Praise Teams - Hosea 10:11 Praise Teams, Hosea 10:11, Praise worship, Jesus said that worship is in THE NEW PLACE of the human SPIRIT which is the human MIND. Worship happens IN TRUTH according to Paul when we Teach that which has been taught or give heed to the inspired Word.
The Beginning of Musical Idolatry: Part Two of Lynn Anderson review. Isaiah 30 sees it as the sounds of God repaying his enemies driving them into "hell" with wind, string and percussion instruments.
Lynn Anderson Psallo justifies Instrumental Music and sowing of Discord. REVISED 9.13.08 to organize rough thoughts.ALL external worship is PAGAN and Perverted. See the charismatic connection
A Cappella Worship Leader
Aquinas, Thomas Praise Singing.
The Encomiast
Praise Songs as Christian Voodoo
Ancient Pagan Praise Leader
Music as Brainwashing
Latter Rain, praise teams, praise singing, charismatic
Praise Worship Ploughs the Ground Hosea 10:ll YOU ARE HERE
Rubel Shelly Praise and Thanksgiving
Rubel Shelly Psalm 106
See how CHARISMATIC music was born of sodomy preferably in the form of Pederasty.
See that ZOE is Eos or Helios or Aphrodite or Lucifer: the singing and harp-playing prostitute.
See how it works out when the "children and effeminate rule over you."
See more notes on a cappella.
See Edward Fudge on A CappellaWe will examine one of the growing proof-texts used to defend musical praise teams as mediators between God and the "audience." We will specificially look at this one who forces Hosea to agree with them even though they have to twist God's warning:"The Praise Team leads the congregation into the presence of the Lord with exciting praise and worship. The Word says that God inhabits the praises of His people and we are a people desiring to be inhabited!
Praise plows the ground for the seed to be planted when the Word is taught (Hosea 10:11). The team unites together as the Levites did in the Old Testament to bring praise and glory to God."
Praise and Worship plows the ground to make it ready for planting. A good worship team does the plowing and the pastor (and others) plant the seed. Without the plowing, the seed might fall on the stony ground and not take root!
Yes, the Holy Spirit still is welcome and still comes whether you are participating or not.
That intends to be explicitly sexual. Carol Wimber, mother of the end-times praise singing says so. After you have sex with "god" brought on by music the next act is GIVING OF MEANS. Music has always been used to seduce you out of your hard earned money and music has the universal meaning (in worship) of fornication and sodomy.
In the "Encyclopedia of Religion," edited by Mercia Eliade and published by Macmillian Publishing Company for the University of Chicago, there are references to these Sheila-Na-Gigs (sometimes spelled Sheelagh-na-gig). Notice what the encyclopedia tells us about them:
"Aside from the transformative religious mysteries of sacrifice and initiation, the obvious life-giving and growth-promoting powers of the vulva and its secretions have given rise to a widespread use of representations of the female genitalia as apotropaic devices. The custom of plowing a furrow for magical protection around a town was practiced all over Europe by peasants. It was still observed in the twentieth century in Russia, where villages were thus annually 'purified.'
The practice was exclusively carried out by women, who, while plowing, called on the moon goddess. A similar apotropaic function seems to have prompted the placing of squatting female figures prominently exposing their open vulvas on the key of arches at church entrances in Ireland, Great Britain, and German Switzerland. In Ireland these figures are called Sheelagh-na-gigs. Some of these figures represent emaciated old women. These images are illustrations of myths concerning the territorial Celtic goddess who was the granter of royalty. When the goddess wished to test the king-elect, she came to him in the form of an old hag, soliciting sexual intercourse. If the king-elect accepted, she transformed herself into a radiantly beautiful young woman and conferred on him royalty and blessed his reign. Most such figures were removed from churches in the nineteenth century. [We have pictures]
"The Christian church opposed May festivals. A 16th century English Puritan writer Philip Stubes, railed against May pole dancing. He said, "What clipping, what culling, what kissing and bussing, what smooching and slobbering one of another, what filthy groping and unclean handling is not practiced in the dances." Stubes estimated, though how he got his statistics is unknown, probably from peeping through bushes, that not one girl in three retained her virginity after taking part in May pole rituals. After dancing around the Maypole celebrants would retire to the open fields where they would have sex with anyone and everyone in the plowed fields in order to insure the fertility of the land and prosperous yield of crops. May was a month of sexual freedom throughout rural Europe up to the 16th century. Marriage bonds were suspended for the month of May, commenced again in June - hence, June weddings. Resource
In Roman times, Bacchus, the god of wine, became the lord of these festivals. During the Bacchanalian festivals the everyday rules were turned topsy turvy. The masters waited on the servants. All sexual prohibitions were lifted. It was a time of true good will towards all men. Even dresses were exchanged with men dressing as women. Erotic dances were performed with a large erect phallus being carried around in the dancing processionals.
