not to CHRISTIANIZE. The word is CANTILLATION which is an elevated, accented form of speech. It was not musical because none of the Bible is metrical in a tuneful way. The first division happened in 1815 when the first organ went into a reformed (liberal) synagogue. This divided the synagogue and resulted in a lawsuit.
Thomas Aquinas: does not use that she might not seem to Judaize.AQUINAS "Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaize." (Thomas Aquinas, Bingham's Antiquities, Vol. 3, page 137)But, because almost no one looks at the resources they do not know that Thomas Aquinas never said that. Therefore, to brand Aquinas as a JEW HATER is to slander him.
But, to say that WE have no civil, decent reason for rejecting instruments because of that quote of of a slandered man proves that the preacher has never read Augustine at any level. However, thanks for the quote because this proves that none of the churches used instruments.
Contrary to the common NACC statement that the church CEASED to use instrumental music (without authority) we might look again at this quote to prove that NO ONE--including the Jews had ever used instruments in the Sabbath day synagogue.
Thomas Aquinas, A.D. 1250, has these remarkable words: 'Our church does NOT use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaize.'
We noted above that this is not the truth. However, from the OBJECTIONS he had to respond to:
From this passage we are surely warranted in concluding that there was no ecclesiastical use of organs in the time of Aquinas. It is alleged that Marinus Sanutus, who lived about A.D. 1200, was the first that brought the use of wind organs into churches, and hence, he received the name Torcellus. In the East the organ was in use in the emperor's courts, probably from the time of Julian, but never was either the organ or any other instruments been employed in public worship in Eastern churches; nor is mention of instrumental music found in all their liturgies, ancient or modern." (McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, Vol. 8, p. 739).
Patrick should also understand that the Catholics NEVER did worship with 'congregational singing and organ accompaniment' and neither did the Jews. The organs were put in by civil leaders and were used by the composers and monks. It was not until after that organ that they began "fiddling" around with the organ keys and BEGAN to discover elementary HARMONY. The early organs could not be used for accompaniment and the church had no psalms or chants in metrical form. Therefore, they were used for preludes, intermissions and recessional. There was no congregational singing.
You may as the Real Thomas Aquinas to stand up at this posted paper.
You must be aware that SINGING as an act was not added until the year 373 and then from the Syriac churches. After the Reformation, Erasmus opposed SINGING but Calvin later allowed the Psalms to be REWRITTEN to make singing even POSSIBLE.
Another Paper on Aquinas:Objection 1. It would seem that God should not be praised with the lips. The Philosopher says (Philo, Ethic. 1,12): "The best of men are accorded not praise, but something greater." But God transcends the very best of all things. Therefore God ought to be given, not praise, but something greater than praise: wherefore He is said (Sirach 43:33) to be "above all praise."
Thomas Aquinas: Reply to Objection 1. We may speak of God in two ways.
First, with regard to His essence; and thus,since He is incomprehensible and ineffable, He is above all praise.
On this respect we owe Him reverence and the honor of latria; wherefore Ps. 64:2 is rendered by Jerome in his Psalter [Translated from the Hebrew]: "Praise to Thee is speechless, O God," as regards the first, and as to the second, "A vow shall be paid to Thee."
Objection 2. Further, divine praise is part of divine worship, for it is an act of religion.
Now God is worshiped with the mind rather than with the lips: wherefore our Lord quoted against certain ones the words of Is. 29:13, "This people . . . honors [Vulg.: 'glorifies'] Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." Therefore the praise of God lies in the heart rather than on the lips.
Thomas Aquinas: Reply to Objection 2. It profits one nothing to praise with the lips if one praise not with the heart.
For the heart speaks God's praises when it fervently recalls
"the glorious things of His works" [Cf. Sirach 17:7,8.Yet the outward praise of the lips avails to arouse the inward fervor of those who praise, and to incite others to praise God, as stated above.
Sirach 17:6. He made for them tongue and eyes; he gave them ears and a mind for thinking.
Sirach 17:7. He filled them with knowledge and understanding, and showed them good and evil.
Sirach 17:8. He set his eye upon their hearts to show them the majesty of his works.
Sirach 17:10. And they will praise his holy name, to proclaim the grandeur of his works.
We praise God with the FRUIT OF THE LIPS and God supplies the FRUIT (Isa 57) You cannot praise God with self-composed songs and instruments which everyone knows that means that YOU want to be worshipped.
Isa. 57:19 I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.
