The PROPHETS have Spoken. Spirit means that God put His WORD into the MOUTH of the Prophets. The prophets defined the future Kingdom of Christ both inclusively and exclusively.  Jesus Called Holy Scripture the Prophets and "other  prophecies concerning me."  The Apostles were eye-- and ear--witnesses of Jesus certifying the Prophets with supernatural signs and wonders.  The apostle, such as Peter, outlawed private interpretation or Further Expounding.  He and others left their PART of "The Perfect Law of Liberty".

But, on the other hand, isn't Dr. Shelly promoting an ecumenical spirit to BECOME ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE? Since Scripture repudiates INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC from beginning to the end in Revelation 18 isn't promoting MUSICAL WORSHIP teams and instruments an attempt to become like the world in order to ATTRACT the world?

Rubel Shelly and Randy Harris quote a writer (who they understand could not really throw away the old computer) to say--

"To get out of the (computer) traps, we need to revive the time-honored Aztec custom of

cyclical destruction and renewal.

But we'd need a much smaller Sun Calendar because our 'end-of-the-world' cycles should run five years, max." (Rubel Shelley - Randy Harris, Second Incarnation, p. 243)

See more of Randy Harris in trying to make the church of Christ a child of TRADITON rather than the Bible in DISCOVERING OUR ROOTS. We will show you how SCHOLARS read scholarly works but undoubtedly have never read men such as Martin Luther. Luther repudiates all of the false claims about Luther used to promote denominational roots.

But, the Aztecs also had an every 52 week Jubilee. Their calender had 360 days and 5 1/4 dayes of intense dread that without their help the social order and even the sky would collapse. This was quite similar to that held in Babylon as a new years festival. We have examined the Aztec Jubilee here. The catholic church used similar techniques to make a huge number of converts. However, the seekers brought their own religious practices with them.

The only way to be a prophet unless you are inspired is to imitat Jesus:

I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Jn.17:14

They kill prophets, you know. So don't expect to give up following the priests and take up with the prophets unless you are willing to be thrown into a cistern by those using the Guilt Clause:

Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt. Jer 38:4

So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king's son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud. Jer 38:6

The insurmountable obstacle keeping priests from ever being a prophet under the Law.

As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. John 12:47

There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word (Logos) which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. John 12:48

There are two arenas for human work:

> If any man speak,

let him speak as the oracles of God;

Paul insisted that elders or others "teach that which has been taught and rebuke those who oppose it." They have no other duty. Jesus defined as SONSHIP by saying that He spoke only that which He heard from the Father within. That meant that His words were Spirit and Life (John 6:63). Philosophical preachig repudiates the PATTERN of Jesus and the direct commands of Paul. However, if you have a human talent you are free to ENSLAVE yourself to aid people.

> 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. 1 Peter 4:11

As a Prophetic Presence:

As the "Son" not even Jesus Christ would take on the role of the "Father." Therefore, He only spoke what He heard from the Father.

And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. Deut 18:17

I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. Deut 18:18

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. Deut 18:19

But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name,

which I have not commanded him to speak,

or that shall speak in the name of other gods,

even that prophet shall die. Deut 18:20

We will see that Jesus identifies the Devil as a liar because he speaks on his own. Therefore, if we speak there is no "speaking" or "singing" role for anyone in the church which does not speak the Words of God. The way to be a prophesier in Corinth would be to say Amen or "This is the Word of the Lord." If it is my words then it is not an oracle, I am not a prophet and I am taking on God's role for myself:

Oracle is: Logion (g3051) log'-ee-on; neut. of 3052; an utterance of God: - oracle.

This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: Ac.7:38

Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. Ro. 3:2

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. Heb.5:12

God does not need and will not tolerate human composers of "praise hymns" with the claim of superiority to Lord Jesus Christ. He gave no human the "supernatural gift" of being a musician, dancer or theatrical preacher in order to "facilitate" His Word. He spits you out.

As a Minister

You cannot fail to miss the point that public speaking, charismatic delivery, song writing, singing talent or the talent of playing instruments as a Divine gift. Therefore, there is no role for either in the assembly.

A minister is:

Diakoneo (g1247) dee-ak-on-eh'-o; from 1249; to be an attendant, i.e. wait upon (menially or as a host, friend or [fig.] teacher); techn. to act as a Chr. deacon: - (ad-) minister (unto), serve, use the office of a deacon.

Some people have the gift of delivering the Word without cutting and pasting it to make it into some magical incantation. They have the ability to tell the story as it has been delivered. Because Scripture is not subject to "private interpretation" or further expounding, it takes a huge amount of talent to keep self and society out of the story.

Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Mt.20:28

Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Col.1:25

Jesus as the Image and Word of God does not "improvize" any more than our words improvise over our own Mind. To allow this to happen constitutes "speaking in tongues" and is a sign of spiritual confusion.

Therefore, Christ did not come as IMPROVISING SPEAKER but honored the word of the Father as the Oracle of God.

Christ did come as minister to deliver that word and to suffer and die as a prophet.

When we improvise we cease to be Christ-like, are guilty of the devil's sin of lying, and fail to be a minister.

I think that Jesus became ENRAGED when the Superstitious Musical Worship Team tried to perform their ritual with and for the dead. He cast them out "more or less violently" using a word which means "like ejecting dung." I think that He was truly hurt when Psalm 41's prediction that Judas would attempt to "triumph over" him with the mocking music of the Levitical Warrior Musicians came true.

Jesus declared that the Word is free and "worship" is free of the Burden Laders and their laded burdens. Rather than a pagan worship center Jesus promised to "Build my synagogue" which was even in the wilderness A School of the Bible. It has no staff infection and it has no LADED BURDENS of "programs" as the curse of the PYRAMID God inflicted on Israel when they FIRED God and demanded a human king so that they could worship like the nations. The school has a "singing" part to "glorify God with one voice" by "speaking that which is written." However, it is ANTI-Christian and Anti-synagogue to inflict or afflict the congregation with performance music:

Funny thing about those who ridicule "the boring first service." They believe that they can look at a person who may be the only person truly worshiping God "in spirit" or in mind and accusing them of being bored or morose, like John the Baptist, because he didn't participate in the social meals with eating and drinking.

The problem with a brand new patternism from downtown Babylon is that it seeks to find people interested in externals such as performance preaching, musical or theatrical performance and someone to tell them that they are just fine. The result will be a fellowship built of carnal minds:

Adolf Hitler: Finally, in view of the superficial character of men, there is the great danger that they will see the essential task of a movement in this purely outward formulation of a program. Then the will and the power to fight for an idea recede, and the activity which should turn outward will wear itself out in inner programmatic squabbles.

"Based on the concept of an organic pattern in the life course of civilization, a morphology of history: the idea that every culture has its period of youth, its period of culmination, its years then of beginning to totter with age and of striving to hold itself together by means of rational planning, projects, and organization, only finally to terminate in decrepitude, petrification... and no more life. Moreover, in this view of Spengler's, we were at present on the point of passing from what he called the period of Culture to Civilization, which is to say, from our periods of youthful, spontaneous, and wonderful creativity to those of

uncertainty and anxiety, contrived programs, and the beginning of the end." (Campbell, Joseph, Myths to Live By, p. 84)

But, you cannot look at a person and be so cock sure that you know whether they are or are not worshiping.

What is the collective period but some external activity. You certainly have no time for the human "spirit" to listen to or talk to God as Spirit. And Sistern Singers and musical instruments may remove the bordom but you cannot worship while watching and listening to someone else perform.

When Judas as the agent of Satan conspired with the clergy to TRIUMPH OVER Jesus He got dead. He implicated them in attacking John the Baptist as the anti-type of Elijah.

Ahab brought Jezebel to Samaria and built a "temple of Baal," with an image of Asherah, the mother goddess (1 Kings 16:32-33). The Baal was Baal-Melkart who was the official god of Tyre.

