Featured What Do You Believe about Demonic Instrumental Music?

Actually, it is very common for a Scripture writer to use a singular noun as a collective singular. For example,

Revelation 14:2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:

Revelation 14:2 καὶ ἤκουσα φωνὴν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, ὡς φωνὴν ὑδάτων πολλῶν, καὶ ὡς φωνὴν βροντῆς μεγάλης· καὶ φωνὴν ἤκουσα κιθαρῳδῶν κιθαριζόντων ἐν ταῖς κιθάραις αὐτῶν.

It is very plain that the many waters and the many harpers harping with their harps were not producing one single sound in the sense of playing only one tone one time.

Concerning the singular noun in 1 Cor 14:8, that singular does not prove anything about what was played by the trumpet. In fact, the meaning of what Paul has just taught in 14:7 requires that the trumpet (or any other instrument) has to play a distinction in tones for any intelligible meaning to be communicated:

1 Corinthians 14:7 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? 8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?

1 Corinthians 14:7 ὅμως τὰ ἄψυχα φωνὴν διδόντα, εἴτε αὐλός, εἴτε κιθάρα, ἐὰν διαστολὴν τοῖς φθόγγοις μὴ δῷ, πῶς γνωσθήσεται τὸ αὐλούμενον ἢ τὸ κιθαριζόμενον; 8 καὶ γὰρ ἐὰν ἄδηλον φωνὴν σάλπιγξ δῷ, τίς παρασκευάσεται εἰς πόλεμον;

Note that in 14:7, Paul used a singular φωνὴν to denote the sound of the a pipe or a harp that actually would be playing multiple tones (τοῖς φθόγγοις; which is a different Greek word in the plural). The Greek word rendered "sounds" in 14:7 (φθόγγοις) is not the same Greek word rendered "sound" in 14:8 (φωνὴν).

Paul is not teaching in 14:8 that the trumpet is playing only one tone; if he were, he would be contradicting the very thing that he just taught in 14:7.

There are undoubtedly examples in the LXX that would show the same singular use of φωνὴν to denote what in actuality comprised multiple discrete sounds that were heard.

If you want to see such examples, I'll take the time to show you them, but I think that I have already made the point.

 

Actually, no, I did not concede that Neb. used good things in idol worship. I do not believe that he did. I only discussed it using a hypothetical statement beginning with "if" because you posed it as a possibility.

There is a huge dispute over what the phrase "all kinds of music" means in Daniel 3. A common understanding of that phrase is to signify that there were many other instruments used that were not specifically listed. That understanding would mean the argument that you are trying to make from that passage is totally invalidated.

Moreover, the word for "sound" is singular in Daniel 3:5 and all the other references to music in that passage and some, perhaps, many understand that mean nothing more than a "signal blast," which according to your previous statements would not be music at all.

In any case, to eliminate any possible misunderstanding going forward, I did not concede at all that Neb. used good things in his idol worship in Daniel 3.

 

The Bible does not teach what you claim about music. God did not make music for man--He made it for His eternal glory.

God commanded man to play music on stringed instruments to give to Him the glory due His name in worship.

Psalm 33:2 Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. 3 Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.

These divine commands were not for the glory of man--they were made to give God the glory that was (and is) due Him.

 

I do not believe that there are aliens in outer space. I used that comparison to make a point.

No, God has not given us an exhaustive catalog of the evil activities of Satan and his demons in defiling God's universe. They do so both by corrupting good things that God has made and by originating evil combinations of good things that God never intended to be combined in those ways.

 

I disagree that I need to show Scripture "warning us about instrumental music when it is bad."

Where does the Bible teach that God has said that all possible combinations of musical elements that can be made to make instrumental music are all good and all pleasing to Him?

Much more importantly, where does the Bible teach that He will accept the offering to Him in worship whatever combinations of instrumental musical elements humans decide to make and think are good?

 

Scripture reveals that God ordained the bringing to an end the noise of the stringed instruments of the king of Babylon:

Isaiah 14:11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

 

No, of course, I am not suggesting that music from all stringed instruments is to be rejected. God has repeatedly commanded that they be used to give Him the glory due Him in corporate worship.

Concerning when music forms merge, Scripture teaches the principle that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Taking something evil and combining it with something else is not something that is acceptable to God.

Syncretistic worship has defiled and plagued God's people throughout much of their history. We must not use any kinds of instrumental music (whether it is accompanying singing or not) in worship where there is any question about God's accepting it.

 

The church that I am a member of and many other churches never have accepted CCM or any other use of rock-based or rock-influenced or rock-like music in any form. All churches should completely reject the use of such music in any form in any aspect of their churches.

 

Think what you want. Whatever you think that I did earlier, I am unambiguously saying to you now that I do not believe that Neb. used good things to worship his idol.

 

To make such an interpretation work, people have to deny that there will be a 1000-year millennial kingdom of Christ on the earth in which He will reign from Jerusalem. Such a hermeneutic causes people to dismiss glorious passages as "metaphorical" about the future earthly worship of God that will exalt Him through the use of musical instruments in ways that He has never received glory in human history.

I will never agree with people who hold such views.

 

Acts 19:18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. 19 Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

Once these former occultists were saved, they burned all of their books about their occult practices. They did not care that those books were worth an enormous amount of money.

These new believers exemplify what God wants Christians to do with all the music of the occult that they have allowed in their lives and their churches. God calls all of His people to destroy all such materials from their lives.

After I became a believer, I destroyed a vast amount of rock and other music that I owned in which I was immersed prior to my salvation. May God grant to many others that they would turn away completely from this demonic music and give Him the glory that is due His name by doing so.