Is Singing "Church
Songs" Wrong?
Kenneth Sublett,
Piney.com, Hohenwald, Tennessee
There Are No Clean Hands:
The Left wing and the Right wing flap together the better to
deceive!
See music as a BURDEN
BUT: Jesus died to unload to
give us REST.
"ARIUS APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN THE
FIRST, WHO AVAILED HIMSELF OF THIS MEANS [SONGS] OF
IMPRESSING HIS DOCTRINES ON THE POPULAR
EAR,
BEGUILING THE IGNORANT, as Philostorgius terms it, by
the sweetness of his music, into
the impiety of his doctrines."
In Acts 1:20 psalmos psalmos is the book of Psalms and in
Rom. 15: sing is psallo.
"Psallo is best translated by chant,
........not sing.
The Greeks sharply
distinguish chanting
(psalmodia)
........ from singing (tragoudi).
The first (speak or chant) is a sacred activity;
........ the second (singing), a secular one.
In English,
unfortunately, the distinction is not sharp.
........ Constantine Cavarnos
"A Greek would
........ never say tragoudo (I sing),
........ ........
instead
of psallo;
the two terms
have connotations and
........ associations which are worlds
apart -
the first is related to the earthly realm,
........ the second to the heavenly."
Psalmus , i,
m., = psalmos, i. q. psalma,
I. a psalm (eccl. Lat.; cf.: carmen,
hymnus), Tert. adv. Prax. 11 ; Lact. 4, 8, 14; 4, 12,
7; Vulg.
Isa. 38, 20.--Esp., the Psalms of David, Vulg.
Luc. 20, 42; id. Act. 13, 33 et saep.
Canto I. Neutr., to produce melodious
sounds (by the voice or an instrument), to sound, sing, play
(class. in prose and poetry; rare in Cic.)
2. Of the singing pronunciation
of an orator, to declaim in a singing tone, to sing, drawl: si cantas, male cantas, si legis, cantas
C. Hence, because the
oracles were of old uttered in verse, of any mysterious, prophetic, or warning utterance, to predict, warn, point out,
indicate, make known, say
III. In the lang. of
religion, as v. n. or a., to use enchantments, charms,
incantations, to enchant, to
charm,
David as one of the Monarchy
kings
hand-picked to lead the
already-sentenced Israelites into captivity and death, was not
inspired as a worship leader or to define the nature of
worship. As far as I know, David never played the harp as
"public worship." However, he did "rise up to play" like the
Israelites at Mount Sinai but he confessed to Michal that he
was "making himself vile" and would be honored by the
participating women. David was separating the Ark of the
Covenant to his own new tent.
So, don't try to get authority for Music AS
worship from the Monarchy period.
Ben Sirach in Ecclesiasticus Chapter 48
1. Then the prophet Elijah arose like a fire, and his word burned like a torch.
2. He brought a famine upon
them, and by
his zeal he made them few in number.
3. By the word of the Lord he shut up
the heavens,
and also three times brought down fire.
4. How glorious you were, O
Elijah, in your wondrous deeds! And who has the right to
boast which you have?
5. You who raised a corpse from death
and from Hades, by the word of the Most High;
6. who brought kings down to destruction, and famous men from their beds;
7. who heard rebuke at Sinai and judgments of vengeance at
Horeb;
8. who anointed kings to inflict
retribution,
........ and prophets to succeed you.
God makes little
difference between Israel and Judah when He says:
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
THERE IS NO MUSICAL
CONCEPT CONNECTED WITH THE WORSHIP OF GOD IN THE ENTIRE
BIBLE.
Almost all "church singing" consists of Contemporary Christian Music and almost none of it meets the test of the
Biblical Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs all defined in the
Septuagint as from the Inspired Word.
In Greek, music is symphonia
and applies to secular, let's get drunk parties, and to the
end-time Babylon Harlot worship which is musical and has repeated patterns in
the Old Testament of the king/queen of Tyre and Babylon as
the incarnations of Lucifer.
Music to the Greek mind was primarily singing and dancing.
Melody in a "musical sense" was the natural poetic
descriptions of reality: "the fog crept in on little cat's
paws" would be "melody."
This melody is not related
to our HARMONY. Therefore,
we have made a bad translation.
Socrates says that drawing and music
are imitations of reality. Therefore, music is acting.
In was against the Greek world which Paul
and John in Revelation warned Christians.