"The Canaanite Baalism which had been practiced since Israel came into the land now had an official sponsor at the highest levels of power. Jezebel was not content to worship in her private temple but imported hundreds of prophets and put them on the public payroll just as God had warned. She went further to kill the prophets and tear down the altars for the worship of God. She was typical of the foreign wives who brought ecstatic worship into the nation of Israel and Judah. Of her it is said--

"But Jezebel was not content with maintaining a private shrine where she herself might practice her own religion; she appears to have organized the worship of Melqart on a fairly large scale and maintained a large staff of cultic officials, who enjoyed positions of influence at court. The worship of Melqart was essentially Canaanite in character, and its introduction into Israel led to a great revival of Canaanite worship of Baal and Asherah." (Bruce, F. F., Israel, p. 44).

These are Asherah poles. The old woodcut shows the Jews bowing to the S.U.N. in the east while the women musically lamented for Tammuz in the temple.

All prophets were troublemakers. That was why God sent them. Therefore, Elijah rejected the Baal ecstasy and was confronted by Ahab who called him "you troubler of Israel." Elijah replied rejecting the Guilt Clause:

"I have not made trouble for Israel," Elijah replied.

"But you and your father's family have.

You have abandoned the Lord's commands and

have followed the Baals. 1 Ki 18:18

God turned Israel over to worship the starry host and it comes as no surprise that what we see as powerful proof text for performance "worship" is the worship of the nature god.

Astrology is one of the primary methods of obtaining a message from the dead.

"Manesseh also cultivated star and planetary worship (II Kings 21:3, 5) and the cult of Moloch, an Ammonite deity, whose worship was closely connected with astral divination (Amos 5:25, 26 Acts 7:41-43) and whose ritual was characterized by parents sacrificing their children by compelling them to pass through or into a furnace of fire." (Unger, Merrill, Archaeology and the Old Testament, Zondervan, P. 279)

Enoch and and other writers identify the STARS or wandering stars (sun, moon, planets) as real men who followed Satan as their lord and tried to defeat God's word with music and the worship of persons:

"We know that Canaanite prophets were organized in guilds centered on the larger sanctuaries, as, for example, 'the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the Asherah four hundred,' with whom Elijah had memorable dealings on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18). Similarly, Israelite cultic prophets were to be found in and around the sanctuaries, roving about in rowdy troops, working themselves up into frenzies by dancing and music,

and uttering semi-coherent oracles (praise tunes)

which the credulous accepted as divinely inspired." (Heaton, E. W., Everyday Life in the Old Testament, p. 221, Scribners)

"The priest stands on the threshold (of the temple) and awakens the god calling to him in the Egyptian language." This is how Arnobius mocks the ritual of Isis:

'Why these revels you sing each morning to awaken him, accompanying your songs on the flute? Do the gods go to sleep, then, that they need to be awakened?'

At Delphi the Thyads went to waken the young Dionysus, just as at Rhodes Bacchus woke gently from his sleep to the sound of the hydraulic organ." (de Vaux, p. 246).

"We even have a mention at a later date of a similar custom in connection with the cult in Jerusalem, where certain Levites, called me'oreim, 'arousers,' sang (every morning?) this verse from Ps 44:23: "Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever." The Talmud tells us that John Hyrcanus suppressed the practice because it recalled too readily a pagan custom." (de Vaux, p. 247).

Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. Psalm 57:8

Shachar (h7337) shakh'-ar; from 7835; dawn (lit., fig. or adv.): - day (spring), early, light, morning, whence riseth.

Shachar was the father of Lucifer.

"A similar practice is attested in connection with the cult of Herakles-Melkart. According to Menander, as he is quoted by Josephus, the king Hiram, who was a contemporary of Solomon, rebuilt the temples of Tyre and, 'he was the first to celebrate the awakening of Heracles in the month of Peritius. It is very likely that an inscription from Amman contains a reference to an 'arouser' of Herakles... In an inscription from Cyprus... there are references to important personages who bear the title Mqm'lm which we can translate as 'arouser of god."

"The Hithpa'el of nb', in the ancient texts, refers to ecstasy and delirium rather than to the emission of a 'prophecy,' 1 Sam. 10:5; 18:10; 19:20f). (de Vaux, p. 243)

And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. Isaiah 23:15

"Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. Isaiah 23:16

Karen Armstrong says so perfectly:

"Unlike the pagan deities, Yahweh was not in any of the forces of nature but in a realm apart. He is experienced in the scarcely perceptible timbre of a tiny breeze in the paradox of a voiced silence." (Armstrong, p. 27)

What John wrote was that:

This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested (made himself manifest) forth his glory (dignity or good reputation); and his disciples believed on him. John 2:11

Scholars have noted that to accuse Jesus of making intoxicating wine for an about to become pregnant bride is a deliberate assault upon the character of God.

However, if Jesus as the Lamb has a Rod of Iron this may have been the first sign that God will pour out His wrath in the form of intoxicating wine. Rarely did people who were in the party spirit with wine, women and music listen to Jesus.

If Jesus manufactured real wine it was a supernatural SIGN of His judgment against those who would have been engaged in music which is singing and dancing, drinking and not able to comprehend that God had manifest Himself to them.

The temple or rather courtyard event of Jesus was another sign of His wrath against commercial "seeker" forms of religion. He tore down the temple once again and testified eloquently to the use of music in animal sacrifices as a million Jews perished but not one believer.

Amos calls the musical performers "the cows of Bashan."

If we just hadn't missed that Mount Sinai was musical idolatry as a sign to God that the unfaithful, idolatrous Israelites in Egypt could "take the vow" and then rise up to repeat the worship of the golden calf!

The Covenant demanded but permitted external sacrifices but it was fundamentally an "oral covenant of Grace." When Israel repudiated God with Idolatrous external worship God "turned them over to worship the starry host."

Animal sacrifices reached their peak with a pyramidaly priesthood under the Temple which was quite identical to the temple of the nations to whom God again turned them over.

The common people never "worshiped with congregational singing and instrumental accompaniment under the Monarchy. They "synagogued" from the very beginning where faithful priests taught in their communities.

The Jewish "people's congregation" never had a praise service in the synagogue which often met in the outer courts where the money changers set up their shops.

Therefore, there was no "spiritual form" ever in connection with the Temple. On the other hand, the Pharisees ran the Synagogue. They were "post modern" in that they changed the rules just to keep from obeying God's "direct commands."

Jesus left no forms for "external worship." When we meet in assembly or synagogue we meet to learn the Word of Christ (Spirit) and honor Him. There are no forms in the sense of "liturgy" which must be performed either by clergy or laity.

A ritual means that something magical happens as a result of the performance. For instance, singing praise songs are even as we write being sold as letting us help God do His Work. Eating the Lord's Supper is a simple memorial of the DEATH of Christ but there is no magic attached except for those who call it Holy Communion or The Eucharist. Singing during communion is believed to AID the worshiper in concentrating on the body of Christ. Of course (snicker) everyone knows that it isn''t Christ's body being viewed.

God doesn't just show up for "plenary session." Jesus promised that He would be with us any time we are engaged in seeking Him through His Word. Paul told Timothy how to worship by "giving attendance to the public reading of the Word to doctrine and to prayer." If we get exhilarated or enraptured (raped) then we are engaged in body worship and not in spirit worship. When we truly sense the presence of God we spiritually fall on our face and say: "Speak Lord, we are silently listening."

No, lets not get off their backs. They had moved themselves beyond redemption and Jesus refused to speak to the multitudes except in parables. They "took away the key to knowledge" because they refused to read or chant (sing) it so that others could memorize and understand revealed Scripture. Their cardinal sin was "sermonizing" the Scripture.

Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. John 8:41

Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. John 8:42

Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. John 8:43

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. John 8:44

Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. Jn 7:16

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. Jn 7:17

Catch the logic? If Jesus did not speak what He heard from the Father, he would be just like the devil: a liar!

