But,
Fred
repudiates that message from Paul (who just made it up
according to
the Post-Modern, 21st century, latter day apostles):
Fred
Peatross: All
churches want
to
transform
people. The
challenge is that the "transformational journey" of the
Christendom
era that ended in the 20th
century
no longer works for 21st century people.
Since we are not
God, He gave us a way to
transform ourselves. The
only part of
the transforming or regenerating journey humanity can
participate in
is to plant the seed and water it.
If you are planting the
sentimental seed of a
sentimental poet then you are not planting the Divine seed and
you
will reep corruption.
If you are not watering
people with the water
of the Word then you are allowing them to dry and die of
hunger and
thirst for the Word. That was the result of the musical sin of
Amos
5, 6 and Isaiah 5.
The era after
the Christendom era
is the Millenium: it is Christ-rejecting premillenialism.
Are we in
the millenium? Did the Jubilee really usher in the kingdom
on earth
as it is in heaven. If not, then we are in the same era of Christendom
one second after midnight as we were one second before
midnight.
Based on the meaning of
Post Modernism the
Bible was part of the Modern era and Christendom was part of
modernism.
Therefore, it is not
stretching the facts to
say that to most Post-Modern philosophers, CHRISTENDOM ALSO
ENDED.
The DEATH OF GOD and a move into schizophrenis are tenets of
the Post
Modern views of unoccupied philosophers who use the Shelly
Sifter to
strain out everything from the Bible but a few bare facts.
Nothing, but a brain-warp,
has happened between
the church of my youth and the church of today. Every self-centered generation sees itself as THE
focal point of all
history: all that went before me were barbarians. However, God
has
reserved "MY" clan to tell you that 2,000 of church history is
AT AN
END and the "one true church" is emerging to let you express
your
emotions in clapping hands.
This generation is
absolutely so certain that
God reserved the GRACE word for them to discover that they, as
Paul
warned, see liberty as license.
Fred is recommending a counter-Paul,
counter-Spiritual method of letting the "church" transform
people by a
contrived "transformational journey" which we once sold you
but now
we want to sell you the 21st century, latest model which
obsoletes
what we told you last century. But old Paul is right there
saying
that Fred and all of the preachers and programs and "works of
human
hands" cannot
transform the
"spirit" which is approached only
by Spirit word:
Not
by works
of
righteousness which we
have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the
washing of
regeneration,
and renewing of the (OUR) Holy Spirit; Titus 3:5 (Our spirit
made holy)
Clapping
hands is the "works of
human hands." Waving hands over the head is not the lifting
of the
PALMS UPWARD as a sign that one was giving heed to the Word
of God.
If the arms swing loose while the performer manipulates
every nerve
ending in the body, you are lifting unholy ARMs.
Contrary
to the Grace-Centered
species of human kind, the emerging church does not now give
you
permission to "become as much like the world as possible to
attract
the world."
In
the old, pre-Grace-Centered era the Bible "sifted
through
philosophy and the writer's personal agenda" once said after
we
"crucify the flesh and burn it up on the altar."
Now,
let's say it again
because some things don't stick to the emerging group who
just
discovered grace ant the Towers of Babylon:
And
be not conformed
to
this
world:
but
ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what
is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Ro.12:2
Does
God still have a will?
Is that expressed in commands? How do we know in the
Post-Modern,
Post-Biblical era?
One
of the absolute certainties
from the Towers of Babylon down to modern medical science is
that you
cannot do anything with your rational mind (nous) while
music and
body worship has totally shut it down.
For
which cause we
faint not; but though our outward man perish,
yet
the inward
man
is renewed day by
day. 2 Co.4:16
And
have put
on the new man, which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of him
that created him:
Col.3:10
Who
also hath made us able
ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of
the spirit:
for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 2
Co.3:6
Therefore
if any man be in
Christ, he is a new
creature:
old things
are passed
away;
behold, all
things are become new. 2 Co.5:17
And
that ye put on the new
man,
which after God is created in righteousness
and true
holiness.
Ep.4:24
When
you go Post Modern, you
are forced to repudiated the Word of God. And when you do
that you
may attempt ancient "body renewing" out of a sense of
lostness.
However, Paul said that you will never be renewed again:
If
they
shall fall away, to renew
them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to
themselves the Son
of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. Heb.6:6
Hand
waving or clapping is
"stirring up the fesh" to life again.
This
is more proof: Jesus
said
that God does
not even look for us in the physical PLACE. Rather, the
PLACE of
meeting God in the Most Holy Place (naos) is in our spirit
or mind
which is the nous.
If
you attack the body you
are, according to Aldos Huxley reaching all of the way to
Babel,
engaged in emotional masturbation. See
Lynn Anderson: Dancing on the Rim.
Once
you reject the Words of
Christ, there is no renewing and the eternal "patternism"
is to take
as many with you as possible.
For
it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the
heavenly gift, and
- were
made partakers of the Holy Ghost, Heb 6:4
- And
have tasted the good word of God,
and
the powers of the world to
come, Heb 6:5
If
they shall fall
away, to renew
them
again
unto repentance; seeing they crucify to
themselves the Son of
God afresh, and put him
to an open shame.
Heb.6:6
If
we are "in Christ" and He
is he Head of the Boby and we fornicate, we force Jesus
to
participate. If our "bodies" and "hands" are not dead in
a
self-elevating way, then the death of Christ hasn't
worked for
us.
If
you sell people hand
clapping as an emerging way to transform people's lives
then you HAVE
fallen away from the Word (Post-Modern Confesses the
guilt) and YOU
WILL NEVER GET UP AGAIN: THUS SAITH THE LORD.
Contrary
to Fred, the church as
spiritual kingdom which none of its enemies can see because
it is
"within you," is warned against being contemporary with the
culture:
Grace
and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God,
and of Jesus
our Lord, 2 Pet 1:2
According
as his
divine power hath given
unto us all things that pertain unto life and
godliness,
through the
knowledge
of him that
hath called us to glory and virtue: 2 Pet 1:3
Whereby
are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by
these ye might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption
that
is
in the world through lust. 2 Pe.1:4
Jesus
has told us He will
meet us individually or by "twos or threes." However, when
we make a
public, body worship performance out of our worship we are
putting
outselves and the Spirit God on display publically:
Paradeigmatizo (g3856)
par-ad-igue-mat-id'-zo; from 3844 and 1165; to
show alongside (the
public),
i.e. expose to
infamy;- make a public example, put to an open shame.
The
body worship claiming to
represent Christ is putting Him to an open shame because
He would not
participate and had the fact recorded. Furthermore, you
put Him to an
open shame by trying to use Him like a puppet speaking
your
words.
The
only thing which has
happened is that preacher's programs like the pyramidal
ministry
curse imposed by God upon the monarchy period to destroy them,
didn't
work.
Why
didn't it work?
Because of the sermonizing and versifying of Bible and
sentimental
thought. This caused spiritual blindness and in Amos and
Isaiah,
music gives rise to "hungering and thirsting for the Word."
The
same people who repudiate
the Word of Christ in Song and Sermon, feeling their "place"
slipping
away.
Therefore,
they will always
promote 'holy theater' to fool the fools so that they can
remain on
the payroll for which the Bible has no "office."
The
radical OBSOLETING the
preaching task (which was never part of a "worship" ritual is
a valid
part of Post-Modernism. Preaching is an "outreach" effort but
it has
been transformed in the 'modern' era as a denominational
"dominant
pastor" role and evangelism has been replaced with a restored
pyramidal ministry system.
As
the scribe grew obsolete
when people learned to write, public cut N paste preaching
became
more than obsolete when people learned to read their $2.00
Bible.
Arnobius writing (A.D. 297-303)
Ridicules instrumental music
in worship notes the ongoing "Patternism" of the
Pharisees:
Nay,
rather, to
speak out more truly, the augurs,
the dream
interpreters, the soothsayers, the prophets, and the priestlings, ever vain, have
devised these fables; for
they,
fearing that their own arts be brought to nought, and that they may extort
but scanty contributions from the devotees, now few and infrequent,
whenever
they have found you to
be willing
that their craft
should come
into
disrepute,
cry aloud,
the Gods are neglected, and
in
the temples there is now a very thin attendance. For ceremonies are exposed
to derision,
and
the time-honoured rites of
institutions once
sacred
have
sunk before
the superstitions of new
religions.
And
men--a senseless
race--being
unable,
from their inborn
blindness,
to see even
that which is placed in open light,
dare
to assert in
their frenzy
what you in your sane mind do not blush to believe. (Arnobius Against the
Heathen, Ante-Nicene Fathers,
VI, p. 418).
Arnobius
also wrote:
35.
But is it only
poets
whom you have
thought proper to allow to invent unseemly tales about the gods,
and to turn them shamefully into sport? (Hand
clapping is making sport or reveling)
What
do your pantomimists, the actors,
that crowd of mimics
and adulterers? Do they
not abuse your gods to make to themselves
gain,
and do
not the others find enticing pleasures in the wrongs and
insults offered to the gods?
