Post by pitbull on Feb 8, 2006 12:21:44 GMT -5
Now, we are going to get into the most controversial guideline for true Biblical music. Christian music should not use drums. Why have Christians held this position for centuries?
The Bible lists many kinds of musical instruments (e.g. Psalms 150:3-5).
· “Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.” [Psalm 150:3-5]
This includes the fact that the Bible mentions percussion instruments:
timbrel – 5 times mentioned
· toph – a tambourine
· taphaph – to drum, i.e. play (as) on the tambourine: - taber, play with timbrels.
tabret – 4 times mentioned
· toph – a tambourine
· topheth - smitting, i.e. (fig.) contempt: - tabret.
cymbals – 16 times mentioned
· metseleth- (only dual) double tinkler, i.e. cymbals
· tselatsal – clatter, i.e. (abstract) whirring (of wings); (concr.) a cricket; also a harpoon (as rattling), a cymbal (as clanging)
Percussion instruments are mentioned in the Bible and permitted by God.
Yet, there is one instrument that is never mentioned that we are permitted to use: the drum. Why isn’t it mentioned? Did God forget to list it? No. God doesn’t forget anything, so there must be another reason. Maybe drums – as we know them today – didn’t exist during Biblical times? That is not the case either. The Egyptians, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Phoenicians, Assyrians, and other cultures during Biblical times all used drums – similar to the kettledrum, snare drum, bass drum, tom-toms, conga drums, and the bongo drums. These were found in various pagan neighbors of ancient Israel, but yet they never once incorporated the usage of such instruments. Any good encyclopedia or Bible dictionary will have pictures of these antiquated instruments and you will see the similarities to the modern versions.
So why did Israel avoid the usage of drums? Drums historically are associated with voodoo, shamanism, paganism and magic rituals.
· “[Drums] represents the beat of the heart and is played to summon up magic powers” (Miranda Bruce-Mitford, The Illustrated Book of Signs & Symbols, DK Publishing, 1996 p. 80).
· “The shaman was the original ‘long hair’, the first rock star draped in leather, dancing POSSESSED to a rhythm banged out on A DRUM” (Danny Sugerman, Appetite for Destruction, p. 208).
· In Siberia, in northern Asia, drums are used in shamanic rituals to heal people. It is believed that the shaman can communicate with the spirit world THROUGH DRUMMING (Louise Tythacott, Musical Instruments, Thomas Learning, 1995, p. 37).
· “Pagan dances and rituals are always accompanied by the incessant BEAT of DRUMS. Rhythm plays a major role in these demonic activities” (Lowell Hart, Satan’s Music Exposed, Salem Kirban Inc., 1980 p. 71).
· “Bata drums [drums used in voodoo], sacred to the Yoruba people of Nigeria and Cuba: Their push and pull provided a template for the inner rhythms of rock and roll” (Robert Palmer, Rock & Roll An Unruly History, Harmony Books, New York, 1995, p. 46).
· “The idea that certain RHYTHM patterns or sequences serve as conduits for spiritual energies, linking individual human consciousness with the gods, is basic to traditional African religions, and to African-derived religions throughout the Americas. And whether we’re speaking historically or musicologically, the fundamental riffs, licks, bass figures, and drum rhythms that make rock and roll can ultimately be traced back to African music of a primarily spiritual or ritual nature. In a sense, rock and roll is a kind of voodoo’ . . . ” (Palmer, Rock & Roll, An Unruly History, p. 53)
· “My true belief about Rock ‘n’ Roll - is this: I believe this kind of music is demonic . . . A lot of the BEATS in music today are taken from voodoo, from the voodoo DRUMS” (Little Richard, cited by Charles White, The Life and Times of Little Richard, p. 197).
Another thing to take into consideration is that while the Israelite people used various instruments to worship God in national festivals or civic ceremonies or military victories or other public worship/thanksgiving services, they were banned from official usage in sacred worship at the Tabernacle or the Temple. (1 Chronicles 15:16,28; 16:5,6,42; 25:1,6) The Temple instruments were psaltery, harp and cymbals. These were only to be played by Levites. The priests only were to employ the trumpet (including the cornet), for special purposes. These four were only half the number of instruments in common use at the time. At the time of King Hezekiah these rules were reaffirmed in 2 Chronicles 29:25-26. Only three types of instrument were to be played by Levites, and one by priests. Centuries later, when Ezra and Nehemiah restored Temple worship, the four-instrument rule was scrupulously followed – confirming that it was the binding rule for the Jews. (See Ezra 3:10 and Nehemiah 12:27) As you come into the New Testament, this has become tradition in the synagogue worship by the Jewish people –even to the modern day. But still, you never find the usage of drums with sacred or Godly music, especially when it came to worship of the Lord.
Compare those quotes to the following passages:
· “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” [Exodus 22:18]
· “When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.” [Deuteronomy 18:9-12]
The DRUM has always been associated with the paganism and the devil. In fact, a little more than a hundred years ago, drums were forbidden (except for the military) in America.
