John Chrysostom and
Musical Worship
A. Ralph Johnson in Instrumental Music, Sacred or Sinful.
1. Tom Burgess in Documents on Instrumental Music reviewed. Psallo and Instrumental Music: Proofs do not prove anything but the "music-homosexuality" connection.
See more on Strabo's definition of the worship of Apollo or Abaddon or Apollyon: his MUSES are the locusts or musical performers in the book of revelation.
2. Tom Burgess More Review of Plutarch: if Psallo authorizes "church music" it authorizes a homosexual gathering.
3. Tom Burgess on Moralia confirms the "Music-Heresy-Perversion" connection which has no historical exception. 10/20/04
4. Tom Burgess on John Chrysostom: are the anti-instrumentalists ignorant rurals? 10/21/04 What about Paul and Martin Luther and John Calvin and Zwingli and--everyone who believed the Bible as authority.
See how John Chrysostom proves that until the musical idolatry at Mount Sinai there was no command for a 'LIKE THE NATION'S' temple
5. Tom Burgess on Kurfees versus Thayer and Grimm: Quotes from: G. C. Brewer, A Medley on the Music Question, Gospel Advocate, Nashville 1948. Burgess uses the same Krewson arguments. LATEST 11/06/05
Charles Daily Northwest College of the Bible Part One ..... Part One A .....Part Two .... THRESKIA or CHARISMATIC
Click for more on Serpent or Devil Worship.
See our summary of music as madness
See that scholars reject this meaning of psallo
Tom Burgess: Chamber's Encyclopedia makes a similar statement and then adds a further thought.
"If the Christian cult had immediately received official recognition --it is probable that the Christians would have made use of at least some of the instrumental resources of the time, but being driven underground into the catacombs they were compelled to avoid drawing attention to their activities, When in the fourth century the ecclesiastical authorities were able to begin organizing the liturgy, the fathers of the church set their faces against the use of accompanying instruments on account of their pagan associations.,'28
The pagans USED instruments just the same way and the same time as they USED young boys. We have shown that ALL of the quotes used to justify adding instruments which NEEDED no justification when the musical SECTARIANS emerged always identify their grasp for the word PSALLO or MELODY with sexually perverted religious or social rituals.
These writers use these words mostly of writers BEFORE the time of Paul and therefore used Attic Greek if they intended to peddle their songs and sermons.
There is not a SINGING INSTANCE in the Bible or any literature where PSALLO ever means to sing with instrumental accompaniment. You will always find (1) singing, (2) plucking [psallo] and (3) WHAT is to be plucked. It COULD mean plucking pubic hair from the boy musicians who were preferred over women. It could mean plucking the BOW string.
If you say PSALLO a harp string then psallo has NEVER changed its meaning. However, it is NEVER used in a musical sense unless you define WHAT is to be plucked.
The Romans, Corinthians, Colossians or Ephesians WERE NOT hiding out in catacombs when Paul said SPEAK "that which is written."
"But considerable prominence was given to the hymns by the Gnostic, Bardesans, who composed a psalter of 150 psalms. However, the 59th canon of the Synod of Laodicea, 360 A. D., enjoined that 'No psalm composed by private individuals nor any uncanonical books may be read in the Church, but only... the Canonical Books of the OT and NT." Int Std Ency., p. 2494
You probably didn't know that the Christians lived in catacombs in Corinth. Or, you probably think they were whispering in Corinth were people were singing and speaking out of their OWN SPIRIT so that strangers would see them as MAD. Or how about warning about getting "methuo" or PIPED DOWN with wine and music in Ephesus. Did they really dig holes in the ground in these places so that they could go mad? If they were in catacombs then why couldn't they make all of the noise they wished. Did those people digging all of that underground NOT make any noise.
A tinkling harp cannot possibly make as much SOUND as congregational singing. But, we know that they RECITED or as Paul uses that mystery word SPOKE one to another. In Romans 15 with ONE MIND and ONE MOUTH speaking "that which is written"as a way to glorify God whereas all music intends to glorify the musicians.
It was in the fourth century that people began to introduce composed, non-Biblical songs and imposed them on the church. The leaders were not opposing something in a vacuum: they grasped that Paul used the word SPEAK and the spoken or recited material had been the Biblical Psalms and other metrical passages from the very beginning. It was after Constantine that the Catholic church adopted things like lights, candles and music FROM THE PAGANS. They say that MUSIC was common in all pagan cults. Finding someone bringing a lyre even into the "out of church" festivals was possible but there is no evidence that the church ever ACCEPTED instruments because they understood them to NEVER have been a part of the people's synagogue and that they were EXCLUDED by Paul's direct commands.
Tom Burgess: When we add to this the fact that some early Christians began to compare musical accompaniment with pagan singing and "worldliness" we have the answer as to why some early Christians stopped using the instrument.
This is not the truth. When singing non-Biblical songs or instruments were once introduced the Book of Enoch, Jubilees, Adam and Eve and other ancient writings prove that you can NEVER remove them. The Reformers were confessed RESTORERS and tossed images and organs out of the churches inherited from the Catholics.
Tom Burgess p. 33: Chrysostom strongly opposed instruments because they were "lifeless, demons, unnecessary, and used in heathen entertainments--cf. Hom. Ps. 149:2; Hom. Ps 150. Clement said that such instruments as the pipe and flute were "more suitable to beasts than to men. " He calls such music "licentious and mischievous. " Cf. Instructor. These interesting comparisons are
full of impressive emotional prejudice
but demonstrate no scriptural backing
and therefore would appeal only to one
who is searching for a cause and not the truth.Self-protection and preservation caused the instrument to be used sparingly;
some abused its use causing it to be compared to pagan music; hence,
some have concluded that conviction based on scripture had stopped the music!
