W. Carl Ketcherside: Incendiary Musical Instruments
W. Carl Ketcherside we must worship with men's hand. As usual, this is against clear Scripture.
Rick.Atchley.Acts.17.25.God.Not.Worshipped.Mens.Hand.html
Jude 16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having mens persons in admiration because of advantage.
-Goēs , ētos, ho, A. sorcerer, wizard, Phoronis 2, Hdt.2.33,4.105, Pl.R. 380d, Phld.Ir.p.29 W.; g. epōdos Ludias apo khthonos E.Ba.234, cf. Hipp.1038; prob. f.l. for boēsi Hdt.7.191.
-Epōd-os , on, (epadō)
A. singing to or over, using songs or charms to heal wounds, epōdoi muthoi Pl.Lg.903b.b. Subst., enchanter, e. kai goēs E.Hipp. 1038 (but goēs e. Ba.234): c. gen., a charm for or against, ethusen hautou paida epōdon Thrēkiōn aēmatōn A.Ag.1418 ; e. tōn toioutōn one to charm away such fears, Pl.Phd.78a.c. c. dat., assisting, profitable, e. gignesthai neois pros aretēn Id.Lg.671a ; duspraxia lēphtheis e. esti tō peirōmenō Trag.Adesp.364.4.2. Pass., sung to music, phōnai Plu.2.622d ; fit for singing, poiētikēn e. parekhein S.E.M.6.16.
g2323. THERAPEUO, ther-ap-yoo΄-o; from the same as 2324; to wait upon menially, i.e. (figuratively) to adore (God), or (specially) to relieve (of disease): cure, heal, worship.
HOWEVER, Ketcherside suggests that we WORSHIP THE BEAST FROM THE EARTH.
Rev. 13:11 And I beheld another BEAST coming up out of the EARTH;
and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a DRAGON.
Rev. 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him,
and causeth the EARTH and them which dwell therein
to WORSHIP the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
-therap-ōn henchman, attendant [1] Mousaōn [2] therapontes
[1] Mousa music, song [3 below] stu^ger-os , Mousa kanakhan . theias antiluron mousas
II. mousa, as Appellat., music, song, m. stugera A.Eu.308
Muses as: moisan pherein LADED BURDEN
Muses as: adokim-os , disreputable, discredited, reprobate,
Muses as: kanakhan . . theias antiluron mousas
Carl Ketcherside writes long books, such as Twisted Scriptures, by pointing to a FEW Scriptures but refusing to let Jesus as Holy Spirit speak. All scholars who have commented on Romans 15 insist that the PATTERN is the UNISION reciting of "that which is written for our LEARNING." There is no LYRIC poetry in Scripture and therefore nothing that can be CHANTED to a LYRE. You will find no exception to the absolute fact that Religious Musician, male and female, were sexually disturbed and the UPSET with people who Flee Babylon is the sign.
BEFORE REVIEWING KETCHERSIDE'S PERSONAL OPINIONS USED FOR A GREAT TRIBULATION
BY THE EFFEMINATE WORSHIP CLERGY
PART TWO
Worship.Androgyny.The.Pagan.Sexual.Ideal.html
The Mark of the Effeminate Exhibitionist.
THE MARK LAID DOWN BY GOD'S SPIRIT IN ISAIAH 3"Philodemus considered it paradoxical that music should be regarded as veneration of the gods while musicians were paid for performing this so-called veneration. Again, Philodemus held as self deceptive the view that music mediated religious ecstasy. He saw the entire condition induced by the noise of cymbals and tambourines as a disturbance of the spirit. He found it significant that, on the whole, only WOMEN and EFFEMINATE men fell into this folly.
Accordingly, nothing of value could be attributed to music; it was no more than a slave of the sensation of pleasure, which satisfied much in the same way that food and drink did.
"Now, many a man from the false religions, which are not ashamed of criticising what is noble, will ask: how can there be a feast without carousing and overeating, without the pleasant company of hosts and guests, without quantities of unmixed wine, without richly set tables and highly stacked provisions of everything that pertains to a banquet, without pageantry and jokes, bantering and merry-making to the accompaniment of flutes and citharas, the sound of drums and cymbals and other effeminate and frivolous music of every king ENKINDLING unbridled lusts with the help of the sense of hearing. For in and through the same [pleasures] those persons openly seek their joy, for what true joy is their they do not know.
"Before the establishment of the kingdom under Saul, it was the women who, as in every young civilization, played a major part in the performance of music. Such figures as Miriam, Deborah, Jephthah's daughter, and the women hailing the young hero David have become almost archetypes of female musicians. "Characteristic of all these cases is the familiar picture of a female chorus, dancing and singing, accompanied by frenzied drum-beating.
"Hebrew music... was used in the luxurious times of the later monarchy the effeminate gallants of israel, reeking with perfumes, and stretched upon their couches of ivory, were wont at their banquets to accompany the song with the tinkling of the psaltery or guitar (Am. v1. 4-6), and amused themselves with devising musical instruments while their nation was perishing... music was the legitimate expression of mirth and gladness, and the indication of peace and prosperity." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, Music, p. 590).This is the scene known to the entire Near East, and not
"even the severe rule of Islam could wholly suppress this age-old practice." (Int Dict of the Bible, Music, p. 457).
Isaiah 3:4 And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
Isaiah 3:4 et dabo pueros principes eorum et effeminati dominabuntur eis
dominabuntur Ruler,
MARK Women or the Effeminate as oratio,
MARK Women or effeminate who are consilium the person who forms the purpose,
MARK Women or the effeminate who Teach Over aedĭfĭco in a religious sense, to build up,
instruct, edify.Isaiah 3:12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.
O my people, they that lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.
mŭlĭer as a term of reproach, a woman, i. e. a coward, poltroon: arbĭtror to make a decision,
give judgment or sentence: OR mŭlĭĕro, to make womanish, render effeminateBoys: -Effeminoto make womanish, effeminate, to enervate: fortitudinis praeceptailla elocutio
res ipsas effeminat, mollis, luxuriosus, dissolutus): ne quid effeminatum aut molle sit,
Cic. Off. 1, 35, 129; cf. id. Tusc. 4, 30: intolerabile est servire impuro, impudico, effeminato,
illa elocutio res ipsas effeminat, Quint. 8 prooλm. § 20. ēlŏcūtĭo I. Transf., in rhet. lang., oratorical delivery, elocution; furialis illa vox, religiosis altaribus effeminata,that submits to unnatural lust: pathicus, Suet. Aug. 68;Histrio, stage-player, actor, mimus, II. Transf., a boaster: histrionis est parvam rem attollere,
Cic. Planc. 35.86 When no one knew what were the feelings of those men who by means of their armies, and their arms, and their riches, were the most powerful men in the state, then that voice,
rendered insane by its infamous debaucheries,
made effeminate by its attendance on holy altars,
kept crying out in a most ferocious manner that both these men
and the consuls were acting in concert with him.
Needy men were armed against the rich, abandoned men against the good, slaves against their masters.
Rĕlĭgĭōsus Eccl. Lat., of or belonging to the clergy, clerical (opp. saecularis)
Per-sŏno A. To sound through and through, to resound: cum domus cantu et cymbalis personaret, Cic. Pis. 10, 22: ut cotidiano cantu vocum et nervorum et tibiarum nocturnisque conviviis tota vicinitas personet,
A. To fill with sound or noise, to make resound
B. To make a sound on a musical instrument, to sound, play: citharā Iopas Personat, cymbalis, Vulg. 1 Par. 16, 5: buccinis,
C. To sound or blow upon an instrument (post-class.): personavit classicum, gave the signal for attack,
ragoediarum histrionis, Hilarus comoediarum histrio,
Scaena, 1. Of a place like a scene of a theatreVerg. A. 1, 164., display of eloquence.
Outlawed in Romans 15 so that everyone can "use one mind and one mouth" to teach "that which is written for our learning or Scripture.Isaiah 3:5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another,
and every one by his neighbour:
the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.
Tŭmultŭor , Esp. of oratory, to storm, rant, talk at random, etc
Per-turbo clamore perturbari confused visions, perverted truths: reliquosMANY SCRIPTURAL PASSAGES NOT AVAILABLE TO MOST
1Peter 4:11 If any man speak,
let him speak as the oracles of God;
if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth:
that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ,
to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
loquitur Of prose as OPPOSED to poetry: comoedia
Ordinary speech, speaking, talking, the language of conversation
1. To speak out, to say, tell, talk about, mention, utter, name:quas tu mulieres quos tu parasitos loquere,
Opposite. contentio):ōrātĭo , oratio philosophorum,
II. In partic., formal language, artificial discourse, set speech (OPPOSITE. to sermo, ordinary speech, conversational language)
1. Most freq., a dramatic poem, drama, play (syn.: ludus, cantus, [sing and play] actio, etc.): in full, fabula scaenica, Amm. 28, 1, 4; or, theatralis, id. 14, 6, 20: fabula ad actum scenarum composita,
Opposite Fabula: to Fabula versatur in tragoediis atque carminibus non a veritate modo, sed etiam a forma veritatis remota, argumentum
II. In partic. (freq. and class.), a fictitious narrative, a tale, story (syn.: apologus, narratio): narrationum tris accepimus species, fabulam, quae versatur in tragoediis atque carminibus non a veritate modo, [Melody]
Carl Ketcherside: The disintegration of the restoration movement
under the impact of the factional spirit is a story to
"make angels weep and strong men bow themselves in grief."
The Restoration Movement including the Reformed Baptists (Alexander Campbell) or Churches of Christ (Alexander Campbell) exists only as a weapon of Psychological Violence in the minds of people ranking "personal opinions" or "personal preference" which are OUTLAWED by the Word, Logos or Regulative. God's Word put into the MOUTH of Prophets is called SPIRIT [Revelation 19:10] when Jesus testifies that Holy Scripture is the Prophets which ARE CONCERNING ME. The Words of Jesus then put into the MOUTH of Apostles is called SPIRIT.
John 6:63 It is the SPIRIT that quickeneth;The Disciples-Christians used the PATTERN of Anglicans or Church of England.
the flesh profiteth nothing: [non or Anti Bible songs or Reed Organs]
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Many preachers came out of that and followed Campell who continued the work of John CalvinThe Necessity of Reforming the Church (1543) John Calvin 1
A.Restoration.of.the.Ancient.Order.of.Things.Alexander.Campbell
REJECTS unity with the Sects: true Christians must COME OUT OF BABYLON whose clergy are speakers, singers, instrument players all marked by civilized Greek society as adulterers.