· “The arrival of African slaves has had one of the strongest influences on North American music. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, millions of African people were taken as slaves to the U.S. to work on plantations in the South. They brought many of their own traditions with them but were forbidden to play their DRUMS” (Louise Tythacott, Musical Instruments, Thomas Learning, 1995, p. 19).
Do you know why New Orleans is the voodoo capital of the U.S, and also the birthplace of jazz? Because drumming was forbidden in the U.S. – except in New Orleans.
· “This was especially true in New Orleans. African-based DRUMMING, singing, and dancing, discouraged and repeatedly banned elsewhere in North America, had flourished there since the early eighteenth century. This unique heritage has informed and enlivened New Orleans music ever since, as well as distinguishing it from the rest of American musical culture, making the city an ideal incubator for a non-mainstream music as rhythmically oriented as rock and roll” (Palmer, Rock & Roll An Unruly History, p. 21).
When the first blacks from Africa were converted to Christianity they knew the power and evil influence of DRUMS. And the converted blacks strictly forbid the use of drums. They referred to the drums as “the Devil’s drum” (Martha Bayles, Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music, p. 138).
· “Historically blacks had drawn the line between particular instruments and practices; They permitted tambourines, for instance, but not DRUMS” (Bayles, Hole in Our Soul, p. 130).
How does that apply to us today? Drums are associated with the fleshly, rhythm driven music used by the world – rock, rap, country, jazz, etc. – and is considered the defining instrument for those styles of secular music.
· “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”[Romans 12:2]
· “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]
· “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” [1 John 2:15-16]
Because of these reasons, Christians have for centuries avoided the usage of drums.
· “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” [1 Thessalonians 5:22]
Yet, this should not be a dividing issue among the brethren – there are far more important issues than drums. If you or your congregation decides to use drums, then there need to be an avoidance of using a rhythm patterned after secular styles. This is typically demonstrated in what is commonly known as march-style of rhythm. The drumbeat used there is different from that of the secular music styles. There’s a basic difference. A march has the beat on one and three. ONE, two, THREE, four, ONE, two, THREE, four. Dance music [country, rap, rock, etc.] is one, TWO, three, FOUR, one, TWO, three, FOUR. You can hear that old snare drum playing this difference. The march-type music is the soldier’s music. We’re going to depict something military if we use the march rhythm. If we use the dance rhythm, we’re going to depict something that is opposed to marching, something sensual. This is a basic element of music – of setting a mood in the listener.
If a church must use a drumbeat in its music, it needs to be a non-sensual march beat. Best case is for a church not to use drums at all during church services or other forms of corporate worship, just like the rules for sacred worship at the Tabernacle and the Temple. But if it does use it, it needs to avoid the sensual rhythm of secular styles of music.
The Bible lists many kinds of musical instruments (e.g. Psalms 150:3-5).
· “Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.” [Psalm 150:3-5]
This includes the fact that the Bible mentions percussion instruments:
timbrel – 5 times mentioned
· toph – a tambourine
· taphaph – to drum, i.e. play (as) on the tambourine: - taber, play with timbrels.
tabret – 4 times mentioned
· toph – a tambourine
· topheth - smitting, i.e. (fig.) contempt: - tabret.
cymbals – 16 times mentioned
· metseleth- (only dual) double tinkler, i.e. cymbals
· tselatsal – clatter, i.e. (abstract) whirring (of wings); (concr.) a cricket; also a harpoon (as rattling), a cymbal (as clanging)
Percussion instruments are mentioned in the Bible and permitted by God.
Yet, there is one instrument that is never mentioned that we are permitted to use: the drum. Why isn’t it mentioned? Did God forget to list it? No. God doesn’t forget anything, so there must be another reason. Maybe drums – as we know them today – didn’t exist during Biblical times? That is not the case either. The Egyptians, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Phoenicians, Assyrians, and other cultures during Biblical times all used drums – similar to the kettledrum, snare drum, bass drum, tom-toms, conga drums, and the bongo drums. These were found in various pagan neighbors of ancient Israel, but yet they never once incorporated the usage of such instruments. Any good encyclopedia or Bible dictionary will have pictures of these antiquated instruments and you will see the similarities to the modern versions.
So why did Israel avoid the usage of drums? Drums historically are associated with voodoo, shamanism, paganism and magic rituals.
· “[Drums] represents the beat of the heart and is played to summon up magic powers” (Miranda Bruce-Mitford, The Illustrated Book of Signs & Symbols, DK Publishing, 1996 p. 80).
· “The shaman was the original ‘long hair’, the first rock star draped in leather, dancing POSSESSED to a rhythm banged out on A DRUM” (Danny Sugerman, Appetite for Destruction, p. 208).
· In Siberia, in northern Asia, drums are used in shamanic rituals to heal people. It is believed that the shaman can communicate with the spirit world THROUGH DRUMMING (Louise Tythacott, Musical Instruments, Thomas Learning, 1995, p. 37).
· “Pagan dances and rituals are always accompanied by the incessant BEAT of DRUMS. Rhythm plays a major role in these demonic activities” (Lowell Hart, Satan’s Music Exposed, Salem Kirban Inc., 1980 p. 71).
