Post 27-Christians and the Arts

Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.  I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze, and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship. Exodus 31:1-5 NASV  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+31&version=NASB

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John Wrote on Sunday, December 11, 2016 10:07 AM

Hey Dana

            A couple of years ago, our church had an outside ministry come in. It was Light of the World Christian Ballet (LWB)   http://www. lightoftheworldballet.com/  That was just at the time that our grandson, Nick, was heading off to the Nutmeg Conservatory in CT to begin his formal career training toward being a professional ballet dancer. Of course, since I came from a salvation background that began in an Assembly of God church, dancing was almost verboten, especially in church; but as LWB ministered through ballet it was Godly and the viewer could actually grasp the message. (Before I was saved, while never the best dancer, I did enjoy a polka at a wedding or the Twist when I was younger or a close up slow dance with a pretty partner.) Because we gave money to the secular conservatory, I felt we had to give that much, and more, to the Christian ballet company. Each time we've given, Ashley Rollinson, the Director, has taken time and effort to genuinely thank us, and encourage us spiritually.  Each of her notes has greatly encouraged me.

            I think we should do an initial post on Christians and/in the arts--music, dance, painting, writing, sculpting, etc. What do you think?

Yours for the Harvest

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Dana  Wrote onTue, Dec 13, 2016 at 2:21 PM

Hey John

     You wrote:

     "I think we should do an initial post on Christians and/in the arts--music, dance, painting, writing, sculpting, etc....What do you think?"

     Very interesting subject,

     I'll start putting some things together.  If you have any preliminary ideas, e-mail them to me and I'll use them as a springboard.  But, good idea.

Merry Christmas!

"Tidings of comfort and joy!"

Dana

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Later John Wrote as a draft

Hey Dana

            Years ago, I can't remember if it was before I started writing, or after, I bought the book Addicted to Mediocrity, 20th Century Christians and the Arts, by Franky Schaeffer.  This is Francis Schaeffer's son.  https://www.amazon.com/Addicted-Mediocrity-Franky-Schaffer/dp/0786103892 Starting with the cover, the theme is trumpeted by a painting of a hand holding a roller of white paint, rolling over Michelangelo's famous painting of David on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  In Franky's (note: throughout this post, I refer to Schaeffer by his first name in the hopes of eliminating any confusion with his well known father Francis Schaeffer) introduction, he writes, " The area of creativity therefore is no minor footnote to the Christian life, but is an essential. The trouble is, much of the church...have forgotten how central this part of our life is and have therefore wound up poverty-stricken in the enjoyment of ...above all, God himself." The first illustration in the book shows a gallows, with a minister as the hangman. Four nooses drape from the bar above. A noose is tight around 'the neck' of an artist's paint brush, of a trumpet, of a ballet toe shoe, and of an ink pen.

            Franky goes on, on page 16, "The arts...(have) been relegated to the bottom drawer of Christian consciousness, despised outright as unspiritual or unchristian." He goes on to say this attitude "...has caused many problems for individuals--so many unnecessary guilt feelings and so much bitter fruit..." How he finishes this thought is, I believe, the crux of the problem, "taking us out of touch with the world God has made, with the culture in which we live, and making us ineffectual in that culture."

            When I began to write, at what I thought then, and still believe today was God's leading, I don't remember any encouragement from my fellow Christians. I did get comments like, "When are you going to get a real job." or "What are you going to do for a day job?" I will admit, while it was often interesting, i.e. concerning the various articles I wrote, people I interviewed, and things I did to get the story, it was never easy. I used to liken it to trying to reach down my throat and pull up and out an octopus that had wrapped its tentacles around my intestines. The octopus was the article I was trying to write. I was a Christian who was a writer, not a Christian writer. 80% of my work was for secular publications, verses friends who only wrote Christian material for Christian publications.

            At the back of his book Franky has a Q and A. On page 69 one questioner asks if this addiction to mediocrity is only found as a pervasive attitude among “middle-class evangelical churches and people, or does it cut across all of Christendom?” He answers, “This utilitarian view of the arts by Christians in our century...led to the idea that unless one was writing a hymn (or other Christian materials or articles)..., one could not be serving God with one’s art.”

