Scripture teaches that the entire creation was subjected to corruption:
Romans 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Does the teaching of this passage apply to music without words?
Poll Results
Does Romans 8:19-22 apply to music without words?
Yes, Rom. 8:19-22 applies to music without words. Votes: 1
No, Rom. 8:19-22 does not apply to music without words. Votes: 5
Unsure Votes: 0
Other. Please explain in the comment section what you mean. Votes: 0
Discussion
NewInterested in hearing why people say that it does not apply
It would be good to hear why those who say that Rom. 8:19-22 does not apply to music without words believe that is true.
NewWhen I think about "music
When I think about “music without words” from before the Fall, the main thing I think about is bird songs. I can’t even imagine how beautiful birds must have sounded in the Garden of Eden. Were birds affected by the “bondage of corruption” that affected everything else in creation? Absolutely. So it makes sense that their music would also be affected in some way, though we won’t know to what extant until creation is delivered from corruption.
I don’t think God is displeased with present day bird songs, however, even though those songs have been affected by the bondage of corruption.
NewKevin Miller wrote:
What do you do with this passage?
Revelation 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
This passage explicitly speaks of unclean and hateful birds, which clearly is not what God created any birds to be. Moreover, these birds are directly linked to demons. Do you believe that these unclean and hateful birds still produce music without words that pleases God? If so, why?
NewRajeshG wrote:
NewKevin Miller wrote:
The text also directly connects these birds to demons and speaks of their dwelling with demons in Babylon after God’s judgment of it. Your explanation does not account for either of these explicitly stated truths about these birds.
This statement does not require us to believe that these things were true of all birds that were/are unclean but they are divine revelation about some birds that were/are unclean. Furthermore, the text is not saying that God declared them to be unclean because of the music that they produce.
I am raising the issue of why you would hold that the music that they produce would still be pleasing to God given that they are unclean and hateful birds that are directly associated with demons.
NewRajeshG wrote:
Besides, the verse in Revelation describes something that takes place in the future. At the present time, we are not to consider any birds unclean, so I don’t see as how God considers any bird songs to be displeasing at the present time, even if, by some odd reasoning, the idea of uncleanness or hatefullness during the Tribulation did affect God’s view of bird songs.
NewKevin Miller wrote:
Why does God even mention these birds in a verse revealing the state of Babylon after He will have judged it unless that is also part of His judgment of it?
How do you know that what is revealed about these birds will only be true of them then and is not already true of them now?
NewKevin Miller wrote:
NewAgainst my better judgment,
….perhaps, but I figure a response might be appropriate here. The reasons that this passage does not address “music without words” are many, starting with the simple fact that the root word for “groan” here refers to the sounds made by a woman in labor.
Having been around women in labor and having heard their groaning, and also knowing many people who play instruments (e.g. my whole family), I’m pretty sure that if I told most instrumentalists that their art sounded like a woman in labor, that would not be taken well. It would be picking a fight. The only near fit to “groaning” in music that I can think of is along the lines of scat singing in jazz, and even that only rarely fits as a “groan”, even in modern jazz.
Going further, if we expand our look at the use of this word to the rest of Romans 8, we find that it is not just ourselves which groan (Romans 8:23), but also the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:27) and the entire creation—but not any soloist or group of musicians. It’s simply not describing music, but is rather describing something we can not comprehend in words, the miracle of God bringing us to faith.
Really, to argue this passage has anything to do with “music without words” is to introduce exegetical nonsense into this passage to the extend where I have to wonder if the main point is to direct peoples’ attention away from Paul’s actual point here.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
NewBert
What have you done!?
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
NewRajeshG wrote:
NewRajeshG wrote:
The way I understand it, the concept of uncleanness regarding birds was about eating the bird’s meat, not about hating the sounds produced by those birds. Besides, the passage about unclean birds was a command to humans about how they should treat the birds. The passage doesn’t tell us that God Himself is displeased with the birds he has declared unclean for human consumption. That would especially be true today, since we aren’t under the regulations today about unclean birds.
I still see no reason why the “bondage of corruption” that affects nature in Romans 8 would cause God to be displeased with any bird songs today.
