Pepperdine.2004.knowles.html

Click to see that MUSIC was and is the primary BURDEN laden on the backs of people so that we worship the performers.

The word REST is the Greek PAUO and it is almost totally devoted to STOPPING the presumptious rituals of 'WORSHIP PERFORMERS.'

Click to see that MUSIC IS HERESY because it creates MENTAL EXCITEMENT in order to RAISE YOU UP in order to CARRY YOU AWAY for their own uses. The REST of Jesus invites the twos and threes to come learn of me.

Pauo means stop the polemos or battle, fight, war: stop levying war against another, anaireisthai or airô egeirein, kathistanai, epagein to begin a war; p. poieisthai to make war, -- opp. to p. anapauein, kataluesthai to put an end to it, make peace, all in attic

The singing which is to PAUSE to give rest is b. mostly of things, make an end of, stop, abate

Pauo means: STOP the: melôid-ia , hê, singing, chanting,
........... II. chant, choral song, melôidias poiêtês, lullaby, generally, musis

Pauo means: Stop the pain of: aoidê [aeidô]

Why is that important? Because aoiding is related to the MUSES of Revelation 18.

Pauo means: Stop the Thamyris, a Thracian aoidê

Pauo means: Stop worshipping the MUSES
........... kata-pauô put an end to, stop

Pauo means: Stop the charismatic music which is with clanging cymbals:

Klangê [klazô] any sharp sound, such as the twang of a bow, the grunting of swine, the hissing of serpents, the barking of dogs, of song, Cassandra-prophecies.

Pauo means: Stop the: Panos orgai panic fears (i. e. terrors sent by Pan), Eur.:--but, orgê tinos anger against a person or at a thing, hierôn orgas wrath at or because of the rites.

Pauo means: Stop the Dancing they tried to force on Jesus

Pauo means: Stop the Sorcery. The sOPHISts are the OPHIS serpents which, as in Genesis is a Musical Enchanter.

The Pauo Jesus died to give us means: To Take Thy Rest:

Klisia a place for lying down, henceI. a hut, cot, cabin, such as besiegers lived in during long sieges, Il.:--that they were not tents, but wooden huts, appears from Il. 24.448 sq.; and when an army broke up, it burnt them on the spot, Od. 8.501

Ii. a couch or easy chair, Od., Pind.
2. a bed, nuptial bed, Eur.
Iii. a company of people sitting at meals, NTest.
Iv. a reclining or lying, Plut.
Paue stop! have done! be quiet!

Victor Knowles: Geoffrey Wilson wrote, "The unpopularity of a crucified Christ has prompted many to present a message which is more palatable to the unbeliever, but the removal of the offense of the cross (1Co1:18) always renders the message ineffective. An inoffensive gospel is also an inoperative gospel."

That is why "a cappella" churches HAVE NEVER used performance preachers (or dancers) or "musicians." The CLAIMS are very clear: to ATTRACT people to hear the "GOSPEL" by entertaining them.

There are several proofs of this statement. First, preaching as opposed to reading and dialoging the Words of CHRIST is dramatic proof that we had rather PROCURE a popular rhetorician or sOPHISts (the serpent of Revelation) than to drink the FREE water of the Word (Isaiah 55). If you RETAIL it then you put yourself squarely between the so-called worshipers and Lord Jesus Christ. Grasping that there IS NOT gifted person called PREACHER, and that SERMO in the Latin means to DIALOG the read Word, the earliest heresy was a result of sugar coating:

"With the victory of Christianity and the development of the service came

a soaring of the sermon. Preaching became more frequent, being employed even during the week and during fast seasons in some places daily.

As the Church during that period assimilated more and more Greco-Roman culture, the sermon developed para passu.

The most noted Christian preachers had not seldom been educated in the rhetorical schools of the heathen,

and employed in their sermons the rule of rhetoric and the artistic effects taught there, and polish became almost an end, often giving more brilliancy than warmth.

The hearers came to look for esthetic satisfaction rather than for edification,

leaving after the sermon and before the Eucharist." (The New Schaff-Herzog Religious Encyclopedia, Preaching, p. 150, Period 300-450 A. D.).

Beginning in the spiritual realm and landing in the garden of Eden, the serpent or NACHASH was a "musical enchanter." According to Paul he/she wholly seduced Eve and Adam "bowed willingly." Cain was "of that wicked one" and the word CAIN means A MUSICAL NOTE. He/she is Lucifer indwelling the king/queen of Tyre who is identified as the "singing and harp-playing prostitute." He/she is the king/queen of the first Babylon who went into sheol with his/her harps and harpists to rot on a bed of maggots. As the end time babylon whore worship she is defined as Circe who gave her name to CHURCH.

And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; Rev 18:22

The musicians are the MUSES. They are the LOCUSTS dug up by Apollo or Abbadon or Apollyon: the locusts are known as musical performers who lull you to sleep at noonday. The craftsmen are the techne: they were stage managers and house builders which, then and now, were theaters for "worship."

Thomas Campbell called the church "A school of Christ" as indeed the ekklesia built by Jesus was a synagogue or School of the Bible.

EVERYTHING in the modern "worship ritual" intends to WIND UP the puppets so that they will cough up the tithes and offerings neither of which have any scriptural foundation. If you take away the LEGALISM of the "collection plate" the TRAFFICKING sowers of discord will have to get real jobs as Paul insisted.

Music and Drama are "at least twice removed from the truth." Why do we love the DRAMA of preaching and music? An expert says that it is "because we know that it isn't true." When we sang and twang "at the foot of the old rugged cross" we know that no blood will drip on us. And, while we are her, the Jewish "musicians" were Warrior's Panic and signal corp: they would mock Jesus right up to the foot of the cross.

See how they tried to triumph over Jesus with music and dancing.

Psalm 41 translated or as a version at the Dead Sea PROVES that Judas and the Levitical Warrior Musicians would try to PANIC Jesus into failure. If Jesus sang and danced while the clergy PIPED that would prove, to them, that He was their sought-after Dionysus. If Jesus had bowed he would have engaged in the DRUNKENESS they lied about and submitted to SODOMY which was the LAST ACT of the pagan worship. Or as the vineyard lady says, just before "giving of means."

Hislop notes

"No wonder that it came at last to be firmly believed that the Messiah, on whom the hopes of the world depended, was Himself the "seed of the serpent"! This was manifestly the case in Greece; for the current story there came to be,

that the first Bacchus was brought forth in consequence of a connexion on the part of his mother with the father of the gods, in the form of a "speckled snake." *

* OVID, Metam. So deeply was the idea of "the seed of the serpent" being the great World-king imprinted (marked) on the Pagan mind, that when a man set up to be a god upon earth, it was held essential to establish his title to that character,
........... that he prove himself to be the "serpent's seed."

Thus, when Alexander the Great claimed divine honours, it is well known that his mother Olympias, declared that he was not sprung from King Philip, her husband, but from Jupiter, in the form of a serpent. In like manner, says the authoress of Rome in the 19th Century, the Roman emperor,

"Augustus, pretended that he was the son of Apollo, and that the god had assumed the form of a serpent for the purpose of giving him birth."

Jesus identified the Jewish clergy this way because THEY SPEAK ON THEIR OWN.

Victor Knowles: We rather reserved Restorationists might bring ourselves to agree with Tyndale on the glad heart part (though some of us are wont to confuse sure gladness with sour godliness--which Wesley called the devil's religion).

To recognize the big lie that the A CAPPELLA churches of Christ invented the NON-INSTRUMENT POSITION and thereby became SECTARIANS, Click here.

