Terry Rush has an agenda to promote instrumental music. These are rough notes as a rebuttal to a forum promoting Terry Rush as a guide into the future: we will add more rebuttal in time. I will add links to the Greek and Latin literature which you can read or ignore. To begin, let me challenge you to find any "religious practice" in the ancient world which did not function as witchcraft to get people aroused to believe a lie and be damned. Furthermore, I challlenge you to find any history which does not MARK gender confused males performing religious music. Therefore, to impose music contrary to all known evidence is using the "law of silence" which gives the individual the right to speak where God has been silent; and to make that opinion into a law which you should not reject for fear of being branded.
"And we may consider the conception that we have about the gods:
Zeus does not sing and harp to the poets himself.
But professional musicians we speak of as vulgar people, and indeed
we think it not manly to perform music, except when drunk or for fun.For I have to pay the closest attention to them;
Terry Rush says of all non-instrumental Churches of Christ:
since, if I set them crying, I shall laugh myself because of the money I take,
but if they laugh, I myself shall cry because of the money I lose.
If Scripture no longer has any authority then assuredly we should quit paying people for claiming to be "gospel preachers." It is a fact that those who have denied that there is any evidence for against instruments at the same time claim that in this "postmodern" age there is no such thing as truth. Therefore, this review which answers all of the sowers of discord is based on the thesis that the Bible is the only resource to justify being A Church of Christ.
- We cannot keep our story straight and use up all of our energy.
- Our hermeneutic is made up.
- Our stance on instrumental music is wrong.
- Authority or Silence of Scriptures is surely created by man.
See Ronnie Norman First Colony Church: The SHEPHERDING MOVEMENT from Promise Keepers etal.
No one in history thought that melody or the Greek Psallo had any musical meaning but was used as late as 1878 by the Disciples of Christ.
ALL of the proof-texts used by the NACC agents using psallo to authorize diverting peaceable churches identify older males plucking the harp in order to seduce a young man whose hairs had been "plucked" and been emasculated.
The primary meaning of psallo connects to warfare and Apollo or the Apollyon of Revelation who uses the Muses (prostitutes) as his musical worship team. The second major connection is to MARK those who dallied in the marketplace where Jesus consigned the pipers, singers and dancer. The polluted rope twitched them so they would be MARKED when they were forced to the ekklesia for verbal instruction only. Click for the polluted message of psallo.
Only in an metaphorical sense is Psallo used of "shooting fortth hymns."
The latest ploy--100 years later after the Churches of Christ refused to be counted as part of the "organ and society party" a new effort is based on the claim that "God commanded instrumental praise and we should not be disobedient." This is within the context that simple singing is NOT WRONG.
It is probably true that no one on the discording preacher level knows that Israel fell from Grace because of Musical idolatry and the monarchy, king, temple and sacrificial system is explained by Stephen as "God turned them over to worship the starry host." We know that the fatal blow was when the tribal elders fired God and demanded a central king "like the nations." God understood that to mean "so we can worship like the nations." That is why He gave them kings in His anger and took the away in His anger.
The next First Principle is that throughout the Old Testament and confirmed in the new is that the Spirit OF Christ spoke through the prophets. The prophets -- and therefore the Christ of God -- were hostile to the kingly-priestly religion and most of those prophets utterly repudiate any kind of music as the work of "hypocrites" in the employ of a national sacrificial system quite identical to that of Babylon and Egypt.
The problem is derived from a new attempt to bond the Old and New Testament as equal in authority for faith and practice. If so, the best place to begin is to listen to a tiny sample of the universal condemnation of the monarchy as "an experiment in the idolatry of nationhood" which God warned woud impose slavery and destruction.
EDWARD FUDGE'S COMMENTS
Because Edward Fudge promotes the false dogma of "musical worship" in the temple and under the Monarchy, any clearing up of the almost total "knowledge base" at the preacher levea, we quote giving false assurance to an honest seeker:
"For many of us, however, unaccompanied singing is a tradition, not a matter of scriptural requirement. The earliest Jewish believers in Jesus continued to worship in the Temple (Acts 2:46; 3:1), where instruments were used. The New Testament endorses the singing of Psalms (Eph. 5:19), which call for instruments of all sorts and kinds (Psalm 92:1-4; 150:3-5). The very word translated "Psalm" originally meant a song sung with a stringed instrument. It later included an unaccompanied song, but it kept its original meaning as well. Revelation, though symbolic, pictures harps in heavenly worship (Rev. 14:2-3).
It is a historical fact that singing as an ACT was added and caused discord as late as ad 373. This was added because the Syriac Bishop wanted to impose his own "psalms" on the church. McClintock and Strong says that the musical precentor was "the first heresy largely pervading the church." Therefore, the question is how musical can you get without violating the direct commands to speak the Word of God with one mind and one mouth.
