THE  CALLING

"... praise Him [God] with stringed instruments and organs."  (Ps. 150:4) KJV

This word "organs" [Heb. 'ugab] refers to some sort of cylindrical hand-held instrument blown by the breath, likely something made of bone or wood with hand-carved holes musicians from the earliest civilizations played on occasions of rejoicing, mourning, and in religious exercises.  In various other translations it is rendered "flute(s)" or "pipe(s)."

The question posed in this Psalm is not one of having access to certain historical instruments but using the available resources at hand to the fullest in offering praise to God.

Today that certainly would include "organs."

WE GIVE THANKS ALWAYS AND EVERWHERE FOR

THE ORGANIST,

THE MUSICIAN WHO CAN TURN A MASSIVE MECHANICAL MACHINE INTO SOMETHING THAT'S ALIVE AND DEEPLY EXPRESSIVE,

WHO MAKES BREATHE AND BRINGS FORTH SONG FROM THE MOST STUPENDOUS,

THE MOST WONDERFUL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

EVER CONCEIVED IN THE MIND OF GOD

AND FABRICATED BY THE HAND OF MAN.

Those who begin digesting their way through the information supplied on this platform may wonder about the space they find devoted to explaining the pastoral dimensions of being an organist and what service playing has to do with the salvation of man.  On first thought it may seem that the mechanics of working the machine and being a musician are disparate artistic disciplines having only an indirect, if any, connection with soul-saving. 

That.  Idea.  Is.  False.

Faith comes by HEARING (Rom. 10:17).

Something a person HEARS

causes their faith to rise.

BEING SAVED BY THE NAME, PERSON, WORK, LIFE, DEATH, RESURRECTION, AND GRACE

OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

is not of ourselves.

Salvation [the gracious work of God whereby He delivers undeserving human beings from judgment]

is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8).

By being descendants of Adam who sinned,

judgment for sin has been imputed to us.

We have no righteousness of our own.

But by being believers in the gospel of Jesus,

His righteousness is imputed to us,

and the penalty for sin is lifted.

The organist's CALLING

in the music ministry 

is to use the organ to:

1.  express the joy of that gift,

2.  offer praise to God for that gift,

3.  help teach its message in hymn playing, and

4.  develop, feed, and strengthen the faith of believers.

Organists who perform for worship

are more than volunteers

and/or employees on the weekly payroll.

They are ministers

and ambassadors for the instrument

who use all the wonders of music

to reach out to the walking wounded of this world

to uplift their spirits and empower them

with the gospel of grace.

They are serious musicians, but

and they do not chase stages, titles, or applause.

They chase The King Of Kings.

In the Bible, a dispensation is a set of instructions that God "dispenses" (or gives) to mankind, or to a section of mankind, for people to apply to life during a particular time period.   God expects them to obey the particular dispensation He gives to them, and He has dispensed diverse sets of these  instructions throughout history.  The so-called dispensation of [the] grace [of God] is the set of divine instructions that pertains to us today and involves God's current dealings with mankind.  The Holy Spirit led the apostle Paul to write that he alone received the revelations from God that make up this dispensation and its doctrinal contents, that he might relay that information to the Gentile [non-Jew] world.  Prior to Paul it was kept hidden in God; consequently the body of Christ is called "the mystery church," and it and the dispensation of grace is called "a mystery."  This is the doctrine God uses today to take believing Jews and believing Gentiles to form one unit of believers -- the church, the body of Christ -- not to be confused with the nation Israel which is composed entirely of Jews.  Prior to Paul, God was forming the nation [Genesis thru John] so that it might then evangelize the Gentiles.  But when the nation rejected its Messiah Jesus, refused to repent and trust Him, and sent Him to the cross, Israel fell before God.  At the time, Saul of Tarsus (who became the apostle Paul) was a blasphemer against the Holy Spirit (1Tim. 1:13) for assisting with the murder of Stephen (Acts 6-7), a Spirit-filled man, and found no pardon for this sin under Israel's program.  When God temporarily paused the nation's kingdom program in Acts 7 and opened the mystery program of the church to Gentiles in Acts 9, Saul [Paul] was the first person in this age of grace to be saved.  The nation's program will resume [Hebrews thru Revelation] after Christ appears unannounced in the clouds to remove all those saved under grace, living and dead, to heaven (1Thess. 4:15-18).

  

When people fail to keep separate what God has kept separate [prophecy & mystery, law & grace, the nation & body of Christ], they fail to understand that the church will be God's vessel to be used in the heavens for Jesus Christ's glory, that it wasn't the law that was nailed to His cross (Col. 2:14) but our record of sins, that we're saved by faith in His death, blood atonement, and resurrection plus nothing else, that in this age of grace the church is not under a covenant, or that the church has not replaced the nation as "spiritual Israel" in God's plan.  Unless people know to divide truth from truth (2Tim. 2:15), that there is no crown without a cross, and that they're partnering with Satan if they expect to follow the Lord Jesus without experiencing distress or misfortune in this life (Matt. 4:8-11), they really can't say they know the truth of Scripture in its fullness and richness.

This platform is not the place to essay this subject save for saying that denominational boards of directors,

while they may hire and direct church musicians,

generally know very little if anything

about what it means to biblically minister

rightly divided to congregations today,

let alone the organist's job or how to do IT.

Authority does not automatically imply knowledge.

The contributions organists make

in filling the air with soaring beauty and majesty

in worship spaces where they ply their art

play a critically important role in communicating

God's plan for mankind through Jesus 

prophetically revealed in the Old Testament

in Genesis 3:15

and even more explicitly by design 

in the generations of Adam

recorded in Genesis 5:

Adam [in the Hebrew language] -- means man,

Seth -- means appointed,

Enos -- means mortal, frail, miserable,

Mahalaleel -- means blessed God,

Jared -- means shall come down,

Enoch -- means teaching,

Methuselah -- means his death shall bring,

Lamech -- means despairing,

Noah -- means rest, comfort.

When you put it all together it says,

"Man is appointed mortal, frail, miserable, but the blessed God shall come down teaching, and His death shall bring the despairing rest and comfort."

THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS

TO WORK THE KEYS OF AN ORGAN IN WORSHIP.

IT MEANS EXPRESSING JOY, OFFERING PRAISE,

TEACHING SALVATION, AND STRENGTHENING FAITH.

It also means something else

which no church musician is able to escape or deny ...

IT MEANS ENGAGING IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE.

The agency behind all the evil seen in this world 

IS NOT IMAGINARY.

HE IS NOT MAN-MADE FICTION.

HE IS NOT SOME VAGUE PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT.

Lucifer whose name meant "Light bringer" started out as an angel of very high rank in the angelic realm where all  dimensions are everlasting and time does not exist.  He was created by God to be perfect in his ways so that his noble powers be used to bless others and glorify heaven.  But after he came to indulge a desire for self-exaltation and aspired to power that it was the prerogative of God alone to wield he departed from the order of heaven and, in so doing, dishonored his Maker and brought ruin upon himself.  With pride in his own beauty and abilities nourishing the desire for supremacy and allowing jealousy of God to prevail he aspired to be equal with God, and, after setting aside all divine authority, fully casting off his allegiance to heaven, wrongly charging God with injustice toward him, and trading favors with and preying with artful deception upon the gullibility of a substantial number of God's angels to convince them to unite with him in active revolt against their Creator, he made himself into a "satan" of God, which means "adversary."

