INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, SACRED OR SINFUL
It matters not what reasons "they" give for not using instruments, Bible 101a proves that They are SOURCED by Satan to silence the Word of God and the synagogue or church in the wilderness OUTLAWED them. To that one might ask what nonsense would impose MACHINE "for doing hard work or producing shock and awe" when Jesus invites us to the ekklesia or synagogue to "come learn of me.?
Rick Atchley has worked a long time with a church of Christ and for the last decade confessed that someday he had to PREACH a sermon. All of that time he was recruited by the Stoneites to suggest that churches of Christ agreed with their pagan system. Of course, at the Christian Church meetings and at the Tulsa Workshop the featured main event was a PRO instrumental person who masked as a member of the church of Christ battling a PRO instrumental person from the PRO instrumental group.
His first sermon was to lay a psychological booby trap to keep any objecters off holy grounds and "questioning God's annointeds." I have reviewed this in part. Click Here.
However, we reviews his views long ago and specificially in 2004 where he announced his agenda of UNITING the discorded Restoration Movement which he blames on those who had never used instruments and refused to be forced. Click Here.
Rick exhibits the same ignorance of the Bible, Old and New, as well as church and Restoration history. The secret is that all of the PLUCKING proof texts point to older males plucking harp strings to seduce a 'youth minister' whose hair had been plucked. It may take ten years before they tell you what the real agenda is.
We have added Part Two: This claims that the ANTI-instrument people followed John Calvin. By maligning John Calvin you are supposed to believe that the ANTI-instrumentalists are also evil. Johnson speaks with some autority about Calvin and others but I am quite sure that none of the original resources have been seen much less read. Johnson also claims that only those offspring of Calvin rejected instruments. That is apparently why the Stoneites as offsprings of Cane Ridge were enlightened enough to deliberately sow discord and "steal the church houses of widows" and the churches of Christ have never been accused of it.
We will look at some other ancient writers both Tom Burgess and Ralph Johnson use to PROVE that psallo can still be such powerful proof of instrumental music AS worship that they can repudiate ALL non-restorationists that they can deliberately SOW DISCORD and blame the discorded for NOT affirming their treachery. ALL of the proof texts which are used point directly and explicitly to homosexual singer-musicians as "ministers" of the homosexual gods and goddesses. In another review we will look at this lady who is largely responsible for STOPPING the speaking or reciting of songs or poems and ADDING both tunes and instruments. Here she is: Miss Lesbos. We will post the Sappho connection soon because the writers Tom Burgess and A. Ralph Johnson appeal to for AUTHORITY to add instrumental music and promote sectarianism is about 1005% bound up in the feminine and effeminate origin of "threskia" worship or of "that Thracian" who was Orpheus. That is why James wrote:
Pure [CLEAN] religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27
Thresko (g2357) thrace'-kos; prob. from the base of 2360; ceremonious in worship (as demonstrative), i.e. pious: - religious.
Throeo (g2360) thro-eh'-o; from threomai , (to wail); to clamor, i.e. (by impl.) to frighten: - trouble
THOUGH I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling (wailing) cymbal. 1 Cor 13:1
And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. Mk.5:38
And when Jesus came into the rulers house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, Mt.9:23
Minstrels: Auletes (g834) ow-lay-tace'; from 832; a flute- player: - minstrel, piper
They are like unto children 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. Lu.7:32
And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; Re.18:22
Dwaine E. Dunning: 11/21/04The non-instrumental branch must be cut OFF. God always hides a MARK.
Isaiah 25, Isa 25: Isaiah Chapter 25: The branch of the terrible one is a song to be accompanied with instrumental music. Important changes made 11/30/04
1. Tom Burgess in Documents on Instrumental Music reviewed. .... Psallo and Instrumental Music: Proofs do not prove anything but the "music-homosexuality" connection. See more on Strabo's definition of the worship of Apollo or Abaddon or Apollyon: his MUSES are the locusts or musical performers in the book of revelation.
2. Tom Burgess More Review of Plutarch: if Psallo authorizes "church music" it authorizes a homosexual gathering.
3. Tom Burgess on Moralia confirms the "Music-Heresy-Perversion" connection which has no historical exception. 10/20/04
4. Tom Burgess on John Chrysostom: are the anti-instrumentalists ignorant rurals? 10/21/04 What about Paul and Martin Luther and John Calvin and Zwingli and--everyone who believed the Bible as authority.
5. M. C. Kurfees and G. C. Brewer on Psallo and Instrumental Music in worship. Thayer and Grimm reviewed by Tom Burgess.
9/25/04 Charles Daily Northwest College of the Bible Part One 11/30/04 ..... Part One A .....Part Two ..... THRESKIA or CHARISMATIC
There is NO concept of "music" in the ekklesia or assembly or 'synagogue of Christ' where we are invited to REST from the performing religionists and, in twos and threes, come learn of ME. Alert people do not need a LAW which says "thou shalt not do complex harmony" when the assemble and Timothy obeys Paul who said: "Give attendance to the public reading of the Word" to exhortation of that read portion and to the doctrine in that portion. Give attendance or give heed to the WORDS OF CHRIST is Paul's unique "worship" word. He grasped Jesus Who insisted that the worship in the NEW PLACE of His school of the Bible is in the HUMAN SPIRIT and not in the cheap seats being entertained by "worship ministers." That is why he said that the converted Jews now worship IN THE SPIRIT. Why was that? Because external worship opens the doors to the Judaizers and DOGS or performing, musical prostitutes.
Since JESUS PAID IT ALL we can grasp the common Greek message and CAST OUT THE PARASITES.
Parasitos, ho, one who eats at the table of another, and repays him with flattery and buffoonery, parasite
........II. of priests who had their meals at the public expense
The other "musical" connection is that one SHOOTS OUT hymns often in an insulting way.