As far as I can confirm from David Lipscomb's statement: "No one in history prior to 1878 ever tried to prove that psallo had any musical worship connection to the church." The Disciples became a MUSICAL sect and became the EXCEPTION to the rule. Something consistent with direct commands and historical precident can hardly be slandered off as "just our tradition." Not even Jesus could enter into the covered spaces of the temple.
2411. hieron, hee-er-on´; neuter of 2413; a sacred place, i.e. the entire precincts (whereas 3485 denotes the central sanctuary itself) of the Temple (at Jerusalem or elsewhere): -- temple.Edward will find no historical scholarship which does not connect all musical practices to the paganism to which God abandoned the ELITE of Israel because of musical idolatry at Mount Sinai. Indeed, at the preaching level which has rejected "teaching the word as it has been taught" there is no reason to expect that they would know the facts. For that reason it is extremely dangerous to listen to people twist the Scriptures ENDORSING the deliberate sowing of Discord. Click to read about the Fall from Grace at Mount Sinai.
The Sacrificial system had officially ended shortly after the Return and the synagogue organized as the Church in the Wilderness continued and the temple became a pagan worship center. The temple was HEROD'S temple and the clergy were hired hands mostly Edomites of the Shaggy Goats Daniel warned about.
Jesus never entered into the temple which would have gotten Him executes. No Levitical singer cound enter into the Temple without getting murdered. The Holy Place as a type of the body or Church of Christ was OFF LIMITS to singers and instrument players.
Paul used the word SPEAK in relationship to the PSALMS and SPEAK was defined as the "opposite of poetry or music." The Psalms were not metrical and you could NOT sing them tunefully if your life depended on it. Only 50 of the Psalms were MIZMORS available to the common people and NONE of these speak of an instrument.
No one PLAYS harps in Revelation: all of the SOUNDS LIKE speak of warning and panic created by warfare.
And I heard a voice from heavenALL OF THESE ARE THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF CHURCH BECOMING A THEATER FOR ENTERTAINMENT WHICH IS MAKING WAR AGAINST GOD:
..........like the sound of many waters and
..........like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was
..........like the sound of harpers playing on their harps Revelation 14:2RSV
When you HEAR these warning SOUNDS where they are also AUDIBLE it is a final warning IF you are literally and spiritually still alive:
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven,
Saying [not singing] with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him;
..........having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth,
..........and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Rev 14:6
..........for the hour of his judgment is come:
..........and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea,
..........and the fountains of waters. Rev 14:7
The SERIVCE of the Levitical musicians meant "hard bondage" with the same meaing as Abaddon or Apollyon in Revelation. They made WAR and would never be permitted to perform in the Qahal, synagogue or "church in the wilderness."Echeion ( [êchos] ) drum, gong, .; tambourine, as head-dress, Herm.Trism.in Rev.Phil.32.254; used for stage-thunder, Sch.Ar. Nu.292; as sounding-boards in the theatre, Vitr.5.5.2.
II. in the lyre, = chalkôma, apptly. a metallic sounding-plate, Hsch.; so of the palate, Gal.UP7.5.
Organon, 3. musical instrument, Simon.31, f.l. in A.Fr.57.1 ; ho men di' organôn ekêlei anthrôpous, of Marsyas, Pl.Smp.215c ; aneu organôn psilois logois. poluchorda ; met' ôidês kai tinôn organôn Phld.Mus.p.98K. ; of the pipe
2. Adj. êcheion organon sounding instrument, Ph.1.588, cj.ib.444,510.
Jubal "handled" these instruments meaning "without authority."organon 1 [*ergô] I. an organ, instrument, tool, for making or doing a thing, --of a person, hapantôn aei kakôn org. Soph.2. an organ of sense, Plat. 3. a musical instrument, II. a work, product,
Ergon [Ergô] I.work, 1. in Il. mostly of deeds of war, polemêïa erga, 3. ard piece of work, a hard task, Il.: also, a shocking deed or act
orgi-azô ,A. celebrate orgia, E.Ba.415 (lyr.), etc.: c. acc., o. teletên Pl.Phdr.250c ; hiera Id.Lg.910c ; thusias, pompas, choreias Plu.Num.8 : c. dat., pay ritual service to a god or goddess, tautêi Str.10.3.12 :--so in Med., orgiazesthai daimosi, orgia Mousôn
Alalazo 2. generally, cry, shout aloud, Pi.l.c., E.El.855; esp. in orgiastic rites, A.Fr.57; of Bacchus and Bacchae, E.Ba.593 sound loudly, psalmos d'alalazei A.Fr.57 ; kumbalon alalazon1 Ep.Cor.13.1
It is fitting that the end time religion is the same as the beginning with false teachers bringing you under bondage with clergy musicians.
It is fulfilment of prophecy that when people reject the Word of God they are sent a strong delusion and cannot see the repudiation of music trying to worship a Spirit God from the "singing and harp playing prostitute" in the garden of Eden to the mother of harlots (Rev 17) who USES "lusted after fruits" as rhetoricians, singers and instrument players whom John called sorcerers.