Going to Church.
Woman and man are to go to church decently attired, with natural step, embracing silence, possessing unfeigned love, pure in body, pure in heart, fit to pray to God. Let the woman observe this, further. Let her be entirely covered, unless she happen to be at home.
For that style of dress is grave, and protects from being gazed at. And she will never fall, who puts before her eyes modesty, and her shawl;
nor will she invite another to fall into sin by uncovering her face. For this is the wish of the Word, since it is becoming for her to pray veiled.
They say that the wife of Aenuas, through excess of propriety, did not, even in her terror at the capture of Troy, uncover herself; but, though fleeing from the conflagration, remained veiled.
Such ought those who are consecrated to Christ appear, and frame themselves in their whole life, as they fashion themselves in the church for the sake of gravity; and to be, not to seem such-so meek, so pious, so loving.
But now I know not how people change their fashions and manners with the place. As they say that polypi, assimilated to the rocks to which they adhere, are in colour such as they; so, laying aside the inspiration of the assembly, after their departure from it, they become like others with whom they associate. Nay, in laying aside the artificial mask of solemnity, they are proved to be what they secretly were.
After having paid reverence to the discourse about God, they leave within [the church] what they have heard.
And outside they foolishly amuse themselves with impious playing, and amatory quavering, occupied with flute-playing, and dancing, and intoxication, and all kinds of trash.
Preliminary findings to this point in the research have led me to look more closely into frequency and resonance. The resonant frequency of our skulls is around 3.5 Hertz, and this coincides with the 14th sub-harmonic of G above middle C, which is the main frequency used in the 'Phoenix and the Firestone'. This is the frequency directly connected to the pineal gland and is, therefore, linked to the transcendent realm and the expansion of the subconscious. Sir Andrew Wagner.
They who sing thus, and sing in response, are those who before hymned immortality,-found at last wicked and wickedly singing this most pernicious palinode,
"Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." But not to-morrow in truth, but already, are these dead to God; burying their dead, 153 that is, sinking themselves down to death. The apostle very firmly assails them. "Be not deceived; neither adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers," and whatever else he adds to these, "shall inherit the kingdom of God."
He had at least READ Paul:
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Phil 3:3That is the ONLY place god LOOKS for our worship. The reason for not OPENING the process to the musical group is too:
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. Phil 3:2
kuôn I. a dog or bitch, Hom., etc.; most commonly of hounds, id=Hom., etc.; the Laconian breed was famous, Soph.;-- nê or ma ton kuna was the favourite oath of Socrates, Plat.: cf. trapezeus. II. as a word of reproach, to denote shamelessness or audacity in women, rashness, recklessness in men 2. at Athens a nickname of the Cynics, Arist., Anth.III. the Trag. apply the term to the ministers of the gods; the eagle is Dios ptênos kuôn Aesch.; the griffins Zênos akrageis kunes id=Aesch.; the Bacchantes Lussês k. Eur., etc.also of offensive persons, compared to yapping dogs, 3. of the Cynics, areskei toutois kunôn
Pan is the kuôn of Cybele, of the planetareskô Ores-teros , a, on, poet. for oreinos, epith. of a snake, Il.22.93 ; of wolves and lions, Od.10.212, Hêphaistou [Lucifer] k., of sparks, Harpies, Hecate, in Mithraic worship,For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Re.22:15
But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. 2Pe.2:22
Caphaq (h5606) saw-fak'; or saphaq (1 Kings 20:10; Job 27:23; Isa. 2:6), saw-fak'; a prim. root; to clap the hands (in token of compact, derision, grief, indignation or punishment); by impl. of satisfaction, to be enough; by impl. of excess, to vomit: - clap, smite, strike, suffice, wallow
These are the DOGS and the spotted thing on right is a flute case and the little attachment is the Judas Bag.
The warriors, prostitutes and
perverted religionists soon discovered that you can do MIND CONTROL
through musical tones or rhythms. The prostitute knew that she could
play the flute and INDUCE an urge to purchase. MARKETING simply could
not work without music or "musical" styles of commercials.
The charismatic performer who was emotionally and sexually abnormal was one of the world's FIRST professionals. They knew, like witch doctors or rain dancers, that an abnormal ritual ACCIDENTIALLY connected to a good crop allowed him or her to QUIT WORKING and peddle their SKILLS to others.
ALL religionists knew that to fill the collection plates they had to IMPROVIZE with music and sexuality. Most rational people knew that they were polluting people's minds in order to SELL a certain feeling which they could call SPIRITUAL: "homosexuality bound BODY and SPIRIT together."
It is true that this was the WEAPON of choice for the pagan religionists and modern Christianism.
However, the CHRISTIANS did not BEGIN to use any form of vocal or instrumental MUSIC just because the pagans did it without exception.
To make such a silly claim is to say that the Christians DID NOT USE hashish or burn poppy seed JUST BECAUSE the pagans did it.
Chrysotom probably had read that Paul called them LIFELESS INSTRUMENTS or CARNAL WEAPONS and connected them to warfare and sorcery. He also knew that there could BE NO MUSICAL component in the Christian assembly which, as Jesus died to build, was an ekklesia or synagogue or school of the Bible.
