1 Corinthians 10:18-20 provides vital instruction that every believer must heed:
1 Corinthians 10:18 Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? 19 What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? 20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
To eat in a worship context of what has been sacrificed on an altar to an idol is to be a partaker of the altar. To do so is also to have fellowship with demons!
Such fellowship with demons is not contingent upon a person's having to offer the sacrifices himself. Anyone who eats of such sacrifices comes into fellowship with demons.
The passage also does not provide any basis to say or to hold that this only happens sometimes--in a worship context, anyone who eats what has been sacrificed to an idol has fellowship with demons. God does not want any humans to have fellowship with demons!
Additional credible testimonies against rock music abound
In addition to the testimonies that I have previously provided in this thread (which were not comments by Gene Simmons), believers seeking credible testimonies against rock music's occult character should consult the numerous additional credible testimonies against its occult character that are provided in the 28-page chapter, "Strange Fire," in Can We Rock the Gospel: Rock music's impact on worship and evangelism by John Blanchard and Dan Lucarini.
Other sources beyond that chapter also exist and firmly establish that credible testimonies against the occult character of rock music abound and support believers' complete and permanent rejection of all such music.
And again....
Comments by a small subset of rock & roll artists, none of whom appear to have suffered the fates of those actually afflicted by demons in the Scriptures, tell us precisely nothing about how the vast majority of musicians in the genre operate. Come on, Rajesh, if you're going to argue "demonic influence", you can't say "some equals all" or "the experience of some impugns the work of all". It's basic Aristotelian logic and the principle that doing so is called "hasty generalization." And in the same way, if you're going to argue "demonic influence", then the experience of those so influenced ought to parallel what those so influenced in the Scripture experienced--Saul, Job, Nebuchadnezzar, etc..
Job is particularly important because he clearly not possessed per se, but when demons/Satan are allowed to attack him, they make his life a living Hell. We might infer from the Scriptures that where demons are allowed to attack, they are allowed to cause harm, but not good--and that argues strongly against the idea that rock & roll suffers uniformly from demonic influence. If it were so, you'd expect them, again, to be in rags, scratching their boils with a rock, etc..
It's time to let your "dance track length guilt by association fallacy" go, Rajesh. Or really, long past time.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
RajeshG wrote:
You've made a declarative assertion here. Are you going to support it, or just run from the conversation?
Kevin Miller wrote:
I am not going to rehash ground that I have already covered in this thread. You are welcome to go back in this thread and find the testimonies cited and refresh yourself with that knowledge.
Believers who choose to follow divine revelation and reject completely music that is connected to the occult do not have any obligations to discuss further any specifics or answer any further specific questions about how, why, etc. such music should be rejected.
RajeshG wrote:
Kevin Miller wrote:
Believers who have carefully researched and examined the numerous testimonies about the occult character of rock music have abundant evidence for rejecting it in its totality as a work of darkness (Eph. 5:11) without having to have specific biblical statements that specifically talk about rock music in specific terms of musical elements.
The Bible never teaches that musicology is the divinely declared standard for knowing what music is acceptable to God and what music is not. Providing biblical statements about unacceptable musical elements is not necessary for knowing what music believers are to reject.
In His perfect wisdom, God has declared that rejecting the works of darkness does not require extensive investigation and analysis of those works; in fact, God forbids such investigation and analysis. With multiple witnesses about the occult character of rock music, careful believers have more than sufficient evidence (2 Cor. 13:1; etc.) to reject it completely and permanently.
RajeshG wrote:
Kevin Miller wrote:
I do not need any biblical support for saying that a particular beat is a work of darkness. Rock musicians themselves have testified that they have taken such elements from practitioners of the occult.
In spite of such testimonies, if you want to claim that those elements are not ungodly even though they were taken from practitioners of the occult, you have the burden of proving that they are not ungodly.
You do not have any Bible to support saying that God accepts the use of all types of beats in music, especially not in worship music. When, therefore, rock musicians testify that they have taken that element from music of the occult, you do not have any biblical basis for asserting that element is fit for any Christian use.