JOHN KNOXObjection 3. Further, the praise of God is competent to little and great, according to Apoc. 14, "Give praise to our God, all ye His servants; and you that fear Him, little and great." But the great, who are in the church, ought not to sing: for Gregory says (Regist. iv, ep. 44):
"I hereby ordain that in this See the ministers of the sacred altar must not sing" (Cf. Decret., dist. xcii., cap. On sancta Romana Ecclesia). Therefore singing is unsuitable to the divine praises.
Thomas Aquinas: Reply to Objection 3. To arouse men to devotion by teaching and preaching is a more excellent way than by singing.
Wherefore deacons and prelates, whom it becomes to incite men's minds towards God by means of preaching and teaching,
ought not to be instant in singing, lest thereby they be withdrawn from greater things.
Hence Gregory says (Regist. iv, ep. 44): on praise songs
"It is a most discreditable custom for those who have been raised to the diaconate
to serve as choristers, for it behooves them to give their whole time to the duty of preaching and to taking charge of the alms."
Rather than a hate monger against the Jews, Aquinas knew basics 101aaa and does not make but refutes that quote.
Objection 4. Further, in the Old Law God was praised with musical instruments and human song, according to Ps. 32:2,3: "Give praise to the Lord on the harp, sing to Him with the psaltery, the instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new canticle." But the Church does not make use of musical instruments such as harps and psalteries, in the divine praises, for fear of seeming to imitate the Jews. Therefore in like manner neither should song be used in the divine praises.
No! Thomas Aquinas did not define theology by hatred for the Jews! Just common, minimal common sense and reverence when Jesus is our Teacher.
Thomas Aquinas: Reply to Objection 4. As the Philosopher says
(Politics viii, 6), "Teaching should not be accompanied with a flute or any artificial instrument such as the harp or anything else of this kind: but only with such things as make good hearers."
For such like musical instruments move the soul to pleasure rather than create a good disposition within it.On the Old Testament instruments of this description were employed, both because the people were more coarse and carnal--so that they needed to be aroused by such instruments as also by earthly promises--
and because these material instruments were figures of something else.
Aristotle which Aquinas had read notes: (Politics viii, 6)
And it is also clear from these considerations what sort of instruments they should use. Flutes must not be introduced into education, nor any other professional instrument, such as the harp or any other of that sort,
but such instruments as will make them attentive pupils either at their musical training or in their other lessons. Moreover the flute is not a moralizing but rather an exciting influence, so that it ought to be used for occasions of the kind at which attendance has the effect of purification (charismatic ecstasy) rather than instruction.
And let us add that the flute happens to possess the additional property telling against its use in education that playing it prevents the employment of speech.
Purification was the musical prophesying or "lord lord saying" Jesus denounces. Consistent with ALL arousal singing and instruments the purpose of the DEMAGOGUE "who appeased the mases with the performing arts" the purpose was to drive them into a mental state and TELL them that they were in the presence of the gods (demons).
Patrick Mead accuses John Knox of being a murder and then, paraphrasing, claims that Knox influenced the Campbells and you know that "Alexander Campbell called the Catholics the whore of Rome." That logical conclusion means that the Campbells had NO THEOLOGICAL reasons for rejecting instruments nor did anyone else. Furthermore, he lumps in the Mormons!
Well, many early theologians concluded that Rome was BABYLON and therefore the Mother of Harlots (Rev 17) who is MARKED by using "lusted after fruits" as performance preachers, singers and musicians. Because the Mormons also called the Catholics the whore of Rome, that means that you can DISCOUNT what Alexander said about instrumental music--not to be aware that all of the church Fathers we would call "Catholic" also repudiated instrumental music when they discussed the Old Testament and knew that music fits the church just like naked dancing.
John Knox, killed the Queen's secretary, guess what he thought?John Knox lived:
b. c. 1514,near Haddington, Lothian, ScotlandThere is no evidence that Knox ordered or participated in or killed the Queen's secretary. He attributed it to the nature of tyrants who burned protestants at the stake.
d. Nov. 24, 1572, Edinburgh
"On May 29, 1546, party of sixteen young gentlemen broke into St. Andrews Castle, after killing the sentry at the gate, and stabbed Cardinal Beaton to death.I am aware that John Knox only called the organ a "chist of whistles." Well, what about the Baptists and the Methodists and everyone else who agreed. Were they all evil men just because they rejected "machines for doing hard word"?
Whether he actually approved of the means by which these "works of God" were carried out can only be inferred by the fact that he never wrote a disapproving word of the deed.