At
the public games, too, the colleges of all the priests
and magistrates take their places, the chief Pontiffs, and the chief priests of the curiae;
the Quindecemviri take their places, crowned
with wreaths of laurel,
and
the flamines
diales
(specialists
of one
god)
with their mitres;
the augurs
take their places,
who disclose the divine
mind and will
and the
chaste
maidens
also, who cherish and guard the ever-burning
fire;
36.
But this crime is not enough: the
persons of the most sacred gods
are mixed up with farces
also, and scurrilous plays.
And
that the idle
onlookers may be excited
to laughter and jollity,
the deities are hit at in jocular quips, the spectators shout and rise up, the whole pit
resounds with the clapping of hands and applause.
Fred
Peatross: These feelings can be
expressed in various
ways.
Some Christians clap their hands in
rhythm
to the music;
although, those of us who are rhythmically challenged
would rather
sit on them. Some raise their hands when they pray or
worship. These
are but two of the ways we express our feelings toward
God.
Let
us make it clear to the
foggy: there is no connection between "music" and the worship
of a
purely (holy) Spirit God in the entirety of God's dealing with
mankind. Blowing 120 trumpets in unison is not music. Music is
for
the secular parties and includes dance and the end-time
Babylonian
Harlot worship of Revelation 18 -- emerging in a church in
your
neighborhood.
- In Justin's
Dialog with Trypho the Jew he translates Amos:
-
- Who applaud at the sound of the musical
instruments;
- they
reckon them as stable, and not as fleeting.
- Who
drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the
chief ointments,
- but
they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
-
- We
do know that Jesus read the Septuagint which reads:
-
- who excel in the sound of musical
instruments;
- they
have regarded them as abiding,
- not as fleeting
pleasure." Amos 6:5 LXX
The external "melody" with
the clapping of
hands is to fortify the false teaching. The feelings induced
by the
clapping and not the result is a drug high and not caused by a
"holy"
spirit.
True, there is music but it
always says: "We
will not listen to the Word of God." Sure, there is the music
of the warriors
blowing trumpets, twacking harp strings and twanging bow
strings.
However, consistent with all that we know in the modern age
about
such noise (as God calls it) it is "lading the enemy down with
the
spiritual anxiety" in order to make them turn into cowards.
Outside
of warfare, those who wanted to get your carnal lust flowing
by doing
the "works of human hands" in clapping or lifting, this was
the
powerful weapon of the prostitute. Both the king/queen of Tyre
and
Babylon were harp-playing prostitutes because music could and
can
seduce you out of your entire bank account: it happens in may
"temple
building programs."
This artificial "worship"
uses the manipulation
of the body and its senses to get into the Voodoo-derived
rhythm and
this changes the emotions without letting your rational
(spiritual)
mind know what is taking place.
Preachers love music because
a bit of
drug-injection through music can hide a multitude of sins and
silly
exegesis in sermonizing which is just as unscriptural as
"versifying"
our human sentimental feelings: using our personal experiences
to set
people up with a non-Biblical authority: "Me."
Fred
Peatross: The raising of hands is certainly one of
the
biblically sanctioned
postures
of prayer,
but
not the only one. There are numerous positions that the
Bible
acknowledges as appropriate for prayer and worship. One
can sit,
kneel, stand, lie prostrate, or raise hands receptively
toward God
while realizing that none of these postures makes one
more spiritual
or his worship more acceptable. These are simply human ways of inclining ourselves
to the living God, a way of
bringing our physical posture in line with our spiritual
desire. Such
actions can be helpful for us in our prayer lives and worship experiences.
That is true, but raising my
hands in prayer is not for me
to display
my more spiritual feelings than others. Lifting up the palms of the
hands at about belt
level is the
preamble to reading or
reciting the Word of God.
If you are singing Sister
Sally's
latest "inspiration" which is erotic because it drives you
into
physical reaction, then you don't grasp the meaning of
"lifting holy
hands."
Contrary to the new "grace
removed" movement,
Jesus said as Incarnate God that this repudiates grace. Making
worship TIME AND PLACE specific in non-Biblical acts
repudiates
Christ who died to tear down the walls and allow each
individual to
come boldly before the throne of Grace. That time and place is
the
human mind or spirit.
> Prayer
and opening the innocent palms toward God is symbolic
or a
prelude to hearing directly from God through His inspired Word:
> And Ezra blessed the
Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen,
Amen, with lifting up their
hands: and they
bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Neh 8:6
>
> Also
Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah,
Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita,
Azariah,
Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to
understand the
law:
and the people
stood in their place. Neh 8:7
So
they read
in the book in the
law of God distinctly,
and gave
the
sense,
and caused them
to understand
the
reading.
Neh 8:8
Hymn
I. Ephraim Syrus
1.
On a certain day a pearl did
I take up, my brethren; I saw in it mysteries pertaining to
the Kingdom; semblances and types
of the Majesty;
it became a fountain, and I drank out of it
mysteries of the Son.
I
put it, my
brethren, upon
the palm
of my hand, that I might examine it: I went to look at it
on one side, and it proved
faces on all sides. I found out that the Son was incomprehensible, since He is wholly
Light.
2.
It was greater
to me than the
ark,
for I was astonied
thereat: I saw therein folds without shadow to them because
it was a
daughter of light,
types vocal
without
tongues, utterances
of mysteries
without lips, a silent
harp
that without voice
gave out melodies.
The trumpet falters
and the thunder mutters; be not thou daring
then; leave things
hidden, take
things
revealed.
Thou hast
seen in the clear sky a second shower; the clefts of thine
ears, as
from the clouds, they
are filled with interpretations.
This was a restoration of
the "synagoguing"
function in the land. If you read or sing your own silly,
erotic
praise songs and perform what Aldos Huxley called "emotional
masturbation" with clapping or raising of hands you cannot
appeal to
the "hand raising" without grasping that this is "lifting my
hand to
the Oracle or Word of God."
Please don't ever quote
Paul about
raising HOLY hands without
grasping that
"worship" to him meant
the same thing: To Timothy: "Give
attendance
to the public reading of
the Word, to doctrine to
exhortation."
> I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and
doubting. 1 Ti.
2:8
Let
the woman learn
in silence
with all subjection. 1 Ti. 2: 11
But
I suffer
not a woman to
teach,
nor to usurp
authority over the man, but to be in silence 1 Ti. 2: 12
The
hand lifted high is a sign
of usurping authority over the masculine component of
the
congregation. And it usurps authoriity from God.
>
> Let
no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example
of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit,
in faith, in purity. 1 Ti 4:12
Until
I come,
devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching
(exhortation) and to teaching
(doctrine).
1Ti.4:13
Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to
them;
that thy
profiting may appear to all. 1 Tim 4:15
Meditate
means to "revolve
in the mind."
This has no "Christian"
connection to singing
human compositions (the Pharisee pattern), clapping hands
or waving
hands in the air as we are "lifted up" or carried beyond
ourself in
charismatic madness.
Paul
does not define a
ritualistic Act of Worship where everyone lifts holy
hands. Notice
that all texts have a context:
> Whereunto
I am ordained a preacher
(herald),
and an apostle, (I speak the truth in
Christ, and lie
not;)
a teacher of the Gentiles in faith
and
verity. 1 Ti
2:7
Paul
says: "Because I teach the
truth as a herald,
I would be unholy if I 'opened the message and changed it.' Therefore, the
teachers of the flock are not
Ministers of Raising hands. Rather, they are "orthodox" and repeat what they
have been taught.
I will
therefore that men pray every where, holy hands, without wrath and
doubting (debate). 1 Ti.
2:8
Lifting
up HOLY hands is from the Greek
word:
Hosios (g3741) hos'-ee-os; of
uncert. affin.;
prop. right (by
intrinsic
or divine character; thus distinguished from
1342, which refers rather to
human statutes and relations: from 2413, which denotes
formal
consecration; and from 40, which relates to purity from
dement),
i.e. hallowed (pious, sacred, sure): - holy, mercy, shalt
be.
Therefore,
to give everyone
permission to "lift up holy hands" as an act of song or
prayer
violates this specific limitation by Paul.
Lifting up holy hands is to
lift up "orthodox"
hands. The
elder is to
"teach the Word as it has been taught." If he does
otherwise he is
not lifting up holy or orthodox hands:
Lifting: Anorthoo (g461) an-orth-o'-o;
from 303 and a
der. of the base of 3717; to straighten up: - lift (set)
up, make
straight.
Withour
wrath: Orge (g3709) or-gay'; from
3713; prop. desire (as a reaching forth or excitement of the mind), i.e. (by anal)
violent passion
Let
no man deceive
you with vain
words:
for because of
these things cometh the wrath
of God upon the children of disobedience. Ep.5:6
Oreogomai (g3713) or-eg'-om-ahee'
mid. of appar.
a prol. form of an obsol. prim. [comp. 3735]; to stretch oneself, i.e. reach out after (long for): - covet
after, desire
g3735 is "reaching up like a
mountain, above
the plain."
Wherefore lift up the
hands
which hang
down,
and the feeble
knees;
Heb 12:12
Orthos
(g3717) or-thos'; prob. from the base of 3735; right (as
rising),
i.e. (perpendicularly) erect (fig. honest), or (horizontally) level or direct: - straight, upright.
