Bill.Lawrence.Instrumental.Music.in.Worship
Anathema.And.Musical.Worship
Among
pagans, words
were not for information but for controlling the forces of the universe. If you had
"charisma" which according to H.B. Parkes, possessed irrational, emotional or sexual abnormalities.
-Plato
Laws 10 [885d] that before threatening
us harshly, you should first try to convince and teach
us, by producing adequate proofs, that gods exist, and
that they are too good to be wheedled by gifts and
turned aside from justice. For as it is, this and
such as this is the account of them we hear from those
who are reputed the best of poets -[poiētōn], orators[rhētorōn], seers -[manteōn], oida],
priests [hiereōn], and
thousands upon thousands of others; and
consequently most of us,
instead
of seeking to avoid wrong-doing,
do
the wrong and then try to make it good.
-manti^s pl. mantides
Suid.s.v. Sibulla:
diviner, seer, prophet,. of Apollo and
Cassandra, Id.Ag.1275;
of the Pythian priestess, II. a kind of
grasshopper, the praying mantis, Mantis
religiosa
-10.[909a] shall hold
intercourse with them, save only those who
take part in the nocturnal assembly, and
they shall company with them to minister
to their souls' salvation by admonition;
and when the period of their incarceration has
expired, if any of them seems to be reformed,
he shall dwell with those who are reformed,
but if not, and if he be convicted again on a
like charge, he shall be punished by
death. But as to all those who have become
like ravening beasts, and who,
besides holding that the gods are negligent
[909b]
or open
to bribes, despise men, charming
the souls of many of the living, and claiming
that they charm the souls of the dead,
and promising to persuade
the gods by bewitching them, as
it were, with sacrifices, prayers
and incantations,1 and who try thus
to wreck utterly not only individuals, but
whole families [Oikia household]
and States for the sake of money
PROOF ONE: IN
ADDITION TO "ROBBING TEMPLES" WHY BILL LAWRENCE AND THE
EX-CHURCH OF CHRIST CANNOT BE CHRISTIANS.
John 8:26 I have
many things to say and to judge of you:
but he that sent me
is true;
and I SPEAK to the
world those things which I have HEARD of him.
John 8:27 They understood not that he spake to them of the
Father.
John 8:28 Then said Jesus unto them,
When ye have lifted
up the Son of man,
then shall ye know
that I am he,
and that I do
nothing of myself;
but as my Father hath taught me,
I speak these things.
John 8:29 And he that sent me is with me:
the Father hath not
left me alone;
for I DO
always those things that PLEASE him.
John 8:30 As he spake these WORDS, many believed
on him.
John 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on
him,
IF ye continue in my
WORD, then are ye my disciples indeed;
The Word or Logos is not and cannot be a
God: God's Word has the same meaning as HIS light or
life. LOGOS is god's regulative principle which
heaps BURNING on all who are ANTI-LOGOS.
The Word or Logos is used to REPUDIATE
Hermes who was the Pagan gender-conflicted god of
merchants, thieves and liars. He is KAIROS used as
a pattern for new PLANTS. He was the messenger or
intercessor of all Cults which go beyong the Ekklesia or
a School of Christ.
God's WORD or LOGOS consists of
inclusive and exclusive things connected with how God
puts His WORD into the MOUTH of Jesus for the last time
without the help of A Holy Spirit person.
http://pineycom.com/RSLogos.html
John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall
make you free.
John 8:33 They answered him, We be Abrahams seed,
and were never in
bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
John 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto
you,
Whosoever committeth
sin is the servant of sin.
John 8:35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever:
but the Son abideth
ever.
John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free,
ye shall be free
indeed.
John 8:37 I know that ye are Abrahams seed;
but ye seek to kill
me, because my WORD hath no place in you.
John 8:38 I SPEAK
that which I have seen with my Father:
and ye DO that which ye have seen
with your father
Devil Do: poiētai
4. after Hom., of Poets, compose,
write, p. dithurambon, epea, Hdt.1.23,
4.14;
p. theogoniēn
Epos joined with muthos,
1. song or lay accompanied by music, 8.91,17.519.
2. fiction (opp. logos,
historic truth), THE REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE
Hdt. 1.23 Periander, who
disclosed the oracle's answer to Thrasybulus, was the son of
Cypselus, and sovereign of Corinth.
The Corinthians say (and the Lesbians agree) that the most
marvellous thing [Lying Wonders] that happened to him
in his life was the landing on Taenarus of Arion
of Methymna,
brought there by a dolphin. This Arion was a lyre-player
second to none in that age; he was the first man whom we
know to compose and name the dithyramb1
which he afterwards taught at Corinth.
Devil Do: LATIN:
făcĭo ,
to make
in all senses, to do, perform,
accomplish, prepare, produce,
bring to pass, cause, effect,
create, commit, perpetrate, form,
fashion,
operor Lying Wonder,
poλma, to
compose, id. Pis. 29, 70:
carmina, Juv. 7, 28:
versus, id. 7, 38:
sermonem, Cic. Fam. 9, 8,
1; cf. litteram, id. Ac. 2, 2, 6:
ludos, to celebrate, exhibit, admirationem alicujus rei alicui, to
excite [the Laded Burden],
Devil Do: carmen
I.a tune, song;
poem, verse; an oracular response, a
prophecy; a form of incantation (cf.: cano,
cantus, and canto). note, sound, both
vocal and instrumental also
versus,
numeri,
modi):
carmen
tuba
ista
peregit
( = sonus),
Enn. Ann. 508 Vahl.: carmine
vocali
clarus
citharāque
Philammon,
Ov. M. 11, 317;
cf. vocum,
id. ib. 12, 157:
per
me
(sc. Apollinem)
concordant
carmina
nervis
barbaricum,
id. M. 11, 163.With
allusion to playing on the cithara: The Moher o Harlots in John
17
Carminibus
Circe
socios
mutavit
Ulixi,
Devil Do: Commercium
sermonis,
7
In mercant. lang., to practise,
exercise, follow
any trade or profession: 8.
In
relig. lang., like the Gr. rhezein,
to perform or celebrate
a religious rite; to offer
sacrifice, make an
offering, to sacrifice:
Devil Do: Mousa
II. mousa,
as Appellat., music, song, m.
stugera
A.Eu.308
(anap.); euphamos
Id.Supp.695
Kanakhan
.Clanging Brass
Theias
as many
as made them hope by divinations, Madness caused by
Ritual
worship as divine,
Puthagoran
[Of the Cosmos, the Ecumenical, Kingdom of the Devil."
Antiluron
mousas
S.Tr.643
(lyr.); PLAYING THE LYRE
Aiakō
moisan
phereinI. bear or carry a
load, A Laded Burden
5.06.20
Ephesians 5 commands SPEAKING and in
Romans 15 "using one mind and one mouth" to
"speak that which is written for our
LEARNING. There is no evidence that
people who Sow Discord and steal the churches
of widows HAVE or evne NEED to understand what
they so savagely teach with the command
authority of WOLVES. Paul would have
understood that the "psalms" or Mizmors in the
Book of Psalms are 50 used by their private
devotion but never in a Worship
Assembly. Furthermore, both ODE and
PSALLO are silenced. All "singing"
or "names" of instruments are the Carnal
Weapons of Sorcerers or Witches.
PROOF TWO: WHY BILL LAWRENCE CANNOT BE
ONE OF THE FEW LOST SPIRITS.
God didn't command the
King, Kingdom, Priests, Levites, Animal
Slaughter, singers, instrument players: God
abandoned them to this because of their
Instrumental-Trinitarian-Perverted Idolatry
at Mount Sinai for which there was no
redemption. God saved David from execution:
Acts 7:46 Who
found favour before God,
and desired to find
a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
Acts 7:47 But Solomon built him an house.
Acts 7:48 Howbeit the most High
dwelleth not in
temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
Acts 7:49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool:
what house will ye
build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
Acts 7:50 Hath not my hand made all these things?
Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears,
ye do always resist
the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
PROOF
THREE:
There is not a single
example of God's people, including David, who is ever
said to WORSHIP by preaching, by listening, by
singing, by making instrumental noise, acting or
building houses and forcing the honest believers to
PAY FOR PLAY.
http://pineycom.com/Acts.17.25.God.Not.Worshipped.Mens.Hands.html
Gen. 17:3 And Abram FELL ON HIS FACE:
and God talked with him, saying,
Gen. 17:17 Then Abraham FELL UPON HIS FACE,
and laughed, and said in his heart,
Shall a child be born
unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that
is ninety years old, bear?
Gen. 50:18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his
face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
Lev. 9:24 And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and
consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which
when all the people saw, they shouted, and FELL
ON THEIR FACES
Another
Version with IOCC Roots
Ov. Met. 11.146
When Pan had
doone, the sacred Tmole to Phebus
turnd his looke,
And with the turning of his head his busshye
heare he shooke.
Then Phebus [Apollineos]
with a crowne of Bay uppon his golden
heare
Did sweepe the ground with scarlet
robe. In left hand he did beare
His viol made of precious stones [ gemma and
Ivorye intermixt.
Ăpollĭnĕus
, a, um, adj. id.,
I.relating
or
belonging to Apollo (only
poet.):
urbs,
i. e.
Delos,
where Apollo was born and
specially honored,
Ov. M. 13, 631:
proles,
i. e.
Ζsculapius,
id. ib. 15, 533:
mater,
i. e.
Latona,
Stat. Th. 11, 12:
vates,
i. e.
Orpheus,
Ov. M. 11, 8:
ars, both
the art of soothsaying,
id. Ib. 264,
and
that of healing,
id. Tr. 3, 3, 10:
cantus,
id. M. 11, 155
et saep.
Mater
Cybele, the mother of all the gods: matris magnae sacerdos,
cymbala circum, Verg. G. 4,
Venus, Ov. H. 16, 201:
cupidinum,
i. e. Venus, Hor. C. 1, 19,
Of the earth, as the mother of all
Mūsa , ae, f., =
Mousa,
I.a muse, one of the goddesses of
poetry, music, and the other liberal arts. et
cum
doctrinā
habeat
aliquod
commercium,
gemma
multas
in
digitis,
plures
in
carmine
gemmas
Invenies,
Mart. 5, 11, 3:
My friend Stella, Severus, wears on his fingers
sardonyxes, emeralds, diamonds, jaspers. Though there are
many gems on his fingers, there are more in his verses,
whence, I conclude, his hand is so decorated. 3
See Ep.
8.
carmen
, also
versus,
numeri,
modi):
carmen
tuba
ista
peregit
( = sonus),
Enn. Ann. 508 Vahl.: carmine
vocali
clarus
citharāque
Philammon,
Ov. M. 11, 317;
cf. vocum,
id. ib. 12, 157:
per
me
(sc.
Apollinem)
concordant
carmina
nervis
5. A magic formula, an
incantation: incantamenta
carminum,
Carminibus
Circe
socios
mutavit
Ulixi
http://www.pineycom.com/Isa30LXX.html
Is. 30:32 And in every place where
the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay
upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in
battles of shaking will he fight with it.
Ezek. 28:13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God;
every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius,
topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the
jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle,
and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of
thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that
thou wast created. [Cast as
Profane]
Ovid: And in his right hand
for to
strike,
his bowe was redy fixt.
He was the verrye paterne of a good Musician ryght
Anon he gan with conning hand
the tuned
strings to smyght.
plectrum
The PSALLO foundation of the musicators OUTLAWS the
plectrum. It only permits striking a bow or lyre
string with the FINGERS.
artĭfex artificibus
eos
auloedos
esse,
qui
citharoedi
artifices
scaenici,
A maker, originator, author, contriver:
Also for a sly, cunning contriver, inventor
of a thing (cf
căno
[cf.
kanassō,
kanakhē,
konabos;
clanging bronze
to utter melodious notes,
to
sing,
sound,
play. A. Of
men:
si
absurde
canat,
tibia
canentum
harundine,
[flute] cithara,
Ovid: The sweetenesse of the which did so
the judge of them delyght,
That Pan was willed for to put his Reedepype in
his cace,
And not to fiddle nor to sing where viols
were in place.
pello
, 4. Of a musical instrument, to strike the chords,
play: nervi
pulsi,
struck, Cic. Brut. 54, 199:
lyra
pulsa
manu,
Ov. M. 10, 205;
1. To
drive out or away,
to banish, expel:
Phoebeā
morbos
arte,
2. To
beat, conquer, overcome
morbus B.
Grief, sorrow, distress: nomen
insaniae
significat
mentis
4. Of a musical instrument, to strike the
chords, play: nervi
pulsi,
struck, Cic. Brut. 54, 199:
lyra
pulsa
manu,
Ov. M. 10, 205;
cf.: classica
pulsa,
i. e. blown,
John 7:16 Jesus answered them,
and said,
My doctrine is not
mine, but his that sent me.
John 7:17 If any man will do his will,
he shall know of
the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I
speak of myself.
John 7:18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own
glory:
but he that
seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true,
and no unrighteousness is in him.
Worship.Androgyny.The.Pagan.Sexual.Ideal.html
Cat. 63, 78;
Catul. 63 on Atys
Then as the she-he
sensed limbs were void of manly strain
And sighted freshly shed a-ground spot of ensanguined
stain,
Snatched she the timbrel's legier load with hands as
snowdrops white,
Thy timbrel, Mother Cybele, the firstings of thy rite,
And as her tender finger-tips on bull-back hollow rang
She rose a-grieving and her song to listening comrades
sang.
"Up Gallae, hie together, haste for Cybele's
deep grove,
Hie to the Dindymnean dame, ye flocks that love to
rove;
The which affecting stranger steads as bound in
exile's brunt
My sect pursuing led by me have nerved you to
confront
This speaks of the Mad "Women" of Corinth well documented.
Arist.Metaph.1000a9,
The school of Hesiod, and all the cosmologists,
considered only what was convincing to themselves,
and gave no consideration to us. For they make the first
principles Gods or generated from Gods, and
say that whatever did not taste of the nectar and ambrosia
became mortalclearly using these terms in a sense
significant to themselves; but as regards the actual
applications of these causes their statements are beyond
our comprehension
mantis
female witchcraft of Spiritual Formation. ho
mantis
mantin
ekpraxas
eme,
of Apollo and Cassandra,
ho
Thrēxi
[Impure Religion] m.
E.Hec.1267
(of Dionysus), That Thracian or Threskia as IMPURE religion.