CLARKE of the organ: "I am an old man, and I here declare that I never knew them to be productive of any good in the worship of God, and have reason to believe that they are productive of much evil. Music as a science I esteem and admire, but instrumental music in the house of God I abominate and abhor. This is the abuse of music, and I here register my protest against all such corruption of the worship of the author of Christianity. The late and venerable and most eminent divine, the Rev. John Wesley, who was a lover of music, and an elegant poet, when asked his opinion of instruments of music being introduced into the chapels of the Methodists, said in his terse and powerful manner, 'I have no objections to instruments of music in our chapels, provided they are neither heard nor seen.' I say the same." (Adam Clark, Methodist)

"When the Reformation came to England, the Anglican church came within one vote (58-59) of abolishing instrumental music in 1562. 12 John Knox called for Christianity to be purified of a "popish corruption" and urged the restoration of "plain singing of psalms unaccompanied by instrumental music."

John Wesley, who attempted further reformation in the Church of England in the 1700's, and ended by establishing the Methodist Church was also adamantly opposed to Instrumental Music. 13 Charles Spurgeon, perhaps the most famous preacher among the Baptists of the last century, refused to allow instrumental music in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London where he preached to 10,000 weekly. He commented: "I would as soon pray to God with machinery as sing to God with machinery." Kurfees

No dancing or music:

John Wesley: He that uses the creature only so as to attain to more of the Creator, is alone temperate, and walks as Christ himself walked. And to patience godliness -Its proper support: a continual sense of God's presence and providence, and a filial fear of, and confidence in, him; otherwise your patience may be pride, surliness, stoicism; but not Christianity. Verse 7. And to godliness brotherly kindness - No sullenness, sternness, moroseness: "sour godliness," so called, is of the devil. Of Christian godliness it may always be said, "Mild, sweet, serene, and tender is her mood, Nor grave with sternness, nor with lightness free: Against example resolutely good, Fervent in zeal, and warm in charity."

People who use the ploy of UNITY to infiltrate and divert people into instrumental music ARE NOT mild or sweet.

John Wesley: It is true, there is a sort of religion, nay, and it is called Christianity too, which may be practised without any such Imputation, which is generally allowed to be consistent with common sense, -

that is, a religion of form, a round of outward duties, performed in a decent, regular manner.

There is nothing more FORM or ritualistic or legalistic than to believe that, in the words of Rubel Shelly, you can lead people into the presence of God.

You may add orthodoxy thereto, a system of right opinions, yea, and some quantity of heathen morality; and yet not many will pronounce, that 'much religion hath made you mad.'

But if you aim at the religion of the heart, if you talk of 'righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,'

then it will not be long before your sentence is passed, 'Thou art beside thyself'.

2. And it is no compliment which the men of the world pay you here. They, for once, mean what they say. They not only affirm, but cordially believe, that every man is beside himself who says, 'the love of God is shed abroad in' his 'heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him'; and that God has enabled him to rejoice in Christ 'with joy unspeakable and full of glory'.
........... If a man is indeed alive to God, and dead to all things here below;
........... if he continually sees Him that is invisible,

and accordingly walks by faith, and not by sight; then they account it a clear case: beyond all dispute, 'much religion hath made him mad.'

Victor Knowles: We all agree that singing is an expression of our worship and praise--

although we debate about the rightness or wrongness of using a small instrument to obtain the pitch or a larger instrument to maintain the pitch.

No, we do not agree on any such thing. There is not a hint that PRAISE be turned into a collective ritual. It is impossible to praise continually and ever allow it to be tagged to one hour on Sunday morning where the PRAISE TEAMS seeks, through the Lucifer principle, to bleed off worship for themselves.

Strong delusion comes when you interpret SPEAK and TEACH as SING and PLAY.

Paul speaks of the idolatry at Mount Sinai or the sin of Nadab and Abihu when he warns:

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: Heb 12:28

Why! Because, Still---

Victor Knowles "knowles" that this is a FALSE premise. No one ever put an organ or a Rock and Roll band into a church to SET or MAINTAIN the PITCH. They were put in to "collect the largest miscellaneous crowds." The original SOWERS OF DISCORD said that IF the instrument were used for WORSHIP then that would be a sin.

The operative word Paul used was SPEAK or TEACH which means to PREACH and not SING. The resources were in Romans15 "that which is written," In Ephesians 5 "the Spirit" and in Col 3 "the Word of Christ." That is because Jesus Christ--Who refused to SING and DANCE wen the clergy PIPED--said:

What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? John 6:62

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63

That is why the ASSEMBLY in Paul's writing is a form of the synagogue and "there was no praise service in the synagogue." Paul's UNIQUE worship word was to give heed to the reading of the Word. That is what you DO in a school of the Bible: only children sing in Sunday school.

Victor Knowles: But then comes the matter of dancing and leaping for joy. Here we find ourselves most uncomfortable. We know that David danced.

Click to see the meaning of RISING UP TO PLAY. This was the terminal musical idolatry at Mount Sinai and it was repeated by David who "made himself vile" where the belief that God cannot punish MAD men. God permitted David to make animal sacrifices at the Jebusite High Place in Jerusalem because he was so afraid of God that he could never return to Gibeon.

"By taking over and adapting Jerusalem's ancient cult, David provided Israel with a new worship, one that featured his own status and its sacral significance. Britannica OR Here

We also noted that the Bible is clear that both Israel and Judah worshiped like the nations.

And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel,

and (statutes) of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 2 Kings 17: 8

And David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals. 2 Sam 6:5

Long afterward, the ritual of the civil state was combined with the sacrifices commanded by God.

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. 2Chr.7:6

Some of these instruments were not allowed in the Temple. Therefore, God warns about how we act even outside.

Stephen includes the Sinai event, the Amos story and the fact that God doesn't "really live in buildings." For this, the Jewish clergy had him murdered. Because David actually believed that God dwelled in the "box" he was not the "pattern" for "an act of worship.:

"The ritual dance was probably widespread in the ancient East. David's performance has Egyptian parallels. Seti I, the father of Rameses II, and three other Pharaohs are said to have danced before an deity (Budge, The Book of the Dead, I, xxxv), and Asiatic monuments attest the custom elsewhere." (Int. Std. Bible Ency., p. 1169-70).

"Probably the dancers in some cases joined hands and formed a ring, or part of a ring, as in some heathen representations. The description of David's dance: he 'danced before Jehovah with all his might... leaping and dancing before Jehovah' (2 S 6:14-16) suggests" (writer then compared to three forms of heathen dance). (Int. Std. Bible Ency., p. 1169-70).

The epod was a short vest and began as a feminine overgarment as all of the music was stolen from young girls and women. It was open on the sides.

"Wearing a linen ephod, David once performed an ecstatic (charismatic) dance before the ark of the Lord.

From the fact that his wife Michal chided him for having uncovered himself before his servant's handmaidens (2 Sam. 6:20),

it seems likely that the king's exhibition was vulgar and revealing. Apparently as a retaliation for her scolding, David fathered no children by Michal (2 Sam. 6:23)" (Garrison, Web, Strange Facts About the Bible, Abingdon, Nashville., p. 31-32).

Victor Knowles: But so did the daughter of Herodias! Shades of Salome! Shall we unveil the dance of the seven veils on the platform of the church? Heaven forbid. (Some insist heaven does!) And "leaping for joy?"

Maybe the lame man at the Gate Beautiful, who was healed by Peter, went to the temple walking and leaping and praising God, but we rather reserved Restorationists might consider that display of emotion a bit much.

Interesting that the SONG and DANCE they tried to induce into Jesus and others in the religion of Jerusalem under the Kenites was used ONLY by one other case: The daughter of Herodias. She danced the sexual dance which allowed her step father to murder John the Baptists just as they murdered Jesus because He would not BOW.

