Is Sacrificial Instrumental Music The Mark of The Beast

Music as the Mark of the Beast: Saturn (ZOE) is 666. he church fathers rejected instrumental music because it was understood that the Israelites had been MARKED by God with the sacrificial system because they worshiped the BEAST. The Bible agrees.

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, Romans 1:22

And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Romans 1:23

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Romans 1:24

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature (the thing) more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. Romans 1:25

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: Romans 1:26

Clement of Alexandria understood the effeminating power of musical and theatrical performance even "out of church."

"Such ought those who are consecrated to Christ appear, and frame themselves in their whole life, as they fashion themselves in the church for the sake of gravity; and to be, not to seem such--so meek, so pious, so loving. But now I know not how people change their fashion and manners with the place.... Nay, in laying aside the artificial mask of solemnity, they are proved to be what they secretly were.

"After having paid reverence to the discourse about God, they leave within [at church] what they have heard. And outside they foolishly amuse themselves with impious playing, and amatory quavering (feminine vibrato), occupied with flute-playing, and dancing, and intoxication, and all kinds of trash.

They who sing thus, and sing in response, are those who before hymned immortality, -- found at last wicked and wickedly singing this most pernicious palinode, 'Let us eat and drink, for tommorrow we die.' But not tommorrow in truth, but already, are these dead to God; burrying their dead, that is, sinking themselves down to death. The appostle firmly assails them: 'Be not deceived; neither adulterers,

nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers... shall inherit the kingdom of God." (Clement, Instructor III.Xi.80,4, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, p. 290)

"From 1 cor 6:9, 10: "The apostle firmly assails them: 'Be not deceived; neither adulterers, effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind'... shall inherit the kingdom of God." (Clement, Instructor III.Xi.80,4, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, p. 290).

And on the Wise theatrical speakers Clement had this to say:

In Against The Sophists Clement mixed his relish with good food in many ways.

For mortal's tongues are glib, and on them are many speeches;

And a wide range for words of all sorts in this place and that."
A river of silly words--not a dropping."...
For the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain;

the Scripture calling those the wise who are skilled in words and arts, sophists...

Such a hive of sophists have ye examined."

And similarly Iophon, the comic poet, in Fluteplaying Satyrs, says--

For there entered

A band of sophists, all equipped.

Of these and the like, who devote their attention to empty words, the Scripture most excellently says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise." (Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 304).

"He admonishes us to use, indeed, but not to linger and spend time with, secular culture. For what was bestowed on each generation advantageously, and at seasonable times, is a preliminary training for the word of God.

For already some men, ensnared by the charms of handmaidens, have despised their consort philosophy, and have grown old, some of them in music, some in geometry, others in grammar, the most in rhetoric." p. 306

"Some more fabulously say that certain of those called the Idaean Dactyli were the first wise men; to whom are attributed the invention of what are called the 'Ephesian letters,' and the numbers in music." --(Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 316).

The Etruscans invented the trumpet, and the Phrygians the flute... In music, Olympus th Mysian practised the Lydian harmony; and the people called Troglodytes invented the sambuca, a musical instrument. It is said that the crooked pipe was invented by Satyrus the Phrygian; likewise the diatonic harmony by Hyagnis, a Phrygian too; and notes by Olympus, a Phrygian; as also the Phrygian harmony, and the half-Phrygian and the half-Lydian, by Marsyas, who belonged to the same region as those mentioned above." --(Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 317).

The Serpent or Nachash is related to the "ringing bell metal" by which men like Jubal discovered that he could control people. Nachash is quite similar to Lachash or speaking in tongues. The Naga serpent is of Indian or Persian origin but the serpent is clearly related to the Assyrians as "the tallest tree in Eden." The brass-throated Africal Cobra which hisses, hypnotizes and spits venum in your eye is the ancient model of Satan.

Clement was aware that many of the Greeks came after Moses but believed that their system was superior to all others.

"The first to adapt music to poetical compositions was Terpander of Antissa; and he set the laws of the Lacedaemonians to music... Pindar the Theban, the dance accompanied with song. Timotheus of Miletus was the first to execute those musical compositions... on the lyre, with dancing." --(Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 318).