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Dana, after a time, answered on Fri, Feb 17, 2017

     Hi John,

     For a while we’ve been kicking around the idea of doing a blog about the arts.  In our most recent round of emails regarding Hymns, (as I understand it) you brought up a song leader who wanted to “jazz” up a traditional hymn a la this particular musician’s style.

      Your thought was, if I might paraphrase, “Leave it alone! If you want to play or sing one of this particular musician’s songs, do it, but don’t mess with the hymn.”  I feel your pain.

     The same thing bothers me about the singing of the “Star Spangled Banner” at sports events.  It is irksome to see some pop star du jour go out and completely personalize [aka butcher] the song to their particular style of entertainment to the point where it is almost unrecognizable.  Maybe it’s just a generational thing, and I have lived long enough to have become a grumpy old man.  OK, granted, but it still bothers me.  With you I cry out, “Leave it alone,” and, with Elvis, I’m looking for my horse pistol so as to shoot out the TV screen.  But that’s just me.

     All that aside, our e-talks got me to thinking about the arts, and how they relate to Christianity, or how should Christians relate to the arts?  That I’m entering a potential mine field is not lost to me, as my views may seem to others, a bit controversial.  While it is not actively debated very often, what is art and what is not, and what is Christian art and what is secular art are subjects that can liven up any home Bible study group, if not outright start an argument.

    In my opinion and it’s just my opinion, we (the Church) put way too much stock in the line dividing what’s sacred and secular.  We’ve got strange notions about what’s right and what’s wrong with art in the popular culture.  One of the 800 pound gorillas in the room is rock music.  Ooooooo, cue the “Twilight Zone” theme, rock music.  Rock music is evil, ooooooo.  Is it?

     Well, I’m not so sure about that.  Music is music.  Music is a combination of sounds generated by human or mechanical means in repetitive, mathematical order.  Of course, if we get to hear angels sing in Heaven, then it would be a combination of sounds generated by supernatural or mechanical (at least one angel has a trumpet) means in repetitive, mathematical order.  It is not a living, moral entity.  It’s a thing, not a life form, hence devoid of either good or evil intrinsically.

     We in Christian circles have historically tended towards assigning moral values to inanimate objects—sort of a reverse pantheism, if you will.  Think of some of the rhetoric used in the pre-prohibition days.  There was talk of the “demon rum.”  Really?  Rum, the distilled essence of fermented molasses is of the devil?  Did the devil create it?  We must be careful here, no matter what our stance on the consumption of alcohol may be, in that we do not assign creative abilities to the devil.  He creates or has created nothing.  He himself is a created being.

     In more modern times we speak of the “devil weed” marijuana.  Wait a minute one more time, didn’t God create all the vegetation on this planet?  If we believe God did indeed create all living organisms on earth, then why are we crediting the devil for marijuana?

     Perhaps we might try to phrase things a bit differently.  First we must recognize that inanimate objects are not imbued with moral qualities—they are morally neutral.  It’s what man does with them that points to the good or evil light in which they are cast.  The old 2^nd Amendment argument, Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.

     There is an interesting passage in Mark 7:14-23, where Jesus says:

¹⁴ And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵ There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” ¹⁷ And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, ¹⁹ since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) ²⁰ And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. ²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (ESV)

      Now I’m not advocating adding to the Scriptures, or changing them, for yea, I have read and do clearly understand the very end of Revelation when it comes to so doing, but could one interpret the line “(Thus he declared all foods clean”)  as perhaps pertaining to all substances in general?

     My point is, if one purchases a bottle of rum (I’m not advocating such—this is just an illustration, bear with me here,) and takes it home and puts it up on a shelf in the very back of the closet, and leaves it there unopened, does it (the rum) have the power to violate the purchaser’s will, and entice him or her to open it and drink it?  To think so would be silly.  It has no powers and it has no voice.  It is inanimate, neither good nor evil.

