"The Market Day of the Soul" by Clifton Rankin

The Sunday before Christmas, as I headed home from worship, I looked over at Parkdale Mall and noticed that there was nary a parking place to be had. The Sunday after Christmas (which was the day after), as I headed home from worship, the same parking lot was filled to the brim with automobiles, as people fought to get after-Christmas deals, use their gift cards, and return all those clothes that were too small.

However, on Christmas Day, I drove past the same mall and not a car was to be seen; except for a few news vans parked outside of KJAC channel 4. Granted, I realize that I live in a fallen world, and that I can’t expect non-Christians to reverence the Lord’s Day, but I could not help but wish that the same respect given to Christmas Day, would be given to the day each week that the Lord commands us to “keep.” Because we are “prone to wander,” it is imperative that at least once every seven days, we be reminded of our need to worship the Triune God, and to think about His grace that has been poured out upon sinners.

As 2011 draws near, may we as God’s people take seriously His day; for His eternal glory, and for our eternal good.

8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)

Is This All I Get--After So Much Trouble? - John Newton

"Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Dear Brother,
Blessed be God for the news of a better world, where there will be no sin, trouble, nor defect forever!

What shall it be--when the Lord shall call us up to join with those who are now singing before the eternal throne!

What shall it be--when all the children of God, who in different ages and countries have been scattered abroad--shall be all gathered together, and enter into that glorious and eternal rest provided for them!

What shall it be--when there shall not be one trace of sin or sorrow remaining--not one discordant note to be heard, nothing to disturb or defile, or alleviate the never-ceasing joy!

Many a weary step we have taken, since the Lord first drew us to Himself; but we shall not have to tread the past way over again. Some difficulties may remain--but we know not how few. Perhaps before we are aware, the Lord may cut short our conflict and say, "Come up hither!" At the most, it cannot be very long! He who has been with us thus far--will be with us to the end. He knows how to cause our consolations to exceed our greatest afflictions!

And when we get safely home--we shall not complain that we have suffered too much along the way. We shall not say, "Is this all I get--after so much trouble?" No! When we awake in that glorious world, we shall in an instant--be satisfied with His likeness. One sight of Jesus as He is--will fill our hearts, and dry up all our tears!

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Romans 8:18

Sensual Worship — A Sign of Impending Apostasy

Sensual Worship - A Sign of Impending Apostasy by Iain Murray

When interest in the churches begins to centre round the visual and the sensual it is commonly a sign of impending apostasy. By ‘sensual’ I mean that which appeals to the senses of man (sight, smell, hearing), as opposed to ‘spirit’, that is, the capacity that belongs to those born of the Spirit of God. Hence the antithesis, ‘sensual, having not the Spirit’ (Jude 19). ‘Sensual’ is also translated ‘natural’ or ‘worldly’; the meaning is the same. It does not take regeneration to give the sensual or the aesthetic a religious appeal to the natural man or woman.

In the Old Testament the people of God were in measure taught by their senses as God imposed the form of worship. As a check against any misuse of that means of teaching no additions to or subtractions from it were allowed. But with the finished work of Christ, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, a momentous change took place. The church was raised to the higher privilege of worship in ‘spirit and truth’ (John 4:24). She belongs to the ‘Jerusalem which is above’ (Gal. 4:26).

In the words of John Owen, ‘the naked simplicity of gospel institutions’ was established in the place of ‘the old, glorious worship of the temple’; Levitical choirs, incense, vestments, etc. — all were gone. Yet not gone permanently; for as church and world gradually came together in the rise of the Papacy, worship that appealed to the senses was reintroduced. Presuming on Old Testament practice, what the gospel had ended in the apostolic age was restored, and the difference brought in by Pentecost disappeared.¹ Instead there developed a form of worship in Roman Catholicism which made impressions on the senses at the natural level and which did not need the Holy Spirit.

