Is
Singing "Church
Songs" Wrong?
Kenneth
Sublett,
Piney.com, Hohenwald, Tennessee
There
Are No Clean Hands:
The Left wing and the Right wing flap together the better to deceive!
See music as a
BURDEN
BUT: Jesus died to
unload to give us REST.
"ARIUS APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN
THE FIRST, WHO AVAILED HIMSELF
OF THIS MEANS [SONGS] OF IMPRESSING HIS
DOCTRINES ON THE POPULAR EAR,
BEGUILING
THE
IGNORANT, as
Philostorgius terms it, by the sweetness of his music, into
the impiety of his doctrines."
In
Acts 1:20 psalmos psalmos
is
the book of Psalms
and in Rom. 15: sing is psallo.
"Psallo is best translated by chant,
........not sing.
The
Greeks sharply distinguish
chanting
(psalmodia)
........
from singing (tragoudi).
The
first (speak or chant) is a sacred activity;
........
the second (singing), a secular
one.
In
English, unfortunately, the
distinction is not sharp.
........
Constantine
Cavarnos
"A
Greek would
........
never say tragoudo (I sing),
........
........
instead
of
psallo;
the
two terms have
connotations and
........
associations
which are worlds apart -
the
first is related to the earthly realm,
........
the
second to the
heavenly."
Psalmus , i, m., =
psalmos, i. q. psalma,
I. a psalm (eccl.
Lat.; cf.: carmen,
hymnus), Tert. adv.
Prax. 11 ; Lact. 4, 8, 14; 4, 12, 7; Vulg.
Isa. 38, 20.--Esp., the Psalms
of David, Vulg. Luc.
20, 42; id. Act. 13, 33 et saep.
Canto I. Neutr., to produce
melodious sounds (by the voice
or an instrument), to sound, sing, play (class. in prose and poetry;
rare in Cic.)
2.
Of the singing pronunciation of
an orator, to declaim
in a singing tone, to sing, drawl:
si cantas,
male cantas, si legis, cantas
C.
Hence, because the oracles
were of old uttered in
verse, of any
mysterious, prophetic, or warning
utterance, to predict, warn,
point out, indicate, make known,
say
III.
In the lang. of religion,
as v. n. or a., to use
enchantments,
charms, incantations,
to enchant, to charm,
David as one of the Monarchy
kings hand-picked
to lead the
already-sentenced Israelites into captivity and death, was not
inspired as a worship leader or to define the nature of worship. As
far as I know, David never played the harp as "public worship."
However, he did "rise up to play" like the Israelites at Mount Sinai
but he confessed to Michal that he was "making himself vile" and
would be honored by the participating women. David was separating the
Ark of the Covenant to his own new tent.
So, don't try to get
authority for Music AS
worship from the Monarchy period.
Ben Sirach in
Ecclesiasticus
Chapter 48
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.
God
makes little difference
between Israel and Judah when He says:
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
THERE
IS NO MUSICAL CONCEPT
CONNECTED WITH THE WORSHIP OF GOD IN THE ENTIRE BIBLE.
Almost all "church singing"
consists of
Contemporary
Christian
Music and almost
none of it meets the
test of the Biblical Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs all defined in
the Septuagint as from the Inspired Word.
In Greek, music is
symphonia and applies to secular, let's get drunk
parties, and to
the end-time
Babylon Harlot
worship which is
musical and has
repeated patterns in the Old Testament of the king/queen of Tyre and
Babylon as the incarnations of Lucifer.
Music to the
Greek
mind was
primarily singing and
dancing.
Melody in a "musical sense" was the natural poetic descriptions of
reality: "the fog crept in on little cat's paws" would be
"melody."
This melody is not
related to our
HARMONY.
Therefore, we have made a bad
translation.
Socrates
says that drawing and music are imitations
of reality.
Therefore, music is
acting.
In was against the Greek
world which Paul and
John in Revelation warned Christians.