Why is there so much sermonizing and versifying that which the Holy Spirit can say so eloquently without a Phd? Why are the dressed up, wired up, amplified, IMAGE OF WHAT GOD WANTS US TO LOOK LIKE (Willow Creek and Saddleback's message). Jesus doesn't allow you to wedge in your motive "but we are all sincere." There is only one possible answer:

He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Jn.7:18

Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me? Jn 7:19

Dr. Shelly and John York see this as a "pattern for Christian worship and community." But Jesus knew that when they "rose up to play" it was in musical idolatry. God turned them over to worship the starry host because they were beyond redemption. They didn't speak the words of Moses because as artists they WERE SEEKING THEIR OWN GLORY.

Oh, Please! His church and Jubilee did take in hand the highly-organized effort to restructure all churches of Christ into its own image. This writer well remembers the year when Jubilee would introduce a New Style Worship. Of course, this would convert church from synagogue to theater for performance preaching and music. This was to affirm and make everyone feel good about themselves. In fact, however, this was the most judgmental and divisive effort in this writer's 70 years. We can still see the backdrop of Asherah poles with the hand-waving male singers and preachers. We could hear the gongs and clangs of instrumental music in the background. And we could watch the enforced practice of "raising holy hands" and "laying on of hands" as if the church needed to be a wineskin worship which meant an exhilarating experience.

"Whatever form its social ramifications may have taken, the Jubilee was, and remained, a religious affair, for the atonement of sin (see Lev. XXV, 9)."

This along with the ZOE movement encouraged "students" to return home and change peacable churches into "venue" for "the idolatry of talent." Those with less Biblical background easily moved into instrumental music as they used very devious methods to slowly exchange the old style worshipers and infiltrated Christian church members. One of the change methods is to keep hammering away at the idea of rejecting instrumental music is proof of your rustic ignorance and judgmental spirit. Goebels said:

'if you repeat a lie often enough, the public will believe it'.

We noted in another review that Jesus did die for A Cappella singing. How is that? He did it by abrogating animal sacrifices which was the only legitimate (legalistic) role for instrumental noise.

Christ died to take the doctors of the Law who "took away the key to knowledge" off the backs of the people used like pack animals. Their burden was "spiritual anxiety created by religious ritual." Jesus died to give us REST. That means to "come aside beside still waters and I will explain how a black hole eats a galaxy for lunch." Jesus only sent out men who would preach the Word as they had received it just as He spoke the Father's words to prove that He was not a glory hound.

First, it is a serious blunder to define churches of Christ as just another denomination. A denomination by all definitions is one which has a creed, organization, headquarters, money collecting power, creed-writing and changing power, and command and control of all churches under it.

The fact that the church of Christ "denominates" itself with the one "name" which has universal Biblical and historical witness does not make it a denomination.

No. Our mission is not to sit in judgment. Our mission is to GO and preach the gospel and let God sort out how one should respond to it without developing a "spirituality through sermonizing" or "moving into God's presence" with the musical team being the mediators. Perhaps we now need a "Ministry of Humility and How I achieved it."

When Jesus came it was to burn up the chaff of those who "get pregnant on straw and give birth to stubble." This was the baptism of fire:

Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. Isaiah 54:16

No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn (refute). This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Isaiah 54:17

HO, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55:1

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Isaiah 55:2

Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Isaiah 55:3

The Amos and Isaiah musical worship theme is that the people hungered and thirsted for the Water of the Word.

The established congregation has no "dominant clergy" but according to Paul:

For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; Titus 1:7

But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; Titus 1:8

He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. Titus 1:9

We know that the TWIN TOWERS of the anti-church of Christ antism are our views on instrumental music and our views on the role of baptism. Therefore, the internet and Sunday sermonizing always hits those who don't believe in instruments for clear Biblical reasons over the head to keep them silent. This is harsh judgmentalism.

"Freedom of religion" does not mean freedom from teaching and criticism. Why, even Dr. Shelly in this sermon does a pretty harsh judgmental treatement of those who still hold up the twin towers.

Most of us do not have this horrendeous COSMIC view that we have to fellowship everyone or we are "brother killers." We have to fall on our faces and confess that we fractured the church over music to take away the guilt of the sectarians who added music after over 1800 years of church history against it.

We have to "worship with them" and eat donuts to say how sorry we are that they stole our buildings (the houses of widows) and forced us to meet in city hall while they confiscated the expensive property.

Scuse me! I don't have a God-like burden for those who deliberately did and do as we speak sow discord among brethren just so they can pay off their new buildings and grounds and hire (yea, in the 1860s) an organist for $5,000.oo a year.

Those of us who have not graduated from Post Modern University (PMU) stil believe in the first ammendment and the demand to teach and refute those who use force to try to pervert the church from "synagogue" to pagan worship center as a showcase for theatrical performance. The musicians (always the harem of the king) pretended to worship the gods but since the king (even David) was the god's agent then the team worshiped the king. Even David worshiped David for being loved by God because of his unspotted righteousness!

Humility is something I should have so that I will not "oppose" God's designated change agent, selected and trained by the sovereign grace of God.

No, that is called cowardice and the "musicians" of Israel's army had the sole purpose of pulling the strings of the army and of instilling panic in the enemy so that they turned coward and ran. However:

"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every part of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, then I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all battlefields besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point." Martin Luther

Funny, Jesus never said anything about collection plates. Jesus paid the temple tax and said that "the sons are free." He commanded that our hand give alms into the hand of the poor and disparaged those who made a show or "act" out of giving. The collection plates in the treasury (not in the temple) were called "trumpets" perhaps looking much like spittons and made a ringing noise celebrating the giver with a plaque or stained glass window or a write up.

How outrageous to suggest that widows and most EMPLOYED workers barely get by. Their task, to keep them from being infidels, is to provide for their own. GOD'S WILL gets done by the hands of the PARENTS and not by a hired STAFF INFECTION. But whatever is NOT put into the unlawful collection plate "The rest is ours for our selfish purposes." We have reviewed Dr. Shelly's TITHING stuff. Tithing, like the sacrificial "music" repudiates the finished work of Jesus Christ which drags both sacrifices and tithes to support them and "music" or noise to aid the poor priests endure the HORRORS.

The old MODERN Bible repudiates Tithing, the Collection Plates and the horrors of being held guildty of SELFISH PURPOSES for sending the money THEY worked to earn. The preacher without a GO button does not have the claim of a penny or the power to ride on the backs of widows and honest working people:

BUT a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, Acts 5:1

And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles feet. Acts 5:2

But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Acts 5:3

Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. Acts 5:4

Maybe Peter is repudiated as one of those divided epistle writers. However, in Acts he speaks of Jesus Christ by saying that YOU OWE NOTHING.

We OWE help to the poor. We owe the institution nothing. We participate because we have ownership. Howver, when we determine that the banner of participation is a pirate's flage we do not OWE anything.

The Jews tithed on rented tribal lands which were already cleared, stocked, planted and perhaps had a house on it. They tithed only the food produced on the free land as we would pay rent. No one ever tithed money although certain civil taxes were imposed.

So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren to go on to you before me, and arrange in advance for this gift you have promised, so that it may be ready not as an exaction but as a willing gift. 2 Cor 9:5

Making free will giving into a requirement to escape SELFISHNESS makes the church into a legalistic institution and a thief:

So I have asked these other brothers to arrive ahead of me to see that the gift you promised is on hand and waiting. I want it to be a real gift and not look as if it were being given under pressure. 2 Cor 9:5

Plenoecia (g4124) pleh-on-ex-ee'-ah; from 4123; avarice, i.e. (by impl.) fraudulency, extortion: - covetous (-ness) practices, greediness.

Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: Mk.7:22

BUT there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2Pe. 2:1

And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 2Pe. 2:2

And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. 2 Pe.2:3

As Jesus identified the Jewish clergy as sons of Satan and a brood of vipers, Peter and Jude will identify these men as "wandering stars" or offspring of the fallen angels worshiped musically as Lucifer (ZOE) or the Logos of the Greeks.