- As a Covenant of Grace God gave The Book of the Covenant to govern the nation.
- Israel fell fatally from Grace because of musical idolatry at Mount Sinai.
- God turned them over to worship the starry host (Acts 7 and a dozen more passages)
- God burdened them with The Book of The Law and the Levites to "bear the burdens of sin."
- The Abrahamic Covenant was lost and the First Born sons replaced.
- No one not of Levi and not specificially ordained could COME NEAR the Tabernacle without sinning.
Because the false teachers REST on the curse of the Law and the Monarchy, the elders, preachers and artistic performers would die if they ventured in or near the area of animal slaughter.Num 18:2 And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister BEFORE the tabernacle of witness. [never IN]
Furthermore, no Levite, used as Warrior Noise makers and later under the king and commanders of the army--could come near the holy places of the sanctury or they would be executed. The patternism is that if a musician enters into the body of Christ as fulfilment of the Holy Place he / she / it is worthy of death.
H8334 sharath shaw-rath' A primitive root; to attend as a menial or worshipper; figuratively to contribute to:--minister (unto), (do) serve (-ant, -ice, -itor), wait on.Num 18:3 And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle:
only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar,
that neither they, nor ye also, die.Nadab and Abihu violates several commandments.
All of the non-Levites were called STRANGERS: therefore, if you were not of the tribe of Levi with the assignment to serve you could not even minister to the priests outside of the Temple-proper. Therefore, no member of the "church" could come near the Tabernacle and none of the "ministers" could ENTER it.
"A stranger," that is, one, neither a priest nor a Levite, who should intrude into any departments of the sacred office, should incur the penalty of death. ROBERT JAMIESON
Num 18:4 And they shall be joined unto thee,
and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation,
for all the service [hard, legalistic bondage] of the tabernacle:
and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you.The sacrificial system was NEVER the spiritual worship but part of the WRATH DISPELLING curse imposed because of Musical idolatry.
Num 18:5 And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar:
that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.Contrary to being a spiritual worship service, the sacrificial system had been imposed and if it were not performed it would bring down God's wrath as punishment due for NOT performing what they had been abandoned to.
Num 18:6 And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel:
to you they are given as a gift for the LORD,
to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.Num 18:7 Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest’s office for every thing of the altar,
and within the veil; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest’s office unto you as a service of gift:
and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.
"And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. Numbers 18:21
That also removes any modern cleric from imposing the tithe.
H5656 ‛abodah ‛abodoh ab-o-daw', ab-o-daw' From H5647 ; work of any kind:--act, bondage, + bondservant, effect, labour, ministering (-try),
H5647 ‛abad aw-bad' keep in bondage, be bondmen, bond-service, compel, do, dress, ear, execute
"Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die. Numbers 18:22
THE MEANING OF PARASITES MARKED BY THE PROPHETS BY THE SPIRITOF CHRIST
Because God had abandoned Israel to "worship the starry hosts" we understand that the Levites became a burden and not a blessing to the nation.
Parasītus (parasitos, “table companion”). A word which among the Greeks denoted originally the priest's assistant, who, like the priest, received his support from the offerings made to the temple, in return for certain services. These services included the collection and care of supplies of corn due to the temple, assistance at certain sacrifices, and the preparation of the banquets connected with[p. 1175] certain festivals. The assistants of civil officials, who were maintained at the expense of the State, were also called parasites in many places. The word received another meaning in the Middle and New Greek comedy, where it means the hanger on, who plays the flatterer and buffoon, with a view to getting invited to dinner. The parasite was transferred as a standing character to the Roman imitations of Greek comedy, and figures largely in the plays of Plautus. Good examples of the stage parasite will be found in his Captivi Menaechmi Phormio of Terence. See Know, Die Parasiten bei den Griechen and in the (1876). and A.one who eats at the table of another, and repays him with flattery and buffoonery, parasite, Epich.36, Arar.16, etc.; name of plays by Antiph., Alex., and Diph.; peri Parasitou, title of work by Luc.: c. gen., kenês p. trapezês [MONEY CHANGING TABLE] AP11.346 (Autom.) : metaph., ichthusên p. (v. opson) Luc.Lex.6. Parasitus Phoebi, a player
knikos , ê, on, ( [kuôn] ) dog-like, X.Cyr.5.2.17 (v.l. for huïkon); to k. kai thêriôdes tôn orexeôn Plu.2.133b ; k. spasmos unilateral facial paralysis, Cels.4.3.1, Gal.18(2).930; k. kaumata heat of the dogdays, Polyaen.2.30.3: metaph., ho anthrôpos k. currish, churlish, Vulgate 1 Sa 25.3 (?). Adv. -kôs, spômenoi Heliod. ap. Orib.48.38 tit.; in doglanguage, opp. boïkôs, etc., Porph.Abst.3.3
II. Kunikos, ho, Cynic, as the followers of the philosopher Antisthenes were called, from the gymnasium ( [Kunosarges] ) where he taught, D.L.6.13; or from their resemblance to dogs in several respects, Diog.Cyn. ap. eund.6.60, Metrod.16, Polystr.p.20 W., Elias in Cat.111.2, etc.; Kratêti tôi k. Men.117 ; k. hairesis, askêsis, philosophia, Ph.1.352, J.AJ6.13.6, Jul.Or.6.187a; parrêsia k. Plu.2.69c ; to k. tês parrêsias Id.Brut. 34 . Adv. Comp. -ôteron Id.2.601e.