Paul claims that we must withdraw from false teachers because they are not fulfilling the "contract" between teacher and student:
If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words,
even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the
doctrine which is according to godliness; 1 Ti.6:3
He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words,
whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, 1 Tim 6:4Ketcherside and his "seed" continue to blame the log for splitting when it was hid with an axe. They still boast of "Taking an Axe to the Anti-instrumental group."Strong though thy beak beyond the feather'd kind,
My bow shall reach thee. Towards the altar, see,
A swan comes sailing: elsewhere wilt thou moveThy scarlet-tinctured foot? or from my bow
Go, wanton, skim along the Delian lake,
The lyre of Phoebus [Apollon] to thy notes attuned
Will not protect thee; farther stretch thy wings;
Or wilt thou steep thy melody in blood
[170] Ah, ah! what is this new bird that approaches; you will not place under the cornice a straw-built nest for your children, will you? My singing [psalmoi] bow will keep you off. Will you not obey?
Never in recorded literature does the PSALLO words mean to make Musical Melody.
Dwaine E. Dunning: There are at least three ways to kill a tree.You can poison it, or burn it. It might not survive if all the limbs were lopped off.
But men usually choose to kill a tree by cutting down its trunk.
We take an axe or saw to it not far above the roots and "fell" that tree.Likewise a system of doctrine may be destroyed in various ways. It might be poisoned (or sweetened in this case) by injecting a different spirit into those who hold the doctrine.
- Or its various contentions may be individually or specifically refuted,
like lopping off a tree's branches one by one.Rubel Shelly demands that non-musical churches fellowship instrumental churches to escape the horrors of being: "fratricidal, traditionalist, legalists, unchristian posture, schismatic, Satanic, sectarian, idolatrous, irrelevant, just pushing junk."Others add "Pharisaical, Hypocrites, Legalists, Sectarians, Zealots, Racists and on and on." That all adds up to:
Carl Ketcherside insulting and slandering.
Imposing the Organ (organ only, we promise) gave Carl Ketcherside a forum to become one of the most factional spirits in Churches of Christ. When "progressives" and educated city folks (Ketcherside's terms) imposed the reed organ into Disciples-Christian Churches, the "Christian churches" were forced out of their buildings. While they retained the "organ only" and moved toward Rock and Roll bands they finally formed the NACC in 1927 and were not finally removed from the Disciple's census in 1971.In past generations those who lived in the remote hill country of our Missouri [page 8] Ozarks were often superstitious and illiterate. In spite of this they possessed a high degree of integrity and family honor.
When insulted they knew but one way to purge the blot from their name
and that was by AMBUSHING and killing the guilty person.
Most of the preachers followed the teachings of Alexander Campbell who at the time Ketcherside claims the conflict was a "Reformed Baptist" and congregation became Churches of Christ.
Churches of Christ are well documented in Scripture and recorded history.
Carl Ketcherside: The heart of the faithful historian recoils from the task of picturing the dissolution of the noble effort even while his sense of fairness and honesty demands that he pursue it to its end.
It is a tragic tale of brother fighting against brother,
a narrative of bitterness and hate, of strife and debate, of law suits and political maneuvers.
Law suits resulted ONLY when the Organ and Society PARTY tried to use force to CONFISCATE the property of the faithful. Honesty would insist that preachers move on to an instrumental group rather than knowingly and with a high hand try to ROB TEMPLES.
Carl Ketcherside: The aftermath which we can still view betokens the intensity of the storm which passed over the heads of our parents and grandparents,
Laying waste the fond hope of uniting all the believers in Christ Jesus.The present day people influenced by Ketcherside never ceased trying to impose instruments or confiscate the property and tell the robbed and offended to "get over it or get out."
By using the SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM which God imposed but did not COMMAND, INSTRUMENTALISTS fulfill the prophecy in:
Mark.10.They.Shall.Mock.Him.With.Music.html
Carl Ketcherside: but in the hope that we may start anew to rebuild the city of peace. It is our intention to be both chronicler and commentator. We shall not only record events but try to determine what gave them significance. We shall attempt to interpret their relevance for our day. What we say will not be offered in dogmatic fashion. We will respect those who disagree as much as we do those who concur. While it is not our aim to assess guilt neither is it our intention to condone wrong. In this issue we shall be dealing with a topic which is charged with tension.
Instrumental music in the public worship of the saints has become a symbol of intangibles. To one group it is a token of FREEDOM, to another a badge of apostasy.
It is difficult to write on such a theme in objective fashion. The problem is enhanced when one is possessed with a deep personal conviction on the matter. Yet it is impossible to avoid dealing with this subject for its roots are intertwined with the division existing among heirs of the restoration.
All we can do is to plead with our readers to defer judgment until all the evidence is in.
ALL of the evidence is IN: A Church of Christ IS and cannot be otherwise an assembly like Ekklesia or Synagogue which READ the Scriptures without any sermonizing or versifying.
Do not render your verdict upon partial testimony. If after reading all WE write upon the subject you wholly disagree with what is said
WE shall allow our case to rest with you.
As you read please bear in mind that OUR specific purpose in this series
is not to determine the right or wrong involved in the use of instrumental music
but simply to study the problems created by its introduction as relates to unity.J. W. McGarvey wrote in Millennial Harbinger, November, 1864,
that in the earlier years of the reformation there was "entire unanimity in the rejection of instrumental music from our public worship.
It was declared unscriptural, unharmonious with the Christian institution and a source of corruption."
He admitted that occasional attempts were made to introduce instrumental music but said it was
"at first a sufficient objection to such attempts that a large portion of the congregation were offended and
[page 2] that the Scriptures forbid giving offence to brethren."
Carl Ketcherside: It is obvious that if instrumental music ever
entered the public worship of restoration congregations
there would have to be a change of attitude
toward the
instrument
or a
change of attitude toward the brethren.
It is OUR conviction that both
occurred.
NEITHER
OR BOTH: The PATTERN for introducing something known to
sow discord was the view that neither God, Jesus, the
Apostles
or scholars prior to the
Disciples in 1878 ever thought that:
The
command to
SPEAK Psalms, hymns and Spiritual songs BUT ODE
and PSALLO in the heart or SILENT MEANT:
SING
Psalms, hymns, and Spiritual songs AND SING and make
melody WITH A HARP.
Carl Ketcherside: WE are interested in the factors which produced these changes for several reasons.
(1) When those factors are no longer present attitudes may again be changed. Circumstances do alter conditions.
(2) The introduction of the instrument was symptomatic
of a feeling which may no longer exist
in the hearts of those who have grown up in an environment where its use is TRADITIONAL.
In the Words of John Calvin, there is not statute of limitations or reading of the TEXT which changes the Text:
Matt. 15:2 Why do thy disciples transgress the TRADITION of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
Matt. 15:3 But he answered and said unto them,
Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by YOUR tradition?
Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Mark 7:7
For laying aside the commandment of God,
ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups:
and many other such like things ye do. Mark 7:8
And he said unto them, Full welye reject the commandment of God,
that ye may keep your own tradition. Mark 7:9Those who intend to SOW DISCORD and disregard and trash their own faithful members have sons and grandsons mounting the same attacks.
(3) To charge against those who now EMPLOY it the same attitude as those who introduced it
and to argue from that premise may be decidedly uncharitable.
We must not hold any person liable for a position or attitude which he personally disavows.
(4) The introduction of the instrument was preceded by an erosion or decay of the sense of brotherhood.
Our first task is to restore the recognition of brotherhood
and within its frame of reference work toward a solution of our current difficulties.
If we seek to solve our problems by continued attack upon symptoms we will only worsen our state.
We must sit down as brothers dealing with an inherited difficulty and
not as aliens obligated to perpetuate a relentless feud.
(5) WE should cease to regard others as separated from us and realize that WE have become separated from each other.Carl Ketcherside almost totally judges the value of Scripture by personal opinion or the CUSTOMS of people. There is nothing that can even hint of a command, example or remote inference of any of God's people ever engaged in group singing with or without an instrument. There is no metrical or lyric poetry from Genesis to Revelation and no Scripture which can be "sung" in a tuneful sense. The Prophets and Apostles recorded Spirit-Inspired PROSE text for the singular purpose of Teaching the Will of God.
The only methods of presentation from the faithful and STRAIGHT people is SPEAK or READ.
Carl Ketcherside: The restoration movement gained its early impetus because it appealed to the plain,
hardy pioneers by its simplicity and freedom from ostentation.
There were no musical instruments in the RUDE cabins of these settlers, [This is false]
and such instruments were associated with effeminate tastes. [That began with Clay Tablets]
The idea of having them in the sacred worship was obnoxious.
In 1856, Peter Cartwright, the famous Methodist circuit rider, wrote in his autobiography as follows:"The Presbyterians, and other Calvinistic branches of the Protestant Church,
used to contend for an educated [THEOLOGY] ministry, for pews,
for instrumental music,
for a congregational or salaried minister.
'The Methodists universally opposed these ideas; and the illiterate Methodist preachers
actually set the world on fire the American world at least--while they were lighting their matches."
But the old preacher could see "the handwriting on the wall."
The Methodists were demanding an educated ministry
and institutions were being created to supply the demand.
He declared, "I do not wish to undervalue education,
but really I have seen so many of these educated preachers
who forcibly remind me
of lettuce growing under the shade of a peach tree,
or like a gosling that had got the straddles by walking in the dew,
that I turn away sick and faint."
He was disturbed by the thought that popular clamor for a salaried minister
and instrumental music to pamper pride would spell the end of a VIRILE movement. We ask your indulgence for one more quotation."I awfully fear for our beloved Methodism. Multiply colleges, universities, seminaries and academies; multiply our agencies and editorships, and fill them all with our best and most efficient preachers, and you localize the ministry and secularize them too; then farewell to itinerancy, and when this fails we plunge right into congregationalism, and stop precisely where all other denominations started."The restoration was passing through the same throes
as it was transformed from a RUSTIC to an URBAN movement.
Carl Ketcherside: As the original purpose of "uniting the Christians in all sects" receded,
and a desire to "hold our own among the sects" became the chief objective,
alterations began to be urged regardless of the feelings of the brethren.
This is the common lie and is used as psychological violence spreading guilt as a way to intimidate people to DESPISE Scripture to SEPARATE yourslef from thos of the WORLD or Ecumenical.
The truth of the widespread lie in the Lunenburg Correspondence.