How musical idolatry was restored after the flood:
"Now therefore, since you do not yet understand how great darkness of ignorance surrounds you, meantime I wish to
"But when all these things were done, men turned again to impiety; [ and on this account a law was given by God to instruct them in the manner of living.
But in process of time, the worship of God and righteousness were corrupted by the unbelieving and the wicked, as we shall show more fully by and by.
Moreover, perverse and erratic religions were introduced, to which the greater part of men gave themselves up,
by occasion of holidays and solemnities, instituting drinkings and banquets,
following pipes, and flutes, and harps, and diverse kinds of musical instruments, and indulging themselves in all kinds of drunkenness and luxury.Hence every kind of error took rise; hence they invented groves and altars, fillets and victims, and after drunkenness they were agitated as if with mad emotions.
By this means power was given to the demons to enter into minds of this sort, so that they seemed to lead insane dances and to rave like Bacchanalians; hence were invented the gnashing of teeth, and bellowing from the depth of their bowels; hence a terrible countenance and a fierce aspect in men, so that he whom drunkenness had subverted and a demon had instigated, was believed by the deceived and the erring to be filled with the Deity.
This was the Judas attempt but it was just mocking Jesus Who is the Holy Spirit.
The fact: Hosea warns that God makes people into teams as a punishment for making music to ignore His Word!
"It was customary in, poetry to bring down heavenly powers on earth. Not to speak of Dante, in France, clerks, as well as
The monks in the monasteries, used to give regular performances in which the Madonna, the saints; the angels, Christ, and God Himself were brought on the stage. (Musical Praise Teams or Musical Worship Teams Can Still do it!)
In those days it was done in all simplicity. In Victor Hugo's 'Notre Dame de Paris' an edifying and gratuitous spectacle was provided for the people in the Hotel de Ville of Paris in the reign of Louis XI. in honour of the birth of the dauphin. The Grand Inquisitor
Most scholars are aware that Israel rejected the Laws of God and demanded a king like the nations so that they could worship like the nations. Therefore, to use the pagan-like worship of Israel under the kings and kingdom is to plead for and get a pagan form of worship. The Hosea commentator of the Dead Sea wrote in:
4Q166 (4QpHosa) Dead Sea Scrolls, (Plus, pg. 276-7 Vermes) "I will put an end to her rejoicing, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her festivals (Hosea ii,11)."Interpreted, this means that they have rejected the ruling of the law,
and have followed the festivals of the nations.But their rejoicing shall come to an end and shall be changed into mourning.
I will ravage her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, 'They are my wage which my lovers have given me'. I wall make them a thicked and the will beasts shall eat them...ii, 12
But they, like Adam, have broken the Covenant (vi, 7)
Its interpretation... they have forsaken God and walked according to the decrees of the Gentiles....
See Isaiah 5 Vineyard and Music Connection
In that day," says the sovereign Lord, "I will make the sun set at noon, and make the earth dark in the middle of the day. Amos 8:9NEB
I will turn your festivals into funerals, and all your songs into funeral dirges. I will make everyone wear funeral clothes and cause every head to be shaved bald. I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son;33 when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. Amos 8:10 NEB
Be certain of this, the time is coming," says the sovereign Lord, "when I will send a famine through the land. I'm not talking about a shortage of food or water, but an end to divine revelation. Amos 8:11 NEB
People will stagger from sea to sea, and from the north around to the east. They will wander around looking for a revelation from the Lord, but they will not find any. Amos 8:12NIV
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. Amos 8:12KJV
If you believe that this is the authority for modern musical praise teams, I would like to tell you a few words God wants you to know. This article isn't really about this "praise" Psalm but about how it is used to deny the power of Christ's blood by attempting to restore the Old Testament clergy system. The law was "added because of transgression."
The transgression was the play of Israel at Mount Sinai right after God gave Israel a Covenant of Grace.