It was well known that Apollo was the
name for the "god" of archery (twanging
bow strings and singing arrows to kill), of instrumental music and the god of musical harmony for the entire world or cosmos.
"With the wine-drinking (which is the literal
meaning of the Hebrew for feasting), went music and dancing." (Heaton, E. W., Everyday Life in Old
Testament times, Scribners, p. 93)
"Worship was form more
than substance; consequently, conduct in the marketplace
was totally unaffected by worship in the holy place. Amos
spoke from the conviction that social justice is an integral part of the
Mosaic covenant, which regulates relations not only
between God and people, but also among people." (King, p.
44).
"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).
In the Old and New Testament the "Destroyer"
is Apollyon or Abaddon. These are names for the Satan figure in the
Garden who spoke through the "serpent" which was not a snake
but an enchanter, soothsayer or musician to "deceive" Eve into
eating of the tree. In Jeremiah 31 Assyria was the "tallest
tree in Eden" and would finally be destroyed
to the beat of all kinds of musical instruments.
David was a secular
king chosen by God to lead the
Israelites into the sentence
of death they had earned by
the musical worship of Apis at Mount Sinai. When David
"praised," the word is that of a lost soul. Halal or
praise means to "make yourself
vile, pollute yourself, or to
become a buffoon, slobber down your beard, or make a fool of yourself." The notion of David (a like the nations' king)
was that God could not punish the insane. Paul would see the
Corinthians as "mad" which has the same meaning as hall.
All secular minds believed that the "gods"
had to be serviced in a sexual sense, fed, housed or perhaps
just bamboozled by acrobatics. Paul in Ephesians 4 when
speaking of God's wrath used a word meaning to become a
"bufoon." Stand up commedians in the pulpit are just
carrying out the sentence to make a fool of themselves: the
audience is not really laughing WITH them so much as
laughing AT them perhaps without knowing the difference.
The Monarchy was a replacement for the rule of God and would carry out the death sentence earned at
Mount Sinai by virtually letting Israel self-destruct and by
sending Judah into Babylonian captivity for 70 years where
they shed their interest in musical idolatry.
Stephen said that God 'turned them over to
worship the starry host.' Therefore, be careful how you pick
up "acts of worship from the Monarchy period." And you will
find no "music" as worship before then.
Before the temple, melody was made with
the voice and heart:
However, go on down to chapter 48 to see
that the Monarchy was like a prison in which God locked
the people until they would go
into captivity and death by their own evil deeds.
Neither the temple sacrifice nor noise
(not music) was worship. It
was "sacrifices added because of transgression." They prayed
to sacrificed animals and God turned them over to that pagan
form of worship but He didn't need it and could not stomach
it.
The common people were excluded from the temple when the "sounding" began as a signal that you
had not better be on your feet.
The Levitical (oppressors not musicians) who forced service (bondage) were in
the courts (representing the world) and never in the holy place (church) and assuredly not in the most holy place where
each believer meets God without "accompaniment."
Worship, said Jesus, is in the spirit or mind
and therefore if I see you performing or hear you performing
then I am giving heed (the primary NT worship word) to you or
worshiping you. Jesus defined the place further by saying that
prayer is for the closet and not for the pulpit as "an act."
And rather than "in truth" I am singing
false doctrine out of the blue book or red book but not out
of the Bible.
The synagogue was never a pagan worship center but it was a school
of the Bible. Not even allegorizing or commentary of the rabbi was allowed: only the Bible read
and explained where words of Aramaic were not grasped.
"Hallel, in Jewish ritual, selection
from the Psalms, chanted as part of the liturgy during certain
festivals. The more frequently used selection includes
Psalms 113-118 and is known as the Egyptian Hallel,
presumably because Psalm 114 begins, "When Israel went out
of Egypt"
It is sung in synagogues on the first two days of Passover, on Shabuoth, on Sukkot, on each morning of the eight
days of Hanukkah, and at the close of the Seder.
"The Hallel through the
generations, on specific occasions: Pesachim 117a
"Hallel requires a full stomach and a satisfied spirit:
Taanis 25b-26a
The reading is beloved to the people,
and so they listen
closely:
Megillah 21b
"The Hallel as an
Institution of the Prophets, to use to pray for salvation from danger:
Pesachim 117a [2x] Saying the Hallel daily is
blasphemous: Shabbos 118b
The ekklesia defines the church only in that it defines a called meeting of
mature males. However, when the people assembled together they
always "synagogued" in the church assemblies. This is why Paul never commanded
"singing."
