Music 5 - The Door of the Occult

NOTE:

- This post and the next two will be substantially longer than my normal posts; I am sensitive to this but it must be done if I am to adequately walk you through my thought processes

- This post and the next two will include some disturbing statements and links; again, I am sensitive to this but I feel it necessary to be specific and even graphic in this section. Forewarned is forearmed.

          With the advent of rock and roll in American popular music everything changed. It is inarguable that the key element in rock is the beat. It is also inarguable that rock and its subgenres are the dominant form of music in Western civilization today. What is arguable is my proposition that there is a biblical, historical, and even contemporary link between evil spirits and rock music. In today's post I will attempt to trace for you the biblical principles that underlie my contention, and to give you an explanation or two of how this works in contemporary American music. In the following two posts I am going to substantiate my proposition with selections from a number of secular sources. The first will trace some more of the history of rock, and the second will uncover the educated opinion of a living rock and roll legend. Now that you have been properly warned let us proceed apace.

          Our God is the Most High God, but there are many other spiritual beings who are also worshipped. This is illustrated scripturally from one end of the Bible to the other. In the front we see the gods of Egypt and their battles with Jehovah – which they all soundly lost, of course. We see it as well in the various gods of the Canaanite nations Israel drove out, and in the constant temptation they thus endured as a result of their partial obedience. Indeed Scripture uses the word "gods" 215 times. We see it in the New Testament in the pagan religions of the Roman Empire as represented in Acts. We also see it in the calls to spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6, and in the prophecy of the anti-christ's insistence on being worshipped as a god during the Tribulation Period. Do not misread me. Christianity is a monotheistic religion but our monotheism does not deny the existence of other spiritual beings that desire worship. Quite the contrary, Christianity accounts for them specifically.

 

The Hindu goddess of death, Kali, on the side
 of the Empire State building, New York City, 2015

          In our generation these are primarily found in foreign cultures and strange cults. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (II Corinthians 11.14-15) The best modern day example of this is Hinduism with its approximately 330 million gods and goddesses. 

The only real difference between Hinduism and the smaller modern day cults of East and West is in size and history. In the past year I've read a dozen books on various cults and false religions. They all begin exactly the same. A spirit being appears to someone. The spirit being informs the person they are being favored with truth no one else on earth has ever had. That person believes them and founds a religion established on the specifics of that extra-biblical revelation.

When someone – be they Muhammad, Joseph Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, or anyone else – says a spirit being appeared to them and told them something there are only three possibilities. First, that person is flat out crazy. Nothing appeared to them beyond their own hallucinations. Second, that person is simply lying. Out of a desire for power, money, or sex that person invented the scenario out of whole cloth. Third, that person is telling the truth. (In none of the three cases do you want that person founding your religion but that is a different subject).

In my research I have found that most often the person is largely telling the truth. A spirit being did appear to them, and did convey to them a message or messages. The great problem however is that this spirit being is not of God but of Satan. What they saw was some devil, some demon, appearing to them in the guise of an angel of light.

I am not a charismatic by any means but the charismatics do not have a corner on the veracity of spiritual warfare. Mark Twain said the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world he did not exist. This lets him move the levers of power without being recognized by the mass of the world's population. On the other hand, a mature Christian has learned to see his nefarious hand. He and his minions are constantly at work, and often times in direct ways that are not that difficult for the discerning Christian to understand.

In the Scriptures we see a connection between such false gods, devils, demons, or evil spirits – whatever you choose to call them – and music. There are two classic examples of this, one negative and the other positive. The negative is David's use of instrumental harp music to drive away Saul's evil spirit in I Samuel 16. In this case the evil spirit could not abide David's music and fled. It is worth noting that harp music is almost exclusively a smooth, flowing kind of music. You can find harpists covering rock songs on Youtube but even these flow rather rock. Recently, while strolling through a local hospital I came across a harpist playing in a corridor. Such music is calm. It flows. On the other hand I have never come across a death metal band playing in a hospital corridor. There is no peace, no rest in such music.

On the opposite side we find the story of Aaron and the worship of the false god symbolized in the golden calf in Exodus 32. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear. And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

Say what you will, but long before Joshua and Moses were close enough to distinguish individual lyrics this loud music had struck them as angry, aggressive, and violent. In other words, their initial reaction to the music that accompanied the worship of a demon was to pigeonhole it as the noise of war. Neither you nor I have ever yet nor ever will hear a harp played and come to the same conclusion. Contextually, the music that accompanied demonic worship in the Bible was loud and violent.     

Not only do we see this connection between music and evil spirits in the Scripture we see it the modern day as well. Two Finnish men, Riku and Tunna, decided several years ago to backpack around the world and film the different cultural experiences they found. The resulting travel show is known as Madventures. Unlike most documentaries these delve into the practices of the darkest corners of the Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and South America. These are not in any way staged. They are completely authentic.

Amongst other things, Riku and Tunna sample the local voodoo ceremonies, filming their encounters with shamans and witchdoctors of all types. Watching these videos is extremely uncomfortable, and I do not recommend it at all for young people. Yet as in this one, for example, we see some stubborn and highly unpleasant facts displayed. The music that accompanies voodoo ceremonies is essentially a beat focused rhythmic percussion. What does this rhythmic percussion invite or produce? Possession by or at least contact with evil spirits.