II. of priests who had their meals at the public expense, Clitodem.11, Polem.Hist.78
2. one who dines with a superior officer, Arist.Fr.551.The common people and the prophets knew the facts:
Ezek 22:27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves [YELLOW] ravening the prey, o shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
Zeph. 3:3 Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.
XLII. Instead of herds of oxen, endeavor to assemble flocks of friends about your house.
XLII As a wolf resembles a dog, so much does a flatterer, an adulterer, a parasite, resemble a friend. Take heed, therefore, that instead of guardian dogs, you do not inadvertently admit ravening wolves.
[All musicians were also called PARASITES and not allowed to feed on polite society]
The Deipnosophists of Athenaeus of Naucratis Book XIII: Concerning Women
"Hear, ye Styacs, vendors of twaddle, hypocritical mouthers of words who alone by yourselves gobble up everything on the platters before a wise man can get a share, and then are caught doing the very opposite of what you solemnly chant;" oglers of boys you are, and in that alone emulating the founder of your philosophy, Zeno the Phoenician, who never resorted to a woman, but always to boy-favourites.
Bdellolarunx, leech-throat, name for a greedy parasite
Mark 13:14 But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:
Bdelugma (g946) bdel'-oog-mah; from 948; a detestation, i.e. (spec.) idolatry: - abomination.
And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lambs book of life. Rev 21:27
Bdeluktos (g947) bdel-ook-tos'; from 948; detestable, i.e. (spec.) idolatrous: - abominable.
They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. Tit.1:16
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Re.21:8
Rev. 18:22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;
Rev. 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
See 2 Maccabees to understand the males made into prostitutes for the temple.
1 Macc 1: 47 - to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols (Dionysus), to sacrifice swine and unclean animals,
48 - and to leave their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane,
54 - Now on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred and forty-fifth year,
they erected a desolating sacrilege upon the altar of burnt offering.
They also built altars in the surrounding cities of Judah,Notice in verse 59 that this desolating sacrilege could be another altar placed upon the regular altar for burnt offerings.
Bdelug-mos A. abomination, LXX 1 Ki.25.31, Na.3.6.Of Dancing by the prophets of Jezebel:
"It was probably usual to welcome a king or general with music and dancing...The distinctly religious dance is more frequently mentioned. The clear instances of it in the Bible are the dance of the women of Israel at the Red Sea, headed by Miriam with her tambourine (Exodus 15:20); the dance of the Israelites round the golden calf (Exodus 32:19); the dance of the maidens of Shiloah at the annual feast (Judges 21:19 ff);
the leaping or limping of the prophets of Baal round their altar on Carmel (1 Kings 18:26); and the dancing of David in front of the ark (2 Samuel 6:14-16) (Int. Std. Bible Ency., p. 1169-70)
Nahum 3:[4]WEB because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft.
Kesheph (h3785) keh'-shef; from 3784; magic: - sorcery, witchcraft.
Kashaph (h3784) kaw-shaf'; a prim. root; prop. to whisper a spell, i. e. to inchant or practise magic: - sorcerer, (use) witch (-craft).
They were the SERPENTS: 5175. nachash, naw-khawsh´; from 5172; a snake (from its hiss):—serpent.
5172 Nachash, naw-khash´; a primitive root; properly, to hiss, i.e. whisper a (magic) spell; generally, to prognosticate:—x certainly, divine, enchanter, (use) x enchantment, learn by experience, x indeed, diligently observe.This word connects directly to copery bell metal and to the flute:
Rev. 18:22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;
Rev. 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
Rev. 18:24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.The Latin maleficia is maleficium 1. Fraud, deception, adulteration 4 A hired mourner: The "præficæ" were the women who chanted the "nænia" .
Praeficae Women who were hired to act as mourners at Roman funerals (Plaut. Truc.ii. 6 Truc., 14). They went before the corpse, with their heads bared, their locks disheveled, uttering cries of lamentation and chanting dirges (neniae)
Nahum 3:5 Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame
Nahum 3:[6]WEB I will throw abominable filth on you, and make you vile, and will set you a spectacle.
Nahum 3:[6]WEB et proiciam super te abominationes et contumeliis te adficiam et ponam te in exemplum
Paul in Acts 20 warned about the elders who were WOLVES: they are specificially identified by letting in the rhetoricians, singers and musicians which is noted as a LUST to be a hermaphroditeHeb 10:33 Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.