It was well known that Apollo was the name for
the "god" of archery (twanging
bow
strings and singing arrows to kill), of
instrumental music and the god
of
musical harmony
for the entire world or
cosmos.
"With
the
wine-drinking (which is the literal
meaning of the Hebrew for
feasting), went music
and dancing." (Heaton, E. W.,
Everyday Life in Old Testament
times, Scribners, p. 93)
"Worship
was form more than
substance; consequently, conduct in the marketplace was totally
unaffected by worship in the holy place. Amos spoke from the
conviction that social
justice is an integral part of
the Mosaic
covenant, which regulates relations not only between God and people,
but also among people." (King, p. 44).
"In
pagan traditions, musical
instruments are invented by gods or
demi-gods, such as titans.
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).
In the Old and New Testament
the "Destroyer" is
Apollyon
or Abaddon. These are names for the Satan figure in the
Garden who
spoke through the "serpent" which was not a snake but an enchanter,
soothsayer or musician to "deceive" Eve into eating of the tree. In
Jeremiah 31 Assyria was the "tallest tree in Eden" and would
finally be
destroyed to the beat of all kinds of
musical instruments.
David was a secular king chosen by God
to lead the Israelites into the sentence
of death they
had earned by the musical
worship of Apis at Mount Sinai. When David "praised," the word is
that of a lost soul. Halal or praise means
to "make yourself
vile, pollute
yourself, or to
become a
buffoon,
slobber down your beard, or make
a fool
of yourself."
The notion of David (a
like the nations' king) was that God could not punish the insane.
Paul would see the Corinthians as "mad"
which has the same
meaning as hall.
All secular minds believed
that the
"gods" had to be serviced in a sexual sense, fed, housed or perhaps
just bamboozled by acrobatics. Paul in Ephesians 4 when speaking of
God's wrath used a word meaning to become a "bufoon." Stand up
commedians in the pulpit are just carrying out the sentence to make a
fool of themselves: the audience is not really laughing WITH them so
much as laughing AT them perhaps without knowing the
difference.
The Monarchy was a replacement for the rule of God and would carry out the death sentence earned
at Mount
Sinai by virtually letting Israel self-destruct and by sending Judah
into Babylonian captivity for 70 years where they shed their interest
in musical idolatry.
Stephen said that God
'turned them
over to worship the starry host.' Therefore, be careful how you pick
up "acts of worship from the Monarchy period." And you will find no
"music" as worship before then.
Before the
temple, melody was made with the voice and
heart:
However, go on down to chapter 48 to see that the
Monarchy was like a prison in which God
locked the
people until
they would go into captivity and death by their
own evil deeds.
Neither the temple
sacrifice nor noise (not
music) was worship.
It was "sacrifices
added because of transgression." They prayed to sacrificed animals
and God turned them over to that pagan form of worship but He didn't
need it and could not stomach it.
The common people were excluded from the temple
when the "sounding" began as a signal that you had not better be on
your feet.
The Levitical (oppressors not musicians)
who forced service (bondage) were in the courts (representing the
world) and
never in
the holy place (church) and assuredly not in the most holy place
where each
believer meets God without "accompaniment."
Worship, said Jesus, is in
the spirit or
mind and
therefore if I see you performing or hear you performing then I am
giving heed (the primary NT worship word) to you or worshiping you.
Jesus defined the place further by saying that prayer is for the
closet and not for the pulpit as "an act."
And rather than "in truth"
I am
singing false doctrine out of the blue book or red book but not out
of the Bible.
The synagogue was never a pagan worship center but it was a school of the
Bible. Not even allegorizing or commentary
of the rabbi was allowed: only the Bible read and explained where
words of Aramaic were not grasped.