IT WAS VERY EARLY IN THE MINISTRY OF JESUS THAT THIS APOSTATE SPIRIT BEGAN HIS CRUEL WARFARE UPON THE WORLD'S REDEEMER BY SPEAKING DIRECTLY TO HIM.

The daring blasphemy of his demand that the Son of God pay him homage and make a deal with evil, his presumptuous boldness and malicious intent betrayed in urging Jesus to test and tempt God (Matt. 4:1-11), the unsleeping malice that hunted Jesus from place to place inspiring the hearts of people to reject His love, all of this unmasked Satan for who and what he really is. 

Imaginary characters do not communicate in real time like this.

Satan the devil is real.

Jesus is also real.  He is God.  He is the Creator of every human being, whether they like it or not (John 1:3).  And unless someone has a personal, intimate, indwelling relationship with the Advocate (Holy Spirit) Jesus sends to live His life inside them,

unless they have this special and precious God-given anointing that comes about from faith in His gospel,

the Christian name they've adopted means nothing. 

God's wisdom having to do with the mystery of salvation by grace through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ was kept hidden by God from the foundation of the world.  God kept it secret until He chose to reveal it to the apostle Paul beginning in Acts 9 ... because ... had Satan and his cohorts known what God was about to do through the cross work of Jesus Christ, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1Cor. 2:7-8).  The devil has been working against the prophesied coming of the Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15) ever since he first intruded himself into time, got the first humans to sin, and triggered God's judgment against man.  Satan first tricked Israel into breaking the law covenant, then reminded God that he [Satan] was holding God's chosen people captive under sin, then tried to keep Jesus from being born, then tried to have Jesus killed as an infant, then misapplied Scripture to try to throw Jesus off track, and, after none of that worked, he was instrumental finally through Judas Iscariot and the chief priests of the Jews in getting Jesus condemned to death and executed.  After Jesus died and was buried Satan thought he had won his contest against God, but he never suspected that the condemnation of man under the law also would be nailed to the cross of Jesus (Col. 2:13-15).  After the glorified Jesus in heaven supernaturally revealed to the apostle Paul that salvation was being offered to ALL through the grace of His gospel, Paul was instructed to share this mystery of grace, long held in secret, with the world at large (Eph. 6:19).  Meanwhile Satan, realizing he had been outsmarted by God, that Jesus Christ had nailed the handwriting against man [viz. the law, the operating system, Satan's trump card by which he held mankind captive] to His cross, that it took away everything from Satan that he thought he had on man and he never saw it coming, that it proved he could not know every secret, that it put him to open shame, scandalized him, showed what a dummy he really was, and that God's divine wisdom prevailed over his own, Satan's hatred for God, Christ, the Bible, and humanity became implacable, incurable, and beyond human imagination or description.  Satan's tactic today is to trick you and me with his cunning craftiness and slight-of-hand into not standing in the truth of who we really are.  Satan can't change who God is or who God has made us into by believing and having faith in Christ, but he can try to trick us out of grace back into law using flawed theology, religions, and religious authorities (2Cor. 11:3,13-15).  In past ages the introduction of many destructive heresies into the simplicity of the Christian faith is directly traceable to him and is being promoted in churches to this very day.  In recent years we find the devil working to, among other things, a) separate Jesus from His cross work, b) beguile gullible human beings into embracing atheism, cultural Marxism, totalitarian wokeism, and radical secularism, c) employ victimhood to destroy capitalism, Western culture, and the nuclear family, d) encourage worship of a classless, genderless society, e) sexualize children, f) destabilize the existing social order, and g) mock, stifle, shame, and vilify conservative Christian values and morality.   

This is quite the laundry list, but it gets worse.  Under the guise of love he engenders a harmful mentality among men to cherry pick the parts of the Bible they like and reject the parts they don't to create division and disunity.  He presents his own nefarious character as the high moral ground by cloaking it in the language of love, acceptance, and inclusion.  Satan's end game is to prey upon human weakness to dull the consciences of people, harden their hearts, fan the flames of hatred, prejudice, and disobedience, sabotage their chances for salvation, trick them if he can from grace back into law, kill their spirits, show a profit for himself, and drag their souls into hell with him.  This tactic of his, of constantly promoting the lie, isn't so much aimed at making people believe a specific untruth so much as ensuring that no one believes anything anymore.  He knows that a people who mistrust everything will be less able to know, sense, and distinguish right from wrong, that such a people deprived of the power to think and judge would be completely subject to the rule of lies, and that among them any maneuvering or manipulation is possible.

This obsessive, depraved nature of the devil is readily recognizable and sadly evident in human affairs in general, and politics and religion in particular.  No thief breaks into an empty house -- he chooses one which has something valuable to steal on the inside.  Satan too, doesn't waste his time with those who have already turned their backs on God, neither does he try to counterfeit what is already false.  He focuses instead on those who are taking their first steps in being obedient to God and on counterfeiting the true gospel.  During the last two thousand years he's succeeded this way in raising up a vast multitude of self-styled Christians of his own, self-righteous individuals living and dead who have gone through the motions of religion presuming they were part of the body of Christ when they never were (1John 2:19).  Whether he incites animosity or indifference toward God, the result is the same.  The devil couldn't care less about how many songs of praise this sham-saved army of his may sing or what kind of music their worship assemblies have so long as none of the congregants become exegetes of their own, uncover the more perfect way of truth from their own Bibles, and start doing something with it to serve God.  The church which downplays independent Bible study plays right into Satan's hands.  Those asleep in religion one morning a week and immerse themselves all the rest of the time in the sensual delights and sins of this world become double-minded (Jas. 1:8), unstable in their ways, and also are doing just what Satan wants.  If a mere fig tree earned the curse of the Lord Jesus for bearing no fruit when its leaves were plentiful (Mark 11:12-14), then it becomes the absolute business of everyone who has experienced the new birth anointing of the Holy Spirit to make their own individual contributions to bearing spiritual fruit (Gal. 5:22-23).

God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present, a Supreme Being Who exists outside of time and rules His creation with order, beauty, perfection, and intelligence.  His wisdom and very existence defies man's finite mind to comprehend or explain.  He is holy, and because of His holiness He views sin very differently than we do.  God cannot look upon it, it's ugly and revolting to Him, and so, when man became stained with sin God could no longer have fellowship with man.  Because sin has been imputed to all people through Adam a great gulf exists between man and a holy God which man cannot bridge on his own.  Sin dulls the conscience and hardens the heart of man.  While man must be judged and sentenced as a lawbreaker to satisfy God's justice, Father God is also a God of love Who in His great love has provided a plan for man's forgiveness and to restore a condition of fellowship with Him.  God planted a bridge across that great chasm to close and heal the breach between sinful humanity and a holy God.

That instrument is the cross of Christ.