Aristotle notes that leaping is LOCOMOTION and not "worship." [3] And the same is true of walking and the other forms of locomotion. For if locomotion is motion from one point in space to another,

and if this is of different kinds, flying, walking, leaping and the like, and not only so,
but if there are also differences in walking itself (for the terminal points of a race course are not the same as those of a portion of the course, nor are those of one portion the same as those of another; nor is traversing this line the same as traversing that one.

The dramatic dance with the chorus and lamenting for Dionysus would have meant that the paganistic Jews would have triumphed over Jesus with their pipes or trumpets. This perverse act is define by Joseph Campbell:

"This cry of Zeus, the Thunder-hurler, to the child, his son, Dionysos, sounds the leitmotif of the Greek mysteries of the initiatory second birth (Second Incarnation)..The word 'Dithyrambos' itself, as an epithet of the killed and resurrected Dionysos, was understood by the Greeks to signify 'him of the double door', him who had survived the awesome miracle of the second birth." - Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces

"A fourth-century BC hymn in honor of dionysus contains the invocation: 'Come to us, King Dithyramb, Bacchus, god of the holy chant.'"

Dithurambos, Dithyramb "comes to be used of a Dionysiac song which possessed some infectious quality that led his votaries to take it up as a ritual chant. Later it became the subject for competition at Dionysiac festivals, and with its formalization it lost any spontaneity it may have possessed originally."

Hoping that Jesus was Bacchus or Dionysus:

But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows,

And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented. Mt.11:17 Mt 11:16

Mourned is:

Threneo (g2354) thray-neh'-o; from 2355; to bewail: - lament, mourn.

Thriambeuo (g2358) three-am-byoo'-o; from a prol. comp. of the base of 2360 and a der. of 680 [touch or set on fire] (mean. a noisy iambus, sung in honor of Bacchus); to make an acclamatory procession, i.e. (fig.) to conquer or (by Hebr.) to give victory: - (cause) to triumph (over).

Throeo (g2360) thro-eh'-o; from threomai , (to wail); to clamor, i.e. (by impl.) to frighten: - trouble

"At the beginning of the fifth century BC tragedy formed part of the Great Dionysia, the Spring festival of Dionysos Eluethereus. Three poets completed, each contributing three tragedies and one satyric play.

The latter was performed by choruses of fifty singers in a circle, dressed as satyrs, part human, part bestial, and bearing before them huge replicas of the erect penis (i.e. church steeples or columns or asherahs), as they sang dithyrambs." - John M. Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross

"The gods, forsooth, delight in mimics; and that surpassing excellence which has not been comprehended by any human faculty, opens its ears most willingly to hear these plays, with most of which they know they are mixed up to be turned to derision; they are delighted, as it is, with the shaved heads of fools, by the sound of flaps, and by the noise of applause." (Arnobius Against the Heathen, Ante-Nicene Fathers, VI, p. 531).

Satyr Play

In the Satyr Play (Saturikon) the chorus members (who belong to a Dionysian Society) dress up as the God's companions to celebrate His Phallic Power. Its subject is related to that of the Tragedies, but brings the Hero down a peg by its earthy humor. Some Satyr Plays hint at initiation into a Dionysian Thiasos (Society) through riddles or stories concerning release from the Underworld, or the capture and escape of the Satyrs, or the care of Divine Children.

In many ways the Satyr Play reveals deeper mysteries than the Tragedies or Comedies; it is the most ancient Mystery Play (predating the Tragedies and Comedies, which developed from it).

There will be two or three actors, a reed-flute player, and a chorus of twelve, who will be dressed as tipsy Silenoi (horse-men), Satyrs (goat-men) or various blends of the two. Thus they wear short pants to which a large Phallus and a horse's tail are attached; they also wear soft dancing shoes that resemble hooves. The chorus leader will play Silenos, the traditional drunken attendant of Dionysus; he will wear a shaggy costume resembling an animal skin and over his shoulder a panther hide (a traditional attribute of Dionysos). Wine and dance are proverbially connected, for one must dance on the grapes to make wine, and the wine in turn makes you dance!

. This especially associates the Satyrs with the Divine Shepherd Pan (called Aposkopos, "Beholding from Afar"). Thus Dionysian routs often include Pans, Satyrs and Silenoi indiscriminately.

Similar Latin

Canatim , adv. [canis] , in the manner of a dog, like a dog, kunêdon,

Kuôn

I. a dog or bitch, Hom., etc.; most commonly of hounds, id=Hom., etc.; the Laconian breed was famous, Soph.;-- nê or ma ton kuna was the favourite oath of Socrates, Plat.: cf. trapezeus.

II. as a word of reproach, to denote shamelessness or audacity in women, rashness, recklessness in men, Hom.

2. at Athens a nickname of the Cynics, Arist., Anth.

II. the Trag. apply the term to the ministers of the gods; the eagle is Dios ptênos kuôn Aesch.; the griffins Zênos akrageis kunes id=Aesch.; the Bacchantes Lussês k. Eur., etc.

IV. a sea-dog, mentioned as a fish in Od.

V. the dog-star, i. e. the dog of Orion, placed among the stars with its master, Il.

[akrageis kunes = barkless dogs]

For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. Ps.22:16

His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Is.56:10

Keleb (h3611) keh'leb; from an unused root mean. to yelp, or else to attack; a dog; hence (by euphemism) a male prostitute: - dog.

Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. Isa 56:11

Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant. Isaiah 56: 12

But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore. Isaiah 57:3

Against whom do ye sport (effeminate play as at Mount Sinai and by David moving the ark) yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, Isaiah 57:4

Sport: Anag (h6028) aw-nag'; a prim. root; to be soft or pliable, i. e. (fig.) effeminate or luxurious: - delicate (-ness), (have) delight (self), sport self.

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.

The Jewish clergy are identified as children of the Devil who "spoke of himself" and as "seed of the vipers."

Victor Knowles: Well, maybe we might walk and even praise God a little, but as for "leaping for joy"--
...... we would rather remain lame.

It's not a beautiful gate we want to enter.
...... It's a dutiful gate at best! It's just not how we "do church."

There are 168 hours a week and Knowles is free to sing, leap, strip naked like David to MAKE HIMSELF VILE or whaterver strikes his fancy. However, it a giant LEAP for mankind to think of this as an ACT OF WORSHIP which can be exploited by a LEAP MINISTER.

"The development both of religion and of the arts can be traced back in a continuous line to the hunting era. The group ritual of the primeval tribesmen were the origin not only of all religious ceremonial, but also of the drama and of poetry and music, while magic gave birth to the visual arts." (Parkes, Henry Bamford, Gods and Men The Origins of Western Culture, p. 30, Knopf)

Beecher, commenting on the musical idolatry at Mount Sinai compares it to David's naked dance as he believed that he "dragged along" God--

"The Hebrew verb means to dance to music, vocal and instrumental. See 1 Chron. 13:8)" (Cook). "This was playing before the ark, as it slowly made progress; that is, there were evolutions and marching figures and religious dances" (Professor Beecher, quoted by Peloubet's Selects Notes, 1903, p. 270).

When the Israelites "rose up to play" we are pointed to the "sending across the sea" rituals of paganism (Rom. 10:5f) to see that the outrageous acts were really a "ritual drama" which forced their god to imitate them. From the context of Amos it is clear that they "dragged their god along" with music. In later years this practice continued and Tertullian taunted those who adopted pagan worship by saying--

"The 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.|
(Tertullian, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 193).

See that Musical Drama is always idolatry.

