David Davenport, Pepperdine University, Romans 14:1-15:13
Romans 14 denies any right to DISPUTE or DIALOG private lives.
No clergy can go there.
Romans 15 defines the SYNAGOGUE which is a school of the Bible and nothing but the Bible is dialoged or disputed there. Jesus outlwaed the "doctors of the law" because they "take away the key to knowledge.
No clergy can go there.
Even if a professional could infiltrate the church of Christ as synagogue, it is an UNFUNDED role.
This lecture is avaliable at:
http://media.sonstream.com:554/ramgen/pepperdine00/davenport1pep2k.rm
David Davenport went through the TRADITIONAL listing of ecumenical meanings of Romans 14 and even had high praise for Max Lucado as a primary leader in the church. Doesn't he claim to be closer to the Baptists?
Romans 14 defines the "private lives" of people in their social dealings or when eating meat in the pagan temples. Paul defines this as HANDS OFF as fodder for disputations or dialogs in songs and sermons during the SYNAGOGUE defined in Romans 15.
FIRST: The clergy has NO control as a COMMUNITY CHURCH or COMMUNE to hire a staff infection to burn up all of the surplus time and money of the widows and honest working people.
Paul moves directly to Romans 15 to define the church as a SYNAGOGUE and outlaws arousal singing.
The people CALL themselves into assembly, they read or "sing" that which is written which Paul defines as scripture.
They speak with ONE MIND and ONE MOUTH as the only way to fulfil the TEACHING demands for the other "singing" passages.
This glorifies Jesus Christ just as singing Twila Paris glorifies Twila Paris.
This keeps the peace because Romans 14 had outlawed their DIALOGING (never preaching) any of the issues NOT connected with "teaching that which has been taught."
SECOND: Unless the congregation is utterly illiterate then there can be NO Staff Infection exercisign any ruling or mediating role in song or sermon. We have the historical record to prove that SINGING as an ACT was first added in the year 373.
CONCLUSION: Therefore, PROVEN, there is no role for performance preaching or singing. In fact, by the pattern of the synagogue, the practice of Jesus, the direct command of Paul and the practice for hundreds of years.
Paul puts the cap on the PATTERNISM directly commanded by assuring them that
Romans 15:14 And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.
PEOPLE ABUSE ROMANS 14 BECAUSE THEY WANT TO FORCE YOU INTO SUBMITTING TO THEIR FALSE TEACHINGS.
Martin Luther writing about Romans 14-15 proves that liberty is about correct things. The goal is to correct the ERROR by teaching and not CO-EXIST with it.
He goes on to speak of the assembly where DIVERSITY is not permitted because the RITUALS are anti-Christian.
HANDS OFF OUTSIDE OF THE ASSEMBLY
47. Having destroyed unity, taken captive the conscience and deprived of liberty, the.
Pope proceeds to take your money. Then he gives you a bill of exchange permitting you to eat butter, eggs and meat a privilege Christ gave you in the Gospel, a privilege whereof the Pope robbed you and which he as the pious shepherd sells to you again.
49. But in things not optional with us, things prescribed or prohibited by Christ, there is little room for disputation, whether it be the weak in conscience or the strong who are concerned. In such case every individual, the least as well as the greatest,
is under obligation to withstand the Pope; for instance, when he and all his followers teach that the mass is to be regarded as in the nature of a sacrifice and a good work.
This is the most monstrous abomination that ever arose on earth. On it is founded the Pope's government with all its cloisters and other institutions.
In this error no one is excusable, whether weak or strong; for Christ instituted the mass as a sacrament and testament.
No one, can sell or transfer it or give it away.
As in the case of baptism, each must receive it for himself.HANDS OFF INSIDE OF THE ASSEMBLY
52. All the good we can do to God is to praise and to thank him. This is the only true service we can render him, according to his words in Psalm 50, 23:
"Whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifieth me; and to him that ordereth his way aright will I show the salvation of God."
We receive all blessings from him, in return for which we should make the offering of praise.
