I used to go to a church that was basically against all secular music when I was 12 and 14 years old. We moved away from there, but those teachings really effected my way of thinking. Honestly,I became legalistic and judgmental about music as a teen. I also had a weak conscience in that area for a while.
There is no doubt about it. Some secular music is really bad. The lyrics are against God. But a lot of it is just plain neutral.
Is the guy who comes up for jingles for the Glade ads about Glade mist lasting for hours really sinning against God? If the mist lasts for hours, I don’t see any sin in that.
I was taught, at the church I went to, that there were certain styles of music that were evil. I might have heard that story about African tribesmen hearing some rock band’s drum beat to summon the evil spirits, but I probably heard that elsewhere. What the preacher did say was stuff about certain styles being evil, of ungodly music being in the ‘minor key’ or some idea like that. The musical scale we use developed over the past few hundred years.
There are an infinite number of frequencies that can be notes. I remember hearing some Sundanese songs, played on a guitar. They used a 5-note scale, and some of the notes were at frequencies that did not correspond to the western scale.
And some of the Jewish renditions of Psalms I’d heard sounded more ‘minor key’ than regular key. I wonder how much their notes have evolved over the years.
My main concern, when I grew old enough to think about these things, was that the Bible doesn’t teach that certain drum beats, chords, keys, or notes are evil. I think this teaching was more ethnocentrism than anything else. It didn’t have much to do with the Bible.
I noticed that one of the Psalms was to be played ‘upon the instrument of Gath.’ Gath was a Philistine city where the Gittites lived. Goliath was from there. That seems to be good evidence to me that the type of musical instrument is neutral. If rockers use the electric guitar, that doesn’t make the type of instrument evil.
I think we should be very careful, also, about music styles. If someone else is praising the Lord to some kind of music style you don’t like, you should be careful about condemning them. The Lord could be pleased with his praise. You wouldn’t want to be like David’s wife who spoke ill of him for how he praised the LORD.
No. Not at all
I used to go to a church that was basically against all secular music when I was 12 and 14 years old. We moved away from there, but those teachings really effected my way of thinking. Honestly,I became legalistic and judgmental about music as a teen. I also had a weak conscience in that area for a while.
There is no doubt about it. Some secular music is really bad. The lyrics are against God. But a lot of it is just plain neutral.
Is the guy who comes up for jingles for the Glade ads about Glade mist lasting for hours really sinning against God? If the mist lasts for hours, I don’t see any sin in that.
We need to exercise caution, not legalism.
I was taught, at the church I went to, that there were certain styles of music that were evil. I might have heard that story about African tribesmen hearing some rock band’s drum beat to summon the evil spirits, but I probably heard that elsewhere. What the preacher did say was stuff about certain styles being evil, of ungodly music being in the ‘minor key’ or some idea like that. The musical scale we use developed over the past few hundred years.
There are an infinite number of frequencies that can be notes. I remember hearing some Sundanese songs, played on a guitar. They used a 5-note scale, and some of the notes were at frequencies that did not correspond to the western scale.
And some of the Jewish renditions of Psalms I’d heard sounded more ‘minor key’ than regular key. I wonder how much their notes have evolved over the years.
My main concern, when I grew old enough to think about these things, was that the Bible doesn’t teach that certain drum beats, chords, keys, or notes are evil. I think this teaching was more ethnocentrism than anything else. It didn’t have much to do with the Bible.
I noticed that one of the Psalms was to be played ‘upon the instrument of Gath.’ Gath was a Philistine city where the Gittites lived. Goliath was from there. That seems to be good evidence to me that the type of musical instrument is neutral. If rockers use the electric guitar, that doesn’t make the type of instrument evil.
I think we should be very careful, also, about music styles. If someone else is praising the Lord to some kind of music style you don’t like, you should be careful about condemning them. The Lord could be pleased with his praise. You wouldn’t want to be like David’s wife who spoke ill of him for how he praised the LORD.