In the classics "music" was most often connected with "dancing." Christian teaching is not music and cannot induce "dancing" even in the seats.

"Several suppose that certain powers (the devil), descending from heaven, inspired the whole of philosophy (including music)." -- (Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 318).

Those who are marked by the beast have their heart darkened so that they cannot understand the Word of God. Some claim that their books are superior to the Word of God which, in the case of anything beyond the "core gospel" is held to be foolishness of divided apostles.

By being marked with this darkness they can BUY AND SELL and we even see the "abomination of desolation standing in the holy place" (podium, pulpit, Lord's Table) claiming that "we are mediators between man and God." They call themselves worship ministers or leaders or mixed-sex choirs with or without instruments. They even market their books and CDs through the church.

If you have not been MARKED you cannot speak, buy or sell. You have nothing to market and therefore you cannot be, like Jesus' brothers wanted Him to be, "a man of note" at the Jerusalem Feast of Tabernacles which was an ancient Jubilee, for the atonement, with the rituals of water and light.

The natural result, beginning in the texts of the Ancient Near East, is an exploding rise of homosexual probably created more by the "music" industry than any other thing. It comes as no surprise that the church has been abominated by theatrical performers whose reputation is noted "from the foundation of the world."

Aldus Huxley also said:

Abused as we abuse it at present, dramatic art is in no sense cathartic; it is merely a form of emotional masturbation. It is the rarest thing to find a player who has not had his character affected for the worse by the practice of his profession.

Nobody can make a habit of self-exhibition, nobody can exploit his personality for the sake of exercising a kind of hypnotic power over others, and remain untouched by the process. From Source

A man who strains himself on the stage is bound, if he is any good, to strain all the people sitting in the stalls. Bertolt Brecht

The actor searches vainly for the sound of a vanished tradition, and critic and audience follow suit.

We have lost all sense of ritual and ceremony -- whether it be connected with Christmas, birthdays or funerals -- but the words remain with us and old impulses stir in the marrow.

We feel we should have rituals, we should do something about getting them and we blame the artists for not finding them for us.

So the artist sometimes attempts to find new rituals with only his imagination as his source: he imitates the outer form of ceremonies, pagan or baroque, unfortunately adding his own trapping -- the result is rarely convincing. And after the years and years of weaker and waterier imitations we now find ourselves rejecting the very notion of a holy stage.

It is not the fault of the holy that it has become a middle-class weapon to keep the children good. Peter (Stephen Paul) Brook

The first article is here.

There are two further points to make after reading your response.

1. In the quoted scripture where David said that he would "sing" praises to your name, Ps 18:49; you said that David spoke these words. True enough. But when you read the introduction to this very psaml, you will see that it was given to the "Chief Musician." There can be no other possibility for this except for this psaml to be sung with musical inclusion.

But, there is no word in the text for "musician." These psalms were composed by numerous people over a long period of time. A poem could be set to music or, as we do: just borrow a tune or a style we like and sing our words. In the early churches, especially the Restoration Movement, song books were published without music. My daughter just brought me a facsimile of the Bay Psalm Book from Salem. In early churches of Christ songs were sung to one of five tunes and usually in unison or "with one voice" because the object was to "teach and admonish" and not to sing.

The Bible text does not use the word musician so this is a translation preference.

The Levites served the priests and with thousands of animal carcasses to burn their "service" which we call "worship" was really "being under bondage." Therefore, when we restore the Levitical musicians we are trying to put the church under bondage to a "body" worship. This was not called 'music' but 'sounding' or making a great crashing noise.

The word was really "overseer" or "exceller" to set the work forward. Jesus did quote the Septuagint (LXX) and knew that it almost universally shows "music" in a bad light:

Remove from me the sound of thy songs, and

I will not hear the music of thine instruments." Amos 5:23 LXX

But let judgment roll down as water,

and righteousness as an impassable torrent." Amos 5:24 LXX

Ye who are approaching the evil day, who are drawing near and adopting false sabbaths; Amos 6:3LXX

who sleep upon beds of ivory, and live delicately on their couches, and eat kids out of the flocks, and sucking calves out of the midst of the stalls; 6:4 (stolen by the tyrants)

who excel in the sound of musical instruments;

> they have regarded them as abiding,

> not as fleeting pleasures; 6:5 LXX

Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. Am.5:23

Pepys, ravished (raped) by the sound of wind music in the theatre, was reminded of the time when he was in love with his wife.