In the words of Richard Bennett, long a Roman priest, ‘The ritual, symbolical richness of the sacramental life of the Church, to a great extent, meets the human need for transcendence.’² It does no more than that. The observation of W. H. Griffith Thomas, writing on ‘Spiritual Worship’, is true:

It is the universal experience of Christian people that the more the senses are attracted, fascinated, and occupied, the less room there is for the action of the soul. The teaching of Christian History points very clearly to the fact that simplicity of outward ceremonial has been usually unaccompanied by the reality of the inward spirit of worship.³

This is where the neglect of church history and Scripture has serious consequences for many contemporary evangelical churches. In the 1960s, at a time when the churches were losing their hold on young people, it was believed that a new way of renewing contact with them was to be learned from the contemporary culture. Music appeals to all, and why not make use of the new style of music and accompaniments which had become so popular? After all, music has to be neutral, so why not make it an ally?⁴ Some put it more strongly. James Ryle ‘prophesied’ that ‘God is getting ready to anoint Christian musicians with the same anointing that was given to the Beatles’, and he attributed to God the words, ‘I had a purpose, and the purpose was to usher in the charismatic renewal with music revival around the world.’⁵

Few warning voices were to be heard. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was almost alone in the 1960s in England when he warned against ‘the increasing tendency at the present time’ to use music to produce emotion; the justification being that music can make people happy, and when people feel happy they will find Christianity more acceptable. When an older generation sometimes expressed misgivings at the change this thinking had brought into public worship, they were told not to put their wishes before those of the outsiders whom the church needed to win. Few saw the danger pinpointed by Lloyd-Jones: the impression of music on natural feelings was being confused with spiritual truth: ‘Because it [music] is performed in connection with a religious service or by Christians, people imagine and persuade themselves that they are feeling the truth. But they are not. This feeling has no direct connection with what they have believed.’⁶

With this new departure came a flood of musical innovations into evangelical churches worldwide. The instruments of the old temple worship, as well as others, were restored, and with ‘music teams’, ‘music directors’, public worship has undergone a transformation.

It would be a mistake to say the change has come simply from the initiative of evangelicals. The Roman Catholic Church is no less involved, and in her case the new thinking was not new at all. It was under the Papacy, in the later Middle Ages, that the Church first commonly took up the use of instrumental music. At the time of the Reformation, Erasmus complained of the Roman Church:

We have brought into our churches a certain operose and theatrical music . . . as I think was ever heard in any of the Grecian or Roman theatres. The Church rings with the noise of trumpets, pipes and dulcimers; and human voices strive to bear their part with them . . . Men run to church as to a theatre, to have their ears tickled.⁷

The Reformers rejected the paraphernalia of musical accompaniments, not because they did not appreciate the place of congregational song in the worship of God but, on the contrary, because they wanted its restoration to New Testament simplicity. In the words of Calvin: ‘In gospel times we must not have recourse to these, unless we wish to destroy the evangelical perfection, and to obscure the meridian light which we enjoy in Christ.’⁸ Far from having any right to claim the support of Scripture for what Rome had introduced, he further says: ‘Now that Christ has appeared, and the church has reached full age, it were only to bury the light of the gospel, should we introduce the shadows of a departed dispensation.’⁹

The Church of Rome, in her apostasy, has long exhibited the full outworking of the danger which evangelicalism has been ignoring. But sometimes protest coming from an unexpected quarter broke the silence. Richard Bennett, after finishing his education at the Angelicum University of Rome, served as a priest in Trinidad. In all his years there, he writes, Protestant Christians from overseas sometimes came to services,

saw our sacred oils, holy water, medals, statues, vestments, rituals, and never said a word! The marvellous style, symbolism, music, and artistic taste of the Roman Church were all very captivating. Incense not only smells pungent, but to the mind it spells mystery. One day, a woman challenged me (the only Christian ever to challenge me in all my twenty-two years as a priest), 'You Roman Catholics have a form of godliness, but you deny its power.' Those words bothered me for some time because the lights, banners, folk music, guitars and drums were dear to me. Clearly I was unable to apply the Scripture to my life where it mattered most.¹⁰

The change in public worship in evangelical churches is not the harmless thing it is thought to be. ‘So long as there is good preaching’, it is said, ‘we need not be overly concerned.’ We ought to be concerned! An appetite is being fed which in the past has led to the very abandonment of the gospel. When satisfying the ‘natural’ becomes acceptable in churches, the spiritual will not long remain. As the long-time Catholic, and later Protestant martyr, Hugh Latimer, warned, ‘When candles go up, preaching comes down.’

That music has great prominence in modern society is not in doubt. Nor is it the first time that such attention has been given to music in periods of decadence. Horatius Bonar noted:

In connection with the 'decline and fall' of the Roman Empire, a singular fact has been recorded. — When the arts were declining, — poetry, sculpture, painting, deteriorating, — religion and patriotism decaying, — music was cultivated to an extraordinary extent. Old Romans died music-mad.¹¹

Accommodating the churches to contemporary culture may increase numbers (for a time); it has never led to a spiritual awakening. Unless there is a God-given change, it is to be feared that we will see in evangelicalism a developing apostasy.