1. Let me ask, in the first place, what could mean all that we have written upon the union of Christians on apostolic grounds,Carl Ketcherside: Three years after Peter Cartwright wrote the above, the first instrument of music was introduced into the worship of a restoration congregation. We think it will be interesting for our readers to know something about the personalities involved in this radical change, and of the results accruing from it.
had we taught that all Christians in the world were already united in our own community?2. And in the second place, why should we so often have quoted and applied to apostate Christendom what the Spirit saith to saints in Babylon--"Come out of her, my people, that you partake not of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues"--had we imagined that the Lord had no people beyond the pale of our communion!
The musical instruments in Revelation 18 were by the performers under the Babylonian Mother of Harlots. They are called SORCERERS and will be CAST ALIVE INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE.
3. But let him that yet doubts, read the following passages from the Christian Baptist, April, 1825:--
"I have no idea of seeing, nor wish to see, the sects unite in one grand army.
This would be dangerous to our liberties and laws. For this the Saviour did not pray.
It is only the disciples dispersed among them that reason and benevolence would call out of them, "&c. &c. This looks very like our present opinion of Christians among the sects!!! 2d ed. Bethany, p. 85.4. Again, speaking of purity of speech in order to the union of Christians, we say,
"None of you [Christians] have ever yet attempted to show how Christians can be united on your principles.
You have often showed how they may be divided, and how each party may hold its own, but while you pray for the visible unity of the disciples, and advocate their visible disunity, we cannot understand you." March, 1827, vol. 4.In 1859, Dr. L. L. Pinkerton brought a melodeon into the meetinghouse at [p.3]
Midway, Kentucky. There were vigorous protests which went unheeded. Dr. Pinkerton was always a controversial figure.
One historian writes, "Throughout the eighteen-fifties and -sixties he was a thorn in the flesh not only of the strict constructionists,
but of most of those who considered themselves progressive;
but such was his evangelical ardor, the fervor of his piety,
and the unselfishness of his service, that even his severest critics found it difficult not to love him."
For all of these traits, it appears that Pinkerton was somewhat inflexible in his views and bent on having his way regardless of consequences. When he died on his sixty-third birthday, President James Garfield wrote of him, "He was a man of most positive and intense nature; his opinions were convictions."L. L. Pinkerton was born at Baltimore, Maryland, January 28, 1812, but was reared in Pennsylvania and Virginia, near Bethany. His Presbyterian father taught him the tenets of Calvinism, but he was unable to "get religion" at the mourner's bench. In September, 1830, he heard one sermon by Alexander Campbell and immediately requested the privilege of being immersed. After studying medicine he established a lucrative practice in a suburban district of Cincinnati where Walter Scott was laboring. It was because of the insistence of Scott and David S. Burnet that he discontinued his medical profession and began preaching in May, 1838. It was in 1844 that he moved from Lexington to Midway, Kentucky.
While at Lexington Dr. Pinkerton had guided the congregation in erecting a new meetinghouse on Main Street. Several of the well-to-do families wanted to reserve pews, which they marked with their personal name plates and fitted out with cushions.
This action so incensed some of the others that they entered the new structure one night,
pried off the name plates and ripped the upholstery to pieces.
Dr. Pinkerton publicly assailed those who had been guilty of this vandalism and feeling ran so high he had to resign.After the Civil War, in which he served as a surgeon in the Union Army, Pinkerton returned to Lexington in 1865 as a teacher in Kentucky University.
The Main Street congregation ignored him in spite of the fact that he had led them in the construction of their building and once served as their minister.
The opposition to him was so great that he resigned from the college faculty after one year. Three years later the congregation attempted to bring him to trial on the charge that he was guilty of "conduct of a schismatic character, and calculated to create and keep up strife in the body of Christ."In January, 1869, Dr. Pinkerton and John Shackleford began a periodical called the Independent Monthly.
In an article titled "Bible Inspiration" Pinkerton denied the plenary inspiration and infallibility of the scriptures.
He attacked "Reason and Revelation" by Robert Milligan and branded it as fallacious.
He affirmed that there would be a second chance after death for those who died without knowledge of the plan of God.
He advocated a Presbyterian form of government for the churches,
stating that it was a matter of liberty to select that method which was most efficient.
It is probable that he was the first exponent of "open membership."
He produced an article designated "No Immersion--No Membership in a Church of the Reformation."
In it he declared that he would allow each man to settle the question of baptism for himself.
Dr. Pinkerton declared that he would personally teach and practice immersion
but would not deny admission to the congregation to one who did not concur.
His position was that he "would not thrust his translation of a Greek word between a man's conscience and his God."We mention these things because they may help to give an insight into the nature and temperament of the man who boasted in 1860 that he was the only preacher in Kentucky who approved of the use of the organ and his church at Midway was the only one in the state that had an organ. It is barely possible [p. 4]
that general division might have been averted had it not happened that on April 12
of the following year the Confederate forces began their bombardment of Fort Sumpter and the War between the States became a reality.It has been the proud boast of those allied with the restoration movement
that they did not split over the issue of slavery and war as did most of the other religious bodies in America.
This is true as regards formal or overt separation but the civil strife left its imprint.
Civil War North-South: The clerical interpretation of the war's progress was equally dogmatic and contradictory. The Southern Presbyterian theologian Robert Lewis Dabney blamed what he termed "the calculated malice" of the Northern Presbyterians and called on God for a "retributive providence" which would demolish the South.When he could get his hands on new breech-loaded rifles, Henry Ward Beecher said:
"There is more moral power in one of these than a hundred bibles!"
And he therefore supplied the fanatic John Brown and his army with the new rifles in Kansas.Henry Ward Beecher predicted that the Southern leaders would be "whirled aloft and plunged downward for ever and ever in an endless retribution." The New Haven theologian Theodore Thornton Munger declared that the Confederacy had been "in league with Hell," and the South was now "suffering for its sins" as a matter of "divine logic." He worked out that General McClellan's much criticized vacillations were an example of God's masterful cunning since they made a quick Northern victory impossible and so ensured that the South would be much more heavily punished in the end.
Carl Ketcherside: The very nature of the conflict cheapened brotherhood, aroused suspicion and magnified differences. We freely admit that there was a rapidly developing difference in philosophy among those who constituted the forces of restoration yet it might have been possible to have averted a serious disruption had it not been that the tempers of men were inflamed. In Lard's Quarterly, April, 1865. the editor wrote:
DELIBERATE DECEPTION:
"No position has been more distinctly Denounced, or more firmly held among us, than this:
that matters of opinion shall never be made tests of fellowship.
The pertinacity with which we have clung to this principle, so obvious and so just, and defended it both for ourselves and for others, is no secret. It has been our pride and our boast.
Any casual reader of the Bible will find that there is no command, example or remote inference for ANY congretationa singing WITH or WITHOUT instruments. Lucifer is defined by God's Spirit OF CHRIST as the singing and harp-playing prostitute in the garden of Eden. Revelation ends with the definition of the same Babylonian mother of harlots whose priests are lusted after fruits. (same as in Amos 8) who are speakers, singers, instrument players or craftsmen who are "theater builders and stage managers." John calls them SORCERERS using the same term as the PAGAN EVE refuted by Moses. John said that sorcerers and liars have their place in the LAKE OF FIRE.
THE TRUTH TOLD BY LARD
I. Now in the light of the foregoing principles what defense can be urged for the introduction into some of our congregations of instrumental music? The answer which thunders into my ear from every page of the New Testament is, none.
Did Christ ever appoint it?
did the apostles ever sanction it?
or did any one of the primitive churches ever use it? Never.In what light then must we view him who attempts to introduce it into the churches of Christ of the present day? I answer, as an insulter of the authority of Christ, and as a defiant and impious innovator on the simplicity and purity of the ancient worship. In no other light can we view him, in no other light should he be viewed.
But we are told that there is no harm in instrumental music, and that therefore it may be innocently introduced into the churches of Christ.
I shall certainly attempt no grave reply to this shallow thing; for argument I will not call it. Grant, then, for a moment that there is no harm in instrumental music. The question arises what kind of instrument shall be used? An organ, shouts the sickly puling of Rome. An organ indeed! and shall we have only an organ? Is there no good music in anything else than an organ? We know there is. Why then have only an organ? This is arbitrary and tyrannical. But what must signify arbitrariness and tyranny in a church which has consented to be disgraced by an organ? Simply nothing.
It is cruel because it is ready to immolate everything that in the least stands in the way of its wicked work; intractable, because it will not yield on even one tittle of its innovations; and unreasonable, because it will heed neither the voice of God nor that of man. Indeed, when a church has once introduced an organ, we believe it to be true, as a general rule, of those members who take the lead in the work,
that they will suffer its Bible to be torn into shreds before they will part from their pet.
Carl Ketcherside: Is it so now? Alas, for the mutability of man! The last four years have seen it changed changed not in the sacred matters of religion but changed in the paltry affairs of polities. Many so-called brethren in our ranks now actually refuse to meet with and fellowship their brethren of the adverse political faith. Not only so, but they have gone so far as to advise and counsel their arrest, imprisonment, and banishment, for no crime against any law of heaven or earth, but merely because of a difference in political opinions. Even preachers have not blushed to be foremost in the work."
The American Civil War and Revivalism
The clerical interpretation of the war's progress was equally dogmatic and contradictory. The Southern Presbyterian theologian Robert Lewis Dabney blamed what he termed "the calculated malice" of the Northern Presbyterians and called on God for a "retributive providence" which would demolish the South.When he could get his hands on new breech-loaded rifles, Henry Ward Beecher said:
"There is more moral power in one of these than a hundred bibles!"
And he therefore supplied the fanatic John Brown and his army with the new rifles in Kansas.Henry Ward Beecher predicted that the Southern leaders would be "whirled aloft and plunged downward for ever and ever in an endless retribution."
The New Haven theologian Theodore Thornton Munger declared that the Confederacy had been "in league with Hell," and the South was now "suffering for its sins" as a matter of "divine logic." He worked out that General McClellan's much criticized vacillations were an example of God's masterful cunning since they made a quick Northern victory impossible a so ensured that the South would be much more heavily punished in the end.
"The majority of Northern Christians took a more triumphalist view of events. They came to look upon the American Civil War not as a Christian defeat, in which the powerlessness and contradictions of the faith had been exposed, but as an American Christian victory, in which Christian egalitarian teaching had been triumphantly vindicated against renegades and apostates.