NewRegarding those birds
Matthew 10:29 comes to mind here. Sure, birds die because of the consequences of sin, there may be other effects on their physiology and such, but it’s not as if every part of their nature is to be despised here. God still loves them, after all.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
NewKevin Miller wrote:
NewRajeshG wrote:
Yes, I did deal with it. I wrote, ” Besides, the passage about unclean birds was a command to humans about how they should treat the birds. The passage doesn’t tell us that God Himself is displeased with the birds he has declared unclean for human consumption.” The passage in Leviticus listing the unclean birds DOES put their despising of those birds in the context of the birds being unclean. The verse in Revelation simply seems to be joining the two concepts in the same way that the list in Leviticus does. I’m just using the Bible to parse out the reason for the birds being hateful. Do you have any passages to show why the music itself of despised/hateful birds should be hated by God?
NewKevin Miller wrote:
NewRajeshG wrote:
NewKevin Miller wrote:
Moreover, consider the following passage:
Malachi 1:7 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. 8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.
Who made the animals that were blind, lame, or sick? They did not make themselves that way. Human beings did not make them that way.
These animals that were made by God could not be offered to Him pleasingly as a sacrifice, and this passage does not even specify that this was only true for unclean animals.
NewRajeshG wrote:
I asked you for a passage to show why the music itself of despised/hateful birds should be hated by God, and you gave me Romans 8, declaring that all things are subjected to corruption. Is that your answer for why not being able to sacrifice certain birds makes their music displeasing to God? Wouldn’t Romans 8 apply to all birds?
NewRajeshG wrote:
NewKevin Miller wrote:
I gave you Scripture for birds that God Himself designated as being unclean and hateful. You want to hold that regardless of their being unclean and hateful, all their music still pleases God. You do not have any Scripture to support that view when Romans 8:19-22 teaches that the entire universe was subjected to corruption. You need to explain why all their music still pleases God and was not corrupted.
The Bible never teaches that music without words, whether of birds or from any other source, is the one realm that God made to be incorruptible and that was not corrupted when the rest of the creation was subjected to corruption.
NewKevin Miller wrote:
NewRajeshG wrote:
NewRajeshG wrote:
NewKevin Miller wrote:
Yes, I read your first post. In your last sentence, you asserted the following:
“I don’t think God is displeased with present day bird songs, however, even though those songs have been affected by the bondage of corruption.”
In this sentence, you say that although they were affected, their music still pleases God. To hold that view, is in effect, to hold that their music was unaffected by the universal corruption.
I do not know what you mean by answering “directly.” The only way to answer that question is to compare Scripture with Scripture and bring all that it says to bear on how the question is to be answered. When that is done, what the Scripture shows is that although all birds were affected, not all birds were corrupted in the same way.
You are right that you have never said in so many words that it is incorruptible, but the way that you argue points in that direction.NewKevin Miller wrote:
To hold that none of the music of any of the birds was corrupted in such a way so that it no longer pleases God is something that requires explanation for why that aspect of the birds was not corrupted for any of the birds.
NewTwo parallel passages to Mal. 1:7-8
Two parallel passages to Mal. 1:7-8 also show that the nature of corruption in animals takes varying forms:
Lev. 22:19-24 Ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats. 20 But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you. 21 And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein. 22 Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, ye shall not offer these unto the LORD, nor make an offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the LORD. 23 Either a bullock or a lamb that hath any thing superfluous or lacking in his parts, that mayest thou offer for a freewill offering; but for a vow it shall not be accepted. 24 Ye shall not offer unto the LORD that which is bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut; neither shall ye make any offering thereof in your land.
Deut. 15:19-21 All the firstling males that come of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep. 20 Thou shalt eat it before the LORD thy God year by year in the place which the LORD shall choose, thou and thy household. 21 And if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame, or blind, or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the LORD thy God.
In understanding what the bondage of corruption entails for the entire creation, we are to hold that corruption takes numerous different forms and is not the same for all entities of a given kind or in a given realm.
NewRajeshG wrote: In
NewKevin Miller wrote:
Even when an animal may not have any outward defects, such as the Passover Lamb (and also all the other animals that God approved to be sacrificed to Him), it still is subject to the bondage of corruption in other ways, such as its body’s continually decaying, aging, and ultimately dying.
God has not explained why the offering of certain animals without any outward defects pleases Him and why the offering of other animals without any outward defects does not please Him.