The English teacher DOES NOT REFUSE TO USE a singy-clappy team JUST BECAUSE the Pagans had used them.
Worship was not something you PERFORMED in acts. Rather, when you assembled to obey Christ your acts BECAME worship only if you gave your attention to HIM. You simply cannot give heed to Jesus and His Word and musical, thetrical performers at the same time.
Chrysostom Homily Number One Theatrical worship is from Satan
[1.] They that are spectators of the heathen games, when they have learned that a distinguished athlete and winner of crowns is come from any quarter, run all together to view his wrestling, and all his skill and strength; and you may see the whole theater of many ten thousands, all there straining their eyes both of body and mind, that nothing of what is done may escape them.
So again these same persons,
if any admirable musician come amongst them,
leave all that they had in hand, which often is necessary and pressing business,and mount the steps (in the arena), and sit listening very attentively to the words and the accompaniments, and criticising the agreement of the two.
This is what the many do."Again; those who are skilled in rhetoric do just the same with respect to the sophists,
for they too have their theaters, and their audience, and clappings of hands, and noise, and closest criticism of what is said.
"And if in the case of rhetoricians, musicians, and athletes, people sit in the one case to look on, in the other to see at once and to listen with such earnest attention;
what zeal, what earnestness ought ye in reason to display, when it is no musician or debater who now comes forward to a trial of skill,
(2) For the son of thunder, the beloved of Christ, the pillar of the Churches throughout the world, who holds the keys of heaven, who drank the cup of Christ, and was baptized with His baptism, who lay upon his Master's bosom with much confidence,
this man comes forward to us now; not as an actor of a play, not hiding his head with a mask, (for he hath another sort of words to speak,) nor mounting a platform,
nor striking the stage with his foot, nor dressed out with apparel of gold, but he enters wearing a robe of inconceivable beauty.
For he will appear before us having "put on Christ" (Rom. xiii. 14; Gal. iii.27)
having his beautiful "feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace" (Eph. vi. 15); wearing a girdle not about his waist, but about his loins,
not made of scarlet leather nor daubed outside with gold,
but woven and composed of truth itself.See John Chrysostom not giving any aid and comfort to the Musical Heretics
Number Two Sophists,
See how the temple was NOT according to god's will.
Performing Ministers - Theatrical performers - Parasites
- Homily IX In Colossians Paul Not "singing" but "teaching and admonishing."
- Homily XII 1 Cor 1:4. Singing and piping
- Homily XIX Ephesians 5 on singing the Words of Christ
I hate shock treatments but it is a fact that not in the vilest pagan temples did singers or players inter into the holy places. In Jerusalem the Warrior Levitical Musicians made a great crashing sound during the slaughter and burning of innocent animals which were TYPES of Jesus Christ. Instruments were NEVER used in the Synagogues or a Christian assembly but NOT because of any association and backwardness in South Corinth. They knew that ALL forms of exciting singing and instrument playing the PLEASURE CENTERS were stimulated or massaged and bad things happened.
Jesus commanded that God only seeks us in the NEW PLACE of our spirits made holy at Baptism. Paul said that the Jewish converts did not worship in physical places but in the SPIRIT.
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. Ph 3:2
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
If you get RICH and wise because you live in the CITY--where all error originated even with Cain--and wish to worship IN THE FLESH by the use of mind-altering music then Paul warned you that you have made a crack and the DOGS or Catamites can slip in as your theatrical performers.
"The testimony of Clement is, that musical instruments in worship is fitter things for beasts than for men. Basil says, he thought musical instruments unprofitable and hurtful.
He calls them, the inventions of Jubal of the race of Cain.
At page 955, he says, "In such vain arts, as the playing upon the harp, or pipe, as soon as the action ceases, the work itself vanishes. So that really, according to the Apostle's expression, The end of those things is destruction." And again, at page 957, he says,
"Laban was a lover of the harp and of music, with which he would have sent away Jacob: if thou hadst told me, said he, I would have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp.
[Laban had used a musical party with wine so that Jacob didn't know which woman he was sleeping with. He intended to use the same musical party to SEND Jacove away empty-handed]
"But the Patriarch avoided that music, as being a thing that would hinder his regarding the work of the Lord, and his considering the works of his hands."
It is evident then, that no musical instruments were used in the pure and primitive times of the church.
It first became antichristian, before they were received. Even Bellarmine does not deny, that they were late brought into the church. He says;
"The second ceremony, are the musical instruments, which began to be used in the service of the church, in the time of Pope Vitalian, about the year 600 as Platina relates out of the Pontifical; or as Aimonius rather thinks in book iv. chapter 114, after the year 820, in the time of Lewis the Pious."
But farther we notice, that instruments of music were not used in public worship about the year 1250, as Thomas Aquinas is himself witness to. He says,
"in the old law, God was praised both with musical instruments, and human voices. But the church does not use musical instruments to praise God, lest she should seem to judaize." Again, he says, "pipes are not to be used for teaching, nor any artificial instruments, as the harp, or the like: but whatsoever will make the hearers good men," &c.
Also, Cardinal Cajectan in his voce musica says, "Tis to be observed, the church did not use organs in Thomas' time. Whence, even to this day, the church of Rome does not use them in the Pope's presence. And truly it will appear, that musical instruments are not to be suffered in the ecclesiastical offices we meet to perform;
and so much the rather are they to be excluded, because God's internal discipline exceeds all human disciplines, which rejected these kind of instruments." [And so says the Catholic Encyclopedia]
The wonder is that anyone EMPLOYED as a teacher would ever THINK of using instruments when he ASSUREDLY would not tolerate them while HE is preaching.