Such a view fit neatly into a world vision of the Anglo-Saxon races raising up the benighted and ignorant dark millions, and bringing them, thanks to a "favoring providence," into the lighted circle of Christian truth; thus the universalist mission of Christ would be triumphantly completed.
"The American Civil War was the prelude to an
..........enormous American missionary effort throughout what we now call the third world,
..........followed in due course by actual military intervention in some places.
Carl Ketcherside: At the very time when passions were kindled by the war, instruments were introduced in some of the congregations. The regard which had formerly been shown for the personal feelings of the brethren who objected was no longer accorded. The congregations were being rent asunder by the violence of the discussions pro and con. .
Those who opposed the instruments but who saw the tragic results
Which would accrue from severance of fellowship were outspoken in their condemnation of the organ
but just as plain in their statements relative to maintenance of brotherly relationship.
They regarded the use of the instrument as a surrender of the very basis of the former plea.DELIBERATE KETCHERSIDE DECEPTION: Dr. H. Christopher, writing in Lard's Quarterly, for October, 1867, expressed it in this fashion:
"Standing on the ground and proceeding on the principle so frequently proclaimed before the world, that in all matters of religions faith and practice,
The faith and practice of the apostolic church are our only guides and authorities,
the introduction of instrumental music into our congregations is simply a logical and moral impossibility.
It can not be done without abandoning our ground and giving up our fundamental principle.
We are compelled to discard this innovation on primitive practice, or give up all pretension and purpose of prosecuting any further the grand design of our reformatory movement. And if we have been right up to this time, to abandon the ground and principle would be nothing less than apostasy. To this dilemma are we driven by the most remorseless logic and by the highest considerations for honesty and consistency."THE TRUTH Christopher understood that the PRIMITIVE church was not the GUIDE but the Scriiptures preserved by the Apostles condemning instruments as tools of sorcery to make people silent.
God ABANDONED the Jews to the Worship of the Starry Host and their ordinances were CARNAL and did not change the Synagogue for godly people quarantined from Jerusalem called Sodom:
Christopher on Instruments: The first of these kinds of worship was the public worship of the tabernacle and temple. It was national in its character; not social or devotional, and consisted of sacrifices, ordinances, rites, and ceremonies conducted by a legally ordained priesthood prescribed by the law.
These priests were the only persons permitted by the law to take part in this worship, and they all belonged to one tribe. All these things contrasted sharply with what transpired in the synagogue on the Sabbath days. The two kinds of worship were as distinct as flesh and spirit.
These two kinds of worship have their representatives under the Christian system. The synagogue has passed into the Christian church, and the temple worship found its end and fulfillment in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and his coronation as King and High-Priest in the heavens.
Under his reign there is his synagogue or congregational worship on the earth, and, in the heavens, that part of the temple worship which consisted of praises, thanksgivings, [356] and rejoicings, where the saints, gathered out of all the nations of the earth, constitute the one great family or people of God; and the worship coming up as from one great nation, the symbols of the national worship of the Jews are used to describe it. Spiritual worship is always and necessarily plain and simple. Demanded of every heart, it must be such as every heart can give; it [357] must be within the reach and grasp of the great mass of mankind. Hence, in ordaining the forms and instrumentalities of worship, the Holy Spirit had regard to the condition of man under all circumstances, and in every age of the world, however enlightened, refined, and cultivated the might chance to be.DELIBERATE KETCHERSIDE. DECEPTION: Prof. J. W McGarvey, in Apostolic Times, 1881, wrote after the same tenor:
"It is manifest that we cannot adopt the practice without abandoning the obvious and only ground on which a restoration of Primitive Christianity can be accomplished, or on which the plea for it can be maintained. Such is my profound conviction, and consequently the question with me
is not one concerning the choice or rejection of a NECESSARY expedient,
but the maintenance or aban- [p. 5] donment of a fundamental and necessary principle."The TRUTH: J. W. McGarvey silenced in the face of EVIL.
"In 1950 bro. J.P. Sewell, in a Harding College lecture, recalled the following advice, given to him by bro. McGarvey away back in 1902. It is advice preachers today might ponder. "You are on the right road, and whatever you do, don't let anybody persuade youthat you can successfully combat error by fellowshipping it and going along with it. I have tried it.I believed at the start that was the only way to do it. I've never held membership in a congregation that uses instrumental music. I have, however, accepted invitations to preach without distinction between churches that used it and churches that didn't. I've gone along with their papers and magazines and things of that sort.
During all these years I have taught the truth as the NT teaches it to every young preacher who has passed through the College of the Bible.
Yet, I do not know of more than six of those men who are preaching the truth today. It won't work."
But he who makes peace with an evil because it is likely to prevail appears to me to love peace more than he loves truth and to be deficient in the courage proper to a soldier of the cross,
while he who refrains from speaking on a subject which to him appears important because others regard it with indifference or with contempt seems to me to esteem the applause of men more highly than the approval of his own conscience. As I do not wish to come under condemnation in any of these particulars, I will speak my mind freely to you and to all who shall take the trouble to read what I write.
That a vast amount of EVIL has been occasioned by the introduction of instrumental music into Christian worship is undeniable.
Beginning with the first instance of it among us which I can remember that which caused a schism in the church in St. Louis in the year 1869 (Our Note:1851 Midway KY by a liberal over the physical objections of the elder),
its progress has been attended by strife, alienation, and division,
with all their attendant evils, in hundreds of congregations.Before this it had bred similar evils among Methodist societies and Baptist and Presbyterian churches; for all these bodies in their early days knowing that the practice originated in the Roman Catholic Church, regarded it as a Romish corruption and refused to tolerate it until it was forced upon them by the spirit of innovation which characterized the present century.
Now it is obvious that these evils, the baleful effects of which will never be fully revealed until the day of judgment,
> must be charged either against those who have introduced the instrument
> or against those who have opposed its introduction.
"On Novermber 2, 1902, J. W. McGarvey, along with his wife, wrote a letter of withdrawal from the broadway church in Lexington, Kentucky.
DELIBERATE KETCHERSIDE DECEPTION: F. G. Allen, who became influential as editor of Old Paths Guide which he started, wrote thus:
"I regard the use of the organ in the worship a violation of one of the fundamental principles of our plea for restoration and unity. We have ever claimed that our plea is catholic--that is, we hold as common ground that, and that only, which is conceded by all to be right. In restoring just what we find in the beginning in faith and practice, and refusing all else, we stand on undisputed ground... The world has seen and felt the advantage and self-evident correctness of this catholic position;THE TRUTH OF ALLEN IN A LETTER TO MCGARVEY
but the introduction of the organ, since all cannot worship with it, is a violation of this grand principle.
All can worship without it; all cannot worship with it.
Therefore we can be united and harmonious without it; we cannot be harmonious and united with it. To introduce the organ to the destruction of our peace and unity is a complete renunciation, therefore, of this principle of catholicity characterizing our plea for the union of God's people on God's word."
2. The use of the organ in the worship is a violation of the royal law of love. In his epistles to the Romans and the Corinthians, Paul teaches that if we disregard the conscientious convictions of our brethren and thereby cause them to stumble, we sin against them and against Christ. (1 Cor. 8: 12.)
> He also teaches that the causing of strife and division in a church of Christ is one of the most grievous of sins: (Those who introduce cause the strife)
> "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which ye learned: and turn away from them." (Rom. 16: 17, R. V.)
All can stand where we do, for we stand on conceded ground; all cannot stand on any sectarian ground, for all cannot accept any denominational position. The grandeur and strength of this position have been the chief causes of our unprecedented growth. The world has seen and felt the advantage and self-evident correctness of this catholic position;
but the introduction of the organ, since all cannot worship with it, is a violation of this grand principle.
All can worship without it;
all cannot worship with it.
Therefore we can be united and harmonious without it;
we cannot be united and harmonious with it.
To introduce the organ to the destruction of our peace and unity is a complete renunciation, therefore, of this principle of catholicity characterizing our plea for the union of God's people on God's word. Here; we are expressly required by divine law to "mark" them that cause brethren to stumble and that produce divisions in the churches and avoid them.
We are not permitted to regard and treat such as deserving of our Christian fellowship.
Benjamin Franklin, whose leadership and plain manners endeared him to many, and who was distinguished from the illustrious statesman of the same name, by the designation, "the gospel preacher," declared:
"If any one had told us forty years ago, that we would live to see the day when those professing to be Christians; who claim the Holy Scriptures as their only rule of faith and practice; those under the command and who profess to appreciate the meaning of the command, to 'observe all things whatever I have commanded you,' would bring any instrument of music into a worshiping assembly, and use it there in worship, we should have repelled the idea as an idle dream. But this only shows how little we knew of what men would do; or how little we saw of the power of the adversary to subvert the purest principles, to deceive the hearts of the simple, to undermine the very foundation of all piety, and turn the very worship of God itself into an attraction for the people of the world, an entertainment or amusement."DELIBERATE KETCHERSIDE DECEPTION: It is evident, however, that these men were able to distinguish between an attitude toward "innovations" and "fellowship." F. G. Allen said that it was not a question of fellowship. Both J. W. McGarvey and Benjamin Franklin were unwilling to regard use of the instrument as a test of fellowship. In his book, "Brother McGarvey," W. C. Morro writes:
"When he found that it was necessary to speak he was largely content to state his position and not to press it to the point where it would become a barrier or a cause of division between him and his brethren. This much is a certainty: McGarvey never allowed his position on the organ question to become a cause of division within the church. His soul recoiled from such a step. Yet, he stood so firmly by his original position that he was willing and actually did bring upon himself discomfort, alienation from friends, and practical isolation, yet he was not willing to impose this upon others."
The Apostates refused to let McGarvey make a public denunciatioon.
"On Novermber 2, 1902, J. W. McGarvey, along with his wife, wrote a letter of withdrawal from the broadway church in Lexington, Kentucky.
DELIBERATE KETCHERSIDE DECEPTION: Winfred E. Garrison in his book "Religion Follows the Frontier," writes about the situation in these words:
"But it should be said that much Christian forbearance was practiced on both sides.
Franklin (anti-organ) advised the anti-organists to meet separately for worship if an organ was put in over their protest,
but not to organize a new church, or create a split.
