worldy music

And so it was with the pipes.... Satan and Music

Should rock music be for our churches today?

‘Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.’ (Ezekiel 28:13)

Satan and Musical Ability

The above bible verse is referring to Satan (Lucifer before he rebelled) and when he was created. We learn a few things about Satan here, one of them being, as highlighted above, that Satan was created with a musical ability. The word tabret refers to the musical percussion instrument, the tambourine (from the Hebrew word tofe) and pipes (from the Hebew word neqeb) from hollowness/bore through. Given the context of the musical disposition with the tambourine as percussion, it’s quite clear that ‘pipes’ is quite literally referring to the ability to create musical notes. Note how as humans we only have one ‘pipe’, that is our breathing pipe from which we can only create one note at a time. Satan, before he rebelled, had many pipes, able to create many musical notes at one time. 

Clearly Satan was given an ability in so much as regards to music is concerned.

The Devil and Rock Music - Rock and Roll

The original term ‘rock and roll’ or rather ‘rock and rolling’ refers to the act of sexual intercourse, or more exactly, fornication:

‘..(rock and rolling) to mean "having sexual intercourse". ... Alan Freed first played a collection of rhythm and blues albums in his show under the name "The Moondog Show". However, upon relocating to New York he changed the name to "The Rock and Roll Show". He had full knowledge of the term and it's racy implications...’ (Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rock%20and%20roll)

The name, rock music – ‘rock and roll’ has it’s origins in street slang for carnal acts of the flesh, sexual intercourse, debauchery, fornication, adultery.

Here is what some famous rock musicans have said about rock music:

‘This is the way I look at sex scenes: I have basically been doing them for a living for years. Trying to seduce an audience is the basis of rock 'n roll, and if I may say so, I'm pretty good at it.’ – John Bon Jovi

'After I saw Kiss on stage, I wanted my show to look like the fourth of July. The persona of Rick James was wild and crazy, sex, drugs and rock and roll.' – Rick James

(Source: http://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll.html)

It is infact wordly and therefore conforming to the world. It’s certainly showing nothing to do with God and His instruction;

'Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.' ( – James 4:4)

Insanity

“I wake up: I am mental, I got to bed and I am mental, I am mental within my dreams, I am mental within my normal state, I’m out of my mind.” - Joey Jordison of Slipknot – 2000

"Rock and roll keeps you in a constant state of juvenile delinquency." - Eddie Spaghetti – 2000

(source: http://www.clashmusic.com/features/50-more-rocknroll-quotes)

One doesn’t need to dig in too deeply to see that rock music – rock and roll has nothing to do with God and Christian living, but, however, let’s just look a little more, not for long!

Devil Worship

Another common thread within rock music is Satanism – whether it is imagery, lyrics, rejection of Christianity or being controlled by devils, but here is some examples

‘(Carlos Santana) tells me more about Metatron. "Metatron is the architect of physical life. Because of him, we can French-kiss, we can hug, we can get a hot dog, wiggle our toe." He sees Metatron in his dreams and meditations. He looks a bit like Santa Claus – "white beard, and kind of this jolly fellow." Metatron, who has been mentioned in mystical disciplines through the ages, also appears as the eye inside the triangle.'

Santana credits Metatron with alerting him to the recent changes in his life. In the mid-Nineties, he met some people in a spiritual bookstore near his home, and they invited him to their afternoon meditations in Santa Cruz. The last time he was there, Metatron, delivered some important messages. "You will be inside the radio frequency," Metatron told him, "for the purpose of connecting the molecules with the light." Carlos Santana understood. He would make a new album and be on the radio again. And he would connect the molecules with the light: He would connect an audience with some of the spiritual information he now had.’ – Carlos Santana (Source http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-epic-life-of-carlos-santana-20000316) 

Note that this has nothing to do with God, but everything to do with a demonology. Carlos Santana also talks about how ‘Metatron’ tells him what music to write.

Further Info

Rock music, rock and roll (fornication as detailed at the start of the article) has it’s roots in voodoo: 

‘The roots of rock are in a West African word for dance — rak. As Michael Ventura wrote in his important essay on rock music, “Hear that Long Snake Moan”:

The Voodoo rite of possession by the god became the standard of American performance in rock’n’roll. Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, James Brown, Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Jim Morrison, Johnny Rotten, Prince — they let themselves be possessed not by any god they could name but by the spirit they felt in the music. Their behavior in this possession was something Western society had never before tolerated.’

(Source http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debra-devi/voodoo_b_1518269.html)

The article then goes on to state,

‘Vodou possession is not the hokey demon-possession of zombie movies; it’s a state of union with the divine achieved through drumming, dancing and singing. It’s becoming “filled with the Holy Ghost” in the Pentecostal Christian tradition or attaining yogic bliss through the practice of kirtan, singing the names of God — Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.’

‘Voodoo possession’ and ‘rock star possession’ has nothing to do with God and has everything to do with the devil. Indeed, as well as its roots in sexual intercourse, fornication, drugs, alcohol, we now move on to possession, one has to dwell on the bible verse about how easily people are deceived, especially when it refers to ‘molecules of light’:

‘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.’ (– 2 Corinthians 11:14-15)

And it is centered on worldly temporary things.

