Ex-Church of Christ: Instrumental music was commanded by God in the Temple.
See our page on the synagogue.
Ex-Church of Christ Example of Church of Christ View on Instrumental Music
Because the Law, Monarchy, king, sacrificial system, and Sabazianism using exorcism sounds was imposed as a curse, then if religionists want to command instruments so urgently that they deliberately sow massive discord then they are repeating the musical idolatry for which God abandoned them to worship the starry host.This was so obviously like the nations or Gentiles that it followed the patternism of even the vilest pagan temple that no singer or musician could come close to the holy places which was reserved for the gods. In the plague stopping contract with God, no singer or player could enter or come near the holy places--even to clean out the garbage--without being executed.And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 1 Samuel 8:7
According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. 1 Samuel 8:8
This commanded text speaks of Hezekiah's Reform when the Temple was defiled. Like all of the animal slaughters where the MILITARY Levites sounded during of the burning of the goats for Israel which was absent, it is clearly identified as exorcism. Furthermore, the Spirit OF Christ speaks through the prophets to identify the sacrificial system as destructive and the king and priests were parasites. This Plague Stopping sacrifice did not entice the nation of Israel to restore fellowship with Judah where Solomon put them into slave labor and fueled a civil war. "Civil wear" in churches normally happens when the elders displace the Word of God so that loud sounds--never called music--is to mark or warn others to flee from the slave labor driven by "tote that barge, lift that bale" tempo."As citizens of the state, the people of Israel owed allegiance to a king who could take a census, exact forced labor, and require submission to his power... As Israel became a state modeled after other oriental monarchies, more and more she lost her distinctive character and faced the danger of being swallowed up in the power struggle and cultural stream of the Near East." (Bernard Anderson, p. 188).
Ex-Church of Christ: But when the Babylonian captivity came along the Jews did not have access to the Temple for 70 years.
Only the clergy and the warrior Levites had access to the Temple. It was not a place of worship but a burden to remind the national leadership of the curse they had infilcted by firing God and demanding a king "like the Gentiles" so that they could worship like the Gentiles. God imposed this curse to be continued or the captivity and death sentenced would be carried out.
Tyre was exiled just like Judah. After their return:
Isa . 23:15 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years,Judah was cured of Idolatry and the pitiful temple fell into disuse shortly after the Jews returned from Captivity. Tyre was not and returned to ritual music and prostitute to supply money for the temple just like the one in Jerusalem.
according to the days of one king:
after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
Here is the song of the harlot:
Is. 23:16 Take an harp, go about the city,
thou harlot that hast been forgotten;
make sweet melody, sing many songs,
that thou mayest be remembered.
Only the Military-Priestly complex ever did national sacrifices AT and never IN the temple. Common people attended synagogue where music was outlawed.
THE BURDEN OF SACRIFICES QUARANTINED TO JERUSALM WAS A CURSE TO BE PAID LEGALLY
Perhaps people would not be so judgmental if they had read the story line: it was because of musical idolatry at Mount sinai that God "turned them over to worship the starry host" (Acts 7). Stephen comfirms the view that Amos was condeming the use of instruments in their temple with singing while David was the king and used the instruments in mortal warfare. As a result of musical idoaltry at Mount Sinai, the Levites were set aside to bear the burden but never said to have worshipped:
Num 18:4 And they shall be joined unto thee,
and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation,
for all the service [hard, legalistic bondage] of the tabernacle:
and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you.The sacrificial system was NEVER the spiritual worship but part of the WRATH DISPELLING curse imposed because of Musical idolatry.
Num 18:5 And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar:
that there be no WRATH any more upon the children of Israel.THE TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM WAS NOT A PLACE OF WORSHIP BUT WRATH EXORCISM
1 Chr 25:1 David, together with the commanders of the army, set apart some of the sons of Asaph,
Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying,
accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals.
Here is the list of the men who performed this service: [hard bondage]
Payne insists that the Hebrew of 1 Chronicles 25:1 unambiguously identifies these leaders as military commanders, an interpretation favoured by several Bible translations. (Payne, p 423-4; NASB, NIV, NKJV, NRSV, Jerusalem Bible) If military commanders had a particular interest in the appointment of musicians, it suggests a strong link between music and warfareBecause the prophesiers were under the KING and COMMANDERS OF THE ARMY minimial education lets you see that they made WAR and not SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.
Why should this be incredible since God abandoned them to worship the starry host"The Hithpa'el of nb', in the ancient texts, refers to ecstasy and delirium rather than to the emission of a 'prophecy'." (de Vaux, Roland, The Bible and the Ancient Near East, p. 243 Doubleday
"Maniac inspirations, the violent possession which threw sibyls and priestesses into contortions--the foaming lip and streaming hair and glazed or glaring eyes-- have no place in the self-controlling dignity of Christian inspiration. Even Jewish prophets, in the paroxysm of emotion, might lie naked on the ground and rave (1 Sam. xix. 24); but the genuine inspiration in Christian ages never obliterates the self-consciousness or overpowers the reason. It abhors the hysteria and stimulation and frenzy which have sometimes disgraced revivalism and filled lunatic asylums." (Pulpit Commentary, 1 Cor., p. 460).