Orthotomeo (g3718)
or-thot-om-eh'-o' from a comp.
of 3717 and the base of 5114; to make a straight cut, i.e. (fig.) to dissect (expound)
correctly (the divine
message):
- rightly
divide.
Study
to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly
dividing
the word of truth. 2Ti.2:15
Here is why prayer is not
a to be seen ritual:
a hypocrite is
an actor. And if
we have to sow
discord among brethren just to force them to watch me
lift my holy (or
unholy?) hands then we
are so intent on repudiating Christ that we may fall into
the
unforgivable sin:
And
when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to
pray standing
in the
synagogues
and in the
corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you,
They have their reward.
Matthew 6:5
Now, Jesus could have
said: "Pray in public without
being a hypocrite" but that is an oxymoron.
But
thou, when thou
prayest,
enter into thy
closet, and
when thou hast shut
thy door, pray
to thy
Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall
reward
thee openly. Matthew 6:6
And
he was withdrawn from them about a
stones cast, and kneeled down,
and prayed, Matthew 22:41
This does not mean that we cannot pray
along with
others but it does mean that prayer is not an "act" of
worship where
I, so spiritual, can offend you by
waving my hands in the air
like I am
trying to be an antenna to make my prayer more powerful.
It would appear that such
hand waving would
violate the direct
commandment of
Jesus. Furthermore, it
would violate his approved
example. And
because such activity when
I am trying to sing or pray is offensive to me, we might infer that
it is wrong.
Fred
Peatross: Recently, I
had a conversation with a worship leader from a congregation in
Ohio. He provided me with a
good set of connections
between the physical posture in raising
hands during worship and the mental/spiritual processes
that might
well accompany them.
First, let's us agree that "worship leader" is an oxymoron. The
ancient
Babylonians had their song leaders,
prayers, praise leaders and prostitutes to "bring you into the presence of God."
However, Jesus
said that worship is not in the PLACE of Gerazim or Zion.
Rather, the
PLACE is the human spirit or mind and the resource is the Word
or
Spirit of truth.
You cannot LEAD me in
worship (unless you read
the Word) any more than you can participate in making love to
my
wife. Worship is in the "holy place" where no worship leader
would
dare to go. And if he dares to try to go there today we might
suggest
that he has already been thrust through the heart with the
Sword of
the Spirit.
What Fred is trying to
analyze is various forms
of "worship ritual" which Jesus died to remove. It is my (big
billy goat)
trying to win out over you (little billy goat) to be king of
the hill
in defining "acceptable" forms for the worship with human
hands.
Fred
Peatross: Think about what position your arms
would be in
if
you were standing and offering a bulky, but not
necessarily heavy,
gift to someone. Your arms would be outstretched
shoulder width (or
further apart), perhaps waist high, with your palms up.
When you're
worshipping/singing and "offering" yourself or your
gifts to Christ,
your hands and arms could be in this position.
That
is a fact. And if you
raise your hands above your shoulders and wave them around you
are
just going to endanger
your
gender identification. Furthermore, only the
high priest was allowed to
lift his hands up to the shoulders.
Modern
Jews and Arabs lift up
their hands as if reading their documents because they have
memorized it. People "in church"
still open their hands during prayer but they cannot possibly
wave
them around in the air and be praying to God at the same time.
However,
there is no
God-connected evidence that we can or should do this as a
collective
activity. Don't we sing "Nothing in my hands I bring"? Sure. We have nothing
in our open
hands as a sign of power. Rather, our spiritual sacrifice is
the fruit
of the lips as we
lift up our palms.
This
lifting holy hands was not
a panicky attempt to find the lost God or help
bring
the worshiper into the presence of
God. It was to denounce
one's personal worth
and talent and turn silent, awe-struck attention toward God
and His
Holy, unalterable Word--
> My
hands also will
I
lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved;
and
I will meditate
in
thy
statutes.
Ps.119:48
Siychah
(h7881) see-khaw'; fem. of 7878; reflection; by extens.
devotion: - meditation, prayer.
> Mine
eyes prevent the night watches,
that I might meditate
in
thy word.
Ps.119:148
I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my
trouble. Ps.142:2
I
remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse (h7878)
on the work of thy hands. Ps.143:5
Meditate:
Hagah (h1897) haw-gaw'; a
prim. root [comp.
1901]; to murmur (in pleasure or anger); by impl. to
ponder: -
imagine, meditate, mourn, mutter, roar, * sore, speak,
study, talk,
utter.
> And as the people were in
expectation,
and all men mused
in
their hearts of John,
whether he were the Christ, or not; Luke 3:15
Dialogizomai (g1260)
dee-al-og-id'-zom-ahee; from 1223 and 3049;
to reckon thoroughly, i.e. (gen.) to deliberate (by
reflection or
discussion): - cast in mind, consider, dispute, muse, reason, think.
> O
how love I thy law it is my meditation all the day. Ps.119:97
Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than
mine enemies: for they are
ever with me. Ps 119:98
> I have
more understanding than all my teachers:
for thy
testimonies
are my
meditation.
Ps.119:99
> "I
will lift
up my hands
to
thy commandments,
which denotes not only a vehement desire towards them (Ps.
143:6)--
"I
will lay hold of
them as
one afraid of
missing them, or letting
them
go;''
but a close
application of mind to the observance of them&emdash;
"I will lay my hands to the
command, not only to praise it, but
practise
it; nay, I will lift up my hands to it,
that
is, I
will put forth all the
strength I have to do it.'' The hands that hang down, through sloth and
discouragement, shall be lifted up,
Heb. 12:12
> Even
of parental
commandments:
Bind
them
continually upon
thine
heart,
and tie them
about thy neck.
Pr 6:21
When
thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest,
it shall talk
with thee.
Pr.6:22
For
the commandment is a lamp;
and the law
is
light;
and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: Pr
6:23
Fred
Peatross: Imagine that you see
someone near and dear across the room that you haven't
seen in a long
while. When you invite them to embrace you, your
outstretched arms
will be raised probably almost to shoulder level, your
hands open and
palms up. Again, when you are worshipping/singing and
wanting to
"embrace" your Savior as friend and brother, your hands
and arms
could be in this position.
But,
God isn't a long lost
friend as David's psalms prove that he believed.
That
they should seek (worship) the Lord, if haply they might
feel after him, and find him, though
he be not far
from every one of us:
Acts 17:27
It is a preacher presumption
that we have to
come hear their sermon in order to do that act of worship. And
God is
only gonna be at this building at 10:30. Contrary to this,
Paul said
that if we want to seek and find and worship God we will have
to go
to Christ "outside the camp." That means outside of the gates
of the
courts where the Levites made their noise, the holy place
where the
priests offered the blood or the most holy place. These three
areas
represent the physical world. However, "John was in the spirit
on the
Lord's day." he was not inside of the personal Holy Spirit; he
was in
his own spirit or mind which is the ONLY place Christ will be
seeking
us.
For this reason, the church
is called
"ekklesia" which is like country court where no one went to
perform
in song and music. You would be transported back down to the
gay
district if you came in there waving your hands and "making"
music
while the jury (ekklesia) was listening to the evidence.
When people "gather" they
are doing some form
of synagogue: there was
no "music" or praise service in the
synagogue which was school and not a pagan worship center.
Therefore, "making music" or
praying only in
the holy place "inside
the camp"
is
a restoration of the Levitical animal-burning music and that
seems to
say in Hebrews 6 that you have committed the unforgivable sin
by
giving up the Word.
Therefore, there is no
cultur or commandment
for a "praise service" where we go further into sin and offend
people
by an artificially-induced hand-waving or hand clapping show
of
contempt for others.
Fred
Peatross: Now, think about what you would do with
your
hands if
someone pointed a high-powered rifle at you, and you
didn't want them
to shoot you. Your arms would go up at least to shoulder
height and
your palms would be facing forward in the universal sign
of
surrender. In our worship, we can physically show our
attitude of
"surrender" to Jesus by raising our hands and declaring
our
vulnerability (We are weak, but He is strong.)
However, we are not
vulnerable:
Let
us therefore come
boldly unto
the throne
of
grace,
that we may
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Heb.4:16
That throne is in heaven
and not in the "holy
place" of church architecture which is the liturgy area
where the
hand claping sister singers condem themselves. However, this
is the
meaning of being Post Modern: I know that I am deliberately
and with
a high hand giving people permission to lift their hands in
an
offensive way knowing that it will sow discord. Being Post
Modern
means that we can get our authority from one of our 'worship
leaders'
who, by definition, has also been brain sucked dry of the
Word of
God.
Surrender to God has
always been just the
opposite: worship means to "fawn like a dog." Now, if we
come into
the presence of a dangerous dog and he falls to the grown
and licks
our shoes we are not threatened. however, if the dog comes
"waving
his claws" in our face we know that we are not in the
presence of a
surrendered soul.
So, why not have a
legalistic 'falling on your
face' ritual? Then you can hire a "Falling On Your Face
Worship
Leader" on your pyramidal, tower of Babylon power ministry
team.