"Hallel, in Jewish ritual,
selection from the Psalms,
chanted as part of the liturgy
during certain
festivals. The more frequently used selection includes Psalms 113-118
and is known as the Egyptian Hallel, presumably because Psalm 114
begins, "When Israel went out of Egypt"
It
is sung in synagogues on the first two days of Passover, on Shabuoth, on Sukkot,
on each morning of the eight days of Hanukkah, and at the close of
the Seder.
"The
Hallel through
the generations, on specific occasions: Pesachim 117a
"Hallel requires a full stomach and a satisfied spirit: Taanis
25b-26a
The
reading is beloved to the
people, and so they
listen
closely: Megillah
21b
"The
Hallel as an Institution
of the Prophets, to use
to pray for salvation
from danger: Pesachim 117a [2x] Saying the Hallel daily is blasphemous:
Shabbos
118b
The ekklesia defines the
church only in that it defines a called
meeting of
mature males. However, when
the people assembled together they always "synagogued" in the church
assemblies. This is why Paul never commanded
"singing."
The command was to Teach (preach) the
Word of Christ or Spirit or that which
had been written
(Rom. 15). Both the
singing and melody is in the heart.
Why? Why, because
"singing" was
always a secular
or
pagan practice
while reading or
teaching was a religious
practice.
"Singing
served as a means of inducing ecstatic prophecy (speaking in tongues).
Thus
the essential
relationship between music
and prophecy can be clearly seen.
This relationship also explains
why the expression for "making music" and "prophesying" was often identical in
the ancient tongues.
origen
contra celsum
8.67. The Hebrew word
Naba signifies not only "to prophesy" but also "to make music." (Quasten, Johannes,
Music and Worship in Pagan and
Christian Antiquity, p. 39)
When a Greek read from his
language he
essentially "sang" because that was the nature of the language.
Singing, nevertheless, has always been a secular practice where
"attacking the nerve endings" was the desired goal of entertainment
but NEVER worship.
Singing
is not a natural way of
communicating. Rather, it is poetic and therefore at least "two times
removed from the Biblical text."
Furthermore,
singing is
"charismatic" or esctatic. That is, the Greeks understood that
children sang but singing as performance meant that one had "gone
outside of himself" in order to do it publically.
Then,
singing is abrading: we
normally sing, like the court jester, when we want to say something
we could not get away with in prose. Of instance, a praise leader
might "sing a love song to Jesus" but would get despised for being
"really serious about it."
Anath
This
Canaanite Goddess' name
means
'to
answer,' and she
was later considered to be the same Goddess as Egyptian
Neith. Like the original Athena, she ruled battle,
the
hunt,
and the passage of souls from one world to the
next. She was also a
Death
Goddess who wore the
goatskin aegis. The aegis has been described as a cloak,
apron, breastplate, or shield. In Anath's
case, it shifted in function
as religious ceremony changed. Originally it was probably a garment
worn
by each
Libyan woman when she
came of age, marked with snakes
and Moon symbols.
Later
it was remade
into a garment worn during animal sacrifices, when it was
decorated
with severed
penises, representing
both types of death men experience, loss of erection and the ending
of their lives.
As Anath's
image was melded into that of the Minoan Bird Goddess, the penises
became snakes and the
aegis a cloak. The
result effectively concealed Athena's ancient Libyan origins. The
sacred rite in which Anath's consort, represented by the last of the
grain harvest and dying during the ritual of its reaping and division
into food and seed was cut out altogether. Such drastic action was
required to further match her to Libyan Athena, who consorted with no
man unless she wished to conceive a child by other than
parthenogenetic means.
Anath
herself remained a
powerful Goddess in the Middle East. She was worshipped by many
Israelites, who considered their god her consort. The Phoenicians
also adored her, naming settlements for her. One of them was called
Panorma by the Greeks, connecting her to their 'universal mountain
mother' Gaea or
Rhea.
Atthis
was also connected
with Athena. She was the:
'Dawn
Goddess' for whom
Attica was named. Part of a pre-Hellenic trinity
with Kranae 'rocky' and Kranaechme 'rocky point,' she was among the
original divinities of the region. Various sacred rocks, cliffs, and
summits may derive from their worship. Sadly, little detail remains
of them, beyond the similarity between Atthis and Eos 56.,
and how her sisters may have been Cybele-like in character.