"In an inscription from Cyprus, in one from Rhodes and in several from around the district of Carthage, there are references to important personages who bear the title Mqm'lm which we can translate as AROUSERS of the god.'" (de Vaux, Roland, The Bible and the Ancient Near East, Doubleday, p. 247).
The mourning ritual connected with Astarte in KAI 37 and elsewhere, and the tradition of "raising the god" (mqm 'lm), identified as Astarte's bridegroom in KAI 44:2, in Phoenician epigraphs (c.f. the Eqron epigraph, lmqm, in the seventh c., where other indications of Phoenician influence are present), suggest the importance of the cycle through the underworld in this cult
Peckham, J. B. 1987 Phoenicia and the Religion of Israel: The Epigraphic Evidence. Pp. 79-99 in Ancient Israelite Religion. Essays in Honor of Frank Moore Cross, ed. P. D. Miller, P. D. Hanson and S. D. McBride.Philadelphia: Fortress.
"We even have a mention at a later date of a similar custom in connection with the cult in Jerusalem, where certain Levites, called me'oreim, 'AROUSERS,' sang (every morning?) this verse from "Ps 44:23: "Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever." The Talmud tells us that John Hyrcanus suppressed the practice because it recalled too readily a pagan custom." (Roland de Vaux, p. 247).
THE TEMPLE LIKE ALL NATIONAL OR GENTILE TEMPLES: THE KING'S SHRINE
Because God had abandoned Israel and turned them over to paganism, animal sacrifices were IMPOSED as a huge burden of slavery and parasitism (says Nehemiah). If they did not keep their nose to the grindstone and took their rituals outside of this quarantined zone, God's wrath would fall on them.
The huge altar of burnt-offering would then pertain to Yhwh, the main object of meat sacrifices. It may be that the larger stela in fact represents the presence of Yhwh himself,
........... and that the smaller represents that of the baals:
........... the ashtorets seem to have had poles or trees as their icons, rather than stones.In any event, Hezekiah certainly left the temple standing as a functional structure, and probably even built it. This is consonant with the general character of Hezekiah's reform:
........... it was his strategy to abandon the countryside to the Assyrians,
........... and concentrate the rural population inside fortresses
........... to protract the campaign in the hope of Egyptian or other intervention(the Egyptian intervention did, as it happens, prove decisive).
As a corollary of this strategy, state shrines had to be renewed in the fortresses, and the population and priesthoods had to be registered (see Halpern 1991 for the reconstruction of the reform in its strategic valence). It is improbable, however, that Hezekiah left the priesthoods at Arad intact or enrolled additional rural priests there,
as part of his centralization of the population to state fortresses, without some provision for cultic activity.
Yet it is incontrovertible that cultic activity at Arad -- inside the fortress itself, which was closely linked to Jerusalem -- survived Hezekiah's period. It follows that at least incense burning, and possibly even animal sacrifice, continued at least until Josiah's day." Bruce Halpern
WRATH CREATED BY AHAZ 2 CHRONICLES 28
For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the Lord, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of Assyria: but he helped him not. 2 Chron 28:21
And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord: this is that king Ahaz. 2 Chron 28:22
For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel. 2 Chron 28:23
(Judah was imitating the practices of Israel so that the entire nation of Israel was consumed with idolatry)
And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem. 2 Chron 28:24
And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the Lord God of his fathers. 2 Chron 28:25
And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem. 2 Chron 28:24
And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the Lord God of his fathers. 2 Chron 28:25
CLICK FOR THE WHOLE HEZEKIAH REFORM TO STOP THE WRATH
When Hezekiah began to reign,
THEREFORE HEZEKIAH'S REFORE WAS TO STOP A PLAGUE2Chr. 29:6 For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs.
2Chr. 29:7 Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel.
2Chr. 29:8 Wherefore the WRATH of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.
2Chr. 29:9 For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.
2Chr. 29:10 Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that his fierce WRATH may turn away from us.
A modern church apparently feeling the wrath of God because of leaving the Word and turning to music, has again subconsioulsy or unconsiously appealed to Hezekiah's plague stopping ritual to appeas God's. They appeal to the Levitical warrior musicians to purge the "temple" and sure enough more than one third of the owners are sacrifices using the same exorcism "music".Arnobius Against the Heathen 1
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."Former ceremonies are exposed to derision, and the time - honoured rites of institutions once sacred have sunk before the superstitions of new religions. Justly is the human race afflicted by so many pressing calamities, justly is it racked by the hardships of so many toils. 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.
Mark Henderson: The instrumental music issue is just one piece of a larger picture that has been coming together for leadership over the past several months.