And Errett (pro-organ) advised discarding the use of the organ where there was opposition by a considerable minority."THE TRUTH ABOUT BEN FRANKLIN
The whole of it is arranged to please God. The whole of it is of the Supreme Will. It was not intended as an attraction, an entertainment, or amusement; but as homage, adoration, praise and thanksgiving, from those who were lost and have been found; who were fallen, but are lifted up; were enemies, but are now reconciled; were separated from God, but have been united with him; were in bondage under sin, but are now redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
They do not sing because they love to sing, or because they love music, but because they love God and delight to do those things that are pleasing in his sight; to obey his command; to sing, making melody in their hearts to the Lord.
In obeying this command their minds are not taken up with a bundle of note books, tune forks, or with music at all; but with praising God, thanksgiving, exhortation, admonition and teaching. The happy soul is trying to praise God in song; to render thanks to the Fountain of eternal love; to "teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," and not to make a display of music, or of himself.
This is a divine prohibition. Neither he, nor any one of his apostles, ever used any instruments to enable them to sing; nor any one even professing to follow him, till the man of sin was fully developed, and there was a full-grown pope. He is the gentleman to whom we are indebted for the use of the organ in worship. His [419] fruitful mind caught the idea of utilizing the organ, and he took it from its more congenial place, in the theater, and consecrated it to divine service.
He has borrowed from the Jew, the Pagan, the philosopher, the statesman, the rich man, or from any source under heaven, to build himself up, gain strength, popularity, wealth and influence in the world. He has carried the utilizing principle out to perfection, and utilized everything that he could lay his hand on, till he has built up a Babel of iniquity, described in Holy Writ, "the man of sin," "a falling away," "an apostasy," a "sea monster," or, under the last and most fitting emblem of all, "Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth."
Carl Ketcherside: Not all the writers were as amiable in their treatment of the question or of those who contended for the instrument. Moses E. Lard, a staunch defender of the missionary society was just as strong in his opposition to instrumental music. This was regarded as the "middle of the road" position in that day. His advice to those troubled about the problem was given in Lard's Quarterly, March, 1864:
"Let now, as further evidence of this, any set of brethren, no matter how pious and true, set about inducing a church which has introduced an organ, to put it away, and these brethren will soon fall under its proscriptions and it will absolutely go the length of putting them away before it will put away its organ. It will part from everything and anything rather than its infamous box.
But what shall be done with such churches? Of course nothing. If they see fit to mortify the feelings of their brethren, to forsake the example of the primitive churches, to condemn the authority of Christ by resorting to will worship, to excite dissension, and give rise to general scandal, they must do it. As a body we can do nothing. Still we have three [p6]
partial remedies left us to which we should at once resort 1. Let every preacher in our ranks resolve at once that he will never, under any circumstances or on any account, enter a meeting house belonging to our brethren in which an organ stands. We beg and entreat our preaching brethren to adopt this as an unalterable rule of conduct. This and like evils must be checked, and the very speediest way to effect it is the one here suggested. 2. Let no brother who takes a letter from one church ever unite with another using an organ. Rather let him live out of the church than go into such a den. 3. Let those brethren who oppose the introduction of an organ first remonstrate in gentle, kind, but decided terms. If their remonstrance is unheeded, and the organ is brought in, then let them at once, and without even the formality of asking for a letter, abandon the church so acting; and let all such members unite elsewhere. Thus these organ-grinding churches will in the lapse of time be broken down, or wholly apostatize, and the sooner they are in fragments the better for the cause of Christ. I have no sympathy with them, no fellowship for them, and so help me God never intend knowingly to put my foot into one of them."
[Page 6]A year later, in the Quarterly, dated April, 1865, Lard referred to his previous statement, and added:
"Editors and preachers may write and preach against organs till the last trump shall sound, but while they countenance the churches in which they stand, visit them, and suffer the machines to be cracked over their heads, they are but whistling idly in the air. There is but one way to cure the spirit in question--crush it. When a church learns that no preacher will set foot within its doors while it holds an organ; when it sees that its members are abandoning it; that it is fast coming to naught; and that unless it gives up its unholy innovation it is destined to ruin--then will it kick out its organ, and not before."Carl Ketcherside: As more homes began to install organs in the parlor and these instruments ceased to be a luxury, the pressure to have them in the meetinghouses increased. The controversy waxed fierce in every section of the land.
The Baptists split over instruments at the same time. Reading the history of Nashville as a center of classical music of noted musicians proves that almost every home with more free evenings has small harps, guitars, mandolins, Dulcimers and the Blacks invented the banjo. Any handyman could and did make dulcimers and the "Anglo Saxons" brought flutes and bagpipes. Revivalistic singing and blacks brought polythrymic hand clapping which they added when their Methdists stopped the voodoo-like Drumming Sessions.
It was the chief subject discussed in the papers from 1864 to 1875. The spiritual life of many waned as character became no longer the criterion of the Christian walk and loyalty to Christ was judged primarily by an attitude toward the organ. Partisan spirit was aroused to such an intensity that W. K. Pendleton exhorted, "We notice a growing heat under the discussion of this subject--but let us keep cool." This warning went unheeded. Men boasted of the congregations into which they had thrust organs, or of those in which they had thwarted its introduction, as so many scalps dangling from the party belt.
7. "Well, the churches generally are going into it, and it is 'a foregone conclusion that they will have and use the organ,' and it is useless to stand against it."
No "the churches generally" are not gone into it, nor are they going that way.
We do not know the number of churches in the United States;
but doubt not that six thousand would be a low enough estimate.How many of them use the organ in worship? We do not know this with certainty, but probably not more than from [431] one hundred and fifty to two hundred, and certainly not five hundred. [1877]
The organ party is yet small, and would amount to but little, had it not found way into a few places of note and prominence. There are still whole States that have not an organ in the Church.
We think there is not one in use in Canada, not one in Virginia, Tennessee, nor Texas, that we have heard of; scarcely any in Kentucky, West Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and many other States. The organ is still the exception, not the rule; and the party is small. The main body are true to the great principles of reformation--to the divine purpose of returning to and maintaining, the original practice in all things.
Challenges for debate began to be issued by the opposing groups within local congregations. Each camp secured a champion who had built up a reputation as a party "hatchet man" for his side. The debaters were not always noted for their intellectual ability. A common boast was that they "would skin an opponent and tack his hide on the barn door with the bloody side out." They resorted to ridicule, invective, sarcasm and derision. The public gladiatorial combats, held in full view of the delighted sectarians whom the movement started out to unite, were not investigations carried on between brethren. They were fights to the death between tribal warriors, the "Digressives" and the "Antis."
Only at first did calm sense prevail and then not for long. When the congregation at Seventeenth and Olive Streets, in Saint Louis, Missouri, had an organ forced into the worship by a small group of agitators, many of the brothers and sisters with tears streaming down their cheeks, stumbled from the auditorium, their hearts both incensed and broken. There still lingered in their minds the greatness of the cause which they had espoused so they agreed to submit the case for arbitration. Among those who heard the respective sides were Robert Graham and Isaac Errett. These brethren decided that one soul was worth more than an organ and that a brother for whom Christ died should not be destroyed by preference for any expedient.
They recommended that the organ be silenced. This was done and the dissenting members were restored.But the united effort did not long con-[p7]
tinue even in Saint Louis. k
Carl Ketcherside: This produced one of those queer ironical twists so often noticeable under such circumstances. The hall which they rented did not have an organ, the meetinghouse they abandoned had one. For months there were two groups worshiping not far apart. One group had an organ which they would not use, the other group would have used an organ but had none.
THE IGNORANT, SOUTHERN, REDNECKED BUMPKIN RACA CHARGE.
In many urban communities especially there were those who felt it was necessary to make the congregation "cultured" regardless of the manner by which it was accomplished.
Mt.6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Epilegτ, 2. . say besides, repeat, 4. . utter, pronounce a spell (cf.epeipon ), rhκsin mustikκn. III 2. . in Hdt. also, con over, read, 3. . recount, in speaking
Kκleτ, A. charm, bewitch, beguile, esp. by music epaidτn k. charm by incantation, kκleitai aoidais
Epaeidτ means to sing AND play 2. sing as an incantation, sing to one so as to charm or soothe him, use charms or incantations, by means of charmsThe scoffer Lucian pours out his sarcasm in a passage in which he speaks of the fraudulent prophet Alexander of Abonouteichos, who kept choir boys in the service of the gods with him:
Choirs were used because "Thus they led the simple into error andTo all others he forbade pederasty (Platonic love of a man for a boy) as shameful. In order not to admit his own guilt in this matter, however, the admirable fellow devised the following scheme: he proposed to the cities in Paphlagonia and Pontus that every three years they should send him choir boys who would sing hymns of praise with him to the god. Moreover, only the noblest, fairest and most charming boys were to be sent -- after a previous careful examination. These he confined with himself, slept with and abused with every possible lechery. (Lucian, Alexander, 41.247}
sought to bewitch the ears of lay people, who are easily led astray by hymns and melodies."
Carl Ketcherside: In the heated exchanges the instrument became a status symbol.
Those who regarded themselves as in a higher social bracket
and who were progressive in thought and action resented the idea
of "holding back the church" in the community to please "a bunch of old fogies."
"For NONLITERATE peoples, music often serves purposes other than entertainment or aesthetic enjoyment. Certain wind instruments are closely associated with the supernatural, and their sounds connote powerful magic. Australian Aborigines, for instance, identify the sound of a bull-roarer with the voices of supernatural beings; for the Plains Indians, the same sound signifies an awesome natural phenomenon, such as thunder. Wind instruments are often among a group's most important ritual objects, and in some cultures they are specially venerated. The Kamairua Indians of the Amazon rain forest keep their giant flutes (three to four feet long), wherein SPIRITS are believed to DWELL, in a special shrine where they are worshiped. The flutes and drums of New Guinea are similarly housed and worshiped.
"Not only the shapes but also the sounds of primitive instruments are often rich in symbolism. The sound of the flute, for example, is widely associated with love magic. Among the tribes of the northeast and Great Plains of North America, young men played the flute to serenade young women; in New Guinea,
flutes and flute music are connected with rites of SEXUAL initiation.
In some cultures, instrument symbolism is highly developed. For the Tucano Indians of Colombia, instrument sounds constitute a symbolic taxonomy comprising three levels: whistling, vibration, and percussion.
The whistling of a flute connotes sexual invitation, while vibration, represented by such instruments as the indigenous clarinet and the bull-roarer, symbolizes a warning or threat.
Percussive sounds produced by drums and various rattles symbolize the uniting of male and female. "wind instrument" Encyclopζdia Britannica Online.