RajeshG wrote:
If I was to claim that jogging is a work of darkness, wouldn't you expect me to have biblical support to show that it is? Would testimonies from joggers saying that some of them jog for Satan be enough to condemn all jogging as a work of darkness? I wouldn't think so, but according to your logic, it would. Here's another example with a more direct connection. Sewing. Do you believe the occult connection makes sewing of limits for believers? After all, needles are used in occult voodoo doll ceremonies where practitioners of the occult jab needles into dolls to injure people. Needles are therefore an element taken from the occult, and therefore, according to your logic, they would be ungodly and should not be used by believers in any activity, such as sewing. I mentioned a few other examples back in May in this thread. I mentioned tea leaves used in fortune telling; I mentioned water, fruit, and flowers that are offered in Hindu worship; and I mentioned the occult connections of playing cards. You dismissed those examples at that time by saying "None of these things that you talk about are talked about in the Bible as being produced by demons or by humans influenced by demons." And you even italicized "in the Bible." Yet NOW you claim the Bible isn't needed to support your view. After all, a particular beat isn't shown in the Bible to be a work of darkness. It honestly seems like you pick and choose which "demonic connections" you oppose and which you don't oppose, without any true biblical support to go by. And then you tell me you "do not need any biblical support." It absolutely boggles me.
Kevin Miller wrote:
Are you kidding me? It's really hard for me to fathom how it is possible that you are actually being serious in making these comments. Comparing music to water, tea leaves, fruit, flowers, needles, and jogging?
Do you really not understand from a biblical standpoint how music is different from all the rest of these things?
RajeshG wrote:
It doesn't look like you are willing to be consistent, and that is okay if you are just talking about your own personal standards regarding a matter. If, however, you are presenting a principle as "something taught in the Bible," then such a principle should be able to be consistently applied, or it is useless in regards to application.
Kevin Miller wrote:
You tellingly chose to leave out my last paragraph that reads as follows:
"You do not have any Bible to support saying that God accepts the use of all types of beats in music, especially not in worship music. When, therefore, rock musicians testify that they have taken that element from music of the occult, you do not have any biblical basis for asserting that element is fit for any Christian use."
My point has always been about taking things from practitioners of the occult and using them in worship. Making an issue out of water, tea leaves, fruits, flowers, needles, and jogging is a ridiculous assertion because God has not authorized any use of those things in our divine worship (except for water baptism, which obviously uses water). Music is different from all of those things, and you know it.
Furthermore, God created water, tea leaves, fruits, and flowers before there were any humans. Regardless of any misuse of those things by evil people, those things, therefore, do not become ungodly by such use and therefore unfit for any Christian use.
Moreover, human beings have been sewing long before the practitioners of the occult of our day came along and there is zero evidence that practitioners of the occult invented needles and everybody else borrowed them from them. Any misuse of needles by practitioners of the occult, therefore, is totally irrelevant for this discussion.
Your mentioning of jogging in this context is so outrageous that it hardly even merits comment. Nonetheless, so that you will not persist in talking about it, you are welcome to prove that practitioners of the occult created jogging and then everyone else borrowed it from them. Then you are welcome to show biblically how jogging is an issue concerning our worship.
Most importantly, you have zero Bible to support any assertion that all beats are acceptable to God for any use, especially for worship. Taking any music that uses such an element that is from practitioners of the occult and using it for Christian anything, therefore, has zero biblical basis to support it and explicit divine commands that apply to prohibit borrowing things from such wicked people and using it in Christian anything, especially in worship music (Eph. 5:11, etc).
Seeking a Real Life Example
Could someone give me a modern day example of actual worship music that has taken things from practitioners of the occult? I'm desiring some specific examples, preferably reasonably popular and something I may have heard of. Thank you very much.
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
RajeshG wrote:
Kevin Miller wrote:
Those items have been created by God. We know that water, fruit, and flowers are good things because God created them. Regardless of anything that wicked humans might do with things that God has actually created, those things themselves do not thereby become ungodly things in and of themselves.
RajeshG wrote:
Kevin Miller wrote:
No, this understanding is not valid. The Bible does not provide any evidence that good angels have ever provided humans with information about musical patterns. Nor is there any evidence that good angels have ever entered or possessed people the way demons do.
Furthermore, there is zero biblical evidence for saying that evil humans are using musical patterns created by God. The Bible never speaks of God's giving any evil humans any musical patterns, etc.