Play means to sing, dance, play musical instruments and this was spiritual adultery and
it excited people into literal adultery. The "feelings" were sold as the god's presence in their literal body.
David repeated this play with musical instruments. The concept of literal or spiritual nakedness and "making self vile" before God out of mortal fear is common to all pagan attempts to find the lost gods.
Paul warned the Romans 10:5f of this "sending for the lost god" or attempting to "ascend into the presence of God" with music. He is telling the Romans that they, not God's Word nor God, caused their failure
Paul warned the Corinthians in 10:20 about the same Mount Sinai event because chapters 13-14 indicates that they had fallen into musical play. Literal adultery was part of the Corinthian "praise."
Our fuller discussion of Psalm 150 may be found by clicking here although you may want to read this material first. You may have puzzled as to why there is an almost panicky attempt to recruit the best musical worship team or praise team or some other name.
A little over a hundred years ago there was a similar spread of panic about who could buy the best organ and hire the best, professional organist. This sectarian effort to ignore God's Word and 1800 years of history was not pased upon any Biblical proof-text. Liberals who had lost their joy for the Words of Christ understood that they could ride rough-shod over the elders (Midway Kentucky) and force in an organ to attract a bigger crowd.
This panic broke out among Catholics many centuries ago. You see, the trade fairs picked a city which could offer the best deal. A cathedral was an attraction in one city because the people could go to the fairs to cheat and sin (Amos speaks of this) and then they could enjoy the best ceremony to have their sins forgiven.
Well, one thing leads to another. So another town with their own civic pride decided to build a finer Cathedral with a spire (steeple or phallic symbol to prove maleness for effeminate worshipers) a few feet higher than the competing town. You know how they cheat and steal and bribe to get the Olympics!
Well, the old Cathedral found out that a good ogran could attract customers. Especially if you hired one of those secular composers who were the only ones who were allowed to use the organs because the Pope wouldn't let them be played during worship. They even discovered a form of "harmony" because they had ten fingers.
Well, the new town Cathedral could buy a finer pipe organ and hire a better musician -- Hark! Even a whole team, an orchestra.
And McClintock-Strong identifies the "Musical Worship Minister" as clergy replacement for the people as "the first heresy widely pervading the church."
Sect or Sectarian: "It properly denotes a predilection either for a particular truth, or for a perversion of one, generally with the expectation of personal advantage; hence, a division and the formation of a party or "sect" in contrast to th uniting power of the truth." Vine
Because the clear Biblical evidence against music as a commercial seeker tool for more money; and because the straight path through two thouseand years of church history represents the "truth held in toto; 'a sect' is a division developed and brought to an issue; devoted to the works of the flesh. Music is a device devoted to the senses of human flesh and, in fact, closes down the rational or spiritual or masculine side of the mind.
And the battle for the bucks never ceases as the people starve for the Word. So Word starved that a professional pastor can help defend the new panicky effort to steal sheep from musical churches by becomming more musical:
Let's look again at arrogance personified in Praise worship:
"The Praise Team leads the congregation into the presence of the Lord with exciting praise and worship. The Word says that God inhabits the praises of His people and we are a people desiring to be inhabited!
Praise plows the ground for the seed to be planted when the Word is taught (Hosea 10:11).
The team unites together as the Levites did in the Old Testament to bring praise and glory to God.
Well, what the performers may not understand is that the Levites were punished by God by depriving them of property in Canaan and forcing them to, like flaming cherubim, stand at the Tabernacle to keep the musical sinners away from the symbol of God's presence.
They do not know that David reassigned the military musicians who had created panic among the enemy, and put them under the commanders of the army to be the praise team of the like-the-nations civil temple.
They may not know that the Levites led Israel astray by presuming to take priestly roles.
They may not know that in the idealized temple (Eze 40f) the Levites were demoted back to be servants rather than master priests.
They may not know that Josephus lays the blame for Israel's past and future failure on the Levites who wanted to put on linen garments and perform the worship to impress people and the glory, of course, would not go to God but to the rulers.
You remember that this was the sin at Mount Sinai which doomed Israel and was the sin of attempting to "ascend into heaven" so prominent in Paul's thought. This is the world's oldest profession of a priestly class.
Rubel Shelly of Woodmont Hills will actually lead you into the presence of God
Position Title: Worship Facilitation Minister for Praise worship
"Work with the worship planning committee, the preaching minister and worship presentation groups (music, drama and technical) to facilitate group worship experiences which will help bring worshipers into the presence of God.