Fred
Peatross: Lifting the
hands is just a way of reaching up to God to exalt Him or seek Him. It is perfectly appropriate. Some are concerned
that this practice might be the
early introduction of a charismatic theology for the Church of
Christ. Raising hands in worship
in no way embraces a charismatic theology any more than
kneeling
while praying embraces Catholic theology. The question
shouldn't be
is it "charismatic," but is it biblical?
But, Fred is going
to ADVANCE beyond raising
hands as a personal thing and let us sing, dance, clap, use
lighting,
plaly instruments and get wrapped up into a VORTEX.
Paul has just said that we
don't have to
"reach up"
to find God. The musical idolatry at Mount Sinai was the
"sending across
the sea" ritual
of the Egyptian triad where the Israelites sent
for
the old bull image to teach them. This repudiated God Who had
just
delivered the oral, Book of the Covenant.
For
Moses
describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. Rom
10:5
But
the
righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say
not
in thine heart, Who shall ascend
(lift up) into
heaven?
(that is, to
bring Christ down from above:) Romans 10:6
Or,
Who shall descend into the
deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
Romans 10:7
But
what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
Romans 10:8
"Worship"
is giving heed to
Christ by giving heed to His Word which is "Spirit and Life."
We are
legalistically "doing the deeds" of the world if we believe
that
singing or a ritualistic, ceremonial prayer is "reaching up to
God."
Charismatics
(hand lifters or
hand clappers) MUST LIVE BY THESE THINGS. When they are "not
in the
presence of God" as proven by the drug-induced "feeling" then
God is
not walking with them and living in them. So, giffy quick (and
preachers love this) they have to get back to "do church"
again to
get another fix.
The
provable fact is, however,
that the drug high from Sunday "reaching up to find the lost
God" has
worn off, the people feel just terrible and come back Sunday
night
"disguised as empty seats." And, contrary to Nimrod and his
female
worship team at the towers of Babylon, the people were not
"regenerated through external means."
Most 'church worship music'
has been called
"low level glossolalia" or speaking in tongues. When one's
body
begins to move with the music they have at some level moved
outside
of themselves and gone charismatic because they wouldn't do it
in the
normal course of their lives or "outside of church."
The Use of Hands in
Worship
Fred
Peatross: The Bible not only permits
the hand raising posture in prayer and worship
but it also seems to
encourage
it (Psalm
28:2; 63:4; 134:2; 1Timothy 2:8). If you feel led to do this in your
prayer life or in public worship, feel free to do so.
But those who
aren't moved to do the same are not required.
Let's tell the world, first,
that David was not
a "worship leader" and did not define the conditions by which
God
would be worshiped. David was one of the kings hand-picked by
God to
lead the Israelites into destruction and captivity.
(A
Psalm of David.)
Psalm 28:1
UNTO
thee will I cry, O Lord my
rock; be not
silent to
me:
lest, if thou be silent
to
me,
I become like them
that go
down into the
pit.
Hear
the voice of
my supplications, when I cry (yell for help) unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. Psalm 28:2
When
Jews or Muslims lift up
their open hands it is in the POSTURE of reading that which
they have
studied and memorized. They do not wave their hands in the
air.
Thus
will I bless thee while I
live: I will lift up my hands in thy
name. Ps.63:4
My
soul shall be
satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee
with joyful
lips:
Ps 63:5
When I
remember thee upon my
bed,
and meditate on thee in the night watches. Ps 63:6
This
doesn't seem to be
"worship rituals."
We told you above, that
using "external means"
to find God or seeking to regenerate through external means
is NOT a
grace-centered or spiritual concept. On the contrary, it is
a sign
that people are lost because they have belittled inspiration
and eyes
have been blinded and they cannot see God. Remember?
Fred
Peatross: Lifting
the hands is
just a way of reaching
up to God
to exalt Him
or seek
Him.
Christ
is not silent: He speaks
his Spirit or Mind through the Words He has inspired through
the
prophets and apostles. But the Jewish clergy, also unlawful,
could
not see because they had turned to their own show and tell
and not to
Christ.
In Deut 31: Prophesying the
destructive future for Israel which
we dare not use as a "pattern" for worship.
I
said, I would scatter
them into
corners, I
would make
the remembrance of them to cease from among men: Deut 31: 26
Were
it not that I
feared the wrath
of the
enemy,
lest their
adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest
they should
say,
Our
hand is
high,
and the Lord
hath not done all this. Deut
31: 27
This
is not the humble hand
but the open hand:
Yad (h3027) yawd; a prim.
word; a hand, the open one indicating power, means, direction,
etc., armholes, creditor, custody, debt, dominion, power, presumptuously..
The
prescription was not
called "public worship" but:
If
there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege
them in the land of their
cities; whatsoever plague,
whatsoever sickness there be; 1 Kings 8:37
What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every
man
the plague
(affliction) of
his own
heart,
and spread
forth his
hands
(palms) toward this house: 1 Kings 8:38
Then hear thou in heaven thy
dwelling place, and
forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his
ways, whose
heart thou
knowest;
(for thou,
even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children
of men;) 1
Kings 8:39
In
desperation and lostness
people wave their hands around. The task of the church is to
assure
them of God's grace and not encourage them to mourn their
utter sense
of lostness:
And enter
not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight
shall no man living be justified. Psa 143:2
For
the enemy
hath persecuted my
soul;
he hath smitten
my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have
been long dead. Psa
143: 3
Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed
within me;
my heart within me is desolate. Psa 143: 4
I
remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy
works;
I muse on the work of thy hands. Psa 143:5
I stretch
forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a
thirsty land. Selah. Psa 143:6
A
supplication is a prayer and
one does not "lead" prayer for another. This was not an act
of
"worship" which is defined as falling on the face, bowing or
otherwise being under "hard bondage" under law.
Teach
me to do thy
will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land
of uprightness. Psa 143:10
When
one lifts up their hand
they do not raise them and wave them around. The "open hand"
is a
symbol of personal power. By opening the hand as in a hand
shake one
acknowledges that they have no personal power.
The
lifting was of the
"hands" and the "arms" have a different meaning.
Stretch
out
is:
Paras (h6566) paw-ras';
a prim. root; to
break
apart,
disperse, etc.: -
break, chop in pieces, lay
open,
scatter, spread
(abroad, forth, selves, out), stretch (forth, out).
Toward:
El
(h413) denoting motion
towards,
but
occasionally used of a quiescent position.
The
oracle is the place from
which the word
comes:
in paganism
which depended on wine, music and dancing or other "works
of human
hands" the place from which the poisonous gas arose which
made the
virgin raving made was was the Oracle place and Speaker:
Oracle
is:
Debiyr
(h1687) deb-eer'; or (short.) dÿbir deb-eer'; from 1696
(appar. in
the sense
of
oracle):
the shrine
or innermost
part
of the sanctuary: - oracle
And
the priests
brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto his
place, to the
oracle of the house, into the most holy place, even under the wings of
the cherubims:
2Chr.5:7
The
Psalmist was lifting up
his hands to the WORD of God in the most holy place. This
was a
pledge of faithfulness and not an effeminate waving.
Dabar is the Hebrew
equivalent to Logos.
Dabar
(h1696) daw-bar'; a prim. root; perh. prop. to arrange;
but used fig.
(of words) to speak; rarely (in a destructive sense) to
subdue: -
answer, appoint, bid, command, commune, declare, destroy,
give, name,
promise, pronounce, rehearse, say, speak, be spokesman,
subdue, talk,
teach, tell, think, use [entreaties], utter, * well, *
work.
Jesus as "Son" spoke only
what He heard from
the "Father." That defined His Sonship. Therefore, Christ
and His
Word is the only oracle of Christ today.
While our personal talent
can be used for
"ministry" when we speak we had better imitate Christ and
speak as
the Oracle of God by repeating what He delivered and
inspired in the
Word.
Poems
Tend to Be
Poetical.
David was not a "worship
leader."
Therefore, David neve lead "congregational singing with
instrumental
accompaniment while the audience waved their hands around
like
antennas seeking something."
To
see thy power and thy glory,
so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Psalm 63:2
Because
thy
lovingkindness is better than life, my lips
shall praise thee. Psalm 63:3
Thus
will
I bless
thee while I live: I will lift up my
hands
in thy
name.
Psalm 63:4
My
soul shall be satisfied as
with marrow and fatness; and my
mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: Psalm 63:5
When
I remember
thee upon
my bed,
and meditate on thee in the night watches Psalm 63:6
Because
thou hast
been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. Psalm
63:7
I
remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works;
I muse on the work of thy hands. Ps 143:5
I stretch (break
apart) forth
my hands (palms) unto
thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a
thirsty land. Selah. Ps 143:6
Cause
me to hear
thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I
trust: cause me to know the way
wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee. Ps 143:8
- Hand
Clapping BOASTED of someone out to get you:
-
- An enemy will speak sweetly with
his lips,
- but
in his mind he will plan to throw you into a pit;
- an
enemy will weep with his eyes,
- but
if he finds an opportunity his thirst for blood will be
insatiable. Ecclu 12:16
-
- If
calamity befalls you,
- you
will find him there ahead of you;
- and while pretending to help
you,
- he
will trip you by the heel; Ecclu 12: 17
-
- he
will shake
his head,
- and clap his hands,
- and whisper much,
- and
change his expression. Ecclu 12: 18.