2. metaph., presager, foreboder,
II. a kind of
grasshopper, the praying mantis, Mantis religiosa,
Theoc.10.18,
Delphoi
, ōn,
hoi,
A.Delphi, Delphōn
es
piona
dēmon
sacrificial meat. [Paul cast out the Delphian
spirit who used music]
Religious Sorcery or Witchcraft Caused by Instrumental
Music
http://www.pineycom.com/Sat.Down.Eat.Rose.Up.Play.html
The Demon or Devil worship
at Mount Sinai was Instrumental-Trinitarian-Perverted.
These arise when the WOMEN rule over the BOYS.
Isaiah.3.Women.and.Children.Rule.Over.Them.html
Did Satan really invent
music and give musical skills in exchange for one's
soul? This seems to be the
message of the king of Tyre and the king of Babylon as they
represented Satan's attack against God's people. For
instance, Isaiah said that Tyre used "the song of the
prostitute" with the harp to subvert the people of Israel in order to
sell them into slavery.
If layers of tradition keep us from understanding the
Bible aren't we still left with ancient literature to force
the conclusion that people believed that many of their demons
or departed
super-heros were worshipped
because they gave instrumental music as an addition to vocal
praise.
The common belief was that Satan taught men to make music
because he knew that
he could win their approval through this skill--
"Slightly less familiar
are the Devil's
musical exploits. He not only loves singing but is
master of the violin, of which instrument of evil he is
reputedly the inventor. By the same token he can give
mastery of the violin, bartering infernal skill for the pupil's soul.
These legends are
related to the larger belief in the supernatural origin of
musical skill and individual songs." (Botkin, B. A., A
Treasury of American Folklore, Crown Publishers, p. 718;
Cf. The Devil and the Fiddle, Herbert Halpert, Hoosier
Folklore Bulletin, Vol II (Dec., 1943).
Chaucer collected the folklore of the
period and tells us through The Pardoner in The Cantebury
Tales about the common opinion of music--
"In flanders there once
was a company of young folk, who devoted themselves to
such follies as riotous living, gambling, brothels, and
taverns. Where, with harps, lutes, and guitars they danced
and played at dice day and night, and also ate and drank
more than they could handle; and thus they offered sacrifices to
the devil within the devils temple, in a cursed manner... singers with harps... all truly the devil's agents." (Bantam Classic edition, p.
345)
Later writers said that Orpheus was also the inventor of
music. Others claim that it was Pan, the god of the shepherds, or
Mercury who
invented the flute. One noted Biblical researcher comments that
Amos condemned Israel for using music as worship like David
but that David was not the primary inventor of musical
instruments--
"In pagan traditions,
musical instruments are invented by gods or demi-gods, such as titans (seitans). In the Bible, credit is
assigned to antediluvian patriarchs, for example, the
descendants of Cain in Genesis 4:21. There is no other biblical
tradition about
the invention of musical instruments." (Freedman, David
Noel, Bible Review, Summer 1985, p. 51).
It was believed that the Cainites were influenced by the giants or titans who were the result of
intermarriage between humans and the elders of Lucifer who
seduced the children of God through music.
"We see, therefore, that
the arts also are consecrated to the
services of the beings who dwell in the names of their
founders; taints
of idolatry
whose inventors have got a place among the gods for their
discoveries. Nay, as regards the arts, we ought to have gone
further back,
and barred all further
argument by the position that the demons, predetermining in their
own interests from the first, among other evils of idolatry, the pollutions of the public shows,
with the object of
drawing man away from his Lord and binding him to their
own service, carried out their purpose by bestowing on
him the artistic gifts which the shows require'."
(Tertullian, de Spectaculis, Ante-Nicene, III, p. 84).
Here are the practices which use ANY
kind of metrical or musical MEASURE cannot speak
from the Holy Spirit OF God which is not another
God..
Abomination,
Witchcraft, the BEASTS, Demon worship, Viper
worship, Sorcery, Charming, Soothsaying,
enchantment, harlots, beguilers, serpents, vipers,
Serpo, Herpo, inducing wine-drinking, Cunning
Craftsmen or Sophists, Rhetoricians, Dogs or
Catamites, magic, Voodoo in primitive America, Melodies to deceive, Deceiver,
Techne. religious craftsmen, Lucifer, Locusts,
Apollyon, Levi-Leviathan
Plat.
Euthyd. 290a "and
only slightly inferior to that. The sorcerer's
art is the charming of snakes and
tarantulas and scorpions and other beasts
and diseases, while the other is just the
charming and soothing of juries, assemblies [Ekklesia
or church], crowds, and so forth. Or does
it strike you differently? I asked.
No, it appears to me, he
replied, to be as you say.
kēl-ēsis
, eōs,
hē,
*A.
bewitching, charming, ekheōn,
nosōn,
Pl.Euthd.
290a: enchantment by eloquence,
dikastōn
k.
te
kai
paramuthia
ibid.; by music and sweet sounds, Id.R.601b,
Stoic.3.97.
Jude 16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after
their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having mens persons in admiration because of advantage.
-Goēs , ētos, ho, A. SORCERER,
wizard, Phoronis 2,
Hdt.2.33,4.105, Pl.R. 380d,
g. epōdos Ludias apo khthonos E.Ba.234,
SPEAK
is the OPPOSITE of SING or ODE.
http://www.pineycom.com/MailSerMuPsallo.html
Christopher
Darrell Goldman There is no Statute of
Limitations for those who "infiltrate" with the driving
purpose of diverting a historical, pioneer. established
church of Christ by the INSTRUMENTAL SECTARIANS.
Paul outlaws the cunning craftsmen or Sophists who are
rhetoricians for sale, singers or instrument players.
PLEASE
READ BEFORE YOU GET "VIPERIZED."
Testimony of my
departed Daughter who was DUPED by the VANGUARD
troupl
Down from Kingdom Mountain
My name is Catherine
Hampton, and for ten years, from 1977 to 1987, I was part of
the discipling movement, often called the "Crossroads
Movement", within the Churches of Christ. The Boston Church
of Christ, and later the International Churches of Christ
(ICC), came from this movement.
At this advance I met Milton
Jones, the evangelist at Northwest and leader of the
mission team that had planted the ministry there. Milton
played a tremendous role in the discipling movement,
perhaps second only to Kip. Three years after this advance
he wrote the book from which the ICC took its discipling
methodology, among other things.
I also met Bill Lawrence, the
campus minister, and a number of other people who
became leaders in the movement later on. (Among them were
Tom Reynolds, Rob Jacobsen, and Marv Law, all of whom
later led various church plantings from Northwest.) In the
next three or four years Northwest became one of the
fastest-growing discipling movement churches, with over a
hundred baptisms a year for most of that period.
My Late Daughter was active. However, it later became obvious
that the Work had shifted with a Christian Church as an early
Sower of Discord and REpurposing Churches of Christ especially
by Rick Atchley (A closet "christian" church proponent)
Dad,
I will read this more completely
later. I fast forwarded to the Northwest
section
very troubling. It was starting
before I left in December of 1979, so for
that reason alone I am grateful that I
didnt stay in Seattle. So
many lives destroyed. Thank you for
sharing this.
I love you very much. Annette
The rescued Hebrews rose up to PLAY in
Instrumental-Trinitarian-Perverted "play." In 1
Corinthians 10 Paul defined this as the WORSHIP OF
DEMONS. Jude warns that the Truth had been ONCE
Delivered. There is no more. Jude said that
these were FOREORDAINED. Apollo or Apollyon
defines the Jacob-cursed and God-abandoned Levites
SERVICE under the unlawful KING and commanders of the
army. Serpents or Vipers will not confess
because. There is only a tiny flock of Lost
Spirits who can HEAR the message. Those OF the World or
Aborigines with a spirit CANNOT read BLACK text on BROWN
paper. They are faithful servants of THEIR father.
John
8:28 Then said Jesus unto them,
When ye have lifted up the Son
of man,
then shall ye know that I am he,
and that I DO
nothing of myself;
BUT as my Father hath taught
me,
I SPEAK
these things
Legalists who DO on their own always REJECT the SPEAK
mark of a child of God.
Poieite.
LEGALISM
make, produce, first of something material, as
manufactures, works of art, etc. of building,
p.
dōma
ton
Apollōn,
p.
to
problēma
effect a solution of the problem, compose,
write, p.
dithurambon,
epea
1.
song or lay accompanied by music, 8.91,17.519.
Saturous
[BEAST] kōmōdian,
tragōdian,
poetry, write as a poet
describe in verse, put
them into verse, of sacrifices, festivals, etc., celebrate
p.
tēn mousikēn
practise it,
John
8:37 I know
that ye are Abrahams seed; but ye seek to kill me,
because
my WORD (logos) hath no
place in you.
John 8:
38 I SPEAK that which I have seen with my Father:
and ye DO that which ye have seen with YOUR father.
God is WORD, SPIRIT, LIGHT, LIFE, WISDOM. Disciples can see FACE
TO FACE when they are Baptized.
All of the ROBBERS of Church property DENY the Word, Logos or
Regulative. Thefore they are ANTGod and ANTICHRIST. Music is
their REPLACEMENT for the masculine SPEAK or READ.
God is Word, Logos or Regulative Principle. Spirit means that
God put His WORDS into the MOUTH of a Moses, the Prophets, and
Lastly the MAN Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus SPOKE only what He
Heard. Without measure means without MUSICAL METER which
was always the way Evil Men set their lies to music.
God uses LOGOS-WORD versus SOPHIA-music to separate the STRAIGHT
from the PERVERSE which in Civilized society identified any male
who would self-exhibit with singing and playing an instrument.
Jesus' Word that He SPOKE is SPIRIT and LIFE. For those
who Rock and Roll selling their bodies and talent, God said in
Hebrews 12 that
GOD IS A CONSUMING
FIRE. The Singers, Instrument players
and GRINDERS are "lusted after fruits" and that is why imposing
Self-Exhibiitors forcing you to worship (give attention to) them
IMPOSES SORCERERS to Deceive and they along with
LIARS
will be
CAST ALIVE INTO THE LAKE OF
FIRE. Jesus says that they are OF the World
or BENEATH (Tartarus) and really
HAVE NO CHOICE.
Music intends to SILENCE the Mouth of Jesus the Victim.
Logos
computation, reckoning
2. statement of a theory, argument,
ouk emeu
alla
tou l.
akousantas
prob. in
Heraclit.50;
logon
ēde
noēma
amphis
alētheiēs
discourse and reflection on reality,
IV. inward debate of
the soul, reflection,
deliberation Regulative and formative forces,
derived from the intelligible and operative in the
sensible universe,
Opposite to
epithumia
A. desire, yearning,
longing after a
thing,
desire of or
for it,
Theaomai :--
gaze at, behold,
mostly with a sense of
wonder, 3.
view as spectators
Opposite Pathos A. that
which happens to a person or thing, incident,
accident, Moralizing Rhetoric
Opposite Poiein to excite passion,
Arist.Rh.1418a12;
V. Rhet., emotional style or treatment,
Opposite Enthousi-astikos , ē, on, A. inspired, phusis Pl.Ti.71e;
esp. by music,
Prose,
OPPOSITE -poiκsis,
Id.R.390a;
OPPOSITE -
poiκtikκ, D.H.
Comp.6;
OPPOSITE poiκmata,
onomatopoeic
word
OPPOSITE emmetra Modus 2. The
measure of tones, measure, rhythm, melody, harmony, time;
in poetry,
measure, metre, mode:
Mūsĭcus a, um, adj., =
mousikos.
X. the
Word or
Wisdom of
God, personified as his agent in
creation and
world-government,
Theologians are doomed to call God a liar or
INCOMPETENT. If God had wanted any kind of music in the
tuneful sense He was INTELLIGIBLE But denied by C. Leonard
Allen.
mousikos
kai
melōn
poētēs
2. generally,
votary of the Muses, The
Muses were the LOCUSTS unleashed with Apollon their "musical
worship leaders." The Greek and Latin literature identifies
them as dirty adulteresses
http://www.pineycom.com/DocHesTheog.html
[25] the Muses of Olympus,
daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis: Shepherds of
the wilderness,
wretched things of shame,
mere bellies,
we know how to speak
many false things as though they were true;
but we know, when we
will, to utter true things.
...and
they bade me sing of the race of the blessed gods that are
eternally,
but ever to sing of themselves both
first and last.
pharma^kon
3. enchanted potion, philtre:
hence, charm, spell, Od.4.220
sq., Ar.Pl.302,
[Circe, Church, Corinth mother of harlots] Theoc.2.15
The singers [Muses], instrument players and craftsmen
as sorcerers in Revelation 18.
THE ABILENE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY LED
CLERGY LITERALLY CANNOT READ SCRIPTURE. THEY
HAVE DISLEXIA OF THE EYES. ANY form of MUSIC is
defined as SORCERY or VIPERS.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more
subtil than any beast of the field which the
LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman,
Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of
the garden?
Genesis
3.1 sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae quae fecerat Dominus Deus qui dixit ad mulierem cur praecepit vobis Deus ut non comederetis de omni ligno paradisi
5175 nβchβsh naw-khawsh' From H5172 ; a snake (from its
hiss):serpent.
H5172 nβchash naw-khash' A primitive root; properly to hiss,
that is, whisper a (magic) spell; generally to prognosticate:
X certainly, divine, enchanter, (use) X enchantment,
learn by experience, X indeed, diligently observe.
Serpo
, of things, to move slowly
or imperceptibly, to creep along, proceed
gradually,
Of disease, etc.: si
ulcus
latius
atque
altius
serpit,
gradually spreads, serpentes
quasdam
(bestias),
quasdam
esse
gradientes,
chamaeleon,
Fire: exsistit
sacer
ignis
et
urit
corpore
serpens,
slowly spreading, canam,
qui
leniter
(cf.: sermones
Repentes
per
humum,
A creeping LOUSE
Canam,
exsistit
sacer
ignis
et
urit
corpore
serpens,
slowly spreading fire, bring to destruction,
reduce
to ruin,
destroy
Agmĕna crowded
into a compact mass, Of a snake winding onwards Eap. of
a company of persons,
a multitude,
troop,
crowd,
number,
band
1. An army,
troop,
band,
multitude:
clāmor
Of things,
noise,
sound,
din căvus
,
tibia,
id. 2, 620:
bucina
= A. A war-trumpet b. =
inanis, vain,
empty:
gloria,
Tībĭa
, a pipe, flute (orig. made of bone;
curva
choros
indixit
tibia
Bacchi,
modulate
canentes
tibiae,
Bestĭa
,
2. As a term of reproach (cf. belua and our beast):
mala
tu
es
bestia,
Plaut. Bacch. 1, 1, 21;
id. Poen. 5, 5, 13.And,
humorously, of the odor of the armpits (cf. ala and caper),
Cat. 69, 8.
căno
, cĕcĭni, cantum (ancient I.imp. cante = canite,
once
canituri,
Vulg. Apoc. 8, 13
to utter melodious notes, to sing, sound,
play.
tibicen
cithara,
crowing of a cock: galli
victi
silere
solent,
canere
victores,
to crow,
to practice magic, to charm, Galli
is a word for a Catamite: priest of the Mother Godesses.