Clement in Pedagogue 2 has many warnings and none are based on ignorant superstition but basic intelligence 101aaa:
Many are eunuchs; and these panders serve without suspicion those that wish to be free to enjoy their pleasures, because of the belief that they are unable to indulge in lust.
But a true eunuch is not one who is unable, but one who is unwilling, to indulge in pleasure.
The Word, testifying by the prophet Samuel to the Jews, who had transgressed when the people asked for a king, promised not a loving lord, but threatened to give them a self-willed and voluptuous tyrant, "who shall," He says,
"take your daughters to be perfumers, and cooks, and bakers," ruling by the law of war, not desiring a peaceful administration. And there are many Celts, who bear aloft on their shoulders women's litters. But workers in wool, and spinners, and weavers, and female work and housekeeping, are nowhere.
God warned that the kings GIVEN IN HIS ANGER would also force the sons to make "Instruments of Chariots." These can be seen in many images proving that they went before and bled the common people out of the way of the king's chariot.
The Holy Spirit, uttering His voice by Amos, pronounces the rich to be wretched on account of their luxury: "Those that drink strained wine, and recline on an ivory couch," he says; and what else similar he adds by way of reproach.
Especial regard is to be paid to decency (as the myth represents Athene, whoever she was, out of regard to it,
giving up the pleasure of the flute because of the unseemliness of the sight): so that we are to drink without contortions of the face, not greedily grasping the cup
Chapter IV.-How to Conduct Ourselves at Feasts.
"Let revelry keep away from our rational entertainments, and foolish vigils, too, that revel in intemperance. For revelry is an inebriating pipe, the chain of an amatory bridge, that is, of sorrow. And let love, and intoxication, and senseless passions, be removed from our choir. Burlesque singing is the boon companion of drunkenness. A night spent over drink invites drunkenness, rouses lust, and is audacious in deeds of shame.
It seems that Clement was more spiritual than most of today's preachers: He could grasp that music is NOT rational and that MUSIC is a vital weapon to make any tavern operate. WHY would he want to turn the church into a Vineyard Holy Tavern?
When Paul prepared for speaking the Biblical text he said "don't get drunk on wine." This parallel statement appears many times in Greek resources and means don't get PIPED or FLUTED down with wine. "Drunk" was more out of passion and pride and musical ecstasy than the weak wine.
For if people occupy their time with pipes, and psalteries, and choirs, and dances, and Egyptian clapping of hands, and such disorderly frivolities,
they become quite immodest and intractable, beat on cymbals and drums, and make a noise on instruments of delusion ; for plainly such a banquet, as seems to me,
is a theatre of drunkenness. For the apostle decrees that, "putting off the works of darkness, we should put on the armour of light, walking honestly as in the day, not spending our time in rioting and drunkenness, in chambering and wantonness."
Let the pipe be resigned to the shepherds, and the flute to the superstitious who are engrossed in idolatry. For, in truth, such instruments are to be banished from the temperate banquet, being more suitable to beasts than men, and the more irrational portion of mankind.
Chalal (h2490) khaw-lal'; a prim. root [comp. 2470]; prop. to bore, i. e. (by impl.) to wound, to dissolve; fig. to profane (a person, place or thing), to break (one's word), to begin (as if by an "opening wedge"); denom. (from 2485) to play (the flute): - begin (* men began), defile, * break, defile, * eat (as common things), * first, * gather the grape thereof, * take inheritance, pipe, player on instruments, pollute, (cast as) profane (self), prostitute, slay (slain), sorrow, stain, wound.
Will Musical Worship Teams attract the paying audience? Why, of course. The fact is that little babies will jump to music and animals can be seduced by it. Therefore, the emotional pleasure centers are not smoothed but attacked. This, in turn, produces a drug high to heal the pain. Satan knows how to turn saints into beasts:
For we have heard of stags being charmed by the pipe, and seduced by music into the toils, when hunted by the huntsmen.
And when mares are being covered, a tune is played on the flute -a nuptial song,l, as it were.
And every improper sight and sound, to speak in a word, and every shameful sensation of licentiousnes"-which, in truth, is privation of sensation-must by all means be excluded;
and we must be on our guard against whatever pleasure titillates eye and ear, and effeminates. For the various spells of the broken strains and plaintive numbers of the Carian muse corrupt men's morals, drawing to perturbation of mind, by the licentious and mischievous art of music.
The Spirit, distinguishing from such revelry the divine service, sings,
"Praise Him with the sound of trumpet ; "for with sound of trumpet He shall raise the dead.
"Praise Him on the psaltery ; "for the tongue is the psaltery of the Lord. "And praise Him on the lyre." By the lyre is meant the mouth struck by the Spirit, as it were by a plectrum.
"Praise with the timbrel and the dance," refers to the Church meditating on the resurrection of the dead in the resounding skin.
"Praise Him on the chords and organ." Our body He calls an organ, and its nerves are the strings, by which it has received harmonious tension, and when struck by the Spirit, it gives forth human voices.
"Praise Him on the clashing cymbals." He calls the tongue the cymbal of the mouth, which resounds with the pulsation of the lips. Therefore He cried to humanity,
"Let every breath praise the Lord," because He cares for every breathing thing which He hath made. For man is truly a pacific instrument; while other instruments, if you investigate, you will find to be warlike, inflaming to lusts, or kindling up amours, or rousing wrath.