While the people thought they were worshipping, God said--

Moses saw that the people were running wild and that
Aaron had let them get out of control and so
become a laughingstock to their enemies." -- Exo 32:25

In the LXX, "Moses saw that they were scattered." The "spiritual exercises" which they thought looked good was seen by others as utter madness. The result was that they were "scattered" or divided and God would destroy those who had run wild. Of this use of music and dance to induce ecstasy one writer said:

Not to be overlooked here is the accompaniment of music and dancing which, with the character of the ensuing phenomena, makes the diagnosis (of idolatry) certain." (Schaff-Herzog, Ecstasy, p. 71).

"The triumphal hymn of Moses had unquestionably a religious character about it;

but the employment of music in religious services,
though idolatrous, is more distinctly marked in the festivities which attended the erection of the golden calf." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, Music, p. 589).

Victor Knowles: Even though our spiritual ancestors danced and leaped for joy at Cane Ridge, the mother of us all, and did a few other things that we would rather forget. Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

Suicide and religious division was a primary product of the First and Second "Great American Awakening." Someone has noted that there was a POPULATION EXPLOSION about nine months after the "revivalist" began their voodoo.

Notice what an an Orthodox who calls the church The Church of Christ says:

The deceit was uncovered only when the fathers of the monastery found out about his aversion for the New Testament (although the Old Testament, which he had never read, he could quote by heart), and by their prayers he was brought to repentance, his "miracles" ceased, and later he attained to genuine sanctity. Again, St. Isaac of the Kiev Caves (Feb. 14) saw a great light and "Christ" appeared to him with "angels"; when Isaac, without making the sign of the Cross, bowed down before "Christ," the demons gained power over him and, after dancing wildly with him, left him all but dead. He also later attained genuine sanctity. There are many similar cases when "Christ" and "angels" appeared to ascetics and granted astonishing powers and "gifts of the Holy Spirit," which often led the deluded ascetic finally to insanity or suicide.

It occurred to me that these people were having a good time praying! Is that what they meant by the Holy Spirit dwelling amongst them?" And at another Catholic Pentecostal meeting, "except for the fact that no one was drinking, it seemed like a cocktail party" (Ranaghan, pp. 157, 209). At interdenominational "charismatic" meetings the atmosphere is likewise sufficiently informal that no one is surprised when the "spirit" inspires an elderly woman, in the midst of a fit of general weeping, to stand up and "dance a little jig" (Sherrill, p. 118). To the sober Orthodox Christian, the first thing noticeable about such an atmosphere is its total lack of what he knows in his own Divine services as genuine piety and awe, proceeding from the fear of God. And this first impression is only strikingly confirmed by observation of the truly strange effects which the Pentecostal "spirit" produces when it descends into this loose atmosphere. We shall now examine some of these effects, placing them before the judgment of the Holy Fathers of the Church of Christ.

Many, many examples could be collected of this truly strange reaction to a "spiritual" experience, and some "charismatic" apologists have a whole philosophy of "spiritual joy" and "God's foolishness" to explain it. But this philosophy is not in the least Christian; such a concept as the "laughter of the Holy Spirit" is unheard of in the whole history of Christian thought and experience. Here perhaps more clearly than anywhere else the "charismatic revival" reveals itself as not at all Christian in religious orientation; this experience is purely worldly and pagan, and where it cannot be explained in terms of emotional hysteria (for Fr. Eusebius, indeed, laughter provided "relief" and "release" from "an intense feeling of self-consciousness and embarrassment" and "emotional devastation"), it can only be due to some degree of "possession" by one or more of the pagan gods, which the Orthodox church calls demons.

Shamanism The necessary spiritistic atmosphere is commonly induced by artificial means, such as the singing of hymns, the playing of soft music, and even the offering of prayer."

As opposed to the true Orthodox spiritual life, the "charismatic revival" is only the experiential side of the prevailing "ecumenical" fashion - a counterfeit Christianity that betrays Christ and His Church. No Orthodox "charismatic" could possibly object to the coming "Union" with those very Protestants and Roman Catholics with whom, as the interdenominational "charismatic" song goes, they are already "one in the Spirit, one in the Lord," and who have led them and inspired their "charismatic" experience. The "spirit" that has inspired the "charismatic revival" is the spirit of antichrist , or more precisely those "spirits of devils" of the last times whose "miracles" prepare the world for the false messiah.

"Little Children, it is the Last Hour" (1 John 2:18)

It was this urge to UNITY which turned out to be the urge to SHEEP STEALING which caused the mental and moral breakdown in BOURBON county.

Those at Caneridge are NOT my spiritual ancestors. First, they were led by Barton W. Stone seeking a MACHINERY to generate the "exercises." This could be TURNED IN at Calvinist churches as proof that one had been PREDESTINATED and had received the high sign.

As the revival interest grew, and as the meeting became larger and longer, unexpected and bizarre manifestations, called 'exercises,' began to occur. They were considered visible manifestations of the direct action of the Holy Spirit... The commonest were the 'falling exercise' and the 'jerks.' The names are sufficiently explanatory. The barking exercise sometimes accompanied the jerks, and the dancing exercise grew out of them. There was also the running exercise. It was reported that those who came to scoff were not immune to these seizures. However, it was only the devout who ever experienced the laughing exercise. (Winfred E. Garrison and Alfred T. DeGroot, The Disciples of Christ, St. Louis: The Bethany Press, 1948, p. 99).

Later, Campbell wrote to dispute that the church is the product of Cane Ridge--

When then shall we think of that religion which is the mere offspring of excited feelings--of sympathy with tones, and attitudes, and gestures--of the noise, and tumults, and shoutings of enthusiasm--of the machinery of the mourning bench, the anxious seat, the boisterous interlocutory prayers, intercessions, and exhortations to 'get religion on the spot' etc., with which all are conversant who frequent revival meetings in seasons of great excitement. (Millenial Harbinger. 1840:167)

THAT was the spiritual DNA of the later Christian churches but the churches of Christ NEVER experienced what historically is identified as witchcraft or insanity or even devil worship.

The brief brush with the "holiness movement" by Restoration churches was really a "brush off" and there was never any serious ecstatic manifestation in churches which depended upon Scripture for sole authority.

In 1853 W. K. Pendelton wrote of these earlier events:

Simply that it was a peculiar form of nervous disease, that was both epidemic and contagious. It came suddenly, as the destruction and the pestilence, both at noonday and in darkness--seized upon all classes and conditions, good and bad, old and young, male and female, bond and free, saint and sinner; affected them all with the same characteristic symptoms of bodily derangement--tarried for a season and then disappeared. Its effect on the mind, so far as it was peculiar, was simply excitement. No new truths were communicated,--no old errors corrected--nor miraculous utterances given; but simply an excitement, despondent or hopeful, gloomy or joyful, clear or confused, according to the convictions of the mind at the time of the attack and influence of circumstances during its continuance. (quoted by Randall, p. 373).

The fact is that what happened at Caneridge was almost identical to ancient and even modern DEVIL WORSHIP among some tribes in Iraq:

Victor Knowles: So why steer you out on the ballroom floor with this title: "Dancing At Arm's Length?"

First: Dancing! Is this not one of the seven cardinal sins? In the 1600's a Puritan,

Second: Philip Stubbs, bemoaned the practice of dancing around the Maypole: "What clipping, what culling, what kissing and bussing, what smooching and slabbering of one another, what filthy groping and unclean handling is not practiced at these dancings."

Maybe this is where we get the term "dirty dancing."

And if so, it appears to STILL be acceptable? Victor Knowles is going to ridicule Stubbs and affirm the DANCING which he bemoans!