· “Bata drums [drums used in voodoo], sacred to the Yoruba people of Nigeria and Cuba: Their push and pull provided a template for the inner rhythms of rock and roll” (Robert Palmer, Rock & Roll An Unruly History, Harmony Books, New York, 1995, p. 46).
· “The idea that certain RHYTHM patterns or sequences serve as conduits for spiritual energies, linking individual human consciousness with the gods, is basic to traditional African religions, and to African-derived religions throughout the Americas. And whether we’re speaking historically or musicologically, the fundamental riffs, licks, bass figures, and drum rhythms that make rock and roll can ultimately be traced back to African music of a primarily spiritual or ritual nature. In a sense, rock and roll is a kind of voodoo’ . . . ” (Palmer, Rock & Roll, An Unruly History, p. 53)
· “My true belief about Rock ‘n’ Roll - is this: I believe this kind of music is demonic . . . A lot of the BEATS in music today are taken from voodoo, from the voodoo DRUMS” (Little Richard, cited by Charles White, The Life and Times of Little Richard, p. 197).
Another thing to take into consideration is that while the Israelite people used various instruments to worship God in national festivals or civic ceremonies or military victories or other public worship/thanksgiving services, they were banned from official usage in sacred worship at the Tabernacle or the Temple. (1 Chronicles 15:16,28; 16:5,6,42; 25:1,6) The Temple instruments were psaltery, harp and cymbals. These were only to be played by Levites. The priests only were to employ the trumpet (including the cornet), for special purposes. These four were only half the number of instruments in common use at the time. At the time of King Hezekiah these rules were reaffirmed in 2 Chronicles 29:25-26. Only three types of instrument were to be played by Levites, and one by priests. Centuries later, when Ezra and Nehemiah restored Temple worship, the four-instrument rule was scrupulously followed – confirming that it was the binding rule for the Jews. (See Ezra 3:10 and Nehemiah 12:27) As you come into the New Testament, this has become tradition in the synagogue worship by the Jewish people –even to the modern day. But still, you never find the usage of drums with sacred or Godly music, especially when it came to worship of the Lord.
Compare those quotes to the following passages:
· “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” [Exodus 22:18]
· “When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.” [Deuteronomy 18:9-12]
The DRUM has always been associated with the paganism and the devil. In fact, a little more than a hundred years ago, drums were forbidden (except for the military) in America.
· “The arrival of African slaves has had one of the strongest influences on North American music. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, millions of African people were taken as slaves to the U.S. to work on plantations in the South. They brought many of their own traditions with them but were forbidden to play their DRUMS” (Louise Tythacott, Musical Instruments, Thomas Learning, 1995, p. 19).
Do you know why New Orleans is the voodoo capital of the U.S, and also the birthplace of jazz? Because drumming was forbidden in the U.S. – except in New Orleans.
· “This was especially true in New Orleans. African-based DRUMMING, singing, and dancing, discouraged and repeatedly banned elsewhere in North America, had flourished there since the early eighteenth century. This unique heritage has informed and enlivened New Orleans music ever since, as well as distinguishing it from the rest of American musical culture, making the city an ideal incubator for a non-mainstream music as rhythmically oriented as rock and roll” (Palmer, Rock & Roll An Unruly History, p. 21).
When the first blacks from Africa were converted to Christianity they knew the power and evil influence of DRUMS. And the converted blacks strictly forbid the use of drums. They referred to the drums as “the Devil’s drum” (Martha Bayles, Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music, p. 138).
· “Historically blacks had drawn the line between particular instruments and practices; They permitted tambourines, for instance, but not DRUMS” (Bayles, Hole in Our Soul, p. 130).
How does that apply to us today? Drums are associated with the fleshly, rhythm driven music used by the world – rock, rap, country, jazz, etc. – and is considered the defining instrument for those styles of secular music.
· “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”[Romans 12:2]
· “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]
· “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” [1 John 2:15-16]
Because of these reasons, Christians have for centuries avoided the usage of drums.
· “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” [1 Thessalonians 5:22]
Yet, this should not be a dividing issue among the brethren – there are far more important issues than drums. If you or your congregation decides to use drums, then there need to be an avoidance of using a rhythm patterned after secular styles. This is typically demonstrated in what is commonly known as march-style of rhythm. The drumbeat used there is different from that of the secular music styles. There’s a basic difference. A march has the beat on one and three. ONE, two, THREE, four, ONE, two, THREE, four. Dance music [country, rap, rock, etc.] is one, TWO, three, FOUR, one, TWO, three, FOUR. You can hear that old snare drum playing this difference. The march-type music is the soldier’s music. We’re going to depict something military if we use the march rhythm. If we use the dance rhythm, we’re going to depict something that is opposed to marching, something sensual. This is a basic element of music – of setting a mood in the listener.
If a church must use a drumbeat in its music, it needs to be a non-sensual march beat. Best case is for a church not to use drums at all during church services or other forms of corporate worship, just like the rules for sacred worship at the Tabernacle and the Temple. But if it does use it, it needs to avoid the sensual rhythm of secular styles of music.