"For some people this is the height of enjoyment, provided the music presents no problems. But it is neither a substantial nor a lasting pleasure, and it is limited by the endowments of individual performers."

Ravish, to carry away, to seize and carry away forcibly, to rape a woman, to transport with joy or delight." (Webster)

And when he played on them, Satan came into them, so that from among them were heard beautiful and sweet sounds, that ravished (raped or enchanted) the heart. -- Second Adam and Eve 20:3 Click for more.

In the book Second Adam and Eve Genun is a composite of Jubal, Jabal, Tubal-Cain and Naamah. Satan picked out Genun because of his youth and taught him wine making, songs, instruments and choirs to seduce the holy Sethites:

And when he played on them, Satan came into them, so that from among them were heard beautiful and sweet sounds, that ravished (raped or enchanted) the heart. -- Second Adam and Eve 20:3

Then he gathered companies upon companies to play on them; and when they played, it pleased well the children of Cain, who inflamed themselves with sin among themselves, and burnt as with fire; while Satan inflamed their hearts, one with another, and increased lust among them. -- Second Adam and Eve 20:4

Satan also taught Genun to bring strong drink out of corn; and this Genun used to bring together companies upon companies in drink-houses; and brought into their hands all manner of fruits and flowers; and they drank together Second Adam and Eve 20:5

He was straw boss, slave driver and got the "stones moving magically" because the old "heave ho" chants or instruments produce endorphins (morphine-within) which eases the pain so the slaves can perform labor beyond ordinary means. Of course, you are slowly killing him but then there are lots of slaves:

Nacach (h5329) naw-tsakh'; a prim. root; prop. to glitter from afar, i. e. to be eminent (as a superintendent, espec. of the Temple services and its music); also (as denom. from 5331), to be permanent: - excel, chief musician (singer), oversee (-r), set forward.

Tennyson shows how Amphion moved temple stones by music. However, Adam Clark knew that it was a form of abusing slaves. Consistent with "the only tradition" about instrumental music being a device of Satan:

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 See W. H. Roscher, Lexikon der griech, und röm. Mythologie, i.311.

If music had the power to manipulate people then surely it had power to manipulate stones into towers of Babel, Solomon's temple, pagan temples and even modern cathedrals. It worried Clement that Christians might fall for the sily notions and he, therefore, attacked paganism at its musical roots by beginning--

"Amphion of Thebes and Arion of Methymna were both minstrels, and both were renowned in story. They are celebrated in song to this day in the chorus of the Greeks; the one for having allured the fishes, and the other for having surrounded Thebes with walls by the power of music." (Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 171-172)

Don't we still honor song writers by telling their stories (offering them praise) interspersed with singing their magical incantations?

"Orpheus was the first who introduced the rites of father Liber (the wineskin god) into Greece; and he first celebrated them on a mountain of Boeotia, very near to Thebes, where Liber was born; and because this mountain continually resounded with the strains of the lyre, it was called Cithearon (lyre). Those sacred rites are even now called orphic, in which he himself was lacerated and torn in pieces." (The Divine Institutes, Ante-Nicene Fathers, VII, p. 38).

See Clement of Alexandria

"It is fabled of Orpheus, a most celebrated musician, that such was the enchanting harmony of his lyre, that he built the city of Thebes by it: the stones and timbers danced to the melody; and by the power of his harmony rose up, and took their respective places in the different parts of the wall that was to defend the city. (Clark, II Chron 34:12)

ADAM CLARK COMMENTED:

"Amphion was connected with Orpheus who was the "father of them that play the lyre."A Greek Tretise on Music, by Philodemus; and here we have the truth represented which lay hidden under the fables of Orpheus and Amphion. This latter was a skilful harper, who was frequently employed by the Theban workmen to play to them while engaged in their lavour, and for which they rewarded him out of the proceeds of that labor. So powerful and pleasing was his music,

that they went lightly and comfortably through their work; and time and labour passed on without tedium or fatigue; and the walls and towers were speedily raised." Clark, II Chron 34:12).