"Kenite" is a rendition of Hebrew According to Gesenius,
the name is derived from the name Cain (קַיִן Qayin).[5]
According to A. H. Sayce, the name
`Kenite', Qιnν, is identical an Aramaic word
meaning `a smith', which in its turn is a cognate of Hebrew Quayin,
with the meaning `a lance'.
H7014 qayin
kah'-yin The same as H7013 (with a play upon the
affinity to H7069 ); Kajin, the name of the first child,
also of a place in Palestine, and of an Oriental
tribe:--Cain, Kenite (-s).
H7013 qayin kah'-yin From H6969 in the
original sense of fixity; a lance (as striking fast): spear.
H6969 qun koon A
primitive root; to strike a musical note, that is, chant or wail (at a funeral):
lament, mourning
woman.
BEGUILED IS: dē-cĭpĭo , capio, primarily
signifies to
catch away, catch up,
seize an
animal while running, fleeing,:
amatorem
amicae
decipiunt
vitia,
Hor
. S. 1, 3, 38.
The Prophets define the Church of Christ both
Inclusively and Exclusively. The Holy Spirit asks:
The Sacrificial
System was from the Assyrians and their WORSHIP was that
of Molech. Today we BURN infants by lying about the
WORD.
http://www.pineycom.com/Isa30LXX.html
Must
ye always rejoice, and
go into my holy places continually, as they that keep a feast?
and must ye go with a pipe, as those that rejoice into the
mountain of the Lord, to the God of Israel Isaiah 30:29
LXX
Isa 30:30 And the Lord
shall make his glorious voice to be hearrd
and the wrath of his arm, to make
a display with wrath and of anger and devouring
flame:
he shall lighten terribly, and
his wrath shall be as water and bionent hail.
Isa 30:31 For by the voice of the
Lord the Assyrians shall be overcome,
even by the stroke wherewtith he
shall smit them.
Isa 3032 And is shall happen to him
from every side,
that they from whome their hope
of assistance was,
in which he trusted, themselves
shall war against him in turn with drums
and with harp.
Abilene Christian
University has long been cuckolded by the NACC or
Christian churches. Any one such as Rick Atchley
who knows nothing of the MYSTERIES reserved for the
Little Flock of Lost Spirits who uses bits and pieces of
Scripture to justify sowing of discord and stealing the
church property of Widows and Honest workers do not
BELIEVE Scripture and boast about being CO-inspirers
with God may be Biblically Illiterate. However,
Jesus as Spirit is not so meek and mild in Ephesians 4
where the cunning craftsmen or Sophists-speakers,
singers, instrument players-are LYING IN WAIT TO
DECEIVE.
The evidence is that
a SECTARIANIZED congregation doesn't look to great for
having COLLECTIVIZED three successful and happy
Congregations.
PSALLO as the "proof"
for instruments command to SPEAK the Biblical
Text. Ode and Psallo are IN the heart which means
SILENCED. That is because the PSALLO rooted words
were used in the Greek Translation because they MARKED
those, like Apollon, who plucked his LYRE to seduce both
male and female. He plucked his BOW for anyone, male or
female, who would not submit.
SORCERY: I will add
the UNIVERSAL understanding that an ABOMINATION,
Witchcraft, inducing KOMA and the sting of the Locusts
is ANY kind of music when Jesus is still the SENIOR
Teacher only when APT elders "teach that which has been
taught."
Amos 5:26 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch
and Chiun your images,
the STAR of
your god, which ye made to yourselves.
Acts 7:41 And they made a calf in
those days,
and offered sacrifice
unto the idol,
and rejoiced
in the works of their own
hands
The practice in the wilderness, tyre and Jerusalem
Acts 7:42 Then God turned,
and gave them up to
worship the HOST of heaven;
as it is written in the
book of the prophets,
O ye house of
Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and
sacrifices
by the space of forty
years in the wilderness?
Amos 5:27 Therefore will I cause you to go into
captivity beyond Damascus,
saith the LORD, whose name
is The God of hosts.
Acts 7:43 Yea,
ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch,
and the star of your god
Remphan,
figures which ye made to
worship them:
and I will carry you
away beyond Babylon.
Mark.10.They.Shall.Mock.Him.With.Music
Trumpet, drums, flute, cymbals and castinets
with buffoons
Psallo permits ONLY smiting a string with your
FINGERS: not a plectrum
Psallo and SOP have the same root meaning.
Revelation 18F: they are all called Sorcerers who HAD once
deceived the whole world.
They WILL BE CAST ALIVE INTO THE
LAKE OF FIRE.
Tyre and Babylon explain Lucifer the
singing and harp playing prostitute in the garden of
Eden.
|
The Babylon mother of HARLOTS in
Revelation 17 use "lusted after fruits" as singers and
instrument players. They are called SORCERY and
will be cast alive into the Lake of Fire.
|
And
they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a
prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy
walls, and
destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy
stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst
of the water. Ezek 26:12
And I will cause
the noise of thy SONGS to cease;
and the sound of
thy HARPS shall be no more heard.
Ezek 26:13
And I will make thee like the
top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread
nets upon;
thou shalt be built no
more: for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord
God. Ezek 26:14
Thus saith the Lord God to
Tyrus; Shall
not the isles shake at the sound of thy
fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in
the midst of thee? Ezek 26:15
Sono: to make a noise, to
sound, resound: aes sonit, the
trumpet sounds plectra, Prop. 4 (5), 7, 62.
tympana,
Then all the princes of the
sea shall come down from their
thrones,
and lay away
their robes, and put off their broidered
garments:
they shall clothe
themselves with trembling; they shall sit
upon the ground,
and shall
tremble at every moment, and be astonished
at thee. Ezek 26:16 |
Ezek. 33:4 Then
whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and
taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him
away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
Ezek. 33:30 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.
Ezek. 33:31 And they come unto thee AS the people
cometh,
and they sit before
thee AS
my people,
and they hear thy WORDS,
but they will not do them:
for with their MOUTH
they shew much love,
BUT their heart goeth after their
covetousness.
WHICH IS COMPARED TO
SOMETHING ELSE HYPOCRITICAL
Ezek. 33:32 And, lo, thou art UNTO them
as
a very lovely SONG
of
one that hath a pleasant VOICE,
and
can PLAY WELL on an INSTRUMENT:
for they hear thy words,
but they do them not.
|
Tabrets or Drums has the same message as TOPHETH. The Jews had
acovenant wiith Death and Hell. Amos 8 and Revelation 18 marks
the priesthood of the Babylon Mother of Harlots. Apollyon
is 666 and THE Spirituus LEADING the Muses.
Isaiah 3 Women? and "boys" Rullig
over you.
The
MARK of the BEAST
BEAST:
Thērion ,
to (in form Dim. of thēr), A.
wild animal, esp. of such as are hunted,
mala gar mega thērion ēen, of a stag, Od.10.171,
180
(never in Il.); in
Trag. only in Satyric drama
III. as a term of reproach,
beast, creature, , cf. Eq.273;
kolaki, deinō thēriō Pl.Phdr.240b;
hē mousikē aei ti kainon thērion tiktei
mousikκ aei ti kainon thκrion tiktei
A. Mousikos, musical, agτnes m. kai gumnikoi
choroi te kai agτnes ta mousika
music,
II. of persons, skilled in music,
kuknos [minstrel] kai alla zτia; peri aulous - professional musicians, mousikos kai melτn poκtκs,
use with singing, skilled in speaking before a mob.
Melody,
B. aei always
C. kainos , esp. of
new dramas, the
representation of the new tragedies, (Aphrodisias
dedicated to
Aphrodite (ZOE); comedy,
sexual
love, pleasure,
a woman's form of
oath,
Aster
or
Venus or
ZOE Lucifer
D. Therion
E. Tikto mostly
of the mother of
Rhea one of the
zoogonic
or vivific principles
WHAT
IS A PLAGUE:
PLESSO 3.
strike
or stamp as one does a coin, Kuprios kharaktēr
. .
en gunaikeiois tupois peplēktai
Strike a
string with a key,
[289e] For not
only do these speech-writers themselves, when I am
in their company, impress me as prodigiously clever, Cleinias, but their art
itself seems so exalted as to be almost inspired.
However, this is not surprising; for it is a part of
the sorcerer's art,
Rev. 19:20 And the
beast was taken,
and with him the
false
prophet that wrought miracles before him,
with which he
deceived
them that had received the
mark of the beast,
and them that
worshipped
his
image.
These both were
cast
alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
6.02.13 Revised
Northwest Church of Christ Seattle Levites
and Soothsayers
We
have added notes to prove that if instrumental idolatry doesn't get you, and if sowing
discord doesn't get you, them MOCKING Jesus Who wants to
be our only TEACHER when the elders
"teach that which has been taught" is with us.
Sermon Review, Bill Lawrence
Northwest Church of Christ, Seattle. Instrumental music in
worship based on No Dispensational Distinction. This is
refuted by Campbell, John Locke, John Knox, Martin Luther,
John Calvin and Justin Martyr. To that we can add the Old
Testament prophets, Jesus, Paul and the collective host of
church Fathers. Milton's views sound like they come from Tom
Burgess. We have reviewed this book vaguely remembered
from living in Seattle. The thesis seems to be that the
ANTI-instrument position is based on southern culture and
Biblical illiteracy. While Tom Burgess throws the proof text
like Saul's lance, they all miss the mark. As in all scholarly
works the proofs totally miss the point. The point is that the
Greek word PSALLO is a word related to warfare and not to
music. Except, of course, the word is related to Apollo, Abaddon or
Apollyon. He is the evil musician used as a prophetic
model by John in Revelation. The muses are his "team" which
was sentenced into the underworld because they did not
properly honor the Mother Goddess who, in history is Eve or
Zoe. Prophecy has been fulfilled right on time.
See how
Milton Jones Led the church into the patternism of the
International Church of Christ: a first person horror story.
Down from Kingdom Mountain
My name is Catherine
Hampton, and for ten years, from 1977 to 1987, I was part of
the discipling movement, often called
the "Crossroads Movement", within the Churches of Christ.
The Boston Church of Christ, and later the International
Churches of Christ (ICC), came from this movement.
At this advance I met Milton
Jones, the evangelist at Northwest and leader of the
mission team that had planted the ministry there. Milton
played a tremendous role in the discipling movement,
perhaps second only to Kip. Three years after this advance
he wrote the book from which the ICC took its discipling
methodology, among other things.
I also met Bill Lawrence, the
campus minister, and a number of other people who
became leaders in the movement later on. (Among them were
Tom Reynolds, Rob Jacobsen, and Marv Law, all of whom
later led various church plantings from Northwest.) In the
next three or four years Northwest became one of the
fastest-growing discipling movement churches, with over a
hundred baptisms a year for most of that period.
Dad,
I will read this more completely
later. I fast forwarded to the Northwest
section
very troubling. It was starting
before I left in December of 1979, so for
that reason alone I am grateful that I
didnt stay in Seattle. So
many lives destroyed. Thank you for
sharing this.
I love you very much. Annette
We are not under the
slightest delusion that those who would take your church
building and sow discord has the slightest interest in the
Bible. The UNITY trumps TRUTH is part of the new Stone
Campbell
Movement which intends to steal the church houses of
widows and is propelled by a "scholarly" ignorance of the
Word, history or Ethics. Jesus based unity on the same
relationship God makes Himself known. As Father in even the
trinitarian definitions is the THOUGHT, the Son is the WORD.
The Spirit is that flow of knowledge from Father to Son to
those of us who are still of the earth. The Son speaks only
what He hears from the Father. Because the human identified
His Father as God the Jews understood that Jesus was the
Christ, the invisible God made visible. The only unity
possible is based on "speaking the same things" which is
very possible if you see "church" (the holy whore) as the
ekklesia or synagogue or school of the Bible. The direct
command is to glorify God with one mind and one mouth by
speaking "that which is written." Furthermore, Paul in
Romans 15 solves the diversity problem of Romans 14 by
outlawing PLEASURING one another. This, in turn, speaks of
the singing in a secular sense which LIFTED you up. This is
the real meaning of HERESY in the Greek resources: singing
to create mental excitement to carry you away for THEIR OWN
USES.
Another member of the Stoneites pretends not to be and has
written some pretty flakey stuff on instrumental music and
has been as instrumental a the Northwesterners as
deliberately sowing discord. Our partial review of ---
In order to ignore direct commands of Paul about music it is
convenient to riducule commands, examples and inferences as God's way of communicating
His will for our lives. This riducles all of history's
scholars and assumes a post-Biblical authority.
Commands,
Examples, Necessary Inferences
In the need to impose
instrumental music in worship it is not uncommon to claim
that Restoration Movement theology gets its authority from
John Locke rather than from Jesus. Or that Alexander and
Thomas Campbell somehow slipped into southern, red-necked
mentality to invent this method of determining God's will.
However, it is difficult
for this writer to think of any other way to express my will
to my children than the generally-recognized methods unless
you have a direct connection to God. For instance,
If we command our child to do something
they might assume the "doctor of the law" pose and try to
find a legal way to get around it.
If we example refusing to accept a social
drink our child absorbs it like a sponge even though we
have said nothing.
If we say "I would not do that" they will infer that perhaps they should not
either.
Because power corrupts,
our "think sos" become a direct revelation from God and our
"claiming so" exerts that authority on others. In the end,
the error in the book of Enoch for which God will come
with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment is a way to corrupt the Word
and the people so that they will not be able to evaluate
anything beyond "sound bytes" put to the tune of pagan or
contemporary replacements for the Word of God. If one
professes to be Post-Modern then getting rid of the Bible as
the product of Jesus' assignment for His time is a
reasonable conclusion.
Therefore, to reject
commands, examples and inferences is often accompanied with
the claim of some supernatural connection with God in which one learns
His will in some mysterious way. Experiencing God by Henry T. Blackaby and
Claude V. King infuses such notions among those needing
power.