As I will discuss more next week the purpose of voodoo is to serve as a meeting place between the spirit world and this world, yet voodoo is not alone in this. We find roughly similar aspects in indigenous cultures (those largely unmarked by Christianity) all around the world. West Africa has voodoo but North America has native American spirit worship such as is personified by this Lakota spirit dancer. A blind man could spot the similarities – a beat focused rhythmic percussion and contact with gods that we as Christians understand to be evil spirits. You can find the same thing in the holdovers of the Aztec religion dances still observable today in its spiritually bastardized union with the Roman Catholic Virgin of Guadalupe. Ethnomusicologists and sociologists have traced similar patterns in widely divergent cultures, not just in the receding mists of ancient history, but down to our own day.

          All that I have given you today is scriptural and factual. So is this statement and one that applies directly to the subject at hand – rock music has been highly influenced by this type of beat heavy evil spirit connected music. David Byrne, member of the group Talking Heads and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and winner of both a Grammy and an Oscar, said in Rolling Stone magazine in 1989 that voodoo sounds "are a big part of where our popular music comes from… rock 'n roll comes from those traditions." Little Richard, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame whose career spans all the way back to the birth of the genre said "My true belief about Rock 'n' Roll – and there have been a lot of phrases attributed to me over the years – is this: I believe this kind of music is demonic. I have seen the rock groups and the punk-rock people in this country. And some of their lyrics is demonic. They talk against God. A lot of the beats in music today are taken from voodoo, from the voodoo drums. If you study music in rhythms, like I have, you'll see that is true." 

          The connection between intense rhythm and an opening of your mind to the spirit world is not accidental. It is in a very real sense predictable. If it was not the ceremonies involving its use would not have persisted for millennia. Science even has a name for it – entrainment. The human body has some natural rhythm to it i.e. the heartbeat, pulse, brainwaves, etc. Scientists have discovered that with the right combination of external rhythms they can actually change the internal rhythms of the human body. The result of this in the mind is a trance like state called entrainment. (Not coincidentally, the Madventures clip linked above includes explicit use of the word "trance." Indeed, this word is found all over native and eastern religions.)

          Rock musicians have known this for years. They call it "the groove." King Britt of the Grammy winning group Digable Planets in reviewing a rock album said, " 'Power' is intense… it was total voodoo, a groove that continually builds and turns into a total trance." Mickey Hart, for decades lead drummer with the Grateful Dead, has progressed beyond being a simple musician to being a musicologist in his own right. In his 1998 book Drumming on the Edge of Magic he discusses his passionate pursuit of percussion, rhythm, and drumming all around the world. He traveled to South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe in search of drums and drumming techniques. He probably owns more drums than any other single human being. In between his travels, studies, and decades of experience with the Grateful Dead he knows more about drumming than any other living human being. In his book, which I will quote from extensively in another post he said, "Drumming is made for trance and for ecstatic states. The basis of percussion is redundancy and redundancy is the basis of trance."

          Drum circles are yet another Westernized example of a native American tradition. Several people sit in a circle or semi-circle and play percussion instruments in order to reach what they term a mind-spirit unity through rhythm. Barb Wilson in an article for Complete Health magazine in 2004 entitled "Can't Beat Drumming" said, "Over the years, drumming in various drum circles... I have become more and more entranced with the experience. A composer living outside Toronto, Ontario, started teaching Afro-Latin drumming to small women's groups. Most expressed the feeling that drumming took them somewhere that other musical activities did not. One class member summed up why the drumming is so appealing to her. 'It's mesmerizing.' "

          Mickey Hart went on to explain, "The backbeat is one kind of drum groove; it's the essential one for rock and roll. I had heard of the phenomenon of rhythmic entrainment that rock and jazz musicians call the groove. I had even fleetingly experienced it, but Billy [former Grateful Dead drummer] taught me to trust in it, to let it draw me in like a tractor beam." Joshua Leeds, a pioneer in the new field of psychoacoustics says in his 2001 book The Power of Sound that the even cadence of rap lyrics and the steady percussion of drums "facilitates trance." Which is probably why Mickey Hart said, "Everywhere you look on the planet people are using drums to alter consciousness."

          A youtube video entitled "Drumming Meditation (Message From Mother Earth)" seeks to illustrate this concept explicitly. Apparently, according to the comments below it works. One viewer said, "Nice drum! I play my djembe to attain theta levels. When I am focused enough, I can feel what I can only describe as an Om bubble form around me and reach out to the Earth. It is very healing, and is often my form of meditation. ? It is also one way I connect with my animal spirit guides. Thanks for posting this video. I would love to come out there and connect with the land and ancestors...they call to me, but until then, thanks for providing me with the visual place to go! Blessings."

          Nor is this connection limited to obscure youtube videos and fringe religions. Some of the largest current rock stars on the planet give clear evidence of this in widely watched performances. Beyonce, watched in just one performance by over 100 million people during the 2013 Super Bowl, openly admits she is possessed of a spirit during her performances. This short summation of the last few national Grammy broadcasts with Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, and Madonna is downright chilling in this respect. I do not necessarily agree with everything proposed in these videos but the facts contained in them are stubborn indeed.