Remember that the Levites served the priests rather than God. They were also the musical warriors to "set forward" the army with loud music when the warriors didn't want to be set forward any more than Israelites made slaves to build the temple wanted to be slaves.

He conscripted seventy thousand men as carriers and eighty thousand as stonecutters in the hills and thirty-six hundred as foremen over them. 2 Chr.2:2

He assigned 70,000 of them to be carriers and 80,000 to be stonecutters in the hills, with 3,600 foremen over them to keep the people working. 2 Chr.2:18

And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward;

and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of musick. 2 Chr. 34:12

In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work, appointing Levites twenty years of age and older to supervise the building of the house of the LORD. Ezr.3:8

Again, the word "music" is not in the text. "instruments of music" comes from the Hebrew:

Keliy (h3627) kel-ee'; from 3615; something prepared, i. e. any apparatus (as an implement, utensil, dress, vessel or weapon): - armour ([-bearee]), artillery, bag, carriage, / furnish, furniture, instrument, jewel, that is made of, * one from another, that which pertaineth, pot, / psaltery, sack, stuff, thing, tool, vessel, ware, weapon, / whatsoever.

The "service" of the Levites in the Temple was not spiritual worship.

Abodah (h5656) ab-o-daw'; from 5647; work of any kind: - act, bondage, / bondservant, effect, labour, ministering (-try), office, service (-ile, -itude), tillage, use, work, * wrought

Abad (h5647) aw-bad'; a prim. root; to work (in any sense); by impl. to serve, till, (caus.) enslave, etc.: - * be, keep in bondage, be bondmen, bond-service, compel, do, dress, ear, execute, / husbandman, keep, labour (-ing man), bring to pass, (cause to, make to) serve (-ing, self), (be, become) servant (-s), do (use) service, till (-er), transgress [from margin], (set a) work, be wrought, worshipper.

What we call worship the Bible calls bondage under the law. Because of the musical idolatry at Mount Sinai, Israel was inflicted with the clergy and sacrifices as punishment or "teacher" to bring them to appreciate Christ. This picture illustrates the "pedagogue" or slave master under the Law. However, we are no longer under bondage and cannot tolerate a musical Levite slave driving us into a form of worship which is oppressive and slavery. And the purpose of restoring the legalistic sacrificial system is because "we have set a king over us" and all kings want to "build a temple" as his own shrine and for his own glory.

Clement of Alexandria had his eyes enlightened and not MARKED by the musical idolatry at Mount Sinai:

"For the law is the training of refractory children. 'Having feasted to the full,' accordingly, it is said, 'they rose up to play;' senseless repletion with victuls being called (fodder), not (food). And when, having senselessly filled themselves, they senselessly played;

on that account the law was given them,
and terror ensure for the prevention of transgressions
and for the promotion of right actions." --(Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 193).

He continues the analogy to spiritualise all musical instruments in the meetings of the church.

"The Holy Spirit, uttering His voice by Amos, pronounces the rich to be wretched on account of their luxury: 'Those that drink strained wine, and recline on an ivory couch,' he says; and what else similar he addes by way of reproach. Especial regard is to be paid to decency (as the myth represents Athene, whoever she was, out of regard to it, giving up the pleasure of the flute because of the unseemliness of the sight). Clement of Alexandria, p. 245

Clement warned even about social or meal fellowship where instruments might be played. He does not permit instruments in any form "in church" because music excites the children's play instinct and they want to sing, dance and clap their hands when the talented performers "arouse" them:

"Let revelry keep away from our rational entertainments, and foolish vigils, too, that revel in intemperance. For revelry is an inebriating pipe, the chain of an amatory bridge, that is, of sorrow. And let love, and intoxication, and senseless passions, be removed from our choir. Burlesque singing is the boon companion of drunkeness. A night spent over drink invites drunkeness, rouses lust, and is audacious in deeds of shame.

For if people occupy their time with pipes, and psalteries, and choirs, and dances, and Egyptian clapping of hands, and such disorderly frivolities, they become quite immodest and intractable, beat on cymbals, and drums, and make a noise on instruments of delusion; for plainly such a banquet, as it seems to me, is a theatre of drunkenness. " (Clement of Alexandria against Instrumental Music in the Instructor, Eerdmans, p. 248).