Reviewed by Kenneth Sublett--No organization! E-mail
The anti-anti-instrumentalists are surely welcome to prove their superiority by finding an example where PSALLO is used in anything but pagan worship which is almost universally a homosexual priesthood leading people into the consious worship of the Mother of the Gods who were sexually impure. Click to see a collection of booming and clanging with NOT spiritual or educational or edifying component.
See James Frazer comments about noise producers used to summon or control the "gods." More of the CLANGING as sorcery.
Click for Psallo and Harp Twanging (fingers only: no plectrum) Note the "love arrows."
Take a look at just a sample of Tom Burgess who uses the ancient writers as AUTHORITY. By looking at the REST OF THE STORY we can confirm that music as a "worship" device was universally connected with the worship of homosexual gods and goddesses by homosexual priests or adherants. They piped hoping to get Jesus into this perverted singing and dancing.
Even words like GRACE are pointers: Grace was Chara and is the mother of CHARISMATIC worship which was musical and homosexual in the preferred form of pederasty USING young boys as "associate ministers" or priests.
See Charles Daily. We have come a complete review of his "scripture" for the musical sectarians. There are several parts.
See Review Number One
Number TwoSee more about the charismatic, bowing to Baal, prophesiers Charles Dailey sees as authority
See a review of Victor Knowles who appears to be the leader using "a cappells" people who will run with anyone to sell books. These people have already taken over their churches.
A. Ralph Johnson: partial review of adduced scholars. When you try to prove the unprovable you implicate you into music as external "worship." Too bad that there is no exception that it is ascribed to Satan and is the "carnal weapons" used in perverted forms of 'worship.' That is why Jesus DID NOT found a "worshiping commune" but an ekklesia or synagogue or school of the Bible. The early Restoration Movement leaders following the Campbells called it A School of Christ: a seminary EVERYONE must attend to be a ChristIAN. The STONEITES on the other hand gave birth to the Christian churches and a charismatic form of worship including the SHOUTING METHODISTS scheme which was turned into AN ACT OF WORSHIP. Can you believe it: hire us a Shouting Minister.
Again: They are substituted for the Bible, and tend to prevent free discussion. They are good for nothing unless used--and if used, they must be used as laws, or rules, or standards of doctrine. And if used in any of these ways, they are substituted for the Book of Christ left for the same purpose. They are used as a synopsis of religious truth, and save the trouble of searching the whole Bible for it.
Every church should be a theological school, and all the members should be students. It does no good for the minister to preach unless the people think. The church should be all awake, and engaged in discussion, and then [140] they would be prepared to be benefitted by the public labors of the minister.
If we would engage to build up, and not content ourselves with tearing down, we should do more. It will do no good to cry out against sectarianism.
There are warm-hearted, conscientious Christians in the sects; and if we will go on and do the work they love to see done better than they can do it in their own way, they will fall in; and before we are aware, the great sects will be gone. The labor of the church is to persuade men to turn to Christ; and let us go out into the highways and hedges, and labor and build up; and sectarianism will dissolve away like the dew. MILLENNIAL HARBINGER, NEW SERIES. VOLUME III. NUMBER III.B E T H A N Y, VA. MARCH, 1839.
The Lunenberg Letters--often lied about--prove that Alexander Campbell did not fellowship sectarians of which the musical SECTARIANS are the most destructive.
In our review of the Stone Campbell Movement we make it clear that there is LITTLE or no connection between non-instrumental churches of Christ and the Christian churches. They have different ROOTS, different authority and different outcomes.
Ralph's choice of Anti-Instrument as a "raca word" is full of errors: no one hates instruments. In his first thrust of a dangerous weapon he notes and we quote.
Ralph's choice of Anti-Instrument as a "raca word" is full of errors: no one hates instruments. In his first thrust of a dangerous weapon he notes and we quote.
A. Ralph Johnson: It seems incredible, that in a world groaning in despair, careening toward eternity, two factions of the body of Christ should be locked in mortal combat over the MOMENTOUS issue
Careening means to list to one side: one might suspect that Johnson LEANS decidely to the LEFT.
of whether one can use an organ to help with the whole song, or may only use a tuning fork to get the first note!
If you speak with one MIND and one MOUTH "that which is written" or if you speak or teach and admonish with the poetic inspired "that which is written" bible they you won't need a musical initiator or sustainer!
MUSIC was used to initiate groaning in despair in the garden of Eden. The same "serpent" is ophis or the musical enchanter. Music is the MARK of the music-groaning connection in all homosexual religionism. Click to move ahead or watch for OPIS below. The STING is a code word for the same end-time attack upon those who always refused to BOW OR BURN.
Don't get bluffed into a LITURGY which demands teaching and singing and playing mediators. You can come boldly before the Throne of Grace. But, remember that was the symbolic presence of God, His Mercy and His Word. Jesus said of the twos and threes who are absolutely burdened and groaning with tears from the clergy riding on their backs can "come learn of me." Music had meaning only in connection with the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent animals. God had turned them over to worship the starry hosts according to Stephen. ALL of the animals belong to God so Israel was cursed with a pagan "like the nation's" system which no singer, preacher, musician or dancer could relieve for very long. The very meaning of God in Christ is:
<>For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Heb 2:11
Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee Heb 2:12.Declare is:
Apaggello (g518) ap-ang-el'-lo; from 575 and the base of 32; to announce: - bring word (again), declare, report, shew (again), tell.
Aggelos (g32) ang'-el-os; from aggello, [prob. der. from 71; comp. 34] (to bring tidings); a messenger; esp. an "angel"; by impl. a pastor: - angel, messenger
Sing does not mean JUBILATE over killing animals to feed the gods but:
Apalgeo (g524) ap-alg-eh'-o; from 575 and algeo, (to smart); to grieve out, i.e. become apathetic: - be past feeling
Praise is:
Humneo (g5214) hoom-neh'-o; from 5215; to hymn, i.e. sing a religious ode; by impl. to celebrate (God) in song: - sing an hymn (praise unto).