People
of the time never saw
David as a spiritual worship leader. However, since David
never
worshiped in the temple, Ben Sirach said:
In
all that he did he gave thanks to the Holy One, the
Most High, with ascriptions of
glory;
he
sang praise
with all his heart, and
he loved his Maker. Ecclesiasticus 47:8.
He
placed singers before the altar,
to make
sweet
melody
with their
voices.
Ecclesiasticus
47: 9.
However,
David was not
worship leader in a spiritual sense:
who
brought kings down to destruction,
and famous
men
from their beds; 48:6.
who heard
rebuke at Sinai and judgments of vengeance
at Horeb;
48: 7.
who anointed kings to inflict
retribution,
and
prophets to
succeed you. 48: 8.
The
prophets universally
repudiate the music of the priestly class who were devoted
to the
"like the nation's temple" in Jerusalem.
And
Hosea agreed:
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
The
sanctuary is the most
holy place:
Unfortunately,
David had often
misplaced God by defining the "like the nation's" temple
worship.
Furthermore, David was one of those kings ordained by God to
lead the
Israelites into captivity and death because of their musical
idolatry
at Mount Sinai:
And
the songs of the temple shall be howlings (Yalal
or wailing tones like halal
or praise) in that day, saith the Lord God: there shall be many
dead
bodies in
every place;
they shall cast them forth with silence (finally holding their
peace).
Amos 8:3
Behold,
the days
come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a
famine of bread, nor a thirst for
water, but
of hearing
the words of the Lord:
Amos 8:11
And
they shall wander
from sea to
sea,
and from the north
even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the
Lord,
and shall
not find
it.
Amos 8:12
"Unlike
the pagan
deities,
Yahweh was not in any of the forces of nature but in a real apart.
He is experienced in the scarcely perceptible timbre of a tiny breeze in the paradox of a voiced silence." (Armstrong, Karen, A History of God, p. 27)
You cannot hear
God with your mouth or the
mouth of a team open!
Lifting
up hands in prayer in Paul's
writing
is the same as the Jewish
practice: one holds their arms next to their body, stretches
out the
lower arm horizontially and then turns the palms upward.
This was a
sign of "reading" the Word written in the palms. It was not
some kind
of charismatic magical act.
Fred
Peatross: Clapping
hands
is
a legitimate part of the worship experience (Psalm 47:1). It's a
sign of enthusiasm and excitement, something we should
have regarding the greatness of
the living God.
And
again: All
churches want to transform people. The challenge is that
the
"transformational
journey"
of
the
Christendom
era
that ended in the 20th century no
longer works for 21st century
people.
We believe that Fred is just
being inexact.
However, the Grace-Centered wrecking crew believes that the
Biblical
era ended (with them, of course) in the 20th century. Now, we
are
living in the Post-Modern or Post-Biblical era. The music and
charisma seems to be proof that the ancient Babylonian and
Tyrian
musical prostitute has risen along with Apollo's (Abaddon or
Apollyon) Seeker Centers.
Post Modern really means
Post-Biblical because
it has been put through the sifter of time and is no longer
reliable.
However, for a price, I will tell you what is now acceptable
worship
in the 21 century. History shows that the end of each
millenium
brings out the crazys of the world but then, after beating on
the
Anvil of God's Word and dying in shame, the Bible is still
there:
(To
the chief
Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.) Psalm 47:1
O clap
your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
Taqa
(h8628) taw-kah'; a prim. root; to clatter, i. e. slap
(the hands
together), clang (an
instrument); by anal.
to drive
(a
nail
or tent-pin, a dart, etc.); by
impl. to become bondsman (by hand-clasping): - blow
([a trumpet]), cast, clap, fasten,
pitch [tent], smite, sound, strike,
* suretiship, thrust.
Then
Jael Hebers
wife took a nail of the
tent,
and took an
hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his
temples, and fastened it into the
ground: for he was fast
asleep and weary. So he died. Jud.4:21
For
the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth. Psalm
47:2
He
shall subdue
the
people
under us, and the nations under our feet. Psalm 47:3
There
is no
healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear
the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not
thy wickedness passed
continually? Nah 3:19
When
you clap your hands or
give permission it is really telling people that it is ok to
triumph
over the reverent worshipers and put your feet on their neck
and
"sing songs to them" to triumph over them as an enemy defeats
the old
enemy.
This
clapping is also a
victory yell over God and His Word which was all written
before the
time of the Latter Day Pathetic Prophesiers of "prophecies
stolen
from others."
This
was the BATTLE CRY and was
turned upon Jesus. When we repeat it we clearly prove that the
Christendom era has ended for us because in Ezekiel 30 God
turns the
musical instruments agains the Syrians who troubled Israel
from the
beginning. Assyria is called "the tallest tree in the garden
of Eden"
and God would beat them to death with the clapping, shouting
and
sound of musical instruments.
The
sound
you hear is "God repaying His
enemies."
However,
the silver trumpets
were signal instruments and used to panic
the enemy
so that David could rejoice over shedding the blood OF the Gentiles with his
feet on their neck. However,
Jesus "sang to the Gentiles" when He shed His blood FOR the Gentiles. See the
difference?
This
is the battle cry as
clearly defined in the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, the
"congregation"
of the people came together (synagogued) for instruction and
God
outlawed the TRIUMPHAL shout and sounding of warfare:
But
when the congregation is to be gathered
(synagogued) together, ye shall
blow, but ye shall
not
sound a TRIUMPH.
Numbers 10:7 (Paraphrased)
This
was the
alarm:
Ruwa (h7321) roo-ah'; a
prim. root; to mar
(espec. by breaking); fig. to split the ears (with sound),
i. e.
shout (for alarm or joy): - blow an alarm, cry (alarm,
aloud, out),
destroy, make a joyful noise, smart, shout (for joy), sound
an alarm,
triumph.
Psalm
41 prophesied that Judas would not totally
triumph over Jesus and we know that
triumphing over Jesus as the 'enemy' was with instrumental
music and
enough noise to drive the enemies into panic like Gideon.
Fred
Peatross: Sometimes
our worship
leaders will
encourage clapping. This is fine. It's not something
that has to be done all the time
or by everyone, but it is certainly an appropriate aspect of responding to God.
However, just as we sometimes clap and express
enthusiasm
(enthus o
mania, madness in Corinth) there will be times
when we will be
still and quiet
expressing
reverence.
Jesus
said that worship is ONLY
in the HUMAN SPIRIT. This is much like the Most Holy Place
in the
temple. INDIVIDUALS come boldly before the throne of Grace
but there
is NO SUCH THING AS A WORSHIP LEADER except in rank
paganism.
All
pagans believed that the
"demons" or gods lived inside of the idols or musical
instruments
which could "teach" them.
Jamison-Fausett-Brown
Revelation 8 notes that:
"In
the Jewish
temple, musical instruments and singing resounded during
the whole
time of the OFFERING of the SACRIFICES, which formed the
first part
of the service.
This
noisey ritual was
slaughtering and burning the TYPES of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The
musicians were NEVER in the Holy Place as a type of the body
of
Christ. Psalm 41 prophesied that it would be JUDAS
implicated in
leading the mocking and betraying of Jesus leading to HIS
crucifixion
with musical mocking.
Inside
the Holy Place or
type of the church of christ:
}But
at the
offering of INCENSE, solemn SILENCE was
kept ("My soul waiteth upon
God," Ps 62:1; "is SILENT," Margin; Ps 65:1, Margin),
the
PEOPLE praying SECRETLY
all the time.
The
"team" or leader can ask
God for someting on my behalf, BUT no one can sing my own
praise nor
PRAY my prayers. The attempt claims for the LEADER: "I am
Lord Jesus
Christ Who died for your sins.
The
half-hour
STILLNESS implies, too, the earnest adoring
EXPECTATION
with which the blessed spirits and the
angels await the succeeding unfolding of God's judgments. A
short space is implied; for
even an hour is so used (Re 17:12 18:10,19).
SILENCE
IS:
Duwmiyyah
(h1747) doo-me-yaw'; from 1819; stillness;
adv.
silently; abstr. quiet, trust: - silence, silent, waiteth.
In
many pagan religions
CLAPPING OF HANDS was to get the "attention" of the gods: I
have seen
it done. That would be at the relatively ELEVATED SPIRITUAL
status of
a rank PAGAN. For little singy-clappies it just means
infantile
JUBILATION of those who jump and clap before they can walk
and talk.
Rank
pagans also believed that
the HIGH PITCHED PRAISE of a trained speaker or singer was
proof that
the "gods" were speaking.
ALL
of them SCAMMED with the
claim that the "musical" tones coming out of musical
instruments or
an old wineskin (familiar spirit) was the gods speaking.