Carl Ketcherside: They saw no reason for catering to the whims of an uneducated segment who would make the congregation always subject to the regulation of yokels. In turn, those who opposed the instrument often regarded themselves as the loyal defenders of the bastion against a sinister group of conspirators whom Satan had infiltrated to destroy the last hope of Christianity from the earth.
The pagan "gods" were like men: they had passions, got mad and cursed you or were made happy and blessed you. The Egyptian gods loved the tears of lamentation, the Greek gods love to dance with the "worship team" the others loved the tambourines, drums and flutes. Apuleius considered any form of music unworthy of the highest God but was the worship "of the nations."
Celsus said that it was well known that "music pertained only to the lowest gods, the demons,
and that the highest divine being had no need of melodies and sounds. And again, Philo claimed that:
One cannot truly offer thanks to God as the vast majority of men do, with external effects, consecrated gifts and sacrifices..., but rather with songs of praise and hymns - not such as the audible voice sings, but such as are raised and re-echoed by the invisible mind. (Philo, De Plantations 126 (II 148 Cohn-Wendland)
Carl Ketcherside: Regardless of the spiritual and scriptural implications of the music question
(and we are convinced there are many such worthy implications)
we dare not overlook the circumstances and conditions which contributed to the division over the issue.
We must never lose sight of the fact that instrumental music in the social worship of the saints is one thing,
while division into two rival parties over the subject is a wholly different thing.
It is our contention that while such subjects as the use of an instrument may be debatable,
the subject of division among brethren is not debatable.
If opposition to the instrument is based upon the SILENCE of the APOSTOLIC doctrine,
opposition to division among the members of the family of God
must be based upon the positive declarations of scripture.PROPHECY, JESUS AND THE APOSTLES FILL SCRIPTURE WITH THE MARK OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
2 Peter 2:10 But chiefly them that
walk after the FLESH in the lust of uncleanness,
and despise government. Presumptuous are they,
selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. [i.e. Lie TO God and ABOUT God]
2 Peter 2:11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might,
bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.2 Peter 2:12 But these, as natural [instinctive] brute [Anti-Logical] brute beasts, [Zoon, Zao, Zoe]
made to be taken and destroyed,
speak evil of the things that they understand not; [through lack of knowledge]
and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
Natural: G5446 phusikos foo-see-kos' From G5449 [natural descent] ; physical, that is, (by implication) instinctive:--natural. Compare G5591
III. later, belonging to occult laws of nature, magical, ph. pharmaka spells or amulets, Alex. Trall.1.15; phusikois khrēsthai Gp.2.18.8; ph. therapeia ib.2.42.3; ph. daktulioi Sch.Ar.Pl.884. Adv. -kōs Gp.9.1.5.
2 Peter 2:13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness,\Speak Evil: G987 blasphēmeō From G989 ; to vilify; specifically to speak impiously:--(speak) blaspheme (-er, -mously, -my), defame, rail on, revile, speak evil.
Understand Not: G50 agnoeō ag-no-eh'-o, not to know (through lack of information or intelligence); by implication to ignore (through disinclination):(be) ignorant (-ly), not know, not understand, unknown.
Corruption: G5356 phthora fthor-ah' From G5351 ; decay, that is, ruin (spontaneous or inflicted, literally or figuratively):--plague take thee! away with thee, corruption, destroy, perish. deprave
Phtheiro b. with a Prep., luroidou, phtheiresthai pros tous plousious, of hangers-on and flatterers,
Luroidou akouō se lurōdou gunaikos eran kai eis ekeinēs phtheiromenon pasan tēn ephēmeron agran katatithesthai
lur-aoidos
A.one who sings to the lyre, harmonia meaning: In music, stringing, of bows and lyres,
musical scale, generally music: rhythm, acting, dancing.
hudr-aulκs one who plays the water organ
Corruption Hebrew: H2490 chβlal khaw-lal' figuratively to profane..
denominatively (from H2485) to play (the flute), take inheritance, pipe, player on instruments, pollute,
(cast as) profane [of Lucifer](self), prostitute
as they that count it pleasure [Hedonism: sensual pleasure, LUST. Outlawed Rom 15]
to riot in the day time.
Spots they are and blemishes,
sporting themselves Rising up to PLAY
with their own deceivings
while they feast with you
Truph-ē ,softness, delicacy, daintiness, 2 Ep.Pet.2.13; II. luxuriousness, wantonness, tōn gunaikōn hē t. Ar.Lys.387; t. kai akolasia, t. kai malthakia,
Paison paizτ [pais] 4. play on a musical instrument, h.Ap.206: c. acc., Pan ho kalamophthogga paizōn Ar.Ra.230; dance and sing, Pi. O.1.16. 5. play amorously, pros allēlous X.Smp.9.2; meta tinos LXX Ge.26.8; of mares
[See Plato-Symposium]
Symposium;
Then, said Eryximachus, as you are all agreed that drinking is to be voluntary, and that there is to be no compulsion,
I move, in the next place, that the flute-girl, who has just made her appearance,
be told to go away and play to herself, or, if she likes, to the women who are within.
To-day let us have conversation instead; and, if you will allow me, I will tell you what sort of conversation.
Jesus CAST OUT the flute girls and minstrels like dung to speak HIS Word.
tκn...aulκtrida. It was the fashion at convivia to provide pipers, dancers, jesters, jugglers et hoc genus omne to amuse the guests. aul-κtris , idos, hκ, A.flute-girl,
truphaτ , ( [truphκ] )Demosthenes 8 [34] As it is, by persuasive arts and caresses they have brought you to such a frame of mind that in your assemblies [Ekklesiais] you are elated by their flattery and have no ear but for compliments, while in your policy and your practice you are at this moment running the gravest risks. For tell me, in Heaven's name, if the Greeks should call you to account for the opportunities that your carelessness has already thrown away, and should question you thus:
2.revel in, entoisagathoistinos LXXSi.14.4 ; delight in, enagathτsunκisou ib.Ne.9.25.
A. live softly, luxuriously, fare sumptuously,, en ankalais mκtros truphκsai, of a child, E.Ion 1376, cf. Ba.969; t. en tais esthκsi Isoc.2.32 ; t. kai megaloprepτs diaitasthai X.Ath.1.11 ; leukos anthrτpos, pachus, argos . . , eiτthτs truphan Sosicr. 1 , cf. Ep.Jac.5.5, Gal.6.416, etc.; paison, truphκson, zκson: apothanein se dei Epigr.Gr.362.5 (Cotiaeum, ii/iii A. D.).
III.give oneself airs, be dainty, fastidious, connected to the Polus , Spoiled pets: en tais ekklκsiais t. kai kolakeuesthai, of the people,
Spoiled pets or demagogues in the ekklesia (church) who uses flattery to appease the masses.Carl Ketcherside: In any final analysis, such questions as instrumental music AGGRAVATE the problem of maintaining brotherly and family relationships,
but overt division is caused by an attitude toward brethren,
NOT by an attitude toward instrumental music or other such innovations.
It is because of this fact that I contend that social, political and economical factors, prevalent at a given time,
may have much to do with our spiritual reaction to troublesome and vexing problems.
Certainly the transformation in our national life wrought by the industrial revolution, or the effect of the Civil War on our social fabric,
have nothing to do with whether instrumental music in Christian worship is sanctioned by the Lord Jesus Christ,
but they may have a lot to do with the atmosphere in which such problems are discussed and in the manner in which the discussions terminate.It is possible, and I think quite probable,
that this great test of the restoration movement
had to end in division because of the very condition prevailing at the time of its introduction.
The Reformed Baptists defined by Campbell was never UNITED with the Disciple-Christian churches at any time in history. Churches of Christ came under brutal assault when the Disciples discovered the Greek PSALLO which they insisted COMMANDED instruments and those who did not JOIN the instrumental and society party were and are assaulted.
Carl Ketcherside: To maintain that state of division and to make the same accusations and counter-accusations as were made in its inception,
when conditions have altered, reveals that we are naive and childish.
This in no sense implies that a thing becomes right in one generation which was wrong in another
It does not argue that instrumental music in the corporate worship is sanctified by the passage of time.
Our contention is that it was an attitude toward brotherhood which resulted in the formation of distinct parties
around the pro and con of this issue,
The Disciples-Christians did not believe that Scripture had any authority in what they call "worship." Then and now they denounce the Logos or Regulative Principle of God. They are ANTI-God and ANTI-Christ who commanded that we teach and observe what HE commanded to be taught in the Prophets and Apostles.
Carl Ketcherside: and it is time for us to recapture the sense of brotherhood. We may never settle such questions as those which have split and fragmented us but we will settle our eternal destiny in a manner we do not crave if we do not love our brethren all of them!
In past generations those who lived in the remote hill country of our Missouri [page 8] Ozarks were often superstitious and illiterate. In spite of this they possessed a high degree of integrity and family honor.
Over Catholic threats most mothers owned a Bible. From Genesis to Revelation she would have never found a single example of group singing with or without instruments. In every use of the instrument she would notice the plan to silence God and also associated with BURNING. In no group other than some Methodists or Christians derived from the Church of England she would have OFTEN heard sermons about the church as a school of Christ. It was Alabama mothers who corrected the Stoneite preachers trying to force a breakdown.
When insulted they knew but one way to purge the blot from their name
and that was by AMBUSHING and killing the guilty person.
Often this provoked a feud which was carried on from generation to generation, with members of each clan swearing over their latest victim to "wipe the others out." I have personally immersed into Christ some of the descendants of these feuding families. They have gone to the same schools and sat in the same classes.
They are now members of the same congregations of the saints.
They have outgrown the cruder methods of their fathers.
Shall we learn in every department of life except the spiritual?
Will we perpetuate the same bitter feuds which made havoc of the restoration plea in past years?
Will we transmit to our children the same heritage of bitterness and SECTARIAN animosity which we have received from our fathers.2 Chron 20:18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.
2 Chron 20:19 And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites,
stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high.2 Chron 20:20 And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth,
Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem;
Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.2 Chron 20:21 And when he had consulted with the people,
he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness,
as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever.Rinnah (h7440) rin-naw'; from 7442; prop. a creaking (or shrill sound), i. e. shout (of joy or grief): - cry, gladness, joy, proclamation, rejoicing, shouting, sing (-ing), triumph.
And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set AMBUSHMENTS against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. 2 Chron 20: 22
Ranah (h7439) raw-naw'; a prim. root; to whiz: - rattle.
He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword. Job 39:22
The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield. Job 39:23
2. a song sung in honour of some god, Hdt.; nomoi polemikoi war- tunes, Thuc.