Christ the Holy Spirit invites us to "come learn of Me." When WE sing "that which is written" God in Christ Himself permits us to "watch with Him one hour." He proclaims His own death as He grieves out a hymn.
If you fall into a charismatic, musical, jubilating fit when God comes near to participate with us as brothers then you have CRUCIFIED Him all over again and again.
When you understand pagan religionism and their use of music it is, as John agrees in Revelation, Sorcery: that is, it induces some kind of "spiritual anxiety through religious rituals" as REMOVED by Jesus Christ as "the laded burden" or the SELF-pleasing Paul outlaws for the Christian synagogue or ekklesia in Romans 15 as "creating mental excitement." Any claim to bring you into the presence of the very Deity does and intends to induce FEAR. That is a word defining Apollo or the Apollyon and the "muses" John defined as the LOCUSTS from common Legends (based on some facts) John warns about for the Mother of Harlots church in Revelation 17.And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. Heb 2:13
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
........... he also himself likewise took part of the same;
........... that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
........... that is, the devil; Heb 2:14And deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Heb 2:15
I would say that the NEW STYLE WORSHIP MUSIC has caused more moaning and groaning than about anything any sectarian could heap on Christ's Children than anything since the inquisitions.
The Jews killed tens of thousands of innocent animals and could never gain a secure spirit. Therefore, to attempt to get you to restore the Old Covenant Sacrificial System Hicks is trying to bring you back under bondage. Only when God took on the nature of a human which contained full Deity, and then died on the cross, could anyone get the true futility of trying to DO animal sacrifices to feed the gods always using music to appeas the gods or even to intimidate them.
For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Heb 2:16
Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Heb 2:17
Hilaskomai (g2433) hil-as'-kom-ahee; mid. from the same as 2436; to conciliate, i.e. (trans.) to atone for (sin), or (intrans.) be propitious: - be merciful, make reconciliation for.
The old debating ploy: associate the lack of evangelism with NOT using first a little lyre, then a "chist of whistles," then a pipe organ and a professional organists at a cost to feed all of the poor of these struggling NORTHERN towns. Now, a Rock and Roll (that "F" word) derived from Voodoo to make the "spirit" come just as Inanna did in her temples she built in Babylon. As the Vineyard lady promotes and the early introducers of instruments confessed, just before the LAST act of worship called giving of means.
The issue is Bible 101aaa. Paul said nothing about MUSIC in any form. The Restoration Movement tried to restore the church as A SCHOOL OF CHRIST where worship was defined as READING and DISCUSSING the Bible.
Common sense 101bbb proves that you CANNOT even think about doing a pagan MUSICAL RITUAL which cannot teach and which PREVENTS teaching the Word of Christ, the Spirit or "that which is written." It was Alexander Campbell who RESTORED the almost universal singing or reading or GIVING HEED to the Words of God in Christ with SINGING out of his newly published song book WITHOUT SHAPE NOTES. John Calvin was literate enough to read the Bible and grasp that there was NO CEREMONY called MUSIC in the Bible. This was not related to a knee-jerk reaction against the Catholics because the Catholics NEVER used the organs in the modern MUSICAL SENSE. Take a look at their fairly modern discussion of LITURGY and music.
The Catholic Encyclopedia also defines congregational singing;
McEvilly in his "Commentary" applies them to public and private meetings. St Augustine (Ep. cxix, ch. xviii) says:
"As to the singing of psalms and hymns, we have the proofs, the examples, and the instructions of the Lord Himself, and of the Apostles". (Cf. also Col., iii, 16; I Cor., xiv, 26.)
"In the ancient congregational singing both sexes took part; the words of St. Paul imposing silence on women in church being interpreted to refer only to exhorting or instructing.
"Duchesne describes how the earliest worship of the Christians was parallel to that, not of the Temple of the Jews at Jerusalem, but of the local synagogues, the Christians borrowing thence their four elements of Divine service-
the lections (reading parts of Scripture),
the chants (of the Psalter),
the homilies (explaining those passages of scriptures),
and the prayers.That is EXACTLY what Paul commanded!
See, even Catholics don't see SPEAK and translate it SING. That is what Paul told Timothy as a DIRECT COMMAND where "singing" was not a local, pagan issue at the time: "Give attendance to the public READING of the word, to exhorting (those passages read) and to doctrine (from those passages read.)
Why is it that people who have honored that for 2,000 years are suddenly ignorant, southern, red-necked mental basket cases?
The PEA, dear listeners, is under NEITHER walnut shell: there is no command, example or remote inference that the church SANG in the sense of TUNEFULNESS in the whole Bible which is not--even in its primative form--directly connected to Satan, prostitutes or Sodomites--little female children being the exception. The temple did not use MUSIC: Christ the Spirit called it "noise." It was used to SERVE the priests where service is defined as HARD BONDAGE while they endured the screams of innocent animals, blood, dung and burning flesh in a futile attempt to find ASSURANCE by a people who had FIRED Christ the Spirit and demanded a KING like the nations. God knew that it was so that they could WORSHIP LIKE THE NATIONS.
How do I know that: because as musicologists inform us "Melody as TUNEFULNESS belongs to the 19th century." Harmony, on the other hand, was SYMPHONIA which meant "moving together" as in Apollo's 'music' at the homosexual symposia. There was no connection between modern HARMONY and ancient MELODY.
Even melody was a WARFARE word and never a musical word: one SHOT real arrows or "love arrows" or one SHOT out hymns. One "twanged" the bowstring or one "twanged" the vocal cords both related to the Greek words for "tendons."
The LEFT "flight feathers" and the RIGHT "flight feathers" belong to the SAME BIRD who, according to Heredotus and the advice given to Cyrus concerning men TAKEN CAPTIVE: "make them into singers and flute players and hucksters and you will see them turn into women and give you no more trouble."