Tertullian noted
that:
For such is the power of
earthly
pleasures, that, to retain the opportunity of still
partaking of them,
it contrives
to
prolong swilling ignorance, and bribes knowledge into playing a dishonest part. To both things, perhaps,
some among you are allured by the views of the heathens who in this matter are wont
to press us with arguments, such as these:
(1) That the exquisite
enjoyments of ear and eye we have in things external
are not in the least opposed to religion in the mind and conscience; and
(2) That surely no offence is offered to
God, in any human enjoyment, by any of our pleasures,
which it is not sinful to partake of in its own time and
place, with all due honour and reverence secured to Him.
But this is
precisely what we are ready to prove: That these things are not consistent with true religion and
true obedience to the true God. Tertullian
De Spectaculis
The only true worship in a
physical sense is to "fall on your face" in the awareness of
the greatness of God. And you cannot fall on your face when
you are confronting a holy God trying to "move the
worshipers into His presence" with authentia which is the sexual authority
absolutely outlawed by God because authentia is "both erotic
and murderous."
Worship, even under the
Law, in a spiritual sense was "giving heed to God and His
Word." We worship whatever or whomever we "give attention
to." If feminine and effeminate performers present
themselves as the Willow Creek "image of what a Christian
should look like" then we are practicing "the idolatry of
talent." We are FORCING people to give heed to the
performers and their words. This is another violation of
Paul's direct command to give heed to Christ's Word or
Spirit power.
The rejection of
God's only avenues of communicating authority is as
hostile to the Spirit of Christ as any "heretical" view
we could invent. Therefore,
"If I profess with the
loudest voice and clearest exposition every part of the
truth of God except precisely that little point
which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking,
then I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be
professing Him. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty
of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all
battlefields besides is merely flight and disgrace if he
flinches at that point." Martin Luther
Jefferson
stated: "Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the
accidental opinion of a day; but a series of
oppressions, begun at a distinguished period
and pursued
unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a
deliberate, systematical plan of reducing us to
slavery."
Rejecting Rituals
Connected to the Sacrificial System as Christian "acts
of worship."
- David, my servant,
whom I chose
- To guard my flock,
to crush my foes,
- And raised him to
the Jewish throne,
- Was but a shadow of my Son."
- Sir Isaac Watts
Psalm 89
1. Then the prophet Elijah arose like a fire, and his word burned like a torch.
2. He brought a famine upon
them, and by his zeal he made them few in
number.
3.
By the word
of the Lord he shut up the heavens, and also three times
brought down fire.
4. How glorious you were, O
Elijah, in your wondrous deeds! And who has the right to
boast which you have?
5. You who raised a corpse from
death and from Hades, by the word of the Most
High;
6. who brought kings down to destruction, and famous men from their beds;
7. who heard rebuke at
Sinai and judgments of vengeance at Horeb;
8. who anointed kings to inflict
retribution,
and prophets
to succeed you.
O Israel, thou hast destroyed
thyself; but in me is thine help. Hosea 13:9
I will be thy
king: where is any other that may save thee
in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst,
Give me a king and princes? Hosea 13:10
I gave thee
a king in mine anger, and took him away in my
wrath. Hosea 13:11
Judah as a
nation was little better.
When the "king
set over us" is a dominant, Post-Modern preacher then
God has appointed him to inflict retribution because you
believed his childish belief in the Post Modern
(Post-Biblical) children's gibberish.
"The same basic thought
is in view throughout all these references, including II
Peter 3:3 and Jude 18. Mockers, in the Word of God, are those
who "belittle," "ridicule," "scorn," "make light of" both
the living
Word and the written Word.
Jude and Peter allude to
the Book of Enoch and comparable documents. These show
that mixed-sex choirs, instrumental music and eye and
other sense appeal was introduced by Satan to take the
worship away from God and direct it to him.
This ignoring of the
Word in order to introduce human forms of worship define
one as a liar and Satanic because Jesus defined the Devil
based on the fact that he speaks on his own.
Jesus also
defined the Pharisees in the same term and identified
all of the Jewish leaders as sons of their lying
father the Devil for committing the same sin.
God will come
with ten thousand of His saints for just these
people.
There are many Psalms
which ask God to crush my foes but the weapons of Christian
warfare are not carnal or lifeless instruments.
The second effort
to transfer authority from Christ to a secular society
passes Judgment upon Alexander Campbell and others for
rejecting playing of loud instruments.
We have found no
historical scholar outside of the liberal-tainted 19th
century scholarship who agrees that Old Testament ceremonial
ritualism can be added to Christian worship
without also resting our faith on
the animal sacrifices to which music was
exclusively attached in a worship sense. This has
historically included rejecting instrumental music.
Hebrews 6 makes
this the unforgivable sin.
Contrary to the need to diminish Locke and
Campbell in order to personally replace them as
authority, both taught principles which would increase religious
toleration by limiting, in the collective assembly
representing many opinions, only those "acts" for which
there is a direct command. This was not to be exclusive
but to be inclusive by not doing things not necessary for
salvation which would deliberately offend those who did not
have the votes to force their will.
Thomas and Alexander
Campbell went further than most by teaching that approved examples which seem approved in the
Bible also be allowed. Even further toward toleration was
to allow "necessary inferences." For instance, the command
for the Lord's Supper does not need a direct command to
get in out of the rain so we infer that we can meet in a
building without changing the nature of the Supper. Nor
would we offend anyone.
Later American Restoration
participants did not add things such as instrumental music
to their existing practices -- rejected by most
Protestants and even Catholics at least intellectually --
because there was no command, example or even inference that
Christ or Paul or anyone had ever hinted that it would be
productive. Furthermore, it would be sectarian because it
would automatically "include" in a fraternal sense those who
agreed, and it would "exclude" those who could not add music
to the historical practice. It also answered to being
sectarianism because those who added music had a vested
financial interest in increasing attendance (See Vine's
definition of sect and heresy). Locke Letter of Toleration
Mass religion
fails when the individual believer becomes Post
Modern. A gravestone in Rome reads: 'I didn't exist, then
I existed, then I died. I don't care.'
Ain't it the truth? for
now....
ON THE
DISTINCTION BETWEEN DOCTRINE AND LIFE
Therefore doctrine and
life should be distinguished as sharply as possible.
Doctrine belongs to God, not to us;
and we are called only as its ministers.
Therefore we cannot give up or
change even one dot of it (Matt. 5:18).
Life belongs to
us;
therefore when it comes to this, there is nothing that the
Sacramentarians can demand from us that we are not willing
and obliged to undertake, condone, and tolerate (LW
27:37).
With a straight face, yet,
people will tell you that music has been the universal rule
and to oppose the forced introduction into Christian worship
is legalism and sectarianism:
"Those of us who protest
against this revolution in Presbyterian worship are
by some pitied, by others ridiculed, and by others still
denounced as fanatics.
If we are, we share the company of
an innumerable host of fanatics extending from the day of
Pentecost to tile middle of the
nineteenth century.
We refuse not to be classed, although
consciously unworthy of the honor, with apostles,
martyrs and reformers. But neither were they mad, nor are we. We "speak the
words of truth and soberness." Mindful of the apostolic
injunction, "Prove all things," we submit arguments
derived from Scripture, from the formularies of our
church and from the consensus of Christ's people, and
respectfully invoke for them the attention of our
brethren. George Girardeau, Presbyterian
Review of Sermon,
Milton Jones, Northwest Church of Christ, Seattle,
Washington.
A visitor taped this
sermon and because the preacher outlawed taping it it is not
clear enough to transcribe directly. However, Milton Jones
makes the common proof-text apology which we wil review:
First, I gather that Alexander Campbell is
represented as the first person in the history of the world
to have taught that there is a dispensational difference
between the Law of Moses (added because of transgression,
and that transgression being musical idolatry at Mount
Sinai) which also betrayed
The Book of The Covenant of God in Christ to Abraham and restated..
Perhaps his uniqueness was
to declare the fact to theologians who often "saw godliness
as a means of financial gain." Furthermore, Campbell argues
that Calvinists need to preach the law in order to radically
panic the prospects into some emotional experience which
could be translated as conversion and a sign of God's
acceptance. This dissociation -- an integral part of the new
marketing schemes -- terminated the process and therefore
baptism was placed under the "New Covenant" as an optional
act. That is, people were saved under law and baptized under
grace. In "believer's baptism" one actually "becomes" Christ
or Christ comes as in the "mass" and dies again for the
personal salvation of the believer.
What I grasp from the
words and their tone is that the audience is to see this new,
unique but presumptious wall between law and
grace as so radical that no "modern" person could
possibly agree with them. Connect this with the theme of "breaking
down the walls" to any and every system of religion
and you see why dispensational distinction stands as an
obstacle to ceremonial worship with music.
Grace, like Word, is God's gift to mankind to
REMOVE the laded burdens and burden laders. "Burdens" in Greek and Hebrew were the
arousal songs with instruments used to ENCHANT or
perform sorcery on people.
Titus 2:11 For the grace
of God
that bringeth
salvation
hath appeared to all
men,
Titus 2:12 Teaching us that,
denying meaning to contradict, reject,
refute
ungodliness means irreverent,
impious: that will get you burned
Heb 12. Zoe "calls down the fires."
and worldly lusts, "A longing for that
which is FORBIDDEN." Don't ring a bell?
we should
live soberly, Sound mind: music
deranges the mind.
righteously, innocent giving NO
offense.
and godly, devout or reverent
without which you get burned.
in this present world;
Charis (g5485) khar'-ece; from
5463; graciousness (as gratifying), of manner
or act (abstr. or concr.; lit., fig. or spiritual; espec. the divine influence
upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude)
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his
glory,
the glory as of
the only begotten of the Father,)
full of grace and
truth. John 1:14
John 1:16 And of his fulness have all we received,
and grace for grace.
John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ.
While many of Campbell's
contemporaries believed that they could pick parts of the
legalistic, ceremonial "like the nations" worship under the
Monarchy, the problem with this approach is that Campbell
and all of his Reformed and Baptist friends had always
rejected instrumental music based on the "Regulative
Principle" that -- out of respect for God and mankind --
"where the Bible speaks, we speak but where the Bible is
silent we are silent." Many Presbyterians and Baptists are
still faithful to that rejection of instruments.
They fully understood that
to restore the music was to trust in that part of the Law
which governed Israel after they rejected God and lived like
the Canaanites in their midst.
And, long before Locke or
Campbell we hear: "In essentials, unity, in doubtful
matters, liberty; in all things charity." - Pope John
XXIII, Ad Petri Cathedram and popularly attributed to
Augustine
Second, the
Campbells, and therefore the American Restoration
Movement, is charged with being disciples of Locke rather
than the disciples of Christ. This, of course, denies that
they were true-blue scholars and question Locke's
Christianity.
John
Mark Hicks in defining the Hermeneutics of the
Stone-Campbell
First, the
false claim that the Churches of Christ and the
Christian Churches were ever united
or held a SINGLE doctrine in common when Jones etal claim that the groups UNITED
in 1832. We will debunk that under John Mark
Hicks false document review.
Second,
without having read John Locke who gave
HIM both religious and civil
lliberty, Jones and Hicksmake the
false claim that the Campbells taught that they could use
their OWN rationalistic, distorted mind
to DETERMINE THE WILL OF GOD. That is
false: God, Jesus, the writers and
all humanoid history teaches that people WRITE
documents knowing that readers
can read BLACK text on BROWN paper.
The Disciples on the other
Anyone who read understands that the SNAKE
in Revelation was called a Musical
Enchanter(ess). Christ in the prophets
identifies the King of Tyre as a LUCIFER type and "She is
called a singing and harp playing prostitute
in the graden of Eden.
The implication is that
Locke was some kind of rationalistic creature who operated
from his God-given mind rather than listening to the voice
of the Spirit. Locke was not fond of the Calvinistic
demand for supernatural signs and this may explain why
those who distort Calvin don't like Locke.
Because the audience
(nor do most of those camp-following lectureship guys
whose "buzz code" is "down with John Locke.") know little
about Locke it is easy to minimize one who stands at the
top of the heap intellectually and promoted religious tolerance when it was dangerous to do
so. Both Locke and Campbell taught that if you don't rely
only on direct commands it is not possible to function as a
united local body. And that is a self-evident fact of
life.
The freedom which we
enjoy as citizens under the Constitution of the United
States and as free-to-choose worshipers of God depends
heavily upon the work of Locke.
As a result of his
work, Campbell's approach would promote religious
toleration in a polluted ocean of tribal warfare among
too many clergy chasing too few dollars.
Third, besides
questioning the motives and spirituality of those who
oppose music in the modern sectarian movement, the motive seems to
be to aggrandize the period of the Monarchy or the Kingdom
where God granted Israel a human king to replace Him so that they could worship like the nations and fulfill their sentence at
Mount Sinai because of musical "play."
This would not allow, but
totally prohibit, women or younger men from being "musical
overseerers." If we need a "law" to answer to Paul's
absolute prohibition of "non-sedantary" women in the
assembly, this is it.
Quoting Psalm 150 as "proof text" shows that
the preacher does not share any understanding of the
difference between the covenant of grace offered at Sinai and the Book of the Law given to govern a people who
turned back to the musical worship of their Egyptian gods.
There is a problem when
a Psalm is used as "proof-text" or legal authority to add instruments
even if we never see David as a theatrical performer in
ceremonial legalism or "church worship." We do see him playing himself into
a naked dance with the slave girls. The word "play" of
David is identical to the Mount Sinai experience and
Condemned by Paul to the Corinthians. The word "halal"
means that he "made himself vile" and bragged that the
slave followers would hold him in honor.
Nor does he share any
understanding with the audience that some of these
instruments were not allowed in the temple
service (never congregational) and were not
allowed on the seventh day sabbath which was to "be kept
holy."
If thou turn away thy
foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my
holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of
the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own
pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Isaiah 58:13
If we use Psalm 150 as
proof text for modern instrumental music what will we do
with Psalm 149 which says:
Let the high praises
of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their
hand; Psalm 149:6
- To execute
vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the
- people; Psalm
149:7
David "sang to the
Gentiles" with his feed on their necks as he shed the
blood OF the Gentiles. However, Christ shed His blood FOR
the gentiles and when He sings we "preach."
The church "fathers"
understood these either as written by a vengeful God or must be interpreted in a spiritual sense as Christ "playing" on our
heart as we teach His Words (Col 3) or Spirit (Eph 5) to one
another.