If anything else purporting to be service to God is presented for your consideration rest assured it is erroneous and delusive.
Luther is not speaking of a ritual where we PERFORM a PRAISE SERVICE. RATHER, worship must be continually aware of and thankful for God's grace.
For instance, the distracted world attempts to serve God by setting apart houses, churches, cloisters; vestures, gold-trimmed, silk and [50] every other kind;
........... silver vessels and images; bells and organs, candles and lamps;
........... the money for which expense should have been appropriated
........... to the poor if the object was to make an offering to God.Further, it keeps up a muttering and wailing in the churches day and night.
But true praise and honor of God, a service that cannot be confined to place or person, is quietly ignored the world over.The pretenses of priests and monks about their system of exercises being service to the Lord, are false and delusive.
53. Service to God is praise of him. It must be free and voluntary, at table, in the chamber, cellar, garret, in house or field, in all places, with all persons, at all times. Whosoever teaches otherwise is no less guilty of falsehood than the Pope and the devil himself.
But how shall there be with us honor and praise of God, true service to him, when we neither love him nor receive his blessings? And how shall we love him when we do not know him and his blessings?
And how shall we know him and his blessings when no word is preached concerning them
and when the Gospel is left to lie under the table?
Where the Gospel is not in evidence, knowledge of God is an impossibility.Then to love and praise him is likewise impossible. As a further consequence it is necessarily impossible for divine service to exist.
Even if all the choristers were one chorister, all the priests one priest, all the monks one monk, all the churches one church, all the bells one bell; in brief if all the foolish services offered to God in the institutions,
churches and cloisters were a hundred thousand times greater and more numerous than they are,
what does God care for such carnivals and juggling?54. Therefore, God complains most of the Jews in the second chapter of Micah,
........... because they silenced his praise,while at the same time,
........... they piped, blared and moaned like we do.
........... True divine service of praise cannot be established with revenues,
........... nor be circumscribed by laws and statutes.
........... High and low festivals have nothing to do with it.
........... It emanates from the Gospel, and certainly is
........... as often rendered by a poor, rustic servant as by a great bishop. [51]HANDS OFF ANYWHERE BY SELF-PROCLAIMED "MEDIATORS IN SONG OR SERMON" OR TAKING UP CONNECTIONS FROM THE POOR TO FEED THOSE JOHN CALVIN CALLED THE "LAZY ASSES."
THOSE TO BE TOLERATED
Rom 16:12 Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa,
............ who labour in the Lord.
............ Salute the beloved Persis,
............ which laboured much in the Lord.THOSE YOU MUST NOT TOLERATE
Rom 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren,
............ mark them which cause divisions and
............ offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned;
............ and avoid them.Rom 16:18 For they that are such
........... serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly;
............ and by good words and fair speeches
............ deceive the hearts of the simple.Such teachers are not working for our Lord Jesus, but only want gain (i.e. money) for themselves. They are good speakers, and simple-minded people are often fooled by them." (#6: The Living Bible, Rm 16:18
The tail end of the speech was to quote "the solution" which was that we should all be united or Speak With One Voice.
Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: Romans 15:5
That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:6
Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us, to the glory of God. Romans 15:7
However, Paul will say that the only POSSIBLE way to speak with one voice is to speak THAT WHICH HAS BEEN WRITTEN." Once we veer to the left or right we are going to "navigate" into some radical winds of change.
The Bible never uses MUSIC as a way to worship a Spirit God in the place of the human Spirit. None of the "civilan" Israelites ever worshiped with "congregational singing and instrumental accompaniment." In fact many passages use instruments as the MARK of people who refuse to listen to the Words of God.
Now, that makes a good Postmodern or Narrative Theology story but we have all been too handy with trying to balance one half of the equation with all of the other half. For instance,
2 + 2 = 4 is the absolute truth.
However,
-- + 2 = 4 will not work
But what is the whole counsel of God? It is really easy to miss the meaning of the problem in Romans 14 and the solution in chapter 15. The problem was diverse backgrounds all of which were highly musical: the solution was for everyone to meet as synagogue or SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE.