However,
God warned:
Woe
unto him that saith to the wood, Awake;
to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach Behold, it is laid over
with gold and silver, and
there is no breath at all in the midst of it. Hab 2:19
But
the Lord is
in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence
before him. Hab
2:20
So
the Levites stilled all the people, saying,
Hold your peace, for the day is holy;
neither be ye grieved. Ne.8:11
Be
silent, O all flesh,
before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy
habitation.
Zec.2:13
This
silence
is:
Hacah (h2013)
haw-saw'; a prim. root; to hush:
- hold peace (tongue), (keep) silence, be silent, still.
Paul
said the same thing while
others were PROPHESYING which was to GIVE ATTENTION TO THE
PUBLIC
READING OF THE WORD as it had been taught:
For
God is not the author of confusion, but of peace
(QUIET), as in all churches of the saints. 1 Cor 14:33
Let
your women keep silence in the churches: for it
is not
permitted
unto them to
speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.
1 Cor 14:34
SINGING
AND CLAPPING WITH LOOSE
HAIR would be the "uncovered prophesying" Paul condemned
even outside
the assembly (1 Cor 11:5).
We
tend to believe that you
either are or are not reverent: Just don't see how you can
turn it on
and off to give variety to the worship ritual.
If
everyone is
speaking the Word of God in Corinth:
And
thus are the secrets of his
heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will
worship God, and report that God
is in you of a truth. 1 Cor 14:25
Proskuneo
(g4352) pros-koo-neh'-o; from 4314 and a prob. der. of
2965 (mean. to
kiss, like a dog licking his master's hand); to fawn or
crouch to,
i.e. (lit. or fig.) prostrate oneself in homage (do
reverence to,
adore): - worship.
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
Aidos
(g127) ahee-doce';
perh. from
1 (as a neg. particle) and 1492 (through the idea of
downcast eyes);
bashfulness, i.e. (towards men), modesty or (towards God)
awe: -
reverence, shamefacedness.
In
like manner
also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel,
with
shamedfacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or
gold, or
pearls, or costly array; 1 Ti.2:9
One
of the oldest
superstitions: That enthusiasm means that the usually-deviant
praise
leader has induce a charismatic fit. He
was called the Encomiast: the praise
leader.
Jesus
said that the only place
God looks for worship is in the human spirit devoted to His
Truth.
There can be no "worship leader" leading us to come "boldly
before
the throne of Grace."
The
concept of
"worship leader" is equivalent in ancient paganism to
"sexual orgy
leader."
Sex
and music were
co-conspirators in making the paying fools believe that they
were
worshiping God when they were just worshiping their nerve
endings.
Believe
me, friends, consistent
with all of the musical worship leaders in the pagan world,
the
Seekers are not so much comming to laugh and play WITH you
as to see
the show and laugh AT you. At Mount Sinai when they rose up
to play
in musical idolatry they "became a laughingstock.
The
only operative
worship word
in Paul's writings is in
"giving
heed"
to the Word of
Christ or "give attendance to the public reading" with both
the
"singing and melody" being internal as our spiritual
meditation to
God. Paul never commanded "singing" as an "act of worship" but
the
word available for any third grader is TEACH the revealed
message.
Philo
coined the word
"enthusiasm" to mean enthus o mania. This was the frenzied
excitement made obvious by
loud singing, hand
clapping (a
show of
contempt) and the goose-bump feeling of being "spiritual."
Paul
called it madness
or being "outside of self." Don't feel superior if this
happens to
you because:
"Awed
by the
mysteries of his
own
spirit no
less than by
those of nature, primitive man was
likely to attribute to divine influence
any abnormal emotional state, whether above or
below the usual level.
Medicine men customarily went into states of trance in which they were believed to be in
communication with the
gods,
and
many tribes
supposed lunatics and sexual deviants to be divinely possessed.
The
music, drama and dance is
almost totally reserved for the homosexual Dionysic
worship which was
what the clergy wanted to get Jesus into by "piping" and
trying to
make him sing and dance to disqualify Himself.
"In
most early societies,
moreover, men evolved
techniques for deliberately
inducing the abnormal
forms of
consciousness
in which they supposed themselves to achieve
union with
divine power,
sometimes
by the use of drugs and other physiological stimuli,
sometimes by hypnotic
dances
(pacing,
hand waving,
clapping, effeminate movements, shouting) and music.
The wild
utterances
to which they gave vent on such
occasions were regarded as the words of a god and were interpreted as divine
commands
or predictions of future events." (Parkes, p.
32-33).
"Many
peoples attributed any violent
or unusual
emotion to
one of the
gods as a matter of course; the individual was then no
longer held
responsible
for his
actions, though the gods were sometimes mischievous or even malevolent and
the result
might be
catastrophic." (Parkes,
p. 33).
David's
common praise
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.
Heylel
(h1966) hay-lale'; from 1984 (in the sense of
brightness); the
morning-star: - lucifer.
The
kings were chosen to
lead the nation into captivity and destruction!
John
Chrysostom:
"I
have often seen
a man (actor)-- and have been amazed
to see, and the amazement
has ended
in
contempt, to
think how
he is one
thing
internally,
but
outwardly counterfeits what he is not--
giving
himself excessive
airs
of daintiness and indulging in all
sorts of effeminacy;
somethines darting
his
eyes about;
sometimes
throwing his
hands hither and thither,
and raving with his face smeared
with mud (sweat, spit and
dust); sometimes personating Aphrodite (female), sometimes Apollo (male);
a solitary accuser of all the gods, an epitome of
superstition, a vituperator of heroic
deeds, an actor
of murders, a chronicler of adultery,
a storehouse of madness, a teacher of cynaedi,
an instigator of
capital sentences;-- and yet such a man is praised by all. But I have rejected
all his
falsehoods, his impiety, his practices,--in short, the man altogether.
But you are led
captive
by such
men,
while you
revile those
who do not take a part in your pursuits.
But
whereunto shall I liken
this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the
markets, and
calling unto their fellows, Mt 11:16
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
I
have no mind to stand agape
at a number of singers, nor do I desire to be affected in sympathy with
a
man when he is winking and gesticulating in an unnatural manner."...
"Why
should I
admire the mythic
piper...
We leave you
to these worthless things;
and do you believe our doctrines, or, like us, give up
yours." (Tatian to the Greeks,
Ante-Nicene, Vol. II, p. 75).
And
so we repeat: what is being
adopted from the most ancient paganism is not a New Emerging
Church
of Christ. What you see is people with A Different God, A
Different
Christ, a Different Bible and therefore a DIFFERENT RELIGION.
Some
with minimal honesty take the name of Christ off their sign.
So
again these same
persons,
if
any admirable
musician
come amongst
them,
leave all that they had in hand, which often is necessary and pressing business,
and mount the steps (in the arena), and sit
listening very
attentively to the words
and the accompaniments, and criticising the agreement of the
two.
This
is what the many
do.
"Again;
those who are skilled
in
rhetoric
do just the
same with respect to the sophists,
for
they too have
their theaters, and their audience, and clappings of hands,
and noise,
and closest
criticism
of what is
said. (The
Levites made
NOISE, not music)
"And
if in the case of rhetoricians, musicians, and athletes, people sit in the one
case to look on, in the other
to see at once and to listen with such earnest attention;
what
zeal, what
earnestness ought
ye in reason to display,
Ezekiel
also prophesied that
the music and musicians of Tyre would be cast into sheol. It
is not
coincidental that forcing people to honor the theatrical
performers
rather than hearing God through His Word is often related to
breaking
down the
walls
to allow the
enemy to come in and, perhaps, pick up some of the financial
load.
Ezekiel said however, speaking for God, that:
They
will plunder your wealth and loot your merchandise; they
will break
down your walls and demolish your fine houses and throw
your stones, timber and rubble into the sea. Ezek 26:12
I
will put
an
end
to your noisy
songs, and the music of your harps will be heard no more.
Ezek 26:13
The
LXX is more forceful in
showing that both the music and the musicians would be
silenced--
"And
he shall destroy the multitude of thy musicians, and the sound
of thy psalteries shall be heard no more." Ezek. 26:13 LXX
then
I will bring
you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of long
ago. I will make you dwell in the earth
below,
as in ancient
ruins, with those who go down to the pit, and you will
not return or
take your place in the land of the living. Ezek 26:20
Also,
thou son of man, the
children of thy people still are talking against thee by
the walls
and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to
another, every one
to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what
is the word
that cometh forth from the Lord. Ezek 33:30
- And
they come unto thee as the people cometh,
- and
they sit before thee as my people,
- and
they hear thy words,
- but
they will not do them:
- for
with their mouth they shew much love,
- but
their heart goeth after their covetousness. Ezek 33:
31
And,
lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song
- of
one that hath a pleasant voice,
- and can play well on an
instrument:
- for
they hear thy words,
- but they do
them not. Ezek 33: 32
And
when this cometh to pass,
(lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet
hath been
among them. Ezek 33: 33
But
of Jesus:
when
it is no
musician
or debater
who now comes forward to a trial of skill,
Fred
Peatross: Clapping
or
raising
hands in
worship shouldn't be a major worship
issue. It is merely part of
permitting a free
and spontaneous response to the glory
and greatness
of
God.