Tom Burgess: We can take a lesson from this today: Let us not confuse scripturally based and backed doctrines or prohibitions with traditional practices or abstinences!
One hundred years ago when this issue wrecked havoc with the restoration movement
it was impractical for the smaller country churches in the South to have an organ.
The bigger and richer "city" churches could afford them and got them. Church music came to be closely connected with the liturgical and formalistic atmosphere of the larger and more modernistic city churches.
This
was a collaborative effort of a deer, two
dogs
hiding and recovering over a couple of years and ME working on it
like an ancient OFTEN did. It makes pretty good tones, thank you very
much. Cost? Zero except wife's making fun. Most whittlers and savers
of GUT built their own dulcimers--I have one--and even played them IN
CHURCH. Black churches had pans and washboards and a bass made of a
tub and stick.
John Calvin and friends inherited grand church buildings with very expensive pipe organs: they removed the organs and melted down the pipes. But, that MIGHT have been in SOUTH France.
I was born in a tenant house on my Grandfather's farm. Later I lived in two slave cabins. Throughout that period we had a wonderful reed organ. Some poorer family GAVE it to us. My grandmother had a grand piano-organ at ten dollars a month. My maternal grandparents had a reed organ and I can remember it well. The SOUTH Methodists had organs at the time the Christian church IMPOSED them on peacable churches. The Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians lived like the rest of us. It is a fact that Sand Creek was one of those early SECTARIANIZING of a peacable church and THAT is in the NORTH.
Prior to the larger reed organs, there were Melodians and Harmoniums some were not much larger than an accordian: Circuit preachers could carry them on a horse: Southern preachers ACTUALLy owned horses, saddles and owning musical instruments was as important as food.
Imposing by force MUSIC which all spiritual people repudiated from the time of Christ DID wreck havoc. Howver, Tom and his spiritual ancestors were the HAVOC WRECKERS.
Some of the first Baptist churches to add instruments used the LYRE or small harp. Black Methodists discovered that musical performances helped pay off the new building in 1848. The income was so great that they CONVERTED their views and were among the first to add organs and full bands. It was noted that among the Black Methodists not one church was too poor that they could not afford an organ.
Somehow, the church which was confiscated and an organ added got the money somewhere! See how the instrumentalists used the law to force a division.
Is that a recommendation? Liturgy? Where does the Bible speak on LITURGY?
"Christianity had ceased (about AD 200) to be the close brotherhood which it was at first; it had developed a complicated organization, with a marked distinction between clergy and laity; the conception of priest and sacrifice had won a place. And as the body changed, so did its worship; the place which had sufficed for the simple, informal gatherings of the first Christians was no longer adequate" (Shaff-Herzog, Architecture, p. 264).
The Catholics and everyone else has to rest their use of music on the Sacrificial System which was "added because of transgression." That transgression being MUSICAL IDOLTRY at Mount Sinai. This is why they claim the priestly role of PREACHING and demand a TITHE or promote the Law of Giving to support the priesthood. The Levitical Warrior musicians served the PRIESTS and not the congregation or the people. That "service" is called HARD BONDAGE.
The addition of a clergy Precentor or "music leader" was one of the first heresies largly pervading the church.
But a melodian was pretty cheap. There would be hundreds of wind instruments, small harps, guitars, flutes, lyres, dulcimers from any handy man's shop with catgut for strings. Pan pipes and flutes from cane, drums. Early tidbits of information in history shows that some introduced the lyre which again can be built by a schoolboy. In early Baptist churches lyres were accepted but larger BOOMING instruments were not allowed.
WEST "Apostasy in music among 19th century churches that had endeavored to restore New Testament authority in worship and work began, in the main, following the Civil War' In 1868, Ben Franklin guessed that there were ten thousand congregations and not over fifty had used an instrument in worship." (Earl West, Search for the Ancient Order, Vol. 2, pp. 80, 81)
And it would be exactly ten years before they hit on the word PSALLO to justify what they intended to do 'spite of hell' and sowing of discord by treachery over the brotherhood.
If there was a CHANGE it had to be because Christian churches ADDED the organ and not because the ignorant Southern churches of Christ KICKED THEM OUT. No experience during the civil war conditioned the people to be LESS inclined to music. Therefore, if CULTURE is the culprit then Tom Burgess should psychoanalyze the Christian churches to find out what TRAUMATIC experience caused them to SUDDENLY begin to ADD instruments. It may be conditioned by the shift of agricultural slavery in the South to industrial slavery in the North.
Most of the 'Christian churches' were rural and the city dwellers were often farmers. When the lid was lifted they simply brought the organs from their homes which by the divisive period might have been ordered from Sears as my Grandma's was a bit later. We were so poor that the people on welfare were the best fed in the neighborhood but we had a battery radio and a pump organ.
The NATURALISTIC and FORMULISTIC urge is powerful in all people: many of those who repudiated music as a WORSHIP DEVICE were highly trained musicians.
Furthermore, the post civil war women carpetbaggers trying to educate the south about the DENOMINAITONAL ORGANIZATION and musical instruments would GLADLY have provide the poor churches with an organ which they did when they could infiltrate, divert and steal the church houses of widows
ALL of the major divisions occured in CITY churches and not in country churches.
Tom Burgess: You and I become so involved in the issue and the arguments concerning it in our day that it is hard for us to see the emotion-packed sectional disputes, urban-rural differences and the cultural influences of early restoration history which a century ago spawned this controversy over the instrument and has carried it down to our day.