     That is not to make light of the devil’s ability to beguile, deceive and tempt—he is a real and malevolent force.  But we must be clear about who is doing the tempting—Satan or the bottle of rum up on the closet shelf? And, we must refrain from assigning moral value to things that are not living beings, whether human or non-human.

     Perhaps the point is over belabored, but the same principle applies to the arts.  If one speaks of good or bad art, in reality isn’t the one speaking referring to the quality of the production?  Music, film, TV, theater, modern dance, you name it, is neither good nor bad morally, it’s either of good quality or bad quality, but none of them possess inherent moral qualities.

     Let’s take music.  There are songs which magnify the Lord, and there are songs that magnify the devil.  But the songs are, by their very definition, neutral.  It’s the intent of the artist expressing it that is in play here.  The song or the artistic medium is not the problem. 

     In the 1980’s there developed something that took the Evangelical Church by storm—the “Rock n’ Roll is of the Devil” seminars.  Well- meaning churches invited hot shot hucksters into their churches (and I’d bet not for free) to scare the daylights out of their young people by playing clips of every rock song ever recorded, and showing the subtle or not so subtle influences of Satan. Honestly, they were a bit of a stretch, foisted on the gullible.

     At the close of every one of these seminars, there was a story expounded about a missionary who went to minister to some primitive heathen culture in the deepest, darkest jungles of Borneo, or some place, and when their teenage offspring played one of their rock records on their stereo, the chief or the shaman of the tribe approached the missionary and asked, “Why is your child summoning demon gods?”  It was something about the rock beat being identical to the drum beat used in evil incantations.  “ Oh, Puh-lease.”

     If anybody can verify that story, I’d like to know.  Never once was the name of the missionary ever mentioned.  Frankly, I think it was a dishonest story used to frighten children (and their parents).  Rock music, was the new boogie man. 

     Let’s revisit the definition of music (all music) once again.  Beat is a part of music—it is essential for keeping time.  Beat cannot in and of itself be good or bad—it’s just a beat, with no life force behind it. 

     That said, is there good and bad rock music?  Of course.  But what determines its goodness or badness?  Might it have something to do with the intent of the artist?  Definitely. But that is only one aspect. To me what makes a song (rock or otherwise) good or bad is in the thought behind it, and its execution.  Is the song well written? Are its lyrics literate and interesting?  Is it well performed?  Does the use of the instruments display virtuoso musicianship?

    There is some rock music that I like, and there is some I do not like.  The late Larry Norman, a rock musician and a Christian put out a record entitled “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?”  He wrote and performed rock and roll music with a definite, unmistakable Christian bent.  On the other hand the rock band AC/DC did “Highway to Hell.”

    Was one Christian and the other of the devil?  I would say no.  The artist, yes, perhaps. The music, no.  Strip both songs of their words, and just play the music, and they are both just a series of notes and beats repeated in sequence.  The music is not moral.  It is neither good nor bad.

     One of the songs (by Larry Norman) was used in his way to witness the Gospel, and to glorify God.  The other aforementioned song, took on a different meaning altogether, but it wasn’t the song’s fault.  It was the intent of the artist (however I know nothing about the true intent of AC/DC’s musicians’ hearts, so I’m not accusing any of that band as being Satanic.)

     The point being is that we make judgments about what is Christian and what is not.  I’m saying that any artistic medium employed is neutral in and of itself.  Music as a thing has no intrinsic moral value.  Some Charismatic Christians dance in their worship services, as King David is reported in the Bible to have done.  Voodoo practitioners dance to be possessed by supernatural entities.  Two expressions of the same thing expressed in completely different ways and to different ends.  So is dancing right or wrong?  Is it good or evil in itself? Again, the intent of the performer, and not the thing itself is the deciding factor.

    So let us be careful in how we view the arts and what values we assign to them.

There was a book around long ago by Christian thinker and writer, Os Guinness, the

title of which I cannot recall at present, or perhaps it was the Franky Schaeffer book that you referenced. But the point I remember walking away with was, if I build a house out of brick, and the bricks I use were made by a Christian manufacturer, does that somehow make the bricks and my house a Christian house made of Christian bricks?  If the manufacturer had not been a Christian, would it have made my house somehow unholy, made of devil bricks? 

