Post by pitbull on Nov 3, 2005 9:08:10 GMT -5
DRUMS AND CHRISTIAN MUSIC
Distributed by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Copyright 2001.
These articles cannot be stored on BBS or Internet sites or sold or placed by themselves or with other material in any electronic format for sale, but may be distributed for free by e-mail or by print. They must be left intact and nothing removed or changed, including these informational headers. This is a listing for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Our goal in this particular aspect of our ministry is not devotional but is TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR.
January 18, 2001 The following information is excerpted from Bible Guidelines for Music by Terry Watkins, www.av1611.org/cqguide.html --
Even the secular, satanic rockers the Rolling Stones admit rock is NOT music -- but NOISE!
“It’s a NOISE we make. That’s all. You could he kind and call it music” (Mick Jagger, Rolling Stones, cited by Roy Carr, The Rolling Stones - An Illustrated Record, p. 37).
Rock music emphasizes that HARD, driving BEAT. What instrument do you hear more than any other in rock? What instrument is it that pounds out that heavy beat?
THE DRUM
The Bible lists many kinds of instruments: Psalms 150:3-5 says:
“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”
Psalms 150:3-5
With all the many references to musical instruments, there is one instrument that is NEVER mentioned! The DRUM! Why is that? The drum was a very common instrument in Egypt and the lands around Israel. And yet the DRUM is NEVER mentioned in a King James Bible.
Did the Lord just forget to include the DRUM or is there another reason?
Is it because drums 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).
Robert Palmer is a contributing editor to Rolling Stone and other rock magazines. Palmer has also taught courses in music at Yale, and many other universities. Palmer was the chief advisor for the highly acclaimed “History of Rock ‘n’ Roll” that aired on public television. Palmer, an advocate and lover of rock music, is among the leading authorities on rock music. Here’s what Palmer says about rock and the drum:
“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 Îvoodoo’ . . . ” (Palmer, Rock & Roll, An Unruly History, p. 53)
Palmer describes how drums are used in “voodoo” possession -- and the same drum patterns are part of the basics of rock ‘n’ roll and CCM!
“Bata drummers tap out their toques, or rhythm patterns, like signals to the realm of the gods, inviting and enticing them to come on down and mount or POSSESS their horses, or devotees. . .The specific drum patterns or toques include some riffs and licks basic to the rock and roll vocabulary” (Palmer, Rock & Roll An Unruly History, p. 62).
Here’s an episode from the occult, new-age magazine New Age Journal, describing the “possessing” power of drums. Notice, even the devotees of the occult stay away from those drums:
“I remembered a conversation I’d once had in Cuba with a reporter from The New York Times, ÎStay away from those drums,’ he had told me, referring to the ones said to call down the gods in Santeria’s sacred ceremonies. ‘If I ever really gave in to those DRUMS, my life would change in ways I’m not prepared to take on,’ he had added. I knew what he was talking about. It was all there in the drumming. Listen long enough, and some energy field, some kind of interconnectedness, became palpable. I was hungry for those drums. Yet I still ran from them” (Elizabeth Hanly, “A Shaman’s Story, A Vodoun priest leads the author on a journey of understanding,” New Age Journal, March/April 1997 pp. 56-57).
Little Richard, the self-professed “architect of rock ‘n roll”, readily admits Satan’s control and influence in his life and rock music:
“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).
Danny Sugerman, an authority on rock music, and author of several books on rock, writes in Appetite for Destruction:
“The shaman was the original ‘long hair’, the first rock star draped in leather, dancing possessed to a rhythm banged out on a DRUM. . . To these people, communication with the gods was synonymous with DRUMS . . . the body can become the conduit for a deity, a deity not necessarily the same sex as the worshiper, and DRUMS are the catalyst for the whole process. The trance of the RHYTHM then begets the hysteria, which begets what Westerners simplistically call Îpossession’” (Danny Sugerman, Appetite for Destruction, p. 208, 181).
David Tame writes in The Secret Power of Music:
“Today’s DRUMMER differs but little from the shaman in his incessant beating out of a rhythm, and likewise often enters into a form of trance while performing” (Tame, The Secret Power of Music, p. 199).
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 nonmainstream 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).
One simple guideline for Christian music is NO DRUMS!
CONCLUDING NOTE BY BROTHER CLOUD
After publishing this article by e-mail via the Fundamental Baptist Information Service, I received a challenge from a reader as follows:
"You missed the timbrel. The timbrel is a type of drum. It is a tambourine (Psalm 150:3-5). Websters says about the timbrel: n, ancient musical instrument, kind of tambourine [OF. timbre] and it says about the tambourine: n, flat half-drum with jingling disks of metal attached. So the bible does indeed tell us to use drums in the form of timbrels. David used them and so did Miriam, Moses’ sister. We are told to use them to praise His name! Does your church use tambourines? If not then you are disobedient to the word of God!"
REPLY FROM BROTHER CLOUD: Even a piano is a type of drum, if you want to go into that level. It is a percussion instrument and therefore "a type of drum," but the timbrel definitely is not a drum in the modern sense that is used in a Contemporary Christian band, and that is what we are warning about. We used a tambourine some in our church in Nepal, but it is nothing like the drums that are used to pound out rock type rhythms in contemporary bands. I reject what you are saying and stand by the article. I am seeing too much worldly garbage in Christian music, and I will do everything in my power to warn people to turn away from it.