The command was to Teach (preach)
the Word of Christ or Spirit or that
which had been written (Rom.
15). Both the singing and melody is in the heart.
Why? Why, because "singing" was always a secular or pagan
practice while reading or teaching was a religious practice.
"Singing served as a means of inducing ecstatic prophecy (speaking in tongues).
Thus the essential
relationship between music and prophecy can be clearly seen. This relationship also
explains why the expression for "making music" and "prophesying" was often identical in the
ancient tongues. origen contra celsum 8.67. The Hebrew word Naba signifies not only "to prophesy" but also "to make music." (Quasten, Johannes, Music
and Worship in Pagan and Christian Antiquity, p. 39)
When a Greek read from his language he
essentially "sang" because that was the nature of the language. Singing, nevertheless, has always been a
secular practice where "attacking the nerve endings" was the
desired goal of entertainment but NEVER worship.
Singing is not a natural way
of communicating. Rather, it is poetic and therefore at least
"two times removed from the Biblical text."
Furthermore, singing is
"charismatic" or esctatic. That is, the Greeks understood that
children sang but singing as performance meant that one had
"gone outside of himself" in order to do it publically.
Then, singing is abrading:
we normally sing, like the court jester, when we want to say
something we could not get away with in prose. Of instance, a
praise leader might "sing a love song to Jesus" but would get
despised for being "really serious about it."
Anath
This Canaanite Goddess'
name means 'to answer,' and she was later considered to
be the same Goddess as Egyptian Neith. Like the original Athena, she ruled battle, the hunt, and the passage of souls from one world to the next.
She was also a Death
Goddess who
wore the goatskin aegis. The aegis has been described as a
cloak, apron, breastplate, or shield. In Anath's case,
it shifted in function as religious ceremony changed.
Originally it was probably a garment worn by each Libyan woman when she came of age,
marked with snakes and Moon symbols.
Later it was remade into
a garment worn during animal sacrifices, when it was decorated with severed
penises,
representing both types of death men experience, loss of
erection and the ending of their lives.
As Anath's image was melded into that of
the Minoan Bird
Goddess, the
penises became snakes and the aegis a cloak. The result effectively
concealed Athena's ancient Libyan origins. The sacred rite
in which Anath's consort, represented by the last of the
grain harvest and dying during the ritual of its reaping and
division into food and seed was cut out altogether. Such
drastic action was required to further match her to Libyan
Athena, who consorted with no man unless she wished to
conceive a child by other than parthenogenetic means.
Anath herself remained a
powerful Goddess in the Middle East. She was worshipped by
many Israelites, who considered their god her consort. The
Phoenicians also adored her, naming settlements for her. One
of them was called Panorma by the Greeks, connecting her to
their 'universal
mountain mother' Gaea or Rhea.
Atthis was also
connected with Athena. She was the:
'Dawn Goddess' for whom Attica was named.
Part of a pre-Hellenic trinity with Kranae 'rocky' and Kranaechme 'rocky
point,' she was among the original divinities of the region.
Various sacred rocks, cliffs, and summits may derive from
their worship. Sadly, little detail remains of them, beyond
the similarity between Atthis and Eos 56., and how her sisters may have
been Cybele-like in character.
Eos note 56 was the
Pre-Hellenic Dawn Goddess. She is directly connected to
ZOE or LIFE or the taking of life. She is much like
Lucifer.
Latin Spelling: Hesperus Eosphorus English
Spelling: Hesper
Roman Name: Luciferus English Spelling: Lucifer
Translation: Light-Bringer
HESPEROS-EOSPHOROS was the STAR-GOD of the Evening &
Morning Star (the Planet Venus). He was depicted as
a white-winged god crowned with a starry oreole - a male
version of Astraia. In vase-paintings usually only his face
was shown shining in the heavens.
Helios is the young Greek god of the sun. He is the
son of Hyperion and Theia. By the Oceanid Perse, he became
the father of Aeëtes, Circe, and Pasiphae. His other
two daughters are Phaethusa ("radiant") and Lampetia
("shining"). He had a son, named Phaeton, whom he
once allowed to guide his chariot across the sky. The
unskilled youth could not control the horses and fell
towards his death.
Each morning at dawn he rises from the ocean in the east
and rides in his chariot, pulled by for horses - Pyrois, Eos,
Aethon and Phlegon -- through the sky, to descend at night
in the west. He sees and knows all, and was called upon by
witnesses.