The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of [darkness] and put on the armor of light. Rom 13:12

Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rom 13:13

"For temperate harmonies are to be admitted; but we are to banish as far as possible from our robust mind those liquid harmonies, which,

though pernicious arts in the modulations of tones,
train to effeminacy and scurrility.

But the grave and modest strains say farewell to the turbulence of drunkenness. Chromatic harmonies are therefore, to be abandoned to immodest revels, and to florid and meretricious music. (Clement, Instructor, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 249).

"Yet modern Christians delight in these florid and meretricious compositions, and they have intruded into the solemnities of worship. In Europe, dramatic composers of a sensual school have taken possession of the Latin Ceremonies." (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume II, p. 249, Eerdmans).

2. You stated that David used instruments in his "early days." Well, in 2 Ch 7:6, this is where Soloman has finished rebuilding the temple of God, he has the Levites use musical instruments. And the priests blow the trumpets while offerings are made to God. The scripture even says that: "the Levites also with their instruments of music of the Lord, which King David had made to praise the Lord, saying, 'For His mercy endures forever,' whenever David offered praise by their hand. The priests sounded trumpets opposite them, while all israel stood."

What I intended to say that the statement that David was "a man after God's own heart" was said in his early life. And others are compared to David favorably "in the first ways of David." David was commended for wanting to build God a house as fine as his own cedar capital building.

"The quotation from Acts refers to David early in life, before he had fallen into those great sins which cast such a shadow upon his administration...This commendation is not absolute, but describes the character of David in comparison with that of Saul...It merely indicates a man whom God will approve, in distinction from Saul, who was rejected" (Haley, p. 222).

However, the "like the nations" state and temple repudiated the rule of God. Therefore, God permitted the kings but promosed that they would destroy the nation:

Then the prophet Elijah arose like a fire, and his word burned like a torch. Ecclesiasticus 48:1. He brought a famine upon them, and by his zeal he made them few in number. Ecclesiasticus 48: 2. By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens, and also three times brought down fire. Ecclesiasticus 48: 3. How glorious you were, O Elijah, in your wondrous deeds! And who has the right to boast which you have? Ecclesiasticus 48: 4. You who raised a corpse from death and from Hades, by the word of the Most High; Ecclesiasticus 48: 5. who brought kings down to destruction, and famous men from their beds; Ecclesiasticus 48: 6. who heard rebuke at Sinai and judgments of vengeance at Horeb; Ecclesiasticus 48: 7. who anointed kings to inflict retribution, and prophets to succeed you. Ecclesiasticus 48: 8. 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 This began at Mount Sinai with musical idolatry: Ephraim Syrus On Our Lord notes that Sinai was a test. 18. But when their heathenism from being inward became open, then Moses also from being hidden openly appeared; that he might openly punish those whose heathenism had revelled beneath the holy cloud which had overshadowed them. But God removed the Shepherd of the flock from it for forty days, that the flock might show that its trust was fixed upon the calf. And he was there in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him. Mark 1:13 While God was feeding the flock with all delights, it chose for itself as its Shepherd the calf, which was not able even to eat. Moses who kept them in awe was removed from them, that the idolatry might cry aloud in their mouths, which the restraint of Moses had kept down in their hearts. For they cried: Make us gods, to go before us. What They Did. 19. But when Moses came down, he saw their heathenism revelling in the wide plain with drums and cymbals. Speedily, he put their madness to shame by means of the Levites and drawn swords. So likewise here, our Lord concealed His knowledge for a little when the sinful woman approached Him, that the Pharisee might form into shape his thought, as his fathers had shaped the pernicious calf. Chrysostom noted that: Stephen was accused of speaking against "the customs,"-sacrifices, temple, feasts, etc. Therefore he significantly points to that critical conjuncture. from which these "customs" date their introduction: namely, the Provocation at Horeb. Prior to that, he tells of "living oracles," life-giving precepts: after it, and as its consequence, sacrifices, etc., those statutes which were not good, and ordinances by which a man shall not live, as God says by Ezekiel. Not a word of sacrifice till then: and the first mention is, of the sacrifices offered to the calf. Rejecting the Covenant for Legalistic Musical Worship is the MARK. We can hear it as the mark in the mind and the raised hand as a "power salute." In like manner, "they rejoiced," "the people ate and drank, and rose up to play:" and in consequence of this, the feasts were prescribed: kai eufrainonto, fhsin: dia touto kai eortai.-'Epishmainetai might be rendered, "he marks," "puts a mark upon it" (so the innovator, who substitutes, we take it passively, "there is a mark set over it-it is emphatically denoted." In the active, the verb taken intransitively means "to betoken or announce itself," "make its first appearance."-In the Treatise adv. Judaeos, iv. §6. tom. i. 624. C. St. Chrysostom gives this account of the legal sacrifices: "To what purpose unto Me is the multitude of your sacrifices? etc. (Isaiah i., 11, ff.) Do ye hear how it is most plainly declared, that God did not from the first require these at your hands? Had He required them, He would have obliged those famous saints who were before the Law to observe this practice. "Then wherefore has He permitted it now? In condescension to your infirmity. As a physician in his treatment of a delirious patient, etc.: thus did God likewise. For seeing them so frantic in their lust for sacrifices, that they were ready, unless they got them, to desert to idols: nay not only ready, but that they had already deserted, thereupon He permitted sacrifices. And that this is the reason, is clear from the order of events. After the feast which they made to the demons, then it was that He permitted sacrifices: all but saying: No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 1 Cor 10:20 If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak (sing) with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? 1 Cor 14:23 "Ye are mad, and will needs sacrifice: well then, at any rate sacrifice to Me. (What follows may serve to illustrate the brief remark a little further on, Kai h aixmalwsia kathgoria thj kakiaj.) "But even this, He did not permit to continue to the end, but by a most wise method, withdrew them from it ... For He did not permit it to be done in any place of the whole world, but in Jerusalem only. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Re.11:8 Anon, when for a short time they had sacrificed, he destroyed the city. Had He openly said, Desist, they, such was their insane passion for sacrificing, would not readily have complied. But now perforce, the place being taken away, He secretly withdrew them from their frenzy." So here: "Even the captivity impeaches the wickedness (which was the cause of the permission of sacrifice.")