As we faced the reality of a gradually declining membership and sharply declining conversion statistics, our response was to say, “The status quo is unacceptable.We don’t know exactly what the future holds, but we do know that we will not keep doing what we have been doing and just hope for different results.”
Ex-Church of Christ: So they established the synagogue system. The Pharisees became powerful about 200 years before Christ. Since Jehovah-God had punished the Jews for worshiping idols by having them taken captive into Babylon (500 years before Christ), the Pharisees decided to be as safe and strict as possible in order not to be punished as a people by God again.
Hezekiah spoke of the Return and he was not a Pharisee. After the Wall Dedication procession of musical choirs the singers went back to their farms so they could have a living. The NOISE aroused the locals and they made sure that the temple work ceased for 16 years. Hezekiah tells the truth about the King, Priests and the sacrificial system: they had been thieves and Pharisees. The temple quickly disappears from view until the singers, musicians and sodomites were used as The Abomination of Desolation.
Behold, we are servants this day, [and so are you]
and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof,
behold, we are servants in it: Neh 9:36And it yieldeth
much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us
because of our sins:
also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle,
at their pleasure,
and we are in great distress. Neh 9:37They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns:
they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit:
and they shall be ashamed of your revenues
because of the fierce anger of the Lord. Je.12:13
With all due respect to the scholars, when you look up the word "synagogue" you come up almost empty handed. However, the most common word Jews still use is the Hebrew Qahal. After the musical fall into idolatry, the common people could not come near the Tabnacle and neither could the Levitfes come near any holy things: there were no instruments in the Tabernacle and this was PATTERNED after heaven and the pattern for the Tabernacle to which Jesus the Christ took His blood.
The Holy Convocation was to Rest, Read and Rehearse the Word of God: it was always on the first and seventh days of festivals and came to be on every Sabbath. God excluded vocal and instrumental rejoicing because you cannot conduct school of the Bible with loud noise. Click to see our history of the synagogue which this source did not see. The focus even when Jesus exampled it was totally devoted to READING the text and discussing it: Just what Paul commanded Timothy to do and what all churches did before singing was added as an ACT in 373. The Bible is NOT metrical and you cannot sing it musically or tunefully. Melody as tunefulness belongs to the 19th century.
The Temple system had been dead for four hundred years until it was used for musical worship as the Abomination of Desolation. This caused most Israelites to leave Jerusalem rather than becoming temple prostitutes with singing and sex right in the Holy Places.DICKINSON "While the Greek and Roman songs were metrical,
the Christian psalms were anitphons, prayers, responses, etc., were unmetrical;
and while the pagan melodies were always sung to an instrumental accompaniment, the church chant was exclusively vocal" (Edward Dickinson, History of Music, p. 54)
"The chant of ancient Hebrews was rhythmical, but probably free of fixed meter. Perhaps the only exceptions were the dancing songs of women, usually accompanied by percussion instruments." (Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, p. 466).
JESUS IDENTIFED THE PHARISEES BY POINTING TO SPEAKERS, SINGERS AND INSTRUMENT PLAYERS.
Matt 15:7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
Hypokrites (g5273) hoop-ok-ree-tace'; from 5271; an actor under an assumed character (stage-player), i.e. (fig.) a dissembler ("hypocrite"): - hypocrite.
Hupokrinô reply, make answer, of an oracle, 2. expound, interpret, explain [Peter outlawed this as private interpretation.] 2. deliver a speech, declaim, of orators and rhetoricians, represent dramatically,
Similar Words:
LATIN: canto I. Neutr., to produce melodious sounds (by the voice or an instrument), to sound, sing, play (class. in prose and poetry; to sing and play while the actor accompanies the song with gestures or dancing, C. Transf., of instruments, to sound, resound: 2. Of the singing pronunciation of an orator, to declaim in a singing tone, to sing, preach to deaf ears.
Erôtikôn dramatôn 3. of an orator, use histrionic arts, exaggerate, ape, mimic, Mania or religious frenzy.
Rhêtor-ikos , ê, on, oratorical, hê rhêtorikê (sc. technê). These are the craftsmen lumped with the singers, musicians and "grinder" doing merchandise in the house of prayer. Rev. 18:22This points to the mouth religion in Isaiah which is repeated in Ezekiel. I have arranged the three passages to prove that Jeus identified the Pharisees with the slick speakers, singers and musicians which marked their low morality.
Isaiah 29
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. Eze 33:30
- This people draweth nigh unto me
- with their mouth,
- and honoreth me with their lips;
- but their heart is far from me. Matt 15:8
Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. Is. 29:9
For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep,
and hath closed your eyes:
the prophets and your rulers,
the seers hath he covered. Isa 29:10
Luke 16:14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.