Fourth, with the destruction
of "dispensational distinctions" the legalistic Levitical
Musical Teams become
the authority for many modern musical worship teams to
replace the elders. These teams are now allowable if it
can be proven to the audience that songs are to be sung
using mechanical instruments with Psalm 150 as the
"proof-text."
Once the walls have been
broken down between the
sacrificial system and the Christian dispensation it is
just as reasonable to replace the communion table with
sacrificial bodies offered up with musical noise. Paul
would associate them with the shaven heads of the
pagan prophetesses (1 Cor 11:5)
In fact, the
instrumentalist "noise makers" played panic "music"
during the sacrifices but this was not "worship."
In the wilderness, the
Levites stood between the people and the Tabernacle to
prevent them from "coming boldly into the presence of
God."
The fact is that the
Levitical musicians were later added to the like the nations temple services when Israel
fired God and got their "own assignment" from the pagans around
them. This put the temple, animal sacrificial and the
Levitical musicians under the control of the king and the
commanders of
the army.
This also meant that the literal songs, weapons and
instruments were to punish anyone who ventured into the temple rituals or
who did not fall down during animal sacrifices.
"To the priests was
committed the charge of the sanctuary and the altar,
while
the Levites were to take care of everything else about the
tabernacle.
The Levites were to attend the priests as servants--
[meaning Hard Bondage]
bestowed on them as
"gifts" to aid in the service of the tabernacle--
while the high and dignified office of the priesthood was a "service of gift."
"A stranger," that is, one, neither a priest
nor a Levite, who should intrude into any departments of
the sacred office, should incur the penalty of death. ROBERT JAMIESON
The "musical noise makers" served in the
court which represents the world: they never entered the
holy place (church) nor certainly the Most Holy Place
where one worshiper at a time goes boldly before the
throne of grace. A "musician" who attempted to follow the
priest into either place (church or spirit) would be run
through with a sword: any theatrical performers who
attempts to do it today has been run through with the
Sword of the Spirit.
Therefore, to adopt a Monarchy pattern
is to adopt "worship like the nations" and to deny the
work of Christ Who permits us all to come boldly before
the throne of grace. Anyone who pretends to bring you into
God's presence has been hatched in downtown Babylon.
It is also a fact that
most complex harmony "panics" the enemy into "flight,
fight or sex" before the induced morphine-like drug
produces the "high" which can be peddled as a "spiritual"
feeling.
Fifth, because
many might not buy the "no dispensational distinction"
argument, the word psallo is dredged up when no one understanding the
Bible, the classical writers, church history or that no
informed by scholars ever attempted to wrestle Paul's words until
challenged about the forceful introduction of instrument.
Except to "poison the wells" it is difficult to
understand the string of logic connecting Locke to
Campbell to the Greek word "psallo." Rather than the
Bible, an obscure but real-life "parasite" called Lucian of Samosata is used as proof
that psallo demanded the use of instruments well past the
time of Paul.
'It is impossible to pipe [aulein] without a pipe or to strum [psallein] without a lyre or to ride without a
horse' (Parasite 17)
My version and other
scholars note that you cannot perform LYRIC poetry
without a LYRE. You cannot ride a horse without a
horse.
This doesn't work either
because Lucian of Samosata needed patrons out of
the intellectual and ruling classes and therefore used the
Attic
Greek he had learned in his native land from
the Classical writers. That is, his use of "psallo" dates
perhaps 400 years before the time of Paul. Furthermore, he
always associated this music with pagan or secular rituals dominated by performing women. His writings help explain
the Marzeah held by Israel and condemned
by Amos.
Tom Burgess has
collected some of the Greek texts using the word PSALLO:
However, there is no exception to the rule that it was
males PLUCKING the harp to seduce a young boy as "minister
of the gods."
In Alexander
the
Oracle Monger, Lucian shows how to
construct a seeker form of religion with women a primary
attraction.
In addition, external
"melody" has its foundation in twanging arrows, plucking
hair or abrading the enemy to death with "playing
instruments and making a joyful noise before the Lord"
which was the Israelite battle cry. Twanging a literal
arrow makes the string twang and the arrow sing on its way
to your heart: when you hear the twang of a bowstring,
therefore, you panic because you know that the arrow is
making its "melody" in your heart. See the
background to twanging arrows. A similar word defines the SOP Jesus
hand abraded as a sign to Judas that He was the
prophesied agent of Psalm 41 who would try to triumph
over Jesus with the musical warriors of the priests.
Well, it is pretty hard to
blow a pipe
without a pipe! I can buy that. However, if this is
supposed to prove that it is impossible to psallo without a
lyre then:
- This demands that
every singer have their own lyre or harp.
- This would exclude
theatrical performance for the "audience." .
Sorry, but history,
including Lucian, never treats "divine" musicians much better than when Jesus
insinuated that the Jews were seeking John because he might
be "soft" and Jesus because He might sing and dance the effeminate chorus of Dionysus while they played
the pipe:
Pseudo-Apollodorus notes of the word strum that: "The infants were exposed,
but a neatherd found and reared them, and he called the
one Zethus and the other Amphion.
Now Zethus paid
attention to cattle-breeding,
but Amphion
practised minstrelsy, for Hermes had given him a lyre
The two brothers are
said to have quarrelled, the robust Zethus
blaming Amphion for
his passionate addiction to music and
urging him to abandon it for what he deemed the more manly pursuits of agriculture,
cattle-breeding and war.
The discussion between
the two brothers,
the one advocating the
practical life and
the other the contemplative or artistic, seems to have
been famous. The gentle Amphion yielded to these
exhortations so far as to cease to strum the lyre."
It is illustrated by a
fine relief in which we see Amphion standing and holding
out his lyre eagerly for the admiration
of his athletic brother, who sits regarding
it with an air of smiling disdain
This repeats the
well-known story of Cain and Able. Cain's descendant, Jubal, was the musical performer.
And the story of Genun shows that Satan always leads the
musical performers.
Hermes was
the agent who was the father of musical instruments, the bow twanging melodious
arrows, of liars and of thieves. Because "cows" in the book
of Enoch represents people, Hermes represents the Satanic
agents who can "walk backward" and hide the cattle he stole
from the senior god, Apollo. Apollo is Abbadon or Apollyon or Satan or the beast (Zoe type) who
formed an early Seeker Center at Delphi as a theater for
"holy entertainment."
However, you cannot blame
Locke, or Alexander Campbell or those who insinuated
instruments into even non-musical churches by rhetorical
force.
Lipscomb wrote as
late as 1878 that:
We do not think
anyone has ever claimed authority from
Scriptures to use the organ in worship. They only claim it is not
condemned. It is used as an assister in worship...Prayer,
praise, thanksgiving and making melody in the heart (mind)
unto the Lord are acts of worship ordained of God, but no
authority do we find for the organ."
Sixth, the Lucian quote demands the use of instruments.
Therefore, Arndt and Gingrich are used as the modern
authority for the allowance of instruments in some, but not
all, of the New Testament usages. We have some notes on Arndt-Gingrich here. Many of the Lexicons note that Lucian used a
pre Koine Greek language.
The real division over the
forced introduction of musical instruments happened after Locke, Campbell or Alexander
Campbell
Even though some of the
churches had adopted an Old Testament structure to their
organization, Alexander Campbell noted that:
"The
argument drawn from the Psalms in favor of instrumental music,
is exceedingly apposite to the Roman Catholic, English Protestant, and Scotch Presbyterian churches, and even to the Methodist communities. (Catholic
scholarship still rejects the authority of musical
instruments)
This proves that the base
of the Restoration Movement was consistent with 2,000 years
rejection of instrumental or mechanical devices as "the
works of human hands" to worship a Spirit God. Therefore,
those who add instruments are the MUSICAL SECTARIANS. They
know beforehand and with a high hand "sow discord among the
brethren" and the claim to being Post Modern includes the
right to lie, cheat and steal. Bill Clinton: "I know that I
lied but the Republicans made me do it."
"There were those
saying that they could "not abide the election of a
Republican President." In which event they would destroy the Union.
"And then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it
will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a
pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand
and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer." Abraham Lincoln, Frost,
Vol. 1, p. 274
However, his primary
argument was made against worship directed to the body or carnal nature and to the spirit:
"So to those who have no real
devotion or spirituality in them, and whose animal nature
flags under the oppression of church service, I think with
Mr. G., that instrumental music would be not only a
desideratum, but an essential prerequisite to fire up their souls to
even animal devotion.
But I
presume, to all spiritually-minded Christians, such
aids would be as a cow bell in a concert.
Therefore, it is simply
wrong to hang the sectarian music issue around the necks of
these Godly and scholarly men who are probably chuckling in
their graves over the second incarnation of the psalm
argument.
Thus ends the major points
expressing my opinion to interested parties about the first
half of the sermon trying to justify the introduction of
instruments into a Christian "worship in spirit and in
truth." And, indeed, most of these old scholars would see
the self-promotion of performance worship as neither
Biblical, rational nor quite as entertaining as all artists
believe. This is not "rationalism" but rational which is
another word for "spiritual" because God gave us a mind to
understand Him and not an antenna to suck truth out of the
air.
Seventh. It is easy to get into the
"church growth" fad but Paul said that the order is "plant
and water and let God give the increase." When there is a
deliberate sense of panic to escape the hard work the crowd-
or hype-induced new marketing schemes seem so attractive.
However, don't forget that
of those whom Paul called the "many" and prophecy calls the
"multitite" there will always be witting or unwitting
efforts to add ritual to take away the key to knowledge.
In the
Post-Modern sense the question is asked:
"Are you having
difficulty discerning or receiving this "new revelation"? Then you have
been interpreting your Bible in the "old way,"
comparing Scripture
with Scripture, studying diligently to account for every
jot and tittle and being careful to rightly divide the
Word of truth.
If this describes you,
then you belong to the "Old Generation"
which will not enter in to "possess the
land" in the Latter Rain Revival.
You may even be a member of a denominational
church, with its dogmatic confession of faith and
statement of doctrine.
These legalistic forms will be relics of the past
in the up
and coming "Postdenominational Church." Paul Cain advises that you
"dump all that carnal stuff" (doctrine) and listen to what
the "spirit" is saying to the churches through the Latter
Rain Prophets and Apostles, who are dispensing many "new, sacred truths." Source
More
Details on Blackaby and your incarnation as Christ.
See what
Preachers trying to destroy the Word believe.
In so many of the
"uniquely American" churches "testing the spirits" is
between relying on the inspired Word which has stood the
test of time or rely on those who believe that you should
rely on them for faith and practice.
The following added
verbage should be considered resources to decide whether you
want to trust Jesus and His word which produces unity or the
opinions of men who almost always do not understand or who
misuse the historical evidence.
In an article on the Second Great
Awakening we document the very legalistic nature of
the charismatic recapitulation one had to experience to
effectively save themselves by bringing Christ to them
literally and personally to die for them. In the modern
Baptist scheme, which never died in some of the Restoration
Movement, God personally picks the person for salvation and
in a quieter Presbyterian system makes that known. However,
to repudiate Calvinism at Cane Ridge, men like Barton W.
Stone still needed some supernatural "exercises" to prove
that one could work themselves through the legalistic phase
of law and then receive the Atonement. Because these
experiences rarely happen in any system, you just have to
manufacture them.
Campbell, looking at all
of the signs and results, saw this as Satanic and therefore
denied that a Christian has to go through the Law and
effectively redeem themselve. Then and now music was a
powerful machine to "move the worshipers into the presence
of God."
Background to the
Quoted Resources
We have added the
factual information which you can read for yourself to
show that:
1. The Law of
Moses was added because of Transgression:
Instrumental Idolatry
2.
Historical scholars agree that the New Covenant
dispensed with national legalistic rituals of all kind.
3.
They also agree that authority comes -- like all possible
authority -- through commands, approved examples and
inferences.
4.
Lucian did not authorize instruments by using a Post-Paul
definition of the Greek word for melody: psallo. His Greek
was perhaps 400 years older than Paul's.
5.
Only in an after the fact effort to soothe the division
caused by adding instruments has psallo ever been used to
justify their use.
While the artistics
"amphions" of the world are sowing discord by devoting too
much attention to their own theatrical performance wouldn't
it be wonderful if instead of tackling men like Locke and
Campbell the "audience" could have the huge body of
information "unchained from the pulpit." While they are
creating "body worship" we believe that:
Amphion stands and holds
out his lyre eagerly for the admiration
of his athletic
brother, they sit regarding it with an air of smiling disdain.
Did you know that the
Judas bag was for "holding the mouth pieces of wind
instruments"? But, according to Psalm 41, Judas would not
triumph over (blow the trumpet and rejoice) over Jesus. Look and see
how the Judas goats try to triumph over us.
Theologians cannot find
God by themselves. Therefore Locke said that God revealed
His Word through Jesus Christ, and that this revelation is
reasonable to the common mind. He never taught that
Christianity can be found by human reasoning. Nor did he
advocate using direct commands to regulate the affairs of
others but to create the broadest area of reconciliation.
Whence This
Judgmentalism Against the American Restoration Movement
Founders?
Like the charge of racism against those who refuse to
worship with musical instruments, the charge of Locke
contamination flows out of those who opposed the Campbell's
rejection of ceremonial legalism such as musical worship. Of
course they hated Locke for many reasons. They didn't like
him or Campbell because both opposed professionalizing the
clergy. They didn't like either because they opposed
authority which reached outside of the local congregation.
Dr. Robert
Richardson wrote in a letter to Isaac Errett:
"The philosophy of Locke
with which Bro. Campbell's mind was deeply imbued in youth
has insidiously
mingled itself with almost all great points in the
reformation and has been all the whole like an iceberg in
the way - chilling the heart and benumbing the hands, and
impeding all progress in the right direction."
What Richardson and the
Post Modern Sucked Dry of Scripture detested was that John
Locke understood that collective worship cannot take place
if we violate the commands of Paul to the Romans in
chapter fourteen. Both the Dionysiacs and Orphics both had
in common was the use of instrumental music to "make the
spirit come" in a sexual sense. Paul issued another
"speaking rather than singing" commands in Romans 15 which
demands.
The Romans
Pattern:
Dialogue of Justin Martyr with Trypho, a
Jew
- b. c. 100,,
Flavia Neapolis, Palestine [now Nabulus]
- d. c. 165,,
Rome [Italy]; feast day June 1
Chapter XI.-The
Law Abrogated; The New Testament Promised and Given by
God.