Enoch says that God will come with ten thousand of His Host to PASS JUDGMENT. These are the ones who belittle the Word of God and substitue their own. In the Book of Jubilees and other parallel accounts these are the "musical worship teams" organized by Satan to take the people's mind off the Living Word. You can tell the difference: is he a get by, sacrificial preacher of the Word or is he a rich figurehead paid as an idol to attract the money givers?

Only those who INTRODUCED musical instruments after 2,000 years of it being repudiated by all older scholarship are the SECTARIANS and delibert sowers of discord. The new Antiism does a good job of comparing REJECTING INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC to whether we "pinch" or "snap" the bread. This is no remotely the truth. The scholars are not permitted to know that music has no other source than Satan who uses it to bleed off worship from God.

McGarvey understood that even to object to the forced instruments in your own congregation stirs up the attack agents willing to SHIFT THE BLAME: The guy who shoots you in the heart loudly blames you for squiriting blood on his shirt.

In doing this I am aware that I shall subject myself to the sneers of

some who have learned to speak with contempt of all persons, however sincere and well informed, who claim to have conscientious objections to the practice in question.

that I shall be regarded by some who are indifferent on the subject as needlessly agitating a question the discussion of which they consider harmful; and that others who lament with me the steady progress which this innovation is making among the disciples will think that I am wasting time in battling against the Inevitable.

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.

The Catholic Encyclopedia still says because there was no authority:

We must not forget that most of these adjuncts to worship, like music, lights, perfumes, ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans, screens, bells, vestments, etc.

were not identified with any idolatrous cult in particular; they were common to almost all cults.

How can it be a mark of minimal honesty to blame Christians who have always repudiated the use of non-Scriptural songs and Instrumental music with SECTARIANISM for refusing to BEGIN to do that which they HAVE NEVER DONE? Doesn't ALL definitions blame as SECTARIANS those who introduce a divisive practice without a DIRECT COMMAND from God with sowing discord and being heretics? But the good doctor of the Law:

we would never have fragmented the body of Christ over head coverings, musical instruments,

That is true and we wonder why Rubel Shelly and academic wrecking crew are intent on fragmenting the rest of the body not already under music? There is a very strange problem with so many that they SHIFT THE BLAME. We claim with no reason for being contradicted that they claim of DOCTOR OF THE LAW means in the words of Jesus Christ that "they take away the key to knowledge" and are therefore self deluded into believing their false claim

Their spiritual descendants still blame anyone who would repudiate INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC with trying to destroy the "brotherhood." But the GUILT CLAUSE is well documented and used by Satan's agents to attack any opposition so that HIS will including MUSIC is carried out.

Jesus repudiated music and musicians but that is another story.

WE who fragmented the body of Christ were WE who violated the theological truth and non-Catholic practice for 1800 years. WE, competing with civil-war-made-rich northern city churches have to have the tallest spire (phallic symbol) and we have to have the best CHOIR and we have to have the best organist.

Dr. Shelly has a grand way of lumping instrumental music with things which are not issues for most people.

But, say the Biblical literate, you know that this is not scriptural and you know that you will sow discord and you will offend these little ones and you will steal the church house of widows and you will force Bible believers to leave. And THEY said: "But we can replace YOU with more wealthy members SEEKING to be entertained." So, Get Real or Get Out.

Those who had their "widow's houses" stolen are identified by Rubel Shelly as those who fractured the church over instruments!

But, YOU should repent, confess and fellowship US and add instruments to ATONE for what WE did to YOU.

My engineering-science education just cannot penetrate this the most ancient guilt clause. But, Jesus could.

Now, if you remember how Jesus was made dead by those who made him mad, here is the punch line from Jesus who spoke in parables in a barely perceptible breeze which the noise makers cannot hear. While the Jews hoped that John was one of THOSE prophets who wore SOFT clothing (of a male prostitute) they maliciously accused Jesus of drinking wine: Jesus said that they were liars. Jesus spoke of instrumental music common to all of the effeminate priesthoods where Dionysus or Bacchus worship plagued the Jerusalem crowd:

And if ye will receive it, this is Elijah, which was for to come. Matthew 11:14

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Matthew 11:15

But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets (Seekers is a marketplace religion), and calling unto their fellows, Matthew 11:16

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

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. Matt 11:18

The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children. Matt 11:19

Doctor Shelly agrees with their accusation.

One of the Seven Spirits to rest on Jesus was the "spirit of wisdom." Therefore, Jesus said: "You are liars."

The guilt clause again for the slow and dull of hearing:

"You shoot me in the heart, as I fall I spurt blood on your dancing outfit. You become fixated on writing books and preaching sermons accusing me of soiling your clothing."

Sure, the prophets of Jezebel honoring Asherah and Baal played instruments and did other things to "get their god to come into their presence." However, Ahab accused Elijah of being "the troubler in Israel."

MUSIC was never an operative word in the Old or New Testaments in connection with "worship."

No. Blowing 120 trumpets, twanging many harps or bow strings and "making a joyful noise before the Lord" is not music. It is specificially outlawed in Numbers 10:7. Furthermore, it is prophesied in Psalms 41 that JUDAS would try to triumph over Jesus.

But when the congregation is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm. Num 10:7

The alarm which was reserved for signalling the camps or warfar is the Hebrew:

Ruwah (h7321) roo-ah'; a prim. root; to mar (espec. by breaking); fig. to split the ears (with sound), i. e. shout (for alarm or joy): - blow an alarm, cry (alarm, aloud, out), destroy, make a joyful noise, smart, shout (for joy), sound an alarm, triumph.

The Dead Sea Scrolls makes the musical warfare certain.

Music in the Classics meant "singing and dancing" along with the instruments. When instruments were added to the voice the people knew that understanding the poem was not the goal. Rather, the people were being "ascended up to their gods" in a sexual climax. This was always the role of music in paganism and it is the Vineyard creed and the goal of the New Style Songbooks.

The Implicit Urge To Reach a Climax and Make the Spirit COME in praise singing

The millenium rose out of the Gospel Advocate under Bolls and none of the anti-non instrumental preachers can get over it.

This, like instruments, was a very Johhny come lately especially under Miller where "every Jubilee is associated with Messianism." This was hatched in about 1800 and is an evil theology and we do not have to be silenced when people try to ressurect it as they did music in the 30s and 40s.

Premillenialism says: "Jesus gave it His bet try. Jesus was defeated by Satan. Jesus high tailed it back to heaven. After collecting His wits He is going to come again, restore Judaism, restore the temple and rule from literal Jerusalem. Dr. Shelly even suggests that it had to await John and Greek philosophy so that he could read the LOGOS back into the Bible. However, Genesis 15 begins to discuss the Logos or Hebrew Dabar who is present whenever the invisible God speaks.

The Jews still wonder "whither the harps" because the new temple cannot be restored without them. We suggest that they went with the priests to the burn pile at Topheth (symbol of hell) when the Romans killed up to a million Jews. This is quite identical to the king of Babylon who went into sheol along with his harps to rest on a bed of maggots.

Josephus said that the music destroyed the nation once and was doing it again in his day. See also Agrippa's Seeker Center which was much like Apollo's (Abbadon, Apollyon) Seeker Center at Delphi.

If one or two people don't try to force the belief on others then there is no fracturing. And those being imposed upon have the Divine right to test the spirits and refute those who deny that Christ truly came in power the first time and are therefore Anti-Christs.

The drum beat of deliberately reassigning the GUILT is to bluff the "audience" so that they are cowed into silence and will not question Woodmont Hills perversion of the idea of "in spirit worship."

The "now but not yet kingdom" is a new form of premillenialism but it won't fly.

