Originally posted by SpiritualMadMan:
Aaron,
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />I am the judge of your actions. Your singing is an outward act, just as your posting here on the Baptist Board...
Are you sure you're authorized to do so without clear Divine Direction and Scriptural Support?</font>[/QUOTE]Absolutely not. Here is my divine direction and Scriptural support:
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- John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.</font>
- 1 Corinthians 2:15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things...</font>
- Philippians 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment...</font>
Here are three. The Scriptures abound with more, but I need only one.
Seems to me that the Word of God is clear concenring Christians...
Seems that way to me, too.
Judge not lest ye be judged?
Of course we can go overboard and not set *any* standards... I am not saying that...
At least you have the sense to see that this isn't an absolute prohibition against all kinds of judgment, but is only a prohibition against unlawful judgment. This is easy to see not only in the light of the verses I cited, but by the very context. Christ immediately afterward said, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine." By dogs and swine we, of course, know that he meant people of a certain character. Now, how are we to know who are dogs and who are swine if all judgment is prohibited to us?
Also, most people take this to mean that God's leniency with me depends upon my leniency with others, which is a dangerous presupposition. God's judgment of me will always be according to truth, and that without respect of persons. So the warning here is that we risk the indignation and righteous judgment of God by making unlawful judgments, by judging what is good to be bad, or
vice versa, judging what is bad to be good.
But, I emphasize that your standard for judging anothers actions must be based on a Black and White Criterion from Scripture...
Which when it comes to Musical Tastes is subject to quite a bit of subjectiveness based on personal preference and opinion...
Well, that's the whole argument, isn't it? The issue isn't "musical taste," but music. Christians are almost universally agreed that certain forms are simply wrong in and of themselves, like the styles of Marilyn Manson, or Goth and Grunge, and that without any of what you would call "Black and White Criterion from Scripture." They make the judgment based on its
character and its
appeal. (Thirty years ago there was also consensus about R & B).
Once you understand that beauty is NOT simply in the eye of the beholder, and that music is a form of communication (not the communication of ideas through words, but the communication of feelings), then it becomes something that must be judged according to the Bible. That doesn't mean the criteria are always floating on the surface in the "milk of the Word," for
he that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness, but it is there, and we are responsible to know it.
Much as Michal judged David for dancing in his under garment...
To do sure he was fully covered..
But, from Michal perspective it must have seemed a bit 'sensuous' from the way her words were framed...
Yet Davids rebuke, and God's apparent support of it indicates, at least to me, that David was in the acceptably right before God...
Even though his own wife judged him...
You err in thinking that all things that were allowed under tutelage of the law by God to Israel in their childish and superstitious state transfer to the Church.
You also err in thinking that David danced in his underwear. I mean, what is up with this? Almost every CCM advocate I've talked with thinks that David was either naked or nearly so! First, we know he wasn't naked, He was clothed with a linen ephod; second, this wasn't underwear (the word 'linen' must be throwing you folks off), it was a ministerial outer garment. Samuel wore one 1 Sam. 2:18, yet no one has thought that little Samuel was serving the Tabernacle naked or in his underwear.
Next, Michal's displeasure was that he laid aside his kingly garments and humbled himself. Her accusation that he
uncovered himself in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself was a false accusation, much like the accusation that Christ was a glutton and a winebibber.
So, please. Can we move on now knowing what really happened?
So, to sum it up I do not live my life for Aaron. I live it for Jesus...
And,
Rom 14:4 Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
You are not mine or Scott Emerson's Spiritual Supervisor...
I for one, and I do not believe I am alone, reject your usurpation of Jesus' Authority over my life...
(After all you haven't paid a high enough price...)
All I'm doing is judging your public, outward actions, and, as I've shown, all Christians have the duty to do so. You are not the standard of right and wrong for yourself or anyone else. But you also greatly err in thinking that you do not have the responsibility to live in a manner conducive to the unity of the body of Christ.
You often assert that 1 Cor. 8 and Rom. 14 apply to the area of music. I disagree with that, because music is an action, not a piece of meat or any other inanimate object, and the passages do not apply to corporate worship. But where David is plainly in the garb of a servant, you see him in his underwear, so I can't expect that you see other portions of Scripture more clearly. Nonetheless, liberty is your main contention and the principle you're trying to hide behind now. What you fail to realize is, that if, indeed, you have the "liberty" to "worship with any kind of music you like," Rom. 14 and 1 Cor. 8 command you in no uncertain terms to regard the consciences of your "weaker" brothers. You are not given the out you're trying to take. And I'm not the one denying that to you. Christ is, you see, because He paid an awfully high price to justify me, too.
Romans 14:15 But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.
1 Corinthians 8:11-12 And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.
But, you can rest assured that Aaron doesn't lose any sleep over what Mad Man and Scott do or don't do. I am here, though, by the hospitality of the webmaster, and as long as I have the right to be here, I have the right to point out the weaknesses and falsehoods in the doctrines being taught, and demand that you from the Scriptures justify your position as much as you demand that from me.
[ December 11, 2004, 09:58 AM: Message edited by: Aaron ]