Moreover, several thousand years after the Fall, Paul infallibly declares that reprobate idolaters are inventors of evil. You do not have any basis for saying that does not apply to musical patterns. Because we know that idolaters use music in their idolatrous worship, this revelation supports our holding that they are inventors of evil musical patterns that they use in their idolatrous worship.
We also have explicit biblical evidence of divine rejection of the sound of the instrumental music of the king of Babylon, who was an idolater and whose nation of all nations in Scripture is emphasized as having the strongest occult character of any nation.
Based on all these considerations, when wicked humans in our day have testified abundantly that their music is music of the occult and is demonic music and that they have created their music for the purpose of promoting wickedness, as rock musicians have testified, you do not have any biblical basis for saying that what they say is wrong because actually God made their music.
RajeshG wrote:
And I have no idea why you are bringing possession back into the conversation. Are you now asserting that the only way a spirit being can influence a person musically is through possession? That conflicts with what you've said earlier in the thread, so you sound like you're quite confused. What exactly is your point about possession?
And there is zero evidence that they aren't using musical patterns created by God. We simply don't know the ultimate origin of any musical pattern. Have you even considered God's creation of birds? God gave birds the ability to voice complex songs and repetitious patterns. Even the rat-a-tat-tat drumming of a woodpecker is a nature sound put in place by God. The world was full of God-given natural sounds and musical patterns before man was even created. If you are saying it is impossible for evil humans to ever imitate sounds that they hear in nature, then you have zero biblical evidence to make that claim. We simply can't know one way or the other which patterns have come from God and which haven't. Here you go, using that "inventors of evil" phrase again. We were discussing this phrase a little over a week ago, and you refused to answer some questions I had about it. Instead of answering, you just quoted my post and rehashed a bunch of your declarative assertions again. I looked up Romans 1:30 in the NIV. it says "slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;" So how in the world is a musical pattern a "way of doing evil"? Idolaters do evil when they slander, when they hate God, when they are arrogant, and when they disobey parents. They are also doing evil when the invent a new way of doing evil. But how does this apply to a musical pattern? You have never yet shown how a musical pattern is a new way of doing evil. I'm sure you going to tell me I have to show how it's not a way of doing evil, but that's just silly. You are the one making the declarative assertion that a musical pattern would be included in a list of ways of doing evil, so you would have to show how it fits in a list of ways of doing evil. The fact that you have specifically refused to do so is quite telling. But since the biblical evidence does not include the sound of any musical pattern, then our present day application of the passage limited. How would we know what present day patterns are Babylonian patterns? How would we know the ultimate origin of any particular musical patterns within the Babylonian songs? I wouldn't say they are wrong when they claim their music is designed to promote wickedness. Wicked people can use all sorts of things, good and bad, in the promotion of wickedness. The composite package of their music is absolutely wicked, and I have never said, in any thread, that God has made the composite package of any wicked composer's music. What I am questioning is the assertion that a specific musical pattern should be characterized as evil due to it's "demonic origin" when the historical record of the origin any any particular pattern in unavailable to humans. God hasn't given us that revelation. God certainly didn't bypass the inspired writers of Scripture to give that revelation to rock musicians.Kevin Miller wrote:
No, because the Bible is sufficient, this explicit revelation about the music of an idolater in the nation that is the most strongly tied to the occult in Scripture tells us that God rejects the music of idolaters who are involved in the occult. Unless you provide explicit Bible evidence to the contrary that shows that God has ever accepted or approved of any music created by or used by idolaters or practitioners of the occult, this passage (and others such as Deut. 12:30-31) establishes that the biblical position is that God rejects their music and wants us to reject it categorically.
It is illegitimate to suggest or imply that somehow by some unknown means God approves of some of their music even though the Bible does not ever say that He does. The Bible is the standard, and had God wanted us to believe that their music is acceptable to Him even though they are wicked people involved in wicked practices, He would have told us so. He has not done so anywhere in the Bible, which proves that their music is not acceptable to Him.
The Bible standard is that we must examine all things carefully and hold fast to those things which are good: 1 Thessalonians 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Unless you can prove from the Bible that the music of idolaters or of practitioners of the occult is acceptable to God and therefore good in His sight, it is to be rejected categorically.
Do you have any Bible evidence that shows that God has ever accepted or approved of music of idolaters or practitioners of the occult? Without such evidence, you have no legitimate basis to suggest or assert that their music is or might be good music that is acceptable to God.