The introduction of the organ in Presbyterian churches was an ancient model of the Seeker Model similar to Jubilee 98, Woodmont Hills and Willow Creek Association. With the addition of musical worship teams, worship facilitators (manipulators) and other charismatic devices to attract the world, instrumental worship is never far behind because such churches rely upon music-induced endorphins (morphine-like) and you need a bigger and bigger "fix" to make the magic work.
- ---- "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).
The Battle of Baal and Yahm
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- Aloud they [summon the assembly of the gods/ do cry to those near]. They invite
- the distant ones/ those far away, to the assembly of `El
- they summon/do cry: "`El remains seated
[in his marzeah/banqueting hall//among his cult-guests (dM)] . . .- The shame of the Eternal One/The shameful conduct of the usurper . . .
- O gods, (to) the house of your lord . . .
- [Who surely travels (S)/lest he go (D/G) quickly/the Runner will not walk (dM)] through the land, . . .
- who goes in the dust (of) destruction/a mess of mud on the ground . . .
Comments: Smith believes lines 7-8 should be interpreted "Either literally, as `El walking through the underworld, or an allusion to `El being "dead drunk," or both metaphorical, and ironic, as the marzeah serves as the setting for feasts for the dead and for the living mourning the dead (p. 145).
- "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).
Now, if you are a typical member of a typical church what you are taught and what you believe is delivered to you using the proof-text method. This is how God blinds the eyes of "evangelists" who refuse to obey Christ and "go preach" to the untaught. Jesus said in Matthew 13 that God has always used parables to deceive those who do not, perhaps cannot, love the truth.
Identical Signs of Latter Rain Doctrine
Anyone who has bought into the Jubilee 99 - Jubilee 2000 or the Promise Keeper's theme has bought into the trappings of the Latter Rain Movement. Some of the signs are:"The practice of laying on of hands to be filled with the Holy Spirit (with the evidence of speaking in other tongues).
The practice of laying on of hands to impart spiritual gifts other than tongues.
The concept of the restoration of the Tabernacle of David. (This includes the restoration of Jubilees along with a Feast of Tabernacles like religious festival.)
Praise & Worship emphasized as a means
(1) to Usher in God's presence and
(2) to usher God's people into His presence.Singing in the spirit congregationally, i.e. in other tongues
Students of the Charismatic movement such as Bruner in The Holy Spirit identifies most congregational music as low-level glossalalia. That is, it is speaking in unknown tongues with a deliberate attempt to hide the already-revealed Words of Christ. This is the theme of Jubilee which follows the Willow Creek Mandate.
This is a paganistic, superstitious notion that by saying enough "Lord, Lords" God will be forced to arouse, awaken and come into your presence. Because you have used your own words to move the unwilling God, then this makes you more powerful than God -- and that is the arrogant belief of any substitution for 'praise" songs for the Words of Christ. In the words of Pogo: "You have met the Vineyard movement face to face it it is you."
Let's look at one example for those who don't understand proof-texting:
"Four-score and ten years ago, our fathers brought forth this nation, conceived in liberty.." and you know the rest of the story.
Now, those whose job it is to keep God's Word as "food" away from people so that they starve to death spiritually (Amos 5, 6, 8) would begin a sermon:
"Conceived in liberty... and that is my text to prove to you that Abraham Lincoln believed in free sex. If the father of our country believed in free sex, then beginning next week all of you come for our Praise God With Free Sex Team's performance." Know what, the attendance goes up and the new "sanctuary" gets paid for! Know what else? The "pastor" uses the increased contribution as proof-text to prove that his proof-text sermon was correct.
We will show that rather than proof that God wants "musical praise teams" to elevate the admiring audience into God's presence, the proof-text proves just the opposite.
It proves that the nation of Israel refused to listen to God's Words,
turned to their own improvized songs and musical instruments,
adopted a form of adulterous worship, and
God teamed those born to be free from that burden together to have to work and serve a foreign king.Not too bad though: those who survived at least would escape the musical burden while in captivity. You remember that we honor Daniel who led Israel in refusing to bow down in worship while the musical instruments played.
However, Tyre who was punished just like Judah for 70 years, returned home and quickly resumed the "song of the prostitute" with the harp. Want to know why? Well, she could attract a lot of commercial seeker customers whom she often sold into slavery!