If the church meets to permit "styles of worship" then wholesale sowing of discord is guraranteed. Paul went further and insisted that Timothy "give attendance" (a worship word) to the public reading of the Word. And Peter insisted that the word is not subject to private interpretation which means "further expounding." That eleminates sermonizing which was virtually outlawed in the synagogue as "allegorizing" or "applicating" the word to "today's culture."
There were many people out of various religious backgrounds who would hold sentimental attachment to their old religion as the were JUST OUT OF PAGANISM as young Christians. However, there are two three important backgrounds which define the entire Greco-Roman world much better than the Jewish background. The first were the Orphics who were the only vegetarians unless there were Essenes present. They were highly charismatic and used instrumental music to get themselves HIGH as their pseudo-preachers told them that this was the gods within them making the enthus o manic or as Paul would say, "crazy or mad."
Apollo who is the Abaddon or Apollyon of Revelation and
the Seeker-Center at the Oracle of Delphi--just up the coast from
Corinth.
"ORPHEUS was the son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope. He was presented by his father with a lyre and taught to play upon it, which he did to such perfection that nothing could withstand the charm of his music. Not only his fellow-mortals, but wild beasts were softened by his strains, and gathering round him laid by their fierceness, and stood entranced with his lay. Nay, the very trees and rocks were sensible to the charm. The former crowded round him and the latter relaxed somewhat of their hardness, softened by his notes.
Next, there were the Dionysiacs who piped trying to make Jesus sing and dance. They were wine-drinking, meat eaters. They, too, were highly addicted to music to make the spirits come.
The Pythagoreans were somewhat like the Orphics.
Because the Smith and Musician were members of the family, it is thought that the first "musical instrument" was derived from various hammers CLAINGING metal on an anvil. This developed into music and compositions were made for it.
The Pythagoreans were
vegetarians
In 525 BC Cambyses II, the king of Persia, invaded Egypt. Polycrates abandoned his alliance with Egypt and sent 40 ships to join the Persian fleet against the Egyptians. After Cambyses had won the Battle of Pelusium in the Nile Delta and had captured Heliopolis and Memphis, Egyptian resistance collapsed. Pythagoras was taken prisoner and taken to Babylon. Iamblichus writes that Pythagoras (see [8]):-
... was transported by the followers of Cambyses as a prisoner of war. Whilst he was there he gladly associated with the Magoi ... and was instructed in their sacred rites and learnt about a very mystical worship of the gods. He also reached the acme of perfection in arithmetic and music and the other mathematical sciences taught by the Babylonians...
Now Iamblichus (De Mysteries, III.ix) goes into the matter of the so-called Corybantic and Bacchic 'frenzies' produced by musical instruments in the Mysteries of Ceres and Bacchus; and in his Life of Pythagoras (xxv) he, further, tells us that:"Farther still, the whole Pythagoric school produced by certain appropriate songs, what they called exartysis, or adaptation; synarmoge, or elegance of manners; and epaphe, or contact,
usefully conducting the dispositions of the soul to passions contrary to those which it before possessed.
"The Orphic creeds werse the basis of the Pythagorean brotherhood, which flourished in southern Italy beginning in the 6th century BC. The Pythagoreans were aristocratic fraternities that sometimes had a political scope. Their main achievements, however, lay in the fields of music, geometry, and astronomy. They discovered that these subjects could be explained by numbers and ratios. Combining Orphic eschatology (the study of the last things, especially death and afterlife) with their discoveries,
Of the Dionysiacs
"Instruments, especially flutes and drums,
were used to induce
ecstasy, or
frenzy, in the worshippers of
certain deities.
The devotees of Thracian Dionysus (Bacchus) engaged in
orgies at night. Members of the
society were seized with a divine madness as they danced to the music and would
seize an animal who was
believed to be the incarnation of the god, tear the body limb from
limb, and eat it on the spot. By this sacred communion they hoped to
attain union
with their god and themselves become Baccoi.