Spawned: To bring forth; to generate; -- used in contempt or contemptuously.
STONE "We have just received an extraordinary account of about 30,000 Methodists in England, withdrawing from that church and connexion, because the Conference disapproved of the introduction of instrumental music to the churches. The full account shall appear in our next. To us, backwoods Americans, this conduct of those seceders appears be the extreme of folly, and it argues that they have a greater taste for music, than they have for religion. Editor." (Barton Stone, Christian Messenger, vol. 3, No. 2, Dec. 1828, p. 48 in bound volume)
Robertson a Presbyterian identifying the Church of Christ notes of the PUT DOWN.
If you listen to an organ discussion, or read a ritualistic paper,
you cannot fail to discover
that "liberty" is identified with additions to common notions.The people who seek to hold men to unadorned notions,
instead of being accounted friends of liberty,
are held up to execration as bigots, tyrants, men of contracted notions and shallow minds;with whom to identify liberty, is held to be as absurd as would have been for Gordon, of Jamaica, to have expected justice from a court martial of aristocratic cadets and martinets.
But the truth is that the ways which are now old-fashioned, were then new. Men had had a long trial of rites and ceremonies, - of trumpets, and psalteries, and harps, - and they were new "MAKING THE EXPERIMENT OF CHANGE."
Shall we put it so? Is it so as Peter puts it? Let us recall his words,
"Now, therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear."
Peter thus looked upon the changes effected amongst these churches, - amongst which we must reckon trumpets, psalteries, and harps, of solemn sound and grave sweet melody, - as effected by God to promote the liberty and welfare of the human race;
and he blames the restorists, as tempters of God and enemies of liberty, as putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither their fathers nor they were able to bear. "Not able to bear!"
I wonder if that is what SPAWNED the opposition by everyone who ever wrote?
THEODORET a.d. 110-165 "Simply singing is not agreeable to children (Jews), but singing with lifeless instruments and with dancing and clapping is. On this account the use of this kind of instruments and of others agreeable to children is removed from the songs of the churches, and there is left remaining simply singing."
Well, a similar quote comes from Theodoret after singing as an ACT (that legalism word) was imposed in the year 373. Theodoret spoke for just about everyone with the equivalent statement. Not knowing who wrote similar statements does not make them invalid based on all other commentss.
THEODORET " Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus c. 393 – c. 457) 107 . Question: If songs were invented by unbelievers to seduce men, but were allowed to those under the law on account of their childish state, why do those who have received the perfect teaching of grace in their churches still use songs, just like the children under the law?
Answer: It is not simple singing that belongs to the childish state, but singing with lifeless instruments, with dancing, and with clappers. Hence the use of such instruments and the others that belong to the childish state is excluded from the singing in the churches, and simple singing is left." (Theodoret, a bishop of Cyrhus in Syria, Questions and Answers for the Orthodox)
Book II Chapter 1 That excellent pair Flavianus and Diodorus,(1) though not vet admitted to the priesthood and still ranked with the laity, worked night and day to stimulate men's zeal for truth. They were the first to divide choirs into two parts, and to teach them to sing the psalms of David antiphonally. Introduced first at Antioch, the practice spread in all directions, and penetrated to the ends of the earth. Its originators now collected the lovers of the Divine word and work into the Churches of the Martyrs, and with them spent the night in singing psalms to God.
While most attribute this to Justin Martyr
It was known that instrumental music could produce lust and were often condemned in their secular festivals. However, when the church assembled no instruments were ever ADDED to be removed later.
I wonder why Tom cannot find any Anti-music in the Bible:
They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. Lu.7:32
JUSTIN MARTYR "The use of music was not received in the Christian churches, as it was among the Jew, in their infant state, but only the use of plain song." (Justin Martyr, 139 AD)
Justin Martyr defines the worship as the Lord's Supper and reading the Word: blessing the maker iis not singing.
Justin Martyr First Apology.
Justin Martyr to Trypho the Jew
In his second to Trypho he comes down hard on the singing and instruments which in Amos and at the Temple was "the worship of the starry host."
He agrees with Christ in all of the prophets and removes Rick Atchley's justification for sowing discord:
And again by Jeremiah: "Collect your flesh, and sacrifices, and eat: for concerning neither sacrifices nor libations did I command your fathers in the day in which I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt.' 55It was known that instrumental music could produce lust and were often condemned in their secular festivals. However, when the church assembled no instruments were ever ADDED to be removed later.
I wonder why Tom cannot find any Anti-music in the Bible:
They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. Lu.7:32
JUSTIN MARTYR "The use of music was not received in the Christian churches, as it was among the Jew, in their infant state, but only the use of plain song." (Justin Martyr, 139 AD)
Gregory.Nanzianzen.Or.XXXI.html
III. Is there any such among the shadowy purifications of the Law, aiding as it did with temporary sprinklings, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean;
or do the gentiles celebrate any such thing in their mysteries, every ceremony and mystery of which to me is nonsense, and a dark invention of demons, and a figment of an unhappy mind, aided by time, and hidden by fable?
For what they worship as true, they veil as mythical. But if these things are true, they ought not to be called myths, but to be proved not to be shameful; and if they are false, they ought not to be objects of wonder; nor ought people so inconsiderately to hold the most contrary opinions about the same thing,
as if they were playing in the market-place with boys or really ill-disposed men, not engaged in discussion with men of sense, and worshippers of the Word, though despisers of this artificial plausibility.