Victor doesn't grasp the connection with ANY form of charismatic rituals which EXCITE the passions. ALL such practices including MUSIC had SEXUALITY as its only meaning: trying to dance with God, undoubtedly, but I don't get the impulse to dance with a MALE God. For instance,

In the "Encyclopedia of Religion," edited by Mercia Eliade and published by Macmillian Publishing Company for the University of Chicago, there are references to these Sheila-Na-Gigs (sometimes spelled Sheelagh-na-gig). Notice what the encyclopedia tells us about them:

"Aside from the transformative religious mysteries of sacrifice and initiation, the obvious life-giving and growth-promoting powers of the vulva and its secretions have given rise to a widespread use of representations of the female genitalia as apotropaic devices.

The delicious "incense" and "drink" provided by a menstruating woman was the reason they SHOULD NOT engage in religious rituals. The story is too long to tell. But, you do know that when the Jews ATE the sacrifices made to Baal-Peor the previous "worshiper" had deficated and spread it on the idol's nose. All such rituals including music was an attempt to HAVE SEX with the gods. In fact, the idea of ridiculing the gods to shame them into action was common in the musical rituals. Remember that Elijah taunted Jezebel's musical prophesiers by asking, in effect, "has your god turned aside to take a leak?"

"The Praise Team leads the congregation into the presence of the Lord with exciting praise and worship. The Word says that God inhabits the praises of His people and we are a people desiring to be inhabited!

Praise plows the ground for the seed to be planted when the Word is taught (Hosea 10:11). The team unites together as the Levites did in the Old Testament to bring praise and glory to God."

Praise and Worship plows the ground to make it ready for planting. A good worship team does the plowing and the pastor (and others) plant the seed. Without the plowing, the seed might fall on the stony ground and not take root!

Yes, the Holy Spirit still is welcome and still comes whether you are participating or not.

That intends to be explicitly sexual. Carol Wimber, mother of the end-times praise singing says so. After you have sex with "god" brought on by music the next act is GIVING OF MEANS. Music has always been used to seduce you out of your hard earned money and music has the universal meaning (in worship) of fornication and sodomy.

The custom of plowing a furrow for magical protection around a town was practiced all over Europe by peasants. It was still observed in the twentieth century in Russia, where villages were thus annually 'purified.'

The practice was exclusively carried out by women, who, while plowing, called on the moon goddess. A similar apotropaic function seems to have prompted the placing of squatting female figures prominently exposing their open vulvas on the key of arches at church entrances in Ireland, Great Britain, and German Switzerland. In Ireland these figures are called Sheelagh-na-gigs. Some of these figures represent emaciated old women. These images are illustrations of myths concerning the territorial Celtic goddess who was the granter of royalty. When the goddess wished to test the king-elect, she came to him in the form of an old hag, soliciting sexual intercourse. If the king-elect accepted, she transformed herself into a radiantly beautiful young woman and conferred on him royalty and blessed his reign. Most such figures were removed from churches in the nineteenth century. [We have pictures]

"The Christian church opposed May festivals. A 16th century English Puritan writer Philip Stubes, railed against May pole dancing. He said, "What clipping, what culling, what kissing and bussing, what smooching and slobbering one of another, what filthy groping and unclean handling is not practiced in the dances." Stubes estimated, though how he got his statistics is unknown, probably from peeping through bushes, that not one girl in three retained her virginity after taking part in May pole rituals. After dancing around the Maypole celebrants would retire to the open fields where they would have sex with anyone and everyone in the plowed fields in order to insure the fertility of the land and prosperous yield of crops. May was a month of sexual freedom throughout rural Europe up to the 16th century. Marriage bonds were suspended for the month of May, commenced again in June - hence, June weddings.

The CLERGY tried this on Jesus: In Roman times, Bacchus, the god of wine, became the lord of these festivals. During the Bacchanalian festivals the everyday rules were turned topsy turvy. The masters waited on the servants. All sexual prohibitions were lifted. It was a time of true good will towards all men. Even dresses were exchanged with men dressing as women. Erotic dances were performed with a large erect phallus being carried around in the dancing processionals.

Note that the Abomination of Desolation included music and sex right there in the holy places. See 2 Maccabees

The custom of exchanging clothes during Saturnalia and Bacchanalia was an activity frowned upon by the Jews and Christians as it is prohibited by the Bible, Deuteronomy 22;5 "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment; for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy god" So much for Biblical transvestites.

Please note that Rubel Shelly says that John got the idea of the LOGOS from Greek Philosophy. However, they were not the same. The logos or messenger of the gods was Mercury or Hermes. Click Here. Note the musica-Magica connection above.

However, the god Hermes in order to become a god of magic went into the temple of his consort Aphrodite where he wore a woman's robes and artificial breasts. In the temple he learned all the secrets of the Goddess Aphrodite [Lucifer, Helios, Phos, Zoe] which were exclusively taught to her female priestesses. The priests of the very masculine Greek hunk, Hercules, always wore female dress, probably in memory of Hercules service in female dress to the Queen Omphale. Zeus had sent Hercules to be a slave to the Queen for having killed a young man, Eurytus, after his father had insulted Hercules.

The Ephod worn by the "like the nations' priests" and by David before he went naked was a FEMALE GARMENT.

See how this fits the Praise Craze as one of the world's oldest and most ignorant superstitions.

That could define Caneridge and later "awakenings."

How musical idolatry was restored after the flood:

"Now therefore, since you do not yet understand how great darkness of ignorance surrounds you, meantime I wish to explain to you whence the worship of idols began in this world.

And by idols, I mean those lifeless images which you worship, whether made of wood, or earthenware, or stone, or brass, or any other metals: of these the beginning was in this wise.

Certain angels, having left the course of their proper order, began to favour the vices of men, [Comp. Homily VIII. 13.-R.] and in some measure to lend unworthy aid to their lust,

in order that by these means they might indulge their own pleasures the more;
and then, that they might not seem to be inclined of their own accord to unworthy services,

taught men that demons could, by certain arts-that is, by magical invocations-be made to obey men;

and so, as from a furnace and workshop of wickedness, they filled the whole world with the smoke of impiety, the light of piety being withdrawn.

"But when all these things were done, men turned again to impiety; [ and on this account a law was given by God to instruct them in the manner of living.

But in process of time, the worship of God and righteousness were corrupted by the unbelieving and the wicked, as we shall show more fully by and by.

Moreover, perverse and erratic religions were introduced, to which the greater part of men gave themselves up,

by occasion of holidays and solemnities, instituting drinkings and banquets,
following pipes, and flutes, and harps, and diverse kinds of musical instruments, and indulging themselves in all kinds of drunkenness and luxury.

Hence every kind of error took rise; hence they invented groves and altars, fillets and victims, and after drunkenness they were agitated as if with mad emotions.

By this means power was given to the demons to enter into minds of this sort, so that they seemed to lead insane dances and to rave like Bacchanalians; hence were invented the gnashing of teeth, and bellowing from the depth of their bowels; hence a terrible countenance and a fierce aspect in men, so that he whom drunkenness had subverted and a demon had instigated, was believed by the deceived and the erring to be filled with the Deity.

And yet! And yet! And yet, we appeal to Jeff Walling who dares to dance with God so that Knowles can at least dance AT ARM'S LENGTH:

Victor Knowles: And yet it was a Church of Christ minister (Jeff Walling!) who in 1996 came out with a book titled (gasp!) Daring to Dance With God (Howard Publishing). O the scandal! O the shock! Walling opened with a hilarious if not painful illustration of a girl (a beautiful girl from French class) asking him to dance at a 1950's sock hop. Walling was a "good non-dancing Church of Christ boy." O the dilemma! As a fellow GNDCCB, who grew up not far from where Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper went down,

I was instantly in tune with his tome with the tantalizing title.