Kirke from which we get the word CHURCH was:
Initially a Hunter
Goddess and Lady of the Beasts of Kolchis named Aeaea
'ululation,' she became the funerary Goddess of the island
known by her name. Kalypso 'concealer,' Argeia 'bright,'
and often Medea 'wise one' who was sometimes called her
neice instead. Klymene's daughters were the keepers of
golden horned cattle in the lands of the Dead, the Heliades or Merope 'eloquent' or 'bee eater,' Helia 'sun,' Phoebe 'bright,' Aetheria 'heavenly one,' Dioxippe
'divine mare,' Lampetia 'beaming one,' Koronis 'crow or raven,' Aegile 'bright,' Lamethusa 'light being,' Phatusa 'bright being,' and Elektryone 'beaming on
Being "Afflicted" is from
the Hebrew andspeaks of what they would do to Jesus in the
hope that he was their chosen messiah, Dionysys.
Surely he hath borne our
griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Is 53:4
Afflicted:
Anah (h6031) aw-naw'; a prim. root
[possibly rather ident. with 6030 through the idea of looking down or browbeating]; to depress lit. or fig.,
trans. or intrans. (in various applications, as follow): -
abase self, afflict (-ion, self), chasten self,
deal hardly with, defile, exercise, force, gentleness,
humble self, hurt, ravish, sing [by mistake for 6030], speak [by mistake for
6030], submit self, weaken, * in any wise.
Mock is:
Sachaq (h7832) saw-khak'; a prim.
root; to laugh (in pleasure or detraction); by impl. to
play: - deride, have in derision, laugh, make merry, mock
(-er), play, rejoice, (laugh to) scorn, be in (make)
sport. Parallel
with 6711
And it came to pass, as
the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of
David, that Michal, the daughter of Saul looking out at a
window saw king David dancing and playing: and she despised him in her
heart. 1Chr.15:29
Anah (h6030) aw-naw'; a prim. root;
prop. to eye or (gen.) to heed, i. e. pay attention; by
impl. to respond; by extens. to begin to speak;
spec. to sing, shout, testify, announce: - give account, afflict [by mistake for 6030], (cause
to, give) answer, bring low [by mistake for 6030], cry,
hear, Leannoth, lift up, say, * scholar,
(give a) shout, sing together by course, speak, testify, utter, (bear) witness. See
also 1042, 1043.
See singing "church" songs
outside of church.
When God sings in the
Old Testament, He is laying a burden on people. For
instance:
THE burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it
is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in:
from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them. Is.23:1
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. Is.23:15 (The
as is described in 23:16)
Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten;
make sweet
melody,
sing many
songs,
that thou mayest be remembered. Is.23:16 (remembered as
a male)
Burden is--
Massa (h4853) mas-saw'; from 5375;
a burden; spec. tribute, or (abstr.) porterage; fig. an utterance, chiefly a doom, especially singing; mental, desire: - burden, carry away, prophecy, they set, song, tribute.
The "instrumentalists"
to serve the temple were not "musicians" but burden
afflicters. Their service was:
Abodah (h5656) ab-o-daw'; or
abowdah ab-o-daw'; from 5647; work of any kind: - act,
bondage, / bondservant, effect, labour, ministering
(-try), office, service (-ile, -itude), tillage, use,
work, * wrough
Abad (h5647) ab-o-daw'; or
abowdah ab-o-daw'; from 5648; work of any kind: - act,
bondage, / bondservant, effect, labour, ministering
(-try), office, service (-ile, -itude), tillage, use,
work, * wrough
The name of the
Destroyer is:
Abad (h6) aw-bad'; a prim.
root; prop. to wander away, i. e. lose oneself; by impl.
to perish (caus. destroy): - break, destroy (- uction),
/ not escape, fail, lose, (cause to, make) perish,
spend, * and surely, take, be undone, * utterly, be void
of, have no way to flee.
Jesus fired the doctors
of the law because they took away the key to knowledged
and substituted burdens of spiritual anxiety:
And he said, Woe unto
you also, ye lawyers for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not
the burdens with one of your fingers. Lu.11:46
Dusbastaktos (g1419) doos-bas'-tak-tos;
from 1418 and a der. of 941; oppressive: - grievous to be borne.
Baskaino (bas-kah'ee-no; akin to
5335; to malign, i.e. (by extens.) to fascinate (by
false representations): - bewitch.