The musical idolatry of Israel at Mount Sinai was repeated although God again offered the Covenant of Grace which could have brought life. God then sentenced them to worship the stary host and this blindness, according to 2 Cor. 3 by Paul, continued until the individual Jew turned to Christ.

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. Acts 7:43

However, this was in contrast to the tabernacle of God built by the pattern of God and by the hands of supernaturally gifted artisans:

Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen. Acts 7:44

Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus (Joshua) into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David; Acts 7:45

The "your" tabernacle continued even to the temple of Jerusalem where they burned babies in the red hot harms of the bull headed idol Molech. Molech was the pagan god Jehovah gave the wandering Jews to as a result of musical idolatry.

When David sinned by his Satan-induced temptation to take a census, perhaps without redeeming them or to keep a standing army on the payroll in the time of peace, God sent a plague upon the nation. The sin was the kings but the people had to suffer.

David took the punishment of this plague and it stopped when it got to Aranaugh's threshing floor, a huge flat rock later and still worshiped in Jerusalem. He instituted a "plague stopping ritual" of animal sacrifices.

Only later did the king and commanders of the Army organize the warrior Levites to be the overseers or slave drivers for the civil-religious system.

Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. Acts 7:46

But Solomon built him an house. Acts 7:47

By the time the temple was finished and dedicated, the king's Levites made a great crashing noise and sang. They were rejoicing with the instruments which David made to praise the Lord. David was king and not priest. Because of the mercy shown God in David's "plague-stopping" animal sacrifice David praised God. However, this was not an "approved example for Christian worship" but in hard payment for his own sins as presumptions, Satan-led king.

And the priests waited on their offices: the Levites also with instruments of musick of the Lord, which David the king had made to praise the Lord, because his mercy endureth for ever, when David praised by their ministry; and the priests sounded trumpets before them, and all Israel stood. 2 Chron 7:6

Earlier, in this event:

It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; 2 Chron 5:13

So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory (heaviness) of the Lord had filled the house of God. 2 Chron 5:14

THEN said Solomon, The Lord hath said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. 2 Chron 6:1

But I have built an house of habitation for thee, and a place for thy dwelling for ever. 2 Chron 6:2

However, Solomon grasped that God didn't literal live in the house. The common people were "outside the camp" and their worship was falling or bowing and individually praying to God. And God didn't hear from the temple but from heaven.