    The above premise is absurd; I’d think we’d all agree.  So why do we use the same premise in judging the arts?  And we do!  Perhaps we would do better in relating to our world, if we didn’t look down our noses at anything the non-Christian world produces, and assign evil meaning to it because it is not patently or overtly Christian in nature.  There are some great movies that aren’t about Jesus or Christian occurrences.  Conversely there are some movies about Jesus and Christian occurrences that, quite frankly, are so poorly executed, that as a Christian, I would be embarrassed to say that they are “Christian movies.”

      We, as Christians, should engage the arts, and judge them fairly, based on excellence of content and performance, as opposed to judging them according to something some itinerant preacher told us at a seminar on how to find Satan under every rock.

      And, as Christians, if we produce art in any medium, we should strive to execute said art with absolute magnificence.  Just because we say “Jesus” in a movie or a song doesn’t qualify said movie or song as art.  Trash is trash and bad art is bad art, whether it invokes sacred names and themes or not.

     Here I might get into trouble, but when I hear a song on the radio that is neither Christian in content, nor performed by an artist claiming to be Christian, and that song is well written and performed, I see it is giving due glory to God.  What? How can God get glory from some heathen rock and roll performer (although rock and roll performers have no corner on the heathen market)?  Oh! Heresies of heresies!

     The way I figure it, even if the song or the performer doesn’t intentionally give glory to God, didn’t God give the talent? Cannot that be appreciated? A musician (or film maker, or, or, or….) may not choose to glorify God with their artistic medium, but there’s no mistaking the talent.  And I do not think God minds us having an appreciation for good art, whether it intentionally glorifies Him or not.  And, I’m not referring to “art” that is blatantly evil or vile in its artist’s intention.  I’m not saying that.  But if the art is good, then God should get the glory for having given the talent and ability to the performer, and if that performer hasn’t bowed the knee to Christ, then that is something with which that artist will have to deal.  It doesn’t make his art bad.

     Some of my thoughts on the arts from a Christian perspective.

      Dana 

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On Sat. 2/18/17 John Responded

Hey Dana

            I wish you had not started this subject off with music, especially after our previous post dealing with hymns and contemporary Christian music in the church. There is much of what you wrote with which I can agree. However I’ll save my disagreements for another post.

            But I believe several other things Franky Schaeffer writes aligns with much of what you’ve written.  One is, on page 62, Franky writes, “There are only two kinds of art, good art and bad art. There is good secular art and bad secular art. There is good art made by Christians and bad art made by Christians....”

            To close this particular post, and to try and tie it in to what you were saying, Franky on page 110, when asked by a Christian in the arts if he or she should work in the secular world or the Christian world, answers thus, “Let me answer, once and for all, there is no secular or Christian world. There is only one world (and God made it)....The terms ‘secular’ and ‘Christian’ are only words. Reality cannot be compartmentalized. If we Christians have lost our influence in some part of the world’s activities we must reclaim it.”

   The Harvest is near ended, in Christ

   John

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PS  For any Christian either going into the arts or currently in the arts, I suggest you buy Franky Schaeffer’s  book. So far, this is the only one I’ve found to encourage people in this endeavor.

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John Added on Sun. 2/19/17 at 5:25 PM

Hey Dana

            Here is, I believe, an example of what you are saying above. I drove to the shore today. On the way down, an FM radio station I was listening to in the car was playing two hours of Beatles music. When they played “Yesterday” filmed and recorded during an Ed Sullivan Show performance back in 1964, I remember watching that on television. Who didn’t? I think over 70 million Americans watched that performance!! As I sang the song I remembered the good times I was having in high school back then and the people I was having them with and I got weepy.  While to my knowledge, none of the Beatles were or are Christians, God did give them talent and their music is good.

 

 

 

     

                   

      

 

 

 

Post 26-The Mormon Hymns Book

John First Wrote on January 7, 2017 

Hey Dana

            Did you miss the snow storm today? Our place at the shore is getting dumped on but here in PA, we're on the northern fringe so it is just a couple of inches.