For some reason people –the journalist here and the author of ‘Hear that long snake moan’ (the title on it's own is undecent), and presumably at least some of the public reading the article, are under the impression that the music, the possession taking place has something to do with God. Quite how someone could add ‘Christianity’ ‘yogic’ ‘Hare Krishna’ among other things in the one package is clearly a sign of at least ignorance, if not devilish deception, as having something to do with the God of the bible. Perhaps it is due to;

‘In whom the god of this world (Satan) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them’ (– 2 Corinthians 4:4)

But it has nothing to do with God. It is of the devil. This is not THE Spirit, but rather, A spirit,

‘For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him’ (- 2 Corinthians 11:4)

The reality is that rock music, as is always the case with Satan, offers on the surface ‘freedom’, ‘liberation’ a break from ‘stuffiness’, but what it really does is lead people to promiscuity, drunkenness, rebellion, drugs, recklessness, if anything from the suggestive lyrics, to a one off night out where one does something they regret, to encouraging drink and drug abuse, to not care about oneself, to a life of increasing sin and self abuse, to loneliness, to simplistic thoughts about life. If that is not enough, referring to the bible in reference to rock stars and this rock and roll ‘allure’ of freedom:

“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” - Peter 2:19

Something called CCM – Contemporary Christian Music

‘The secular music style and beat is infiltrating church worship sets and a blurring of the lines between CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) and pop culture is rapidly occurring.’ – Patrick Hess, journalist (source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-hess/christians-in-the-music-i_b_6069488.html) 

What is known as CCM (Contemporary Christian Music), as correctly detailed in the above quote by journalist Patrick Hess, follows much the same pattern as above in the article, but instead of the sensual suggestive lyrics and so forth, it offers sensual, vague, open worship type music, for instance, here are the lyrics to a popular, recent CCM song, the title being, ‘I Have This Hope’,

‘As I walk this great unknown
Questions come and questions go
Was there purpose for the pain?
Did I cry these tears in vain?
I don't want to live in fear
I want to trust that You are near
Trust Your grace can be seen
In both triumph and tragedy
I have this hope
In the depth of my soul
In the flood or the fire
You're with me and You won't let go’
Indeed, given the clear ambiguity of the lyrics alone, ie one could easily refer those lyrics to a boyfriend/girlfiend breakup, or indeed to ‘yogic’, ‘kirtan’, ‘Hare Krishna’ or perhaps something else. One would imagine a Christian to pay close attention to such a thing,

‘And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham’ – Zephaniah 1:5, 

Where Malcham refers to Moloch, Ba’al, that is, a god associated with human sacrifice. 

That is, people were worshipping Ba’al in the name of God. Now, I am not saying that’s what CCM is doing, but the vague universal lyrics, and that the Gospel of the bible is never presented, leads it at least open to the possibility, it has the name Christian music, but, like the newspaper article linking ‘vodoo’, ‘Hare Krishna’ etc, it is really applying to anything other than clear, unambiguous worship of the God of the bible, there is nothing really ‘Christian’ in the worship, but rather a substitution for whatever a person may desire.

To Recap

So, as we can see from the bible verse at the top of the page, Satan was given an ability to do with music, and as demonstrated from the article written, rock music comes from non-Godly practices – sex, drugs abuse, carelessness, demon possession. Indeed, the driving beats of wordly music, voodoo, rock and roll, rock music, come DIRECTLY from Satan’s aptitude for music, and it’s all done to take us away from behaving in a Godly way or following or knowing the God of the bible, but it is becoming friends with the world,

‘Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.’ – (James 4:4)' 'For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.' - 1 Corinthians 14:13

Why are a growing amount churches using this type of music, and promoting it as necessary for church attendance?

Now, I am not saying A church, or YOUR church should not have ‘modern music’ or ‘modern instruments’, these choices between you, what you listen to, or decision made by you or decisions made by a church are entirely your concern and the members/pastor of a particular church.

What’s clear though, is that at least with these particular styles of music, eg rock music, electric guitar especially through distortion, CCM and so forth, that it’s tools used by the devil.

New problem for the church – to attract new members?

Keep in mind also, that these are not ‘new’ problems. For centuries – thousands of years, such music has been available – pagan music, tribal music, driving drumbeats, warbling vocals not really saying anything of meaning. The instruments may have changed, although sometimes not, but the style and the type of worship it creates has not changed, that is as old and been around for as long as we can know.

Churches – Christians could have brought this type of music into their services at any time in the past. But they did not.

'Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it'. (- Matthew 34-39)

Perhaps it's worth asking

Perhaps it’s worth asking if such music should be in a church/Christian gathering, which typically takes place for up to an hour perhaps once a week, when we have the remaining 6 days and 23 hours to be exposed or choose to be exposed to carnal music.

Maybe it’s best we maintain at least some separation from the world, as the bible says, and listen and take part in some honest, basic praising of His name for at least that hour, and to escape from the world and it’s struggles, if only for a little while
.

So maybe it's the case

So maybe it’s the case that churches are struggling to find new attendees not because people do not want to worship, but because they are no longer following the doctrine of what God has told us to do, instead they are compromising their beliefs, compromising the word of God, in order to ‘appeal’ to the world at any cost. Look, people, even unsaved people, tend not to give credence to those who cannot adhere to their principles, we see the same thing in those who are supposed to adhere to something, whether it is a school teacher, a judge, a politician. Credibility is important, how much more so when it is not about human jobs but about the word of God! 

‘Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men’ (– Matthew 5:13)

To conclude

I for one do not wish to worship God to the tunes of worldly, devil inspired music, quite possibly devil worshiping music, nor do I think we are pleasing God either, but perhaps instead, sadly, entertaining the devil. Indeed, perhaps it's becoming a sad day when it could be said that people are having to LEAVE the church in order to look to be right and grow in the Lord.

‘Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.’ ( – Amos 5:23)