The Jewish clergy hoped that Messiah would be Dionysus. If so, he would join in their perverted singing and dancing when the flutes began to play. Of course, Jesus refused to "bow down" and they killed Him."
They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. Lu.7:32
IV. We are not concerned in these mysteries with birth of Zeus and thefts of the Cretan Tyrant (though the Greeks may be displeased at such a title for him),
nor with the name of Curetes, and the armed dances, which were to hide the wailings of a weeping god, that he might escape from his father's hate.
Jesus would not weep which was often the result of being sodomized as the initiation. The Jerusalem temple had been taken over by the Greeks and had become a haunt of Zeus and Dionysus "worship." The details of the associated gymnasium is defined in Second Maccabees. By the wailing (clanging) song and dance Jesus, in all of the background material, could have escaped the wrath of God on the cross.
For indeed it would be a strange thing that he who was swallowed as a stone should be made to weep as a child. Nor are we concerned with Phrygian mutilations and flutes and Corybantes, and all the ravings of men concerning Rhea (Inanna, Eve etc.), consecrating people to the mother of the gods, and being initiated into such ceremonies as befit the mother of such gods as these.
Nor have we any carrying away of the Maiden, nor wandering of Demeter, nor her intimacy with Celei and Triptolemi and Dragons; nor her doings and sufferings ... for I am ashamed to bring into daylight that ceremony of the night, and to make a sacred mystery of obscenity.
IF the 100% use of MUSIC as worship involved Devil worship, prostitution and homosexuality, just WHY would God bring Christianity into contempt by remotely suggesting that WE TOO should rise up to play.
That IT WAS NOT RECEIVED means that it never existed to meet the teachings of Tom Burgess:
Tom Burgess: When we add to this the fact that some early Christians began to compare musical accompaniment with pagan singing and "worldliness" we have the answer as to why some early Christians stopped using the instrument.
- That is absolutely untrue: the sacrificial system had officially ceased about 4 centuries before Christ. The temple priests and Levites were recruited from non-Israelites. The faithful Jews had fled rather than "wear the hat of Hermes" meaning to be initiaited into the musical, sexual and homosexual rituals even in the holy places. See 2 Maccabees for the totally perverted nature of the temple whose "glory" had departed and never returned.
- Vocal and instrumental rejoicing had been excluded as the "church in the wilderness." The synagogue quarantined the people FROM the sacrificial system which had been imposed as a curse. "There was no praise service" in the synagogue.
- Everyone knew that singing, playing and other rituals were consigned to the marketplace and not allowed in polite society. Jesus consigned the pipers, singers and dancers to the place of selling bodies and radishes. Jesus cast out the musical minstrels "like dung" because to say flute-girl was to say prostitute.
- Therefore, there was NO culture which would have remotely permitted music in the church: not even singing as an ACT was permitted in some churches until the year 373.
It is fair to say that most of the anti-anti-instrumentalists try to make the case that churches of Christ quit using instruments and therefore became the SECTARIANS.
Tom Burgess knows of NO EVIDENCE that the early church used MUSIC in their worship which--to make it Christian--was no more than a school of the Bible. I can tell you that no kid in the SOUTH would ever think that the church STOPPED using music if they had gone to CARD CLASS.
Hugh Brown, a Presbyterian, in 1859
Respecting the use of instrumental music in public worship, we find no reference either in the apostolic or primitive churches. In fact, there was a total silence upon the subject for at least a period of 800 years.
And Neander says, that it was not until the 8th century that the idea was first heard of. Instrumental music, in the worship of God, was not practised by the primitive christians, as is evident from church history.
The organ was first introduced into the church service by Marianus Sanutus, in the year 1290; and the first that was known in the West, was one sent to Pepin, by Constantinus Copronymus, about the middle of the 8th century.
But that they were not used in the christian church in the primitive times, is attested by all the ancient writers with one consent. This I might easily show by a thousand testimonies,
from Clement of Alexandria, Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Chrysostom, am many others; all of whom figuratively explain the passages of the Old Testament, which speak of musical instruments. For these and many more click for details.
Furthermore, the Catholic cathedrals (where the few organs were added) never "sang congregational with organ accompaniment." To have played the organ while the Psalms were chanted would have been considered profane. The organ never did more than the prelude, interlude and recessionals which were NOT part of the Mass.
Do you suppose that a German synagogue was plagued with ignorant, southern red necks? Did they really STOP using instruments because "Jews always used instruments?" No. Any Jewish schoolboy could grasp that instruments were locked to the slaughter of innocent animals as types of Christ. Then only in Jerusalem or in connection with the Temple.
"The strict order of the Church Fathers that only one instrument should be employed, i.e., the human voice, has been observed in the Syriac, the Jacobite, the Nestorian, and the Greek churches to the present day. So also the synagogue did not use any instrument in the services up to 1810, in which year the organ was introduced in Seesen, Germany" (Idelsohn, quoted by Bales , p. 259).
This was true in the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia in TRUE worship services in the presence of the Pope. Then, the DID NOT sing with instrumental accompaniment. The organ was reserved for processionals, intercessions and to SET THE tune for the chanted psalms
Was that based on "cultural influences?"