People are born into this world with a) a physical BODY, b) a non-physical SOUL [mind, will, emotions] and c) a non-physical SPIRIT [conscience, intuition, divine potential] that's initially out of touch with and dead to God (1Cor. 2:11, Eph. 2:1).  Once people start using their intuition to sense outside of reason or circumstances their need for obedience to God, to believe in the Son of God and His gospel, and to repent of their sins, their spirit is then poised to connect in a  miraculous and regenerative way from the risen Jesus Christ from heaven -- a quickening of their spirit by an anointing from the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life.  Their spirit is then no longer in a spiritual blackout (2Cor. 4:4).  They are no longer only the product of a physical birth -- they have been brought forth spiritually (John 3:3, 1John 4:4,5) and are alive with a new identity (Gal. 6:15), one which delivers them from the powers of darkness (Col. 1:13).  This new birth, this "born again" condition, can happen to people in all kinds of ways, over a period of time or in a moment.  Reaching that point of decision may be very distinct or very circuitous.  But once someone is twice born like this and has been baptized with the new birth into the body of Christ (Matt. 3:11, 1Cor. 12:13, Gal. 3:27) it's the will of our heavenly Father that all who have been so anointed and sealed this way share with others what they've seen and heard about His love and what He's done for them (Col. 1:27,28). 

The pipe organ's ability to adapt to both sacred and secular contexts has allowed it to thrive for more than two thousand years.  During this time it too became deeply rooted in its Christian identity because it has been churches which have provided organists with jobs, it was primarily churches that  encouraged organists to learn the organ, and it was frequently churches that were the biggest patrons of the instrument.  While precise statistics are hard to come by, the vast majority of pipe organs today are indeed found in churches with estimates suggesting that nearly 90 per cent of them are installed in primarily Christian religious settings due to their long standing association with such ceremonies and liturgical music.  At the same time it would be untrue to say that the organ's history is solely or even primarily Christian.  In acknowledging the vast repertoire of the instrument created during the last 7 centuries it's important not to create a false dichotomy between its sacred and secular uses.  The goal should not be to remove the secular, nor the sacred, from the organ but rather to reveal the true multiplicity of its identity.

This platform's home page has already touched upon the idea that true worship stems from a sincere heart and reverence for God, that when worship becomes focused more on performers rather than spiritual connection it indicates a departure from authentic spirituality.

It follows that those organists who feel called to the music ministry these days need to know something about what the Christian institutions

with which they seek to connect themselves

are teaching.

Once a student's interest in organ playing leads them to wade into this vast ocean of learning it's inevitable that they find themselves beginning to sense -- rather sooner than later -- the conjoining between theology and organ performance,

that it all fits together. 

The situation however is not a simple one

in this present, pluralistic, politically correct world.

EVERY DENOMINATION, FELLOWSHIP, 

AND FORCED UNITY CULT

WITHIN CHURCHIANITY TODAY

EMBRACES A SYSTEM OF DOCTRINE ALL ITS OWN

WHICH CLAIMS THE BIBLE AS ITS FOUNDATION.

.

THE DIFFERENCES AMONG THEM HAVE TO DO WITH

THE DEGREE TO WHICH EACH OF THEM

PERMITS ITS OWN EISEGESIS

TO UNDERMINE THAT FOUNDATION

IN WAYS WHICH ARE

NEITHER BIBLICAL NOR CHRISTIAN

BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION.

SALVATION IS A GIFT OF GOD

(Rom. 6:25, Eph. 2:8).

IT ISN'T EARNED.  IT CANNOT BE BOUGHT.

IT'S FREE. 

WHEN ANY RELIGIOUS BELIEF SYSTEM DIRECTS PEOPLE

TO PERFORM CERTAIN WORKS OR SACRIFICES

TO DRAW DOWN SALVATION

OR FABRICATES CONDITIONS OF ITS OWN

TO QUALIFY FOR SAINTHOOD

IT RENDERS SACRED SCRIPTURE

AND THE CROSS OF CHRIST

OF NO EFFECT,

MAKES GOD INTO A LIAR,

AND DENIES HIS GRACE (Gal. 5:4).

Every believer is called "saint" in the Bible (Eph. 4:12).

 

Anyone who trusts in faith plus anything for salvation

is a debtor to do the whole law (Gal. 5:2-3).

(Good luck with that ...)

 Cowards are the first category of human souls listed [even before murderers] in God's Word (Rev. 21:8) whose end will be in the lake of fire [Gr. "Gehenna," translated "hell"] burning with brimstone, sometimes called "the second death."  This passage refers in particular to self-styled Christians who believe that sinful man is only justified when his own merit-based works are super-added to the cross work of Jesus as a sin offering.  Satan the enemy has tripped them into this suspicion, and, due to their church's faulty hermeneutics, a great deal of biblical truth ends up misconstrued, mischaracterized, and codified into its own web of flawed theology.  The moment a man is suspicious of the power of Christ's salvation like this, that same man is shutting the door of mercy in his own face.  Over one billion professing Christians today don't understand this or even recognize the season they're in because the homilies they're hearing from the pew and the messaging they're hearing from the gallery contradict or barely touch upon it, if at all.  They play church, they attend services, they may rote learn a catechism, they recite a creed, they perform a rite, they get water baptized [which portrays but does not produce salvation], they follow the prescribed routine, it makes them feel a sense of community, moral code, and humility, but in the back of their minds they're uneasy, haunted by whether they've "done enough to make it to heaven."  They're also spoon-fed the same pabulum from the cradle that they don't need to even own a Bible, that all they need to do is attend and do what they're told.  They've been tricked into believing that all relating of man to God and God to man operates through a religious heirarchy whose job is largely to give constant reassurance that their form of godliness is the only pure and valid one.  The apostle Paul described those who practice this kind of diluted, works-dependent salvation as having a form of godliness but denying its power -- moreover, he advised his student Timothy to turn away from such people (2Tim. 3:5).  Any church which puts its own interpretations of a text by reading into it its own ideas ahead of each person owning a Bible is lifeless because it has its congregants caught in the merry-go-round of religion at the expense of learning and growing in the knowledge of God that comes from independent consulting of Scripture.  Those joined with Jesus in the body of Christ bear a fixed relationship with Him and are anything but mindless robotic devotees slavishly following a prescribed system of belief -- they feel the joy and peace that only His inner presence can provide (John 15:11, 16:33) -- they love Jesus back so much because of what He's done for them that the idea of grieving the Spirit by continuing in sin becomes abhorrent -- they have no misgivings whatsoever in the singular saving power of the grace of God through faith alone in His cross work, burial, and resurrection.  The faith-perfecting works they manage to perform (Jas. 2:20-26) follow salvation not precede it, glorify God (Matt. 5:16, Eph. 2:10), and have nothing to do with drawing down God's deliverance.  

Jesus claimed, rightly, that HE was "the Way, THE TRUTH, and the life" (John 14:6).  We therefore have it on the authority of the holy and Spirit-filled Son of God that there is indeed such a thing as absolute truth and that HE was the embodiment of it.  The error and heresy of indifferentism has to do with the big lie sweeping modern society that there is no such thing as absolute truth.  It rests upon the supposition that truth is relative, that it ebbs and flows and changes depending upon what the latest polls say it is or what people want it to be, and that it doesn't matter what people believe -- it's what they do that counts.  The fact remains:  God looks upon error far differently than He does truth, always did, and always will.

