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When
did Sunday worship services become Sunday music and
entertainment services? Reader, there isn't a First
Day of the week music and entertainment service recorded in the
entire New Testament. In every occasion mentioned they met
to hear the teaching of the Word of God. In fact, music is
only mentioned thee times in the New Testament concerning the
Church:
Ephesians
5:19
"speaking to one another in psalms and hymns
-- and -- spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the
Lord." (--, MY EMPHASIS ADDED)
Colossians 3:16
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the
Lord."
Just
before our Lord's crucifixion, He and the Disciples sang a hymn:
Matthew
26:30
"And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount
of Olives."
Mark 14:26
"And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount
of Olives."
In
Ephesians and Colossians, please note the order of music:
"Psalms
and Hymns and Spiritual songs"
Just
before our Lord's crucifixion, note what it was Christ and His
Disciples sang:
"...when
they had sung a hymn..."
Pastors
are ordained to preach the Word, not entertain, 2
Timothy 4:1-5:
"I
charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who
will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His
kingdom: [2] Preach the
word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince,
rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. [3]
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but according to their own desires, because they have itching
ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; [4]
and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned
aside to fables. [5] But you
be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an
evangelist, fulfill your ministry."
Small
and large congregations are divided over music and not sin
issues, shame on us,
"Now I plead with you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the
same judgment," 1 Corinthians 1:10;
"But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you,
because you come together not for the better but for the worse. [18]
For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I
hear that divisions exist among you; and in part, I believe
it," 1 Corinthians 11:17-18!
Let's
look at the results of the late 20th and early 21st
century worship
services (roughly 40 years):
*Church attendance is down
*The vast majority of Churches only have one
Sunday worship service,
*local churches
are closing,
*Christians and Christian families are doing
everything on the Lord's Day (Sunday)
that they do on the other six
days of the week,
*The divorce rate among Church members is
exponentially trending upward, and,
in
most regions, it is the same as the unsaved crowd and in other regions,
it is
higher than
the unsaved crowd.
Am
I reporting a progressive trend here?
I'm not going to dwell on the following issue because God's Word
explains this issue very well:
Proverbs
22:28
"Do not remove the ancient landmark
Which your fathers have set."
Isaiah 3:5
"The people will be oppressed,
Every one by another and every one by his neighbor;
The child will be insolent toward the elder,
And the base toward the honorable."
I'll
be blunt. Those of us with the silver hair (and many with
little and no hair) who are growing very
close to our three score and ten years of age, and, the
many of us who are way past our three score and ten years know
what works, what God honors and what God blesses. We are a
part of God's "ancient landmarks" to and in the local Church. The younger generations didn't "just
happen." We gave birth to you. We
remember very well the successful, growing community Church
family ministries, the successful Christian family marriages,
the Christian colleges and seminaries and the growing and
flourishing home and foreign missionary agencies.
Today our Christian Church Family ministries, Christian
marriages, colleges, seminaries and home and foreign missionary
agencies are but a mere shadow of what they once were. Many of you in your 20s, 30s and 40s don't have a clue what I'm
talking about and yet you are the folks running the Church and
Her ministries?
I
HAVE SOME CLOSING QUESTIONS FOR YOU:
Have
you displaced or removed the ancient landmarks?
What
is your attitude concerning your elders, respectful,
appreciative, as
a student, encouraging
or insolent?
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