"There will be no other God,
O Trypho, nor was there from eternity any other existing" (I
thus addressed him), "but He who made and disposed all this
universe. Nor do we think that there is one God for us, another for you, but
that He alone is God who led your fathers out from Egypt with
a strong hand and a high arm. Nor have we trusted in any other
(for there is no other), but in Him in whom you also have
trusted, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. But
we do not trust through Moses or through the law; for then we
would do the same as yourselves.
But now -(for I have read
that there shall be a final law, and a covenant, the chiefest
of all, which it is now incumbent on all men to observe, as
many as are seeking after the inheritance of God.
For the law promulgated on Horeb is now old, and belongs to yourselves alone;
but this is for all universally.
Now, law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner
has put an end to the previous one;
and an eternal and final
law-namely, Christ-has been given to us, and the covenant is
trustworthy, after which there shall be no law, no commandment, no ordinance.
Have you not read this which
Isaiah says: `Hearken unto Me, hearken unto Me, my people; and, ye kings, give ear unto Me:
for a law shall go forth from Me, and My judgment shall
be for a light to the nations.
My righteousness approaches swiftly, and My salvation shall
go forth, and nations shall trust in Mine arm? LXX, Isa. li.
4, 5. '
And by Jeremiah, concerning
this same new
covenant, He thus speaks: `Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah;
not according to the covenant which I made
with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the
hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt'23 ).
If, therefore, God proclaimed a new covenant which was to be instituted, and
this for a light of the nations,
we see and are persuaded
that men approach God, leaving their idols and other unrighteousness,
through the name of Him who was crucified, Jesus Christ, and
abide by their confession even unto death, and maintain
piety.
Moreover, by the works and
by the attendant miracles, it is possible for all to
understand that He is the new law, and the new covenant, and the expectation of those
who out of every people wait for the good things of God.
For the true spiritual Israel, and descendants of
Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham (who in uncircumcision was
approved of and blessed by God on account of his faith, and
called the father of many nations), are we who have been led
to God through this crucified Christ, as shall be
demonstrated while we proceed.
Chapter
XIV.-Righteousness is Not Placed in Jewish Rites, But in
the Conversion of the Heart Given in Baptism by Christ.
"By reason, therefore, of
this laver of repentance and knowledge of God,
which has been ordained on
account of the transgression of God's people,
as Isaiah cries, we have believed, and testify that that very baptism which he announced is alone able to purify those who have repented; and
this is the water of life. But the cisterns which you have dug for yourselves are broken and profitless to you.
For what is the use of that
baptism which cleanses the flesh and body alone? Baptize the
soul from wrath and from covetousness, from envy, and from
hatred; and, lo! the body is pure.
For this is the symbolic
significance of unleavened bread, that you do not commit the
old deeds of wicked leaven. But you have understood all things
in a carnal sense, and you suppose it to be
piety if you do such things, while your souls are filled with
deceit, and, in short, with every wickedness. Accordingly,
also, after the seven days of eating unleavened bread, God
commanded them to mingle new leaven, that is, the performance
of other works, and not the imitation of the old and evil
works.
And because this is what
this new Lawgiver demands of you, I shall again refer to the
words which have been quoted by me, and to others also which
have been passed over. They are related by Isaiah to the
following effect:
`Hearken to me, and your
soul shall live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of
David. Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the nations. Nations which
know not Thee shall call on Thee; and peoples who know not
Thee shall escape unto Thee, because of Thy God, the Holy
One of Israel, for He has glorified Thee. Seek ye God; and
when you find Him, call on Him, so long as He may be nigh
you. Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he
will obtain mercy, because He will abundantly pardon your
sins.
For my thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are my ways as
your ways; but as far removed as the heavens are from the
earth, so far is my way removed from your way, and your
thoughts from my thoughts. For as the snow or the rain
descends from heaven, and shall not return till it waters the
earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the
sower and bread for food,
so shall My word be that
goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return until it
shall have accomplished all that I desired, and I shall make
My commandments prosperous. For ye shall go out with joy,
and be taught with gladness. For the mountains and the hills
shall leap while they expect you, and all
the trees of the fields shall applaud with their branches: and
instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, and instead of the brier
shall come up the myrtle. And the Lord shall be for a name,
and for an everlasting sign, and He shall not fail!'
Of these and such like
words written by the prophets, O Trypho," said I, "some have
reference to the first advent of Christ, in which He is
preached as inglorious, obscure, and of mortal appearance:
but others had reference to His second advent, when He shall
appear in glory and above the clouds; and your nation shall
see and know Him whom they have pierced, as Hosea, one of
the twelve prophets, and Daniel, foretold.
Chapter
XVIII.-Christians Would Observe the Law, If They Did Not
Know Why It Was Instituted.
"For since you have read, O Trypho, as you yourself
admitted, the
doctrines taught by our Saviour, I do not think that I have done
foolishly in adding some short utterances of His to the
prophetic statements. Wash therefore, and be now clean, and
put away iniquity from your souls, as God bids you be washed
in this laver, and be circumcised with the true circumcision.
For we too would observe the
fleshly circumcision, and the Sabbaths, and in short all the feasts,
if we did not know for what reason they
were enjoined you,-
namely, on
account of your
transgressions
and the hardness of your hearts.
For if we patiently endure
all things contrived against us by wicked men and demons, so
that even amid cruelties unutterable, death and torments, we
pray for mercy to those who inflict such things upon us, and
do not wish to give the least retort to any one, even as the
new Lawgiver commanded us:
how is it, Trypho, that we
would not observe those rites which do
not harm us,-I speak of fleshly circumcision, and Sabbaths,
and feasts?
Tertullian of
Carthage (Quintus Septimius Florens Terullianus, b. 155 -
160 Carthage - d. 220? AD)
"Fortified by this
knowledge against heathen views, let us rather turn to
the unworthy reasonings of our own people; for the faith of
some, either too simple or too scrupulous,
demands direct
authority from Scripture for giving up the shows,
and holds out that the matter is a doubtful one, because such abstinence is
not
clearly and in words imposed upon God's servants.
"Well, we never find it expressed with the same precision,
"Thou shalt not enter circus or theatre, thou shalt not look on combat
or show;"
as it is plainly laid down, "Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt
not worship an idol; thou shalt not commit adultery or
fraud." Ex. xx. 14.
"But we find that that first word
of David bears on this very sort of thing: "Blessed," he
says, "is the man who has not gone into the assembly of the impious, nor stood in the way of
sinners, nor sat in the seat of scorners." Ps. i. 1.
Though he seems to have
predicted beforehand of that just man, that he took no
part in the meetings and deliberations of the Jews, taking
counsel about the slaying of our Lord,
yet divine Scripture has
ever far-reaching
applications:
after the
immediate sense has been exhausted, in all directions it
fortifies the practice of the religious life,
so that here also you have an utterance which is not far
from a plain interdicting of the shows. Tertullian,
De
Spectaculis
Gregory
of Nyssa on Scripture as Authority
- b. c. 335, Caesarea, in
Cappadocia, Asia Minor [now Kayseri, Turkey]
- d. c. 394, ; feast day
March 9
And in this assertion they
do not go beyond the truth; for we do say so. But the ground
of their complaint is that their custom does not admit this,
and Scripture does not support it. What then is our reply?
We do not think that it is
right to make their prevailing custom the law and rule of sound doctrine.
For if custom is to avail for proof of soundness, we too, surely, may advance our
prevailing custom;
and if they reject this,
we are surely not bound to follow theirs.
Let the
inspired Scripture, then, be our umpire, and
the vote of truth will
surely be given to those whose dogmas are found to agree
with the Divine words.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
Chapter 8.-The Jews Liberated from Their
Bondage in One Way, the Gentiles in Another.
12. Accordingly the
liberty that comes by Christ took those whom it found under
bondage to useful signs, and who were (so to speak) near to
it, and, interpreting the signs to which they were in
bondage, set them free by raising them to the realities of
which these were signs. And out of such were formed the
churches of the saints of Israel. Those, on the other hand,
whom it found in bondage to useless signs,
it not only freed from
their slavery to such signs, but brought to nothing and
cleared out of the way all these signs themselves, so that
the Gentiles were turned from the corruption of a
multitude of false gods, which Scripture frequently and
justly speaks of as fornication, to the worship of the One
God: not that they might now fall into bondage to signs of
a useful kind, but rather that they might exercise their
minds in the spiritual understanding of such.
Chapter 18.-We Must Take
into Consideration the Time at Which Anything Was Enjoyed or
Allowed.
26. We must also be on our guard against supposing that what in the Old
Testament, making allowance for the condition of
those times, is not a crime or a vice even if we take it
literally and not figuratively,
can be transferred to the present time
as a habit of life.
For no one will do this except lust has dominion over him,
and endeavors to find support for itself in the very
Scriptures which were intended to overthrow it.
And the wretched man does
not perceive that such matters are recorded with this useful
design, that men of good hope may learn the salutary lesson,
both that the custom they spurn can be turned to a good use,
and that which they
embrace can be used to condemnation, if the use of the former be
accompanied with charity, and the use of the latter with
lust.
Chapter 22.-Rule Regarding
Passages of Scripture in Which Approval is Expressed of
Actions Which
are Now Condemned by Good Men.
Therefore, although all,
or nearly all, the transactions recorded in the Old
Testament are to be taken not literally only, but
figuratively as well, nevertheless even in the case of those
which the reader has taken literally, and which, though the
authors of them are praised,
are repugnant to the
habits of the good men who since our Lord's advent are the
custodians of the divine commands, let him refer the
figure to its interpretation, but let him not transfer the
act to his habits of life. For many things which were done
as duties at that time, cannot now be done except through
lust.
We will see
Augustine both defending "Dispensational
Distinction" but condemning literal instruments using the
Psalms as "proof-texts."
Letter LV. or Book II. of Replies to
Questions of Januarius. (a.d. 400.)
12. We are therefore bound to denounce with
abhorrence and contempt the ravings of the astrologers (music from
the music of the spheres), who,
when we find fault with
the empty
inventions by which they cast other men down into the
delusions where into they themselves have fallen, imagine
that they answer well when they say,
"Why, then, do you
regulate the time of the observance of Easter by
calculation of the positions of the sun and moon?"-
as if that with which we find
fault was the arrangements of the heavenly bodies, or the
succession of the seasons,
which are appointed by
God in His infinite power and goodness,
and not their perversity in abusing,
for the
support of the most absurd opinions,
those things which God has ordered in perfect
wisdom.
If the astrologer may on
this ground forbid us from drawing comparisons from the heavenly bodies
for the mystical
representation of sacramental realities,
then the augurs may with
equal reason prevent the use of these words of Scripture,
"Be harmless as doves;" and the snake-charmers may forbid that other
exhortation, "Be wise as serpents; "
while the play-actors may interfere with our
mentioning the harp in the book of Psalms.
Let them
therefore say, if they please, that,
because similitudes for the exhibition of the mysteries of
God's word are taken from the things which I have
named,we are
chargeable either with consulting the omens given by the
flight of birds, or with concocting the poisons of the
charmer,
or with taking pleasure in the excesses of the theatre,-a statement which would
be the clime of absurdity.
XVIII: 34. I am surprised
at your expressing a desire that I should write anything in
regard to those ceremonies which are found different in
different countries, because there is no necessity for my
doing this; and, moreover,
one most excellent rule must be observed in regard
to these customs,
when they do not in
any way oppose either true doctrine or sound morality,
but contain some incentives to the
better life,
viz., that wherever we
see them observed, or know them to be established,
we should not only refrain
from finding fault with them,
but even
recommend them by our approval and imitation, unless restrained
by fear of doing greater harm than good
by this course, through
the infirmity of others. We are not, however, to be
restrained by this,
if more good is to be
expected from our consenting with those who are zealous for the
ceremony,
than loss to be feared from our displeasing those who
protest against it.
In such a case we ought by
all means to adopt it,
especially if it
be something in defence of which Scripture can be alleged: as in the singing of hymns
and psalms,
for which we have on record both the example and the precepts of the Lord and of His apostles.
In this religious
exercise, so useful for inducing a devotional frame of mind and inflaming the strength of
love to God, there is diversity of usage,
and in Africa the
members of the Church are rather too indifferent in regard to it; on which
account the Donstists reproach
us with our grave chanting of the divine songs of the prophets in
our churches,
while they inflame their passions in their revels by the singing
of psalms
of human
composition,
which rouse them like the stirring notes of the trumpet
on the battle-field.
(In the assembly)
But
when brethren are assembled in the church, why should not
the time be devoted to singing of sacred songs, excepting of course while reading or preaching is going on, or while the
presiding minister prays aloud, or the united prayer of the
congregation is led by the deacon's voice?
(outside the
assembly) At the other intervals not thus occupied,
I do not see what could be a more excellent, useful, and
holy exercise for a Christian congregation.
Martin
Luther
also on Instrumental
Music
- b. Nov. 10,
1483, Eisleben, Saxony [Germany]
- d. Feb. 18,
1546, Eisleben
"For we hold that a man is
justified by faith apart from works of law" (Rom. 3:28) because he felt it
was demanded by the German. The word alone or only was retained by the
Reformers after him because it seemed to safeguard this
important doctrine against such perversions as might seem to
make salvation dependent on human achievement or a reward for human merit.
"This difference between the
Law and the Gospel is the height of knowledge in
Christendom. Every person and all persons who assume or glory
in the name of Christian should know and be able to state this
difference.
If this ability is lacking,
one cannot tell a Christian from a heathen or a Jew; of such
supreme importance is this differentiation.
This is why St.
Paul so strongly insists on a clean-cut and proper
differentiating of these two doctrines. (Sermon on
Galatians 1532)
It may be Post-Modern but it
is neither Biblical nor rational to define obedience to the
express commands or Christ or to obey even hints which we
receive through His Word is legalism.
It is not possible to
administer grace by theatrical performance or by a musical
instrument.
Therefore, musical worship
is not related to salvation. To add it in the midst of
general -- if unspoken -- unrest is to become sectarian and
law-based.
Luther would go beyond and
say that:
"The organ in the worship
Is the insignia of Baal" The Roman Catholic borrowed it from
the Jews." (Martin Luther, Mcclintock & Strong's
Encyclopedia Volume VI, page 762)
Paul
"found that, especially in the Church at Corinth, which he
had converted
by
the words
of his own lips and brought to faith in Christ, soon after
his departure the devil introduced his heresies whereby the people were turned
from the truth and betrayed into other ways....
