Is the Bible all we need in the development of a unified, *congruent, thorough, and useful Bible based music philosophy? The answer is “no”, because as I said before, the Christian musician will not only need to know much of what the Bible teaches about music, but he or she will also need to have an understanding of music education, music history, church music, musical theory and composition as well as music *performance practice over the many centuries from ancient times to modern. Why then do I keep mentioning Bible principles of music? Bible principles are not all we need but they are the foundations of the development of our music philosophy. When we are developing the who, what, where, when, why, and how of our musical beliefs, the Scriptures are the looking glass through which we always view the whole of music.
Why do I continually talk about the "whole of music”? If a music philosophy does not include the "whole" of music it will surely have a "hole" in it! II Timothy 2:15 admonishes Christians to, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." The Greek word spoudazo (4704) translated study in this verse means to be earnestly diligent. The word dokimos (1384) means, according to Jamison-Fausset-Brown, "tested by trial, as opposed to 'reprobate'". So, St. Paul admonishes the Christian to study diligently to test all philosophical beliefs so that one’s praxis will be approved by the Lord before it is set into action in the church, music classroom, or performance hall.
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