A. Ralph Johnson: How can it be that the agonized prayer of Jesus for his disciples to be, "ONE, that the world might believe" (Jn. 17:21), should be disregarded in order to bind on brothers a venerated archaic tradition?
Jesus didn't pray for UNITY OF
MUSICAL "WORSHIP" in a pagan sense: He prayed for unity based on His
WORD which was the Word of God Incarnate. Peter used "that which was
written" and vallidated by a FACE TO FACE revelation from Jesus The
Christ of God as a MARK to identify false teachers: we have no other
ABSOLUTE PROOF. Jesus said that the sons of the Devil "speak on their
own" and John refused to baptize the "generation of Vipers" and Paul
said that we could SAVE OURSELVES "from that crooked generation."
Remembering that Jesus had cast out the musical minstrels using a word
meaning "more or less violently" and often used of cast out like
Dung. That is because the prophecy of Psalm 41 was that Judas and
others would try to TRIUMPH OVER Jesus which word means to "blow wind
instruments and make a joyful noise before the Lord." This was not
worship but praising one's "god" as a way to panic the enemy into
cowardice. Lucifer as the "singing and harp playing prostitute"
in the garden of Eden used that to effect:
Acts 2:40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
The untoward or perverted or crooked generation were MARKED when....
G4646 skolios skol-ee-os' From the base of G4628 ; warped, that is, winding; figuratively perverse: crooked, froward, untoward.
Skolios 1 curved, winding, twisted, tangled, Lat. obliquus, Hdt., Eur., etc.:-- bent sideways, douleiê kephalê skoliê (Hor. stat capite obstipo) Theogn.: metaph. crooked, i. e. unjust, unrighteous , Il., Hes., etc.; skolia prattein, eipein Plat.:--so adv. skoliôs, Hes.
Prassô II. experience certain for- tunes, 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
Skoliotês 2. of men, crookedness, dishonesty, LXX Ez.16.5.
Skolion 1 [neut. of skolios] [sub. melos] a song which went round at banquets, sung to the lyre by the guests, Ar.; so called from its zigzag course-- each guest who sung holding a myrtle-branch murrinê, which he passed across the table to any one he chose.
Now, HERE is the audition for the Musical Worship Team.
(a) from skolios crooked, because of the crooked order of the singers, the bad singers being passed over, or the couches being crookedly arranged, Dicaearch.Hist.43, Aristox.Fr.Hist.59, Plu.2.615c, Sch. Pl.l.c. (b) later, the omission of the bad singers being ascribed to the difficulty or non-social character of the songs skolion was derived from duskolon or duskolia, Hsch., Sch.Ar.V. 1217; or it was said that the songs were easy, but appeared difficult to drunken revellers, Ar.Ach.532 Ra.1302, V.1222, Pl.Grg.451e
Jesus identified that "generation" as hoping that John--as a public prophet--wore the SOFT garments of the king's Catamite or male prostitute. He said that they were like CHILDREN in the Market Place (Agora) PIPING hoping that He and others would sing and dance the perverted Dionysus invitation to INITIATION.
Ar.Ach.532 Ar.Ach.532 Aristophanes, Acharnians Thus far the evil was not serious and we were the only sufferers. But now some young drunkards go to Megara and carry off the courtesan Simaetha; the Megarians, hurt to the quick, run off in turn with two harlots of the house of Aspasia; and so for three gay women Greece is set ablaze. Then Pericles, aflame with ire on his Olympian height, let loose the lightning, caused the thunder to roll, upset Greece and passed an edict, which ran like the song, That the Megarians be banished both from our land and from our markets and from the sea and from the continent. 3 Meanwhile the Megarians, who were beginning to die of hunger, begged the Lacedaemonians to bring about the abolition of the decree, of which those harlots were the cause; several times we refused their demand; and from that time there was horrible clatter of arms everywhere.
Note: 3 A song by Timocreon the Rhodian, the words of which were practically identical with Pericles' decree.
Jesus identified his God-role as SON as the WORD of God the FATHER whose THOUGHT He reproduced 100% faithfully. That WORD then was Spirit and Life (John 6:63). Jesus identified the clergy of Pharisees (professional preacher-prayers), Scribes (book, song and lecture writers for sale) and the SECT of the Hypocrites (performing actors, singers, musicians all identified in the Greek world as PARASITES) as CHILDREN of the Devil because THEY spoke on their own and THEIR father spoke on His own.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. John 17:6
The name is Jesus Christ or the Christ of God and NOT Christian.
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. John 17:7
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me;
........... and they have received them,
........... and have known surely that I came out from thee,
........... and they have believed that thou didst send me. John 17:8While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. John 17:12
The Judas bag was "for carrying the mouthpieces of wind instruments."
During the assembly, QAHAL or church in the wilderness God outlawed wind instruments and
........... "making a joyful noise before the Lord". which was the warrior's panic "music."
........... The process word is ALARM or TRIUMPH OVER.
Psalm 41 prophesied that Judas would not TRIUMPH OVER Jesus using that "musical word."
Judas fail as prophesied but the Levitical Warrior "musicians" mocked Jesus to His death.The abominable BRANCH and the BRANCH of the terrible ones is defined as:
........... Zamiyr (h2158) a song to be accompanied with instrumental musicThe musical MINSTRELS or flute players attacked Jesus by presuming to perform the musical rituals with and for the dead girl. Jesus CAST THEM OUT like dung just as Lucifer was cast as profane out of God's presence.