Oh! so theatrical! So...So...oh!

I did a review of it in our Fall 1996 One Body. It was favorable. Not of dancing--of the book--the concept of stepping into God's embrace.

"All singers and musicians were happy to be the HAREM OF THE GODS."

You may want to review the fact that Jeff Walling has made a shocking and HILARIOUS career out of making fun of non-instrumentalists. Remember that old Jeff is trained in THEATER. Sure, old Victor would love him and imitate him but I would watch for what Plato claimed to be GENDER BLEED.

Jeff Walling Index including an edge-of-witchcraft fella trained in theater.

Then look particularly at how he advises church of Christ ministers to jump boat.

Aldus Huxley, a Lynn Anderson resource, warns us as Rubel Shelly wants to turn from WORD to IMAGE which is effeminate.

The latest DITTO HEAD theme is turning from the WORD to symbols and images. Karen Armstrong notes that the WORD is masculine-oriented and the "men" in the writings of Amos could hardly bear to enter into dialog with God. She also notes that images speaks of the effeminate mind. Nevertheless, Lynn Anderson and Rubel Shelly make their appeal:

"Intellectualism has snuffed out a simple faith in the Bible as the primary means through which the Creator has sought to reveal Himself to man. This lack of adherence to the essential doctrines of the Christian faith is evident in many of the incidents included in the report.

Lynn Anderson: Sounds right to me, Mr. Huxley! Something like this can happen to faith as well. The rational, informational, and linear-sequential worlds of productivity tend to dominate in our lives these days.

Consequently, the rest of our worlds suffer neglect, and we are losing touch with much of what it means to believe.

The rest of the story told by Huxley includes just this:

"Abused as we abuse it at present, dramatic art (preaching) 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

See Lynn Anderson and the Dancing On the Rim Image. This presents the Judas Image: his bag was for "carrying the mouthpieces of wind instruments" and Psalm 41 predicted that he would ultimately fail in his triumph over which means "playing instruments and making a joyful noise before the Lord" as the Pagan war chant.

"On November 4-7, 1993, an ecumenical conference called "Re-Imagining A Global Theological Conference by Women" was held in conjunction with the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women. Throughout the conference, Sophia was worshiped as a deity.

Call her ZOE, HALAL, A CAPPELLA or whatever, it is the feminine

Victor Knowles: All that to say this. It is almost a miracle that some Churches of Christ and Christian Churches are dancing together at all. We do have our disagreements. We do have our differences. We do have the debates of the past that still ring in our ears.

When you see the unnatural of two women dancing together you don't automatically assume that they are FORCING themselves into one another's embrace! ALL of the participants in this dance of death are actively or have already TRANSPORTED their congregation onto the DANCE FLOOR. Predictable, many of the OWNERS flee when--as is well known--"musicians both attract and cause revulsion. However, they are making a place for the perverted in the mainstream."

The DEBATES still ring because the Bible has never changed ITS mind in associating MUSIC AS WORSHIP with people telling God: "We will not listen to your words." As Calvin noted, the length that a heresy has existed does not change its stripes.

Victor Knowles: Before we discuss some of the positive things we are doing together, let me acknowledge that we do have some differences. The name of the church is one. While you will find some Christian Churches that use the name Church of Christ you will never find a Church of Christ that uses the name Christian Church. Some will insist, "Call the church after Christ's name." O.K. His name is Jesus. Christ is His office. Perhaps we are both off course here.

Jesus was a human: a "body prepared for me." Christ was WITH God because He WAS God. He laid aside His majesty and glory as one lays aside garments. He took on the 'clothing' of a human in order to suffer and die. Jesus IS the Christ OF GOD. Therefore, in the BIBLE the title is the churches of Christ or the church of God IN Christ.

There is no historical reference which I can find where the CHURCH or body is named after its ARMS AND LEGS rather than its HEAD.

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.Ac.2:36

The identifier HONORS Christ who IS TOTALLY GOD and not Jesus.

Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you. Rom 16:16
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. Rom 16:17

For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Rom 16:18

2 Cor 2:17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

Kapeleuo (g2585) kap-ale-yoo'-o; from kapelos , (a huckster); to retail, i.e. (by impl.) to adulterate (fig.): - corrupt, sell learning by retail, hawk it about, of prostitutes playing tricks with life

Jesus identified the professionals who USE music and musicians by quoting from both Isaiah and Ezekiel. Here is the MARK of profiteers:

My people come to you, as they usually do,
and sit before you to listen to your words,
but they do not put them into practice.
With their mouths they express devotion,
but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Ezek 33:31

Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love (amorous) songs
with a beautiful voice
and plays an instrument well,
for they hear your words
but do not put them into practice. Ezek 33:32

Hdt.1.155 Heredotus: Cyrus told how to take the FIGHT out of the enemy: [4] But pardon the Lydians, and give them this command so that they not revolt or pose a danger to you: send and forbid them to possess weapons of war,
............and order them to wear tunics under their cloaks
........... and knee-boots on their feet,
........... and to teach their sons lyre-playing [kitharizein]
........... and song [psallein] and dance
............and shop-keeping [huckstering].
........... And quickly, O king,
........... you shall see them become women instead of men,
........... so that you need not fear them, that they might revolt."

Victor Knowles: His name is Jesus

For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church. 1Co.4:17

Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: 1 Cor 1:2

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. 2 Cor 5: 16

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Cor 5: 17

To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 2 Cor 5:19

Picking a GENERIC NAME of the believers is not the way to honor Christ nor is it anything but failure to RECONCILE people.

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christs stead, be ye reconciled to God. 2 Cor 5: 20

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Cor 5: 21

For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: Gal 1:13

And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ. Gal 1:22

Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Ep.3:21

For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body Ep.5:23

Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Ep.5:24

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; Ep.5:25

This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Ep.5:32

In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: Col 1:22

He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God. Lu.9:20

Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his bodys sake, which is the church: Col.1:24

The mystical body of Christ must therefore be The Church of Christ!

PAUL, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1Th.1:1

But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Heb 1:8

For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: (ekklesia=synagogue) Heb 2:14

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Eph 3:16

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Eph 3:17

CHRISTIAN is NOT the name of Jesus Christ which is most often shortened to CHRIST.

Victor Knowles: Another difference is the way we interpret Scripture. Conservative Christian Churches/Churches of Christ have a tendency to be loose constructionists of Scripture

whereas Churches of Christ tend to be strict constructionists of Scripture. The former can lead to liberalism and the latter can lead to legalism. Neither approach has to lead to these ditches on the side of the road. Both groups respect the authority of Scripture and accept the inspiration of Scripture.

Dallas Burdette: Praise does its work among humans as much as it does among the heavenly host.

It is not possible to find a more LEAGALISTIC and indeed SUPERSTITIOUS concept than that MUSIC can be used to worship a Holy (wholly) Spirit God. The Praise Leader or Encomiast even at the Towers of Babylon:

"The necromancer or soothsayer gained their power through magical incantations. The sound of brass, pipe or string imitated the music of the seven heavenly spheres. As a result,

the gods were forced to give material and sensual blessings." Enuma Elish III.101; IV. 1-26, 91 and other Near Eastern Manuscripts.

See how Richard L. Hamm of the disciples explains the "loose construction" This is what brought about the Christian churches which degenerated into the Disciples.

See Rubel Shelly and John York (DLC) promoting COMMUNITY INTERPRETATION: Individuals have no right.