Eos
note 56 was
the Pre-Hellenic Dawn Goddess. She is directly connected to ZOE or
LIFE or the taking of life. She is much like Lucifer.
Latin Spelling: Hesperus Eosphorus
English Spelling:
Hesper
Roman Name: Luciferus English Spelling: Lucifer
Translation: Light-Bringer
HESPEROS-EOSPHOROS was the STAR-GOD of the Evening
& Morning
Star (the Planet Venus). He was depicted as a
white-winged god
crowned with a starry oreole - a male version of Astraia. In
vase-paintings usually only his face was shown shining in the
heavens.
Helios is the young Greek god of the
sun. He is the son of
Hyperion and Theia. By the Oceanid Perse, he became the father of
Aeëtes, Circe, and Pasiphae. His other two
daughters are
Phaethusa ("radiant") and Lampetia
("shining"). He had
a son, named Phaeton, whom he once allowed to guide
his
chariot across the sky. The unskilled youth could not control the
horses and fell towards his death.
Each morning at dawn he rises from the ocean in the east
and rides
in his chariot, pulled by for horses - Pyrois, Eos,
Aethon and
Phlegon -- through the sky, to descend at night in the west. He sees
and knows all, and was called upon by witnesses.
Kirke
from which we get the word CHURCH was:
Initially
a Hunter Goddess and
Lady of the Beasts of Kolchis named Aeaea 'ululation,' she became the
funerary Goddess of the island known by her name. Kalypso
'concealer,' Argeia 'bright,' and often Medea 'wise one' who was
sometimes called her neice instead. Klymene's daughters were the
keepers of golden horned cattle in the lands of the Dead, the
Heliades
or
Merope 'eloquent' or
'bee
eater,'
Helia 'sun,' Phoebe
'bright,' Aetheria 'heavenly one,'
Dioxippe 'divine mare,' Lampetia
'beaming
one,'
Koronis
'crow
or
raven,'
Aegile 'bright,' Lamethusa 'light being,' Phatusa
'bright being,' and Elektryone 'beaming on
Being
"Afflicted" is from
the Hebrew andspeaks of what they would do to Jesus in the hope that
he was their chosen messiah, Dionysys.
Surely
he hath
borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Is 53:4
Afflicted:
Anah (h6031) aw-naw'; a
prim. root [possibly
rather ident. with 6030
through the idea of looking down or browbeating]; to depress lit. or
fig., trans. or intrans. (in
various applications, as follow): - abase self, afflict (-ion, self), chasten
self, deal hardly with,
defile, exercise, force, gentleness, humble self, hurt, ravish,
sing [by mistake for 6030],
speak [by
mistake for 6030], submit self, weaken, * in any wise.
Mock
is:
Sachaq (h7832) saw-khak'; a
prim. root; to
laugh (in pleasure or detraction); by impl. to play: - deride, have
in derision, laugh, make merry, mock (-er), play, rejoice, (laugh to)
scorn, be in (make) sport. Parallel with 6711
And
it came to pass, as the ark
of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, that Michal,
the daughter of Saul looking out at a window saw king David dancing
and playing: and she despised him
in her heart. 1Chr.15:29
Anah (h6030) aw-naw'; a
prim. root; prop. to
eye or (gen.) to heed, i. e. pay attention; by impl. to
respond; by extens. to begin to
speak; spec.
to
sing,
shout,
testify, announce: - give
account,
afflict [by mistake for 6030],
(cause to, give)
answer, bring low [by mistake for 6030], cry, hear, Leannoth, lift up, say, *
scholar, (give a) shout,
sing
together by
course, speak,
testify, utter, (bear) witness.
See also 1042,
1043.
See singing "church"
songs outside of church.