And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. John 17:13
I have given them THY WORD; and the world hath hated them,
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. John 17:14Remember that in Romans 15 Paul COMMANDED that we use one MIND and one MOUTH to glorify God by speaking "that which is written." In Ephesians
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Eph 5:19
You CANNOT be unified if you refuse to IMITATE Christ by SPEAKING the Word of God as it had been heard from the Father Who was within.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. John 17:15
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. John 17:16
SANCTIFY them through THY TRUTH: thy WORD is TRUTH. John 17:17It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit, and they are life Jn 6:63As thou hast sent ME into the world, even so have I also SENT them into the world. John 17:18
And for their sakes I SANCTIFY myself, that they also might be SANCTIFIED through the TRUTH. John 17:19
........... Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which
........... shall believe on ME through THEIR WORD; John 17:20That they all may be ONE; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:21
As part of the High Church movement the musical churches repudiate SPEAKING that which has been taught because as a LIVING CHURCH they claim the right to get a NEW VISION. That is why they do not imate Christ but they SING: they do not speak that which is written but their OWN "inspired" songs and sermons. This is the reason for deliberately sowing discord and then BLAMING those who have been shot in the heart for bleeding on the shooters.
If people disobey Paul's DIRECT COMMAND for the elders as the only pastor-teachers along with the deacons who were more mobile to "teach that which has been taught" they they CANNOT be a SON of God in the sense that Christ was a SON: speaking only what He heard from the Father within. The UNITY based on the Word was defined by Thomas Campbell and others seeking UNITY for a SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE and not a pagan worship center meant "glorifying God with ONE MOUTH and ONE MIND by speaking 'that which is written.'" That, in Romans 15 defines a synagogue of Christ where His example was not to PLEASURE Himself and that would solve the division created by two major "musical" SECTS in Rome: the Dionysiacs and Orphics.
This is the next DEBATER'S BIG LIE: the NOT playing music which is 100% the work of human hands and even Jubal and Nimrod knew SEDUCED people is a venerated archaic tradition. I may be PRICKING INTEREST and be excused because all literate Bible scholars know for a fact that MUSIC was that which Satan used to WHOLLY SEDUCE Eve in the Garden of Eden which Paul identified as a SEXUAL seduction. The serpent "parable" word which God used from the foundation of the world to fool the retailers of Divine truth (Matthew 13) would have been known to Abraham as he wrote out CUBE ROOTS on clay tablets (likely) as a ten year old kid to mean a Musical Enchanter.
Any sincere student would know that the UNIVERSAL literature, some written on clay tablets a thousand years before Moses, associated MUSIC with a religion of sexuality, perversion and "navigating the gates of hell." He or she would know that the Spirit of Christ used music as the MARKER of those who refused to listen to the Words of God. They would know that Jesus CAST OUT the musical minstrels just as Satan was CAST OUT of God's presence as one EJECTS DUNG. The same city officials regulated the flute-girls (prostitutes), cemetary and dung heap in Athens.
They would have connected Revelation 18:22 to the "holy whore" whose name was CIRCE in the area of John's Patmos: she is worshipped each time we think CHURCH where we fight over ANY kind of music instead of the ekklesia or synagogue or SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE Jesus died to give us to provide REST. The Greek PAUO is spring-loaded toward the demand to STOP the preaching, STOP the singing, STOP the musicians. Just STOP it and quit using MUSIC to TAKE CAPTIVE and TRIBULATE people just to get money. It is called the DOUBLE CROSS and people get the authority for MUSIC the same place they get the LAW OF GIVING.
A. Ralph Johnson: Those who insist that we imbibe this party spirit have often berated us as cowards, without the courage of our convictions, for refusing to meet in the middle of the street with six-guns ablaze to defend our cause. That does not settle who is right. It only indicates who thinks he has an edge on being able to make someone else look bad, --or who has the more fragile vanity. My daddy used to say, "when two fellows try to see who can be the dirtiest, -- the one that wins, IS!
The DIRTY DOZEN or more are those who are not OF Christ because they do not take the WORD out INTO the world. ALL preachers could be one and speak the same things absolutely if they obeyed Romans 15 which would settle all diversity seen in Romans 14. If they SPEAK they imitate Jesus: if they SING and PLAY they imitate Judas and the abominable branch. If they speak made up sermons they cannot be SONS of God or they would imitate Jesus and speak ONLY what the FATHER reveals.
I think that Ralph and all of the new ANTI-Antis must be looking at a mirror: surely any reader can read Ralph's harsh judgmentalism of people who will not BOW OR BURN and understand that Ralph must be seeing in a mirror brightly.
The old DEBATER'S TRICK is to
shoot the oponent in the heart with one of Apollo's Arrows (he is Abaddon or Apollyon and his
LOCUSTS are the Muses
of Revelation 18:22) and then riducule him for MAKING MELODY as he
beats his
heels.
The word PSALLO never means
MELODY in the Greek texts. Melody is the word MELOS and always
defines the musical worship of Apollo (Apollyon) by the muses which are
the LOCUSTS working for the Mother of Harlots in Revelation 17.
That is why John calls rhetoricians, singers and musicians SORCERERS.
And so ALL singing and musical words speak of ENCHANTMENT which is Sorcery.
She said, and from her quiver chose with speed
The winged shaft, predestin'd for the deed;
Then to the stubborn yew her strength applied,
Till the far distant horns approach'd on either side.Music as the conflict of opposites meaning that it creates ANXIETY is based on the fact that the bow was often made of two pieces of horn joined in the middle. This was the point of GREAT TENSION [psallo, sop, grinding] which working against the great stress in the string TWANGED forth the literal arrow. The same process is at work when WORKERS shoots forth hymns in the performing sense. This is the most WORKS INTENSIVE thing done in the name of religion.
Keras I. the horn of an animal, in Hom. mostly of oxen, as a symbol of strength III. anything made of horn, 1. bow, 2. of musical instruments, horn for blowing, also, the Phrygian flute, because it was tipped with horn 8. of the pêcheis of the lyre
The bowstring touch'd her breast, so strong she drew;
Whizzing in air the fatal arrow flew.