G2301 theatrizo theh-at-rid'-zo From G2302 ; to expose as a spectacle:--make a gazing stock.
Gregory Nazianzen Mark of the pipers, singers and dancers Jesus cosigned to the marketplace.
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..... Nor is our commemoration one of Dionysus, and the thigh that travailed with an incomplete birth, as before a head had travailed with another;13 nor of the hermaphrodite god, nor a chorus of the drunken and enervated host; nor of the folly of the Thebans which honours him; nor the thunderbolt of Semele which they adore. Nor is it the harlot mysteries of Aphrodite, [ZOE] who, as they themselves admit, was basely born and basely honoured; nor have we here Phalli and Ithyphalli,
See how MEN Jesus compared to CHILDREN have turned "school of the Bible" to a polluted marketplace.
The sacrificial system was imposed on the Levites as a curse or burden.
Num 18:23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation,
and they shall bear their iniquity:
it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations,
that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.
That this was a curse
To intrude into any departments of the sacred office, should incur the penalty of death. ROBERT JAMIESONNum 18:4 And they shall be joined unto thee,
and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation,
for all the service [hard, legalistic bondage] of the tabernacle:
and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you.The sacrificial system was NEVER the spiritual worship but part of the WRATH DISPELLING curse imposed because of Musical idolatry.
Num 18:5 And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar:
that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel;
Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. Jeremiah 7:21
For I spake NOT unto your fathers, nor commanded them I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Amos 5:21 in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,
concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: Jeremiah 7:22Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Amos 5:22
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs;
for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. Amos 5:23BUT this thing commanded I them, saying,
Obey my voice, and I will be your God,
and ye shall be my people:
and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. Jeremiah 7:23BUT let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream Amos 5:24
Amos 5:25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?BUT they HEARKENED NOT, nor inclined their ear,
but walked in the counsels
and in the imagination of their evil heart,
and went backward, and not forward. Jeremiah 7:24Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day,
I have even sent unto you all MY servants the PROPHETS, daily rising up early and sending them: Jeremiah 7:25Yet they HEARKENED NOT unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers. Jeremiah 7:26
Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them;
but they will not hearken to thee:
thou shalt also call unto them;
but they will not answer thee. Jeremiah 7:27Amos 5:26 BUT ye have borne the tabernacle of your and Moloch and Chiun [#666] your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
They burned infants to the beat of instruments in 2 Chron 28 just before the PURGE and EXORCISM and in chapter 30 just AFTER Hezekiah's ceremony SOLELY to get the priests to return to Jerusalem to help defend it.
Amos 5:27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity
beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.
This was the sentence conditionally imposed because of musical idolatry at Mount Sinai. Canaan as the promised land became the Killing Fields as God let the kings lead them into captivity and death.
Furthermore, all of the performing arts are identified as the Hypocritic arts and because they produced nothing good and caused lots of destruction of morals they were called PARASITES.
Why are people so anxious to impose the CURSE of hypocrites and parasites.
NEHEMIAH IDENTIFYING THE PARASITES
The False preachers also missed that the Spirit OF Christ spoke ONLY through the prophets: it is a lie that the "holy spirit" guided the elders and preachers to lie about all of the Bible. The prophets thought that the kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers were lawless parasites.
So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would. Neh 9:24
And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance:
so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat,Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee,
and delighted [became soft, lived voluptuously]
themselves in thy great goodness.
and cast thy law behind their backs,
and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee,
and they wrought great provocations. Neh 9:26
THIS HAS HAPPENED ALL OVER: false teachers fall back to the Law to get authority to be a "king set over us" and absolutely silence the Spirit of Christ speaking through the prophets. Maybe it is time, with Nehemiah and Jesus, to declare that the rascals are parasites and cast them out.Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them. Neh 9:34
For they have not served thee in their kingdom, and in thy great goodness that thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land which thou gavest before them, neither turned they from their wicked works. Neh 9:35
Behold, we are servants this day, [and so are you]
and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof,
behold, we are servants in it: Neh 9:36And it yieldeth
much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us
because of our sins:
also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle,
at their pleasure,
and we are in great distress. Neh 9:37Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard,
they have trodden my portion under foot,
they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness Jer. 12:10They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns:
they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit:
and they shall be ashamed of your revenues
because of the fierce anger of the Lord. Je.12:13That is THE meaning of having a Senior Pastor set over you with no Biblical nor common sensical justification.
Chapter XXII.-So Also Were Sacrifices and Oblations.
"And that you may learn that it was for the sins of your own nation,
and for their idolatries and
not because there was any necessity for such sacrifices ,
that they were likewise enjoined, listen to the manner in which He speaks of these by Amos,
one of the twelve, saying:`Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is this day of the Lord for you?