One of the
important things about life in the body of Christ is
learning to
discern between the mountains and the molehills or between the majors
and the minors. This "hands"
business is clearly one of the molehills.
That
is true. They why should
people make it an issue, sow discord and expose the church to
ridicule? By taking the advantage of the "wormhole of
indecision" of
the PostModern mind, and by giving permission for somethint
which
will "turn off" most adults, one truly makes use of THE LAW OF
SILENCE.
Clapping
hands is a work of
human hands.
It is one
of the oldest forms of "instrumental" (weaponry) means to
arouse, as
in Voodoo, the paying audience through mind manipulation to
make them believe that what is suitable
for a football
game will do its magical work on God or, as Nimrod believed,
"make
spiritual changes through external means."
God
that made the
world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of
heaven and
earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Act 17:24
Neither
is
worshipped with mens hands, as though he needed
any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and
all things;
Ac.17:25
Hand
clapping
throughout the
Bible
and in
secular history is a primary way to show contempt. And "in church" when
we sing our own
songs with an anamilistic jungle beat we are attempting to
'triumph
over' Jesus.
You
can raise your hands in
helplessness or in "bowing" to the Word or Oracle of God but
when you
wave your hand around you are "massaging" your nerve endings
and when
you, as the Vineyard lady says along with most pagan
religions, reach
your climax with the spirit you are polluting or prostituting
worship
which occurs only "in spirit" which is in the human mand.
In
Justin's Dialog with Trypho the Jew he translates Amos:
Who applaud at the sound of the musical
instruments;
- they
reckon them as stable, and not as fleeting.
- Who
drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the
chief ointments,
- but
they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
-
- We
do know that Jesus read the Septuagint which reads:
-
- who excel in the sound of musical
instruments;
- they
have regarded them as abiding,
- not as fleeting
pleasure." Amos 6:5 LXX
The
Post Modern "Vision" in
Fred's Chapter 31 reads: "Without Vision the People
Perish."
However,
the old
"modern" version of vision read:
Where
there is no vision, the
people perish: but
he
that keepeth the law, happy
is
he.
Prov 29:18
We
are aware that some Post
Moderns claim to be 'prophets' or 13th Apostles. However,
the vision
God had in mind was from His Spirit:
Chazown
(g2377) khaw-zone'; from 2372; a sight (mentally), i. e. a
dream,
revelation, or oracle: - vision.
And
the Lord
answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. Hab. 2:2
Mischief
shall come upon
mischief, and rumour
shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall
perish from the priest, and
counsel from the ancients. Eze.7:26
What
Happens When The
Writing Prophets are Replaced with Human Vision.
The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they
did not expose your sin
to ward
off your
captivity.
The oracles they gave you were false and misleading. Lam 2:14
All
who pass your way clap
their
hands
at you; they scoff and shake their heads at the Daughter of
Jerusalem (Sodom Rev 11:8): "Is this the
city that was called the
perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?" Lam. 2:15
Arise,
cry out in the
night: in
the beginning
of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the
Lord:
lift up
thy hands toward him for
the life of thy young children,
that faint
for hunger in
the top of every street. Lam.2:19
Let
us lift up our heart
with our hands unto
God
in the heavens.
Lam.3:41
Behold,
therefore I am going to give
you to the
people of
the East
(see the nature of those who have captured
you) as
a possession. They will set
up their
camps
and pitch their
tents among you; they
will eat your fruit and drink your milk. Ezek 25:4
I
will turn Rabbah
into a pasture for camels and Ammon into a resting place
for sheep.
Then you will know that I am the LORD. Ezek 25:5
For
this is what the Sovereign
LORD says: Because
you have
clapped your
hands and stamped
your feet, rejoicing with all the malice of your heart
against the
land of Israel, Ezek 25:6
Therefore
I will stretch
out
mine
hand
upon
thee,
and will deliver
thee for a spoil to the heathen; and I will cut thee off from the people, and I
will cause thee
to perish
out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt
know that I
am the Lord. Eze. 25:7
This
is what the
Sovereign LORD says: 'Because Moab and Seir said, "Look, the house of Judah
has become like
all the other nations,"
Ezekiel 25:8
That
was the fulfillment of
the prophecy when Israel's elders "fired" God and wanted a
human king
to be like all ofher nations;
Fred
Peatross: In 1834, John
Rogers wrote a letter to Alexander Campbell expressing
his concern
that the people of the restoration churches had become
imbalanced. He
wrote, "Many of us in running away from the extreme of enthusiasm, have on the other
hand, passed the
temperate zone and gone far into the frozen regions.
There is, in too
many churches, a cold-hearted, lifeless formality that
freezes the
energies."
Well,
Fred, here is the
whole story:
"Fires were then built in the
middle of these
scaffolds of dry wood, and thus a good light was afforded to
the
whole congregation. The stand was furnished with candles. I highly enjoyed the
meeting. It was a great
pleasure to me to hear the other men, and leaders in the worship,
sing and
pray,
and preach
the
Word,
and also to sit
at their feet in the private circle and hear them converse about
the things of
God
- the interests of
the cause in which we were engaged. On Sunday night Bro.
Watson
Clarke and I were appointed to deliver our trial speeches before the conference
and the large
audience present. Bro. Clarke was to be the preacher and I the exhorter.
It
was a great
trial to me to speak upon any occasion, but doubly so to
speak before
such an assembly of preachers, several of them men of age,
ability
and learning. Bro. Clarke preached without, as I thought,
much
embarrassment. I sat behind him trembling with fear. He
closed, and
with my heart fluttering with agitation I arose and
commenced my
exhortation.
Very
few present
had ever heard me. I have no recollection of what I
said, as I had
nothing specially
prepared.
I was young,
beardless, ignorant, but
my heart was full of the great theme of redemption.
So
it was, I had not spoken
long till the whole
camp
was ablaze of feeling. The first thing I knew David
Purviance
and David
Wallace
were dancing
behind me in the
stand,
shouting at the top of their voices.
And in a few minutes the entire area before the stand
was filled with men and women dancing
and shouting.
The
result was I was
silenced and gave place to the preachers and people
to carry on the meeting as seemed good to them. I had not
attempted
to preach, but I received license at that conference to
exercise my
talents in "such way as God may direct."
Does
any say, "This was all
very disgusting and there could have
been no piety there?" This is
very hasty and ill-judged.
The
times and views
of the people then were very different from what they are now.
We
have more
light
on some important
practical subjects than they had, but I doubt if we have
as much
piety or spirituality. If they were upon the extreme of enthusiasm, we are on the extreme
of cold
formality.
Describing
music at Cane
Ridge, Conkin notes that: (For the Book)
"Sinners
dropping
down on every hand, shrieking, groaning, crying for
mercy, convoluted; professors
of religion praying, agonizing, fainting, falling down in
distress,
for sinners, or in raptures of joy!
Some
singing,
some shouting, clapping their
hands, hugging and even kissing, laughing; others talking to the distressed, to one another, or to
opposers of the
work, and all
this at
once--no
spectacle can
recite a stronger sensation.
And
with what is doing, the darkness
of the
night,
the solemnity of
the place, and of the occasion, and conscious guilt, all
conspire to make
terror
thrill
through every
power of the soul, and rouse it to awful attention." (Letter quoted by
Conkin, Cane Ridge, p.
93-94).
"Soon
the sheer confusion
practically subverted
the
outdoor preaching.
Small
groups joined
in prayer or in loud
hymn singing, with
singing the most enjoyable group activity and the one that often most
affected
an audience... More conventional shouts and groans
joined with a near
babble of speech, some incoherent, some later
distinguished as holy laughter or singing." (Conkin, p. 94).
The
theme of music and
charismatic ecstasy (out of the mind) is consistent
throughout
history and the Bible: the theme of redemption gives way to
attempting to worship God with the practices of the dance
hall.
Fred
Peatross: Even
Campbell, who championed a rational approach to
Christianity, raised
similar concerns on several occasions. "Christianity
certainly is an
intellectual matter," he wrote in 1837,
"but
religion dwelling in the
heart,
rooted in the feelings and
affections, is living,
active, and a real existenceÉ.This is Christianity all
the rest is
machinery."
This would NOT lead Campbell
to fall under a
witchcraft (or Devil Worship) ritual. NO FEELINGS ARE HIGHER
than
those aroused by "A holy spirit" created by devotion to the
WORDS of
THE Infinite God of the universe.
Religion to Campbell is not
what we know of
today. Campbell would have identified it by his scholarship as
the
most ancient form of superstitious paganism.
See
Hand
Clapping and Brain Washing.
Alexander
Campbell--and All Restoration
Movement Churches
"The machinery of modern revivals is not divine, but
human. It is certainly divisive. They are undoubtedly deceived who repose
the slightest
confidence
in it.
The spirit of
the crusades is in it--the spirit of fanaticism is in it--the spirit of delusion is in it. The Spirit of
God is not in it, else he was not
in the Apostles;
for
he taught
them no such schemes--no such means of catching men.