         There is a longstanding, deep, present, and growing connection between worship of what the Scripture defines as false gods, devils, demons, or evil spirits and a drum heavy rhythm soaked dance inducing type of music all around the world. Does this make the use of drums wrong? No, for their use is found in the Bible in a limited way. But it does make me leery of a style of music that is primarily composed of a heavy beat, has its roots in the worship of evil spirits, and has its musicians still studying and evidencing this.

          I am not interested in my music opening up the door of the occult in my mind. Are you?    

Music 4 - Everything Changed

With today's post we come to the hardest section of this series to write. It is my considerate belief that the vast majority of the world's music today is demonic in origin and affect. In effect, it is opening doors to the occult world in the minds of its purveyors and consumers. For the next month or so I am going to lay before you the case for that belief.

This section is difficult to write for several reasons. First, I have to force my own mind back through all the accumulated evidence I have piled up in order to support this contention. It is a mental and emotional exercise for me that is similar physically to wading through an open sewer. Additionally, I expect as a result of what I write to experience an elevated level of pushback. I anticipate a dump truck load of criticism, insult, complaint, and just plain disagreement to land on my head in the process. Many even of my own friends and church members will not agree with me. But as I said to my wife a moment ago what I am going to say over the next month or so needs to be said and I have determined to say it. So here we go…

A funny thing happened in Western civilization sixty years ago – music changed dramatically. Previous to 1955 popular music had a smoothness to it even if that smoothness increasingly had a swing in it. Historically that musical flow was tied to the Western concept of music generically known in our day as the classical style. But even the increasing inroads of ragtime, jazz, and big band or swing music had more flow than rock to them. The charts previous to 1955 were ruled largely by crooners such as Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennet, and Frank Sinatra. While such music did not die in 1955 it was in for a rude surprise. To mix metaphors, it would soon be forced to play second fiddle in the orchestra of American popular opinion.

There is a vigorous historical debate over which song, which producer, and which artist can lay claim to the first rock and roll song. I have read several entire books or sections of books in relation to this. What is inarguable is that the first chart topping rock song was Bill Haley and the Comets 1955 "Rock Around the Clock." Like a dam that had been gradually weakening and leaking for years and then suddenly bursts that song exploded on the American music scene and the new genre it represented swept everything else before it. What had been a smooth albeit swinging popular music became a beat dominated rhythm oriented beast practically unrecognizable from its humbler forebearers of jazz, boogie woogie, rhythm and blues, and country.

The speed and depth of this change is astonishing. What Bill Haley introduced and Elvis Presley popularized and the Beatles metastasized became in fifteen short years the mindless pulsating sheer noise of Black Sabbath's heavy metal. Certainly the American youth movement and culture of the post WWII generation contributed to this as did the rise of radio. But however you define and describe its birth the end result was a new music form related to its fathers but actively distinct from anything that came before it – rock.

Western music had for centuries been composed of three elements: melody, harmony, and rhythm. In fact, music cannot exist without rhythm of some sort for without it there would be no organized structure. I grasped this first as a small boy growing up in a house with four older sisters who all played the piano. My oldest sister became somewhat advanced on the classical side and I can still picture her metronome ticking away at faster and faster speeds as she practiced hour upon hour in our dining room. Even the stately religious hymns of yesteryear have rhythm as evidenced by the various time signatures at the beginning. Not only has Western music had elements of rhythm in it for as long as we have record but it is also factual that rhythm is mentioned in the Word of God, and in a positive context to boot. Praise him with the timbrel and dance. (Psalm 150.4) The timbrel is a small hand drum essentially rather like the tambourine of our day.

I say that because I do not want to leave the impression in what comes next that I believe rhythm in music is wrong. I cannot and dare not for at least the reasons I have just cited. But although this is true it is also true that something dramatic and deep changed in the music of Western civilization in the 1950's. There developed an ever increasing emphasis on rhythm, and a driving beat that had never before been near as prominent in any form of popular music. Alan Freed, the Cleveland area disc jockey who did not coin but did first popularize the use of the term "rock and roll", would repeatedly shout into his microphone in those heady days of the 1950's, "Feel the beat!" while simultaneously pounding on a phone book. You can argue with me about the effect of that beat but you cannot argue that it rose up in the 1950's, that it took over everything, and that it is the single most recognizable fact about rock music. Charles T. Brown says in his 1992 book, The Art of Rock and Roll, "Perhaps the most important defining quality of rock and roll is the beat… Rock and roll is different from other music primarily because of the beat." Frank Garlock explains it this way in his 1998 book Music in the Balance, "In order to know what rock is, we must understand the specific characteristics that make it unique. First and most important is the beat. The rhythm in rock is the dominant part of the sound." Alan Freed's biographer John A Jackson agreed titling his 1991 book about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame disc jockey, Big Beat Heat.

Rock music as represented by one sub-genre or another is the most dominant form of music in Western culture and has been for the past sixty years. Indeed, Malcolm Downey asserted in his 1978 book Summer in the City that rock music was "not simply another branch of popular culture. It has shown itself to be perhaps the most significant art form to emerge this century." The only thing I would change about that quote would be to remove the word "perhaps." It is the soundtrack that fills our lives. It backs the majority of television commercials. It is played in almost every restaurant, store, dealership, and waiting room in the country. It is played on the majority of radio stations and streaming internet channels. Talent shows and television specials top-heavy with rock routinely top the Nielsen television ratings. The Pentecostal preacher David Wilkerson said it well in 1985's Set the Trumpet to Thy Mouth, "Rock music is the biggest mass addiction in the world's history."