Because of his ties with Wishart, he considered himself in danger and resolved to leave Scotland, but Cockburn of Ormiston, whose sons John Knox was tutoring, convinced him to enter the castle of St. Andrews as a place of safety
"John Knox called for the church to be purified of what he called "a popish corruption" and urged the restoration of "the plain singing of psalms unaccompanied by instrumental music." Charles Spurgeon urged that all organ pipes in church buildings ~be compactly filled with concrete." Adam Clarke in his classic Commentary speaks movingly of his own opposition to it and describes the opposition of his friend and teacher, John Wesley, who urged that instruments of music neither be seen or heard in Methodist churches. (Vol. 4, p. 684.) All the great reformers were agreed: Returning to Biblical Christianity meant rejecting instrumental music!They all also called for CONGREGATONA SINGING of the Biblical Psalms because the purpose is to teach and admonish one another. Were they evil, murderous perverts?
Why isn't that a good theological reason since Paul commanded that we NOT self pleasure but speak or "sing that which is written with one MIND and one MOUTH." Is that a direct command or what?
Knox, like all church historicians also wrote that you need Biblical AUTHORITY and not SILENCE to change.
John Knox: foremost leader of the Scottish Reformation, who set the austere moral tone of the Church of Scotland and shaped the democratic form of government it adopted.Knox and EVERYONE else said that you needed commands in order to ADD or DO something or you could not be driven by FAITH and are nor following Christ. That was close to 300 years before Alexander Campbell. The instrumentalist discords claim that SILENCE gives them the authority to ADD something and that BECOMES the authority of Christ. So says the Christian Church according to H. Leo Boles.
"Why may not the church, for good causes, devise ceremonies to decor the sacraments, and others [of] God's services?"
Knox replied, "Because the kirk ought to do nothing but in faith: and ought not to go before, but is bound to follow the voice of the true Pastor." Later during the exchange, Knox added:
"It is not enough that man invents a ceremony, and then gives it a signification, according to his pleasure.
But if anything proceeds from faith, it must have the word of God for the assurance; for you are not ignorant that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
Now, if you will prove that your ceremonies proceed from faith, and do please God, you must prove that God in expressed words has commanded them; or else you shall never prove that they proceed from faith, nor yet that they please God; but they are sin, and do displease him, according to the words of the apostle, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." John Knox, Works, 1:195-96.
[THE FIRST SYLLOGISM] Against the mass, Knox wrote:CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
The Mass is Idolatry.
A. All worshipping, honouring, or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God, without his own express commandment, is idolatry.
B. The Mass is invented by the brain of man, without any commandment of God;
C. therefore it is idolatry.To the usual contrary, professional musicians or speakers have FORCED their way into polite society when Jesus would have "cast out the musical minstrels" like dung:Patrick quotes some Clement and notes that Clement thought that man's body is the most beautiful instrument and thought that women were evil. He jokes (laugh, laugh) that maybe Clement had a homosexuality problem
Here is some of what Clement said as he always associates MUSICIANS with the queer folk:"Of particular interest is the way that early modern playwrights, music theorists, and theater apologists addressed this conflated language of the "enemy," by echoing the same connections between sexuality and playing found in the most virulent antitheatrical tracts. As this paper will demonstrate, by "playing" with the conflated language, these writers defended their art,
Aristotle Poetics Epic poetry, then, and the poetry of tragic drama, and, moreover, comedy and dithyrambic poetry, and most flute-playing and harp-playing, these, speaking generally, may all be said to be "representations of life."justifying their existence in a society that was both seduced and repulsed by them. By claiming the polemical antitheatrical language, these players escaped from the ideological margins to which their opponents had tried to relegate them.
Using the artifices of mimesis (imitation) and comedy they pointed out and
defused their opponents' anxieties about music, theater, and sexuality, creating a space for players in the cultural mainstream." Resource
2 The explanation of mimęsis, as Aristotle uses the word, demands a treatise; all that a footnote can say is this:--Life "presents" to the artist the phenomena of sense, which the artist "re-presents" in his own medium, giving coherence, designing a pattern. That this is true not only of drama and fiction but also of instrumental music ("most flute-playing and harp-playing") was more obvious to a Greek than to us, since Greek instrumental music was more definitely imitative. The technical display of the virtuoso Plato describes as "a beastly noise."