I just love those TV pundits (evangelists) who pound old Senator Clag Horn without mercy. After about 6 months of this the Senator's ratings go from 95% approval to 35% approval. Then, the journalist-evangelists is suddently astounded that SOMEHOW the Senator really had a problem. And wasn't I wise to have pointed it out 6 months ago.

Just WHO adopted the Seeker form to make customers for theater? Just who claims to be a charismatic "evangelist by the selection and training by the sovereign grace of God."

What timid but brilliant Bible student will dare to get up and explain how the Exodus was a musical idolatry, terminal, beyond redemption sign of God's judgment?

If he doesn't have "charisma" and "pulpit presence" or theatrical presence as musicians then HE will give US a bad name. But spiritual "seekers" are looking for truth.

If he follows the pattern and command of Paul and decides to dialog, raises his hand and says: "But, that's not in my Bible" he will be SAT on the back pew and taken off the "approved list."

The Willow Creek pattern deliberately makes the "congregation" into consumers in the pattern of the last-days Babylon Harlot system.

If you make the "church" like the temple of church architecture they come to believe that the pulpit is truly the most holy place and the altar and podium is the holy place. They have been conditioned that none but the elect may venture into these holy places. Nay, but now we have "musicians standing in the holy place claiming to be mediators between man and God."

The clergy-laity heresy is alive and well.

I have never heard anyone but "pastors" suggest that we want you to be here this evening when we will meet God for worship. Well, sometimes we might "miss God" by not being at the ritual. The "assembly" was synagogue with the addition of the Lord's Supper. It met for edification which is education. The "ritual" was speaking or singing the revealed Word of God. When you replace the Word of Christ (or Spirit) with Fanny Crosby or Twila Paris, and replace teaching with complex harmony which makes learning impossible, people tend to believe that such practices are Biblical. Even if you tried obeying Paul and singing Psalm 22 and explaining it I suspect that the "musicians" would say tha it was not contemporary and wouid not jack the people up into "exhilaration" get the 'wine bubbling.'

No wonder people are confused when performance preaching and performance singing takes over. McClintock and Strong identify the "musical precentors" as the first heresy largely pervading the church. Church ia a "one another affair" and perhaps no one has done more to institionalize the worship ritual and people who see the need to "increase attendance and increase the collection."

What happened was that the church as synagogue for teaching the Word was turned into a theater as venue for Rock and Roll (that "F" word) or for theatrical preaching and theatrical and musical worship teams.

It is easy to ridicule the battle over instrumental music and premillenialism when one defends both. Paul said:

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Col 1:12

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: Col 1:13

In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Col 1:14

If you cannot grasp that the kingdom is "within you" and that we worship in spirit or in mind (nous) instead of the "building" as temple (naos) then you will look for the wineskin kingdom of bubbling, fermenting, intoxicating, exhilaration worship. This is all purely body worship and has nothing to do with spiritual worship.

Neither shall they say, Lo here or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21

Each time you rattle people by slowly navigating toward instrumental music you are destroying any possiblity of worshiping in the human spirit which is the only place God seeks us. When the Sister Singers hum or sing during communion you deliberately and with a high hand cut off all possiblity of "discerning the body" which is not material.

Hmm! Let's count the "ministeries" in our pyramid or Tower of Babel. Jethro, the Midianite priest first proposed it so that Moses could carry all of Israel by himself. When Israel's elders hired their first "dominant pastor" they said "set a king over us." They wanted a king like the nations so that they could worship like the nations. So, finally, God turned them over to the kings to destroy them. The book of Ecclesiasticus reads of Elijah:

You who raised a corpse from death and from Hades, by the word of the Most High; Ecclesiasticus 48:5.

who brought kings down to destruction, and famous men from their beds; Ecclesiasticus 48: 6.

who heard rebuke at Sinai and judgments of vengeance at Horeb; Ecclesiasticus 48: 7.

who anointed kings to inflict retribution,

and prophets to succeed you. Ecclesiasticus 48: 8.

O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. Hosea 13:9

I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? Hosea 13:10

I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. Hosea 13:11

It was David the king and the commanders of the army who organized the Levitical warrior panic musicians to give glory to the "like the nation's temple." Later, when the temple was built that which we call "music" was to make a great crashing noise during the animal burning ritual.

However, their worship became 'like the nations" who used motion and sound in their animal sacrifices.

It was prophesied as a burden-lading, money-consuming curse when Israel demanded a king like the nations so that they could worship like the nations. I wonder how many "ministeries to the soft

Many of the PRO INSTRUMENTAL CHURCHES have also adopted Believer's Baptism which is a form of pagan baptism. Zwingli invented FAITH ONLY in 1527 and declared all previous history just WRONG. In looking for Restoration Roots a couple of "schoars" pervert the words of these reformers undoubtedly because they have never read the originals.

One of those ideas that one is Spirit- regenerated by the selection of God but not based on faith derived from hearing the Word of God. We request A holy spirit (our spirit) when we believe, repent and are baptized. This is CALLING ON GOD for a clear conscience which is asking Christ to remove the veil so that we can understand that Christ is the name of the Holy Spirit and that His Spirit is incarnated in His inspired Word. The Spirit does not regerate us apart from compliance with the command to be baptized. The spirit one receives is normal meaning of SPIRIT which is the mental disposition of Christ which we gain only through the Word which has not had its DNA scrambled through philosophical sermonizing. Dr. Shelly and his team does not have A ONE-THIRD member of the Godhead living in their carnal body. He teaches TRITHISM which is polytheism and so do all who believe that the "spirit" person separated from the Godhead is their personal revealer.

A spirit-empowered lifestyle is is a WORD inspired because Jesus said that it gives SPIRIT and LIFE.

With apologies to the honest and "spiritual" preachers who would love to become LEGAL by Going into all the world to disciple people by baptizing them to wash away their sins.

Most of the BIG MONEY has been sucked up to priests sitting at the top of a latter day Tower of Power. It has been spent for a "venue for Rock and Roll," or the cursed MINISTRY SYSTEM which sucks all of the money and energy trying to be SOCIAL GOSPELERS: to lead them to Christ by allowing them to "look at me."

Worship and music does not have the musical power to regenerate the Holy Spirit which from Romans 8 and Walter Scott is OUR spirit made holy by God.

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

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit; Tit.3:5

And be not conformed to this world: but ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Ro.12:2

The Holy Spirit has a name, the Son has a Name and the Father has a name. It is Jesus, Joshua or Jehovah- Saved. There has NEVER been more than ONE Jehovah. The Father is Jehovah- Righted and all that we know as God is SPIRIT but made manifest by Jesus who was the Christ or full Deity.

Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 1 Peter 1:11

Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 2 Cor 3:16

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Cor 3:17

And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Rev 19:10

The church is not a WORLD WIDE FAMILY OF GOD. A congregation is the local people gathering for Bible Study, communion and individual prayer. Worship according to Jesus is IN THE PLACE OF THE SPIRIT and cannot be in external forms. Dr. Shelly and all ecumenical thinkers do not grasp that God CALLED OUT His ekklesia or synagogue or school of the Bibe. He called them out of the overwhelming majority of people involved in RELIGION rather than school.

Now if I teach a class in science and Dr. Shelly insists that I must fellowship (meaning to participate) another teacher who is a member of a FLAT EARTH SOCIETY, then Dr. Shelly is attempting a very high handed, psychologically violent attempt to restrict my freedom to associate with those who are post-literate.

The tithe, music and the restriction of God given liberty is a very wrong form of Legalism. A legalist is the obverse side of the same reactionary coin.

Most people are gainfully employed and simply do not have time, energy or even minimal interest in leaving my assembly and attending a musical church. I am sure that Dr. Shelly will not tolerate an "associate" preacher from the One Cup Society.

The Bible repudiates "fellowship with the world." The honest EVANGELISTS went out to preach the gospel with no urgency to "count heads." The local assemblies met for the preaching sermon but we are told that the members went into private quarters to eat the Lord's Supper and to sing hymns. This was their time to SHOW FORTH the death by GRIEVING OUT the hymns as a way to stand by Jesus at least in our minds.