Alfred T. DeGroote uses the same principle. However, the so-called High Church of interpretation was never put to a vote and never approved. Catholics agree with churches of Christ about music but gives herself authority to violate Scripture. Here are two articles to show that the right to LOOSE UP Scripture was never granted

Alexander Hislop against music.
See Also Hugh Brown and the High Church authority
See John Wesley who saw up through the third century for church authority.

Because Victor Knowles uses John Wesley as authority it is interesting that he--and ALL--define authority for faith and practice:

22. Perhaps some may ask, 'Ought we not then to inquire what is the will of God in all things? And ought not His will to be the rule of our practice?' Unquestionably it ought.

But how is a sober Christian to make this inquiry? to know what is the will of God?

Not by waiting for supernatural dreams; not by expecting God to reveal it in visions; not by looking for any particular impressions or sudden impulses on his mind: no; but by consulting the oracles of God. 'To the law and to the testimony!' This is the general method of knowing what is 'the holy and acceptable will of God.'

Victor Knowles: We also have our differences as to the so-called "silence" of the Scriptures. We tend to view silence as permissive whereas you tend to view it as prohibitive. There are inconsistencies on both sides of the keyboard. Perhaps silence is merely passive. (I have written at length on this matter in Sola Scriptura (One Body, Winter 2003).

Only the instrumentalist use SILENCE to delibertely sow discord because the "Bible does not say NOT to musicate."

The Bible is very clear in defining Commands and Examples. We have the direct command and severaly examples of the EKKLESIA or school of the Bible gathering (synagoguing) with PLEASURING condemned. That connects directly to arousal singing with or without instruments.

We have the direct command to speak with ONE MIND and ONE MOUTH using "that which is written" or Scripture. This edifies or educates, Gorifies God who wrote the songs and sermons and keeps the UNITY.

Thomas Campbell defined church as A SCHOOL OF CHRIST and worship--as Paul commanded Timothy--to READING and MUSING the Word of God.

You cannot INFER or use SILENCE to that without destroying the meaning of RESTORATIONISM which was the word used by John Calvin.

One of the mysteries is that people can traffick in the Bible and not grasp that it condemns "music" as part of Lucifer's dream to BLEED OFF worship due only to God. I can find encyclopedias which connect music with telling God "we will not listen to your word" and people who LUST for music cannot find a SINGLE ONE. In fact, they can tell others that God COMMANDS music as worship just as he wants us to FEED Him with sacrifices and entertain Him with sexuality where universally the singers were the "harem of the gods."

Loose constructionists like to ridicule the notion of Commands, Examples and Inferences. The same is used of the SILENCE. However, the Bible and MOST of church scholars affirm the position of churches of Christ.

Commands Examples and Inferences
Richard Kirby refuted on the Law of Silence
Fred Peatross Silence

But Knowles has MISSED a whole mess of clear Scripture. The Bible is NOT SILENT about either singing or instruments. The message is clear that we SPEAK, TEACH (preach) or ADMONISH using "that which is written, the Spirit or the Word of Christ." Both the singing and melody are IN THE HEART. That is because both are secular, warfare terms and NEVER spiritual worship terms.

The MUSIC word is never used in the Bible or early church history as a WORSHIP WORD
Music is many times the MARK that people refuse to listen to the songs and sermons of God. It needs no proving: just listen next Sunday.

Secondly, it is the MUSICAL people who clearly us THE LAW OF SILENCE. They say: "The Bible DOES NOT SAY DON'T use instruments" therefore we gonna do it--spite of hell and sure discord--because we wanna do it.

Victor Knowles: There are other differences. Women are allowed a more public role in church in instrumental churches (and a few churches do allow women to preach).

Paul is thought to have MIRIAM in mind as the prototypical usurping woman as well as Eve who was wolly seduced by the serpent or NACHASH who was a Musical Enchanter just as she is as the OPHIS or serpent in the book of Revelation. Miriam especially is the example of a prophetess of Hathor who led the women to "escape" using instruments.

See Music and The univeral attributing it to Satan or the Devil.
See how Miriam--the bitter woman--let her musical skills make her think that she was speaking for God.

Paul's use of the word SILENCE also includes being SEDENTARY: you cannot have visible women PERFORMING without deliberately seducing men into checking her out as she reads or passes stuff.

Paul used the word AUTHENTIA for authority: it means both EROTIC and MURDEROUS.

There are really no PERFORMANCE roles in the church but Paul grasped that if you STIR UP THE FLESH or CAUSE EXCITEMENT you PLEASURE yourself and the synagogue defined in Romans 15 cannot take place. You cannot have ONE MIND and ONE MOUTH to glorify God with "that which is written" if half of the mind is distracted by sight and sound.

See our rebuttal of Rubel Shelly and John York.
See their perversion of facts about women serving under the law.
Women served as PROPHETESSES. No.
See that music MARKED women or the effeminate

"Women and girls from the different ranks of society were proud to enter the service of the gods as singers and musicians. The understanding of this service was universal: these singers constituted the 'harem of the gods'." (Johannes Quasten)

Buy the Book Strongly Recommended: Johannes Quasten

Victor Knowles: The most notable difference is probably the use of musical instruments during the "corporate worship" of the church in Christian Churches/ Churches of Christ.

Jesus built an ekklesia which is a synagogue or school of the Bible. Thomas Campbell called it a SCHOOL OF CHRIST and defined worship as reading and musing the Word of God. That IS the meaning of worship and what Knowles speaks about is NOT part of the Christian system.

See how the MUSIC Sectarians were not driven by the Bible. In confiscating a church of Christ in Tennessee:

"The pro-organ party had said during the trial that
........... when the organ was used as a part of the worship, it was sinful;

but they defended it on the ground that it was an aid to worship. Lipscomb, on the other hand, had insisted that it was a distinct service, and when persisted in always supersedes and destroys congregational singing.

"The court, passing on this phase of the question, said that the claim that the organ was not a part of the worship was untenable and it could not be considered as merely an aid to worship."

Victor Knowles: There are even differences in architecture and vocabulary. I see very few crosses in Churches of Christ. I don't know why that is. (After preaching a message on the cross at an a cappella church in Texas, I was taken to dinner, but not to task, by a 90-year-old lady, a lifelong member of the Church of Christ, who said to me,

Gallup found that 80% of preacher stories are FABRICATED or lying, if you will:

"Our preachers are afraid to preach the cross.")

That's one of them!

When Jesus went out he PREACHED to the local gatherings and TAUGHT in the synagogue. The synagogue was NOT a place for preaching but reading the Word so that you "taught the Word as it has been taught."

You WORSHIP whatever you GIVE HEED TOO. The use of banners, flags, pictures (Idols) and crosses INTENDS to take the mind's attention on the symbols. You CANNOT think about the cross and about the bloody "tree" at the same time. You cannot GIVE HEED to the symbols and to Christ at the same time.

What you call an "auditorium" we might call a "sanctuary." What we call a "revival meeting" you may call a "gospel meeting." What you call a "lectureship" we call a "convention." Our speech betrays us. We both reject the rosary but we sure need a glossary!

StatiusThebaid.6

245 here Hypsipyle shows rivers to the tired Greeks, here the tearful infant crawls, here he lies, around the edge of the mound the scaly one makes his rough circle;

the snake looks so real that you would expect bloody hissing from his mouth, so moves the snake with a sinuous motion around the marble spear. And now the crowd is eager to see the battles without weapons [i.e., athletic contests.]

420 The deafening sound of feet and the thin sound of wheels can be heard. There is no rest for the hand, the air hisses with repeated blows of the whip; hail does not issue forth more densely from the cold North, nor does rain fall more densely from so many Olenian vessels. ¹¹⁴ Perceptive Arion, after he felt the whip, had realized that there was a different

¹¹⁴This is a reference to the star Capella, identified by Roman poets with Aege, the daughter of Olenos.