And this deathless strain,-the support of the whole and the harmony of all,-reaching from the centre to the circumference, and from the extremities to the central part, has harmonized this universal frame of things,Do the people in Rochester thereby believe--as the Dionysus people hoped when they piped trying to make him sing and dance--that Jesus was ALSO a queer? I am certain that the new erotic praise songs think a lot about making love to Jesus: even dance with him.
not according to the Thracian music, which is like that invented by Jubal, but according to the paternal counsel of God, which fired the zeal of David.And He who is of David, and yet before him, the Word of God, despising the lyre and harp, which are but lifeless instruments, (For Paul on lifeless instruments see 1 Corinthians 14)
and having tuned by the Holy Spirit the universe, and especially man,-who, composed of body and soul, is a universe in miniature, makes melody to God on this instrument of many tones; and to this instrument-I mean man-he sings accordant:
"For thou art my harp, and pipe, and temple. (Probably a quotation from a hymn. ) -a harp for harmony-a pipe by reason of the Spirit-a temple by reason of the word; so that the first may sound, the second breathe, the third contain the Lord.
And David the king, the harper whom we mentioned a little above, who exhorted to the truth and dissuaded from idols, was so far from celebrating demons in song, that in reality they were driven away by his music. Thus, when Saul was plagued with a demon, he cured him by merely playing.
A beautiful breathing instrument (Psalm 150 only instruments with BREATH can praise) of music the Lord made man, after His own image. And He Himself also, surely, who is the supramundane Wisdom, the celestial Word, is the all-harmonious, melodious, holy instrument of God.
What, then, does this instrument-the Word of God, the Lord, the New Song-desire?
To open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf, and to lead the lame or the erring to righteousness, to exhibit God to the foolish, to put a stop to corruption, to conquer death, to reconcile disobedient children to their father.
The instrument of God loves mankind. The Lord pities, instructs, exhorts, admonishes, saves, shields, and of His bounty promises us the kingdom of heaven as a reward for learning; and the only advantage He reaps is, that we are saved. For wickedness feeds on men's destruction; but truth, like the bee, harming nothing, delights only in the salvation of men.Earlier, Clement spoke of those Jesus called HYPOCRITES:
And so Cithaeron, and Helicon, and the mountains of the Odrysi, and the initiatory rites of the Thracians, mysteries of deceit, are hallowed and celebrated in hymns. For me, I am pained at such calamities as form the subjects of tragedy, though but myths; but by you the records of miseries are turned into dramatic compositions
But the dramas and the raving poets, now quite intoxicated,
let us crown with ivy; and distracted outright as they are,
in Bacchic fashion, with the satyrs, and the frenzied rabble,
and the rest of the demon crew, let us confine
to Cithaeron and Helicon, now antiquated.But let us bring from above out of heaven, Truth, with Wisdom in all its brightness, and the sacred prophetic choir, down to the holy mount of God; and let Truth, darting her light to the most distant points, cast her rays all around on those that are involved in darkness, and deliver men from delusion, stretching out her very strong right hand, which is wisdom, for their salvation.
To me, therefore, that Thracian Orpheus, that Theban, and that Methymnaean,-men, and yet unworthy of the name,-seem to have been deceivers, who, under the pretence of poetry corrupting human life, possessed by a spirit of artful sorcery for purposes of destruction, celebrating crimes in their orgies, and making human woes the materials of religious worship, were the first to entice men to idols;
nay, to build up the stupidity of the nations with blocks of wood and stone,-that is, statues and images,-subjecting to the yoke of extremest bondage the truly noble freedom of those who lived as free citizens under heaven
by their songs and incantations.John in Revelation 17 identified the Mother of Harlots. In chapter 18 she uses the "lusted after fruits" as rhetorical speakers, singers and instrument pllayers as SORCERERS. Amos wrote a parallel where the "baskets of summer FRUITS" were the Dogs or Catamites.
Clement: Hercules, the son of Zeus-a true son of Zeus-was the offspring of that long night, who with hard toil accomplished the twelve labours in a long time, but in one night deflowered the fifty daughters of Thestius, and thus was at once the debaucher and the bridegroom of so many virgins.
It is not, then, without reason that the poets call him a cruel wretch and a nefarious scoundrel. It were tedious to recount his adulteries of all sorts, and debauching of boys. For your gods did not even abstain from boys, one having loved Hylas, another Hyacinthus, another Pelops, another Chrysippus, and another Ganymede.He was honored in the Jerusalem Temple as part of the Abomination of Desolation as young men had to "wear the hat of Hermes" which made them into a virtual phallic symbol. They dared to go into the Holy Places as singers and prostitutes. See 2 Maccabees.
More review of sermon #2 to follow
Musical Worship Index--universally condemned.
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