"The modern organ in Reform Synagogues as an accessory of worship was first introduced by Israel Jacobson at Berlin in the new house of prayer which he opened for the Shabu'ot festival, June 14, 1815...(because this one was closed because other Jews brought suit) The members of the Reform party succeeded in building and dedicating their first temple on October 18, 1818, at Hamburg, where they set up a fine organ, but employed a non-Jewish organist" (Isadore Singer, Jewish Encyclopedia)
That is because the Sabbath was a day of REST and never worship except reading the Word. Therefore, the Jews did not play instruments in connection with the temple on the seventh day Sabbath. Therefore, it would have been both unlawful and unseemly and the Christians had no CULTURE which involved worship of Jehovah God.
"It is still banned by rigid adherents to old ways; but in ordinary conservative congregations it is unhesitatingly employed at weddings and other services on week days" (Ibid., p. 134)
Tom Burgess: For a fuller discussion of cultural influences, see article in the Appendix I.
CHRYSOSTOM
Tom Burgess p111: Example 75 has been taken from the comments of Chrysostom Ephesians 5:19. In church history Chrysostom was noted for his oratory. He was termed the "golden-mouthed preacher. " He wrote about 385 A. D. We have reproduced his comments here, not so much as evidence for the meaning of psallo, but for the meaning of the phrase "in the heart. " We can see from his comments that, among others, here in harnony with L. Weigle of the Revised Standard Version and F. W Gingrich co-translator of Bauer's Greek Lexicon. "In the heart" did not mean a silent inward melody. Weigle translated it "with all of your heart." Gingrich renders it "heartily." And Chrysostom gives us "with close attention and understanding." page 110-111
We should note that singing and melody in the heart in Ephesiahs 5
is the same as singing with Grace in the heart.
Melody and grace were qualities of human speech.
The word SPEAK in fact is defined as the opposite of poetry and music which was always intended to deceive.
Melody "as tunefulness belongs to the 19th century" so we know that melody was not tuneful but marked for emphasis. Melody in the modern sense means "a series of single notes." That defines unison and not harmony.He is still cleansing away the root of bitterness, still cutting off the very groundwork of anger. For what is he saying? "Look carefully how ye walk." "They are sheep in the midst of wolves," and he charges them to be also "as doves." For "ye shall be harmless," saith he, "as doves." (Matt. x. 16) Forasmuch then as they were both amongst wolves, and were besides commanded not to defend themselves, but to suffer evil, they needed this admonition.
It is a fact that when musical sectarians forced instruments into peacable churches most people chose to SUFFER EVIL and just allowed themselves to be driven away:
Not indeed but that the former was sufficient to render them stronger; but now that there is besides the addition of the two, reflect how exceedingly it is heightened. Observe then here also, how carefully he secures them, by saying, "Look how ye walk.
" Whole cities were at war with them; yea, this war made its way also into houses.They were divided, father against son, and son against father, mother against daughter, and daughter against mother. What then? Whence these divisions? They heard Christ say, "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me." (Matt. x. 37.)
Lest therefore they should think that he was without reason introducing wars and fightings, (since there was likely to be much anger produced,
if they on their part were to retaliate,) to prevent this, he says, "See carefully how ye walk."That is to say, "Except the Gospel message, give no other handle on any score whatever, for the hatred which you will incur." Let this be the only ground of hatred. Let no one have any other charge to make against you; but show all deference and obedience, whenever it does no harm to the message, whenever it does not stand in the way of godliness. For it is said, "Render to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute, custom to whom custom." (Rom. xiii. 7.) For when amongst the rest of the world they shall see us forbearing, they will be put to shame.
Tom Burgess wants to prove that they didn't make melody IN the heart but WITH the heart. That is, they made melody WITH A HARP but they did so WITH their harp. Well, PSALLO restricts the plucking to your fingers so you cannot pluck the harp WITH your heart. Chrysostom continues and we will fill in the blanks:
Tom Burgess depends mostly on this: Ver. 18, 19, 20, 21. "But be filled with the Spirit; speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God even the Father; subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ."
Dost thou wish, he says, to be cheerful, dost thou wish to employ the day? I give thee spiritual drink; for drunkenness even cuts off the articulate sound of our tongue; it makes us lisp and stammer, and distorts the eyes, and the whole frame together.
Learn to sing psalms, and thou shall see the delightfulness of the employment.For they who sing psalms are filled with the Holy Spirit,
as they who sing satanic songs are filled with an unclean spirit.What is meant by "with your hearts to the Lord"? It means, with close attention and understanding.
For they who do not attend closely, merely sing, uttering the words, whilst their heart is roaming elsewhere.
Now, Chrysostom warns about a WANDERING heart while they are UTTERING WORDS. Paul did say UTTER or SPEAK and not SING audibly. It would be absolutely impossible for their heart to ROAM if they were playing a HARP with their HEART.
Eph
5:19a Speaking to yourselves in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs,
Loquor [Sanscr. lap-, to talk, whisper;to
speak, talk, say (in the lang. of common life, in the tone of conversation; A. To speak, declare, show,
indicate or express clear.
psilos , ê, on, IV. logos ps. bare language, i. e. prose, OPPOSITE to poetry which is clothed in the garb of metre,
2. poiêsis ps. mere poetry, without music, i. e. Epic poetry, opp. Lyric. opposite met' organôn, as a kind of mousikê, Pl.Plt.268b; luras phthongoi, phônê the ordinary sound of the voice, opposite singing ( [hê ôidikê] ) opposite hê meta melôidias,
melôid-ia
, hê,
A. singing, chanting, E.Rh.923, etc.
II.
chant, choral song, melôidias poiêtês Pl.Lg.935e ,
cf. 812d; lullaby, ib.790e: generally, music,