Distributed by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Copyright 2001.
These articles cannot be stored on BBS or Internet sites or sold or placed by themselves or with other material in any electronic format for sale, but may be distributed for free by e-mail or by print. They must be left intact and nothing removed or changed, including these informational headers. This is a listing for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Our goal in this particular aspect of our ministry is not devotional but is TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR.
January 18, 2001 The following information is excerpted from Bible Guidelines for Music by Terry Watkins, www.av1611.org/cqguide.html --
Even the secular, satanic rockers the Rolling Stones admit rock is NOT music -- but NOISE!
“It’s a NOISE we make. That’s all. You could he kind and call it music” (Mick Jagger, Rolling Stones, cited by Roy Carr, The Rolling Stones - An Illustrated Record, p. 37).
Rock music emphasizes that HARD, driving BEAT. What instrument do you hear more than any other in rock? What instrument is it that pounds out that heavy beat?
THE DRUM
The Bible lists many kinds of instruments: Psalms 150:3-5 says:
“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”
Psalms 150:3-5
With all the many references to musical instruments, there is one instrument that is NEVER mentioned! The DRUM! Why is that? The drum was a very common instrument in Egypt and the lands around Israel. And yet the DRUM is NEVER mentioned in a King James Bible.
Did the Lord just forget to include the DRUM or is there another reason?
Is it because drums 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).
Robert Palmer is a contributing editor to Rolling Stone and other rock magazines. Palmer has also taught courses in music at Yale, and many other universities. Palmer was the chief advisor for the highly acclaimed “History of Rock ‘n’ Roll” that aired on public television. Palmer, an advocate and lover of rock music, is among the leading authorities on rock music. Here’s what Palmer says about rock and the drum:
“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 Îvoodoo’ . . . ” (Palmer, Rock & Roll, An Unruly History, p. 53)
Palmer describes how drums are used in “voodoo” possession -- and the same drum patterns are part of the basics of rock ‘n’ roll and CCM!
“Bata drummers tap out their toques, or rhythm patterns, like signals to the realm of the gods, inviting and enticing them to come on down and mount or POSSESS their horses, or devotees. . .The specific drum patterns or toques include some riffs and licks basic to the rock and roll vocabulary” (Palmer, Rock & Roll An Unruly History, p. 62).
Here’s an episode from the occult, new-age magazine New Age Journal, describing the “possessing” power of drums. Notice, even the devotees of the occult stay away from those drums:
“I remembered a conversation I’d once had in Cuba with a reporter from The New York Times, ÎStay away from those drums,’ he had told me, referring to the ones said to call down the gods in Santeria’s sacred ceremonies. ‘If I ever really gave in to those DRUMS, my life would change in ways I’m not prepared to take on,’ he had added. I knew what he was talking about. It was all there in the drumming. Listen long enough, and some energy field, some kind of interconnectedness, became palpable. I was hungry for those drums. Yet I still ran from them” (Elizabeth Hanly, “A Shaman’s Story, A Vodoun priest leads the author on a journey of understanding,” New Age Journal, March/April 1997 pp. 56-57).
Little Richard, the self-professed “architect of rock ‘n roll”, readily admits Satan’s control and influence in his life and rock music:
“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).
Danny Sugerman, an authority on rock music, and author of several books on rock, writes in Appetite for Destruction:
“The shaman was the original ‘long hair’, the first rock star draped in leather, dancing possessed to a rhythm banged out on a DRUM. . . To these people, communication with the gods was synonymous with DRUMS . . . the body can become the conduit for a deity, a deity not necessarily the same sex as the worshiper, and DRUMS are the catalyst for the whole process. The trance of the RHYTHM then begets the hysteria, which begets what Westerners simplistically call Îpossession’” (Danny Sugerman, Appetite for Destruction, p. 208, 181).
David Tame writes in The Secret Power of Music:
“Today’s DRUMMER differs but little from the shaman in his incessant beating out of a rhythm, and likewise often enters into a form of trance while performing” (Tame, The Secret Power of Music, p. 199).
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 nonmainstream 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).
One simple guideline for Christian music is NO DRUMS!
CONCLUDING NOTE BY BROTHER CLOUD
After publishing this article by e-mail via the Fundamental Baptist Information Service, I received a challenge from a reader as follows:
"You missed the timbrel. The timbrel is a type of drum. It is a tambourine (Psalm 150:3-5). Websters says about the timbrel: n, ancient musical instrument, kind of tambourine [OF. timbre] and it says about the tambourine: n, flat half-drum with jingling disks of metal attached. So the bible does indeed tell us to use drums in the form of timbrels. David used them and so did Miriam, Moses’ sister. We are told to use them to praise His name! Does your church use tambourines? If not then you are disobedient to the word of God!"
REPLY FROM BROTHER CLOUD: Even a piano is a type of drum, if you want to go into that level. It is a percussion instrument and therefore "a type of drum," but the timbrel definitely is not a drum in the modern sense that is used in a Contemporary Christian band, and that is what we are warning about. We used a tambourine some in our church in Nepal, but it is nothing like the drums that are used to pound out rock type rhythms in contemporary bands. I reject what you are saying and stand by the article. I am seeing too much worldly garbage in Christian music, and I will do everything in my power to warn people to turn away from it.