RajeshG wrote:
I see you decided to completely ignore my comment in my last paragraph. I said "What I am questioning is the assertion that a specific musical pattern should be characterized as evil due to it's "demonic origin" when the historical record of the origin any any particular pattern in unavailable to humans. God hasn't given us that revelation." Do you have any Biblical evidence that God tells us to reject something without giving us a knowable standard to use in determining that rejection? If "demonic origin" is the standard for rejection, then we would have to somehow know the fact of the demonic origin, not just the fact of someone's evil use.
If "evil use" is the standard you are now proposing, then you would have to start looking well past music for things that God does not accept. Wouldn't you? Why would the focus just be on music, when idolaters use so many other things in the course of their idolatry? Do you have any Bible evidence that shows that God has ever accepted or approved of clothing styles of idolaters or practitioners of the occult? Do you realize how many rock musicians have worn jeans? Why would any God-honoring Christian wear jeans in worship of God? Right? Do you have any Bible evidence that shows that God has ever accepted or approved of jewelry styles of idolaters or practitioners of the occult? The Israelites used earrings to make the golden calf. Surely that demonic connection makes earrings and any other body piercing totally off limits for people worshipping God. Right? God's disapproval of idolatrous practices would also extend to, well, worship practices, wouldn't it? Idolaters bow down to their false gods, but surely they don't use God-honoring bows to worship evil. Their bowing styles would be evil bowing styles that believers should refrain from doing. Do you have any Bible evidence that shows that God has ever accepted or approved of bowing styles of idolaters or practitioners of the occult?
Is your position consistent in rejecting all aspects of idolatry and occult practice? You brought up the "Bible standard" in I Thess 5:21 "that we must examine all things carefully and hold fast to those things which are good." These other aspects of idolatrous worship wouldn't be good things, would they? What Biblical reason do you have for focusing just on music when idolatry includes so much more than music?
Kevin Miller wrote:
I have answered your question multiple times, but you refuse to accept God's answer to your question. His answer is not that you know the musical specifics about patterns that He rejects. His answer has been given to you in many passages, especially Deut. 12, which I am going to again quote to you:
Deuteronomy 12:29 When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; 30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. 31 Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
You keep demanding answers to questions about things that God says you are not supposed to have anything to do with them. God has told us that we are not to enquire about *how* idolaters and practitioners of the occult engage in their practices. By persisting in demanding explanations about their evil practices, in effect, you thereby say that God is wrong, and that we can and must examine and investigate what these evil people do and find out what their practices are so that we can borrow things from them and use them in our worship.
You are not going to get any specific information about idolatrous/occult Babylonian musical patterns because no one living today has any access to that information in a legitimate way. The people who engaged in these wicked practices were in contact with demons. Demons know what those patterns were and are able to influence humans today to reproduce them or produce similar patterns that the demons know are unacceptable to God.
Although the demons know such things and can do so such things, we do not have any God-authorized and approved ways of knowing that demons have reproduced such Babylonian patterns in the music of evil people in our day. Note carefully that I am not asserting that any specific music in our day is the same music as was that of the Babylonian idolaters/practitioners of the occult--I am not humanly able to know that information with any certainty. I am only saying that demons are able to influence humans to produce those same patterns or similar evil patterns in our day.
The biblical way to reject such things in our day is to reject borrowing any and all such things from people who engage in forbidden practices that put them into contact with demons. Because God has specifically singled out their music for explicit mention and condemnation in His Word, we know that the music of such people is categorically off-limits for us.
If you choose not to accept God's answer from passages such as Deut. 12, Eph. 5, etc., I do not have any other answers for you.
RajeshG wrote:
Kevin Miller wrote:
It is not against God's rules to understand whether something has been used in the occult. He prohibits going to the practitioners of the occult themselves or to people who have borrowed from them and studying their practices, sampling their products, borrowing from them etc.
In addition to clear commands from God that we are not to have anything to do with things of the occult, God has provided clear direction that for Christians to heed the testimonies of unbelieving authorities who decry ungodly practices of evil people is biblical:
Titus 1:11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. 12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. 13 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
The apostle Paul here cites the testimony of an unbelieving prophet of the Cretians who testified to their wickedness. Based on the truth of that testimony, Paul commanded Titus to rebuke people sharply about such things so that they would be sound in the faith.