I think that preachers pull people away from Christ and His Word by trying to feed people into good spiritual help.

The "ekklesia" or the synagogue was not a "family group." These were assemblies which met for learning the Word and for higher education. The church looked out for its own but it had no component of the "social gospel" of diverting GOD'S money to social action programs.

Each member gets their training and honors Christ in the assembly but the 'ekklesia' was not a "standing army" condemned in David by God. People went their ways and did not depend on an Exodus-patterned "family" or cult like organization to plan their every waking moment.

One cannot encounter God in masses. It was prophesied of Jesus that He would not 'call out' in the sense of organizing an assembly for worship. He defined worship as inward where prayer is not ritualized and led by someone 'put on the program to get him to come to church.' Prayer and seeking God by 'giving attendance to the reading of the Word' is about the only thing the epistles define as "worship." That was also true under the law.

John was "in the spirit on the Lord's day" and that does not mean that he was having a sexual-like encounter with God. He was meditating on the Word which he had heard first hand. The name of God is "Jesus" or Jehovah-Saves. We do not encounter Him in paganized rituals: we encounter Him when we meet someone needing a drink of cold water out in the marketplace. And, no, this does not mean "Forming a Cold Water Ministry" to take the yoke off individual's back.

Worship in both Hebrew and Greek means to literally fall on the face as a dog cowers and licks the master's boots. Jesus doesn't demand that. Therefore, Paul's UNIQUE worship word is associated with GIVING HEED to Christ by GIVING ATTENDANCE TO HIS WORD. Worship in the synagogue was the highest form of an ENCOUNTER WITH GOD because it GAVE HEED to His Words which transmit His Spirit or Mental disposition. God does not need innocent animals roasted over an open fire or MURDERING MUSIC only in the COURTYARD and never in the Holy Place as a type of the body or Church of Christ.

I didn't do that. Jesus absolutely demanded that the evangelist "go, preach, baptize and teach." Paul did not give an oxen's nibble to the oxen as threshing machine took up with the farmer's family, moved into the house and lived off it for the rest of its life.

In Second Corinthians Paul used his own ethic to define a true evangelist. He was passionate about evangelism but that passion was not consumed on making a huge "family" feel good about itself each week. Stripes and being "despised and rejected of men" are some signs of those who are passionate about preaching the Word "as it has been delivered to them."

There is no office called "Preacher." He is evangelist or he "sees godliness as a means of financial gain." That is, he sees it just as occupation.

No, the Lord's Supper was not a funeral ceremony. Remembering that CIRCE is the holy whore used by John to define the Babylon Whore worship. Circe seduced people with "pharmacy" or soothsaying which was feeding them a drug (often administered at the Agapae) along with encantations and instrumental music. After using them she turned them into beasts (often swine) and spent her time making DUNG pattycakes to feed them.

Tertullian warns in the Spectacle (as the new Emerging Church of Christ):

Let us pass on now to theatrical exhibitions, which we have already shown have a common origin with the circus, and bear like idolatrous designations-even as from the first they have borne the name of "Ludi," and equally minister to idols.

They resemble each other also in their pomp, having the same procession to the scene of their display from temples and altars, and that mournful profusion of incense and blood,

> with music of pipes and trumpets,

> all under the direction of the soothsayer and the undertaker,

> those two foul masters of funeral rites and sacrifices.

So as we went on from the origin of the "Ludi" to the circus games, we shall now direct our course thence to those of the theatre, beginning with the place of exhibition.

At first the theatre was properly a temple of Venus; and, to speak briefly,

it was owing to this that stage performances were allowed to escape censure, and got a footing in the world.

For ofttimes the censors, in the interests of morality,

put down above all the rising theatres,

foreseeing, as they did, that there was great danger of their leading to a general profligacy; so that already, from this accordance of their own people with us,

there is a witness to the heathen, and in the anticipatory judgment of human knowledge even a confirmation of our views.

Both the Hebrew marzeah and the Greek agapae were very polluted and perverted FUNERAL CEREMONIES. The Agapae "fellowship mean" gained its greatest power if super- charged with the product of sexual intercourse. The early church tried to practice the Agape as a mourning meal where those who had prospered shared with the poor or destitute. It was never a COMMUNION MEAL. When the Christian Agapae rapidly took on the pagan fertility practices they were stopped. Paul's letter to the Corinthians testifies to this. The Lord's Supper was instituted by the FIFTH CUP. The four cups to get drunk on originated in Babylon. Esther hoodwinked the people and got the master murdered. The fifth cup was always non-alcoholic and the psalm sung was 137 which spoke of hanging up the harps in Babylon. The passover was never part of a common meal. Of the Marzeah best illustrated by Amos 5 and 6:

"The marzeah had an extremely long history extending at least from the 14th century B.C. through the Roman period. In the 14th century B.C., it was prominently associated with the ancient Canaanite city of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra), on the coast of Syria...

"The marzeah was a pagan ritual that took the form of a social and religious association... Some scholars regard the funerary marzeah as a feast for--and with--deceased ancestors (or Rephaim, a proper name in the Bible for the inhabitants of Sheol)." (King, Biblical Archaeological Review, Aug, 1988, p. 35, 35)

"These five elements are: (1) reclining or relaxing, (2) eating a meat meal, (3) singing with harp or other musical accompaniment, (4) drinking wine and (5) anointing oneself with oil." (King, p. 37).

Click here The Battle of Baal and Yahm to see that this was Baalism as was the Agapae honoring different names

"In pagan traditions, musical instruments are invented by gods or demi-gods, such as titans. In the Bible, credit is assigned to antediluvian patriarchs, for example, the descendants of Cain in Genesis 4:21. There is no other biblical tradition about the invention of musical instruments." (Freedman, David Noel, Bible Review, Summer 1985, p. 51).

When the Passover was observed, the people used a candle and in absolute silence looked for leaven in their house before God was invited to participate. Wine or wine produces would contain leaven. That is why Jesus defined "the fruit of the vine." In the Lord's Supper we are to toss out the leaven and "discern the body" of Christ. Habbakuk says that "God is in His Holy temple (me)) let all the earth (you) keep silence before Him.

That the "eating and drinking" was not a social celebration is proven by Paul relegating the 'agape' to the homes. The "communion" is to remember what Christ did. I cannot do that with your Sister Singers inciting and exciting me. The RESTORED AGAPAE is consistent with the MUSIC of Amos and Isaiah 5 to prove that the prophesied end-time Demon worship is taking place.

Do you mean like Jubilee to train people in instrumental music, Sister Singers, lifting holy hands, laying on of hands and "washing baptism away?" Do you mean like Look to The Hills where ZOE, the beast and "female instructing principle" trains all of the little "jehovahs" how to take control of churches by the use of "musical worship teams?" Dance? Drama? Knowing, of course, and with a high hand sowing discord and offending many of these little ones. Click to see how Look To The Hills is self-condemning.

Jesus said that the EVANGELISTS were to GO OUT and make disciples by teaching and baptizing them. The evangelists did not set up a SHEPHERDING MINISTRY. The local elders shephered the people by being faithful and making church a "school of the Bible." They "taught the Word as it had been taught." Because the death of Christ removed both the burdens and burden laders, the disciples came to learn once a week or when they had time and the LIVED THEIR OWN LIVES out in the community without a system of SHEPHERDS or KEEPERS to plan every waking moment.

The clergy did not, as at the towers of Babylon, see the members as a group which he worked to FEED the vast clergy including priests, prophet, praise singers, soothsayers and prostitutes.

Lenski notes that "elders" are pointed out or identified because they are "already laboring to the point of exhaustion in preaching and teaching." If church becomes a secular institution with full time staffing rather than synagogues and the PREACHER demotes the elders to being HIS shephards then the chosen elders do not have the time of APTNESS to be at the gates or buildings available to teach the Bible all week long.