            While we're waiting for our dinner guests, Carol is at the piano playing hymns, A couple of minutes ago, she was belting out "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder."  Think of it Dana, when God calls the roll, since our names are in the Lamb's Book of Life, we'll be there!

            Now she's playing "Saved By Grace," by Frances Jane van Alstyne. (I'll bet I fooled you on that one. It's Fanny Crosby.)  It's been so long since I’ve heard this played in church, I didn't recognize it, but then she read the words,

   But, oh, the joy when I shall wake, within the palace of the King! 

     Refrain::  And I shall see Him face to face, and tell the story—Saved by grace.

            How could someone blind like her write over 8000 hymns and gospel songs! Even with God's help, how is that possible?

            "More About Jesus" is now ringing throughout the house. In the third verse, Eliza E. Hewitt wrote: More about Jesus, in His Word, Holding communion with my Lord; Hearing His voice in every line, Making each faithful saying mine.

            I’m being convicted by the hymn she’s now playing. I can’t think of the last time I spent a personal hour in prayer. What conviction might fall on the Church if, as we are able (the convenient Christian copout)  spent a daily “Sweet Hour of Prayer.”  I am certainly not asking for God to blind me, but here is another hymn, this time by a blind preacher, William W. Walford, From 1845 when this hymn first appeared in print, until five or ten years ago when it was removed from song leaders’ playbooks, it has inspired and encouraged and challenged Christians to turn to Him. I will confess, this blog is convicting me. What would happen if I started spending a sweet hour in prayer????? Could I even do it anymore?

            Then she said, “Did you know that some of the hymns came from the Mormon Hymns book?

            Why am I writing about hymns, and why is the subject line "The Mormon Hymns Book"? Last night pushed me over the edge. The seeds of this post have been germinating for several years.  We were at a Bible study and when the song leader passed out the music for the evening, there was a hymn on it. It was "Take My Life." Both Carol and I looked excitedly at each other. A hymn, we couldn't believe it. Then when he got to it, he said, "I hope no one minds but I've Chris Tominized it." Who the heck is Chris Tomlin, and if he wanted a Chris Tomlin song, why not play one! Why bastardize a good hymn and try and turn it into a contemporary Christian mushym (hymn and music combination)?!

            Several months ago, when the new East Coast Mormon Tabernacle was opening in Philadelphia and they were giving tours. A work associate of Carol's gave us tickets to go.( I missed the opening of the Washington, D.C. Tabernacle back in the 1970s so I didn't want to miss this one.)  On one side of the street they have a meeting house, the inside of which looks like many of the churches you and I would be familiar with, while the greyish stone Tabernacle is across the street. The tour guides, well dressed and polite Mormon volunteers, gathered the visitors in the meeting house and began the tours from there. While we were waiting, we noticed something different from what we usually see in church. Hymnals. Carol and I both picked up a hymnal out of the rack in front of us and began to read it. Quite honestly, we were shocked. Why?

            First, the Mormon meeting house actually had hymn books. I don't know about your church, but of the last 7 or 8 churches that we've attended up here, and in the three that we currently, regularly attend, there are no hymn books. It's all off the wall. I will gladly date myself on this subject, but when I got saved back in 1977, choruses were only then trying to break into church music. If our pastor allowed any, it was three or four or five hymns, and a chorus. The hymn books were used for the hymns, and usually the chorus was up on the wall.

            Got to run. More later.

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Dana Wrote on Thurs, Feb 16, 2017 at 9:37 AM

Hey John

     Ah, hymns!  Now here’s a chance for an old geezer to give all those potential old geezers of tomorrow a piece of my mind about the awful state of their non-hymn musical tastes.  Wait a minute, Dana, didn’t we cover this a while back, with your comparing yourself to your parent’s generation and their disdain for your generation’s music?  Well it’s got to be more than that, doesn’t it?  No dead horse beating allowed here!