For centuries Western music flowed. Now for a few decades it has rocked, pounding its rhythms straight into the conscious ears and subconscious minds of billions of people. Music is an emotional language. What has this language been saying? What has this language been telling us?

For the next few weeks I intend to give you the answer whether you like it or not. And if I am right then the ramifications of that answer will ripple through the breadth and depth of your life, your children's lives, and your church's life. Alternatively, you are welcome to assert that I am wrong, but as you whistle past the graveyard of the music in your life know this: the ramifications likewise are just as huge and ignoring that particularly unpleasant fact will not make the fact go away.

Everything changed. Are you going to let it change you?

Music 3 - Eight Ways the Bible Says We Can Use Music

In this series I am going to discuss both the personal and corporate (church) aspects of music. I am going to begin with principles that are involved on the personal side and then apply them later in the series to corporate use. Last week we discovered that music is an emotional language. Today I want to consider appropriate personal uses for music. In other words, I am going to attempt to show you from the Bible some acceptable ways we can use music (instrumental and lyrical both) outside of a church context in our daily life.

First, we can use music to empathize with others. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations. (II Chronicles 35.25) Josiah was one of the better kings of Judah. He valiantly sought to defend his country militarily and politically, to deliver it from the coming Babylonian storm he foresaw, and to revive it spiritually. He died eighteen years into a promising reign while in battle with the Egyptian army. Shortly after his death Judah was conquered and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

Such a good man and wise leader was sorely missed by his people. In the above passage we see the prophet Jeremiah and the music ministry of the Temple led the people in a musical lamentation for their now dead king. In my view this was not a worship related scenario in the Temple but rather a meeting of national or political significance. In Matthew 9 we see a similar use of music. Jairus, the leader of the synagogue in Capernaum, lost his daughter in death. Sympathetic friends gathered to mourn with him and provided music to accompany the mourning.

If someone around you is hurting music played in their presence or given to them as a gift is a helpful thing. It can be a soothing balm indeed.

Second, we can use music to amplify romance with our spouse. The idea that every couple has a song is widely held. In point of fact more songs are written with romantic love as the theme than any other subject. I may disagree with much of the content and form of such songs, but if they are biblically acceptable the over-arching concept of using music to strengthen romantic emotion is scripturally valid. Psalm 45 is headlined A Song of loves. Isaiah 5.1 says Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. Of course, the entirety of the Song of Solomon is romance. Such music, while inappropriate in an illicit relationship, is perfectly acceptable in a married relationship.

Third, we can use music to teach our children scriptural truth. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 6.7) Granted, this verse does not explicitly reference doing so via music but such is implied. How? The largest book of the Bible is Psalms. We are commanded five times in the Word of God to sing those psalms as well as other spiritual songs. One of the ways I as a father can combine both of those is to teach my children to sing psalms and to furnish them with scripture songs to which they can listen. Actually not thirty minutes ago they chose the next hymn they are going to work on memorizing for this month. Every night of their life they have gone to sleep listening to good music. By the time my children leave my home – not counting church services – they will have listened to and sung thousands of hours worth of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

Fourth, we can use music to motivate ourselves or others to accomplish something worthwhile. And from thence they went to Beer: that is the well whereof the Lord spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it: The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves. (Numbers 21.16-18) The children of Israel needed to dig yet another well on their wilderness wanderings. They did not seem up to the task for some reason – perhaps because they only had sticks with which to dig – so Moses had them begin singing while they worked, and it worked. There is a camaraderie, a mutual improvement in mood when you sing together while working. In fiction the dwarves in Snow White are an example of this. In real life the military often uses this technique in training.

Fifth, we can use music to reflect our joy. As Christians we sometimes think that if we do something solely for the fun of it then it must be wrong. After all, we are supposed to live soberly. (Titus 2.12) This does not mean, however, that we are to live without joy, humor, fun, or happiness. It means we are to live with purpose. There is nothing wrong with good, clean, enjoyable fun. There is nothing wrong – all other things being equal – with music that expresses this. Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen. And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease. (Isaiah 16.9-10) I realize this passage is referencing the sorrow that comes with judgment but it does not say these people were wrong to sing as they enjoyed themselves. Rather, it assumes such is perfectly acceptable normally.

Often of an evening during and after dinner while my family is gathered in the main room of our home I will put some kind of cheerful, happy music on Pandora. These are not psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; it is lighthearted often lively music that we all enjoy.

Sixth, we can use music to outwardly express our inner emotions. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. (Psalm 137.2) Here the psalmist likened harp music – which is always peaceful if not somber – to a weeping willow tree. Such a concept is illustrated in the book of Job. My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep. I have often wished I could sit down at the piano or pick up a violin and play just exactly how I am feeling at the moment. Music is how feelings sound. Due to my own lack of skill I cannot but I can through the genius of our technologically advanced age play someone else's music that expresses how I feel at the moment.