........At once the twanging bow and sounding dart
........The traitor heard, and felt the point within his heart.Him, beating with his heels in pangs of death,
His flying friends to foreign fields bequeath.
........ The conqu'ring damsel, with expanded wings,
........ The welcome message to her mistress brings.Classical writers and church fathers note that this is a WOMAN'S WORLD. Men who sang and played were drunk on wine or perverted.
Euripides Ion
Strong though thy beak beyond the feather'd kind,
My bow shall reach thee. Towards the altar, see,
A swan comes sailing: elsewhere wilt thou moveThy scarlet-tinctured foot? or from my bow
The lyre of Phoebus [Apollo, Apollyon] to thy notes attuned
Will not protect thee; farther stretch thy wings;Go, wanton, skim along the Delian lake,
........ Or wilt thou steep thy melody in blood.Look, what strange bird comes onwards; wouldst thou fix
Beneath the battlements thy straw-built nest?My singing bow shall drive thee hence; begone,
Or to the banks of Alpheus, gulfy stream, grace
Or to the Isthmian grove; there hatch thy young;Mar not these pendent ornaments, nor soil
........ The temple of the god: I would not kill you:
'Twere pity, for to mortal man you bear
........ The message of the gods; yet my due task
Must be perform'd, and never will I cease
........ My service to the god who nurtured me.
That is because our Apollyon or Abaddon was the father of "twaning bow strings to shoot you in the heart, father of liers and father of thieves." He shot LOVE ARROWS from his lyre. The ONLY connection PSALLO has with music is in the sense of SHOOTING FORTH HYMNS and PLUCKING THE HEART STRINGS.
Augustine wrote of those under the burden of musical superstition. This is why lifeless instruments and carnal weapons mean the same thing.
Again, if you prefer to test the presence of God by the agreeable effects on the hearing, and not sight, or smell, or taste, harps get their strings and pipes their bones from animals; and these become musical by being dried, and rubbed, and twisted.
So the pleasures of music, which you hold to have come from the divine kingdom, are obtained from the refuse of dead animals, and that, too, when they are dried by time, and lessened by rubbing, and stretched by twisting. Such rough treatment, according to you, drives the divine substance from living objects; even cooking them, you say, does this. Why then are boiled thistles not unwholesome? Is it because God, or part of God, leaves them when they are cooked?
Paul called them lifeless instruments which is quite identical to carnal weapons: both were considered military weapons as indeed the word PSALLO makes perfectly clear.
Paul began Romans 15 which defined a Synagogue or School of the Bible which glorified God by speaking "that which is written." The FIRST direct command to be Christ-like is DON'T PLEASURE YOURSELVES. This means to EXCITE and singing was a primary effort to EXCITE people to carry them away for the heretic's OWN USE.
All pagans used MUSIC in their anguished worship because they believed that the gods lived inside: when you rubbed them or stroked them they SPOKE to you. That is why Habbakuk warns about trying to AWAKEN idols as David tried to awaken his harp: when God is in HIS holy temple then all of the earth should KEEP SILENCE or get out.
A. Ralph Johnson: A Word of Caution
One difficulty with writing is, to accurately convey feelings. It is also difficult, when a subject affects millions of people in different ways, to speak to the needs of each without leaving others feeling pained that they have been lumped with the "bad guys." In citing arguments made against instrumental, I do not wish to imply that all anti-instrumentalists hold to all of them.
I recognize that most anti-instrumentalists are wise enough to reject many of the really outrageous ones. I do not wish to blame all for the folly of a few.
Did you hear the parable of the Doctor and the Idiot? Well, it seems that a doctor wanted to go west and minister to the health of poor Indians. He had a friend who was the village idiot. He jumped, skipped, sang and pretended that he could cure insanity. He slobbered into his lice-infested beard and wanted the ladies to kiss him. Well, they went west and met the Indians. They burned the doctor at the stake and worshipped the idiot as a god. The "worlds" first professionals had a DUAL OCCUPATION:
I don't have space to develop it here, but the sacrifices of Cain and Abel speak volumes about the ancient fertility rituals of the agriculture society which depended on singing, dancing, playing instruments and having sex with the "gods" in the person of the "ministers of the gods." Religionism is not Christianity.
"The development both of religion and of the arts can be traced back in a continuous line to the hunting era. The group ritual of the primeval tribesmen were the origin not only of all religious ceremonial, but also of the drama and of poetry and music, while magic gave birth to the visual arts." (H. Bamfort Parks, p. 30 Of Gods and Men).
"Awed by the mysteries of his own spirit no less than by those of nature, primitive man was likely to attribute to divine influence
any abnormal emotional state, whether above or below the usual level. Medicine men customarily
........... went into states of trance in which they were believed to be in communication with the gods,
........... and many tribes supposed lunatics and sexual deviants to be divinely possessed.A resemblance between the sacrificial garments of ancient ritual and the costume of a household jester in the Middle Ages--coxcomb, eared hood, bells, and bauble, with a motley coat--has been noted.
In most early societies, moreover, men evolved techniques for deliberaly inducing the abnormal forms of consciousness in which they supposed themselves to achieve union with divine power, sometimes by the use of drugs and other physiological stimuli, sometimes by hypnotic dances and music. The wild utterances to which they gave vent on such occasions were regarded as the words of a god and were interpreted as divine commands or predictions of future events." (Parkes, p. 32-33).