     But there, no doubt, is a real disconnect between more traditional congregations who love the “Great Old Hymns of the Church,” and the young people and their contemporary worship choruses.  And let’s face it, if today’s young Christian worshippers live to be old Christian worshippers like us, then they had better watch out, because one truly does reap what one sews, and what on earth will the young worshippers of that day and time be singing and playing, with which they find they will have to deal?  I’m kind of glad I’ll probably be in glory listening to angels sing by that time.

     Perhaps the disconnect has to do with theology.  No bones about it, I’m a theology guy. It is of great enjoyment to me, as well as bracing to my faith to read dusty old theology books, written by Godly and scholarly saints of days and years gone by.  Reading John Calvin is to me the theological equivalent of climbing into the ring with Mike Tyson.  There’s no doubt that by the end of the session, I’m going to be knocked flat. Calvin gets a bad rap among Evangelicals.  He is only known (and vilified) by most modern Christians for his writings on pre-destination, which is a pity, because his most prolific writings are on justification by faith, and prayer. And, not to be a prejudicial old fuddy-duddy, I find that as I grow in years, there are a growing number of sharp, younger scholars who are writing some great new theology books as well.  But as long as it is sound, I like it all.

     That said, the reason I so appreciate some of the older hymns is that they are loaded with good theology, and the singing of, or the reflecting upon those songs serve to further underpin my own faith and beliefs. The words of Isaac Watts, Augustus Toplady, Charles Wesley and the likes have been so helpful to me throughout the years, and God has used them to minister to my heart and mind on myriad occasions.  Case in point, once when I was going through a very dark and troubling time, it was really getting to me and I began to feel quite down.  On my way to work, I stopped by a gas station to refuel.  Over the speakers a song began to play. Of all things, it was Kathrina von Schlegel’s “Be Still, My Soul.”  It was tremendously comforting and encouraging, and as the words resonated out of those tinny, cheap speakers, the fog just lifted.    

     While not aiming to be too critical of the more modern worship choruses, I do find that the theological leanings in many of them are on the light side, in favor of what I would consider more of an emotional leaning.  That’s not to say that the modern choruses don’t have any place in Christian worship, and I’m sure that those who love them receive blessings while singing them corporately or contemplating them privately.  So I do not want to be perceived as knocking them.  After all does God disdain young people worshipping Him with a lively, bouncy chorus instead of a more somber theological tome? Most likely not. But I do have to admit that a steady diet of them sort of leaves me feeling a bit short of substance.  That’s just me, however.

     Good theology isn’t just missing from today’s music either.  It is sadly disappearing from our churches and our overall Christian world view.  Once I was visiting a church that was about ready to can their pastor, because they accused him of “preaching over their heads.”  Some related that they couldn’t understand a thing he said.  Let’s just say that there wasn’t an overabundance of Christ’s love in the room. 

     One of the members of this “roast,” complained that the pastor constantly “fed them meat,” and never “fed them milk,” and, a diet of all “meat” and no “milk” just wasn’t healthy. (??????) After inquiring (out of turn, as I wasn’t a member) as to how long the ones doing the most complaining had been Christians, I was absolutely astounded to find that the average person in the room had been a practicing Christian for over 40 years!  They very soon fired their pastor. Well, I guess we can’t hang that one on the young folks, can we?

     If the notion expressed above is in any way endemic of the Church today, then is there any wonder that many of the songs of the young tend to be devoid of theology, and more toward “feel good?” We’ve taught them well, by making sure that their diet was entirely from the dairy.  God help us if that’s true.  (see 1 Cor 3:1-3a and Heb 5:1-4;  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+cor+3%3A1-3&version=NASB  ; https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=heb+5%3A11-14&version=NASB  )

     Along with theology, I enjoy reading the memoirs and biographies of the old circuit riding preachers of a couple of centuries ago and before.  Talk about a tough bunch, these all had “Grit” for a middle name.  One I remember, though which one, I do not remember right off the top of my head, was speaking of the hardships of life on the road (this was before there were paved roads too).  He mentioned how his entire life was carried with him in the two sides of his saddle bags.  One side contained his wardrobe (a change of clothes) and the other his library (which contained his Bible and (in lieu of a systematic theology) a hymnal.  This was early 1800’s or earlier going back into the 1700’s, and even the late 1600’s. 