And this is how it is he
comes to speak in high terms of praise of the ministration
of the Gospel and to contrast and compare the twofold
ministration or message which may be proclaimed in the
Church, provided, of course, that God's Word is to be
preached and not the nonsense of human falsehood and the
doctrine of the devil.
One is that of the Old
Testament, the other of the New; in other words, the
office of Moses, or the Law,
and the office of
the Gospel of Christ. He contrasts the glory and power of
the latter with those of the former, which, it is
true, is also the Word of God.
In this manner he
endeavors to defeat the teachings and pretensions of those seductive spirits who, as he but lately
foretold, pervert God"s Word,
in that
they greatly extol the Law of God, yet at best do not
teach its right use,
but, instead of making it tributary to faith in Christ,
misuse it to teach work-righteousness. Sermon by by
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
In His Cathecism,
Martin Luther wrote:
The word holy day
(Feiertag) is rendered from the Hebrew word sabbath which
properly signifies to rest, that is, to abstain from labor.
Hence we are accustomed to say, Feierbend machen [that is,
to cease working], or heiligen Abend geben [sanctify the Sabbath].
Now, in the Old
Testament, God separated the seventh day, and appointed it
for rest, and commanded that it
should be regarded as holy above all others.
As regards this external observance, this commandment was given to the Jews
alone, that they should abstain from toilsome work, and rest, so that both man and beast
might recuperate, and not be weakened by
unremitting labor.
Although they afterwards
restricted this too closely, and grossly abused it, so that
they traduced and could not endure in Christ those works
which they themselves were accustomed to do on that day, as
we read in the Gospel
just as though the
commandment were fulfilled by doing no external [manual] work
whatever, which, however, was not the meaning, but, as we
shall hear,
that they sanctify the
holy day or day of rest. This commandment, therefore, according to its
gross sense, does not concern us Christians; for it is altogether an
external matter,
like other ordinances
of the Old Testament, which were attached to particular
customs, persons, times, and places,
and now have been made
free through Christ. Larger Cathechism
John
Calvin
also against
Instrumental Music
- b. July 10,
1509, Noyon, Picardy, France
- d. May 27, 1564,
Geneva, Switz.
-
John Calvin, The Institutes
(2.9.4), 1536
By the term Law, Paul
frequently understands that rule of holy living in which God
exacts what is his due, giving no hope of life unless we obey
in every respect; and, on the other hand, denouncing a curse
for the slightest failure. This Paul does when showing that we
are freely accepted of God, and accounted righteous by being
pardoned, because that obedience of the Law to which the
reward is promised is nowhere to be found. Hence he
appropriately represents the righteousness of the Law and the
Gospel as opposed to each other. But the Gospel has not
succeeded the whole Law in such a sense as to introduce a
different method of salvation. It rather confirms the Law, and
proves that every thing which it promised is fulfilled. What
was shadow, it has made substance..
"Like most religious
reformers, Calvin relied on song by the people, and
discourages musical instruments which he compared to childish toys which ought to be put away
in manhood. So deeply did his teaching sink into the Genevans,
that three years after his death they melted down the pipes of
the organ in his church, to form flagons for the communion.
And his principle were adopted widely in Britain." (W. T.
Whitley, Congregational Hymn-Singing (London: J. M. Dent &
Sons Ltd., 1933, p. 58).
(1509-1564)
Perhaps
it was John Calvin rather than John Locke who "misled"
Thomas Campbell into Dispensational Distinction
"There is then no other
argument needed to condemn superstitions, than that they are not commanded by God:
or when men allow
themselves to worship God according to their own fancies,
and attend not to His commands,
they
pervert true religion." Calvin's Commentaries,
9:414.
He continues:
"Hebrews 9:1. "Then
verily the first", &c. After having
spoken generally of the abrogation of the old covenant, he now refers specially to
the ceremonies. His object is to show that there
was nothing practiced then to which Christ's coming has not put an
end.
He says first, that under the old
covenant there was a specific form of divine
worship, and that it was peculiarly adapted to that time.
It will hereafter appear by the comparison what kind of
things were those rituals prescribed under the Law.
"Were any one to ask why
the Apostle speaks with so little respect and even with contempt of Sacraments
divinely instituted, and extenuates their efficacy? This
he does, because he separates them from Christ; and we know that when
viewed in themselves they are but beggarly elements, as Paul calls them. (Gal.
4: 9.)
A difference is to be
observed in this respect between his people under the Old and
under the New Testament;
for now that Christ
has appeared, and the church has reached full age, it
were only to bury
the light of
the gospel should we introduce
the shadows of a departed dispensation.
Then Calvin notes what the
Catholics confess: that it was not really a borrowing from
the sacrificial system but from the world of entertainment
from all pagans:
From this it appears
that the Papists, as I shall have occasion to
show elsewhere, in employing instrumental music
cannot be said so much
to imitate the practice of God's ancient people as to ape it in a senseless and absurd manner,
exhibiting a silly delight in that worship of the Old Testament which was figurative and
terminated with the gospel." (Psalm 92:1)
And: "We need not shrink from
admitting that candles, like incense and lustral water,
were commonly employed in pagan worship and in the rites paid to the
dead. But the Church from a very early period
took them into her service, just as she adopted many other
things indifferent in themselves, which seemed proper to enhance the splendour of religious ceremonial. We must not forget that
most of these adjuncts to worship, like music, lights, perfumes,
ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans, screens,
bells, vestments, etc.
were not identified
with any idolatrous cult in particular;
they were common to almost all cults.
They are, in fact,
part of the natural language of mystical expression, and
such things belong quite as much to secular ceremonial
as they do to religion. Catholic Encyclopedia on Candles
Of Psalm 71:22. We are not, indeed, forbidden to use, in private, musical instruments, but
they are banished out of the churches by the plain command of the
Holy Spirit, when Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14:13, lays it
down as an invariable rule, that we must praise God, and
pray to him only in a known tongue. By the word truth, the Psalmist means that the
hope which he reposed in God was rewarded, when God
preserved him in the midst of dangers. [Note: Paul
connects speaking in tongues and musical instruments which
are only useful for signalling in warfare if you interpret
the message before you sound it]
The promises
of God, and his truth in performing them, are
inseparably joined together.
Unless we depend upon the word of God, all
the benefits which he confers upon us will be unsavoury or tasteless to us; nor will we ever be stirred up
either to prayer or thanksgiving,
if we are not previously illuminated
by the Divine word.
So much the more revolting, then, is the folly of that
diabolical
man, Servetus, who teaches that the rule of
praying is perverted
as if we
could have any access into the presence of God, until he first
invited us by his own voice to come to him.
Of Psalm 33
Calvin addressed both the end of the legalistic system
and the use of instruments:
There is a distinction,
however, to be observed here, that we may not
indiscriminately consider as applicable to ourselves,
every thing which was formerly enjoined upon the Jews. I
have no doubt that playing upon cymbals, touching the harp and the
viol, and all that kind of music, which is so frequently
mentioned in the Psalms,
was a part of
the education; that is to say, the puerile
instruction of the law: I speak of the stated service
of the temple.
For even now, if
believers choose to cheer themselves with musical instruments,
they should, I think, make it their object not to dissever their
cheerfulness from the praises of God.
But when they frequent their
sacred assemblies, musical instruments in
celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable
than the burning of incense, the lighting up of
lamps, and the restoration of the other shadows of the law.
The
Papists, therefore, have foolishly borrowed this,
as well as many other things, from the Jews.
Men who are
fond of outward
pomp
may delight in that noise;
but the simplicity
which God recommends to us by the apostle is far more pleasing to
him. Paul allows us to bless God in the public assembly
of the saints only in a known tongue, (1 Corinthians 14:16.)
The voice
of man, although not understood by the generality,
assuredly excels all inanimate instruments of music; and yet we see what St
Paul determines concerning speaking in an unknown
tongue. [Paul uses the terms lifeless instruments or
carnal weapons]
What shall we then say of chanting, which fills the ears
with nothing but an empty sound?
Does any one object,
that music is very useful for awakening the minds of men
and moving their hearts? I own it;
but we should always
take care that no corruption creep in, which might both
defile the pure worship of God and involve men in superstition. Moreover, since the Holy
Spirit expressly warns us of this danger by the mouth of
Paul,
to proceed beyond
what we are there warranted by him is not only, I must
say, unadvised zeal, but wicked and perverse obstinacy.
Parkes identifies the
performing prophet or prophetess as "the oldest
profession" and identifies, along with all of the
available evidence, Instruments as devices of superstition
actually believing, along with many Jews and most Greeks,
that the gods lived inside of the instrument. Therefore,
what comes out is the voice of the god which leads you
into their presence and gives you new revelations. This
was always commercial charlatiniasm. Click for more.
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.
b. c.
1514,near Haddington, Lothian, Scot.
d. Nov. 24,
1572, Edinburgh
"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:
The Mass is
Idolatry.
All worshipping,
honouring, or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God,
without his own express commandment, is idolatry.
The
Mass is invented by the brain of man, without any
commandment of God;
therefore
it is idolatry.
John Bradford, The
Places of The Law & Of The New Covenant, 1548
Whosoever truly
understandeth the division of the places of the Law and of the Gospel, gathered out of the holy
scriptures, cannot by any man's doctrine be seduced
from the truth, or read the scriptures but to edify both
himself and others:
whereas he that is ignorant of the same cannot, though he
were a great doctor of divinity, and could rehearse every
text of the bible without book, but both be deceived, and deceive others; as the experience hereof (the
more pity) hath taught, nay, seduced the whole world....
Therefore, I say, take
to thee the glass of God's law; look therein, and thou
shalt see thy just damnation, and God's wrath for sin, which, if thou dreadest,
will drive thee not only to an amendment, but also to a
sorrow and hatred of thy wickedness, and even to the brim
of despair, out of which nothing can bring thee but the
glad tidings of Christ, that is, the gospel: for as God's
word doth bind thee,
so can nothing but
God's word unbind thee; and until thou comest to this
point, thou knowest nothing of Christ.
Theodore Beza, The
Christian Faith, 1558
We divide this Word into
two principal parts or kinds: the one is called the 'Law,' the other the 'Gospel.' For
all the rest can be gathered under the one or other of these
two headings...
Ignorance of this
distinction between Law and Gospel is one of the principal
sources of the abuses which corrupted and still corrupt
Christianity.
The Formula of
Concord, 1576
We believe, teach, and
confess that the distinction of the Law and of the Gospel, as a most excellently clear
light, is to be retained with special diligence in the
Church of God,
in order that the Word
of God, agreeably to the admonition of St. Paul, may be rightly divided.
John Locke: English philosopher who was an
initiator of the Enlightenment in England and France, an
inspirer of the U.S. Constitution
b. Aug. 29,
1632, Wrington, Somerset, Eng.
d. Oct. 28,
1704, Oates, Essex
Locke
never taught what Campbell is accused of teaching about the three levels of
Campbellian Hermeneutics. He simply warned those who rise
above "humility" and add to the Word, that their logic must be
beyond reproach or they must be inspired. This was because, in
his view, all of the philosophers and theologians in the world
when combining their rules of morality had no moral authority
to make spiritual changes.
Both Locke and Campbell
used levels of authority to teach toleration and not to exclude people by introducing unclear rituals
which did not have a direct command.
The Reasonableness
of
Christianity should be read to see that the
preacher is treating Locke with a non-Christ-O-Centric sense
of tolerance. Locke makes use of the Bible to make his
point. However, he will give professional "pastors" a
heartburn and this is probably why he must be discredited
before the "audience" catches on to the Biblical authority
about human teachers.
We think that the preacher
probably is quoting quotes from quoted quotes and may be
referring to Locke's A Letter
Concerning Toleration. It is clear that the most
intolerant effort within the American Restoration Movement
is to become sectarian in order to attract the
entertainment-based people and thereby exclude those who
know that you can build spiritual life only on Christ at the
center rather than the theatrical performance of preacher
and musical team at the center.
In 1689 Locke deliberately
placed beyond criticism churches which by their nature were
not Christian.
By definition,
a Muslim could not be called heretical or schismatic by a Christian.
However, within the Christian churches which by definition based their faith and practice
on the Bible, Locke like Campbell urged the church not to add anything to the worship which
was not
explicitly commanded.
This was not to upset
grown people who hate authority of any kind: This would
allow the broadest possible fellowship.
Those who forcefully add
musical instruments make it a "condition of her communion" something which is not commanded become sectarian and therefore
idolaters in that they put the "music" ahead of those for
whom Christ died. John Locke warns:
But since men are so
solicitous about the true church, I would only ask them
here, by the way, if it be not more agreeable to the Church of Christ
to make the conditions of her communion consist in such things,
and such things only,
as the Holy Spirit has in the Holy Scriptures declared, in
express words, to be necessary to salvation;
I ask, I say, whether
this be not more agreeable to the Church of Christ
than for men
to impose their own inventions and interpretations upon
others
as if they were of Divine authority,
and to establish by ecclesiastical laws, as absolutely
necessary to the profession of Christianity, such things
as the Holy Scriptures do either not mention, or at least not expressly command?
Whosoever requires those things in order to
ecclesiastical communion, which Christ does not
require in order to life eternal,
he may, perhaps,
indeed constitute a society accommodated to his own opinion and his
own advantage;
but how that can be
called the Church of Christ which is established
upon laws that are not His, and which excludes such persons from its
communion as He will one day receive into the Kingdom
of Heaven, I understand not.
If Locke is in the memory
bank of preachers who use and abuse him to discredit those
who "do not go beyond what is written" he may be crucified
because he charged that those who introduce practices which
are not
commanded are the ones guilty of "excluding from
their fellowship" those who rely on the message of the
Spirit.
The proof is that those
who remain faithful to practices which reach back to the
commands of Jesus and the Apostles are labeled as
"Sectarian" or even racists.
If the ruling pastor
imposes musical worship teams and then mechanical devices,
people sensitive to the Spirit of the humble Christ must
listen as a condition of her communion otherwise they are excluded
and those who make the changes without any Biblical
authority are by definition sectarian which word implies
some vested financial interest.
Adding Instruments without
authority is imposing their own inventions because there is
no command, example or inference and the Bible and history are not silent.
Ralph Erskine,
The Beauties of Erskine, 1745 A Poem
- The law supposing I
have all,
- Does ever for
perfection call;
- The gospel suits my
total want,
- And all the law can
seek does grant.
-
- The law could
promise life to me,
- If my obedience
perfect be;
- But grace does
promise life upon
- My Lord's obedience
alone.