The Second Vatican Council [1962-1965] commonly known as Vatican II, convened by Pope John XXIII for the purpose of spiritual renewal and to address disunity with  those outside the faith, adopted the error of ecumenism (the idea that every religion can be a path to heaven) and decreed it as official dogma when in fact this was an invalid departure from the Christian faith.  Sadly, all who have held the chair of St. Peter and have appointed all cardinal electors eligible to participate in papal conclaves since then have continued to enforce the modernist, humanist, progressive agenda of Vatican II which also embraced the tenets that

the heart [of man] is fundamentally good,

God loves everyone unconditionally, and

redemption is possible for all.

PLEASE NOTE THESE TRUTHS:

The moment we repent, believe in the Son of God,

and trust Him for everything going forward

we are crucified, buried, and raised a new creature

with Him and in Him

through the anointing agency of the Holy Spirit.

There is only One Road to heaven, and it is NOT religion.  The heart [of man] is naturally dishonest.

ALL men [people] are under condemnation for sin.

There is no redemption possible for unrepentant people who ignore or reject the gospel of grace or attribute the mighty works of the Holy Spirit to demonic powers.

The Word of God clearly states:

"No one comes to the Father except by Jesus" (John 14:6),

"The heart is deceitful above all things

and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9),

"If anyone preach any other gospel [than Christ's]

let them be accursed [damned]" (Gal. 1:8-9).

"Whosoever shall [try to] save his own life [without Christ] shall lose it" (Matt. 16:25).

The take-away is this:

Men of God, in their search to serve and minister to the faithful unheretically, cannot expect to rely upon their own intuition, reason, senses, and impressions to formulate doctrines of their own apart from Scripture

and still escape vain worship and the snare of the devil (Matt. 15:9).

There is one place, and one place only, given to man

where absolute truth can be foundas God would have us learn it (2Tim. 2:15).

And that's the Bible [KJV].

It's calamity enough to realize that Buddhists, Hindus, Jainists, Sikhs, Confucianists, Shintoists, Muslims, unbelieving Jews, wiccans, atheists, agnostics, rationalistic skeptics, and glib intellectuals who were made aware of the cross of Christ but lived their lives omitting ever receiving Him have destined themselves for eternal separation from God, but it gets worse.  Jesus warned that many self-styled, professing followers of His won't realize until it's too late that they've spent their life soaking in false belief (Matt. 7:21-23, Luke 12:32).  People can acknowledge the identity and spiritual authority of the Lord Jesus Christ [even demons do that], attend worship services regularly, sing in the choir, donate to charity, volunteer their time, and go about every performative work their church prescribes, but without having that personal, intimate, faith-filled encounter with Christ and experiencing that regenerative conversion of heart and mind that results from the moment the Advocate (Holy Spirit) He sends comes to live inside them, without that transformative anointing, make-over, and removal of the unrighteousness imputed to them from Adam, without expressing the same fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) approach to all of life that reflects being twice born, they simply DO NOT have Christ, AND HE DOES NOT KNOW THEM (Matt. 7:21-23).  Like Nicodemus their rigid philosophical and theological system may be a good plan with God at its center, but their assumptions do not allow for a starting point.  Jesus told Nicodemus, in so many words, that he could not see with spiritual insight until he embarked on a fresh journey, plunged himself of his own free will into a new system, and was born spiritually (John 3:1-5).

Being a follower of Jesus means more than trailing after his coat tails but rather woven into His coat tails.

It means being IN Him, and Him In you.

A man can go to his grave ignoring or rejecting Christ,

never having His righteousness imputed to them,

and there's nothing God can do about it.

God will do everything in His power to warn him.

He'll put negative incidents in his life.

He may even allow catastrophic loss to happen out of love,

to SAVE that man,

but God will never trespass on man's free will.

This is because God Himself has free moral agency,

and He created man in His own image (Gen. 1:27).

Our modernist, humanist culture prefers a view of God Who is all love and no justice, all mercy and no judgment, and this same line of thinking has made its way well into the pulpit.  When the apostle John wrote that God is love (1John 4:16) he did not intend it to mean that "love is the God we seek," a false dictum being promoted amiss in many quarters today.  First of all, those in the body of Christ have already found God.  In the second place it's idolatrous for anyone let alone a minister to claim divinity for and encourage the veneration of an affective emotion.  The church addicted to a steady diet of good fortune sermons, feel-good motivational speaking, promises of divine favor, and messages of thriving well-being in the here and now to the near exclusion of instructing people in more weighty matters is exercising friendship with the world.  Such a church makes the words of the Son of God of no effect (John 16:33) and sets itself at animus with God (Gal. 1:4, James 4:4).  

While God's holiness and character never change (Mal. 3:6), He has kept his prophetic program for an Israelite audience separate from His mystery program for the body of Christ.  Since mainstream denominations do not teach right division, their devotees find themselves comfortably caught in the hamster wheel of their own doctrinal preferences.  It's very sad that friendships have ended, relatives have been lost, and faith-filled believers have been kicked out of denominational churches merely for encouraging right division Bible study, as Paul advised Timothy to do (2Tim. 2:15).      

The truth is, any well-meaning denominational adherents who refuse to study and learn the more perfect way of God rightly divided as Apollos received from Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:24-26) are not understanding that the kingdom gospel given to the nation and the Twelve during the earthly ministry of Jesus doesn't save anyone in this age of grace.

ALL NEED TO BE AWARE OF SATAN'S DEVICES.

The truth is, the theory of replacement theology (the belief that the church has replaced the nation as "spiritual Israel") is a lie, a deception, a false gospel and gross error that holds most of churchianity captive.  It is the trump card the devil uses, through his own false and deceitful workers (2Cor. 11:12-15), to try to trick believers out of grace

and back into law.

"The devil cannot make hell look beautiful,

so he makes beautiful roads that lead us there."

                                           -- Saint Basil (the Great)

 

NOTE:  Repentance does not mean turning from sin.

It means a change of mind from unbelief to belief in the

name, Person, work, life, death, blood atonement, resurrection, and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

and to trust Him for everything going forward

for the rest of one's life.

Turning from sin is not required for

 but rather a by-product of repentance. 

  

Jesus conducted his earthly ministry during the dispensation of law, His messaging being directed strictly to an Israelite audience [viz. the nation].  At that time the law was still serving as a middle wall of partition between the Jews "nigh unto God" and the gentiles "without God."  The dispensation of grace at that time was still a mystery kept hidden in God.  What Paul began preaching (1Cor. 15:1-4) was the revealing of a new, deeper program of salvation by grace through faith meant for all people, Jew and Gentile alike, which Father God held in reserve until the cross and resurrection of Christ.  The cross was not a part of the kingdom gospel that Jesus preached to the Jews, but after the cross and resurrection of Jesus the status of the gentiles was changed by God in Acts 9-28.  Jesus was not sent by God to abolish the law given to the nation (Matt. 5:17) but to overcome what the law could not do (Rom. 8:1-4) and magnify it (Isa. 42:21).  The nation's program was set aside for the time being when the Jews rejected their Messiah Jesus but is destined to resume and be fulfilled after the body of Christ is removed from this world at the rapture (1Thess. 4:15-18) and this present age of grace concludes.  Paul refers to the time between this event and the conclusion of the millennial reign of Christ on this earth.

The Lord Jesus, the very embodiment of truth, when He walked this earth, was not as chummy with everyone as some have Him wrongly pictured.  Where possible He deliberately avoided interactions with gentiles (Matt. 15:21-26).  At the same time, He was kind.  He was concerned about the condition of one's heart.  He was concerned about one's soul and its spiritual condition.  He spoke with authority.  He was quite clear about the danger of hell fire (Matt. 5:22) and indicated it was far worse than suffering 38 years as a paralytic (Matt. 5:1-14).  He spoke 3 times more about hell in fact than He did about heaven.  He was also quite clear that there would be a price to pay for being His follower, that it would have NOTHING to do with prosperity in this life (John 16:33).  He said if any man were to come after Him, then let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Him (Matt. 16:24, Luke 9:23).  This could mean giving up everything, if need be, for the truth of God's Word and for His sake -- EVERYTHING -- traveling a difficult narrow road in this world, and having to bear the full brunt of the hatred and affliction that comes with it (Matt. 10:22), even if it should mean an unjust execution.  Having faith in Jesus does not trigger uncommon financial favor with God as some today are falsely teaching.  If you're going to heaven, then you're not living your best life now.  So, for those would-be new congregants who walk with God in Scripture study and prayer, who have investigated the original linguistic meanings of biblical passages, understand them in correct translation and in proper context, and are clear on biblical doctrine rightly divided (2Tim. 2:15), the dishonest gainsaying and faulty doctrine they find being preached in so many mainstream churches these days is a complete turn-off (Gal. 1:9).  They know that the sin society condones, that the clergy may disregard, overlook, or excuse, or that man has made legal, is still sin to God and has many people on the broad way that, according to the Son of God,

leads to destruction (Matt. 7:13).

There are FIVE warning signs

that people are on the road to hell:

1) denying hell's existence,

2) rejecting/ignoring Jesus as the only door to heaven,

3) not having a changed life through faith, 

4) having a hardened heart toward God, and

5) believing a false gospel. 

Any gathering of the body of Christ today is supposed to be a place where the Spirit of Christ is there, reflecting His love, joy, peace, and other attributes of the Spirit of truth (Gal. 5:22-23).  But the way mainstream churches operate today, supposedly in His name, they give potential new congregants a thousand reasons never to attend.  When the misguided say things like "God told me" they're using the language of the occult -- in this dispensation of grace God speaks to us, fulfilling His Word to completion, through the Holy Spirit-inspired 13 epistles [Romans thru Philemon] of the apostle Paul (Col. 1:25-27).  As for the music, the larger congregations may still have an organ of some kind in mostly or partly working condition, but most, sad to say, do not have anyone to play it.  More often than not they rely upon a piano to accompany any live singing.  As for the listeners, a fair number of them really do not prefer the "pop concert" swing-and-sway atmosphere which now pervades the church music scene.  High-tech assisted worship, for them, is unnecessarily complicated.  They want the music reasonably familiar to them, time-tested, simple, easy to figure out, easy to follow, something that doesn't get them lost, and that makes a sound doctrinal statement.  

 

To hear so many congregants talking today the well-meaning rock band performing all kinds of special music of their own, while all well and good, is, frankly, wasted on them in a worship setting.  They agree that there is plenty of room for musical creativity, excellence, and talent, but they also admit that it should work with and not compete with assembled voices uplifted in worship.  They want to hear ALL of God's people united in praise, not merely the praise band singers.  They don't want to be forced to stumble through or silently listen to unfamiliar music and words they have trouble following while gazing at lines flashing across a Jumbotron screen.  They want to KNOW the music so they can sing it from their hearts.

This is a sobering situation facing the music ministry today.  Trends like this have pushed many an organist, whether deliberately or not, out of the picture right along with the traditional hymn book.  The current so-called shortage-of-organists can be attributed in large part to the concert atmosphere that's developed and the fact that worship attendance and offerings have been dwindling.  Consequently fewer young people are undertaking the study of an instrument whose proficiency demands much time, effort, and expense to develop, not to mention maintaining the several skill sets involved, but doesn't provide commensurate financial return.  There are some organists out there, of course, who attempt to make a full-time living from their music with a pay scale which provides for a part of their needs, health coverage, and other considerations, but such positions are very, very few and far between.  It's a fact that a great many churches these days have lost their organists because their musicians are expected to perform weekly for zero compensation.  The best case scenario seems to be relying on doing something else for a primary income which would allow someone to pursue the music ministry with a mind free of undue concern.       

In terms of filling the pews every week, the very misguided disuse of the hymnal and organ in worship and replacing them with a MIDI band has come at a very high price.  Hymnals and organs have become the scapegoats for the decline in church attendance when the exact opposite is true.  It's a brutal truth of modern society that a great many people of faith feel the so-called "praise music" being served up in so many churches today is atrocious and reason enough to keep them out of church on Sunday.  They feel it amounts to nothing but loud banging and tuneless words that have no spiritual meaning whatsoever -- a heartbreaking departure from the theologically sound hymns they grew up with.  They feel that young people today are being deprived of some of the greatest music traditions that have inspired Western missionaries to go take the gospel to far-flung places, promote patience in suffering, and bring hope to the walking wounded of this world.  They find the simplistic and repetitive chanting that counts as worship music today is frankly depressing and, in their opinion, an affront to God.  They fail to see why the stunning Christian church music written by composers like Bach, Handel, and Beethoven [not to mention the rich repertoire of organ music composed during the last 700 years, the lion's share of which was either expressly written or can be purposed for worship] is being shoved aside in deference to spiritually hollow noise.  They believe it's a tremendous disservice to serve up this dissonant and discordant drivel to folk who want an uplifting worship experience.  A few of them are even more blunt about it and feel the so-called "Christian song writers/lyricists" of today who create and sell this kind of shallow junk "music" to churches ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Whether churchianity wants to acknowledge it or not,

that's where it is.  

The resulting fallout in education has involved school faculties which seem to be more challenged than ever before to recruit organ students.  The fact remains: when people regularly assemble to hear the Word of God, fellowship in a spirit of joy, and sing praises to Him, the effectiveness of the use of psalms, hymns, and spiritual [not theatrical] songs sung from the heart which a) are strong in doctrine, b) are not mantra or emotionally driven, c) are not filled with repetitive lyrics, d) make melody to the Lord [not an audience] (Eph. 5:19), and d) teach and admonish in a spirit of grace (Col. 3:16), for lifting up the voice for God's greater glory and to exalt the holy and blessed name of Jesus, has never been equaled, let alone surpassed.

NOTE:  This turnabout trend in so many of the churches today is to breed audiences and write off traditional hymn-singing by the congregants as non-productive.

The Lord Jesus didn't think so.

The last thing He and His closest apostles did before leaving for Gethsemane on the night He was betrayed was to sing a hymn with them to strengthen their faith for the dark hours ahead (Matt. 26:30, Mark 14:26).  Our blessed Saviour acknowledged the inherent power of drawing people closer to God when they all join in lifting their voices to Him in praise [See blog, Hymns, Parts I-XII].

There's a tremendous lesson in this.

Hymns are theological statements set to music.

• Hymns serve as a means to teach and reinforce the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith.  Many contemporary songs simply lack the depth and theological richness that hymns provide.  Hymns can help educate and spiritually nourish congregations of all sizes.
• Hymns have connected generations of believers throughout history.  The singing of just one hymn at an appropriate moment, something approved of and encouraged by Jesus Himself (Matt. 26:30, Mark 14:26), can serve as a bridge between the church's past and its present, reminding all participants they are part of a much larger, timeless group which shares unity and continuity in worshiping God.
• Hymns are easy to remember.  Their melodies and lyrics stay with people for a lifetime.  Congregants can carry the messages and lessons contained in hymns throughout their lives, reinforcing their faith.
• Hymns can be a unifying force among a diverse congregation.  They transcend cultural and language barriers and provide an opportunity for people of different backgrounds to worship together.  They are a beautiful expression of unity in Christ among various sundry peoples that gives them a real sense of identity and belonging.
• Hymns can offer a broader musical palette and a sense of balance in worship.  They are flexible, arrangeable, and can accommodate a wide multiplicity of musical tastes and preferences.
• Hymns often carry deep emotional resonance.  Their melodies and lyrics can evoke strong feelings of reverence, joy, comfort, and pleasant memories of departed loved-ones.  They reach deeply into the soul, beckon the unsaved, and provide a safe space for people to express their emotions, a place where they can find solace and healing.
• Hymns can be powerful teaching tools.  They can be and are very often used to instruct and encourage, especially in conjunction with the preaching of sermons.  Many hymns are directly tied to biblical passages and stories, making them valuable teaching aids.
• Hymns preserve a sacred legacy for future generations.  These timeless songs of the church are a way that children and grandchildren have the opportunity to experience an unbroken musical heritage.  

While it would be narrow-minded to think that hymn singing out of the hymnal is incapable of joining in praise with other kinds of worship music when congregations gather to offer praise to God, it does provide a great deal of spiritual depth, theological richness, timeless connection, memorability, inclusivity, variety and balance, and emotional resonance while serving as a powerful teaching tool with a living legacy.  There's also something else to consider:  just holding a hymnal during worship is important.  Practically speaking, hymn books cannot break down in the middle of a liturgy like technology can.  Musically, they teach -- looking at notes on a page as opposed to just lyrics helps people learn the basics of melodic direction and rhythmic value, giving them the first steps in learning to read music.  Theologically, congregants don't just see what the worship leader has selected but are instead exposed to the full repertoire.  They can turn the page and encounter hymns in other languages, reminding them of the church's diversity.  Seeing old hymns next to newer ones unites them with all believers throughout history.  Hymnals are also symbols of consistency.  Unlike a screen that fades or a paper bulletin which is discarded, they demonstrate that what is being sung is worth keeping around as well as reminding everyone that prayer is continuous and can't be turned off or discarded.  Hymnals are something that can and should be held proudly in the hands.  The fact that congregants have a voice and the organist has an organ which can lead them remains a very dynamic way to enrich the spiritual lives of congregations by maintaining connection with the church's roots, providing a robust theological foundation, reminding people of God's love and grace, and fostering unity and inclusivity while helping to stir souls and draw them closer to God.

At the same time, Jesus died to save sinners,

not to create the mayhem of denominations

we see today.

ORGANISTS PLEASE TAKE NOTE:

When the Bible is not consulted as authoritative for guidance and direction from God there are no limits to the denominations, religions, and forced unity cults people can come up with to suit their own fancies and feed their beliefs.  During the first decades of church history the world quickly became saturated with an untold number of contentious and divided Christian factions all claiming doctrinal purity and all of them in disagreement (1Cor. 1:10-15).  In more recent times these factions have multiplied exponentially many times over. Each of them has retranslated the unerrant Word of God to get it in agreement with its own doctrine -- a situation where man leads the Bible rather than the Bible leading man.  Among the many negative issues impacting the church today, biblical illiteracy and lack of biblical authority are in the forefront along with no fear of God [lack of understanding of His sovereignty and character], very little discipleship, liberal doctrines [politics from the pulpit], and the comforts of 21st century life which make for a lukewarm Christianity.  But while Father God's nature never changes (Mal. 3:6), He has dispensed different sets of instructions for different people, or groups of people, at different periods of time in order to bring about the redemption of mankind.

The book of Acts records the historical transition from law to grace, from prophecy to mystery, from national kingdom to the body of Christ.  The purpose of the law given to the Jewish nation was to serve as a middle wall of partition between Israel and the gentiles; it was a mirror to reveal the condition of the human heart, show the nation what God expected for obedience in time past, and ultimately to lead us to Christ.  The trouble was, the law was weak in that it had no power to change a sinful heart or to save anyone (Rom. 3:20, Titus 3:5).  God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to take our sins to the cross, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in all who believe in the name, Person, work, life, death, blood atonement, resurrection, and grace of the crucified Lord Jesus and walk thereafter in the Spirit (Rom. 8:1-4),

FULLY JUSTIFIED by grace through faith in Him. 

Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom (Matt. 4:23) which was good news to the nation -- a message rooted in prophecy not the mystery of the cross.  Every time Jesus mentioned His death during His earthly ministry it was privately to His disciples (Mark 8:31).  But they didn't rejoice.  They didn't preach it.  They didn't even understand it (Mark 9:32).  At that time the meaning and purpose of the cross was hidden because it had to be.  Had Satan and the princes of this world known [ahead of time] what the cross would accomplish they would not have crucified the Lord Jesus (1Cor. 2:7-8).  The mystery gospel of the cross was not revealed until after the cross and resurrection of Christ, through the apostle Paul (Gal. 1:11-12).  When the kingdom gospel Jesus directed only to the Jewish nation gets blended with the mystery gospel Paul directed to both Jew and gentile -- a situation found in a great many denominational assemblies today -- the resulting doctrine becomes 1) a mix of law with grace, 2) the preaching of a gospel without a cross, 3) a keeping of people in this age of grace under Israel's kingdom program, and 4) a blurring of the unique role of the body of Christ.  Jesus DID NOT preach the cross for salvation during His earthly ministry -- He foretold it, but didn't explain it as good news.  That message was committed from the risen Jesus in heaven to His chosen vessel, the apostle Paul (1Cor. 15:1-4), to be made known to all the world through him [Paul].  To fully understand and rejoice in Christ's finished work every believer needs to study the Bible dispensationally, rightly divide prophecy from mystery, and understand when and how the cross became good news.  Because the King of Instruments and the ministry of the organist have a united role to play in salvation it's important for the organist to understand that it isn't Jesus' preaching during His earthly life that saves anyone -- it's what He accomplished with His death on the cross, revealed afterward through Paul.  Rightly dividing truth from truth (2Tim. 2:15) helps us understand that Jesus came first to fulfill prophecy for the nation (Matt. 15:24), the mystery of the cross and its saving power was revealed later after Israel fell (Rom. 11:11-12), the church has NOT replaced the nation in God's plan -- it's the same Saviour but two different revelations at different times -- and Paul's message is where we find the gospel [of grace] that saves believers today (1Cor. 1:17-18).     

     

 

God, through Paul, told us almost 2,000 years ago how (and why) to study His written Word (2Tim. 2:7, 15-16).  In the King James version of the Bible [KJV] right division is necessary to be "approved of God," this in order for Him to "give us understanding in all things."  If we DON'T rightly divide, then Paul says we will be subject to "profane and vain babblings" which will "increase unto more ungodliness."  Not good.  These three verses [7, 15, 16] from 2Timothy chapter 2 are crystal clear to believing hearts who have received the love of the truth.  Again, God through Paul [KJV] gives us three important divisions:  1) "time past" (Eph. 2, 11-12), 2) "but now" (Eph. 2:13), and 3) "ages to come" (Eph. 2:7).  The basic characteristics of these three time periods are described in Ephesians chapter 2.  The KJV Bible gives another major division that God Himself has made:  1) prophecy -- that which was spoken since the world began (Acts 3:21), and 2) mystery -- that which was kept secret since the world began (Rom. 16:25).  You think there might be a difference between that which was spoken and that which was kept secret?  Absolutely!  That's your vision fixer.  Get this division, and really SEE what you've been missing; reject this division, and stay confused and in darkness (and not even know it).

  Prophecy and mystery are the TWO DIFFERENT WAYS in which God has revealed Himself and His Word to mankind.  The former was SPOKEN about since the beginning -- God spoke through the prophets, the words of Jesus, and the Twelve about the promises of a kingdom [of God, of heaven] for His chosen people and nation to reign one day on this earth.  The latter was kept SECRET by God since the beginning, which He hid in Himself (Eph. 3:9) concerning His plan of salvation for Jews and gentiles alike by grace through faith in the cross work of Jesus, His resurrection, and His revelation of the mystery to the apostle Paul about the body of Christ.  THAT secret, THAT mystery, is what God used to completely defeat Satan (1Cor. 2:7-8).  This is why Satan hates the mystery being taught, because it exposes his shame and glorifies the wisdom of God, and he will stop at nothing

to deceive man into rejecting it.

The prime key to understanding the whole Bible

as God wants for people to understand it,

is right division [as Paul taught it to Timothy].

It cannot be denied that some very basic yet profound divisions are to be found in Gods' written Word -- 66 books which record different sets of instructions or programs for different people, or groups of people, over different time periods -- knowledge which God Himself has caused to be shared with man and made readily available in the pages of the KJV Bible for all to read and see.  And yet, anyone who browses the biblically-related social media online sites these days will discover a substantial number of self-styled Bible zealots standing armed and ready at a moment's notice to denounce and belittle this teaching without provocation of any kind.  Based on past experience, partisans like this are prone to accuse, criticize, and condemn anyone calling themselves a Christian who they think aren't placing Jesus' teachings [to an Israelite audience] front and center for the body of Christ today.  They blame this on what they call "the lie of dispensationalism" without being able to offer any clear connections or remarks as to what exactly about it is untrue.  Additionally, they irreverently publish images touting this canard all over social media believing that, by so doing, they're offering God service.  By dishonestly and falsely claiming that dispensationalism is "heresy" -- a despicable charge without any basis in truth leveled against God's wisdom -- they not only end up being dissidents, schismatics, and fibsters themselves but they develop a cognitive bias that leads them to overestimate their own insight with and discernment of the Scriptures [See blog, Dunning-Kruger effect].  Because their limited insight and discernment prevents them from seeing what insight and discernment that remains for them to learn, bigoted people like this only know to fear and censure what they don't understand.  So they approach with a closed and argumentative mindset any biblical learning that isn't in line with the own long held but mistaken convictions.  When misguided would-be experts like this set out to make a theological amalgam out of God's two distinct programs He has purposely kept separate to work out His divine plan over thousands of years to ultimately defeat Satan and redeem fallen man, their minds get caught in this mixmaster of opaque exegesis.  Paul warned Timothy about this, but it's also a warning to everyone that, to truly discern and understand God's Word in this current age of grace, 

it's necessary to divide biblical truth from biblical truth, prophecy from mystery,

law from grace,

the nation [Israel] from the body of Christ,

"time past" from "but now" from "ages to come."

To infer that right division means

dividing biblical truth from worldly error

(as so many have presupposed and are being taught) 

IS A WRONG READING.

      THAT ISN'T WHAT PAUL IS SAYING.       

Contentious professing Christians like this always seem to be on the defensive with a chip on their shoulder, claw and fang poised ever at the ready to argue their case like a lawyer in opposition to anyone who expresses any glimmer of deeper insight or discernment than they have.  Our heavenly Father undoubtedly takes a very dim view of people who assume this kind of posture for study and teaching of His Word.

A stubborn, acrimonious refusal

to recognize and accept the truth and wisdom of God

that He has chosen to make known to man

springs from the same kind of vainglorious attitude

   that sent the Son of God to the cross.

Since our modern seminaries do not teach Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, the majority of preachers and teachers do not know the biblical answer to what happened to Israel, the nation God created (Gen. 35:9-11).  In an attempt to make an excuse for God for the past two millennia, some would like to propose that God has given up on Israel and replaced Israel with the church today, a proposition that's anything but biblical and makes God's promise (Gen. 12:2) of no effect.  Another suggestion is that Israel was actually a metaphor for the church today; they proclaim that Israel is not given up because we ARE Israel.  This requires an extremely loose and alleghorical reading of much of God's written Word.  Seven centuries before Christ it was prophesied that the nation's Messiah would come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 15:24) and that they would subsequently reject Him (Isa. 53:3-5).  In fulfillment of prophecy Christ came to preach the coming and offering of the kingdom to Israel.  Israel rejected His message of faith and repentance to the point of crucifying Him on a cross.  His crucifixion and the stumbling of Israel at the cross was not a secret; Peter preached the message of the stumbling stone in His first letter (1Pet. 2:8).  Yet Peter continued to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to the nation Israel (Acts 2:38).  According to prophecy a remnant of this nation would suffer through the coming great tribulation on this earth in the latter days (Matt. 24:29-30) under the protection of the Holy Spirit, the result being a refined Israel where only the righteous remained (Isa. 4:3-5).  These righteous would enter the kingdom and fulfill the promise of the rise of Israel among the gentiles (Isa. 62:1-2), yet the tribulation Jesus described did not occur, is still a future event, and Israel is not yet preeminent among all nations.

The answer to what has happened to Israel lies in the knowledge of the revelation of the mystery given to the apostle Paul (Rom. 16:25, Eph. 3:1).  This secret information is not to be found among the prophetic writings for it was hid in God (Eph. 3:9).  The subject of this information involved at least 7 distinct changes in God's dealings with man [Creation, Flood, Tower of Babel, Abraham, Dispensation of Law, Fall of Israel, Dispensation of Grace] one of which is the temporary fall of Israel (Rom. 11:11).  It was the gentile nations that would eventually come to Israel and seek God (Zech. 8:22-23).  Yet it was kept secret also that through the fall of Israel salvation would come to all of mankind.  This information was not known in prior Scriptures (Rom. 11:25) but was given to Paul by revelation from the risen Jesus in heaven and recorded in Paul's 13 epistles [Romans thru Philemon].  In this age God has counted Israel in unbelief among the gentiles so that He could have mercy upon all men freely (Rom. 3:24, 11:32).  Scripture is very specific to address the issue of Israel's return (Rom. 11:12).  It is also clear that at some future time God will restore Israel and fulfill the prophecies concerning their rise and earthly dominion under God -- but it will not occur until this age of grace, wherein there is no national distinction before God, is complete.  As a result we can all freely receive God's mercy through Jesus Christ through faith apart from any national standing before God.  The lack of recognition of this dispensational change regarding Israel has led to a variety of false notions concerning politics and foreign affairs with Israel as well as mainstream Christian denominational belief.  The takeaway is that during this current age God has counted Israel in unbelief and in need of the grace of God just as the other nations (Rom. 11:3).

  

                   

Those in the body of Christ today don't get to follow Jesus on their own terms, neither do they get to worship God just with their heart or any other way they want.  Referring to the Scriptures, Christ taught that people must worship God in spirit AND in truth (John 4:24).  Both are necessary and non-negotiable conditions according to Jesus, which means that the Bible is conjoined with the hymnal (and comes before it).  Preachers who go along to get along are leading many churches today.  More time is spent listening to and watching Christian-based songs performed at their services than the messaging people need to hear.  Since congregations learn their theology not only by the preaching they hear but by the songs they sing it's important to bear in mind that Satan the devil, as described above, also is a musician -- he knows all about music, and his workmanship in this department was prepared for him in heaven from the time he was created (Ezek. 28:13).  As a largely underestimated master of disguise, Satan is well aware that spiritual giftedness, especially in the creative arts, does not equal spiritual maturity.  So, with characteristic, unmitigated gall he cunningly and treacherously deceives and preys upon any well-meaning but unwary, underinformed, misinformed, and susceptible praise song writers.  He specifically targets their proficiency in crafting poetic and artistic language to perpetrate a hoax; he misleads them to incorporate what's theologically false into the lyrics they're matching to the latest captivating tune to issue from their pen.  In so doing, this malevolent being, working undercover, exploits the creativity of the naive musician to adroitly assemble a Trojan Horse for him.  The musical product is a very subtle, perfidious imposture which on its surface looks and sounds and seems uplifting, reverent, and honoring to God but when introduced into and performed at worship it ends up achieving the pernicious end that Satan wants; its wording, when mirrored against biblical truth, is irreverent and lacking honor to God while at the same time promoting what's untrue in such an astute and guileful way that it goes unnoticed.  This is only one way that Satan, the ruler and god of this world (John 16:11, 2Cor. 4:4) who knows that God will not trespass on man's free will, exploits churchianity.  He worms his way into the arts, infiltrates religious thinking and worship, and manipulates the people involved (including seminary attendees & musicians); he manipulates places (including pulpits & the elevated dais); he manipulates things (including seminaries, liturgies, bible translations, theologies, music, etc.) to taint the purity of biblical truth -- in this case within sung stanzas of songs -- just enough to discolor with error the purity of truth.  Incognizant singers who are duped by all of this may be charter members of their church, they may have multiple baptismal certificates to their name, have a drawer full of Sunday school pins, have never missed choir practice, and still end up, of their own free choice, missing their chance to experience God's presence and fellowship with Him forever.  As long as the result is still the same, Satan is fine with that.  As stated, the devil doesn't come on as a bad guy; he works behind the scenes masquerading as a good guy to achieve his ends; he doesn't give a hoot about how much people sing praises to God in the churches every week as long as the singing is off target.  Satan, master of fine-spun, insidious propaganda that he is, ambush predator walking about this earth seeking whom he can devour that he is (1Pet. 5:8), arrogant, brazen, back-stabbing traitor to God that he is, hates man, hates the Word of God rightly divided, and hates the true gospel, is infuriated by it, and will stop at nothing, and stoop to anything, to contaminate and pollute its message, lure people away from God, and get them to disqualify themselves by any tantalizing and nefarious means his genius can contrive.  This is because Satan knows that a) no man has ever turned away from God and found happiness, joy, and peace that was lasting and permanent, b) God has made

+  the cross of Christ  +

the road to heaven, c) there isn't any other way for sinful man to be forgiven and enter into eternal fellowship with God, d) the man or woman who refuses to accept the shelter it offers is doomed, and e) it's been made crystal clear that anyone saved by it is no longer dead in spirit (alive physically but without relationship or fellowship with God) but part of a new creature called the body of Christ, miraculously formed by grace through faith, against which no weapon formed, seen or unseen, shall prosper (Isa. 54:17).  

Is this what's really going on in the churches,

in the minds of preachers, church boards,

church-goers, Bible aficionados,

and with church music today?

Dear organist friends, you better believe it.

How you process it will determine

where you spend eternity.

As for the classic hymns which form the backbone of church organ work, there is much poetic and artistic language in them but it's always combined with a reverence and an honoring to God that's sadly lacking in a fair number of the newer songs used in praise.  It pays dividends to follow Paul's example (1Cor. 14:15) when he says he will sing with the spirit and also sing with the understanding.  This is another reason why organists who play for mainstream denominations cannot afford to be unacquainted with right division Bible study.  When there is a proper way to sing to the Lord, i.e. in the spirit with both truth and understanding, then people should avoid singing songs to God that they do not understand -- because if it's something they don't understand, then it's truthfulness cannot be determined.  People fail to catch any untruths in the stanzas they're singing in worship without knowing the truth directly from sacred Scripture.  This makes it incumbent upon organists as well as praise music writers and other performers involved in the music ministry to reflect upon the body of belief being taught where the music they perform is being heard.   

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BOTTOM LINE MESSAGE FOR ORGANISTS:

Because it takes a lot of years to get to a point where you can use your music to make a living, even partially, you need to find a balance between what part of your music is ministry and what part of it is career.  Doing music doesn't always give instant gratification from others.  The unspoken compliments are valuable, too.  Just blessing and touching someone's heart and soul with something you play is the goal.  Let God do His work through your music.  He will give the increase.  Keep on working, and keep on enjoying what you do.  Keep your eye on the finish line and beyond.  Remember as well, it's extremely easy to get burned out with music.  It's hard work, and negative criticism hurts.  Try to ignore the negative junk.  Music is a wonderful journey but certainly not a perfect one, either.  Give your concerns whatever they are to the heavenly Father, and put your burden in His hands.  You are no accident.  God loves you.  He knew you before you were born.  He has invested you with a combination of traits and abilities unlike anyone else who has ever walked the face of this earth.

As an organist drawn to serve in Christian worship you are uniquely, almost strangely, endowed and readied to advance just the way you are to take on the assignment God has in mind for you, and He has caused you to come into this world and put you right where you are, in this generation, to play a role in His master plan for man in the here and now (Rom. 8:28-30).  That purpose may not be always crystal clear to us, but you can bet it's clear to Him.  Implore His help in prayer, tell Him the efforts you're making are for His greater glory and for the glory of His Son, sincerely believe it, then show Him your faith by thanking Him ahead of time for removing whatever obstacle(s) may be standing in your way.

It doesn't matter if you find yourself at an impasse.

It doesn't matter if there seems to be no way to get on.

It doesn't matter if you find yourself stuck in place

lacking this, lacking that, and lacking the other thing.

With God, NOTHING is impossible (Matt. 19:26, Luke 1:37).

Thank Him for creating a door when none is there

and opening it ahead of you.

Ask Him to show you the way forward

to become whatever it is that He wants you to become

in accordance with His will.

Trust Him to solve your puny little problem

and believe the solution is already signed, sealed,

and on its way.

If you believe this in your heart, it demonstrates your faith.

Be mindful after that, of what happens (2Thess. 3:3).

Faith is what moves the hand of God.

May the good Lord bless you this day

and forever.

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