Seventh, we can use music to show our patriotic love of country. And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick. (I Samuel 18.6) What American heart among us does not thrill at "The Star Spangled Banner", "America the Beautiful," "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," or "God Bless America"? As a child my father along with the other three clergymen in our village participated each year in the community Memorial Day observance. I can still feel the shivers that went up and down my spine as the bugler solemnly and majestically played "Taps."

Lastly, we can use music to pray and to praise the Lord. There are so many examples of this in Psalms that it is beside the point to list them. A Christian whose heart is warm to His God will often find a psalm or a hymn on his lips throughout the day. He will sing in the shower, on the bus, and while walking down a crowded sidewalk. He will sing in private communion with His Lord the precious songs he has learned in the corporate meetings of His church. He will listen to them, whistle them, hum them, quote them, and even belt out a verse or two betimes.

As a teenage boy a well-meaning but mistaken preacher taught me that the only valid use of music was spiritual. In other words, all the music in my life was supposed to be to or about God. The truth is a closer examination of Scripture does not bear this out. All of my music has to yield to Scriptural principle but it does not all have to be about God. In this blog series I will spend a lot of time talking about the spiritual aspects of music. At the beginning, however, I want to make sure you understand that though such should probably represent the majority of our music use it is still perfectly appropriate to use music personally in broader ways.

Music 2 - Music Defined

Words are very important to me both in my chosen vocation – preaching – and my avocation – writing. I learned the hard way as a young pastor that I cannot preach on a subject without first carefully defining it. My hearer may well carry in his mind a different understanding of a term that I am using. In such a case I will shed no light into in his mind. I will only engender confusion. John Milton Gregory in his classic The Seven Laws of Teaching points out the absolute necessity of this by asserting that one entire law is that of language – it must be in common between the teacher and the student.

For these reasons it has become my settled custom when introducing a subject to particularly define it. The deeper of a discussion I intend to undertake the more emphasis I place upon that definition. Thus it is that I begin this lengthy blog series with today's post title: Music Defined.

Let me begin by saying that when I use the word "music" in this series I generally mean instrumental music. Lyrics may accompany music but they are not music in the strict sense by which I mean by the term. After all, lyrics are fairly straight forward. We may agree or disagree with the poetical quality of a song's lyrics but whether those lyrics are bad or good, sinful or righteous, helpful or destructive, does not take an art critic. It simply takes someone with a basic understanding of speech. No, when I say music I mean the (mostly) mechanical sounds, the vibrations that strike your ears apart from whatever words accompany those sounds.

What is music? Foundationally, music is an emotional language.



Each of the two words in my preferred definition is likewise important. That music is an emotional thing is readily apparent in Scripture. At the risk of boring you with a long list notice these instances:

Job 29:13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
Ps 67:4 O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.
Ps 71:23 My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.
Ps 95:1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Ps 98:4 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
Ps 126:2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.
Ps 137:3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
Pr 29:6 In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare: but the righteous doth sing and rejoice.
Lam 3.14-15 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
Isa 49:13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
Isa 52:9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
Isa 65:14 Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.
Jer 31:7 For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
Zep 3:14 Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Zep 3:17 The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
Zec 2:10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD.
Mt 9.23-24 And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
Jas 5:13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.


Most of these are about the emotion of joy. Well they should be for we are God's people, and we ought to live in joy as we live in Him. But we also see several examples in the above list of a direct connection between music and sorrow. For instance, in Matthew 9 Jesus entered Jairus' house to raise his daughter from the dead and found a musical group playing appropriately somber music. He asked them to leave. Such funereal music would not be necessary once the little girl was brought back to life.

To this Martin Luther agreed, saying, "Music is to be praised as second only to the Word of God because by her all the emotions are swayed." Dan Lucarini comes to a similar conclusion in his book, Can We Rock the Gospel?, "Music is one of the ways by which we can give audible expression to our common emotions such as joy, sorrow, love, sympathy, heroism, and compassion, and as we turn the pages of the Bible, we find it used in all of these areas." Christopher Hogwood, a conductor, instrumentalist, and musicologist who died last year, said, "Music is the use of sound to move the human soul." The Grammy award winner Jewel explained it this way, "You always feel better when you sing. Music touches people's hearts. You know, it doesn't go through your mental capacity, it just moves you and it will let you cry. It's worth it doing a show and when you touch a crowd and move yourself at the same time." Leo Tolstoy, the nineteenth century Russian wordsmith would have agreed with Jewel, saying, "Music is the shorthand of emotion."

What is critical to understand – both for reading this series and for general application in life and church – is that music is not just emotional. It is an emotional language. It is the use of non-verbal sound to convey, to express, to communicate, even to produce certain emotions. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow grasped this when he stated, "Music is the language spoken by angels." By this he meant that instrumental music produced in him sublime feelings.

Dr. Emil Guthiel, a mid-twentieth century psychologist, wrote of an example of this in his book, Music and Your Emotions. "Bingham, in an experiment based on data obtained from 20,000 persons, reported the effects produced upon their moods by a variety of 290 phonograph records. The conclusion from all these data was that a musical composition not only produces a mood change in the listener but it induces a markedly uniform mood in a great number of persons in a given audience."