When
God sings in the Old
Testament, He is laying a burden on people. For instance:
THE
burden of Tyre. Howl,
ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no
house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to
them. Is.23:1
And
it shall come
to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years,
according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years
shall Tyre sing as an harlot. Is.23:15 (The as is described in
23:16)
Take
an
harp, go about the city,
thou
harlot that hast been
forgotten;
make sweet
melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be
remembered.
Is.23:16 (remembered as a male)
Burden
is--
Massa (h4853) mas-saw'; from
5375; a burden;
spec. tribute, or (abstr.) porterage; fig. an utterance, chiefly a doom, especially singing; mental,
desire: - burden,
carry
away,
prophecy, they set, song,
tribute.
The
"instrumentalists" to
serve the temple were not "musicians" but burden afflicters. Their
service was:
Abodah
(h5656) ab-o-daw'; or abowdah ab-o-daw'; from 5647; work of any kind:
- act, bondage, / bondservant, effect, labour, ministering (-try),
office, service (-ile, -itude), tillage, use, work, * wrough
Abad
(h5647) ab-o-daw'; or abowdah ab-o-daw'; from 5648; work of any kind: - act,
bondage, / bondservant, effect,
labour, ministering (-try), office, service (-ile, -itude), tillage,
use, work, * wrough
The
name of the Destroyer
is:
Abad
(h6) aw-bad'; a prim. root; prop. to wander away, i. e. lose oneself;
by impl. to perish (caus. destroy): - break, destroy (- uction), /
not escape, fail, lose, (cause to, make) perish, spend, * and surely,
take, be undone, * utterly, be void of, have no way to flee.
Jesus
fired the doctors of
the law because they took away the key to knowledged and substituted
burdens of spiritual anxiety:
And
he said, Woe
unto you also, ye lawyers for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne,
and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
Lu.11:46
Dusbastaktos (g1419)
doos-bas'-tak-tos; from 1418 and a der. of
941; oppressive: - grievous to be borne.
Baskaino (bas-kah'ee-no; akin to
5335; to
malign, i.e. (by extens.) to fascinate (by false representations): -
bewitch.
O
foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes
Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Ga.3:1
When
Jesus fired the doctors
of the law he also fired the singers and other performing clergy. He
died to remove the burden:
Come
unto me all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest. Matthew 11:28
Portizo
(g5412) for-tid'-zo; from 5414; to load up (prop. as a vessel or
animal), i.e. figuratieve: to overburden with
ceremony or spiritual
anxiety: - lade, be
heavy laden.
The
most ancient writers and
modern medical science knows that any kind of harmonic singing or
music "creates spiritual anxiety" and that is why it is used: to take
away the key to knowledge.
God
sang a song in Isaiah 5
which shows that the nation was destroyed by wine, women and
music
in their religious
festivals. Amos 5 and 6 agree.
Secondly, the
Greek psallo translated melody in the
external sense is not
a
musical but a
panic word: the Levitical
singers were warrior
musicians who,
along with the clashing
of swords on shields, the twanging
of
bow strings and
'making a joyful noise
before the Lord' was to panic, abrade, grind the enemy into bits and
make them turn coward and run. This was the Jewish warrior's chant as
he tried to, like David, "sing to the Gentiles with my foot on his
neck."
According to Psalm 41, Judas
and clergy
musicians would try this on Jesus. The DSS translation
makes this perfectly clear:
I have collected some
evidence that the
Twanging bow from
which melody is derived is the "singing" of the bow string
and the
singing of the
arrow on the way
to pierce a literal heart. Therefore, Paul
absolutely
outlawed
external melody. Modern harmony
works because it first grinds you into bits emotionally before the
endorphins (morphine within) kicks in and makes you feel "spiritual."
That is why the SOP which Jesus fed Judas is related to the meaning
of melody.
"Melody"
in a "musical"
sense does not require instruments.