"Dancing is a bodily gnosis, a release of powerful internal stimulants and a revelling in the physical excitement these stimulants inspire. Dancing (and its partner music) is also a celebration of the experience of the true BODY, our immediate experience felt in all its power, which is timeless because it knows no past or future.. É. the present moment - the moment in which our entire lives are lived - has the greatest value to us when we approach it as we approach musicÉ The present moment is valued not because it serves as a means to an ultimate assumed gratification, but because it is an immediate source of joy itself. The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance." Gyrus T - " Dionysus Risen"
Sorry, but I just have to believe that Ralph is trying to PULL a fast something. Yet, I believe that when you reject the truth God sends a strong delusion. There is not a bit of Bible, ancient contemporaneous documents, Classical or other period writings, the church fathers or founders of denominations who will accept Ralph's claim that ANTI-instrumentalists are just evil and outrageous. At sometime this means SOUTHERN, ignorant, red necks. But, Ralph doesn't grasp that NONE of the churche sin the South USED music. Not even Catholics or Anglicans had a MUSICAL RITUAL. One needs to read the history of Jewish and Catholic Liturgical music and see that NONE of this fits the charismatic musical performance.
None of the churches of Christ in the South ever USED instruments as churches known down through church history known as THE CHURCH OF CHRIST never used instruments or any form of modern CHARISMATIC (sexual) forms of SANGING four-part Fanny.
Churches of Christ faithful to the UNIVERSAL EVIDENCE never USED music so how can Ralph and his misleaders CLAIM that they are outrageous sowers of discord. Ralph's bunch said BOW OR BURN and faithful churches did not BOW. Ralph, by association, takes on all of the BLOOD and deliberate discord sowed by INTRODUCING instruments which had NO reason to adduce a silly PSALLO argument. They said, "we gonna do it 'spite of hell and you can get with it or get out." That is a historical fact.
Now, Ralph and friends have fulfilled the Jubal or Genun prototype: they have fallen and cannot get up. The only solution was to try to FORCE others to join to feel COMFORTABLE. Blaming others is the old DEBATE game whether you speak it for God and the world to hear or write it out to continue to sow discord. This Prototype is seen in the BOOK OF ENOCH (quoted by Jesus and others at least 128 times), Book of Jubiless, books of Adam and Eve and 3 dozen other documents I have posted on my pages. This is the GENUN story: read it and weep. Jude still said that God will come with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment: the CAUSE of the fall is allowing SATAN to lead you into musical seduction.
A. Ralph Johnson: Permit me also to explain that I use the term, "anti-instrumental" rather than "non-instrumental" or "a cappella brethren," because those two terms fail to fully express the essence of our situation.
........... There are many who by preference, circumstance,
........... or for other reasons, do not use instrumental music
........... but do NOT believe that it is sinful.One may by choice sing a-cappella.
........... By "anti-instrumental" I mean those
........... opposed to religious use of instrumental music, as sinful.I have no problem with those who simply prefer to sing unaccompanied.
Instrumental music is not sinful although it is NEVER used as far as I know except by someone trying to profit on their skill by manipulating the pleasure centers of others for a PROFIT. But that is why Lucifer "the singing and harp-playing prostitute" was guilty of TRAFFICKING. It was sinful when it attempted to BLEED off worship due only to God.
Or MUSIC might be sinful where Jesus promises to meet with us as the ONLY TEACHER. Maybe it would not be sinful but it was UNLAWFUL to "triumph" or "alarm" with music when the assembly was called only for instructions.
Singing with instruments is NOT sinful: the MORTAL SIN provable to all readers is that MUSIC in the public SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE AND OF CHRIST has always said to God: we WILL NOT listen to your word. If you made it past the slowest in the slow group at kindergarten you will be able to grasp that you choose NOT to hear the Word of Christ the Spirit "as it has been spoken" by telling God: We WILL NOT (for this 'worship' period) listen to YOUR WORDS. First, they are NOT the metrical material composed by Christ the Spirit to teach rather than to seduce. Second, it is a human impossibility to SPEAK and SANG at the same time. Third, it is a human impossiblity to GIVE HEED (Paul's unique 'worship' word) to the words of Christ and the performing musicians at the same time. It has always been known that MUSIC produces the impulses of FIGHT, FLIGHT or SEXUALITY. That is why musicians are USED to bring in people to put their widow's mite into the temple's colleciton plates which were called TRUMPETS.
ANYONE who MOUNTS the pulpit or bema or HIGH PLACE knows that they are the CENTER of focus and it CANNOT BE otherwise. That is why Jesus stood up at the pulpit [which held up the Bible and not the preacher], read the Bible and then had the uncommon decency to SIT DOWN and do what Paul commanded Timothy and what we have quoted from the Catholic Encyclopedia above.
|
Here is probably one of the
oldest accounts of the fertility rituals: Wherefore do the
wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
Job 21:7
The Logical conclusion is:
Why would the "Spirit of Christ" remotely associate "musical worship" with the fertility, BREEDING rituals if He intended to COMMAND it? Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. Eze 33:30
Judah would be brought down to again speak through their "familiar spirits." These were old wineskins or nebels or harps in which they believed they could get a better message than from God. The strangers they had collected with rituals--even burning babies to the sound of instruments--were adulterers just looking for a better gig. They were led by violent or tyrannical men. They would just burn themself up like chaff: He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites (ACTORS), as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Mark 7:6 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men (Songs). Mark 7:7 For laying aside the commandment (songs) of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. Mark 7:8 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment (songs) of God, that ye may keep (sing) your own tradition. Mark 7:9 The hypocrites were not just mistaken people: they were a major SECTARIAN group. This included rhetoricians, sOPHISts (serpents), singers, musicians and craftsmen. These were the techne [Koresh in Hebrew] and they specialized in singing, house or theater building (now how stealing) and state managing. |
A. Ralph Johnson: My purpose is to expose error in these arguments, and set forth sound evidence to show that instrumental accompaniment is authorized for Christians.
Parasitos, ho, one who eats at the table of another, and repays him with flattery and buffoonery, parasite
........ II. of priests who had their meals at the public expense
God permitted a pagan form of ritual because the elders "fired" God and demanded a king like the nations. God understood this to means so we can worship like the nations. He declared that they would not get by with this and He facilitated their trip to Babylon.