There was a wave of Bacchic enthusiasm that swept Italy in 185 B.C.
and created such a scandal that it was sternly repressed by the Roman
senate." (Green, William M., The Church Fathers and Musical
Instruments" unpublished paper, p. 32).
"Dionysus certainly roves more than the other gods; the traditional picture of him is not one of him sitting sedately on Olympus sipping nectar and listening to the Muses (9 females) sing. Rather it is one of him roaming through the wilderness, thrysus (a {shaking} reed bound with ivy and topped with a pine cone) in hand, followed by bands of ecstatic women, his Bacchants, and spreading the art of cultivation of vines and of wine-making. Other gods may leave Olympus, but it is not habitual with them as it is with dionysus.
"His worship involved transvestism and the blurring of sex roles. Men and women both dressed in long robes covered by fawnskins, and women, as bacchants, left their normal sphere of activity, the home, and danced madly on mountainsides. dionysus even looks somewhat ambiguous sexually; Pentheus in the Bacchae comments on the god's effeminacy: his long curls, his pale complexion.
Now, back to 2 + 2 = 4
First, the church was much like the ekklesia or synagogue neither of which had a PRAISE SERVICE. The ekklesia was a called meeting to hear evidence and reach decisions; the synagogue was A SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE and not a pagan worship center.
Next, in a pragmatic sense, modern denominational division is the direct result of seeing church as WORSHIP CENTER rather than a school of the Bible or as Thomas Campbell identified a Restoration Movement church as A School of Christ. Until that is restored, there IS no Restoration Movement and we cannot blame Campbell for failing when we have turned church int a PAGAN WORSHIP CENTER where ecumenical worship with the musical groups is a founding principle of most "Christian Universities."
Here is what Paul REALLY said but missed by David Davenport and most others who see Romans 14 as a general law which demands fellowship with those with whom we disagree:
WE then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Romans 15:1
Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification (education). Romans 15: 2
For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. Romans 15:3
Have you noticed that in the Worship Wars promoted among churches that people are willing to lie, cheat and steal the church houses of widows just in order to PLEASE THEMSELVES or, like Apollo (Abaddon, Apollyon) establish a Seeker Center which is called a Theater for Holy Entertainment to please others to attract them to the temple money changers.
See Ronnie Norman on Hebrews 14
The Literature connects this pleasuring to sexual and homosexuality which was part of the DIVERSITY of Romans 14.
Aresko (g700) ar-es'-ko; prob. from 142 (through the idea of exciting emotion); to be agreeable (or by impl. to seek to be so): - please.
Airo (g142) ah'ee-ro; a prim. verb; to lift; by impl. to take up or away; fig. to raise (the voice), keep in suspense (the mind); spec. to sail away (i.e. weigh anchor); by Heb. [comp. 5375] to expiate sin: - away with, bear (up), carry, lift up, loose, make to doubt, put away, remove, take (away, up).
Areskô involves the following:
Arg-aô , II. of men, like sphrigaô, swell with lust, wax wanton, be rampant, Ar.Lys.1113, Av. 462 (where the Sch. explains it epithumêtikôs echô) ; ho ep' aphrodisiois mainomenos . . orgôn Poll.6.188 ; of human beings and animals, to be in heat, desire sexual intercourse, organ pros tên homilian, ocheian, Arist.HA542a32,560b13 ; o. ocheuesthai ib.500b11 ; pros to gennan Plu. 2.651c
2. generally, to be eager or ready, to be excited, Lakedaimoniôn orgôntôn emellon peirasesthai Th.4.108 ; orgôntes krinein judge under the influence of passion, Id.8.2
Hêdonê [hêdomai]
1. delight, enjoyment, pleasure, Lat. voluptas, Hdt., etc.; hêdonêi hêssasthai, charizesthai to give way to pleasure, Thuc., Plat., etc.:--often with Prepositions in adv. sense, pros or kath' hêdonên legein to speak so as to please another, Hdt., attic; kath' hêdonên kluein, akouein Soph., Dem.; kath' hêdonên or pros hêd. esti moi Aesch.; ho men esti pros hêd. that which is agreeable, Dem.; en hêdonêi esti tini it is a pleasure or delight to another, Hdt., etc.