And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:Matt 15:10 And the vision of all is become unto you
as the words of a book that is sealed,
which men deliver to one that is learned, saying,
Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: Isa 29:11
And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying,
Read this, I pray thee:
and he saith, I am not learned. Isa 29:12
for they hear your words but do not put them into practice. Ez 33:32
Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? Matt 15:12
- But he answered and said, Every plant [doctrine], which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Matt 15:13
Wherefore the Lord said,
Forasmuch as this people draw near me
with their mouth,
and with their lips do honour me,
When all this comes true--and it surely will--then they will know that a prophet has been among them." Eze 33:33
- Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind.
- And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. [pit] Matt 15:14
Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols:the worm is spread under thee, and the maggots cover thee. Isaiah 14:11
Isaiah 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
but have removed their heart far from me,
and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Isa 29:13
Matt. 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men
Ex-Church of Christ: The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music states that the tradition of a capella singing originated with the Pharisees. The Pharisees thought that anyone who played an instrument would be breaking the Sabbath ban against work by tuning or carrying their instruments. So synagogue worship was limited to a capella singing.
Well, we doubt that since a capella singing was a simple form of melody of the castrated choir singers in French Opera. A pope brought them back to replace the falsettos used in the Sistine Chapel where the use of instruments was unlawful.
See our paper on A cappella (the goat skin chapel)
The singers and later Warrior Instrument players were LEVITES and it was unlawful for anyone else to use an instrument in or around the temple: they would be executed. The synagogue had outlawed instruments for the "church in the Wilderness" as "vocal and instrumental rejoicing." The Pharisees could not come near the Holy places and therefore could never have played instruments in the Temple or Synagogue. Jesus speaks of the musicians who swarmed around the city of Jerusalem John called Socom. Both male and female singers and prostitutes gathered around all sacrificial system. Jesus consigned the pipers, singers and dancers to the marketplace. He cast out the musical minstrels like dung. "There was no praise service in the synagogue at any time from the wilderness onward." If they used the Psalms they READ or cantillated them. This is not tuneful and the Psalms are not metrical and cannot be sung without rewriting them. this did not happen until the time of John Calvin.A change in the Roman (schola cantorum) came about as a result of the Avignonese papacy or Babylonian Captivity as Luther called it. Whilst living in France the popes engaged French musicians who employed the (ars nova) or new polyphonic style. Pope Gregory XI (1370-1378), born Pierre Roger de Beaufort, bore a blue bend within a border of six red roses on a silver field.
When he ended the Babylonian Captivity by returning the papacy to Rome in 1377, he merged his group of French musicians with the (schola cantorum) which had remained in Rome.
"As a result thereafter the papal singers, called the (collegio dei cappellani cantori della cappella pontificia), now expanded their repertoire to include polyphony as well as plainchant. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries proved a remarkable period in the choir's history:
Ex-Church of Christ: Since there was only a capella singing in the synagogue, it makes sense that early Jewish converts would sing a capella, because of those same issues of conscience that would limit them from eating unclean meats. Others have theorized that synagogue worship contained no music at all and focused entirely on praying, reading and teaching, and only later included chanting of the Psalms. See I Tim. 4:13
There was NO SINGING: the Bible is not metrical and you cannot sing it a capella which includes harmony which did not begin to develop until after the year 1200. Click to see that there was no praise service and that the people DID NOT attend animal sacrifices.
Ex-Church of Christ: The Roman Catholic Church sang in unison until it accepted two part and four part harmony in the Middle Ages. The use of instruments in worship was introduced about 1000 A.D. probably by a pope who had been an organ maker. The use of musical instruments in churches was hotly debated, the Eastern Orthodox Church rejecting it.
The Catholics introduced the clergy precentor because the laity were not fit to sing as an act of worship. When the organ was added NOT by the priests, the organ did preludes, intercessiona and recessionals. it set the TUNE for the single clergy singer.Jerome (342-420 A.D.), in remarking upon Eph. 5:19, says: "May all hear it whose business it is to sing in the church. Not with the voice, but with the heart, we sing praises to God. Not like the comedians should they raise their sweet and liquid notes to entertain the assembly with theatrical songs and melodies in the church, but the fire of godly piety and the knowledge of the Scriptures should inspire our songs...
Ex-Church of Christ: Among the Reformationists, Martin Luther accepted instruments of music. During the Reformation, clear divisions began to emerge. Some groups influenced by Martin Luther retained the instruments.Martin accepted singing and instruments but NOT in the churches!"In some of the Reformed churches these musical instruments are retained, but they are not played until the congregation is dismissed, all the parts of divine worship being finished. And they are then used for a political [civil] purpose, to gratify those who seek pleasure from sound and harmony." (Giradeau, quoting Zepperus, p. 171).
See how Luther explains Romans 15 devoid of music to solve the DIVERSITY problems of Romans 14.
by 1501: "By re-introducing public worship, the reformers displaced virtually overnight a thousand years of high church ritual. The Reformation fathers condemned the Gregorian Chant for some very telling reasons, revealing along the way their own evolving concepts of music.
They objected to the distractions of elaborate vocal and instrumental music, the dangers of overly theatrical performances, the unwarranted expense of elaborate ceremonies and enormous pipe organs and the uselessness of text unintelligible to the common man.