NewRajeshG wrote:
I don’t think these ceremonial requirements would really have an impact on the loving relationship God has with all his created animals. Just because God was displeased with certain animals being used in a sacrifice does NOT mean that the animal has qualified for some inherent displeasure from God in regards to any other aspect of the animal other than it’s suitability for sacrifice. A blind bird could not be sacrificed, but that doesn’t mean, in my understanding, that a blind bird’s music would be displeasing to God. The thing that would be displeasing is the human’s action in sacrificing that animal to God. I can’t think of any reason why a blind bird’s music would be displeasing to God.
We talked about the unclean birds, those birds which could not be eaten. Did the classification of being an unclean bird mean that God would be displeased with everything produced by that bird, including it’s nest and it’s flying patterns and it’s music? I’ll grant that as a remote possibility, but since we no longer have the classification of unclean birds in our present church age, then we don’t have to worry today about God being displeased with any bird music due to the bird being unclean.
If a bird were to be doing something sinful while producing music, then perhaps the production of music specifically during that sin would be displeasing to God. However, I can’t think of any instance in which sin could be ascribed to a bird. The fact that birds will decay and eventually die does not mean that the bird has been sinning or is capable of sin. I think it’s likely the decay has affected the vocal cords of birds, such that they can’t sing a high or as low or for as long as what they could in the Garden, but we won’t know what extent this decay has reached until everything is restored. (Thinking of all this has made me wonder whether Adam’s ears were capable of hearing whale songs before the Fall. They are in too low of a frequency for us to hear today, but perhaps Adam’s perfect ears could.)
NewKevin Miller wrote:
In such cases, it was certainly not anything to do with the humans offering those animals; God, for His own purposes, determined which animals from all the animals that He Himself created could be offered to Him acceptably in sacrifice and which animals could not.
Defects in the animals was a separate consideration. Again, the notion that just because God created all the animals, all of them should have been able to have been offered acceptably to Him was never true. God never explains the basis or reason(s) for why certain animals were in the one category and the others in the other category.
Similarly to how not all the animals that God created could be offered to Him in sacrifice, regardless of whether they had outward defects or not, I hold that there is no basis to assert that because God created all the birds to produce music, the bondage of corruption did not have any effects on any of the music of any of the birds. I doubt that we are going to come to any agreement on this point and further discussion is probably not going to help.
NewRajeshG wrote:
[quote4] Similarly to how not all the animals that God created could be offered to Him in sacrifice, regardless of whether they had outward defects or not, I hold that there is no basis to assert that because God created all the birds to produce music, the bondage of corruption did not have any effects on any of the music of any of the birds. I doubt that we are going to come to any agreement on this point and further discussion is probably not going to help. But I didn’t assert such a thing. How can you read my posts and claim i asserted such a thing? Or are you just arguing against some hypothetical person, who’s not even in our conversation, who might assert such a thing? You said we are not going to come to an agreement, but I AGREE that the bondage of corruption has affected the music of birds. I even described what such effect might be. I said, ” I think it’s likely the decay has affected the vocal cords of birds, such that they can’t sing a high or as low or for as long as what they could in the Garden,” Wouldn’t that be a legitimate effect of the bondage of corruption? I can’t think of any other way in which the introduction of decay into the natural world would affect a bird’s music. Can you?
NewKevin Miller wrote:
NewRajeshG wrote:
Oh, so now you are telling me what my own presuppositions are. How could you possibly know my presuppositions without being God. Are you claiming that you have the power to read minds like God does? Why can’t you just go with what I’ve written as my perspective, without making up stuff that you imagine I’m believing?
Also, I’ve said nothing in this thread about the music from “any other entity for that matter.” I was only discussing my opinion about the music of birds. Only birds. Why would my comment about the music of birds make you think I was talking about music produced by every other entity? If we had been talking about music produced by man, then a bunch of other factors would be in place that don’t apply to birds.
You have yet to explain WHY God would be displeased with any bird song, even though I have asked you multiple times for your reasoning. I’ve given you my reasoning behind my opinion, and I certainly admit that my opinion is NOT a theological assertion. There simply isn’t enough information given in the Bible to make definitive theological assertions about bird music being pleasing or displeasing to God. Yet you insist I must be wrong in my opinion that since God created birds and loves birds that God is pleased with the music of birds. Can you show me even one instance in the Bible where God is displeased with the music of birds? If you can’t then why in the world would I assume that God would be displeased with it?. What kind of mental picture do you have of the God of the Bible that you think he would be displeased with the music of His divinely created birds?