O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the
truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been
evidently set forth, crucified among you? Ga.3:1
When Jesus fired the
doctors of the law he also fired the singers and other
performing clergy. He died to remove the burden:
Come unto me all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
Portizo (g5412) for-tid'-zo; from
5414; to load up (prop. as a vessel or animal), i.e. figuratieve: to overburden with
ceremony or spiritual anxiety: - lade, be heavy laden.
The most ancient
writers and modern medical science knows that any kind of
harmonic singing or music "creates spiritual anxiety" and
that is why it is used: to take away the key to knowledge.
God sang a song in
Isaiah 5 which shows that the nation was destroyed by
wine, women and music in their religious festivals. Amos 5 and 6
agree.
Secondly,
the Greek psallo translated melody in the external
sense is not a musical but
a panic word: the Levitical singers were warrior musicians
who, along with the clashing of swords on shields, the twanging
of
bow strings and 'making a
joyful noise before the Lord' was to panic, abrade, grind the
enemy into bits and make them turn coward and run. This was
the Jewish warrior's chant as he tried to, like David, "sing
to the Gentiles with my foot on his neck."
According to Psalm 41, Judas and clergy
musicians would try this on Jesus. The DSS
translation makes this perfectly clear:
I have collected some evidence that the Twanging
bow from which melody is derived
is the "singing" of the bow string and the singing of the arrow on the way to pierce a literal heart. Therefore,
Paul absolutely outlawed
external melody. Modern
harmony works because it first grinds you into bits
emotionally before the endorphins (morphine within) kicks in
and makes you feel "spiritual." That is why the SOP which
Jesus fed Judas is related to the meaning of melody.
"Melody" in a "musical"
sense does not require instruments.
Aristotle, Rhetoric" Melody Deceives "for instance "having gone and having conversed with him," or, "having gone, I conversed with him."Also
the practice of Antimachus is useful,
that of describing
a thing by the qualities it does not possess; thus, in speaking of the
hill Teumessus, hesays,
There is a little
windswept hill;
"for in this way amplification may be carried on ad
infinitum. This method may be applied to things good and
bad, in whichever way it may be useful.
"Poets also make use of
this in inventing words, as a melody "without strings"
orâ "without the lyre"; for they employ epithets from
negations, a course which is approved in proportional
metaphors..
"Additionally, human
observation seems to reinforce the truth that God knows what
He's doing. Without instruments people tend to sing better,
pay attention to the words better, and generally get more internally from the singing portion of
the worship service.
With instruments people
tend to listen to the instrument rather than sing, ignore the words of the
song, and come away mostly with only an appreciation of
pretty music. But whether humans can make good sense of
God's command really isn't the point; God has commanded, can we refuse?
Under the Sacrificial
System, the instrumentalists made a Great Crashing Sound to
be remembered. Perhaps to get God's attention.
By the musical
idolatry at Mount Sinai, all non Levites became
"strangers" and only the trumpet "got the attention" of
God to save them in a physical sense:
And if ye go to war in
your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm
with the trumpets; and ye shall be
remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be
saved from your enemies. Nu.10:9
The priests
sounded the Trumpets
Then the sons of Aaron shouted,
they sounded the trumpets of hammered work, they made a great noise to be heard for remembrance before the Most High. Ecclesiasticus 49:16.
A
close reading of Hebrews 6 shows that to repeat this
"sacrificial" system where a great noise was made is
to reject the Word and this is the unforgivable sin.
Jamison-Fausett-Brown
notes that:
"In the Jewish temple,
musical
instruments and singing resounded during the whole time of the
offering of the sacrifices, which formed the first
part of the service.
But at the offering of incense, solemn silence was kept ("My soul waiteth upon God," Ps 62:1; "is silent," Margin; Ps 65:1, Margin),
Duwmiyyah (h1747) doo-me-yaw';
from 1819; stillness; adv. silently; abstr. quiet, trust: -
silence, silent, waiteth.
the people praying secretly all the time. The half-hour stillness implies, too, the earnest adoring
expectation with which the blessed spirits and the
angels
await the succeeding unfolding of God's judgments. A short space is implied; for even
an hour is so used (Re 17:12
18:10,19).
Only the official
"congregation" then gathered.
Then all the people together made haste and
fell to the ground upon their faces to worship their Lord, the Almighty,
God Most High. Ecclesiasticus 49:17
The Singers made their
own melody.
In all that he did he gave thanks to the Holy One, the Most
High, with ascriptions of glory;
he sang praise with
all his heart, and he loved his Maker. Ecclesiasticus 40: 8.