"Contrasting the high church's entrenched musical traditions was the simple and pragmatic approach of men like Martin Luther. One of Luther's stated goals was the restoration of true worship. He understood the tremendous benefit resulting from hearing the word of God and then uniting as a congregation to offer thanksgiving in song. This stress on congregational participation in worship became a lynchpin of the Reformation.
In 1523, Thomas Muntzer was the first to replace the clerical choir with congregational singing, using virtually the same music. He translated the text into the vernacular--a true beginning of of the restoration of biblical psalm singing among the people. Chuck From
That is because the Psalms COULD NOT be sung because they were not metrical. Therefore, you have to REwrite the Psalms to sing them.
Luther said:
It is not possible to administer grace by theatrical performance or by a musical instrument. Therefore, musical worship is not related to salvation. To add it in the midst of general -- if unspoken -- unrest is to become sectarian and law-based.
Luther would go beyond and say that:
"The organ in the worship Is the insignia of Baal" The Roman Catholic borrowed it from the Jews." (Martin Luther, Mcclintock & Strong's Encyclopedia Volume VI, page 762)
Ex-Church of Christ: Those influenced by John Calvin placed strict limits on music in worship. Still others, influenced by Ulrich Zwingli, disallowed music of any sort.... John Calvin restricted the songs to mostly the Psalms in the Bible, and only allowed unison singing, no four-part harmony.For instance, the distracted world attempts to serve God by setting apart houses, churches, cloisters; vestures, gold-trimmed, silk and [50] every other kind;
silver vessels and images; bells and organs, candles and lamps;
the money for which expense should have been appropriated to the poor if the object was to make an offering to God.Further, it keeps up a muttering and wailing in the churches day and night. But true praise and honor of God, a service that cannot be confined to place or person, is quietly ignored the world over.
The pretenses of priests and monks about their system of exercises being service to the Lord, are false and delusive.
See the real John Calvin on instrumental music.
It begins: Matthew 7:6. Give not that which is holy to the dogs, and do not throw down your pearls before swine, lest these trample them under their feet, and those turn and tear you.
Paul insisted that the worship be IN the spirit as opposed to IN the flesh. He said that was because outside there were the DOGS which encompassed Jesus. These were the homosexual Cynics who used an Old Style Praise singing to send a signal to their MATES. No doubt there is a lot of secret sharing during the singing, clapping and boy movemenit INDUCED by music.
Of the church in the wilderness which outlawed music Calvin wrote:
It is a matter of facts that most protestants restored congregational "singing" of the Psalms as directly commanded by Paul. Because the Psalms were not metrical they could not be sung in a tunful sense. Calvin allowed the Psalms to be REwritten to make singing possible. There is no way to sing the psalms tunefully or with harmony.But when the congregation is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm. Numbers 10:7
"For this office, to which they were appointed, was no servile one, as that they should blow the trumpets at the command of others; but rather did God thus set them over public affairs,
that the people might not tumultuously call their assemblies in the blindness and precipitation of passion, but rather that modesty, gravity, and moderation should be observed in them.
"We know how often in earthly affairs God is not regarded, but counsels are confidently discussed without reference to His word. He testified, therefore, by this employment of the priests,
that all assemblies, except those in which He should preside, were accursed.
"Profane nations also had their ceremonies, such as auguries, supplications, soothsayings, victims, because natural reason dictated that nothing could be engaged in successfully without Divine assistance;
Ex-Church of Christ: Ulrich Zwingli, the beginner of the Swiss Reformation, just two years after Martin Luther's 95 theses against indulgences, also opposed the sale of indulgences. Eventually he did not allow any musical instruments in the church although he could play many instruments himself. Zwingli believed the abuses of the instruments in the Roman Catholic Church obstructed the understanding of the word, and he wanted the focus of the assembly to be on the preaching of the word. However he encouraged lively singing. John Calvin, in the next generation of reformers, did not permit instruments of music either.
Zwingli understood Paul and history which proves that SINGING as an ACT began in the year 373. The Catholics did not do congregational SINGING ever, never. The Psalms and other chantes were performed by the clergy Precentor which is said to be the "first heresy largely pervading the church. The instruments were already IN the churches which became the property of the state. The Reformed worship was severely upset by performances before and after the worship time. With his help organs were removed from the churches which were not protestant.
Ex-Church of Christ: Baptists went back and forth on the topic, mostly opposing instrumental music on the basis of the fact that the Church of England used it.
Ex-Church of Christ: Today Primitive Baptists, some Presbyterian groups and the Churches of Christ still do not use instrumental music. Some of the Presbyterian and Reformed churches still do not allow any hymns except the Psalms. Some churches believe it is wrong to have musical notation, only including the words of the songs in the hymn book. Interestingly, there is a small Presbyterian group that uses the exact same logic as the hard-line Churches of Christ to ban instruments of music in worship. So the roots of using the silence of scripture to ban any other worship in the Churches of Christ goes back to the legacy of Alexander Campbell.Rememer that this is 1880 during the time the Ex people claim that the ignorant churches of Christ were inventing an ancient affected style just to be ODD. The final split with Baptists happened aftere 1900.