Stephen continues:

Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet. Acts 7:48

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 7:49
Hath not my hand made all these things? Acts 7:50

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Acts 7:51

Remember that the "our fathers" had the tabernacle of God until David deserted it by removing the Ark of the Covenant to his own temple or tent.

But, your fathers bore the tabernacle of Molech which later consumed much of the nation and the Jerusalem worship.

While the king and priests carried on the sacrificial system which was designed to be "like the nations" the prophets repeatedly warned them. Specificially, Amos, Isaiah and Ezekiel warned about the Molech or Chiun worship both at Gerezim and Jerusalem. The problem was that the musical religious rituals caused the common people to hunger and thirst and die and go into captivity because the clergy was too occupied with pagan religion to teach the Word. Connecting from Mount Sinai idolatry, to the Amos parallel and to including all of the prophets Stepen asked:

Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Acts 7:52

Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. Acts 7:53

When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. Acts 7:54

Here we see several TRUTHS. David had instruments constructed to be used in offering praise to the Lord. Their purpose for existing was for the use in worshipping and praising the Lord. And the priests blew on trumpets also on occasion. And now, after David has died and Soloman assumed the throne of Israel, we see Soloman in the newly-constructed temple, useing those same instruments of music that David had made to offer praises to the Lord being used here years later. The practice was not just durring David's early years. But rather carried out throughout his rule as King, and them continued durring Soloman's rule as well.

Remember that Israel was turned over to worship the stary host because of their musical idolatry at Mount Sinai. Stephen makes the distinction between "your tabernacle" and "God's tabernacle." And the nation or Monarchy was against the will of God but was permitted and momentarily protected because the elders of Israel made a terminal, beyond redemption decision. They "fired God" and demanded a king like the nations. God further turned them over to idolatry but sent the warning sign of the "prophets from the Philistine high place" to turn Saul into another man with musical prophesying. That means, Saul was perverted. In addition God sent an untimely storm to destroy their crops to prove that He and not Baal was the God of "fertility."

God warned them of what the kings would do and one of the curses was to make their sons run before the chariots making a noise with "instruments of chariots." The Levites were reorginized from warrior, panic musicians to temple praise leaders under the king and commanders of the army.

The "praise" they rendered to God was:

Halal (h1984) haw-lal'; a prim. root; to be clear (orig. of sound, but usually of color); to shine; hence to make a show, to boast; and thus to be (clamorously) foolish; to rave; causat. to celebrate; also to stultify: - (make) boast (self), celebrate, commend, (deal, make), fool (- ish, -ly), glory, give [light], be (make, feign self) mad (against), give in marriage, [sing, be worthy of] praise, rage, renowned, shine.

We noted above that this was consistent with the temple being God's-conceded center as the king's capital and "toward which" the common people could pray as God answered from heaven. This "sounding" rather than music was normally carried out after the slaughter and the offering of the blood to cleans the people. Afterward, the sacrifice was burned but most of the "service" was to transport the great masses of animal carcases outside the camp where they would be burned. Cleaning up the left over horrors of blood must have been a heavy work (worship under the Law) even a river of blood flowed out drains and into the valley below.

Note again:

Abodah (h5656) ab-o-daw'; from 5647; work of any kind: - act, bondage, / bondservant, effect, labour, ministering (-try), office, service (-ile, -itude), tillage, use, work, * wrought

This "service" which was not spiritual worship because the rituals were to make the FLESH safe from death because of their continuing sins.

The Israelites were turned over to worship the BEAST at Mount Sinai because they "rose up to play" in musical idolatry. Their eyes were blinded and they were MARKED by a law which regulated their national government and "purification" which was for the body and not the soul.

All of those, before, during and following the Law of Moses were justified by faith. And "worship in spirit and in truth" was "giving heed" or worshiping by being able to listen when the Old Testament was read.