     If one takes the time to scour old book shops or any of the online used or antique book dealers, there are hymn books of old that can be purchased for a song (pun intended).  The older ones have many old hymns that are no longer even in print, much less sung in our churches today. Some of the hymns do not have a title, only a number. A careful reading of them will present the reader with enough good theology to pass a1st year seminary level theology class.

     Once I remember hearing that in the 1700’s and 1800’s, an average farmer who regularly attended church, knew as much theology as many ministers graduating from seminary today (not including those graduates who majored in theology.)  It was not only accepted, but expected that the preacher would deliver theologically sound messages, and the people would understand them.  One need only read the works of Jonathan Edwards and then compare them to the waste of oxygen that many of our most popular and wealthiest pop-TV preachers take up spewing their almost, if not actual heretical nonsense.

     Have we switched from substance to nothingness, and found it easier to digest?  Have we sent back a perfectly grilled 18 oz. Porterhouse steak, and asked the waitress to bring us a plate of chopped cardboard instead…with a nice glass of “milk” to wash it down?  Do we have the audacity to go on our merry way thinking that God is going to rapture us out of this world so that nothing harmful comes our way, when He didn’t rapture our 1^st century predecessors, who were being fed to lions and set ablaze to light Nero’s garden parties?  If God does rapture the church before the 2^nd coming of Jesus, you can bet your boots it won’t be the one in our generation. 

     And why should He?  Jesus is described by John as being the Word. The living incarnate Word of God. The Word made flesh.  If we only want “milk,” both from our preaching and from our music, is that saying we only want Jesus-lite?  We only want the parts of Jesus that we like?  Gentle Jesus, meek and mild—yes? Jesus the Lord and King, who when He says “Jump!” we say “how high”—no?

     Can we really fuss about the lack of hymns in our worship services?  Maybe we don’t deserve the “Great Old Hymns of the Church,” because we’re guilty of loving not the truth…and, sadly, we’ve gotten just what we’ve paid for.      

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Later On Thursday February 16, 2017 John Added

            Today I was talking with my Evangelical Lutheran minister friend and he said that some of the hymns in the Lutheran hymnal go back to the early church fathers.  Then he went on to tell me about his recent message and how it dealt with the nails that held Jesus to the cross. He felt that it really wasn’t the nails, but love that held Jesus there. Which then caused me to think back to that Sunday morning in the fall of 1977 when I got saved. That led my thinking to an Issac Watts hymn, Alas And Did My Savior Bleed. Watts published that in 1707. In 1885 Ralph Hudson set it to music. The entire hymn follows:

1. Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
And did my Sov'reign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
For sinners such as I?

    At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

2. Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity, grace unknown,
And love beyond degree!

    At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

3. Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,
When Christ the mighty Maker died
For man, the creature's sin.

    At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

4. Thus might I hide my blushing face
While Calv'ry's cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt mine eyes to tears.

    At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

5. But drops of grief can ne'er repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away,
'Tis all that I can do.

    At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

            I’m taking a lot of space to post the entire hymn. Think of this Dana. In 1707, America was just a bunch of wild British colonies. We weren’t US yet. Late in 1885 the Statue of Liberty was sent from France, in pieces, to later be assembled in New York Harbor. I have no idea who or where my Father’s parents were at that time, or if they were even born yet. But God knew at all those times, that the year and the day would come when the son of Harriet and John would kneel at the altar in the fall of 1977 and because of Jesus going to the cross for my sins over 2000 years ago I would see the light, and the burdens of my heart would be rolled away. Then by faith I would receive true sight to see and know my Saviour bled and died for a sinner such as I. What amazing pity, grace and love beyond degree.

            You just wrote about an old geezer giving future old geezers a piece of your mind. But I would go even farther and mention a recent Pete Brisco radio message where, among other things, he was talking about the young people who are turning away from church. If someone is  still reading this old timer’s philippic, I would even  postulate that young people today have no idea, because they hear “7-11”music in church (7 words repeated 11 times), why they are in church or why God would even want them in church. What light do they see or what burdens of their heart are rolled away? Why should they be happy all day when they’ve got nothing but noisy upbeat fluff to hold on to rather than the substance of a solid hymn?