"Men still living can remember the time when organs were very seldom found outside the Church of England. The Methodist, Independents, and Baptists rarely had them and by the Presbyterians they were stoutly opposed. But since these bodies began to introduce organs, the adoption of them has been unchecked. Even the Presbyterians are giving away, and if we read the future by the past, we can hardly doubt that in a few years, unaccompanied singing will very seldom be heard. Yet, even in the church of England itself, organs did not obtain admission without much opposition." (John Spencer Curwen, Studies in Worship Music, p. 179, In 1880).
Note: in the first convocation of Queen Elizabeth in 1562, earnestly labored to have organs, and that pompous theatrical way of singing laid aside. [The Queen rejected because she, like David her presumed ancestor, used instruments to give glory to the kingdom]
The Church of England had never done "congregational singing with organ as accompaniment as had not the Catholics at any time of place. The Church of England officially voted to REMOVE the organs from the churches. It was Queen Elizabeth who rejected the CLEAR DECISION because the organ was needed for official ceremonies, and she was the head of the church.Spurgeon, Charles H., recognized as one of the greatest Baptist preachers that ever lived, who preached for 20 years to thousands of people weekly in the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle, London, England, did not have musical instruments in the worship. M.C. Kurfeest, Instrumental Music in the Worship, page 196.
Spurgeon, Commentary on Psalm 42
(Baptist, 1834-1892): David appears to have had a peculiarly tender remembrance of the singing of the pilgrims, and assuredly it is the most delightful part of worship and that which comes nearest to the adoration of heaven.
"Praise the Lord with the harp. Israel was at school, and used childish things to help her to learn; but in these days when Jesus gives us spiritual food, one can make melody without strings and pipes. We do not need them. They would hinder rather than help our praise. Sing unto him. This is the and best music. No instrument like the human voice.
What a degradation to supplant the intelligent song of the whole congregation by the theatrical prettiness of a quartet, bellows, and pipes. We might as well pray by machinery as praise by it. (Charles )
Charles Spurgeon Psalm 149 Ver. 3. Let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. They who from hence urge the use of music in religious worship, must, by the same rule, introduce dancing, for they went together, as in David's dancing before the ark (Jud 21:21). But whereas many Scriptures in the New Testament keep up singing as a gospel ordinance, none provide for the keeping up of music and dancing; the gospel canon for Psalmody is to "sing with the spirit and with the understanding." --Matthew Henry.
At the time of the American Restoration Movement none of the denominations ever used instruments from the time of the Reformation. Only the Church of England and the Methodists which gave rise to the Christian Church in the South East began to add instruments confessedly to raise more money.
It was when the Presbyterians made it the State religon in Scotland that they too added the organ. Even in Scotland, Ireland and England a sharp division resulted among ALL presbyterians. Most of the literature written against instruments were written by contemporaries of Alexander Campbell before he could even hallucinate that anyone would dare add an organ to a church--like a cowbell in a concert. So blaming the ANTI-instrumental position on Alexander Campbell is well beyond decent and orderly.
Partial History of Instrumental music in worship
Scholars who rejected Music
- Ambrose
- Arnobius
- Augustine (354-430)
- Psalm 149
- Aquinas, Thomas
- Vocal
- Basil the Great (c. 329-379)
- Beza, Theodore
- Boethius
- Calvin, John
- Campbell, Alexander
- Cardinal Cajetan
- Charles Spurgeon
- Chrysostom
- Clark, Adam Methodist
- Clement of Alexandria
- Post Flood musical idolatry
- Cotton Mather
- Cyprian
- Dabney, Presby.
- Edersheim
- Synagogue
- Erasmus
- Gaudentius
- Girardeau, John
- Green, William
- Gregory of Nyssa
- Gregory of Nazianzus
- Oraton 2
- Oration 5
- Guess, Jack, Baptist
- Hislop
- Hippolytus
- Ignatious defines unison to Ephesians c. 110ad
- Irenaeus
- ISLAM
- Jerome (c. 347-420)
- John Knox
- Josephus
- Justin Martyr
- Kerr
- Martin Luther
- McGarvey, J. W.
Milligan Churches which rejected or reject Music
- Mosheim
- Neander
- Niceta
- Pliny
- Robertson
- Smith, John
- Stone, Barton W.
- St. Ephraim
- Tennyson
- Tertullian
- Theodoret
- Zwingli
- and on and on....