- Set Ambush
--polemikos 1 [polemos]
It occurs to me that if we can grasp the significant difference between a thing and the division which occurred among brethren when they discussed it, we will be able without compromise of any personal conviction to restore a concept of brotherhood as a proper framework for future investigation and examination. And it will help us to realize that the disintegration of brotherhood was encouraged by external forces of which the participants were wholly unaware at the time.
Those factors have been altered or amended in some cases and in most cases have passed away.
It is time for a re-study of brotherhood and fellowship in the light of more advanced knowledge
and free from the unfortunate interference of outside elements which had such an adverse influence a century ago--
free also from the personalities which then affected the struggle!
The instrument has lost its importance as a status symbol either in home or congregation. The industrial revolution which has acted to raise the living standard to such a high plane has made it possible for almost any home to possess radio and television. Aerials are seen above the poorest cabins and rudest shacks. Music appreciation is taught in schools. Congregations which oppose instrumental music have, in some instances, developed the art of singing until it is conceded by all that an instrument would he a hindrance instead of an aid. Those who do not employ instrumental music are no longer regarded as "old fogies." It not infrequently happens that their place in the industrial, economic and educational world earns for them in some communities a respect not enjoyed by many who contend for the instrument. The implications of the instrument as a social gauge have been completely altered.
The division now existing is an inherited one. We do not know of a single congregation that has been disturbed for several decades by the attempt to put in an instrument. We know of several that have suffered some unpleasantness when certain ones have sought to remove an instrument. Many of the brethren who see no harm in the use of an instrument and who do not consider it a sin would never recommend adoption of an instrument in a congregation that did not have one. Others in this category would gladly surrender the instrument in their locality if the decision were theirs to make, and if this one act would secure peace and harmony and reunite the divergent elements in love.
Under existing conditions it seems rather absurd to regard all who worship where an instrument is used as "dividers of churches," and to quote Romans 16:17 as universally applicable to them is both unfair and untrue. There is a difference between one who "causes division" and one who grows up in a state in which he may be wholly oblivious that division exists. It is also possible that the attitude of those who oppose the instrument has done as much to perpetuate the controversy as has a love for the instrument. The unbrotherly treatment that has been accorded has cemented the factional spirit in many communities.
The simple truth is that in the inception of the problem the partisan spirit
was not the exclusive possession of either side. This was demonstrated by the eagerness of both groups to rush into the courts of the land to guarantee their property rights often at the expense of their spiritual influence for generations to come. The ruin wrought by lawyers who knew nothing of the goals of the restoration movement and whose relation to the problem under dispute was on a mere mercenary plane can never be fully assessed until eternity reveals its effect in the lost souls driven away in discouragement or disgust.
[Page 9]Any sensible approach to the situation as it now exists must be made on a basis other than that of partisan debate by selected champions before the religious world. It is just possible that such an approach was never Christ-like in its nature, and was one of the means used by the Arch-foe to assure that the family of God would become so divided as to feel it was useless to ever strive for unity again. If we are to defeat his sinister designs we must reject his weapons which belong to "the works of the flesh." We must recognize that in every factional movement the partisan debate is one phase through which it passes until men can arise who look at the situation as a whole and who recognize that those methods which engender or encourage passion and emotion provide no rational solution of the difficulty. But we should reject such ineffective and outgrown weapons as we would the "law of fang and claw."
This does not mean that the question of the use of instrumental music is settled, or that it no longer needs to be studied and discussed. Men cannot be asked to set aside their convictions or to "just go along" with each other as if nothing had ever happened. Such a course would be merely following the path of least resistance and this always makes for crooked men. We must face up to the fact that in some places the question will never be settled in such a manner as to provide any working agreement. This should not deter us from working on the problem and lessening areas of tension where we can. It is possible that in the physical realm we shall never discover a cure for cancer which will be universally successful, but we must dedicate our energies toward trying to do so and never allow discouragements and setbacks to offset our zeal.
Our proposal is very simple. It is based upon the general recognition that before the division occurred we were united, all of us part of the same fellowship. The introduction of the instrument and other things placed a strain upon the ties of brotherhood. Under the existing conditions then prevalent our fathers sought to solve the problem by division and by a declaration that a state of brotherhood no longer existed. We need not question their sincerity nor impugn their motives. Instead we should credit them with the noblest intention, that of preserving the purity of the church and the original purpose of the restoration movement. But in the light of additional knowledge we can see that they misunderstood the implications of "fellowship" as the Holy Spirit used the term. Perhaps it would he safer to say that in the heat of the controversy they forgot those implications, at least temporarily. We must now decide whether we shall continue to perpetuate their mistaken concept.
If we decide to do so in order to preserve our partisan status, we shall doom our posterity to such recurrent divisions as will eventually divide the restoration movement out of existence. The philosophy adopted by our fathers was a factional one. It can never produce unity. It can only perpetuate existing divisions and breed new ones. If we decide to renounce this unscriptural concept of fellowship or brotherhood we can then begin to examine our points of difference from a new perspective, as brethren seeking for a common solution, not as enemies or aliens seeking to capture each other. We can recognize our differences as legitimate subjects for exploration but not occasions for division.
It is at this juncture we must personally face up to some grave problems as did our fathers in their day. One of those
problems is occasioned by fear--the fear that we may lose all we have gained so far. Thus, there are some who would take a limited view of our situation and who ask why we cannot restrict our efforts to restoring a proper sense of fellowship to those only who do not use the instrument. They are willing to recognize as bothers those who are divided over cups, classes, colleges, etc., and seek to alleviate the conditions existing among these, but they recoil from a recognition of those who employ the instrument in worship. They regard them as sectarian, whereas the groups who do not use instrumental music are looked upon as factions or parties within the church.
[Page 10]This attitude will never meet the needs of our day. In the first place it is unscriptural. It makes a distinction between sectism and factionalism, but these are applicable to the same thing so far as God's word is concerned. Moreover, it does not get to the real core of the problem. It is artificial and superficial. Our divisions have not been caused by things but by an attitude toward others of God's children, our brothers. It is not enough to merely nibble around at the troublesome issues which have arisen to plague us since we adopted the factional approach. We must go back to the time when we were misled into accepting that approach and reject it, and start to deal with our problems on a wholly different basis--one that will lead toward unity which God commands instead of toward division which he condemns.
This is a real adventure of faith! For those of us who have always lived sheltered, protected lives behind the barriers we have erected since our fathers chose the factional method in an attempt to protect what they had gained, it seems too risky and daring to associate with those of other factions and groups with a view to allowing the leaven of the Spirit to work in direct contact with the whole lump. But there are some considerations we should always bear in mind. First, it is false to assume that truth must always be overcome by error when they are brought into contact. Indeed it should be the other way around. Moreover, God is working in this age. The Holy Spirit is mightily at work in the hearts of many who are heirs of the restoration movement prompting toward unity and oneness. We do not risk anything when we submit and surrender ourselves completely to the guidance and care of the Spirit. We are never safer than at such a time.
Actually we are lost anyhow if we continue to evaluate our own little parties as the church of God and are thus led to disregard as our brethren those who have been reared in other factions. Nothing is a greater insult to the Father than the refusal to recognize His other children as our brothers. Instead of protecting what we have gained by maintaining a factional attitude, we actually insure our own condemnation. In the only portrayal which he gave of the final judgment scene, Jesus conditions our entrance into eternal rest upon our attitude toward and treatment of our brothers. This is the area to which we need to give the greatest attention for, if we believe Jesus, it is the one which will determine our right to be welcomed into the kingdom prepared for the faithful.
We can see no real gain to be derived from merely agreeing to recognize those who see "most things as we do," while we nourish the seed of partisanship in our hearts. It is not that we need to turn over a new leaf; we need to turn up with a new life! As we become convicted of the wrong inherent in our divided state we will be tempted to do the same things our fathers did three-quarters of a century ago. They chose the factional method of trying to preserve their spiritual gains; we may choose to gain spiritually by preserving the factional method. They doomed the restoration movement to failure by their choice; we will doom our souls eternally, for we could profit by their mistakes.
No faction among us today is "the loyal church." Not one is the church of God to the exclusion of all others. All of them are parties. They exist as monuments to our failure to keep the peace.
Their partisan gains and growth do not necessarily enrich the kingdom of heaven. Their multiplication is a disgrace to us and not a blessing to humanity. It is time for all of us to rise above the narrow partisan approach and to restore the spirit of the restoration movement. As I see it, this involves going back to the place where we began to divide, and not starting in at some subsequent point where we sub-divided. It means a recapture of the true sense of brotherhood in Christ Jesus based on the new birth. It does not mean endorsement of those things which were brought in to test and try our fathers. It does not mean the adoption of a single thing that you regard as an innovation or which you cannot conscientiously condone.
[Page 11]It does not involve a change of procedure where you worship. It does involve a change of heart toward those baptized believers who do not proceed as you do. It does not require surrender of any truth you hold, or of anything you hold to be a truth.
It only involves renunciation of the greatest error Satan ever palmed off upon us-
-the fallacy that we can untie ourselves into unity, split ourselves into harmony and divide ourselves into oneness.
I do not deny a single thing which our fathers in the faith discovered to be the truth, but I want it to be known to one and all that I renounce the factional approach which they adopted. In spite of their sincerity it was no part of the truth, it is not now and never will be!I regard as my brothers in the Christ every sincere immersed believer in the Lord Jesus. Our differences I will approach as differences between brothers, not as occasions of strife between aliens.
CARL DOESN'T GET THE RIGHT TO PASS JUDGMENT.
Rom. 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye YIELD yourselves servants to obey,
his servants ye are to whom ye obey;
whether of sin unto death,
or of obedience unto righteousness?
SAVED FROM WHAT?
Rom. 6:17 But God be thanked,
THAT ye WERE the servants of sin,
BUT ye have OBEYED from the heart
that FORM of doctrine which was delivered you.
OBEYED: g5219. hupakouo, hoop-ak-oo΄-o; from 5259 and 191; to hear under (as a subordinate), i.e. to listen attentively; by implication, to heed or conform to a command or authority: hearken, be obedient to, obey.
FORM: G5179. tupos, too΄-pos; from 5180; a die (as struck), i.e. (by implication) a stamp or scar; by analogy, a shape, i.e. a statue, (figuratively) style or resemblance; specially, a sampler (type), i.e. a model (for imitation) or instance (for warning): en-(ex-)ample, fashion, figure, form, manner, pattern, printRom. 6:18 Being THEN BEING MADE FREE FROM SIN
YE BECAME the SERVANTS of righteousness.