            Here I will make two concessions One concerns contemporary Christian music (CCM). I was talking today to a local CCM  writer and musician who is on our blog mailing list. While I wasn’t surprised at this young person’s honest and understandable answer (The person doesn’t read it and, I’ll paraphrase the answer, “I don’t even read my relatives’ blogs.”). In what I consider the proper place—your car, your house or apartment, at a party, etc—I’ll concede there is a place for CCM. But not in church. And two, speaking of the church, there are some oasis concerning churches that still recognize the value and importance of hymns, but like oasis in a desert, they seem to be few and far between.

            So back to the Mormon hymnal. You should buy one. I agree with you that the Mormon Church is eating our lunch when it comes to singing hymns and the positive spiritual, theological, and familial reasons for this. In the First Presidency Preface (or introduction) to the hymnal I have (Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1985 published in Salt Lake City, Utah by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) they write, “Some of the greatest sermons are preached by the singing of hymns.”

            In their hymnal they encourage music in our homes saying, “ Music has boundless powers for moving families toward greater spirituality and devotion to the gospel.” It appears they have borrowed from God’s admonition to the Israelites in Deu 6:6 and 7, “ These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. “ when they encourage families to use hymns to do the same with their children.

            And finally,  the LDS leadership, through their hymnal, challenge the individual to see what music can do for them personally, “Hymns can lift our spirits, give us courage, and move us to righteous action.”  The only thing mindlessly repeated choruses and noisy modern church music does for me is it, tragically, causes me to by-pass the “morning worship” time and come in only for the message.

            This is from an email I wrote to you earlier in the year. I couldn’t have said it better myself, “I don't understand the explosion of choruses. Mindlessly repeating the same sentence or two over, and over, and over, and over, ad nauseam. While conversely, when singing a hymn the writer's experiences penetrate to the depth of the  Christian experience and meaning and that ministers to the depth of your soul. The words, often in conjunction with the music, and not repetitious, raucous noise (i.e. music) unlock the deep rooms of your spirit to minister, cleanse, lift, or delight as is needed in your life at the moment.  So it was that the last verse of It Is Well With My Soul stuck me yesterday, for me and for you.”

            Can you believe this? We attended a church a couple of times where the music was so loud, it actually vibrated our internal organs while we in were still the parking lot a long way from the front door. (Then we walked into a blackened auditorium--I can’t call it a sanctuary—where the ushers and usherettes used flash lights and pushed us down a dark corridor to invisible seats.) At another church, the noise was so loud, Carol got a headache long before the message was given and the scenes on the big screen at the front of the church looked like a 1960’s lava lamp that jumped around in accompaniment to the noise of the band. (Whatever happened to peaceful and contemplative scenes of nature, lakes, flowers, sunrises, or crosses on hillsides projected onto the screens?) And at a church near where we live, I’ve heard, they even give out ear plugs to people who want/need them.

            I won’t even get into beat in much of CCM and choruses and how I believe it can have a negative impact on the listeners.

Can you imagine, I used to lead the hymn sing in our neighborhood. On short notice, the usual pianist was going to be away and got a substitute. He was a Bible school, music major graduate (not from VFCC) and he could not read music notes in our hymnal and could only play cords, if they were in his cord books.

            I’ll close with this. A former pastor at the church in which we were married, once tried to excite the congregation during worship by saying, “If Jesus were here now, you’d be jumping up and down with excitement.” Carol’s response then and now, when we think about his comment, was and is, “No, we wouldn’t. We’d be on our faces before Him.”

            We should do as the Mormon hymnal says and “...use the hymns to invite the Spirit of the Lord into our congregations, our homes, and our personal lives.”

            While I know this isn’t the only reason, but is it any wonder that the Church is in the state of decline that it’s in?

Frustrated

John

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PS  A note to song leaders--mix hymns with your selection of other music.