This
is a bait which was never put by
Christ's fishermen on the evangelical
hook." (Alexander Campbell,
quoted by Randall,
p. 373)
"But
in the rage of
sectarian proselytism,
'the Holy Ghost' is an admirable contrivance. Every qualm of
conscience, every new motion of the
heart, every strange
feelings or
thrill--all doubts, fears,
despondencies,
horrors, remorse, etc., are the work of this Holy Ghost. "
(Millennial Harbinger 1831:212).
"Simply
that it was a peculiar
form of nervous
disease,
that was both epidemic and contagious...
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."
(Pendelton
quoted by Randall, p. 373).
"They (disorders) cannot
come from God,
for he is not the author of confusion.
The apology
made in
Corinth for
the
disorders, which Paul condemned, was precisely the same as
that urged
in defense of these bodily agitations.
We ought
not to resist the spirit of God,
said the Corinthians; and so said all those
who encouraged
these
convulsions.
Paul's
answer is that no
influence comes from God which destroys our self-control. 'The spirits of the
prophets are subject to the
prophets.'
"The
prophets of God were not
like the raving
Pythoness
of heathen
temples, (From Apollo's Oracle. He is Abaddon
or
Apollyon the
"locusts" are the resurrected MUSES or musical
performers in
Revelation 18)
nor
are the saints of God
converted
into whirling
dervishes
by an
influence which
is the
author.
There
can be little
doubt that Paul would have severely reprobated such scenes as
frequently occurred during the
revival of which we are speaking.
Paul
used the word
"mad."
"He
would have said to the
people substantially what he said to the Corinthians. If
any
unbeliever or ignorant man come to your assemblies and
hears one shouting
in
ecstasy,
and another howling
in
anguish;
if he sees
some falling, some jumping, some lying in convulsions,
others in
trances, will
he not say
ye are mad?"
(Hodge,
History Presbyterian Church quoted in Barton W. Stones'
Biography, p.
368, 369)
Fred
Peatross: John Rogers' and
Alexander Campbell's concern is as significant today as
it was in the
nineteenth century. Consequently, I've decided I'm going
to oil my
machinery before we assemble next
Lord's Day and give my
emotions the permission and freedom to emerge
from the closet
they've been closed up in.
Go to it fred, but
remember that Campbell
said that the charismatic revivalism was the "well oiled machinery is
divisive,
deceptive and fanatical."
"The machinery
of modern
revivals is
not divine,
but human. It is certainly divisive. They are undoubtedly deceived who repose
the slightest
confidence
in it.
The spirit of
the crusades is in it--the spirit of fanaticism is in it--the spirit of delusion is in it.
Jesus
said, leave your
prayers in the closet! That is good enough for me.
Fred
Peatross: Watch for me. I'll be the one with
hands raised
high, as I exalt the God of the universe. Will you join
me?
I
will be the one flat on my
face in front of a Holy Spirit God Who isn't worshiped with
the
product of man's hands,
does not judge by
what he sees or by what He hears (Isaial 11:1-4) and Who would
acknowledge the "rising up" with hand clapping as a show of
contempt
for His holiness. If you don't bow now, you will bow later!
Not above the waist (unless
you are a high
priest.) A stand up commedian noted how hard it was to keep
from
being identified as gay by raising his hands above his
shoulders.
Alan
Morrison writes:
"A
devastating ecclesiastical crisis has been unfolding
during the last
three decades in the realm of worship. One can hardly fail to
notice that there has been
something of a 'revolution' in church worship during this
time.
Central to this upheaval has been a bumper-sized bandwagon
of new
songs -- and one is either travelling on this bandwagon or
not.
To
be off
it is to be left out
in the cold.
Moreover, to resist this bandwagon will inevitably bring
accusations
of "not keeping up with the times",
of
"resisting
the move of the
Spirit" of
"hampering
the process of inevitable revival", etc.
"So
many of the New
Style of
Worship
songs trivialise the high truths of
salvation. Many are in a style
which is simply not suited to the holy spirituality which is due to our
God. Moreover, due to their pietistic, subjectivist roots, many of today's
songs
are
highly self-centred in their expression,
and they pursue an almost obsessive musical celebration of "Me and My Wonderful
Feelings" rather than the Lord
and His amazing works.
"Moreover,
many of the New
Style
of
Worship
songs appear to
have been designed to put a congregation
into a state of blissful
ecstasy --
especially
if sung repetitively, as they most often are.
This induces a pre-hypnotic 'Alpha-wave' brain-state
condition,
in
which people are more easily
susceptible to the expectations and the powerful suggestions of influential leaders. These are ideas which
we will be developing.
"In
fact, many of the songs of
today are pursuing
an
agenda which
is not
immediately apparent to the casual observer --
that
is, until you
know the 'buzz' words and phrases. Dynamic triggers such
as "I'm
building a
people of power" --
a
reference to the triumphalist,
pseudo-miracle-working, 'Kingdom-Now' Dominionism which is so prevalent
among the New Style of Worship songwriters --
are
like
rallying-calls to those suggestible enough to receive them. [Lucian
called them "fat heads and
simpletons]
Or
what about the line "My
feet start dancing,
my hands rise up"? The
agenda is clear enough here.
When repeated often
enough
over a period of
time, these ideas begin to exert a real sway over the singer.
"None
of this has happened in a
vacuum but is surely part of a major downgrade or even part of a much wider apostasy of mind-blowing proportions.
Yet,
because of the
stealth-like
manner in
which this is
being executed, comparatively few professing Christians
are aware of
the seriousness of the issue.
So,
if you see this emerging
in your church of Christ, Baptist, etc., know that it is
restoration
of the Apollo (Abaddon, Apollyon) end-time Babylon
Harlot:
Lucifer.
And
there came
out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them
was given
power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Revelation 9:3
And
they had a
king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless
pit, whose name
in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek
tongue hath his
name Apollyon. Revelation 9:11
He
is the king of the Seeker
Center at DELPHI. He is the father of harmony, music,
twanging
arrows: He is the DESTROYER emerging with his locusts to
EAT UP ALL
OF YOUR CROPS!
And
the Voodoo
Connection:
By
1810 the slave
trade to the
United States had officially ended and the slave
population began to increase naturally, making way for the
preservation and transmission
of
religious
practices
that were, by this time, truly "African-American."
This
transition coincided with
the period of intense religious revivalism known as "awakenings." In the southern
states, where the institution of
slavery still prevailed,
increasing
numbers
of slaves converted to evangelical religions such as the Methodist
and Baptist
faiths.
Many
clergy within these
denominations actively promoted the idea that all
Christians were
equal in the sight of God, a message that provided hope
and
sustenance to the slaves.
They
also encouraged worship in ways that
many Africans found to be similar, or
at least adaptable, to
African worship patterns, with enthusiastic singing, clapping, dancing, and even spirit-possession.
In
the slave quarters, however,
African Americans organized their own "invisible institution." Through signals, passwords, and messages not
discernible to whites, they called
believers to "hush harbors" where they freely mixed African rhythms, singing, and beliefs with evangelical Christianity.
It
was here that
the spirituals, with their double meanings of religious salvation
and freedom
from slavery, developed and flourished; and here,
too, that black preachers, those who believed that God had
called
them to speak his Word, polished their "chanted
sermons,"
or rhythmic intoned style of
extemporaneous preaching. Part
church, part psychological
refuge,
and part organizing
point for occasional acts of outright
rebellion
(Nat Turner,
whose armed insurrection in Virginia in 1831 resulted in
the deaths
of scores of white men, women, and children, was a
self-styled
Baptist preacher), these meetings provided one of the few
ways for
enslaved African Americans to express and enact their
hopes for a
better future.
Click
Here
For Article.
Rodney
Howard-Browne
himself has stated that he doesn't care if the devil is
present at the meetings. He comments:
"You can't have revival
without stirring
up
the flesh....When
revival comes you will see manifestations of
these three things in
meetings: (1)
the Holy Spirit; (2) the
flesh, and (3) the devil. But, I'd rather be in a church where the
devil and the
flesh are manifesting than in a church where nothing is
happening
because people are too
afraid to
manifest
anything...Don't worry about
it. And
if a devil
manifests, don't worry
about that, either.
Rejoice, because at
least something is
happening!" [Rodney
Howard-Browne, "The Coming Revival" (1991), page 6]
Kenneth
Sublett,
Reviewer. Just
thought that there is one who knows the agenda. We will look
at some
more of Fred's pixels as follow up.
Fred Peatross:
Clapping and Raising
hands.
Fred
Peatross: The Church as Spectacle
Fred
Peatross:
Was Jesus a pary kind of guy who
manufactured and dispensed alcoholic wine. So said the
Adversaries of
Jesus.
Escaping
God's
Grace into Legalism: the Musical
Burden
Christ
Died
To Give us Rest
Hand
Clapping
to Replace the Amen: Rubel
Shelly
Heredotus
and Hand Clapping: Background to Mount
Sinai
Musical
Worship Index
Home
page
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