Shelley Katsch, an advocate for music therapy, sees a similar dynamic. She expressed – in a book co-authored with New York mental health counselor Carol Merle-Fishman – it this way: "Music defines our likes, dislikes, physical appearance, mood and means of expression... One of the most poignant gifts of music is its ability to elicit the most tender emotions. In this way it communicates directly to our hearts and souls." David Tame in his book The Secret Power of Music (which I have not read but is on my Amazon wish list <hint, hint>) explains, "There is surely no doubt that music actually conveys very real and sometimes very specific emotional states from the musician to the listener."


Music is what feelings sound like. If I am melancholy, stoked, contemplative, or passionate I can find music on Pandora that matches my mood exactly within seconds. (By the way, spend the five bucks a month to get the commercial free version. It is so worth it.) I work and live in words but sometimes even words are not enough for me. Music alone can say what I am feeling. Hans Christian Anderson said, "Where words fail, music speaks." Victor Hugo, another master wordsmith understood this as well. "Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent." One of my favorite twentieth century composers, Leonard Bernstein, said, "Music… can name the un-nameable and communicate the unknowable." My emotions must burst forth but nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are entirely insufficient. So I play music. 

Yip Harburg, the lyricist for such well known works as "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and "Over the Rainbow", understood not only the power of words but the power of the underlying tune itself. He said, "Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought."

Dr. Norman Weinberger, a professor of neurobiology at UC Irvine, offered the following evidence. He paired pictures of depressing art with sad music and not surprisingly ended up with sad students. He then paired depressing art with happy music and ended up with happy students. Not done yet, he paired cheerful pictures with happy music and got happy students. Finally, he paired cheerful pictures with sad music and got sad students again. In a paper on the subject he summed it up this way, "Music doesn't simply convey intended emotions that we can recognize, but rather induces genuine emotion in the listener."

This is patently obvious as revealed in almost every movie you have ever seen. The writers work in words, but the the producers and directors work in moods. They convey those moods using lighting, pace, and especially music. An otherwise innocuous scene becomes truly grim when the scary music at the upper end of the scales begins to play. Happiness, peace, security, love, fear, anger – all these and more are conveyed to you without words via instrumental music.

If all of this is true – that music is an emotional language, that it communicates, that it speaks outside of and beyond the lyrics – then the question you must ask yourself about the music that flows into you and through you is this: What is it saying? What is it telling me? How is it influencing me? What is it communicating to those around me? Your choice of music both communicates to you and through you to others how you feel, how strongly you feel, what you believe, and what is important to you at the moment.

You had better choose it carefully. It is saying something.

Music 1 - Why and How

I love music. I love to listen to it. I love to sing it. I love to watch it being performed by skilled and passionate people. I even love to study about it. I find it to be a fascinating subject. Its history is almost the history of the universe itself. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?...When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?(Job 38.3,7) Its impact on human behavior is well-nigh immeasurable. It plays an enormous part in the life of every person reading this blog. It has played and will continue to play a large part in my own life. It is both secular and religious. It is both comedic and dramatic. It is both simple and complex. It is at once reflective of whom you are and predictive of whom you will become.

Several years ago I decided to do an extensive discussion of the subject during the Wednesday night Bible study hour in our church. When I happened to mention this subject to a group of online friends I was unpleasantly shocked by their negative reaction.

“Boy, that will REALLY help God's children to grow spiritually. Maybe a series on the sins of flannel graph would be just as helpful.”

“To my knowledge the bible doesn't speak against any kind of music anywhere. Why do Baptists find this to be such an important topic? It seems rather silly and futile to me.”

“Not necessarily something that will feed the sheep.”

“Of ALL the Scripture to preach and teach and you are going to devote precious time to styles of music?! Really? I ask you to reconsider.”

“I can't imagine that the sermon could be any longer than 15 minutes!”

As you can imagine I was rather nonplussed by the hostility displayed. I am no longer puzzled by that hostility. In fact, I expect to get a fair amount of it hurled my way over the next several months on this blog. The subject is deeply personal yet at the same time corporately public, at least in contemporary American Christianity.

Why then would I choose to willingly enter into such a meat grinder? The short answer is I believed then and believe now that the subject is incredibly important. The typical young person in America listens to two and half hours of music every day. Hundreds of hours of music per year are pouring into the minds of the average person and yet it is not worth addressing? I beg to differ.

Beyond the personal side there is also the corporate side. Music makes up a significant percentage of every church service. Cumulatively, our church, for example, sings twenty Scripture songs and another thirty hymns and choruses in the average week. The average church in America spends much more time in music than it does in prayer, in witnessing, or in fellowship.

Above all of this, however, looms the fact that the largest book in the Bible is a songbook. Beyond that alone, Scripture speaks specifically of music more than five hundred times. Surely any serious student of the Word of God would want to know what God thinks about something He talks about so often, and something that is such a large part of our personal life and the church’s life.

For the balance of the next year I intend to do just that. I intend to discuss what music is, how it ought to be used, and where the dangers and blessings are in its use. I will discuss how to choose good music, the purpose of church music, and how to choose and perform church music. I intend to build for you a philosophy of music that is both personal and corporate, and one that is firmly grounded in Scriptural principle and practical considerations. Along the way I will use hundreds of Scripture verses and hundreds more selected quotations from various musicians, musicologists, ethnomusicologists, historians, researchers, and biographers.

