I posted a comment on the link you posted but wanted to hear your thinking on what I had to say. I am playing my guitar at church and I try to stick with the traditional hymns most the time but then I hear some bluegrass gospel that give praise and direction toward Jesus. Example Jesus is Coming Soon by the Oak Ridge Boys. Without the music the words alone is directing the listener that Humbling your heart to God and seeking the way pilgrims trod and in the end his glory to share. I could sing these songs without the music so that the meaning of the song is heard clearer it just the guitar gives me the ability to stay with the melody of it. What is your take on this. Would love to hear your thoughts on this.
There are many references in the Bible to music played on stringed instruments. The issue with the contemporary “praise” stuff is that they are often brief choruses, sung repetitiously in a way that creates a “trancelike” environment or experience. This repetition doesn’t require much active thought, therefore it is a little like chanting, it results in more of a disengaged mind, while either the body or the emotions, or both, respond. The beat, and particularly certain beats are sensual and hypnotic, appealing to the flesh creating a false “euphoria” and people mistake this as “worship” because of the good feelings that it brings, when it is actually a purely physical “feel-good” experience and neither glorifying to God nor is it really even about Him. It is more about “blissing out” just like people do at secular concerts. I am not familiar with that particular song, but a song that tells a story that directs the heart and mind and spirit to Christ and lifts Him up, I think is pleasing to Him. Bluegrass is mostly strings. I think out of many musical “genres” or styles, bluegrass harkens back to some of the more ancient kinds of music. The thing to keep in mind is that Satan, besides being the “anointed cherub that covereth” was also musical in his makeup. The Bible talks about his tabrets and his pipes. Tabrets is percussive, and of course pipes are wind instruments. Satan understands the ins and outs and potential, of music, which God created, and which is for good, and of course Satan offers us a corrupted version that appeals to flesh. God is mathematical and orderly, and music that honors God is going to follow that pattern. I think there is much more to music than most people understand, and even those who can’t carry a tune, can’t play an instrument, can’t read music, they still have an appreciation for the power that music contains. I look forward to getting to heaven and learning more about music in its perfect forms.
Thank you. I’ve begun to ‘smell a rat’ with regard to contemporary church music. Particularly songs without the words Christ or Jesus or Lord or God. And not with much doctrine in them. Recently as a form of anchor I will begin to use the word Christ instead of ‘You’ or ‘God’ given even the word God now can mean anything in our secular world. I will also stand there singing the song and thinking constantly about Christ while I do so. What upsets me is that it makes me feel separate from the rest of the congregation so I pray that the Holy Spirit keeps working within me guiding me to all truth.
That’s why I do what I do. Most of us have grown up during this transitional period and had some solid teaching early on, only to be baffled by the changes and confused about what was happening to the church (in general). The contemporary stuff appealed to me like it did others, but over time, the Lord drew me back from those straying and compromising paths, back to “the old paths”. Those other paths only led me to heartache. So I was desperate for truth and because I pleaded with Him to show me the truth, then went to my old dependable King James Bible to search it out, He has led me through this course of discovering what is wrong in the church today. Small and gradual compromises have led to monumental changes over the long-haul, to the point that many churches are completely “off-plumb”. This is why the doctrine of separation (from the world) is so important. The church these days has very little to recommend itself, as being different in any way, from the world itself. No wonder the younger generation finds church irrelevent. But what the contemporary and emergent (the self-proclaimed “relevent”) church offers, will prove to contain about as much substance as a Twinkie. Yet too many church-goers are blind to this effect. People can’t repent if they have yet to understand that they have been partakers of “bread sacrificed to idols” (these corrupt and false practices). They were following leaders, rather than knowing the Word and following Christ and the examples given in the epistles. Yet a bone of contention I have with some “fundamental” churches is that they have allowed these apostasies to make us so leary of things of the Holy Spirit, that we shy away from teaching about the Holy Spirit at all. We are called to be spirit-filled, but “spirit filled” to most people now-a-days conjures up the image of folks barking like dogs, babbling, falling out in the floor, laughing drunkenly, etc. We’ve thrown the baby out with the bathwater, and God’s people are perishing for lack of scriptural knowledge and lack of true Holy-Spirit inspired preaching and teaching and evangelism. By the time the 2nd and 3rd generations of these changes had taken place, there were probably entire congregations who’d had some “experience” which convinced them they were saved, when they weren’t. Yet thinking they were “good to go” to heaven, they are now inoculated and immune to any effort to get them to re-examine the question of whether they are saved or not. Try walking up to the average church-going individual and handing them a tract. See whether you detect pride and outrage, or a genuine gladness for the fact you care enough to spread the gospel.