It is darkness and not light, as when a man flees from the face of a lion, and a bear meets him; and he goes into his house, and leans his hands against the wall, and the serpent [devil] bites [stings with tithes] him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light, even very dark, and no brightness in it? I have hated, I have despised your feast-days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies:
wherefore, though ye offer Me your burnt-offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your presence.
Take thou away from Me the multitude of thy songs and psalms; I will not hear thine instruments.BUT, let judgment be rolled down as water, and righteousness as an impassable torrent.
NOTHING HAS CHANGED
Speaking of dominant pastors now replacing the elders and firing the deacons:
"The pastor is not a necessity. He is a FUNGUS GROWTH upon the church, the body of Christians, DWARFING its growth, PREVENTING its development of its members; and until the church GETS RID of him it will NEVER prosper as it should. In the Bible we can find all the necessities.
"I can testify from my own observation that a good eldership will lose its efficiency, and its members become both UNABLE and UNWILLING to do the work of elders, in a very few years after the employment of a pastor. And if under the pastor system a good eldership has ever developed, I have never seen or heard of the case. I don't believe that has or ever will be done." --James A. Harding, Gospel Advocate, May 20, 1885
A professional jester, buffoon, or parasite. In spite of the difference of quantity, balatro is probably connected with balare (to bleat like a sheep) and hence, to speak foolishly. It is donbtless also akin to blatero, a chatterer (Gell.i. 15). Balatrones were paid for their jests, and the tables of the wealthy were generally open to them for the sake of the amusement they afforded. See Scurra; Parasitus.
I. Orig., an elegant, town-bred man; a fine gentleman, gallant, dandy
1. A city buffoon, droll, jester (usually in the suite of wealthy persons, and accordingly a kind of parasite; -Of the clown in a pantomime, rhetores scurra. rhe-tor rhetorician, speechifier,malako-kolax voluptuous parasite, Clearch.26
Malakos (g3120) mal-ak-os'; of uncert. affin.; soft, i.e. fine (clothing); fig. a catamite: - effeminate, soft.
But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings courts. Lu.7:25
And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? Luke 7:31
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. Luke 7:32John Chrysostom proves that this was a CURSE and was quarantined ONLY to Jerusalem and then for a very short time.Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 1Co.6:9
Abusers are:
Arsenokoites (g733) ar-sen-ok-oy'-tace; from 730 and 2845; a sodomite: - abuser of (that defile) self with mankind.For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; 1Ti.1:10
Do ye hear how it is most plainly declared, that God did not from the first require these at your hands? Had He required them, He would have obliged those famous saints who were before the Law to observe this practice.
Then wherefore has He permitted it now?
In condescension to your infirmity. As a physician in his treatment of a delirious patient, etc.: thus did God likewise. For seeing them so frantic in their lust for sacrifices, that they were ready, unless they got them, to desert to idols: nay not only ready, but that they had already deserted, thereupon He permitted sacrifices. And that this is the reason, is clear from the order of events.
After the feast which they made to the demons, then it was that He permitted sacrifices: all but saying: `Ye are mad, and will needs sacrifice: well then, at any rate sacrifice to Me. -(What follows may serve to illustrate the brief remark a little further on, Kai h aixmalwsia kathgoria thj kakiaj.) "But even this, He did not permit to continue to the end, but by a most wise method, withdrew them from it
For He did not permit it to be done in any place of the whole world,
but in Jerusalem only.
Anon, when for a short time they had sacrificed,
he destroyed the city.Had He openly said, Desist, they, such was their insane passion for sacrificing, would not readily have complied. But now perforce, the place being taken away, He secretly withdrew them from their frenzy." So here: "Even the captivity impeaches the wickedness (which was the cause of the permission of sacrifice.")
Because they were abandoned to worship the Starry Host and never able to worship the Creator again, you should look at the form of worship Israel brought with them as abominations out of Egypt. This form of musical "ritualism" was invented by the pagan deities always MARKED by loud music.Rhetoricians fell under the same band when they ventured away from clear SPEAK and SAY and began possessed.Plato Ion 534a continues to speak of the female musical worship team - the Muses:
"and attract other rings; so that sometimes there is formed quite a long chain of bits of iron and rings, suspended one from another; and they all depend for this power on that one stone.