One would suppose that happens when the dominant pastor gets involved electioneering to get ole brother Corporate Caper on "my board" because he will give lots to our temple building with slave labor program. I like to say that "apt to teach" does not mean "He is as apt to chase a coon as apt to teach a Bible class." And to seek the seekers we need to seek a Nimrod-like "musical worship team" and sell the idolatry of talent to collect the seekers after secular music and charismatic outbreaks.

When you organize a David-like tower of babel ministry system then the elders MUST be corporate leaders because spiritual leaders will have no part in building such a temple which is only a temptation to, like Hezekiah, brag about my temple and its gold as an invitation for the invading Seekers to take over. You seek seekers and you get sucked dry. That's fair!

I didn't do that either. That happens when you go Willow Creek or Saddleback Community Church and decide that teaching the Word is "old" and making the kids happy is Post-Modern. These programs know that they cannot teach the Word "as it has been delivered" and I know few churches which will not brand any in-depth Bible study as subversive.

In my old life BIBLE STUDY was the HIGHEST form of spiritual regenerating power. Honoring Jesus, the presiding elders read the word and had the uncommon decency to sit down and DIALOG the word. Bible study is an EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE based on the claim of Jesus that "My Words are SPIRIT and LIFE." It is terminally presumptious for a professional staff to ASCEND UP to believe that they can provide a LIFE- TRANSFORMING class. The Word is like the DNA of a chicken: leave it along and it will produce a chicken. But take the WORDS contained in the chicken's DNA out, scramble it, add some other stuff and when the chicken is hatched it might EAT YOU FOR LUNCH. God is God and we are not.

When I was a child I always thought that my plans for "inventing" the boy scouts was rejected just because of the meanness of the other boys. They wanted to be Dick Tracy and made me be Flat Top and threw me in a hole I had helped dig during many recesses.

I believe that the MEANNESS, imposing GUILT and making people FEARFUL that God will curse you if you do not tithe or show up on schedual is ALL DERIVED from the unlawful STAFF. How evil and mean to lie about the entire Bible and history's repudiation and the IMPOSE it on people who do not want it. Deliberate sowing of discord as NAVIGATING THE WINDS OF CHANGE is the worst form of evil.

When people oppose another's views that is not being mean: that is being mature. No view not worth fighting for is worth holding and the arena of the Christian is spiritual warfare against principalities and powers in high places who work through agents. The Word of God is not a back scrubber but the Sword of the Spirit, double-edged. Someone might recognize the new style worship as Babylon Restored.

When my wife tells me that I am gaining too much weight I claim that she is just loading me down with a guilt trip. She is mean and mistreats her baby. Nonesense. Grow up.

It would be hard to find a more determined band of merry men on the dole of non-instrumental churches trying to heap guilt on the heads of their supporters by making the non-use of instrumental music the hallmark of being a Pharisee, legalist, sectarian, racist, clinic bombers, and fratricides (brother killers.). Besides Dr. Shelly, here is some of the other "staff infection."

Using Narrative Theology to Agree With Rubel Shelly to Attack non-instrumental: Olan Hicks: Guilt Clause and The Law of Silence--Pharisees and Hypocrites-- Passing The Guilt Clause-- Al Maxey--Robert Beasley--Dallas Burdette--Joe Beam--Edward Fudge--Paul Woodhouse--Grace Centered Magazine--Bill Swetmon--Jeff Walling Sister Singers--Jeff Walling Index Plus on Dancing

The Pharisees were Narrative Theologians. They didn't "degenerate." They saw religion as occupation and the widow's houses belonged to them. The problem was to deliberately ignore or set at nought the Word of God and invent or improvise some new, pagan-like, ritual which would "meet the needs of the first century."

Joseph Campbell noted with Spengler that when a group begins to decay from its founding principles it usually falls all the way back to the archaic. The Jews never ceased being basic Babylonian idolaters seen in Egypt, Canaan and the rest of the area.

Modern "improvisers" ridicule the idea of going back to Pentecost for a pattern, but they just fly over Jerusalem and land in downtown Babylon.

The KEYWORD is INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. Therefore, you should not fall sucker to the idea that the church DEGENERATED into rejecting instrumental music. It is a fact that MUSICAL IDOLATRY was the "because of transgression" at Mount Sinai. God broke up THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT and gave them a CLERGY and THE BOOK OF THE LAW. Music in fact is the MARK of God's driving people into captivity and death with musical instruments making cowards of them all.

Lucifer brought her wind, string and percussion instruments as she/he was cast out of heaven. She is the serpent or MUSICAL ENCHANTER who wholly seduced Eve.

MUSIC is the outcome based religion in Revelation 18 when he Babylon Harlot is brought down along withe her music and instrumentalists.

See Grand Inquisitor: Dostoyevsky, Fyodor To see that we would crucify Him all over again with the mocking musicians triumphing over Him pretending that Christ was Beliar.

There never was a pulpit in the assembly except for holding up the Word. Jesus had the common decency to read the Word and then sit down. He drove the "clergy" out of the pulpits in the Great Commission. And one suspects that the majority of preachers would jump for joy if they could get out from under the burden-laden job of church administrator and be financed to go into some mission field. I know that is a fact but they cannot find the money because it is being sucked up into giant "venues for Rock and Roll, Rap and CCM (the ultimate oxymoron)."

The king and priests constructed the pagan like temple for animal sacrifices on carved alters, steps and the loud sounders which might have been music to them. However, Psalm 41 prophesied of the musical attack upon Jesus. The following painting illustrates the well-recognized meaning of the attack upon Jesus:

When Israel's elders rejected the rule of God and demanded a human king like the nations it was so that they could worship like the nations. This was the same musical idolatry that originally sentenced them to the Monarchy which God would now use to execute His wrath on those who cannot listen to Him through His Word.

"The trained musicians which eventually appear around the time of David and Solomon mark a distinctive change in the history of Jewish music.

Before this time much of the music was made by women." (Zondervan Pict., Music p. 313).

"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. 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).

"Music with the Greeks, therefore, included, besides vocal and instrumental music, choral dancing, rhythmic motions, and various modes of harmony expressed in action, perhaps most particularly that part of education which we should now

classify as a striving for harmony (Kosmos unity) in life combined with aesthetic (art and human creativity), (See Judas and the comos or reveling above)

in contrast with intellectual and physical branches of study and development.

It was culture of the essential person, the ego or soul,

whereas the other two divisions care for and supply the needs of the mind and of the body.

The Prophetic Presence Will Burn You Out and Burn You Up

However, the prophets universally sounded woes against those who build structures "wall to wall" and held even daily "religious festivals" where the rich were entertained by wine, women and instrumental music by money stolen (tithed?) from the poor.

In consequence, the common people hungered and thirsted for the Word but died because the clergy refused to teach it. Amos said it. Isaiah said it. Ezekiel said it: their worship was like the song of the prostitute with a beautiful voice and well played instruments but they had no intention of listening to God's Words.

The king/queen of Babylon: Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the maggots cover thee. Is.14:11

The king/queen of Tyre who "came equipped with the pipes and tambourine": And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. Isa 23:15

Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered (as a male). Isa 23:16

And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. Isa 23: 17

And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing. Isa 23: 18

Here is the sign that a prophetic presence has come, pronounced judgment and moved on. Here is the king of Tyre as the change agent of Lucifer type repeated by Ezekiel of the Jews:

Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. Ezekiel 33:30

And they come unto thee as the people cometh,

and they sit before thee as my people,

and they hear thy words,

but they will not do them:

for with their mouth they shew much love,

but their heart goeth after their covetousness. Ezekiel 33: 31

 

And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song (sexual)

of one that hath a pleasant voice,

and can play well on an instrument:

for they hear thy words,

but they do them not. Ezekiel 33: 32

And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them. Ezekiel 33:33

Amos has been there and gone. Isaiah has been there and gone. Job has been there and gone. Jesus has been here and gone. He was here and blew His trumpet voice but you were worshiping Sister Singers or a trumpet quartet. He slipped in, saw that He was being mocked just like in the beginning and slipped out as that "strange, ill-dressed creature" who just couldn't be seduced with erotic praise songs.