Serve Him in the Waiting 
Enjoy reading the comments on this subject and look forward to other posts that gives enlightment to certain subjects related to the truth
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I posted a comment on the link you posted but wanted to hear your thinking on what I had to say. I am playing my guitar at church and I try to stick with the traditional hymns most the time but then I hear some bluegrass gospel that give praise and direction toward Jesus. Example Jesus is Coming Soon by the Oak Ridge Boys. Without the music the words alone is directing the listener that Humbling your heart to God and seeking the way pilgrims trod and in the end his glory to share. I could sing these songs without the music so that the meaning of the song is heard clearer it just the guitar gives me the ability to stay with the melody of it. What is your take on this. Would love to hear your thoughts on this.
LikeLike
There are many references in the Bible to music played on stringed instruments. The issue with the contemporary “praise” stuff is that they are often brief choruses, sung repetitiously in a way that creates a “trancelike” environment or experience. This repetition doesn’t require much active thought, therefore it is a little like chanting, it results in more of a disengaged mind, while either the body or the emotions, or both, respond. The beat, and particularly certain beats are sensual and hypnotic, appealing to the flesh creating a false “euphoria” and people mistake this as “worship” because of the good feelings that it brings, when it is actually a purely physical “feel-good” experience and neither glorifying to God nor is it really even about Him. It is more about “blissing out” just like people do at secular concerts. I am not familiar with that particular song, but a song that tells a story that directs the heart and mind and spirit to Christ and lifts Him up, I think is pleasing to Him. Bluegrass is mostly strings. I think out of many musical “genres” or styles, bluegrass harkens back to some of the more ancient kinds of music. The thing to keep in mind is that Satan, besides being the “anointed cherub that covereth” was also musical in his makeup. The Bible talks about his tabrets and his pipes. Tabrets is percussive, and of course pipes are wind instruments. Satan understands the ins and outs and potential, of music, which God created, and which is for good, and of course Satan offers us a corrupted version that appeals to flesh. God is mathematical and orderly, and music that honors God is going to follow that pattern. I think there is much more to music than most people understand, and even those who can’t carry a tune, can’t play an instrument, can’t read music, they still have an appreciation for the power that music contains. I look forward to getting to heaven and learning more about music in its perfect forms.
LikeLike
Thank you. I’ve begun to ‘smell a rat’ with regard to contemporary church music. Particularly songs without the words Christ or Jesus or Lord or God. And not with much doctrine in them. Recently as a form of anchor I will begin to use the word Christ instead of ‘You’ or ‘God’ given even the word God now can mean anything in our secular world. I will also stand there singing the song and thinking constantly about Christ while I do so. What upsets me is that it makes me feel separate from the rest of the congregation so I pray that the Holy Spirit keeps working within me guiding me to all truth.
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Yes, it does divide rather than unite.
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That’s why I do what I do. Most of us have grown up during this transitional period and had some solid teaching early on, only to be baffled by the changes and confused about what was happening to the church (in general). The contemporary stuff appealed to me like it did others, but over time, the Lord drew me back from those straying and compromising paths, back to “the old paths”. Those other paths only led me to heartache. So I was desperate for truth and because I pleaded with Him to show me the truth, then went to my old dependable King James Bible to search it out, He has led me through this course of discovering what is wrong in the church today. Small and gradual compromises have led to monumental changes over the long-haul, to the point that many churches are completely “off-plumb”. This is why the doctrine of separation (from the world) is so important. The church these days has very little to recommend itself, as being different in any way, from the world itself. No wonder the younger generation finds church irrelevent. But what the contemporary and emergent (the self-proclaimed “relevent”) church offers, will prove to contain about as much substance as a Twinkie. Yet too many church-goers are blind to this effect. People can’t repent if they have yet to understand that they have been partakers of “bread sacrificed to idols” (these corrupt and false practices). They were following leaders, rather than knowing the Word and following Christ and the examples given in the epistles. Yet a bone of contention I have with some “fundamental” churches is that they have allowed these apostasies to make us so leary of things of the Holy Spirit, that we shy away from teaching about the Holy Spirit at all. We are called to be spirit-filled, but “spirit filled” to most people now-a-days conjures up the image of folks barking like dogs, babbling, falling out in the floor, laughing drunkenly, etc. We’ve thrown the baby out with the bathwater, and God’s people are perishing for lack of scriptural knowledge and lack of true Holy-Spirit inspired preaching and teaching and evangelism. By the time the 2nd and 3rd generations of these changes had taken place, there were probably entire congregations who’d had some “experience” which convinced them they were saved, when they weren’t. Yet thinking they were “good to go” to heaven, they are now inoculated and immune to any effort to get them to re-examine the question of whether they are saved or not. Try walking up to the average church-going individual and handing them a tract. See whether you detect pride and outrage, or a genuine gladness for the fact you care enough to spread the gospel.
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I knew it…I just knew it. Thanks for the post. I knew it.
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