In the same manner also the Muse inspires men herself, and then by means of these inspired persons the inspiration spreads to others, and holds them in a connected chain. For all the good epic poets utter all those fine poems not from art, but as inspired and possessed, and the good lyric poets likewise; [534a] just as
the Corybantian worshippers do not dance when in their senses,
so the lyric poets do not indite those fine songs in their senses,
but when they have started on the melody and rhythm they begin to be frantic, and it is under possession--as the bacchants are possessed, and not in their senses, when they draw honey and milk from the rivers--that the soul of the lyric poets does the same thing, by their own report.For the poets tell us, I believe, that the songs they bring us are the sweets they cull from honey-dropping founts [534b] in certain gardens and glades of the Muses [prostitute singers in Rev 18 John called sorcerers]--
"For a poet is a light and winged and sacred thing, and is unable ever to indite until he has been inspired and put out of his senses, and his mind is no longer in him: every man, whilst he retains possession of that, is powerless to indite a verse or chant an oracle. Seeing then that it is not by art that they compose and utter so many fine things about the deeds of men.like the bees, and winging the air as these do.1 And what they tell is true. (Plato then explains a lot of musical worship and even preaching out of their own head)
In response to a forum thread, I have posted a quick parallel view of the connection between religious musicians and fruits. There are many but Amos 8 and Revelation defines the Mother of Harlots using "lusted after fruits" as rhetoricians, singers and musicians which John identified as sorcerers. This will become a commentary on Amos which proves that when you hear INSTRUMENTS anywhere--including Revelation-- it is the MARK of impending Judgement and the "other" angel commands those still living (real or spiritually) to PREACH THE GOSPEL. You cannot preach "that which is written" with music. Click for he harps in Revelation as WARNING.
Besides agents of the NACC masked under UNITY has been a primary means of defending instruments as the BASIS of unity, the Stone-Campbell Movement founded shortly after the last break with the Disciples has been a major stalking horse to force instruments to restore unity between two groups with radically different roots and NEVER joined in any sense after the first "society" attempt and the adding of Organs which made simply meeting together without discussing the differences impossible.
Together for Greater Ministry Impact.
Rather than being A Soul Saving Workshop the Tulsa event has always had the agendas of uniting the Church of Christ and the Christian Church. Of course, unity to the NACC and all of their false writers is that you AFFIRM their view of instruments or CONFORM by adding instruments. Wade Hodges prefers to sell peacable churches of Christ by IMPOSING instruments knowing that they will sow discord. Hey, a church in the NACC corner with the loss of half its members is a lot better than building their own. All Restoration writers make it clear that the mask of UNITY is an intention to STEAL a church house. Hardeman used the term "steal" of the one stolen church in Nashville during the Hardeman-Boswell debate THRUST upon the Disciples after they tried to use UNITY to subvert preachers with a free O. E. Payne book which is the major source of false teachings.Pat Boultinghouse tells us how she found her freedom from the old Biblical restrictions while working for Howard Publishing Co. of West Monroe, LA. With the help and encouragement of Alton and John Howard, she and her husband launched Image magazine, precursor of Wineskins. She tells of working with influential leaders of the change movement such as Joe Beam, Rubel Shelly, Lynn Anderson, Jeff Walling, Mike Cope, Terry Rush and Marvin Phillips (p. 135).
She asks, "Do we lift up our Lord and draw others to him when we rigidly hold to human traditions and a fifties culture" (p.141).
I remind her and others of like-mind that the limitations on women in the leadership and worship of the church originated with the apostles in the first century, not the 1950s.
From Wade Hodges: I’ve been asked a number of times what I hoped would come out of the reconciliation and unity celebrations that occurred at events like the Tulsa Workshop and NACC. I kept saying I hoped it would lead to some concrete demonstrations of unity beyond getting together for a worship assembly.
All such "unity" meetings are invitations for the instrumentalist to present their view with no intention of taking note that the "proofs" ignore the context and story line and all of the "psallo" proofs point to warfare or to perverted males seducing young males: this is why Paul put the "plucking" in the heart and not young boys and further equated "melody" to "grace" in Colossians 3.
- The NACC has convinced a few that the Church of Christ sected out of the Christian church in 1906.
- For that reason they have mounted many "unity meetings" all intended to subvert what they call the ANTI-instrument churches into being INSTRUMENTAL thereby making unity possible. That is why the Tulsa Workshop has always been a stalking horse for the NACC.
- Any hope for EVEN COOPERATIVE work between the Disciples and Church of Christ ended in 1849 when the first attempt at collecting everyone into one denomination began. Further division within the DISCIPLES continued when they imposed instruments. Churches known as The Church of Christ have never differed over rejecting instruments along with their 2,000 year history.
- Close to the end of the century the Disciples were still trying to get the Churches of Christ to "join the society and organ party."
- In 1906 the Census Bureau knew that the Church of Christ should not be included as property of the Disciples. The Christian Church was Disciples at the time.
- Beginning in 1927 through 1971 the NACC sected out of the Disciples. That means that the Christian Church came into existence about 6 decades after the Church of Christ just denied that they were disciples.
- Therefore, the false and dishonest thesis of "unity" is the same old sheep stealing.
WORSE THAN FALLING INTO BEING DUPES IS THE FACT THAT MOST PREACHERS DO NOT HAVE THE CONSTITUTION OR TRAINING TO BE DISCIPLES OF THE WORD WHICH IS INCONSISTENT WITH "MAKING YOU BETTER" SERMONS BEGIN AT ABOUT THE TIME THAT SINGING WAS ADDED AS IN ACT--IN ad 373.