He placed singers before the altar, to make sweet melody with their voices. Ecclesiasticus 40: 9.
He gave beauty to
the feasts, and arranged their times throughout the
year, while they praised God's holy name, and the sanctuary resounded from early
morning.
Ecclesiasticus
40: 10.
And the singers praised him
with their voices in sweet and full-toned melody. Ecclesiasticus 49:18
Therefore, the Bible
is the Curriculum of Christ the Spirit. It is not for cutting off the "apple" and claim
that there is only a little CORE.
The Bible is the textbook and church is synagogue or
school of the Bible. Only by
leaving the Bible as it is without cut N paste sermonizing or
versifying someones sentimental poetry can the church TEACH
one another (with the singing and melody in the heart) and let
the Word, which Jesus said is Spirit and Life (John 6:63) do
God's work in God's way.
Human musical performance is the most works-intensive
thing one can do in trying to do something to or with God.
Musical teams actually claim that they can lead you into the
presence of God. That is, if only the CORE is left then the
doctrine that Christ is the One and only Mediator repudiates
Christ: this is the definition of anti-Christ.
On the other hand, to be a Christian means
that the work of Christ is done when Christ is the One and
only Teacher:
We have also a more sure
word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as
unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day
dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 2 Pe. 1:19
Take heed means worship: we worship whatever we hear or whomever does
the stand up performance in violation of the example of Jesus
in the synagogue.
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
Christ put His Spirit into His Words and if
the word "fire" can get you executed by the word of a man how
can we DARE get paid for teaching that Christ does not have
the power to put His Mind or Spirit (1 Cor 2) into words and
preserve them?
A string of DNA from your skin can make a
child which looks like you. Think of the Bible as a string of DNA: if
you cut N paste it then you will not get Christ-like children. You don't have to understand it all, you don't
have to strip out a few facts 'upon which you will build your
church': all you have to do is like Paul told Timothy "give attention to the public reading of the
Word to doctrine to exhortation." Give attention means worship.
Trust a 70 year old
student of the Bible, Stephen: THERE IS NO MUSICAL WORD OR
CONCEPT CONNECTED WITH THE COLLECTIVE WORSHIP OF A SPIRIT
GOD.
David playing to the sheep or on his bed is
not a command, and David's strumming between reciting stanzas
as a "pause and think" was never music. In the Greek world,
combining voice and instrument meant that you were not supposed to understand
anything from it but just get your nerve endings stroked. That is why Paul equated speaking in tongues to
musical instruments of warfare.
Only children, women or effeminate men
engaged in both singing and playing and they were usually used
for festivals at which both male and female were abused
sexually because musicians were not respected.
No problem with being a singer or musician
but there is a total disconnect between music and spiritual religion just as
surely as there is a disconnect between sexual favors and
spiritual worship: both sex and music were essential to pagan
worship. And the Vineyard lady confesses that the new praise
music is to reach a climax with God. One of the ladies
defending Madison's new "holy entertainment" uses identical
terms to show that when the body starts moving people are
trying to have a spiritual orgasm: a preacher claimed that he
did it often.
Sorry about that, but here is what one
"singing" passage really says when we cut through the false
teaching:
The Psalmist's Pattern:
I remembered God, and was
troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. Ps.77:3
........I call (Mention, burn incense) to remembrance my song (h5058) in the night:
........ ........ I commune with mine own heart: and
........ ........ my spirit made diligent search. Psalm 77:6
My hands also will I lift up unto thy
commandments,
which I have loved;
........ and I will meditate in thy statutes. Ps.119:48
Mediatate is: Siyach (h7878) see'-akh; a prim.
root; to ponder, i. e. (by impl.) converse with oneself, and hence aloud or (trans.)
utter: - commune, complain, declare, meditate, muse, pray, speak, talk (with).
O how love I thy law it is
my meditation
all the day.
Ps.119:97
Thou through thy
commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for
they are ever with me. Ps 119:98
I have more understanding than all my teachers: for
thy
testimonies are my meditation. Ps.119:99
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
Someone has said that "we
love drama because we know that it isn't true." In the same
way we know that the singer has not been subjected to the
trauma defined by his song. Therefore, in the adult world we
just do not try to teach or educate people with singing: it
really doesn't even work with children.
The Psalmist knew the
concept of teaching the Word to others but letting the
singing and melody be in the heart and directed to God:
Sing praises to the LORD (singular), enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the
nations what he has done. Psalm 9:11