Clement of Alexandria and others knew that music had a way to manipulate the human mind in order to steal devotion from God. However, God offers His Word to be used in "worship in truth" and in the place of the "spirit" or human mind:

"And now the Magi boast that the demons are the ministers of their impiety, reckoning them among the number of their domestics (familiar spirits), and by their charms compelling them to be their slaves. Beside the nuptials of the deities, their begetting and bringing forth of children that are recounted, their adulteries celebrated in song, their carousals represented in comedy, and burst of laughter over their cups, which your authors introduce, urge me to cry out, though I would fain be silent. Oh the godlessness!

"You have turned heaven into a stage; the Divine has become a drama; and what is sacred you have acted in comedies under the masks of demons, travestying true religion by your demon worship [superstition].

'But he, striking the lyre, began to sing beautifully.' (Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene,II, p. 188-9)

"For such are the begging priests of Cybele. Hence Antisthenes replies appropriately totheir request for alms: --

I do not maintain the mother of the gods,

For the gods maintain her."

Again, the same writer of comedy, expressing his dissatisfaction with the common usages, tries to expose the impious arrogance of the prevailing error in the drama of the Priestess, sagely declaring: --

If a man drags the Deity

Whither he will by the sound of cymbals,

He that does this is greater than the Deity;

But these are the instruments of audacity and

means of living Invented by men.

--(Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen,

Ante-Nicene, II, p. 193).

Clement of Alexandria urges the people to abandon their old religious practices and listen to Christ. The custom of listening to the mythic sirens chokes man and leads them to shipwreck. They should "sail past the song that works death."

Clement contrasts the music composed by the comic and tragic poets used for divination and the introduction of charismatic ecstasy with sitting with Christ as the only true song and hearing the word is joining in the heavenly chorus--

"Then shalt thou see my God, and be initiated into the sacred mysteries, and come up to the fruition of those things which are laid up in heaven reserved for me, which 'ear hath not heard, nor have they entered into the heart of any.'

"And in sooth methinks I see two suns,

And a double Thebes,'

Said one frenzy-striken in the worship of idols, intoxicated with mere ignorance. This is the mountain beloved of God, consecrated to dramas of the truth, -- a mount of sobriety, shaded with forests of purity; and there revel on it not the maenades, sisters of Semele, who was struck by the thunderbolt, practicing in their initiatory rites unholy division of flesh,

"but the daughters of God, the fair lambs, who celebrate the holy rites of the Word, raising a sober choral dance.

The righteous are the chorus; the music is a hymn of the King of the universe.

The maidens strike the lyre, the angels praise, the prophets speak; the sound of music issues forth, they run and pursue the jubilant band; those that are called make haste, eagerly desiring to receive the Father.

Come thou also, O aged man, leaving Thebes and casting away from thee both divination and Bacchic frenzy, allow thyself to be led to the truth." --(Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 205).

In instructing Titus to "give heed" to reading and exhortation Paul defined the only worship which God will accept according to Jesus. And John was "in the spirit on the Lord's Day." Only by giving heed to the Word of God would the veil or the MARK of the beast be removed so that he could hear and see spiritual reality.

Musical worship will be the MARK OF THE BEAST in the end-time Babylonian whore religion but her music and musicians will go into hell with her. Why can we know this? Because God gave us two examples of men who were LUCIFER AGENTS to take away truth and personal liberty. The king of Tyre came equiped with musical instruments because he walked in the fires on the Mountain of God. Lucifer is a bisexual figure identified as Eve, Sophia, Zoe, Mary and others as "the Mother of the Gods." He/she is identified as a harp-playing prostitute.

The king of Babylon took away the Jews and forced most of them to bow to the 90 foot phalic symbol as musical instruments were played. Remember old Daniel? Well, not all bowed when instrumental music is played to honor the Beast but not God. The king/queen of Babylon would rest on a bed of maggots and he, his musicians and his harp would go into sheol with him. We have a modern reconstruction of one of those harps from Ur with the metal, set and engraved, bull image still intact.

Medical science and musicologists know that music "takes away the key to knowledge." That is why Rock music works and addicts and enslaves people. So called contemporary Christian music does the same thing. We read about "spiritual" people who are so addicted that they steal CDs over the internet and listen to them all day long. This addiction to "religion" was the mark of the Beast on both Israel and Judah.

Run out of steam. Thanks for the dialog.

See another article with more to prove that Israel was MARKED at Mount Sinai.

Musical Worship Index

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