Posted by Terry Rush at 7:14 AM
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
http://terryrush.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
Terry Rush: Our people are so tied up in knots trying to sort through the church lingo that many have all but given up on sharing the good news with their neighbor because they can't keep the story straightThe good news is "come to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." The laded burden is specificially the singing which "creates spiritual anxiety through religious rituals." At the same time Jesus fired the laded burdens or "doctors of the Law." The REST He promised specificially means to "STOP the speaking, singing, and stop playing instruments all of which create panic or spiritual anxiety.
The knots and blowing the winds have been manufactured by men who have been used by the instrmentalists to do "unity meetings" and "soul winning workshops." They set up a debate between Church of Christ INSTRUMENTALISTS and Christian Church INSTRUMENTALISTS. Even so, Terry uses the discording mantra of YOU ARE FAILURES so that people dare not defend the BIBLE as opposed to preachers as skillful rhetoricans but NOT Disciples of Christ.
SPEAK WHERE THE BIBLE SPEAKS (Excludes music)
Why then, when they have invented on their part unscriptural phrases,What is so strange about SAYING that making melody IN the heart is NOT making melody upon a harp. The caveman child understand that SPEAK does not mean MUSIC which demands singing AND dancing.
for the purposes of irreligion,
do they accuse those who are religious in their use of them
For irreligiousness is utterly forbidden,
though it be attempted to disguise it with artful expressions and plausible sophisms;
but religiousness is confessed by all to be lawful,
even though presented in strange phrases ,
provided only they are used with a religious view,
and a wish to make them the expression of religious thoughts.
Now the aforesaid grovelling phrases of Christ's enemies have been shewn in these remarks to be both formerly and now replete with irreligion; whereas the definition of the Council against them, if accurately examined, will be found to be altogether a representation of the truth, and especially if diligent attention be paid to the occasion which gave rise to these expressions, which was reasonable, and was as follows:- 19. The Council wishing to do away with the irreligious phrases of the Arians, and to use instead the acknowledged words of the Scriptures, Athanasius in 346 and his flight in 356, De Decretis or Defence of the Nicene Definition
"The Thalia is of an effeminate style, being written in imitation of Sotades, an Egyptian poet." "Thalia is accustomed to be sung among tipplers." --See the complete extant works of St. Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria, edited by J.P. Migne, from which I translate.' [86].
This work [Thalia] was written by Arius [d. 336] subsequently to his excommunication by the Alexandrian Synod of A.D. 321, according to some authorities. Philostorgius [c. 368 - c. 439] says, he wrote also a collection of songs for sailors, millers, and pilgrims,--an old expedient for spreading religious opinions among the common people, as Neander [Johann August Wilhelm Neander 1789 -1850] observes. Milman [Henry Hart Milman 1791 - 1868 (Dean of St. Paul's, etc.)], in Gibbon's Rome, [as editor] notes the fact thus:"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."
Terry Rush: All know God is against man-made doctrine, yet we've accepted with open arms this Trojan horse. Enormous strain develops in trying to assure ourselves that much of our doctrine did not come from man but from God Himself.Because, the Spirit of Christ EXCLUDED vocal or instrumental rejoicing for the "church in the wilderness" we oul have to find proof that He violated His own direct command and all history which shows the spiritual israelites quarantined from the curse of the sacrificial system. He will never find the godly people ever worshiping with singing and instrumental accompaniment so no one in the Jewish world ever even hallucinated music as part of the church.
As far as this writer and all known history, music was a Satan or Lucifer invented instruments to bleed off worship from God and His word. Terry will find no other evidence. (Proof Here)."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)All history knows that "music" is the Trojan horse used to shut down the rational or spiritual mind to slip the enemy into the walls withut rational thinking.
The Marzeah in Amos 5
"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).
What is troubling to people who have read the Bible and Restoration history is the man-made doctrine of preaching as in sermonizing without knowing or caring what the Bible speaks.
To Paul, "unity" is based on rejecting the "diversities" in Rome which included musical SELF-pleasure among the "diet" sects in Rome and all market-places. Click to see Mark Henderson and the Quail Spring elders to see that music is ALWAYS the mark of gender confused people, while they send out the flute-girl when decend men want to "speak that which is written" in the words of Paul contrasting Romans 14 (the marketplace) and the ekklesia or school of the bible (Rom 15; Eph 5; Col 3)
Jesus cast out the musical minstrels and consigned the pipers, singers and musicians to the market-place.
Chysostom Letter to Theodore After His Fall
Wherefore I pray and beseech you to banish all this Satanic mode of thinking from your soul, and to return to this state of salvation.
For if indeed I were commanding you to ascend to your former altitude all at once, you would naturally complain of there being much difficulty in doing this: but if all which I now ask you to do is to get up and return thence in the opposite direction, why do you hesitate, and shrink, and make a retrograde movement?
Have you not seen those who have died in the midst of luxury and drunkenness, and sport