All arousal or PLEASURING forms of worship derive from GRACE who was the brown eyed Greek prostitute. The GRACE-CENTERED is ignorant that Paul's use of the word is to POINT AWAY from the worship or CHARA which defines ALL MUSICAL worship as charismatic and therefore the PERSONA of perversion. That is why people flee from their OWN church property every time music is introduced.
The reproaches of the Temple manned by fans of Dionysus would attempt to get Jesus naked to do the singing and dancing ritual while THEY PIPED. The "initiation" was masked by loud instruments and the CHILDREN were the children abused as CHORUS LEADERS:
Ps.69:9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
Cherphah (h2781) kher-paw'; from 2778; contumely, disgrace, the pudenda: - rebuke, reproach (-fully), shame.
Charaph (h2778) khaw-raf'; a prim. root; to pull off, i. e. (by impl.) to expose (as by stripping); spec. to betroth (as if a surrender); fig. to carp at, i. e. defame; denom. (from 2779) to spend the winter: - betroth, blaspheme, defy, jeopard, rail, reproach, upbraid.
We have recorded actual cases where some lust for the old folk to die or leave so WE can have our silly, effeminate and effeminizing "Musical Praise Team" not knowing that the notion of praise rituals is a very old legalistic confession that the gods were so feeble that the "audience" had to help them keep the sky from falling.
HOW THE EKKLESIA OR SYNAGOGUE IS CONDUCTED TO EXCLUDE DIVERSITY.
Now, as in all of the "singing" passages, the Word of God is the only resource for the public assembly when everyone gives up their own "style of worship" and assembles for a School of the Bible:
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Romans 15: 4
Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: Romans 15: 5
That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15: 6
In Chapter 16 Paul will continue to define the EKKLESIA or school of the Bible.
Rom 16:25 Now to him that is of power to
............ stablish you according to my gospel,
............ and the preaching of Jesus Christ,
............ according to the revelation of the mystery,
............ which was kept secret since the world began,Rom 16:26 But now is made manifest,
............ and by the scriptures of the prophets,
............ according to the commandment of the everlasting God,
............ made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:Rom 16:27 To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
Diverse groups can have unity and glorify God with one voice by LEARNING from the Scriptures or "that which was written" just as Jesus as "Son" validated His role by speaking Only what He heard from the Father:
Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us,
........... to the glory of God. Romans 15: 7
David sang to the Gentiles because God had given him power to shed the blood OF the Gentiles. However, Christ sings among the Gentiles because He shed His blood FOR the Gentiles. He sings when we with one mouth use that which is written to teach one another:
Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister (deacon or minister) of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: Romans 15: 8
This promise has been fulfilled only to believers who are then baptized:
Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christs, then are ye Abrahams seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Most of the diverse backgrounds of Romans 14 were the backgrounds of Greco-Roman Gentiles. The only way that both Jew and diverse Gentiles might glorify God is by speaking that which has been written defining "What" God has done and recorded in the Word by the Spirit of Christ (1 Pe 1:11):
And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. Romans 15: 9
You cannot get the Gentiles to praise the Lord and laude him unless you take the "root of Jesse" and His message so that He can reign over them when they put their trust in Him:
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Romans 15:13
And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Romans 15: 14
This is the same word used in Colossians:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Col.3:16
Too bad, but that leaves no room for "doctors of the law" whom Jesus fired to make way for the 'one another' teaching of the Word by speaking "that which is written" where sermonizing was one of the first apostasies.
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 1Co.10:11
The word means MIND + ESTABLISHMENT. THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TICKLING THE NERVE ENDINGS.
There are two cycles in Romans 15 which are quite identical to the "singing" passages of Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3: