The Christian Reconstructionist View of Music and Culture

"The fact that a problem will certainly take a long time to solve, and that it will demand the attention of many minds for several generations, is no justification for postponing the study.”1 With these words, T.S. Eliot began his study of the relationship of Christianity and culture. I have been asked by Rev. Sandlin to do the same for the Chalcedon Report, and I confess I felt far more overwhelmed in taking on the task of assessing the interrelatedness of Christ, music and culture than Mr. Eliot may have been in approaching his task

Yet the fact of the matter is, we must seek to study all things in the light of God’s Holy Word, and bring "all things in subjection unto Christ.”2 I will not attempt to argue for the existence of a specifically Christian view of culture, since that has already been done many times before.3 I take it for granted that such a view exists, and has existed for nigh unto two thousand years. What I hope to do in this article is to recapture the breadth of how deeply our culture, specifically our music, has been a Christian culture, and how Western music has been religiously Christian, as opposed to the music’s of India or China; and how that, for any culture to grow, it must remain, become once more, or be converted to, an explicitly Christian culture, or be doomed to failure, in time and in eternity.

Music in Scripture

The place of music in Scripture begins with the book of Beginnings, Genesis. In Chapter 4, we find that Jubal "was the father of all those who play the harp and flute.”4 At the beginning of time, we find that Jubal followed the Dominion mandate5, and fashioned things of wood and gut to make music, thus inventing the woodwind and string families!

Moving to the book of Exodus and the deliverance of the Chosen People from the bondage of Pharaoh, Holy Scripture tells us that Moses6 (who had earlier asked God to make Aaron his mouthpiece), he whose mighty arm had held back the waters of the Red Sea (per Yhwh’s command) to let the Israelites pass over dry-shod, was so happy at their deliverance from Pharaoh, that he sang! With all of the nation of Israel joining in, Moses leads the "Chosen People Choir” in the Canticle, "I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously!”7 Indeed, so important is the gift of music, that God by the Holy Spirit has the nation of Israel say, in verse 2, "the Lord . . . is my song.” This means, if we are to read Scripture correctly, that God is contained in the words and music of the Israelite’s song, and by it. God . . . "has become my salvation.” No higher praise by a created thing could be said (in this instance, music), yet the Scriptures don’t stop there. The Holy Word of God is not silent about the role of music in the praises of God Almighty. Indeed, the role of music takes an even greater place as Israel progressively begins taking over the Promised Land to become the nation of Israel, thus fulfilling, in a national corporate sense, the Adamic Dominion Mandate.

When we come to David, the man whose harp playing calmed King Saul,8 we see a man of God whose heart was tuned to music. That one man, a King, was so imbued with the spirit of song and the Holy Spirit, that he wrote 150 Psalms as a result! Unlike most singers. King David even didn’t mind getting up early to sing to the Lord!9

One of the most beautiful scenes recorded in the Old Covenant, is that of King David (a type of Christ) dancing before the Ark of the Lord with all of Israel, doing so "with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.”10

I have mentioned in a prior article, that when the Temple was constructed, the Israelites, having been divided into the twelve tribes, with their ranks and orders of priests, had the Levites who effectively served as the "deacons” of the Old Covenant, also lead the nation of Israel in song to God. Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was the "master of Song, [and] instructed about it, Because he was skillful.”11 The modern comment voiced so often in many churches, not just Reformed, that—"we don’t need trained musicians in our church” or "Why should we pay the choir director? (or the Cantor, the Organist, take your pick) … Anyone can do that!”—and statements like it show that our modern reductionistic opinions of church and worship are derived from a mindset that is more influenced by evolutionary, "scientific” rationalistic heresy, and not by a fully formed Biblical approach. For the witness of these verses from Chronicles shows that music was not incidental, but obligatory in the nation of Israel, and that those who led the music were a designated class of servants, closely associated with the priests, who offered sacrifice for the nation every day. These Levites were paid in offerings and gifts by the people, taken from the tithes given to the Temple staff. If only the "Israel of God” took care of their musicians as well as the "nation” of Israel did!

To show how important the use of music in liturgy was for the Jews, and necessary for the health of the nation, we need to look at the record of Nehemiah. When the Israelites returned from captivity, as soon as possible after the walls had been built, and he had hung the doors of the gates, Nehemiah then appointed "the gatekeepers [necessary in alerting the people of the town when there was an attack] the singers, and the Levites12 Could you imagine Colin Powell, after Operation Desert Storm and the defeat of Hussein, asking Robert Shaw to find 148 singers to start the Liturgy of Thanksgiving, and find seventy-four Deacons13’ to help with the daily Communion Service in a church in Baghdad!!! Instead, we had our soldiers prohibited from wearing any symbol (i.e., the Cross) to avoid the appearance that this was a "religious war”! Arrggh.

Yet that victorious meshing of religious thanksgiving and victory in war is exactly what Nehemiah did in his era! He had no fear in associating the advance of the Gospel with the religion of the nation. This understanding of the importance of music in liturgy was fundamental to the Biblical mindset. Musical services were restored in the temple after the Babylonian captivity (cf. Ezra 3:10-11), and they continued until the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 AD.

The New Testament has many references to music, and one of the first verses I remember memorizing after Rom.3:23 and Eph. 2:8-9, was the verse in chapter four of the Letter to the Ephesians, where the Apostle Paul tells us to "teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your heart to the Lord.”14 Here the Apostle asks us to sing, and make melodies to God in the inner man. He has us do this, in order that (as I often find myself doing) from out of the deepest recesses of our souls, a song of praise to God comes forth unbidden. Often I find myself singing a hymn like "A Mighty Fortress” or "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise,” or in a quieter mood, "Humbly I Adore Thee, Verity Unseen,” "Softly and Tenderly, Jesus is Calling,” or "The Lord’s My Shepherd.” These tunes and the words, unconsciously memorized long ago without my even trying to do so, come to mind, and I sing in my ear, or at work, or while doing housework. We are, as Brother Lawrence wrote so long ago, to "practice the Presence of God.”

Music in the Church

The church, in deriving its worship from the model given to Israel by God in the Temple and the teaching and corporate study of the Law in the synagogue, formed a liturgy, a "manner of worship,” dating from the time of the Apostles. This liturgy continued to grow and expand during the age of the Councils and the Fathers, and was uniform in essentials, differing in very minor details in both the liturgies of the East and West. As I mentioned in my paper delivered at the inaugural meeting of the Minnesota Christian Reconstruction Society,15 "Christopher Dawson’s excellent book Religion and the Rise of Western Culture states that…. ‘the Christian mystery is based on a sacred history, and liturgy developed into an historical cycle in which the whole story of human creation and redemption is progressively unfolded…. It is almost impossible to convey to the modern mind the realism and objectivity with which the Christians of those ages viewed this liturgical participation in the mysteries of salvation…. the church possessed in the liturgy a rich tradition of Christian culture as an order of worship, a structure of thought and a principle of life.’ ”16

Music was an integral part of the church in its praise to God. The form of chant which bears Pope Gregory the Great’s name is the basis upon which all music in the West rested for over 1000 years. Only in the late 1800s, beginning with Wagner and his idealization of Pagan Norse mythology, his concept of "Musicdrama” and his use of "Leitmotifs,” did art begin to be thought of as intrinsically "independent” from Christian religion—only then did composers seriously begin to depart from chant as a basis for music.17 Indeed, even though it is not used in the Roman Church today, the upsurge in popularity of Gregorian Chant shows that this art form still speaks to a world that is desperately seeking to find beauty and Biblical simplicity in music. Chant is a music which seeks to do no more that act as a means to worship God in song.

Music as Art

But there is another dimension to the use of music in mankind’s existence, apart from its necessary use in ritual and religious worship. Music as well as art is to be encouraged for the sheer joy it brings to those who hear it. Martin Luther was more "catholic” in his tastes and vision than Calvin on this point. Whereas Calvin was content to give music a place in human existence, yet he deemed it a pleasant, but effectively a non-essential part of that existence. Luther was here more "epistemologically self-conscious,” in seeing music as part of the joy of the created order, as David and Moses had done. Luther wrote: "I am not satisfied with him who despises music, as all fanatics do; for music is an endowment and a gift of God, not a gift of men…. I place music next to theology and give it the highest praise.” In another place, Luther wrote, "Music I have always loved. He who knows music has a good nature . . . and before a youth is ordained into the ministry, he should practice music in school.” And finally: "Nor am I at all of the opinion that all the arts are to be overthrown and cast aside by the Gospel, as some super-spiritual people protest,18 but I would gladly see all the arts, especially music, in the service of Him who has given and created them.”19

Boethius, who lived in the sixth century, agreed with Augustine’s De Musica. In his De Institutione Musica, Boethius wrote that "music has the power either to improve or to debase our character.” Paul Hindemith, the contemporary twentieth-century German composer, wrote his book, A Composer’s World, wherein he shows that he was fundamentally in accord with Boethius’ statement. Hindemith admits that "music for all possible degrees of entertainment ought to be provided” but holds that "moral effort is the hallmark of a work of art and that ‘other works, in which the composer’s moral effort cannot be perceived . . . may evoke wonderful images in our mind; they may readily lead us to reconstruct their forms, yet they may not impress us as works of art.’”20 Or as Schaeffer has said, "We should love good art. But art as art does not have the right to speak ex cathedra regardless of content.”21

Here we see the vision of what art both is and what it does, from men who maintained a Christian view of art and how it affects culture. Hindemith and Schaeffer build on the thought of Augustine and Boethius, Luther and Bach. As Mendl has pointed out, "no truly religious work of art can be created without sincere faith…..”22 Men like Johann Sebastian Bach, who was both a devout Christian and a composer, saw himself as no different than other men. Indeed, as Mendl points out, "so far as he [Bach] was concerned, there was no conflict between his art and his religion—indeed, fundamentally there was no distinction between them. Music (whether liturgical or not) was, for him, a consecration, . . . he represented, in fact, the most complete embodiment of Christianity in music that the world has known hitherto.”23

Bach could not comprehend of a so-called "sacred/ secular” mentality, that is so much a part of the mindset of the modern world, both "Christian” and pagan. Bach was so fully "self-actualized” (to use Maslow’s phrase in the only "true” way it can be used) Mendl writes of Bach that " in the rules of accompaniment which he gave to his pupils he says, ‘Like all music, the figured bass should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the recreation of the soul.’”24

The Chief End

Here we have the vision of music for the Reconstructionist. We aim as our "chief end,” the Westminster Catechism says, "to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever.”25 The fact is that Bach gave theory exercises to his pupils which are often tedious, and frustrating (and I’m sure Bach was aware of this) yet he saw these exercises as means to contemplate the glory and wonder of God. In addition. Bach meant for these exercises to fulfill the Dominion Mandate, as they are for "the recreation of the soul.” Here we see a type of Jubal, re-creating (which is a root meaning of "recreation”) from the material God had given him, in the person of Bach. Bach saw clearly how to make this recreation of the soul happen in Germany. It is enough to make any musician tremble at the vision of Grace and Glory J. S. Bach must have held before his eyes as he composed!

But Bach is not the only one who saw music as a "fair and glorious gift of God.” Handel, in writing Messiah, confessed to his servant in tears, after finishing the "Hallelujah Chorus,” "I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself.”27 Later, after the first London performance of the oratorio, when congratulated by a lord on the "noble entertainment” he had just heard, the nobleman got this scathing reply by Mr. Handel: "My lord, I should be sorry if I only entertained them; I wished to make them better.”28

Contrast this with a profile the New Yorker had of the modern composer John Cage. In writing on Cage’s music, the reviewer says that "….what he is proposing is, essentially, the complete overthrow of the most basic assumptions of Western Art since the Renaissance.”29

The Christian Reconstructionist must once again go "ad fontes,” to the source, to arrive at a vision for cultural dominion. Man and Woman must see again the fact that, while all created things are morally good, yet the uses for which they are employed depend on man’s plans and schemes, and these are not neutral. In the affairs of men’s hearts, there is no neutrality. The knowledge that "out of the heart of man proceedeth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies,”30 was seen by the early Christian music theorists and theologians. That is why there was a knowledge, present in the church from its earliest writers, that music as a created thing, could be used for evil ends. In Luther’s time, the Reformer took lewd ballads and songs sung in his day, which were "adorned with many foul, idolatrous texts. Therefore, we have removed these idolatrous, dead, and nonsensical texts, have divested them of the fine music, and have used this for the living, holy Word of God, to sing, to praise, to glorify therewith, so that this fine ornament of music might be put to proper use and serve its dear Creator and His Christians, that He might be praised and glorified….”31

Modern Hymnody

Today of course, we have copyright laws. These laws, which were once used to stop the pirating of royalties from a composer’s works, now make it a criminal offense to tamper with a composer’s "vision in music.” Indeed, to show how much we as orthodox, catholic Christians have given the battle over to the world and its modernist, liberal, revisionist dogs, let’s quickly take a look at modern hymnody, as it has become surfeited more and more with "inclusive” language.

Many of the new works being written that have not broken with the vision of a catholic musical picture, have in the frontispiece the disclaimer: "to change the text or music is to tamper with the composer’s vision”32—even when that vision is heterodox!33 That even music composed for the church cannot be purged of this "castrated language,” so as to place the orthodox terms and texts of Holy Writ in its place, is a sorry comment on how far we have drifted from Biblical norms, and how long we, as orthodox Christians, whether Roman, Anglican, or Protestant, have been asleep. The attempt to change a Scripture or hymn text, to make it repeatedly use "God” in an attempt to avoid "Father” or "Son” (which makes for pretty poor syntax, and even worse poetry—some of the Scripture revisions are atrocious34), is a crime against God the Father, His Son Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Bride of Christ, the church. Yet if we wanted to do as Luther did, to make this music usable in the church, by making the texts once more Biblically valid, in doing so we violate copyright law! What is our alternative?

Why not have good composers write music using good texts, to serve noble ends? Where are the men and women writing music that is full-bodied, has compositional merit,35 is orthodox in its use of Scriptural texts, and could he used as a foil to wean most evangelicals, and Roman Catholics, off the dregs that glut the "evanjelly-goo” music market? Evangelicals that are not overtly Calvinist, are singing "praise choruses” that at best, are three generations out of date, and mired in an Arminian sentimentality that would rot the teeth of most men!” Calvinist hymnals are notorious, when not borrowing from the Episcopal tradition, in their omnipresent ploddiness.37 On the other hand, when we hear "new” music (typical of some of the mega-churches, more so the "seeker-sensitive” churches, and desirable in the charismatic churches—shall I go on?) this "new” music is so musically inferior that it that makes my skin crawl by its infantile use of three to five chords—refrain included!—lyrics that would fail Freshman English for lack of originality and visual imagery, and all of it miked to ear-splitting deafness in most churches. This last, I think, is done in an effort to disguise the paucity of its compositional merit!

As D. Bruce Lockerbie wrote in The Timeless Moment: "Let me be utterly blunt. We live in a cultural wasteland populated—if not governed—by Yahoos, some of the worst of whom may well be evangelical Yahoos….Bring to the campus [of a typically evangelical college] a genuine artist, a singer who doesn’t need a ridiculous array of electronic equipment to project his pipsqueak voice, an actress who can change even a lecture hall into a world of her own imagining, a poet whose language carries his audience away….. and ticket sales may not meet the minimum required of the college comptroller….But advertise the latest imitators of the "pop” scene—a "born again” version of KISS or the Beach Boys—and the dormitories are emptied, with resident counselors and assistant deans (taking time off from their graduate studies in Higher Education, no doubt) in the front rows. Have they not read these words?

"‘For indeed, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the ABC of God’s oracles over again, it has come to this, that you need milk instead of solid food. ..’ (Heb. 3:12ff). You think I am being too harsh? Then I invite you to join me for a few minutes of browsing in almost any bookstore catering to the evangelical trade….much of the evidence, I ‘m afraid, testifies to a clientele eager for the sentimental or the sensational, with an abundance of producers willing to supply their demand.”38 Lockerbie continues his assessment of evangelical sub-culture: "The late W.H. Auden called much of what he saw in the guise of Christian art ‘vast quantities of phony or vulgar trash.’ Auden went on to say, ‘When one looks into the window of a store which sells devotional art objects, one can’t help wishing the iconoclasts had won.’”39

From what I have said, you might think I’m an old fuddy-duddy, who wishes for the "good old days.” Well, yes… I’m old enough to remember what life was like then. At least before the 1960s there was a consensus of what "good” was in America, even if we didn’t try too hard ourselves to reach for the good; of Sundays where no stores were open, days when locking your door to your house was less the norm than the reality. There was a different mindset in those days before the Beatles’ dope smoking, Eastern-guru-mysticism, and their blasphemous self-exaltation period;40 those days before Vatican II, whose authors sought reforms to bring the Church of Rome up to date; yet these same reforms were manipulated by radical clerics in America and Canada, who sought (with a vengeance) to adopt the mindset of liberal Protestantism, trading their musical inheritance for a mess of lowest-common-denominator musical pottage, rather than seeking to bring Rome to a more Biblical and patristic order.41 I remember other things that spoke of a culture that was minimally Christian, and that was tied to our lives, before Roe vs. Wade "legalized” death of the unborn, etc., etc. Where is that sense of "culture” now? Kurt Cobain commits suicide, and Time magazine mourns the loss of an "artist” of generation X. An artist???? We in the once-Christian West have lost our moorings, Protestant and Roman Catholic alike. We have abandoned the old paths. (Thomistic philosophy at least held to a modified Augustinian world and life view, and Protestantism had the witness of Calvin, Luther, and Cranmer before it succumbed to Unitarianism, Finney and rampant Arminian "revivalistic” methods in America). Is there no hope for the future? Yes, definitely. Are we doing anything to recapture what is rightfully ours as Christians? No. Why are no clergy on the boards of Symphonies or Opera Companies, to give advice on works to be presented? Basically because clergy are too "spiritual,” whatever that means, or they are woefully ignorant of the music that owes its existence to Christianity!

I am no fuddy-duddy. You or I cannot go back to a "safe” time, for to tell the truth, no one can or should, for God calls us to Him, not back to the womb. Adam could not re-enter Eden, and we cannot go back, but must go forward in the strength of the Lord. But we must go forward not empty-handed, but with our arms full, to transform the world with the comprehensive message of the Gospel. I pray with all my heart to see art elevated to the status it once had, as the handmaiden of theology. I long to hear new works of good music, that do not deprecate the historic traditions of the past, rooted as they were in Christianity and the Truth of the Christian religion. I can agree with J. Gresham Machen, when he writes: "Instead of destroying the arts or sciences or being indifferent to them, let us cultivate them with all the enthusiasm of the veriest humanist, but at the same time, consecrate them to the service of our God. Instead of stifling the pleasure afforded by the acquisition of knowledge, or by the appreciation of what is beautiful, let us accept these pleasures as a gift of a heavenly Father.”42 Indeed, can we not begin to "think God’s thoughts after him,” and see the connection of Faith and art, life and worship, instead of the atheistic modern compartmentalizing of everything into little Newtonian "scientific” boxes? If we can begin to hear a little of the "harmonies of Heaven and Earth,” we can, like Milton, once again hear the celestial music:

That we on Earth, with undiscording voice,
May rightly answer that melodious noise,
As once we did, till disproportioned Sin
Jarred against Nature’s chime, and with harsh din
Broke the fair music that all creatures made

To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed
In perfect diapason, whilst they stood
In first obedience, and their state of good.
O, may we soon again renew that song,
And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long
To his celestial consort us unite,
To live with him, and sing in endless morn of light!’43

Amen, come Lord Jesus.

1. T.S. Eliot, Christianity and Culture, (Orlando, FL, 1977).

2. Heb. 2:8ff.

3. I think specifically of Augustine’s treatise, De Musica, Eliot’s book Christianity and Culture, Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture, Scholes’ masterful work. The Puritans and Music, Lockerbie’s The Timeless Moment, and The Divine Gift of Music, RWS Mendlq Philosophical Library, 1958. The list is vast. These are a very few that I have found have merit in turning the mind to contemplate the place of music in Christendom.

4. Genesis 4:21, NKJV. A comment by Calvin on this verse recognizes his view that beauty possesses value beyond mere utility: "Although music serves our enjoyment rather than our need, it ought not on that account to be judged of no value; still less should it be condemned.”

5. Even though Jubal is from the line of Cain, yet he follows the command that God gave Adam in the Garden, by re-creating as the viceregent of his Sovereign, who is the true "Creator.” Thus man exhibits God’s image and likeness in his creation of music, art, architecture, and all of the "inventions” that have been made since Adam began to dress the garden in Eden.

6. An interesting anecdote is that Philo (an Alexandrian Jew) records that the priests of Egypt taught Moses metre and music, in addition to arithmetic and geometry. See Mendl, 23.

7. Ex. 15:1ff.

8. 1 Sam. I6:15ff.

9. Ps. 57:7-8. (I am more of the school that echoes one famous singer’s statement, "Sing? Maestro, I don’t even spit before 10 A.M.!”—JH)

10. 1 Chron. 13:8. How the no-instrument advocates, both Protestant and Orthodox, ignore these and other verses, exhibits a selective use of Scripture to buttress one’s position.

11. ibid., chapter 15:16-29, esp. 22.

12. Neh. 7:1.

13. Neh. 7:43-44.

14. Eph. 5:19.

15. "The Reconstructionist View of Christendom: Augustine’s Catholicity as a Cultural Model,” Minneapolis, MN, Sept. 18, 1995.

16. ibid.. Image Books, Doubleday, 1991 ed., 42-43.

17. In this area, one of the best books for the analysis of modern culture’s severing itself from its past, from all which has followed, in the fields of philosophy, art, music, general culture, and theology, are the collected works of Francis Schaeffer, especially The God Who is There, Crossway Books, Collected Works, 1982. Schaeffer’s opening statement, ‘The present chasm between the generations has been brought about almost entirely by a change in the concept of truth,” speaks volumes (p. 5). In chapter 5, "Modern Mysticism in Action: Music and Literature,” Schaeffer quotes Leonard Marcus, who prophetically pointed out that "... theologians have always had artists to bridge the gap to their flock. Now, for better or worse, the anti-theologian has a powerful, artistic statement” (speaking about Bernstein’s Third Symphony). Bernstein, who was a Jew, a homosexual, a composer, and a man who used his position as educator to legitimize his own personal anarchy and perversion, was the director of the New York Symphony for many years. His "theatrical work” "MASS,” is a 1960s "un-credo” of the hatred unregenerate man has for the Gospel. It is the liturgical equivalent of the musical "HAIR,” which was the theatrical touchstone of 60s counter-culture.

18. Can one not allow art that is good to be funded by federal monies, and prohibit idolatrous, anti-Christian art from being funded, exhibited, or permitted? (Serrano the artist of the notorious "Piss-Christ” and so-called art blatantly of homoerotic bent, and others like him, comes to mind.) But to decide what is "art,” and give an "imprimatur” that would mean we would have to take the Dominion Mandate seriously, now wouldn’t we? Since there is no neutrality, we must assume that the current "art-scene” in America is not religiously neutral, but is an attempt to use Federal monies to "establish a religion”—in these cases, the Synagogue of Satan—the hatred of the followers of Christ. Membership in NEA, anyone?

19. What Luther Says, Vol. II, 980-1 (St. Louis), 1959

20. Quoted In Mendl, op. cit., 55.

21. The God Who is There, 76.

22. ibid., 57.

23. ibid., 58.

24. ibid., 59. To use the example of one of the most academically dry exercises a composer has to learn, to illustrate the glory of God in created things, shows how far Bach was ahead of the mass of evangelical "pop Christian” artists, whose art seems more content with how closely it can approximate the mold of the world around it, rather than challenge the world to adopt its parameters of "good art”!

25. The Shorter Catechism, with Scripture Proofs (Carlisle, PA, nd.)

26. Not ‘The’ Messiah, as some erroneously call it.

27. ibid., 63.

28. bid.

29. ibid., 76. Cage’s music is noted for its purposeless randomness, for Cage, like all who hate God, despises order, and the providence of God. His is the musical equivalent of evolutionary chance: random sounds which can never combine to form a complete whole, no matter how long it waits for the music to "happen.”

30. Matt. 15:19.

31. Mendl, Vol. II, p. 981.

32. I think of the Roman Catholic publisher, GIA, in particular, publisher of Worship II, Gather, Glory and Praise, ad nauseam; but the Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist hymnals all have worshipped at the altar of relativity, and have "revised” their new hymnals, to fit this trend, as has the Christian Reformed Church[!], to strip old texts of "masculine-dominated, patriarchal language of God,” to be more "inclusive”—inclusive that is, to all but the true believers, and the old, who have sung the (often) more Biblically correct older texts for their whole lives.

33. An excellent book on "words and worship,” written from a Roman Catholic view, is The Politics of Prayer, Feminist Language and the Worship of God, ed. Helen Hitchcock, Ignatius Press, 1992. A shocking revelation in her introduction documents the "feeling” many have had for years—there is an agenda at work: "the history of the ICEL [International Commission on English in the Liturgy, formed in 1963, during Vatican II]…. as documented by its own members, reveals: (i) that commitment to "inclusive” language has been a guiding principle for about twenty years;... (iii) that ICEL’s committees have been and continue to be heavily influenced by radical feminist theology and Scripture scholarship;… (v) that ICEL’s commitment to "change,” to a revisionist theological and ecclesial position, has been imposed on millions of English-speaking Catholic worshipers throughout the English-speaking Church,” xlvii.

34. The NRSV—or as I prefer to call it "the New Revised Standard Per-Version.” This is the newest, and most heavily promoted version of this ilk.

35. Has anyone other than I heard that Martin C. Selbrede, sometime Reconstructionist and geocentrist, is a composer, who has written a "Reconstruction Symphony”? I owe this info to a letter sent to me by Tim Wilder, editor of Contra Mundum magazine. Why has no one heard or recorded this man’s work, or commissioned him, or others, for some settings of the Communion Service, to use in the Church?

36. I think of the old chestnut, "I Come to the Garden Alone,” which is still included in the new evangelical hymnals! On the other front, one of my least favorite songs is: "There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit in This Place.” One would get the impression that God the Holy Spirit is the indweller of diabetics only!

37. The old Trinity Hymnal of the OPC comes to mind.

38. D. Bruce Lockerbie, The Timeless Moment: Creativity and the Christian Faith (Westchester, 1980), 50.

39. ibid., 53.

40. Remember when John Lennon said of the Beatles, "We are more popular that Christ”? When Lennon was shot, I remember a friend asking me what I thought. I thought then as I do today. The judgment of God never fails. Lennon provoked God to jealousy, and "our God is a jealous God, who will not give His glory to another” (Ex. 20:5, Is. 48:11).

41. Pope Paul VI, after seeing the way the tide turned after the Council, was reported to have said that the "smoke of Satan had entered the Temple of God,” in analyzing the takeover by liberals of the Roman Church during his reign. How many Roman Catholic "scholars” scoffed, ignored the Pontiff, spoke of the "spirit” of Vatican II, yet ignored the letter of it all, especially in matters musical and liturgical? Gregorian chant has died, Latin is a memory, and even though Protestants were musically of a different stripe than Rome, now that we all sing bad choruses, who is to act as the arbiter of "high” liturgical taste? Anglicanism has thrown out orthodoxy, (women priests, etc.) yet the Ecclesiae Anglicanae still has some semblance of glory in its music, but will it endure the next Prayerbook/Hymnal revision? I doubt it.

42. Banner of Truth Magazine, June, 1969, 18.

43. John Milton, At a Solemn Music.