You had been prophesied against but with all of these prophesyings, the people had been removed beyond redemption. Therefore, let us eat, drink and make mary for tomorrow we die.

A "prophetic presence" would at least tear down the pagan pyramidal structure and turn the church back over to godly elders and the "one another" ministry of the Word.

Ain't that the truth. But Rubel says that the musical worship minister can help "lead you into God's presence." Now, didn't Jesus die for that right? The Willow Creek PATTERNISM declares that the musicians and singers are IMAGES to look at in trying to see God. The worship word is almost 100% to GIVE HEED to Jesus by GIVING ATTENDANCE to His Words. Now, if the preacher is standing then no human mind can SEE PAST the preacher and see Jesus: no one can GIVE HEED to the words of God if they are forced to give heed to a performance ritual. How can you give heed to Jesus and His words when the TEAM is, like Lucifer, bleeding off worship due to God by FORCING everyone to "look at me and listen to MY text."

We have noted how you can share with Jesus each Lord's Day during the Lord's Supper which is not a pagan agapae. You can DECLARE His words one to another without a WORSHIP LEADER and "agonize" out a hymn with Him. Those in Amos 5 carried out musical idoatry but were not GRIEVED. That is, they approached God as Chiun or Saturn who is 666 with music.

Did you know that even trees symbolically clap their hands, sing and praise God. Trees and nature are the kindergarten to know that God exists and is present. But, how many trees have been cut down (the Babylonians were 'fellers'), grass plowed up and paved over, people accumulated only after fatally afflicting them with "spiritual anxiety" about doing worship correctly and automobile pollution concentrated to a dangerous level? All because of the mega-church, seeker-sucking myth that God is best worshiped enmass by people gassed by bad breath from cigarettes just stomped out. Jesus said that He would be present with two or three collected in His Name to seek Him but I just don't know about two or three thousand collected in the interest of civic pride.

I truly know because the Bible tells me so that God does not, cannot and desires not to dwell in "temples made with human hands" or be worshiped with human hands of which musicians are the most works intensive.

However, I truly believe that God can sit under a tree but you have cut it down along with tens of thousands of His other friends just to make Him a Temple He will not dwell in.

Jesus didn't cleanse the temple. He couldn't go into the temple proper. The collection plates and "musical worship ministers" were in the courts representative of the world. Like most of the actions of Jesus they were 'prophetic signs' and the temple as physical PLACE was to be torn down because it was never the place where the common people who gladly heard Jesus ever "worshiped."

The temple in Gerezim was a PLACE. The temple in Jerusalem was a PLACE. Therefore, in spirit (mind) is a PLACE and not an attitude. Worship is not like the praise craze a WORKS ritual which allows God to DO HIS WORK. In all paganism, collective ritual was to help the gods do their work and to keep them from failing. God blessed us so we worship Him as a natural outflow: we do not worship God in order to receive His blessings. This, like music, is intensely legalistic, works-oriented. Worship in the New Testament was "giving heed" to the Words of Christ just as true worship under the Law was giving Heed to His words as Spirit. We bow or fall on our face ONLY when we open His Word and let it speak. Then we can prophesy by saying: "Thus saith the Lord." Otherwise we have not worshiped in spirit and in truth no matter how many nerve endings you stimulate as WORKS WORSHIP.

Church is a PHYSICAL PLACE. That has value as a Synagogue of Christ but you physically CANNOT worship in spirit when someone is making a show and a noise. Paul said that the NEW PLACE for worship by the converted Jews is exactly the ONLY place Jesus said God will be seeking us.

For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Ph.3:3

Prayer is not clergy led but:

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; Ep.6:18

John was not inside of a spirit person but where Jesus told him to worship:

I was in the Spirit on the Lords day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Re.1:10

Ritualistic performance singing Twila Paris and watching the team absolutely guarantees that there can be NO worship in the increasingly musical and infantile "church."

I suppose that infiltrating and diverting to "steal the church houses of widows" only to CHANGE ITS purposes is less criminal than burning them down. If you repudiate the epistles then you repudiate the only thing which transforms people without institutions. Isaiah noted that the Sabbath had been turned into something like a modern "praise service" trying to make their own voice heart rather than listen to God. Afflicting was a form of singing, shouting, testifying and otherwise rejecting that which would make God's Light shine in them. The Sabbath was a day of rest and not worship. This quarantined the pagan, mostly Babylon forms of letting the "god's" rest whilel the people 'worshipped' in singing, dancing, playing instruments, feeding and sexually entertaining the "gods." The Lord's Day would quarantine Christians from the Sun's Day worship.

Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day,

to make your voice to be heard on high. Is.58:4

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Isa 58:6

Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Isa 58:7

Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Isa 58:8

But only:

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him,

not doing thine own ways,

nor finding thine own pleasure,

nor speaking thine own words: Isa 58:13

Peter recorded his eyewitness experiences with Jesus Christ

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 2 Peter 1:10

For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1: 11

Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. 2 Peter 1: 12

Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; 2 Peter 1: 13

Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. 2 Peter 1: 14

Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things alway in remembrance. 2 Peter 1: 15

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 2 Peter 1: 16

For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 2 Peter 1: 17

And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. 2 Peter 1: 18

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed (worship), as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 2 Peter 1: 19

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 2 Peter 1: 20

Peter said that the trick is to take heed (worship in spirit) to the words which he woud record because no man can speak one word which causes the Mind of Christ to dwell in the heart.

Epilusis (g1955) ep-il'-oo-sis; from 1956; explanation, i.e. application: - interpretation.

Epiluo (g1956) ep-ee-loo'-o; from 1909 and 3089; to solve further, i.e. (fig.) to explain, decide: - determine, expound.

There simply is no role for FURTHER EXPOUNDING. We are to "teach that which has been taught" and that Word which is Spirit and Life will of itself MINISTER THE SPIRIT. Christ and the apostles have already under Divine guidance expounded the Word:

But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples. Mk.4:34

To try to AID Christ in defining the Spirit real is to deny that the Spirit of Christ inspired it.

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1: 21

Christ is that Spirit:

Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 1 Pet 1:11

That is why the Spirit truth is universally ignored

And we must be very careful not to cut ourselves off from the one whose name we wear by so recasting him in our fallen image that we cannot be transformed into his glorious likeness.

The message of the Bible and books such as Jubilees and Enoch is that once we have falllen from the mountain of the presence of the Living Word, we have fallen and we are never going to get back up.

Peter has prescribed the solution which can only be corrected with letting Jesus Christ be the Master Teacher while the elders of the Synagogue teach that which has been written.

It is assuredly terminal to dismiss the epistles as the divided opinions of divided apostles who "wrote for their own agenda."

Sermonizing by narrative theology by taking liberties blasphemes the Spirit of Christ and FURTHER EXPOUNDS the "once delibered" Words of God. Music has the meaning ONLY of entertainment while we should be giving heed to the word.

And be not conformed to this world: but ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Ro.12:2

I remember that in The Second Incarnation quoted above, Dr. Shelly suggested that the Aztec's practice of burning down the old bulidings (destroying the old wineskins) was a commendable practice. However, the Aztecs held a 52 year and a 52 week Jubilee much like that of Babylon. They had a true "heart felt religion" as they murdered up to 20,000 slaves in one grand Jubilee. They had a keynoter who played with instruments and girls all year knowint that his heart would be cut out and his body tossed down the Tower of Babel-like pyramid before he lost consciousness.

The burned down the old buildings and when the Jubilee was determined to help the gods hold up the sky for one more year, they sent the priest (attendees) back to the newly built houses to light the fire straight from Jubilee time.

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