- Apostolic Christian Church
- American Presbyterian Church
- Baptists prior to the 19th century
- Catholic church for 1250 years (The pope in 1906 outlawed most instruments)
- Church of God groups
- Church of Scotland
- Church of the Brethren
- Eastern Catholic Church
- Gospel Hall
- Irish Presbyterian Church
- Islam
- Jews (some do not even today)
- Mennonites
- Methodist Episcopal Church
- Old German Baptist Brethren
- Primitive Baptists still do not
- Quakers groups
- Reformed (Calvinistic) church of North America
- Restoration churches until the mid 1800's
- Serbian Eastern Orthodox
- The Established Church
- Some modern Baptist churches
- (Many other churches with denominational structures {Church of England etc.} made attempts to remove instruments from the worship services. Rejected by the queen).
Ex-Church of Christ: The Incarnation When Jesus came to earth, God in the flesh, He came as a Jewish man. He spoke, dressed, ate, worked and worshiped as a Jewish man. The people around him only had a problem with the way he described God the Father in heaven, how he rebuked them and how he confronted the way they had replaced heavy burdens for worshiping God.
To see that music IS the burden Jesus came to remove Click here.
In fact the gospel is really:
Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matt 11: 28
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matt 11: 29For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matt 11: 30
Jesus only calls the twos and threes to "come learn of men." We do that by still waters because sheep will not feed during the sounds of rushing waters. The BURDEN in fact is the exciting form of singing Jesus identified as hypocrisy and the REST means absolutely to STOP the singing and instruments;
A burden in Hebrew is:
Massa (h4853) mas-saw'; from 5375; a burden; spec. tribute, or (abstr.) porterage; fig. an utterance, chiefly a doom, espec. singing; mental, desire: - burden, carry away, prophecy, * they set, song, tribute.
THE burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. Isa 17:1
- Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. Zech 12:2
- And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. Zech 12:3
THE REST IS A HIGHLY DEDICATED WORD.The burden in Greek includes:
Phortizo (g5412) for-tid'-zo; to load up (as a vessel or animal), figurative: to overburden with ceremony or spiritual anxiety: - lade, be heavy laden. (Lots of "invoices")
- Phoros (g5411) for'-os; from 5342; a load (as borne,) i.e. (fig.) a tax (prop. an individ. assessment on persons or property; whereas 5056 is usually a gen. toll on goods or travel): - tribute.
A musical instrument is "a machine for doing hard labor mostly in making war and driving peoplel into a state of shock and awe in religious rituals."
Epôidos , on, epaidô
A. singing to or over, using songs or charms to heal wounds, epôidoi muthoi Pl.Lg.903b .
b. Subst., enchanter, but goês e. Ba.234): c. gen., a charm for or against,
c. c. dat., assisting, profitable,
2. Pass., sung to music, phônai
2. epôidos, ho, verse or passage returning at intervals, in Alcaics and Sapphics, D.H.Comp.19 ; chorus, burden,
Stop the: apo-pauô, A. stop or hinder from, make to cease fromSo, all known facts including modern medicaine say that musici id a BURDEN: it induces endorphins or a DRUGH HIGH with the effects of fight, flight or sexual feelings. Jesus said STOP IT.
Stop the: Erôt-aô Stop the questioning 2. in Dialectic, opp. demonstration, question an opponent in order to refute him from his answers,
Stop the: Logos: Stop the speaking III. explanation, 1. plea, pretext, ground b. plea, case, in Law or argument 2. statement of a theory, argument, c. in Logic, proposition, whether as premiss or conclusion, d. rule, principle, law, as embodying the result of logismos
Stop the: Aoide. 2. act of singing, song, 5. = eppsdê, spell, incantation,
Stop the: Burden laded.
Dangerous: Barus. 2. heavy to bear, grievous, burdensome, grievous, oppressive, orge. 1. of sound, strong, deep, bass
Ex-Church of Christ: Jesus told the Pharisees that when the father welcomed the Prodigal Son back home he threw a big party with music and dancing.
There was another parable for shepherds and preachers:
When you bring in all of the lost sheep and quit frightening them away with the "sounds of rushing wathers" then perhaps you can have a dance party.Lk 15:4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
Lk 15:5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
I told you that Jesus called the Pharisees Hypocrites by identifying speakers, singers and instrument players. Jesus is speaking of social life and NOT the assembly as a school of the Bible.
This is the ONLY use of the word MUSIC in the New Testament.
Luke 15:25 Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing.
This is not music in the sense of playing instruments: harmony is unison singing which is what Paul commanded when we use one mind and one mouth to speak that which is written in order to learn.g4858. sumphonia, soom-fo-nee´-ah; from 4859; unison of sound (“symphony”), i.e. a concert of instruments (harmonious note): accordant or in agreement -- music.This is what Paul commanded in Romans 15 but it is never called singing;
Rom. 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,Singing and playing instruments are never called making music. The Chorus is also where they move together as a circle of dancers. The singers are not using instruments. Choros II. choir, band of dancers and singers, h. Ven.118, Pi.N.5.23, Fr.199; sumphônia kai choroi Ev.Luc.15.25. Poetry, tragikos, kômikos
that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Rom. 15:5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you
to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
Rom. 15:6 That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God,
even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom. 15:7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.