Want to read a real historical account? Just Click Here. This also explains that Paul condemned the uncovered out of church prophesying by the women in Corinth (1 Cor 11:5) because this was singing, playing musical instruments and pretending to speak for God. Paul outlaws women prophesying (singing, playig, "revealing") in chapter 14 and demands that truth does not come through their own songs which is just speaking to the air (Aulos or Juno) and is spiritual warfare. Want to know about the goddesses of the air in Corinth? Click Here.
Notice the clearly pagan statement: "The Praise Team leads the congregation into the presence of the Lord with exciting praise and worship." First, however, I want to give you the good news that Jesus (Father, Son, Spirit) promised to return to be with His church of which HE is the head: and He did on the day of Pentecost. So if you are still trying to drive the team into heaven you wont find Jesus there: He will be in the hungering and thirsting for the Word members whom you assult with your talent:
Never, Never, Never! The Levites were fired beginning in Ezekiel 40f, restored themselves under Roman rule to "give glory to the Roman ruler" and, according to Josephus, helped bring on the final destruction of the nation of the Jews. Jesus identifed them as "musical children playing 'wedding' and 'funeral' with the flute, dance and song." Jesus refused to enter the effeminate worship.
There is only One Mediator: Lord Jesus Christ.
"Exciting" is pagan worship and has no place "beside still waters."
No person can worship for another person: this is clearly the restoration of the Jewish Sacrificial systems with musicians which were used only for the City-State where the "congregation" never worshipped with instrumental music. The burden Jesus came to remove was "spiritual anxiety created by religious rituals."
If God inhabits the praise (a parable to hide spirit truth from those who do not love truth) then He clearly does not inhabit the praise team. All believers are priests of God and after Christ "can come boldly before the throne."
Inhabit is yashab which means to "sit down" or to dwell, to settle, to become comfortable or at ease. God is happy with the praises of the people but the people never engaged in a musical praise service. Only the musical Levites under the Commanders of the army praised at the new altar which God permitted David because he could never return to the Tabernacle to inquire of God. The "nation" was a like the nations civil state where the king was the "agent" of the god and in these natons the people never worshipped at the central sancturary.
To claim to worship for the "audience" is a way to usurp and destroy the value of personal worship which Jesus said does not happen in "called meetings."
The Word of God carries its own power and the ground cannot be plowed by music which as a medical and historical fact closes down the ability of the mind to evaluate what it hears. Music makes "concrete" of the "soil." This was known from Babylon, to the classics, to every word about music in the Old and New Testaments, by the church fathers, by denomination leaders and most denominations until the liberal 19th century. It is still known by competent scholars -- but they don't write books to deceive you.
Land is plowed by "teams" of oxen bearing a burden but people are not animals.
Now with the totally silly facts explained, let us look at Hosea's "Gettysburg Address" so that we don't make ourselves look like those from whom Christ hides the truth of His Word. As usual, if you are not going to get "free sex" out of Lincoln's speech, you had better have some minimal common sense. Look again at what the "pastor" is using to defend the "musical praise team."
Click Here to see that the "team" who had Canaanite names which identify them as tyrants who silenced the people while
David or other kings and City officials worshipped as they did in every like the nations city.
The Levites were assigned to bear the burden of the people as their punishment for the musical idolatry as they rejected God's Covenant and were punished with the Law.
The Levites stood at the door of the Tabernacle to keep the common people away from God's presence. This is what all "musical praise teams" claim for themselves. And they do keep the people away from God's presence.
As we will see later, part of the burden from which the people were freed in captivity was that of the musical praise teams.
Those who claim this as their role, deny that Jesus Christ has lifted the burden of "religious rituals" which only created anxiety for those, like David, who felt totally lost from God's presence.
Now, look at the facts in context to see that Israel went into captivity and most died there because they destroyed the Word of God by the use of musical praise teams.
The TEAM plows like animals as God's punishment for rejecting His word so that people were starved spiritually and were not fit subjects for His grace.
Therefore, when you see the church turn to musical efforts to attract the crowds or to use their own body as legalistic devices to try, like David, to find the "lost" god, you see the final stage of a group lost perhaps beyond redemption. The musical replacement of God's words and "songs" is both the cause and the terminal sign that God has removed their candlestick.
- Point One: Now, look at the facts in context to see that Israel went into captivity and most died there because they destroyed the Word of God by the use of musical praise teams.
