and if the occasion presents itself, point out the error. Straining out a gnat? Not at all; for in the teaching of any subject, truth is central. An ex ample of this is found in the favorite hymn o f the writer, “Arise, My Soul, Arise.” In the last stanza of the hymn, the first line is “My God is recon ciled.” The Bible never states this. Rather it pre sents God as the Reconciler and man as the one who is reconciled. How simple then to change the word is to has and offer a Biblical explanation as to why it was changed. Admonishing This word appears in the Bible with both a negative and a positive aspect. Negatively, it means to warn-, and positively to exhort. In this passage the meaning is probably the latter. Vine in his com mentary, The Epistles o f Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians says in a footnote, “ The difference between ‘admonish’ and ‘teach’ seems to be that, whereas the former has mainly in view the things that are wrong and call for warning, the latter has to do chiefly with the impartation o f positive truth . . .” The theme of admonishing is found then in such a hymn as that in Ephesians 5:14: Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, And Christ shall shine upon thee (ASV). or that in Second Timothy 2:11-13: The music o f the Christian is to express his experience with the Lord. These experiences are not found in a vacuum though many seem to relate this in musical and verbal testimony. Rather, that experience must come out of the knowledge of God’s revelation concerning Himself, His work creatively and redemptively. The setting o f the music o f the soul is then to be in the framework of spirituality. The wisdom that is from above (James 3:18) is set in contrast with human wis dom which is promoted from “ earthly, sensual, devilish” sources. Music is the prince of the arts. Christians dare not continue to banish its spiritual usefulness from the palace of holiness to the parlor of the flesh. Tapping the foot can never be a sub stitute for true thanksgiving bom out of the study of the Word o f God. Sentimentality will never re place spirituality in God’s desire toward us. May we echo the words of Paul in making sense of our singing, “ I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also” (I Cor. 14:15b). F o r U we died with him, we shall also live with him: it we endure, we shall also reign with him: II we shall deng him, he also will deng us: it we are taithless, he ahideth faithful; for he cannot deng himself (A SV ).
Too l o r T yran t? music is a powerful tool in communications!
I N HUNDREDS OF RADIO STATIONS around the world, music is the predominant means of at tracting, holding and entertaining listeners. Since the late 1940’s when radio in America was revolutionized by the “News and Music” formats, later to be known by such interesting names as “Top Forty,” “Middle of the Road” and “ Rock and Roll” programming, music has dominated the airwaves. Innovations in music licensing, the ad vent of FM and technical breakthroughs on the part of the recording industry coupled with the rapid proliferation of radio and television stations, launched first the USA and then the rest o f the world into the current “music explosion.” Because of the international scope of broadcasting and the recording industry, it is not uncommon to hear the same music played almost universally in the me dium and upper class restaurants and hotels and FM stations on virtually all seven continents. Among the beneficiaries of this tremendous surge of musical interest are the Religious Record ing Companies and artists. It is also interesting that musical trends o f both the secular and reli gious recording industries have followed what might be called parallel courses. It is possible to listen to “ hard rock” music with contemporary Gospel lyrics from albums bearing the highly re spected label of some of the established religious recording companies. While it may not have precipitated it, this trend has certainly contributed largely to a great contro versy among Christian music educators, recording artists, church musicians and the so-called Chris tian public in general. Some have referred to this phenomena as a “world revolution” in sacred music.
Richard I. McNeely , Th.D., is Professor of Biblical Studies at Biola College, La Mirada, California.
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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