I will endeavor as well as I know how to be transparent with my sources. At the same time I must admit that since the initial preparation for this series was done as sermon notes I will often be guilty of overlooking a needed citation. This is my attempt to cover that as clearly as possible up front. I did not generally footnote my sermon notes back then. In the interests of full disclosure here is the list of books I have read in preparation for this series (and please understand here I am not trying to impress anyone with this list; I am simply trying to avoid a criticism I have gotten in other series regarding my sources):

-The Spiritual Song, The Missing Element in Church Music, Mike Foster, 153 pp, 2011
-Drumming at the Edge of Magic, A Journey Into the Spirit of Percussion, Mickey Hart, 263 pp, 1990
-Can We Rock the Gospel?, Rock Music’s Impact on Worship and Evangelism, John Blanchard and Dan Lucarini, 267 pp, 2006
-Music in the Balance, Frank Garlock and Kurt Woetzel, 204 pp, 1992
-Music and Morals, Dispelling the Myth That Music is Amoral, Kimberly Smith, 157 pp, 2005
-A Song in Your Heart, Music’s Role in the Christian Life, Mike Zachary, 166 pp, 1997
-Contemporary Worship Music, A Biblical Defense, John Frame, 212 pp, 1997
-As I See Church Music, Elaine Colsten, 120 pp, 1969
-Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement, Dan Lucarini, 141 pp, 2002
-Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns, How Pop Culture Rewrote the Hymnal, T. David Gordon, 187 pp, 2010
-Sing for Joy, Interactive Bible Studies, 60 pp, 2010
-Shout!, The Beatles in Their Generation, Philip Norman, 414 pp, 1981
-Last Train to Memphis, The Rise of Elvis Presley and Careless Love, The Unmaking of Elvis Presley, Peter Guralnick, 576/768 pp 1995/2000
-The Pied Piper of Rock Music, Dennis Corle, 224 pp, 2000
-The Rock and Roll Rebellion, Why People of Faith Abandoned Rock Music – And Why They’re Coming Back, Mark Joseph, 316 pp, 1999
-A Complete Manual for The Ministry of Church Music, Lindsay Terry, 175 pp, 2002
-Big Beat Heat, Alan Freed and the Early Years of Rock and Roll, John Jackson, 400 pp, 1991
-Shining Trumpets, A History of Jazz, Rudi Blesh, 410 pp, 1958

I have also purchased and plan to read the following two books in the next month:

-Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution, Music and Social Change in America, Dick Weissman, 370 pp, 2010
-Worship Wars, Robert Bakks, 302 pp, 2015

In addition I have read numerous essays and articles online and watched dozens of hours of historical documentaries on various musicians and music styles. I have also examined every verse in the Bible that mentions music.

I do not mean to imply that because of the amount of study I have done on the subject I will be completely correct. Nor do I mean to insinuate that others – including some who will no doubt comment on these posts – may not know more than I do about the subject of music. But it does mean I have endeavored to do my homework. As much as I know how I have sought, ironically enough, not to approach this subject emotionally. Instead I have sought to build a rational, educated, scriptural philosophy of music. It is that I wish to share with you.

Welcome to this journey of mine. As always, I invite your participation along the way either here on this blog or on my facebook page. I do not generally moderate comments other than for what I deem to be foul language. I hope this study will inform you. More than that, though, I hope it will edify you. I hope it will give you a deeper understanding of why we hold the positions we do. Together may you and I learn to better please the Lord in this vital area.

Evil in the Midst 8 ...Men Should Not Get the Credit

How could it be that God appeared to be using him so marvelously and yet he was so thoroughly evil so long?
…Because it is God's Word applied by the Holy Spirit that actually changes men; the leader should not get the credit.

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11)

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

If there is a truth that is all too often forgotten by the people of God and the men of God of our own generation it is this: the Holy Spirit using Scripture changes men. We are so prone, after attending some great conference or having our hearts stirred by music from the heavenlies, to credit the men whom God used instead of the God who used them. So often the grace and power of God is poured out through some earthly vessel and we, in our shallowness and spiritual immaturity, remember and admire the vessel more than we do the God using the vessel and flowing through the vessel.

We flock to be noticed by these great men of God. They sign our Bibles. They receive standing ovations in our pulpits. They are given poems, honorariums, and doctorates. They are reverenced (reverend) almost to the point of worship. Their wishes are honored, and their advice duly followed. Buildings and institutions are named after them. They are called heroes.

Please do not misunderstand me here. Paul, instructing Timothy in how to treat God’s men, said Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. (I Timothy 5:17) As a pastor myself I have had many fine honors come my way. I appreciate them all, and in a very real sense I think it is good for God’s people to respect and honor the position of evangelist, pastor, teacher, and deacon. But it is also true that this same Paul, when faced with men who wished to pay him too much honor, said Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you. (Acts 14:15) Peter, when faced with a similar situation echoed those sentiments, saying I myself also am a man. (Acts 10:26) 

Thus we see there is to be a balance between appropriate and excessive personal credit. While it is true that you and I may disagree on exactly where the line should be drawn between those two we cannot disagree that many Christians obliterate the line completely. They consciously or unconsciously place the credit for the lives changed around them on the man when nothing could be further from the Scriptural truth.