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Notes:

1. ‘Dislike of the purity and simplicity of the gospel worship is that which was the rise of, and gave increase or progress unto the whole Roman apostasy. Men do not like the plain institutions of Christ, but are pleased with the meretricious Roman paint, wherewith so great a part of the world hath been beguiled and infatuated.’ John Owen, Works, 20:114-5, also identified as his Exposition of Hebrew, vol. 4 in the Goold/Banner of Truth edition. Likewise he argues that what was being addressed in the Epistle to the Hebrews was the temptation of professing Christians to regret the loss of the visual glory of Judaism. Owen’s Nature and Causes of Apostasy from the Gospel, in his Works, vol. 7, is unsurpassed as a treatment of the subject.

2. Richard Bennett, Catholicism: East of Eden (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2010), p. 44.

3. W. H. Griffith Thomas, The Catholic Faith, A Manual of Instruction for Members of the Church of England (London: Church Book Room Press, 1955), p. 147.

4. That music is ‘neutral’ is by no means always true. ‘Since music should help the reception of the Word of God, it should be weighty, dignified, majestic and modest; fitting attitudes for sinful creatures in the presence of God’ (Calvin).

5. Quoted by John MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), p. 72.

6. Living Water, Studies in John (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009), p. 365. He added: ‘If you start clapping your hands or stamping your feet or moving them in a rhythmic manner, you are the whole time dealing with this realm of the emotions. And there is a great deal of that today. Some even deliberately employ psychological methods — different coloured lights, for instance, to prey upon the emotions’ (p. 366).

7. Quoted by John L.Girardeau, Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of the Churc (Richmond, VA; 1888), p. 162. R. L. Dabney, reviewing and commending Girardeau’s book, made the same point as Dr Lloyd-Jones: ‘Blinded men are ever prone to imagine that they have religious feelings, because they have sensuous, animal feelings, in accidental juxtaposition with religious places, words, or sights. This is the pernicious mistake which has sealed up millions of self-deceived souls in hell.’ Dr Girardeau’s Instrumental Music in Public Worship, A Review (Richmond, VA: 1889), p. 8.

8. On 1 Samuel 18:1-9.

9. On Psalm 92:3, quoted by C. H. Spurgeon, whose church also used no instrumental accompaniment, The Treasury of David, vol. 4 (London; Marshall, Morgan, & Scott, 1950), p. 123. Many Protestant churches have used one instrument instead of a precentor to set the tune; this is very different from the instrumental accompaniment that is now promoted.

10. Catholicism: East of Eden, pp. 9-10.

11. Horatius Bonar, Our Ministry (Edinburgh: MacNiven 1883), p. 74.

Artists Build the Church???

Just a few minutes ago I posted a comment in response to one commenter on The Gospel Coalition Website Blog and to an article as a whole.  It was then deleted a few moments later, but I wanted my comment to be public.  It is the following:

I want to respond to 'yuck' (at least at the beginning of my response and then to the article as a whole) who stated that we should be asking 'Who do we worship?' and I assume that that is instead of 'How should we worship'???  Well, we worship the Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.  What does He say about how to worship Him?  That is the only thing that matters isn't it?  How I want to worship HIM means very little.  If I chose, I could worship Him in the corporate setting by reading a good book about Him, but would He be pleased?  No.  He says in the context of worship in Dt. 12, "You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it."  I think that is pretty clear.  He never tells me to read a good book about Him (outside of the Bible) during corporate worship.

Okay, who builds the Church?  Artists?  Nope, God's Word says, "The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church."  What did the prophets do?  They spoke God's Word.  God's Word is what builds up the Church.  What else does God's Word say about God's Word?   "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."  Oh yes, God's Word builds up the Church spiritually.  What about physically?  Yes, the Word of God builds physically the Church.  "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);  because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved...everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?"  And what were they preaching?  Yes, that's right, the Word of God. 

Artists don't build the Church, I as a Pastor don't build the Church, Christ Jesus the Head of the Church tells us how the Church is built...by His living and active Word, which is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  I'd like to see an Artist do that!

The Church needs to return to what Jesus says is important on how to build the Church physically and spiritually, and that is His own Word: Read, Preached, Prayed, Sung...

Conclusion: This article is hogwash, false teaching, and is of devil.  Don't be led astray.