- Point Two: The TEAM plows like animals as God's punishment for rejecting His word so that people were starved spiritually and were not fit subjects for His grace.
- Point Three: The for-hire shepherd cannot even grasp that such rejoicing is the last, dying dance of a "Chicken which has had its head cut off." He looks at the team plowing itself to death and "sells" it to those whom he is pledged to feed.
- Conclusion: Therefore, when you see the church turn to musical efforts to attract the crowds or to use their own body or talent as legalistic devices to try, like David, to find the "lost" god, you see the final stage of a group lost perhaps beyond redemption. The musical replacement of God's words and "songs" is both the cause and the terminal sign that God has removed their candlestick.
Now, if you aren't lost to God's Words, back up from where the good "pastor" got the idea of a "team" perhaps from a concordance and has never read any of the Old Testament in depth:Israel is Guilty of Fertility Cult Worship
Israel was a fertile vine, that yielded fruit. As his fruit multiplied, he multiplied altars to Baal. As his land prospered, they adorned the fertility pillars. Hosea 10:1
Their heart is slipping; soon they will be punished for their guilt. The Lord will break their altars; he will completely destroy their fertility pillars. The Lord Will Punish Israel by Removing its Kings Hosea 10:2
Very soon they will say, "We have no king since we did not fear the Lord. But what can a king do for us anyway?" Hosea 10:3
They utter empty words, taking false oaths and making empty agreements. Therefore legal disputes sprout up like poisonous weeds7 in the furrows of a plowed field. Hosea 10:4
The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven: for the people thereof shall mourn (sing sad songs) over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it. Hosea 10:5
Rejoiced, is the gone-mad natural joy. When it is artificially produced it is a sign that you have had your mind altered. Paul would call it madness in Corinth:
Giyl (h1523) gheel; or (by perm.) a prim. root; prop. to spin round (under the influence of any violent emotion), i. e. usually rejoice, or (as cringing) fear: - be glad, joy, be joyful, rejoice
It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb:
Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. Hosea 10:6As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water. Hosea 10:7
The high places also of Aven (houses of vanity), the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us. Hosea 10:8 (This is parallel to the growing thistles while the clergy played musical games of worship. See below)
Aven: "to pant (hence to exert oneself, usually in vain; to come to naught, mourning for idols, (can be people)
Legalists always believe that by exerting themselves with their own talent they can force God into their presence!
This explains the musical worship of Israel where even musical instruments were idols. They believed that the sounds of the instruments, like the sounds of the mediator worship team, was the voice of the god who lived inside. The more excited (sexually aroused) you became the more you were told by the selling pastor that this proved that you "worshipped" and that you were literally transported into the presence of God:
The high places of the "House of Wickedness" will be destroyed; it is the place where Israel sins. Thorns and thistles will grow up over its altars. Then they will say to the mountains, "Cover us!" and to the hills, "Fall on us!" Hosea 10:8
O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them. Hosea 10:9
It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows. Hosea 10:10
And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods. Hosea 10:11
"Ephraim is accustomed to treading out the grain-an easy job she loves. I have never put her under a heavy yoke before; I have spared her tender neck.
But now I will harness her to the plow and harrow. Her days of ease are gone. Hosea 10:11LIV
The horror story of Israel recorded by Amos is that it was the women who nagged their husbands into taking the property of the poor. With the wine and money they had many "religious" rituals with wine, women and music. They did not know that this musical idolatry was the "rising up to play" at Mount Sinai. God then "turned them over" to worship the starry host. Chiun and Molech represented Saturn whose Chaldee number was 666. The people hungered and thirsted for the WORD but could not find it. Therefore, the "songs in the temple" turned into mourning songs as the women were led away with fishhooks in their noses. They went into captivity and death in Assyria. Click to read the Amos story.
Please, "pastor" don't make your flock of sheep into such a "team" on their way to captivity! According to Paul, and we paraphrase, "Fools love to be fooled."
Israel was lost because she trusted in her own counsel and replaced the Word of God (his food and rain Isaiah 55). And while the pagan mind always wants to "lift up the name of the Lord" God exhalts Himself. What He wants from His people is to return His Words to Him as the result of putting them through the ears of the unbeliever.