ALL sacrificial altars came into disrepute: a house of merchandise and a den of thieves. Those who served these pagan altars were known as PARASITES. When animal sacrifices ceased, the priestlings and musicians just KEPT ON being parasites--even after Jesus put an end to them all.
Parasiteô 1 [from parasi_tos]
I. to play the parasite or toad-eater, Luc.
II. to be honoured with a seat at the public table, Plut.Speaking of those seduced by music in many documents such as The Book of Enoch quoted by Jude to explain FOR WHOM God will come in judgment:
But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt [waste away from a musical note] themselves. Jude 1:10
Woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain [meaning a musical note], and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. Jude 1:11
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. Jude 1:13
These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Jude 1:12
Paul understood that one cannot SING externally and SPEAK externally at the same time. Neither could he find any basis for supposing that SING and PLAY are one word.
He also knew that there were words which meant PLAY but he did not use any of the dozen or so. For instance:
Kômôidoloicheô 1 [leichô] to play the parasite and buffoon, Ar.
Kumbal-izô , play the cymbals
Lurôideô , play the lyre
Cithari-zo kitharizô, to play on or strike the cithara
When Ralph appeals to Lucian of Samosata--as do they all--to prove that psallo continued to mean singing AND playing instruments we hope that he not aware that he has been LED by some UNholy spirit to prove that music was the weapon of RELIGIONISTS. That is why God revealed to Paul that our melody must be in the form of GRACE in our hearts and not shooting people with arrows or other things to wound or destroy them.
Lucian of Samosata, Vol III, TOXARIS: A DIALOGUE OF FRIENDSHIP, defines instrumentalist and performers as parasites although he says that one does not require a musical instrument to be a parasite.
"This was the lady whom Dinias's parasites now associated with them; they played their subordinate part well, and between them fairly hustled the boy into a passion for Chariclea.
"Such a finished mistress of the art of perdition,
........... who had ruined plenty of victims before,
........... and acted love-scenes and swallowed fine fortunes without number,
........... ........... was not likely to let this simple inexperienced youth out of her clutches.."The rest, of course, was easy. How was he to resist this pretty woman, with her captivating manners, her well-timed tears,
........... her parenthetic sighs? Lingering farewells, joyful welcomes,
........... judicious airs and graces, song and lyre,--
........... all were brought to bear upon him.Johnson and Tom Burgess CLAIM that Lucian of Samosata proves that "psallo" or melody INCLUDES a musical instrument. What Lucian said was that "you cannot play a lyre IF you have not a lyre." Or you cannot ride a horse IF you have not a horse.
Women were OUTLAWED in the assembly because it is utterly impossible for them to be vocal and non-sedentary without exercising authority. That word is AUTHENTIA which means erotic and murderous.
Maybe it is because MUSIC has always been an UNFAIR weapon to massage people in order to get them to fall into a charismatic state. Maybe it is NOT that they couldn't carve out a flute from bamboo. Maybe God thinks that it is EVIL to USE music in order to USE people when everyone knows that it like getting a lady drunk on a drug so you can mollest her. Maybe it is NOT because people knew that pagans used instruments and the simple-minded red-necks just wanted to OUTRAGE the people from North Palestine.
From VolIII, A PORTRAIT-STUDY, Lucian notes that MAYBE music and rhetorical speaking is the MARK of an effeminate performer and the "treasurers" KNOW that the best way to attract the masses is to put on a SHOW. Plato notes that music and drama always subjects the PLAYERS to "gender bleed."
"The pitch, exquisitely soft, as far removed from masculine bass as from ultra-feminine treble, is that of a boy before his voice breaks; sweet, seductive, suavely penetrating; it ceases, and still vibrating murmurs play, echo-like, about the listener's ears, and Persuasion leaves her honeyed track upon his mind.
But oh! the joy, to hear her sing,
and sing to the lyre's accompaniment."Let swans and halcyons and cicalas [locusts] then be mute. There is no music like hers; Philomela's self, 'full-throated songstress' though she be, is all unskilled beside her. Methinks Orpheus and Amphion, whose spell drew even lifeless things to hear them, would have dropped their lyres and stood listening in silence to that voice. What should Thracian Orpheus, what should Amphion, whose days upon Cithaeron were divided betwixt his lyre and his herd,-
what should they know of true concord, of accurate rhythm, of accentuation and time, of the harmonious adaptation of lyre and voice, of easy and graceful execution?
Clement notes that all of the musical gods were perverted: But perhaps when he was such he was a man; but now these fables seem to have grown old on our hands. Zeus is no longer a serpent, a swan, nor an eagle, nor a licentious man; the god no longer flies, nor loves boys, nor kisses, nor offers violence, although there are still many beautiful women, more comely than Leda, more blooming than Semele, and boys of better looks and manners than the Phrygian herdsman. Where is now that eagle? where now that swan? where now is Zeus himself? He has grown old with his feathers; for as yet he does not repent of his amatory exploits, nor is he taught continence. The fable is exposed before you: Leda is dead, the swan is dead. Seek your Jupiter. Ransack not heaven, but earth.
The manifold symbols of Apollo correspond with the multitude of his attributes. The commonest is either the lyre or the bow, according as he was conceived as the god of song or as the far-hitting archer. The Delphian diviner, Pythian Apollo, is indicated by the tripod, which was also the favourite offering at his altars. Among plants, the bay, used for purposes of expiation, was early sacred to him. (See Daphné.) It was planted round his temples, and plaited into garlands of victory at the Pythian Games. The palm-tree was also sacred to him, for it was under a palm-tree that he was born in Delos. Among animals, the wolf, the dolphin, the snow-white and musical swan, the hawk, raven, crow, and snake were under his special protection; the last four in connection with his prophetic functions.
Apollo exercises an elevating and inspiring influence on the mind as god of music, which, though not belonging to him alone any more than atonement and prophecy, was yet pre-eminently his province.