Aristotle, Rhetoric" Melody Deceives "for instance "having
gone and having
conversed with him," or, "having gone, I conversed with
him."Also the practice of
Antimachus is useful,
that
of
describing
a thing by
the qualities it does not possess; thus, in speaking of
the hill Teumessus, hesays,
There
is a little windswept
hill;
"for
in this way
amplification may be carried on ad
infinitum. This method may be
applied to things good and bad, in whichever way it may be useful.
"Poets
also make
use of this in inventing words, as a melody "without
strings" orâ "without the lyre";
for they employ
epithets from negations, a course which is approved in proportional
metaphors..
"Additionally,
human
observation seems to reinforce the truth that God knows what He's
doing. Without instruments people tend to sing better, pay attention
to the words better, and generally get more internally from the singing
portion of the worship service.
With
instruments
people tend to listen to the instrument rather than sing,
ignore the words of the song, and
come away mostly with only an appreciation of pretty music. But
whether humans can make good sense of God's command really isn't the
point; God has commanded, can we refuse?
Under
the Sacrificial
System, the instrumentalists made a Great Crashing Sound to be
remembered. Perhaps to get God's attention.
By the musical
idolatry at Mount Sinai, all non Levites became "strangers" and only
the trumpet "got the attention" of God to save them in a physical
sense:
And
if ye go to war
in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an
alarm with the
trumpets; and ye shall
be
remembered
before the Lord your
God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. Nu.10:9
The priests sounded the
Trumpets
Then
the sons of
Aaron
shouted,
they
sounded the trumpets of hammered work, they made a great noise to be heard for remembrance before the Most High. Ecclesiasticus 49:16.
A close reading of Hebrews 6
shows that to repeat this "sacrificial" system where a great noise
was made is to reject the Word and this is the unforgivable
sin.
Jamison-Fausett-Brown
notes
that:
"In
the Jewish
temple, musical
instruments and
singing resounded during the
whole time of the offering of
the sacrifices, which
formed the first part of the service.
But
at the offering of incense, solemn silence was kept ("My soul waiteth
upon God," Ps 62:1; "is silent," Margin;
Ps 65:1, Margin),
Duwmiyyah (h1747) doo-me-yaw';
from 1819; stillness; adv. silently; abstr. quiet, trust: -
silence, silent, waiteth.
the people praying secretly all the time. The half-hour stillness implies, too, the earnest
adoring expectation with which the
blessed spirits and the
angels await the
succeeding unfolding of God's judgments. A short space is implied; for
even an hour is so used (Re 17:12
18:10,19).
Only the official
"congregation" then gathered.
Then
all
the people together made haste and
fell
to the
ground upon their faces
to
worship their Lord, the
Almighty, God Most High. Ecclesiasticus 49:17
The
Singers made their own
melody.
In
all that
he did he gave thanks to the Holy One, the
Most High, with ascriptions of
glory;
he
sang praise
with all his heart, and
he loved his Maker. Ecclesiasticus 40: 8.
He
placed singers before the altar,
to make
sweet
melody with their voices.
Ecclesiasticus
40: 9.
He
gave beauty
to the feasts, and
arranged their times throughout the year, while they praised God's
holy name, and the sanctuary resounded from early
morning. Ecclesiasticus 40: 10.
And
the singers
praised him
with
their
voices in sweet and full-toned
melody. Ecclesiasticus 49:18
Therefore, the Bible is the Curriculum of Christ the
Spirit. It is
not for cutting off the
"apple" and claim that there is only a little CORE.
The Bible is the textbook and church is
synagogue or
school of the
Bible. Only by
leaving the Bible as it
is without cut N paste sermonizing or versifying someones sentimental
poetry can the church TEACH one another (with the singing and melody
in the heart) and let the Word, which Jesus said is Spirit and Life
(John 6:63) do God's work in God's way.