God does not want nor need food, clothing, shelter nor entertainment. What He wants as the universal Old Testament principle that God is within is personal righ living and social justice:
What true worship means:
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. Hosea 10:12
What those used as authority for worship teams did:
Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies:
because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men. Hosea 10:13
Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children. Hosea 10:14
This tumult is the same pomp used by Isaiah to describe the musical replacement for the Words of God as God turned their grace-given vineyard into thorns and thistles and no truth. God "sings" Israel a song and when God "sings" to people you know that He is pouring out His Spirit of punishment.
And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts (religious festivals): but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands. Isaiah 5:12
Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Isaiah 5:13
Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. Isaiah 5:14
As the pastor who imitates it will be cut off,
So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off. Hosea 10:15
Amos, condemned by the professional, mercinary clergy in Samaria, shows exacthy how the music and dancing destroyed the nation because -- as any pagan priest at the time knew -- it took away the power to rationally (spiritually) grasp the whispered silence of God's Word. Amos reminded Israel of her musical idolatry at Mount Sinai and in the wilderness and issued God's final warning:
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody (from pruning the vine to take your inheritance) of thy viols. Amos 5:23
And "woe to those" --
That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David; Amos 6:5
Remember they invented or improvised their own songs which they believed was more powerful than God's songs. They "trusted their own counsel." This is the arrogance of "teams" out to sell CDs and book events. In chapter 8 they will starve for lack of the Words of God.
Also, remember what almost all presumptious, Christ-replacing clergy claims: "The Praise Team leads the congregation into the presence of the Lord with exciting praise and worship."
They don't aid the poor singers or fill in for the untalented: the actually lead them into the presence of the Lord. There proof, as in all paganism, is physical excitement.
Now, let us see that this chanting (Paul identified it with speaking in tongues in 1 Cor. 14) with instruments was the identical goal at the tower of Babel to keep from being "chanted" or scattered away from their new "church house." where the "priests, soothsayers, prophets and prostitutes" took your inheritancel.
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Genesis 11:4
Their stated goal was to build their tower as proof of their superiority over God and to be able to ascend right into His domain with music. Their purpose was so that they did not have to obey God's comand to "go be a blessing."
In Babylonia, along with the power of the deviant prostitute, Ishtar (worshipped by some Jews) got Ea (like Jubal) drunk and stole the ME or the power to alter people's mind with instrumental music.
"In the Babylonian cult, for instance, hymns of praise had an important place. Every New Year, when the cycle of the seasons returned to its beginning, the worshipers reexperienced and reactualized the victory of the powers of life over the powers of death. The creation myth of Enuma elish depicted the victory of the god Marduk over the dragon of Chaos, Tiamet. Not only was the myth recited, but the battle was reenacted during the festival. At the climax of the celebration worshipers joined in the acclamation, 'Marduk has become king!' This is interpreted to mean that he had reascended his throne for another year." (Bernard Anderson, p. 522).
"The gods were believed to share with human beings their passions and many of their ordinary habits of life. Sacrifices were given, not in order to insure for oneself a better future in the life beyond the grave, but only to derive advantages for this life. The temples were the property of the state, and were instituted not merely as places of worship, but often as banks and business establishments." (Hyma, Albert, Ancient History, College Outline Series, Barnes and Noble, p.17).
The function of young, unmarried women was to go out to the battlefield and encourage the warriors to fight, if not with praise, then with taunts and jeering (Jacobsen Towards 28).
Chant is the Hebrew "parat" and means to scatter words. It, like most self-composed songs used to ignore God's "songs" was literally "speaking in tongues"- getting a better message from the "composer." Paul equated speaking in tongues to songs which came out of their own "spirit" and to musical instruments appropriate only in battles.
Of the tower of Babel, where the prostitute could musically help you scale the steps up to the priest who took up a collection and let you "meet god personally," Moses warned:
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter (chanted) them abroad upon the face of all the earth. Genesis 11:9
Paul compared speaking in tongues to the use of musican instruments in 1 Cor. 14.
In a warning parallel to that of Hosea, Amos warned Israel about the "new wine in the new wineskin" religion:
That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Amos 6:6
The hired clergy (the hirelings) did not care for the sheep. As a result, when the "wolf" came knocking on the door the "false shepherds" just played music and got excited. As a result, the "wolf" continued to escalate the music to further take away the Word of God so that the people died. In this sense, they were the Change Agents of Satan drawing the pay of a priest of God.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: Amos 8:11
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek (worship in prayer) the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. Amos 8:12
Those who, like blind sheep, accept deceptive "proof texts" to allow the sectarian spirit to divide the church into sects for his own pride or profit, succeed because they have, with a well-planned effort, kept the Words of God away from the people -- and even shepherds -- that they do not, perhaps cannot, understand anymore. Hireling shepherds always do that.
