tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2550425372402510047.post4636559304378127302..comments2024-03-28T23:47:18.748-05:00Comments on Brennan's Pen: Music 6 - Hear That Long Snake MoanTom Brennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07852945471625701378noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2550425372402510047.post-69998764626043623292021-05-17T16:40:01.122-05:002021-05-17T16:40:01.122-05:00I don't think it is a mischaracterization as m...I don't think it is a mischaracterization as much as an ill-informed opinion. It is only loosely accurate. Protestantism is a not monolithic, though it often does share more of an allegiance to and promotion of the Bible than, say, Roman Catholicism does. To that extent, there is what I think to be a biblically based influence that downplays the body. Paul in Romans 8 uses the word mortify, not in a literal sense, but in a real sense and tells us to mortify the flesh. The more biblical a religious tradition the more it will seek to control or minimize the appetites of the body and elevate those of the mind.Tom Brennanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07852945471625701378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2550425372402510047.post-63456101290219962372021-05-17T10:32:23.903-05:002021-05-17T10:32:23.903-05:00Hello Pastor, I came across this post after readin...Hello Pastor, I came across this post after reading the paper, some five years after you wrote this. I agree with a lot of what you say here about the paper and the spiritual issues addressed therein. Our only disagreement on this subject seems to be whether or not music-induced ecstatic trance is "good" or "bad." We agree, however, that this phenomenon is real.<br /><br />What are your feelings or thoughts on the statement in the paper (p. 10) that Protestantism is where we "...have the mind-body split at its most virulent...?" I am not a Christian, but I am not asking this as an oblique attack on your faith or beliefs; I am genuinely curious as to your perspective, and whether or not you feel that this statement is a mischaracterization.Justinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448478836122569453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2550425372402510047.post-20609144918559149692017-02-11T18:50:24.976-06:002017-02-11T18:50:24.976-06:00I understand your comment, though I disagree with ...I understand your comment, though I disagree with it. What I don't understand is how this relates to the blog post.Tom Brennanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07852945471625701378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2550425372402510047.post-66886119456439709162017-02-10T21:18:27.154-06:002017-02-10T21:18:27.154-06:00Most of what we believe about hell comes from Cath...Most of what we believe about hell comes from Catholicism and is incorrect. I should clarify here that I do not mean to say that Augustine invented the concept of hell. I meant to say that Augustine invented the concept of hell as eternal punishment.<br /><br />The concept of ‘eternal punishment in hell' is a doctrine embraced and christianised by the Roman Catholic Church in the early centuries of Christianity, and made official when Jerome translated the Bible into Latin in 400 A.D. <br /><br />Jerome mistranslated and misinterpreted several key Hebrew and Greek words into the Latin Vulgate in support of the already established doctrine of hell of the Roman Catholic Church. The Latin Vulgate, as translated by Jerome, had such an overpowering dominance for over a thousand years that many subsequent Bible versions, especially the King James Version (KJV), have simply carried forward the translation and interpretation errors to varying degrees in support of the doctrine of hell.<br /><br />The doctrine of everlasting punishment in hell is founded upon a combination of mistranslations and misinterpretations of the following Hebrew and Greek words.<br />Mistranslations of the Hebrew word sheol and the Greek words hades, tartarus and gehenna, to mean hell.<br />Mistranslations of the time-related Hebrew word owlam and the time-related Greek words aionand aionios, to mean everlasting when relating to God’s future punishment of unbelievers.<br />In the third century, Origen of Alexandria formulated a teaching he termed apokatastasis(restoration). According to this doctrine, all sinners—and indeed all of the fallen angels, including Satan himself—would be, through Christ’s grace, brought to salvation in the end. There might be hellfire, Origen thought, but it cannot be everlasting, for if it were, sin would prove more powerful than grace. Well, the official church reacted against Origen’s universalism, for she saw it as insufficiently respectful of freedom, both human and angelic. If God’s grace is simply irresistible, then the real freedom to reject God’s love appears compromised.<br /><br />In the wake of this condemnation, other theologians moved practically to the other extreme. St. Augustine, fifth century bishop of Hippo, held that original sin had produced amassa damnata (a damned mass) of human beings, out of which God, in his inscrutable grace, has deigned to pick a few privileged souls. Thus, Augustine clearly believed that the vast majority of the human race would be damned to hell. St. Thomas Aquinas followed Augustine in holding that a very large number of people are Hell-bound; he even taught that among the pleasures that the saints in heaven enjoy is the contemplation of the suffering of the damned. <br /><br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06114410802406661833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2550425372402510047.post-29245713126747522232017-02-04T15:52:13.703-06:002017-02-04T15:52:13.703-06:00You ask, "Why aren't others who are good ...You ask, "Why aren't others who are good brothers/sisters equally troubled?"<br /><br />...b/c they don't want to be. It would force them into a complete paradigm shift in both their concept of worship and their private lives. These are highly uncomfortable facts. It is so much easier to ignore their existence. Tom Brennanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07852945471625701378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2550425372402510047.post-73173629809199075152017-02-04T10:03:14.282-06:002017-02-04T10:03:14.282-06:00Thank you Pastor Brennan for this excellent though...Thank you Pastor Brennan for this excellent thoughtful study. The change in music and the subsequent accompanying "casual" attitude in worship in my own church is grieving my heart deeply. What I am reading here has provided numerous "ah ha" moments. "Now I understand". Now I understand why my spirit is so troubled. Though subjectively I've known something is dangerous, you have provide objective reasons for my concern. <br />This now causes me to question even more fervently, "Why aren't others who are good brothers/sisters equally troubled."Jeff Kainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12703724290029323299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2550425372402510047.post-48455216622173257552016-01-11T21:14:14.782-06:002016-01-11T21:14:14.782-06:00That's an interesting question, and one I woul...That's an interesting question, and one I would answer both yes and no. Their instinctual reaction that this music was demonic was correct. The problem - amongst others - is that they did not so much react logically and explain this to young people as react emotionally. In so doing their emotionalism against rock became just as much if not more an expression of their racism. This became about nigger music (pardon the term please), promoted by nigger lovers, and a danger to our lily white youth.<br /><br />...which is appalling on several different levels. Fundamentalism has long struggled with racism. My next book will speak to this in some detail. <br /><br />When we (Christianity) make ethnicity/race the issue we will always lose in the long term. And rightly so. Yes, this music was "black" music but that was b/c their heritage was African and they were dragged here as slaves. The problem is not the black roots of rock music; it is the demonic roots that are the issue.Tom Brennanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07852945471625701378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2550425372402510047.post-63871174955521006392016-01-11T20:53:01.313-06:002016-01-11T20:53:01.313-06:00When Elvis introduced America to rock and roll, th...When Elvis introduced America to rock and roll, there were a lot of Biblical Christians who were stunned and frightened by it at the time. Some used it as a way to shame and marginalize blacks. Others spoke out against it calling it voodoo music and the Devil’s music. Many in the church chose to ban dancing from that point on and would not allow their teenage sons and daughters to attend proms.<br />The world laughed at them, mocked them and made fun of them because they felt the church was denying them their fun.<br /><br />My question for you Pastor is: Do you think Christians of the 50s responded properly back then? If so, why? If not, what should they have done differently? <br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04134969557054416436noreply@blogger.com