Human musical performance is
the most
works-intensive thing one can do in trying to do something to
or with
God. Musical teams actually claim that they can lead you into the
presence of God. That is, if only the CORE is left then the doctrine
that Christ is the One and only Mediator repudiates Christ: this is
the definition of anti-Christ.
On the other hand, to be a
Christian means that
the work of Christ is done when Christ is the One and only
Teacher:
We
have also a more
sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as
unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and
the day star arise in your hearts: 2 Pe. 1:19
Take heed means
worship: we
worship whatever we hear or whomever does the stand
up performance in violation of the example of Jesus in the
synagogue.
Searching
what, or
what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and
the glory that should follow. 1 Peter 1:11
Christ put His Spirit into
His Words and if the
word "fire" can get you executed by the word of a man how
can we
DARE get paid for teaching that Christ does not have the power to put
His Mind or Spirit (1 Cor 2) into words and preserve them?
A string of DNA from your
skin can make a child
which looks like you. Think of the Bible as a string of DNA: if you cut
N paste it then you will not get Christ-like children. You
don't have to understand it all, you don't have to strip out a few
facts 'upon which you will build your church': all you have to do is
like Paul told Timothy "give
attention
to the public reading of the Word to
doctrine
to exhortation." Give
attention means
worship.
Trust
a 70 year
old student of the Bible, Stephen: THERE IS NO MUSICAL WORD OR
CONCEPT CONNECTED WITH THE COLLECTIVE WORSHIP OF A SPIRIT GOD.
David playing to the sheep
or on his bed is not
a command, and David's strumming between reciting stanzas as a "pause
and think" was never music. In the Greek world, combining voice and
instrument meant that you were not supposed to understand
anything from
it but just get your nerve endings stroked. That is why Paul equated speaking in tongues to
musical
instruments of warfare.
Only children, women or
effeminate men engaged
in both singing and playing and they were usually used for festivals
at which both male and female were abused sexually because musicians
were not respected.
No problem with being a singer or musician but
there is a total
disconnect
between music and spiritual
religion just as surely as there is a disconnect between sexual
favors and spiritual worship: both sex and music were essential to
pagan worship. And the Vineyard lady confesses that the new praise
music is to reach a climax with God. One of the ladies defending
Madison's new "holy entertainment" uses identical terms to show that
when the body starts moving people are trying to have a spiritual
orgasm: a preacher claimed that he did it often.
Sorry about that,
but here is what one
"singing" passage really says when we cut through the false
teaching:
The
Psalmist's
Pattern:
I
remembered God,
and was troubled: I complained, and my
spirit was
overwhelmed. Selah. Ps.77:3
........I call
(Mention, burn incense) to remembrance my song
(h5058) in the
night:
........
........
I
commune
with mine own
heart:
and
........
........
my spirit made diligent search. Psalm 77:6
My
hands also will I lift up unto thy
commandments, which I
have loved;
........
and
I will meditate in thy statutes. Ps.119:48
Mediatate
is:
Siyach (h7878)
see'-akh; a prim. root; to ponder, i. e. (by impl.) converse with oneself, and hence aloud or
(trans.) utter: -
commune, complain, declare, meditate, muse, pray, speak, talk (with).
O
how love I thy law it is my
meditation
all the
day.
Ps.119:97
Thou
through thy
commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever
with me. Ps 119:98
I
have more understanding than all my teachers:
for
thy
testimonies are
my
meditation.
Ps.119:99
And
I fell at his feet to
worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy
fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus:
worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of
prophecy. Rev 19:10
Someone
has said that "we love
drama because we know that it isn't true." In the same way we know
that the singer has not been subjected to the trauma defined by his
song. Therefore, in the adult world we just do not try to teach or
educate people with singing: it really doesn't even work with
children.
The
Psalmist knew the
concept of teaching the Word to others but letting the singing and
melody be in the heart and directed to God:
Sing
praises to the
LORD
(singular),
enthroned in Zion;
proclaim
among
the nations what he has done. Psalm 9:11