Cantus , u-s, m. [id.] , the production of melodious sound, a musical utterance or expression, either with voice or instrument; hence, song, singing, playing, music. Speaks of the Locusts horribili stridebat tibia cantu: Querulae tibiae, warbling, chirping, of Capella a SHE GOAT

The Colchis were Egyptians (though the Greeks attempted to make them Arcadians) as was the Falcon Goddess, Circe, [Kurce--Medea's Aunt] who gave Odysseus instruction on how to descend and return from the underworld.

Ignorant Christians have assumed that because Medea and Circe made concoctions, decoctions and mixtures of herbs and beers, that they were witches, but witches are a purely christian creation, and the word witch does not exist in the Greek language.

As the worship of Dionysus spread the wine cult throughout the world, the Bacchae of the Goat-like Bacchus (from Buccus - buck--male goat) joined the Sibyls of Thrace who were known as Sabazius. Sabazius was a Cretan demigod from which the Greeks got the name Zeus. Prior to the Greeks, however, Sabazius appears to have been a title for priestesses, and not the god it was later said to be. These were the first to replace beer with wine and incorporate the Bacchic rituals in their Holy Taverns. Flavius Claudius Julianus, the last Pagan Emperor of Rome, put beer in its proper perspective:

"Can this be Dionysus? How the deuce!
Now, by the very Bacchus, in this guise
We do not recognize
The son of Zeus.
How came this goat-reek? Wine is nectar-scented.
The Celt from barley-tops, so We suppose,
For want of grapes and nose,

THE CROSS IS A PAGAN IDOL: Jesus gained victory OVER PAGANISM

The STAUROS was originally a stake: a PHALLIC SYMBOL. By having Jesus crucified the Jews sought to sexually triumph over Him as they had not been able to do by making him sing and dance while they piped.

Hislop notes that: There is yet one more symbol of the Romish worship to be noticed, and that is the sign of the cross. In the Papal system as is well known,
........... the sign of the cross and the image [idol] of the cross are all in all.

No prayer can be said, no worship engaged in, no step almost can be taken, without the frequent use of the sign of the cross.

The cross is looked upon as the grand charm, as the great refuge in every season of danger, in every hour of temptation as
the infallible preservative from all the powers of darkness.

The cross is adored with all the homage due only to the Most High; and for any one to call it, in the hearing of a genuine Romanist, by the Scriptural term, "the accursed tree," is a mortal offence.

Asherah: Also a sacred wooden pole or image standing close to the massebah and altar in early Shemitic sanctuaries, part of the equipment of the temple of Jehovah in Jerusalem till the reformation of Josiah (2 Kings 23:6). The plural, 'asherim, denotes statues, images, columns, or pillars; translated in the Bible by "groves." Maachah, the grandmother of Asa, King of Jerusalem, is accused of having made for herself such an idol, which was a phallus. Called the Assyrian Tree of Life, "the original Asherah was a pillar with seven branches on each side surmounted by a globular flower with three projecting rays, and no phallic stone, as the Jews made of it, but a metaphysical symbol. 'Merciful One, who dead to life raises!' was the prayer uttered before the Asherah, on the banks of the Euphrates. See Ezekiel 31. Assyria is the "tallest tree in Eden." Babylonia Resources

To say that such superstitious feeling for the sign of the cross, such worship as Rome pays to a wooden or a metal cross, ever grew out of the saying of Paul, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ"--that is, in the doctrine of Christ crucified--is a mere absurdity, a shallow subterfuge and pretence. The magic virtues attributed to the so-called sign of the cross, the worship bestowed on it, never came from such a source.

The people of the ancient lands used the cross in worship, some, like the Egyptians used it in Phallus worship, or, worship of the male sex organ. It was used as a symbol of fertility. "Various figures of crosses are found everywhere on Egyptian monuments and tombs, and are considered by many authorities as symbolical either of the phallus [a representation of the male sex organ] or of coition. . . . In Egyptian tombs the crux ansata [cross with a circle or handle on top] is found side by side with the phallus." A Short History of Sex-Worship (London, 1940), H. Cutner, pp. 16, 17; see also The Non-Christian Cross, p. 183.
Hippolytus notes of the idolatrous beginning of music.

Of these twenty-four angels the paternal ones are associated with the Father, and do all things according to His will; and the maternal (angels are associated with) Edem the Mother. And the multitude of all these angels together is Paradise, he says, concerning which Moses speaks: "God planted a garden in Eden towards the east, [Gen. ii. 8] that is, towards the face of Edem, that Edem might behold the garden-that is, the angels-continually.

Allegorically the angels are styled trees of this garden,
and the tree of life is the third of the paternal angels-Baruch.
And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
........... is the third of the maternal angels-Naas.

The Assyrians are called "the tallest tree in the garden of Eden." When Eve ate from the MIDST Paul understood that to mean that she was wholly seduced. This is why Cain [meaning a musical note] is said to be of that evil one.

We will see in responding to A. Ralph Johnson that the POISON is the same as the word for EVE. Paul obviously understood something the ANTI- speakers cannot grasp.

That is because we don't worship a shotgun or an electric chair. The cross was an ancient pagan symbol. It was prophesied that Jesus would be crucified on a TREE and not a cleansed instrument of tortre.

Victor Knowles: But there is so much more that unites us than divides us. We both accept Scripture as the inspired Word of God. We both preach Christ and Him crucified. We share a high view of baptism and the church. Our disagreements are more a matter of methodology than theology. I like what Thomas Langford recently wrote in One Body:

Maybe yes, but that was not the fact when the Stoneites and Campbellites were not united on anything but Stone's luste for UNITY at the price of truth.

"Most of the divisions in the body have come as a result of elevating some issue above the saving blood of Jesus. While we were united by his saving grace, we have divided over debatable issues and heatedly held opinions.

The philosophy seems to have been that there can be no unity unless we see all things alike and conform our opinions to the party line.

But it was none of these issues that saved us and brought us into a state of unity with Christ. It was belief in one fact (that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God) and obedience to one command, demonstrative of that faith (baptism into Christ); it was surrender to the will of the Lord Jesus" ("Unity in Essentials" One Body, Spring 2003).

UNITY was never the POLAR STAR to the Restorers beginning with John Calvin and everyone else. Unity was based on preaching the Word: division or SECTARIANISM was based on adding something NOT ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED to worship God acceptably.

The JUBILATORS broke the UNITY when the Stoneites left the Presbyterians: they had ever right to do so. The same mentality broke UNITY with churches of Christ when they ADDED instrumental music to "attract the largest miscellaneous audience." They sowed discord with a high hand. John Calvin notes that heresy does not become ACCEPTABLE with age. Therefore, there can be no unity and certainly no URGE for people to violate their conscience and the CLEAR TEACHINGS Of the Bible just to achieve UNION which is NEEDED by instrumentalists to VALIDATE their sectarian spirit. Getting a few idle preachers to confess sin for bleeding when the instrumentalists SHOT them in the heart does NOT A UNITY MOVEMENT MAKE. They NEED book buyers: the rest of us do not.

Victor Knowles: May I have this dance?

Not with me, fella.

VICTOR KNOWLES is founder and director of POEM (Peace on Earth Ministries), Joplin, MO. He also serves as editor of ONE BODY, is a facilitator for the Restoration Forum, and is on the executive committee of World Convention of Churches of Christ. Contact him at POEM, P.O. Box 275, Joplin, MO 64802 or vicknowles@aol.com or www.poeministries.org.

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Victor Knowles: Dancing at Arm's Length

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