Tom Brennan has never changed a life. Neither did Lee Roberson, Tom Malone, Jack Hyles, Curtis Hutson, Lester Roloff, John R. Rice, J. Frank Norris, Billy Sunday, D. L. Moody, C. H. Spurgeon, George Mueller, William Booth, George Whitefield, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, David Brainerd, Cotton Mather, John Bunyan, William Tyndale, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jan Huss, John Wycliffe, Savonarola, Polycarp, or the Apostle Paul. I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. (I Corinthians 3:6-7)

The Scripture is incredibly powerful. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) The Holy Spirit is incredibly powerful. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. (I Corinthians 2:4) When men, even men who are almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation, preach the Scriptures the Holy Spirit can accomplish miraculous things. Those miraculous things are no more the result of the man preaching them than they are the result of the man in the moon, and we would do well to remind ourselves of that from time to time.

Postscript To The Reader

Some time ago it came to my attention that one of the missionaries our church had supported for years was found to be involved in egregious moral failures, and that these had been of longstanding duration going back decades. I do not pretend to be able to tell you why exactly he did what he did, but I can tell you that he left a trail of devastated lives in his wake. To those victims and the victims of countless other sinful men I respectfully proffer the preceding thoughts. May they grant you some measure of comfort and some level of understanding for the questions flooding your soul.

Many years ago and many miles away from this place a trial was held. In that trial an exceptionally good man was accused of trumped up charges. Witnesses were called but their testimony was weak and inconsistent. There was no circumstantial or physical evidence of wrongdoing of any kind. Undeterred, the prosecutors and witnesses pressed all the more vigorously for a judicial condemnation that would bring with it the sentence they so desired to see. At one point in the trial the judge, in sheer exasperation, according to verified and reliable historical record said, I find no fault with this man. (Luke 23:4) The judge was Pilate and the man was Jesus Christ.

In the succeeding centuries many have been the bitter accusations of misconduct hurled against those who bear His name. Sadly, much of the time those accusations are founded in reality for even the best of men are men at best. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) Countless times the followers in bewildered puzzlement have wondered how it could be that such a good man could accomplish so much while being such a bad man. Countless times the hurt has turned into bitterness, marring their effective testimony, and damaging the cause of Christ. Dear reader, may I gently propose to you that although it may be true that someone you greatly respected hurt you you will never find any fault in Jesus Christ. He will never hurt you. He will never injure you. He will never fail you. He will never disappoint you. He will never be caught covering up any sin but yours, and that He covers with His blood. When (not if) men fail you, as the old song so eloquently says,

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.”

Evil in the Midst 7... The Sovereignty of God

How could it be that God appeared to be using him so marvelously and yet he was so thoroughly evil so long? …Because God, in His sovereignty, uses sinners for His own purposes.

For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. (Romans 9:17)

Scripture is the revelation of God to man. As such, it is constantly showing us what God is like, how He thinks, why He does what He does, and how He does it. In this passage Scripture reveals to us that Pharaoh was simply a tool in the hand of the Lord to reveal to men His power, and to spread His name throughout all the earth.

Nor was Pharaoh the only sinful man God ever used to advance His own purposes in spite of said sinful man’s wickedness. Isaiah 10 tells us that God used the evil Assyrians for His own purpose. Isaiah 45 instructs us that God used an ungodly Cyrus to His own end. In Jeremiah 27 God refers to the wicked Nebuchadnezzar as His servant. Surely if God could use such depraved men as Pharaoh, Cyrus, and Nebuchadnezzar He just might be able to use a pastor with secret sin in the chambers of his imagery to accomplish His own purpose.

In fact, all God has to use is sinners. When God determined to work through man to reach man He, in a very real sense, tied His hands. Certainly nature and conscience reveal God to men, and of course we understand that Scripture is the ultimate revelation of God to man. Yet God chooses to almost always use human agents in preaching, teaching, praying, witnessing, encouraging, comforting, and exhorting men to turn their hearts toward Himself – and every one of those men are wicked and depraved sinners.

The Psalmist said The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. (Psalm 16:4) We do not believe that this passage and similar ones teach that God created sin, but we do contend that God uses sinners for His own ends and to His own purposes. It has well been said that only God can use a crooked stick to draw a straight line. Many a crooked man of God has been used by God to draw men unto Himself. That is not because of the crookedness of that man but rather in spite of it.
Some will contend that God uses men in His service that are holy, pure, blameless, mature, zealous, and without spot. While all these are certainly true and we ought to strive for holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord yet it is equally true that God can use any man of His choosing, including those almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

While it is true that God can use whom He will it is also true that God’s use of them does not excuse or mitigate in any way their personal wickedness. Pharaoh, Cyrus, and Nebuchadnezzar all had to pay for their sins, either with earthly consequences, eternal consequences, or both. So will all men, including God’s men. Some men of God have endeavored to excuse their perversity by saying that the stress, pressure, and burden of their great ministry demands some outlet, as if they are better ministers of Jesus Christ if they sow some wild oats now and then. Nothing could be further from the truth, or more obnoxious to the Holy One of Israel. We are none of us indispensable in the Kingdom, and the level of our usefulness to the cause of Christ must not lead us to justification of the lusts of our flesh. God uses men in His mercy to edify the body of Christ, advance His Kingdom, and glorify His name. Let us be grateful for that, and with humility and holiness seek to be used by Him, always being mindful that He chooses to use whom He will for His own purposes.