We have numerous testimonies from unbelievers about the occult character of rock music. We also have testimonies from people who have been saved out of certain occult backgrounds who have verified that rock music is music of the occult.
Based on this evidence and following Pauline example to heed such valid testimonies, Christians who desire to please God have full justification for categorically rejecting all such music and not having anything to do with it.
Saying two opposite things
Kevin Miller wrote:
I'm not saying two opposite things at all.
By using historical information about statements from people, it should be abundantly clear that I am not going to practitioners of evil for anything. I did not solicit any of their testimonies or go to them and observe and study them, etc to obtain those testimonies. Their statements are historical facts that anybody can access without having to have any contact directly with them or with any of their practices.
Furthermore, accessing testimonies from believers who prior to salvation were involved in the occult and have testified to the occult nature of rock music is fully in keeping with biblical statements where believers have borne testimony to the evil of the activities that they engaged in prior to their salvation.
RajeshG wrote:
Kevin Miller wrote:
You do not have any biblical basis to dismiss the evidence of the testimonies as if they were all inherently false or inherently not credible. When people testify that something used in occult practices is evil and demonic, the burden of proof is on you to provide evidence that it is not (cf. 1 Thess. 5:21).
Comparing musical patterns to rocks is illegitimate because rocks occur naturally; if you are asserting that the specific patterns used by occult practitioners occur naturally apart from any connection to any human or demonic agency or you are asserting that they were created by God, prove it.
The bottom line is that you do not have any biblical basis to establish that musical patterns used by occult practitioners are good and acceptable to God. You also do not have any biblical basis for asserting that God permits Christians' borrowing the musical patterns of practitioners of the occult or approves of their ever doing so.
RajeshG wrote:
Kevin Miller wrote:
The testimonies from rock musicians are not limited to their "telling the truth" that they merely have used their music in an occult way. They have testified that the music itself was evil, not just that they used it for evil. They have said that it was demonic, that it was the music of the devil.
If you want to maintain that they are wrong, you have to prove that they were wrong about what they said about that music.
They have also testified that demons influenced them to produce their music, which is not the same thing at all as saying that they merely as evil humans used the music in an occult way. Again, if you want to assert that their testimonies of such demonic influence are not legitimate, you have to prove why they are not legitimate.
The NT provides definitive evidence that something used for evil by evil people was destroyed and not reused "in a righteous way":
Acts 19:18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. 19 Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
In fact, this account specifically concerns those who prior to their salvation were involved in occult practices, but following their salvation they destroyed their occult books. The materials that those books were written on were very valuable; they could have been sold "as is" for a lot of money or "scrubbed" of their contents and reused. The former practitioners of the occult, however, did not do either of those things--they burned their magic books!
Because this is a NT account of what Christians did with objects that they themselves had previously used in wicked occult practices about which they had firsthand knowledge, this passage definitively establishes what Christians are to believe about what should be done with such things. If, in spite of this explicit revelation, you still want to maintain that something used for occult practices could still be used for a righteous purpose, you have the burden of providing explicit biblical evidence for when Christians ever did such a thing or for where the Bible authorizes any such reuse "in a righteous way."
Of course, you are completely unable to provide any such evidence because there is no biblical evidence that God's people have ever righteously done such a thing with wicked things of the occult. I exhort you to submit yourself to divine revelation and accept that the Bible teaches definitively that it is unrighteous for Christians to borrow anything from practitioners of the occult to incorporate it into Christian worship.
Kanye West's recent testimony about "the devil's music"
https://www.xxlmag.com/news/2019/10/kanye-west-considered-quitting-rap-d...
https://www.dailywire.com/news/radically-saved-kanye-called-rap-the-devi...
https://pulpitandpen.org/2019/10/22/kanye-admitted-rap-music-is-of-the-d...
As a new convert, Kanye West somehow thought that the music that he had been producing was "the devil's music" (cf. 23:39 in the video in the first two links) and was going to stop producing it. In that respect, his conversion experience is somewhat similar to the new believers spoken of in Acts 19 who burned their magic books soon after they were converted.
It would be interesting to learn how and why he came to that persuasion before being influenced, apparently at least to some extent, to change his view.
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