Is Music Amoral?

[Envinyon]

I made an account just to say this, because I'm tired of people saying certain Christian music is not Christian, for the silliest of reasons.

And I make my argument with Psalm 150:3. "Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals."

What it doesn't say is "Praise him using only certain styles of music" or "Praise him with music that adheres to a specific structure". I've also seen some articles criticize for dressing a certain way or for having a certain hairstyle. Because secular bands are similar. And it's already been explained just how silly that logic is.

I am of the belief that God likes variety. And if all we sing in Heaven is the same hymns we've heard for hundreds of years, then Heaven is going to be a boring place. And the Bible never says Heaven is boring.

The kind of people that write articles like this are why Christians are so looked down upon.

 

[Arnock]

I've heard that some satanists enjoy grape juice and/or wine. Therefore, I will not partake in communion.








All sarcasm aside, however, without even going into depth in analysis of their arguments, there are a couple of obvious issues that one should bring up.

First of all, if you are going to do an in-depth analysis of the meaning of specific words or phrases in the bible, DO NOT use the King James' version, it's easily one of the least accurate biblical translations.
For example, take this quote from the article:

In Isaiah 14:11 in talking about Babylon, God says, "Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, [and] the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee."

The viol was an instrument with a bow. And was the forerunner of the violin family of instruments. God describes the music that they played on it as noise! God enjoys music, but He did not like Babylon's music.

The viol wasn't even invented until the 14th or 15th century
This is what a babylonian instrument looks like:

Which is probably very similar to what David played, you know, the same David that God described as a man after his own heart.

He didn't dislike babylon's music because they played lyres, he disliked it because the music was used to glorify ishtar, marduk, or whichever babylonian god happened to be the current flavor of the month.

In the passages that they give as examples of God disliking certain 'styles' of music, it's always preceded with a description of the current mindset of those who are singing the songs of praise or giving offerings to God. Again, he didin't dislike the style of music, he disliked the heart of the musician.

 

[SeaStorm]

That is the sweetest instrument I've ever seen!

Arguments like those in the original link are so ridiculous that it's not worth time reading or discussing IMO. And so I don't.

 

[Darknight6606]

Amoral?

Do you guys mean immoral?

Grammar fail! It is 'amoral' to use improper speech!

 

[Arnock]

That is the sweetest instrument I've ever seen!

"The bull-headed lyre, from the royal cemetery of Ur"


Thank you, mandatory art history class! which was actually a surprisingly fun class...



EDIT: On a somewhat related note, I wonder if christian rock, (or even more so, christian metal bands) get more criticism/hatemail from the 'militant' atheists, or people like the authors of the aforementioned article, who seem to believe that anything with a syncopated rhythm is satanic/demon worshiping.

 

[Atreides]

The notion that a note, or group of notes has any other value than their tone is completely absurd.

Really, there is nothing left to say. This about sums it up.

 

[M@RS]

Again, he didin't dislike the style of music, he disliked the heart of the musician.

This. There's no specific scale or note that is evil. It's the spirit behind the music and lyrics that changes everything.

 

[bear38]

I've found a ton of crap Christian articles before. I've found articles about, say... how C.S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia are demonic.

They gave arguments such as the fact that Mr. Tumnus has horns: it must mean he represents the devil! (If that's true, there must be a lot of demonic goats.) They also said Mr. Tumnus was a pedophile for inviting a cold little girl he didn't know to his house and such. A lot of people in my writing group responded by saying, "Wow, my entire family must be full of pedophiles!"

[/randomrant]

LOL

 

[Trinitial]

So if I wrote a song praising Satan and structured it as a church hymn......................

 

[JayArby]

Really, there is nothing left to say. This about sums it up.

I would urge against simply writing something off as absurd that way. (VacantPlanets would say the same of any rule. We should not do so.) If the Bible did say something against some music, it would not be absurd. The thing is, it doesn't.

Here were some of my thoughts as I read the article.

--"Make a joyful noise"...noise doesn't necessarily imply something bad. And as someone else mentioned, God didn't like a noise because it was being used to honor false gods.

--It is ridiculous some of the leaps of logic this article makes: "Moses heard 'noise', and therefore listening to rock music in your car is evil." (paraphrase)

--The passage in Amos is prophesying that God will reject their worship because they will turn away from Him. Read the passage--it has NOTHING to do with God objecting to a particular form of music.

--"I am very sensitive to the beat in music, because when I was a boy, I played the drums in our village worship rituals. The beat that I played on the drum was to get the demon spirits into the people." When the Puritans broke away from the Church of England, they decided that all instruments would be banned from the church (among other things) merely because they were also used in a church whose doctrines they disagreed with. The associations of one thing with something else that happens to be bad does not make the one thing evil.

--try a slower beat: Jesus LOVES me this I KNOW for the BIble tells me SO.

--I don't think anyone could possibly ever write any music that hasn't been influenced by the music he has heard elsewhere, be it Christian or no. But that's okay--a Christian shoe-maker might similarly be influenced to design a better shoe based on the improvements made by a non-Christian one.

--where did the objection to the "backbeat" come from? Just entirely speculation on the part of the author of the article.

I try to be open minded, and I am prepared to be persuaded that the Bible argues against rock music. But the fact is, I have never heard any argument even remotely persuasive that the Bible says anything against it. Unfortunately, many Christians can't help but be guided by their own traditions and customs rather than by the Bible.