Rom. 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh:
FOR as ye HAVE YIELDED your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity;
even so NOW YIELD your members SERVANTS to righteousness unto holiness.
Rom. 6:20 For when ye WERE the servants of sin,
YE WERE free from righteousness.
Rom. 6:21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?
FOR the end of those things is death.
Rom. 6:22 But now being MADE FREE from sin,
and BECOME servants to God,
YE HAVE your fruit unto holiness,
AND the end everlasting LIFE.
Rom. 6:23 For the WAGES of sin is death;
[You EARNED death.]
BUT the GIFT of God is eternal life THROUGH Jesus Christ our Lord.
Col. 1:12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Col. 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness,
and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Col. 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood,
even the forgiveness of sins:
Col. 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of every creature:
Col. 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:
all things were created by him, and for him:
Col. 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col. 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church:
who is the beginning,
the FIRSTBORN from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col. 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col. 1:20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross,
by him to reconcile all things unto himself;
by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
Col. 1:21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled
Col. 1:22 In the body of his flesh through death,
to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Col. 1:23 If ye continue in THE FAITH grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel,
which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven;
whereof I Paul am made a minister;I deplore the introduction of instrumental music over the protests of the saints
but I deplore even more the adoption of the false premise that those who were my brothers yesterday are no longer my brothers today.
I renounce as untenable the very idea that brotherhood in Christ Jesus
is based upon any other consideration than the mutual Fatherhood of God.
"We are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus," .
TWISTING SCRIPTURE is to stop the mouth of the Spirit too soon.
Gal. 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith,
the same are the children of Abraham.
Gal. 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal. 3:27 (Enim What I mean to say is)
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
[27] quicumque enim in Christo baptizati estis Christum induistis
Enim why because, for, for instance, namely, that is to say, I mean, in fact I. To corroborate a preceding assertion, yes indeed, yes truly, of a truth, to be sure, certainly, indeed: A. To prove or show the grounds of a preceding assertion
ĕt-ĕnim I. conj., subjoins a corroborative clause, or one which contains the reason of a preceding statement, for, truly, and indeed, because that, since (not freq. till class. times, esp. in Cic.): verum profecto hoc petere me precario a vobis jussit ... Etenim ille, etc., Plaut. Am. prol. 26; Ter. And. 2, 6, 9; id. Eun. 5, 9, 44: praeclare quidem dicis; etenim video jam, quo pergat oratio, Cic. Rep. 3, 32; id. de Sen. 5 fin. et saep.: quippe etenim, Lucr. 1, 104; 2, 547; 3, 800; 5, 1062 al.: tutus bos etenim rura perambulat, Hor. C. 4, 5, 17.II. Esp., introducing parenthetical clauses (cf. enim, II. A.): ejus autem legationis princeps est Hejus (etenim est primus civitatis), ne forte, etc., Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 7; id. Att. 10, 17 fin.; id. Lael. 17, 62; id. Ac. 2, 31, 99; Liv. 3, 24 fin. (etenim always begins the clause, Krebs, Antibarb. p. 423; Madvig, Opusc. Acad. 1, 390). See Hand, Turs. II. pp. 540-545.
Cic. Off. 1.39 13. Again, if under stress of circumstances individuals have made any promise to the enemy, they are bound to keep their word even then. For instance, in the First Punic War, when Regulus was taken prisoner by the Carthaginians, he was sent to Rome on parole to negotiate an exchange of prisoners;
Carl Ketcherside: and not by conformity on matters of opinion or interpretation
That musical instruments were historically "make the lambs dumb before the slaughter" and the MARK of Burning is not based on personal opinion or interpretation.
There is no command, example or remote inference that Scripture contains a single example of group singing with or without instruments. Mechanical noise makers are "machines for doing hard work."
It is my intention, if God spares my life, to deal directly and positively
with the rise of the FACTIONAL spirit, in our next issue.THE PERSON WHO INTRODUCES SOME UNSCRIPTURAL PRACTICES IS THE HERETIC. One is not a heretic to obey when they say "get over it or get out."
A heretic or ECUMENICAL sectarian invades and steals your property;
Haireτ Il.; hair, tina kheiros to take one by the hand,
A. Act., take with the hand, grasp, seize, having taken up [the song], Od.8.500.
2. take away II. take, get into one's power, overpower, kill, of passions,
catch, take, zτon [ZOE: take away life] helein Il.21.102 ; take in hunting, get into one's power, entrap,
II. take, get into one's power, nēas ib.13.42; esp. take a city, 2.37, S.Ph.347,
freq. of passions, etc., come upon, seize,
B. Med., with pf. hērēmai (v. supr.), take for oneself, egkhos helesthai take one's spear,
II. take to oneself, choose,
Hairetos verb. adj. of haireō I. that may be taken or conquered, Hdt.; that may be understood, Plat.
Homer, Odyssey The muses were taught by Apollo
So he spoke, and the minstrel, moved by the god, began, and let his song be heard, [500] taking up the tale where the Argives had embarked on their benched ships and were sailing away, after casting fire on their huts, while those others led by glorious Odysseus were now sitting in the place of assembly of the Trojans, hidden in the horse; for the Trojans had themselves dragged it to the citadel.
Girard 5.4.2 Behind the anthropological predilections against the victim's perspective, there is a very practical, quasi-historical reason:
namely, he victim is shunned and often killed. In the ancient world,
the role of music during ritual sacrifice was often
to drown out any cries from the victim.
When the priests who still believed that Dionysus or the "new wineskin god" was to be the Messiah
It roused the lust of many to restore the Abomination of Desolation in the temple now dedicated to
Zeus (now they say "Je-Zeus or hail Zeus just out of college). The "initiation of Dionysus" involved
the singing and dancing they hoped to induce in Jesus when they Piped. This was the "religion"
of the Agora or marketplace. This was a PAINFUL initiation and they played loud music to hide
the agony.
It is crucial that the victim not be heard.
The practical mechanics of making victims
means that it is unusual for the victim's perspective to survive.
In the world of ancient ritual it was probably impossible.
The Greek verb musteron means to close the mouth or shut the eyes.
Myth means to close ourselves to the victim
and tell the tale according to the perpetrator's perspective;
mystery cults are based on the silence of the victims;
music derives from drowning out the voice of the victim.
It was prophesied that Judas would FAIL in this attempt but the Levitical Warrior musicians
Mocked Jesus to the cross. However, their celebration. was short.
5.5.3 This is not to say that the victim's perspective is on display everywhere in the Hebrew scriptures. Girard has called them a "text in travail," that is to say, a text struggling to finally and clearly give voice to the victim in history.
The Suffering Servant Song of Isaiah 53 is but a pinnacle in this long, excruciating process in history of the victim's voice becoming heardIt will be my purpose to show how
those who opposed innovations chose the factional method of dealing with their brethren who introduced them,
and how these latter then adopted that method in retaliation, and aggravated, irritated and agitated
until in many communities the bitterness created by this intestine strife and civil war still lingers
to haunt the battlefield and to thwart any real hope of producing unity until hearts are purged and renovated.
We shall quote from legal briefs and court decisions to show how love had fled and mercy hid her face while hate was enthroned on the sacred altar.
Isa 4:3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem,
shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:Isa 4:4 When the Lord shall have WASHED away the filth of the daughters of Zion,
and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof
by the SPIRIT of judgment,
and by the SPIRIT of BURNING
Is. 4:5 And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion,
and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day,
and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.Isaiah 4: 6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat,
and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.Umbrācŭlum , I. any thing that furnishes shade). I Lit., a shady place, bower, arbor,Verg. E. 9, 42. B. Transf., a SCHOOL A sunshade, parasol, umbrella, DOMOS (excludes Priests and Levites) b. In philos lang.,<b> a philosophical school, sect </b>, Cic. Ac. 1, 4; Sen. Ep. 29 fin.; id. Ben. 5, 15. audĭo, to hear, to perceive or understand by hearing, to learn, the person from whom one hears or learns any thing, Seneca identifies the School as:Matt. 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth:verbum words, expressions, language, discourse, conversation logosdīco praedico, recito, declamo, affirmo
I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Matt. 10:35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father,
and the daughter against her mother,
and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Matt. 10:36 And a mans foes shall be they of his own household.
Matt. 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me:
and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Matt. 10:38 And he that taketh not his cross,
and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Matt. 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it:
and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Matt. 10:40 He that receiveth you receiveth me,
and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
Matt. 10:41 He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet
shall receive a prophets reward;
and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man
shall receive a righteous mans reward.
Matt. 10:42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones
a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple,
verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.eace from the earth,
and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
Luke 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth;
and what will I if it be already kindled?Luke 12:50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with;
and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!
g4912. sunecho, soon-ekh΄-o; from 4862 and 2192; to hold together, i.e. to compress (the ears, with a crowd or siege) or arrest (a prisoner); figuratively, to compel, perplex, afflict, preoccupy: constrain, hold, keep in, press, lie sick of, stop, be in a strait, straiten, be taken with, throng.
Luke 12:51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth?
Luke 12:52 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided,
I tell you, Nay; but rather division:
three against two, and two against three.
2Pet. 3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of,
that by the WORD of God the heavens were of old,
and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
2Pet. 3:6 Whereby the WORLD that then was,
being overflowed with water, perished:
2Pet. 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now,
by the same word are kept in store,
RESERVED UNTO FIRE
against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
Perhaps what is said in the paper next month will humble us all as it should. Certainly as I contemplate my own past and see how I was victimized by the party spirit bequeathed from our ancestors, as I realize how I even regarded the sacred oracles as a repository of scriptures to be drawn upon for factional conquest, I am saddened, distressed and penitent. I do not ask you to concur with what I write. I only ask you to fervently pray for me that I may have understanding of His will for my brief life and courage to fulfill the design without fear of what men may do unto me.We believe that every anxious member of the fellowship of the concerned will want to share the paper next month with others who need to be shaken from their complacency. We promise you that it will be worth reading, even though you cannot find it in your heart to agree with its contents. In the meantime, you are my brother if you are God's child, and I love you sincerely because I love Him. I am resolved to make nothing a test of fellowship or communion which He has not made a condition of salvation! This recognizes my right to disagree with my brothers in Christ and respects their right to disagree with me. Thus Jesus becomes central in our thinking and we truly become one in Him!
Back to Jay Guin in "oneinjesus" Reviews
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