The "musical worship" starved them to death. And they ran around from one pagan-like temple to another. Give us more music. Give us some of the wine.
For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers. Hosea 8:9
"But though she hires 'friends' from many lands, I will send her off to exile. Then for a while at least she will be free of the burden of her wonderful king! Hosea 8:10LIV
What was this burden? What was Israel doing? What did the kings do to force the people to fall on their faces while the "clergy" worshipped, offered the poor's animals to the Lord and then ate the best themselves? How did they pollute? How did they take away the key to knowledge? How did they replace their songs with God's songs? And how did they thereby take the inheritance of the poor so that captivity in a foreign land would be a relief? The word for the burden of her wonderful kings was:
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.
This is the madness-producing praise or halal of those who believe that God cannot punish a madman.
Ephraim has built many altars, but they are not to worship me! They are altars of sin! Hosea 8:11
I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange (adulterous) thing. Hosea 8:12
They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it;
but the Lord accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt. Hosea 8:13For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof. Hosea 8:14
In Ezekiel, God showed that musical worship was adulterous worship. And even when they pretended to listen to the words of God they treated Him like the holy whores of their pagan practices. The result of such sensuous, musical listening was that they would not obey God's simple words spoken gently to them:
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 (because or proof)with their mouth they shew much love (breath after sensually),
but their heart goeth after their covetousness. Ezekiel 33:31Aven: "to pant (hence to exert oneself, usually in vain; to come to naught, mourning for idols, in Hosea 8:10 above
And, lo, thou art unto them as
- a very lovely (sexual) song 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
The ten northern tribes of Israel went into captivity and most were never heard from again. The leaders took the money of the poor and figuratively "wired up" the musical worship teams with the best harps and the best "amps." The innocent nation of Israel perished because the leaders were playing games in their religious festivals which attracted so much attention that they were held daily. However, the leaders starved them to spiritual death by hiding the Words of God with the mind-altering power of music.
Even if they were to hide on the top of Mount Carmel, I would hunt them down and take them from there. Even if they tried to hide from me at the bottom of the sea, from there I would command the Sea Serpent to bite them. Amos 9:3
If the article indicates a definite serpent, then the mythological Sea Serpent, symbolic of the world's chaotic forces, is probably in view. See Job 26:13 and Isa 27:1 (where it is also called Leviathan). Elsewhere in the OT this serpent is depicted as opposing the Lord, but this text implies that even this powerful enemy of God is ultimately subject to his sovereign will.
Even when their enemies drive them into captivity, from there I will command the sword to kill them. I will not let them out of my sight; they will experience disaster, not prosperity." Amos 9:4
The sovereign Lord who leads armies will do this. He touches the earth and it dissolves; all who live on it mourn. The whole earth rises like the River Nile, and then grows calm like the Nile in Egypt. Amos 9:5
"You Israelites are just like the Ethiopians in my sight," says the Lord. "Certainly I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt, but I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir. Amos 9:7
Look, the sovereign Lord is watching the sinful nation, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. But I will not completely destroy the family of Jacob," says the Lord. Amos 9:8
"For look, I am giving a command and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations. It will resemble a sieve being shaken, when not even a pebble falls to the ground. Amos 9:9
All the sinners among my people will die by the sword, the ones who say, 'Disaster will not come near, it will not confront us.' Amos 9:10
The leaders were guilty but the innocent lambs who trusted them went into slavery and death just the same. This was prophesied by God when Israel rejected His covenant of Grace at Mount Sinai, fell into play which had its musical worship teams and, as a result, lived under virtual slavery where the priests and Levites kept the guilty people away from the tabernacle as symbol of God's presence.
You can follow God or you can follow those who are clearly the agents of false religion perhaps because you cannot sell the free truth (Isaiah 55).
Again, music has always been the terminal sign of a people loosing their inheritance because their music treated God just like the prostitute of the pagan temples who would get you a direct interview with God perhaps in the consummated "worship" after she put her flute away.
God had given me peace that I shouldn't worry too much about you: just deliver the message and shake the dust off my feet. But, why pay for what is not food and drink!
Kenneth Sublett
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