-
- The law says, Do,
and life you'll win;
- But grace says,
Live, for all is done;
- The former cannot
ease my grief,
- The latter yields
me full relief.
-
- The law will not
abate a mite,
- The gospel all the
sum will quit;
- There God in
thret'nings is array'd
- But here in
promises display'd.
-
- The law excludes
not boasting vain,
- But rather feeds it
to my bane;
- But gospel grace
allows no boasts,
- Save in the King,
the Lord of Hosts.
-
- The law brings
terror to molest,
- The gospel gives
the weary rest;
- The one does flags
of death display,
- The other shows the
living way.
-
- The law's a house
of bondage sore,
- The gospel opens
prison doors;
- The first me
hamer'd in its net,
- The last at freedom
kindly set.
-
- An angry God the
law reveal'd
- The gospel shows
him reconciled;
- By that I know he
was displeased,
- By this I see his
wrath appeased.
-
- The law still shows
a fiery face,
- The gospel shows a
throne of grace;
- There justice rides
alone in state,
- But here she takes
the mercy-seat.
-
- Lo! in the law
Jehovah dwells,
- But Jesus is
conceal'd;
- Whereas the
gospel's nothing else
- But Jesus Christ
reveal'd.
Thomas
Campbell's Declaration and Address
By reading the major work of Thomas Campbell it will be seen
that he taught a "minimalist" collective worship which rests
on commands in order to keep the unity of the body. Our
preacher seems to imply that Thomas and Alexander Campbell
taught a radically-new hermeneutic in order to exclude people and thereby pass judgment on
them. One might grasp from this that instruments were not
used and instrumentalists were excluded from fellowship --
all based on a radical departure from understanding the
Bible written without walls of separaton.
Simply by continuing to
not use mechanical instruments
which they had not used since the Reformation
and beyond Campbell and all of his fellow Methodists,
Baptists and Presbyterians are charged with being
sectarian and legalistic because they did not follow the
self-elected leaders just out of liberal universities.
Now, look at this again:
Reformed churches and
all of the reformers (including the Catholic theology)
from the first century did not use instrumental music to try to attract
God.
Seeker-friendly
churches (i.e. Midway, Kentucky) add instruments.
Campbell continues
just as he has from the foundation of the church and does not add practices which not commanded and
are divisive.
Those adding the
instruments then label Campbell (and his modern
brethren) as racists, legalists and guilty of
"sowing discord among the brethren."
They, of
course, deliberately ignore the facts and therefore
are lying by transference of guilt. A common
children's practice.
Locke showed that if
people have any interest in unity they will
not impose on others their private opinions not based on
direct commands. However, he teaches another fact which
disturbs religionists or institution-building people: that
each person has their own authority to choose a
congregation and therefore the authority to leave a group
without being condemned. Because "clergy" in the minds of
most writers of that period meant spiritual and financial
corruption, Locke and the Campbells gave all of the
authority to the individual and none to the self-ordained
clergy.
Campbell first made the
point made by many before him: the church Christ founded
is described only in the New Testament. One may be many things in
religion but a Christian is one who accepts the explicit
claims of Christ and His Spirit-guided apostles as
containing all that we need for life and godliness. If the silence of Scripture is
a "divine oversight" and we can make up for God's
"failure" then why would He come and declare that His
Words are Spirit and Life (John 6:63)?
Contrary to the false
charges, Campbell did not lay down some legalistic scheme
by which one can exist as a church. Rather, the whole Declaration and
Address defines principles which must be followed
if various congregations are to walk in fellowship
pursuing the same goals.
By analogy, the rule of
the hunting camp is: "Thou shalt take a bath at least once
a week." Freddy the Fumigant never takes baths. OK!
Freddy, you dont have to take baths but you cannot bunk in
our cabin but we will still say "hay" outside the camp.
Campbell described it this way:
2. That although the Church of Christ upon earth must
necessarily exist in particular and distinct societies,
locally separate one from another, yet there ought to be
no schisms, no uncharitable divisions
among them. They ought to receive each other as
Christ Jesus hath also received them, to the glory of God.
And for this purpose
they ought all to walk by the same
rule, to mind and speak the same thing; and to be perfectly
joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment.
Thomas Campbell might
say: "You can burn billy goats and dance naked around the
altar if you wish and we will still say 'hay' at the
coffee shop. However, you cannot burn goats and 'cry out'
to God like a lost David while we are eating the Lord's
Supper and 'searching in silence our own hearts' in
obedience to the will of Christ." Therefore, in order that
we do not become sectarian or:
3. That in order to
this, nothing ought to be inculcated upon Christians as articles of
faith;
nor required of them
as terms of communion,
but what is expressly taught and enjoined upon them
in the word of God. Nor ought anything to be admitted,
as of Divine obligation, in their Church
constitution and managements, (Locke
LT)
but what is expressly
enjoined by the authority of
our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles upon the New
Testament Church; either in express terms or by approved
precedent.
4. That although the
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are inseparably
connected, making together but one perfect and entire
revelation of the Divine will, for the edification and
salvation of the Church, and therefore in that respect
can not be separated;
yet as to what
directly and properly belongs to their immediate
object, the New Testament is as for the worship,
discipline, and government of the New Testament
Church, and as perfect a rule for the
particular duties of its members,
as the Old Testament
was for the worship, discipline, and government of the
Old Testament Church, and the particular duties of its
members. (Declaration And Address)
If you are still using
the legalistic Levitical "offering the sacrifice" music
while I am trying to take my mind off you as "at the center" and focus
on Christ Who is the Center then you may be repudiating
the blood of Jesus and you assuredly are being sectarian
as you drive away those who cannot engage in The Book of the Law
worship after God has restored The Book of the Covenant first given to Abraham.
The
Liberalizing Influence of Thomas Campbell
The environment in which
Thomas Campbell studied and preached laid down the "rule"
that only
direct commands could be used as authority for religious
practices.
The Campbells
had no "direct command" about baptizing babies and so they
were excluded from the Presbyterians.
The believed Acts 2:38 to be followed as an act of faith
without all of the Baptist baggage and was forced out of
the Baptists.
Campbell actually
"liberalized" this by permitting approved examples to be used to expand the
church's freedom of religious practices. For instance,
because Paul laid down no official power to decide who
could eat the Lord's Supper he believed that he could
offer it to "brand B" presbyterians who did not have their
little token of acceptance from "brand A" presbyterians.
He learned that he
could not do that and be a Presbyterian.
Later, this was
liberalized even further by agreeing that sometimes a necessary inference can be drawn to do things
necessary to carry out direct commands. For instance,
there is no direct command nor approved example for
building church buildings, adding pews, song books or many
other things but God gave us credit for having enough
sense to get in out of the rain without a direct command.
There is no command,
example or necessary inference for mechanical music. It is
not necessary to carry out any function of worship. To the
contrary, there is a large body of Biblical material which
associates music with refusing to listen to God's Words.
Conclusion:
Campbell's motive was not to exclude but to eliminate
any element of worship which has no clear command
because to do so sectiaranizes the church when people
have to leave when non-essentials are imposed upon
them. He is not responsible for the use or misuse of
this principle to which he added approved examples and
inferences as Lockean toleration.
Campbell's
Sermon on the Law
It is important to understand that adding music to
triumph over the others looking for sheep is based on
the claim of "putting Christ at the center." The fact is
that performing preaching and music is clearly put at the
center: you cannot see through any person and see Christ.
That is
why He commanded us to go into our secret places.
Such churches condemn
non-musical
churches with being legalistic simply because
they do not add rituals out of their own head or
paganism from which Catholicism acknowledges
borrowing music to aggrandize their ceremonial. In fact, music is an
agent of force of mind control to put you into the mood
suitable to the group mind -- the collectivistic state
in minature.
The repudiation of
Campbell's sermon on the law surely has to be based upon
the fact that the peak of legalistic worship is musical
or theatrical performance. Campbell noted the only
reason people charged him with heresy for preaching the
sermon as:
"we shall
briefly notice the reason commonly assigned for
proposing the law as a rule of life to Christians.
"If Christians are
taught," say they, "that they are delivered from the
law, under it in no sense; that they are dead to it, will not they be led
to live rather a licentious life, live as they list;
and will not the
non-professing world, hearing that they are not
under the law of Moses, become more wicked, more
immoral and profane?"
This fits perfectly
with so called Post-Modern or Latter Rain religion using
shepherding techniques and repudiating paying members
for daring to speak against the lone ranger dominant
pastor. The law is absolutely required as a source of
ceremonial legalism such as music and the control of the
body from any upsetting teachings. This is not a sign of
freedom in Christ but of the same fearfulness which
plagued David, the Psalmist.
Repudiating Campbell
is a certain urge to fall back under legalism which is
the only security a non Christian has.
The reviewed sermon
imagines that Campbell was the first "creature" in the
universe who believed that the Old Testament worship
ritual had been replaced with worship "in spirit and in
truth."
He taught along with
most of history's scholars that the Old Testament
describes a system of national worship added because
of transgression and to remind the people of their
continual sinfulness. It prevented them from ever
having a clear conscience before God.
He also taught with
the worlds scholars (except Catholics) that the
dispensation of grace has abrogated all of those
rituals by the one righteous act of "worship" by the
offering of the blood of Jesus Christ upon the cross.
Therefore, to see
this as something outrageous dismisses the
intelligence of the "audience" who, if they do much
reading of the Bible should know better.
The goal of the
sermon seems to be that if Campbell can be discredited
then those who think like him can be discredited. This
probably intends to prove that the "Musical Worship
Teams" under the commanders of the army and used
during animal sacrifices can be lifted out of their
historical context and plunked down where the table of
the Lord's Supper used to rest.
Campbell would have
acknowledged that in his own time theology had
degenerated so completely that the professors could not
grasp that the command to build an ark was not a "direct
command" to go thou and do likewise. Heard a sermon
where the naked dance of David was an "approved example
for Christian worship." I suggested to the preacher that
he go first and that would end the "act" of worship.
Campbell was aware that then (as now) the Bible was a
grab bag for blind men.
In his Sermon
on the Law Campbell noted:
"For, in truth, the
present popular exhibition of Christianity is a compound of Judaism, Heathen
Philosophy, and Christianity; which, like the
materials in Nebuchadnezzar's image, does not well
cement together."
As a result,
"There are not a few
professors of Christianity who suppose themselves under equal
obligations to obey Moses or any other Prophet, as
Christ and his Apostles. They cannot understand why
any part of divine revelation should not be obligatory
on a Christian to observe; nor can they see any reason
why the New Testament should be preferred to the Old;
or why they should not be regulated equally by each.
They say, 'Is it not all the word of God, and are not
all mankind addressed in it
"A fourth conclusion
which is deducible from the above premises is, that
all arguments and motives, drawn from the law or Old
Testament, to urge the disciples of Christ to baptize their
infants (dedicate them); to pay tithes to
their teachers; to observe holy days or
religious fasts, as preparatory to the observance of
the Lord's supper; to sanctify the seventh day; to enter into national
covenants; to establish any form of religion by
civil law:--and all reasons and motives borrowed from
the Jewish law, to excite the disciples of Christ to a
compliance with or an imitation of Jewish customs, are
inconclusive, repugnant to Christianity, and fall ineffectual to
the ground; not being enjoined or countenanced by the authority of Jesus Christ."
Campbell understood
the Word of God and the history of theology which
acknowledged the distinction between the Old and New
Testament. The Jews understood it very well: no
Jerusalem, no Temple; no Temple, no music."
The Monarchy period
was added as a curse earned at Mount Sinai when Israel
rejected the Covenant of Grace, musically worshiped
Osiris their old Egyptian god, and later sealed their
doom when they demanded a king like the nations so that
they could worship like the nations. The "congregation"
did not participate with the king and clergy "inside the
gates or camp" and therefore Jesus has to be found
"outside the camp" and not in connection with music
during animal sacrifices. You cannot restore the music
without being consistent and sacrificing some of your
"lambs."
Failure to understand
the difference between the Book of the Covenant and the
Book of the Law at Mount Sinai leaves one open to fatal
flaws and grace may have been forfeited. Adding
instrumental music in worship is both a cause and sign
that the first century "god" has been retired.
If you could
absolutely prove that the Law of Moses is still binding
you would be forced to the conclusion that only the
clergy, king and officials engaged in the sacrifice of
animals where the loud instruments were used to make a
crashing sound. The common people were put "outside the
camp" during this process. Furthermore, the people
always "synagogued" to hear the Word read by the priests
and only "draft age or musterable males" were required
to attend the national festivals three times a year.
Summary:
We believe that Bill
Lawrence and the Northwest Church of Christ in Seattle
do not grasp the significance of instrumental music in
worship as a key pagan practice and universally condemned
(when God speaks) as evidence that people are saying: "We won't hear any
more from you." The claim of being Post Modern and the
Seven Ones of Rubel Shelly as the "core" gospel and
everything else just interpretation can lead you down
some strange paths following the majority.
Both Locke and the
Campbells limited tests of fellowship to direct commands
so that collectively more people would be able to meet
together for worship. Conclusions based on anything else
might not prevent fellowship (meeting with) those who
did not share your opinion. However, such differences
might mean that you may use your God-given authority to
find others to worship with. And when others add
non-essentials to their worship they may exclude you
from their communion.
Most literate scholars
from the earliest church history understood the Old
Testament and therefore understood that it had nothing
to do with "spiritual worship" and that people "outside
the camp" could meet God in reading and prayer.
They also understood
that the prophets clearly predicted the end of the
period of curse as Israel fulfilled their fondest wishes
and worshiped like the nations.
They understood that
Jesus put an end to the sacrificial system by offering
His own body upon the cross "outside the camp." The Jews
understood that with the end of the temple came the end
of the sacrificial system; and with the end of the
sacrificial system they 'hung up their harps" until 1815
AD in a liberal synagogue led back into seeker-friendly
legalism by "Christian" practices.
Therefore, to blame
Locke and Thomas Campbell and then treat them as some
uniquely strange theologians simply lacks a hint of
scholarship -- or it intends to distort in order to
disturb.
- Sermon
Review: No Dispensational Distinctions: David's
Civil Rituals Authorizes Instruments?
- False
Conclusions: Lucian
of Samosata and Psallo From Attic Greek
- False
Conclusions:: Lucian
of Samosata Explained by The Church Fathers
- False
Conclusions: How
About Psallo and Psalm 150?
- Some
rebuttal: Reasonableness
of Christianity
- Locke
- Some
rebuttal: A Letter of
Toleration -
Locke
Kenneth
Sublett
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