Besides, this thread is NOT about every type of corruption that exists in the universe. You were the one who presented Romans 8;19-22 as the context for the type of corruption we are discussing in relation to the natural world. What is your definition for the “bondage of corruption” in that context? I’ve already given you the definition as I understand it to be, that of decay leading to eventual death. Sure, there are other ways corruption is used in the Bible, such as being sinful, but God did not place animals into the bondage of being sinful. Or maybe you think God did? Is that what you really think? Can animals commit sin? Are animals sinful? Is that really your definition for the bondage of corruption in terms of plants and animals? Is it a consequence of man’s sin that plants and animals are groaning under the situation of being sinful?
If the “bondage of corruption” means being sinful, then I can understand why you might think God would be displeased with those creatures under such bondage. Sinfulness causes God displeasure. However, if the “bondage of corruption” just means decay leading to death, then birds could very well suffer this consequence of man’s Fall without being sinful themselves. Bird are affected by decay. They are affected by the bondage of corruption. What makes you think this decay is displeasing to God? You keep telling me that my presupposition is that birds are not affected by corruption, but I’ve been very clear that birds are affected by decay, which is what the corruption is in Romans 8. If you think corruption in this passage refers to something else, then please explain what. If you think that decay is displeasing to God, then wouldn’t God be displeased with all the autumn tree colors, since we only see the colors due to the leaves dying? Do you think God is displeased with the autumn colors?
I’ll repeat the main thing I’d like you to answer in order to make any headway in this discussion, so that neither on of us is presuming what the other believes. “You were the one who presented Romans 8;19-22 as the context for the type of corruption we are discussing in relation to the natural world. What is your definition for the “bondage of corruption” in that context?”
NewKevin Miller wrote:
Furthermore, I have never studied this subject in the past with the thoroughness that I am now studying it. There are many aspects of what Scripture reveals that I am examining carefully to learn what all God has revealed about the subject.
I do not have a definition that I can provide for you, and I am not going to offer you any definitions; I am only going to discuss whatever else Scripture reveals that is pertinent. You are going to waste your time and mine if you continue to ask for a definition of a term that God Himself has not defined.
NewRajeshG wrote:
I’m trying to figure out your position here. All you’ve been doing this entire thread is telling me that my position about Romans 8 corruption is wrong. You must have a position of your own about it if you think mine is wrong, however, when I ask you for your understanding of corruption from Romans 8, you draw a complete blank and actually blame God for your lack of understanding. I’m not asking you for a Bible verse with a definition. I’m asking for your own thought process so I can understand your position. What you are telling me is that God hasn’t revealed anything that backs up your thought process. That’s what it sounds like your telling me.
NewKevin Miller wrote:
I find no reason to hold that what Romans 8 teaches must apply equally to all creatures in exactly all the same ways to the same extent for every aspect of corruption.
The passages that I have shown prove that not all creatures have been corrupted in exactly the same way. God did not create any animals at the Creation with any defects. If you assert that the differing defects that exist now in the animal world are not the result of Romans 8 corruption, what explanation do you have for those defects and the differences in what defects different animals have?
NewRajeshG wrote:
Can you show me in my posts where I have said that all creatures manifest the same level of corruption to exactly the same extent? You are arguing against that assertion, but I haven’t said that. Instead of answering the questions I ask of you, you start arguing against something I haven’t said. Of course all creatures are not corrupted in exactly the same way. Why would you think I believe that? Of course Romans 8 is the reason for the various levels of defects. Why would you think I don’t believe that? Why don’t you just answer the questions I ask about your position instead of lying about what my opinion is.
Do you believe that birds reach a level of corruption that means sinfulness? Corruption that means sinfulness is certainly is a level that mankind reaches, and that level would cause God displeasure. If you think that any bird song today could cause God displeasure, you must think that birds can commit sin and are sinful. Is that what you really believe?
NewKevin Miller wrote:
You raised the issue here that “if Romans 8 corruption brings displeasure from God,” that displeasure should apply equally to all creatures. Who says that it would have to apply equal to all creatures? Why would that have to be true?
NewKevin Miller wrote:
Jesus cursed a fig tree (cf. Mk. 11:21), which clearly shows divine displeasure with that fig tree. Does that mean that fig tree sinned? I do not think that it does. Divine displeasure with an entity does not result only from the sinfulness of an entity itself.