Rom. 15:8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision
for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:
Rom. 15:9 And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written,
For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles,
and sing unto thy name.
III. place for dancing, en de ch. poikille, at Sparta the agora was called choros, also CreteHOWEVER WE DO NOT TREAT GOD TO A DANCE PARTY.
When Jesus identified the Jews as piping, singing and dancing he consigned them to the agora. The Agora was where all of the entertainment and meat stalls were. The PSALLO rope was polluted with red paint and other defilements and used to DRIVE the people from the marketplace TO the ekklesia. This was for vocal instruction only. This is the model of the church as the opposite of where you play like children.
On the other hand, a chorus with instruments is defined as worshiping Apollo or the Apollo in Revelation using the Muses John called sorcerers.
Pindar, Nemean 5: The most beautiful chorus of Muses sang gladly for the Aeacids on Mt. Pelion, and among them Apollo, sweeping the seven-tongued lyre with a golden plectrum,Jesus consignes the pipers, singers and dancers to the marketplace as he cast out the musical minstrels from his presence like dung. Jesus identified the Jews as forms of races: vipers, crooked, chidren or PLAYERS.[25][25] led all types of strains. And the Muses began with a prelude to Zeus,Luke 7:32 They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.Ex-Church of Christ: The apostle Paul said he haEx-Church of Christ: d become all things to all people. He did not want to put any stumbling blocks in the way of preaching the good news: that God had come to earth in the flesh and washed all our guilt away.3738. orcheomai, or-kheh´-om-ahee; middle voice from o¡rcoß orchos (a row or ring); to dance (from the ranklike or regular motion): — dance.
Orcheomai (g3738) or-kheh'-om-ahee; mid. from oårchoås , (a row or ring); to dance (from the ranklike or regular motion): - dance orchêst-ra , hê, orcheomai
A. orchestra, i.e. in the theatre the space on which the chorus danced,metaphor for making war polemou
2. part of the agora at Athens, This was for all of the games, publich speaking, poetry, marketplace, to trade,
He did become a singer, dancer, clapper or instrument player. He knew a crucified Christ and would dwell in a flee-infested house to be able to preach the gospel. He would work alongside a tentmaker to teach a tentmaker. He would live in poverty to teach the poor. These people are lusting to LUST with the lusters and that twists Scripture.
All things to all people.
What this paper wants to do is to drive out the owners to impose musical instruments to attract those who can be attracted by entertainment. Better to save your soul and go be a Baptists to teach the Baptists about baptism and music."Alfred Martin introduces this section of Scripture with extremely accurate insight when he says,
"This paragraph has been widely misunderstood and misapplied,
as though Paul were endorsing partaking of other men's sins in order to make a good impression on them.""It is a fact that many leaders of today's megachurch growth movement and many leaders of parachurch evangelistic organizations use this portion of Scripture to support their philosophy that
"However, Martin emphasizes that instead of embracing this attitude, "Paul was saying that he had tried to work with people on their own level and to give as little offense as possible in order to procure a hearing for the Gospel.""One must become like the unsaved in order to reach the unsaved for Christ."
John said that in heaven we will all have harps to play in praise of God.
Of course, that's a bad lie: John heard VOICES which made sounds like harps, rushing waters, thunder and other noises which MARK sounds of judgment just as he proves in Revelation 17. He then identifies the judgment and the other angel to the LIVING says PREACH THE GOSPEL. Click to see that people want to be dead virgins playing harps more than they want to preach the gospel. Figures.
Ex-Church of Christ: There are many wonderful Churches of Christ, however, there are also hard-line Churches of Christ who have difficulty even believing the good news that Paul preached. Far from trying to identify with the peopleGod becoming flesh and dying for us, the hard-line Churches of Christ have focused on being odd, like the Plain Amish and Old Order Mennonites. They have decided to portray a certain culture long ago and to demand that in order to be pleasing to God one must keep these traditions.Peter said that Jesus left an example and that is a written record: it was the Spirit OF Christ in the prophets which radically repudiated musical instruments as derived from Lucifer the singing and harp playing prostitute, to sacrificial exorcists, to warriors, to prostitutes and Sodomites. Through the Apostles He commanded a teaching assembly and outlawed instruments for those with eyes and ears. People of all ages and still identify being a Christian with rejecting ceremonial legalism and machines ot do hard religious work. It is been popular even with Calvin to identify those who would not bow when they pipe as being ignorant and legalistic.Lard spoke for many giving the reason: "I am satisfied that the tendency of instrumental music is to silence congregational singing;--to usurp the place of melody of the heart...to prevent the 'edification of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,' which is one of the social duties and privileges of the congregation, and to deliver over this part of the worship of the disciples into the artistic and often godless hands of mere amateur or hireling performers." (W. K. Pendleton, Gospel Advocate, 1889, p. 67)
It so happens that Churches of Christ and those who visit love the congretgational singing which allows THEM to be a worshiper instead of a spectator.
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