Thursday, May 3, 2018

Finding Truth in Music Christian Education Part 2


Finding Truth in Music Christian Education Part 2                                     

       The first step in developing a music philosophy is to go to the Word of God.  We cannot find wisdom and discernment in ourselves or in the world around us.  It must come from our Heavenly Father first and foremost.  I Corinthians 2:12-16 says, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

        “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.  The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (NIV)  Even as we discover truth and discern wisdom, our finite minds cannot cover everything. “No philosophy can be comprehensive in the omnipotent sense of providing the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” says Garen Wolf.  “A philosophy can never say all there is to say about something. However, a philosophy can and should explain what something is all about.” (Wolf, Garen, Church Music Matters, 2005 p. 18)  Not everyone will have exactly the same lines of demarcation, but we all must filter our philosophies through the gridlines of the Bible. 



Thought for the Day



It seem odd to me to me that Christian’s who base their music philosophy on Scripture are often considered by other Christian musicians to be extremists and overzealous “proof-texters”. I have found that most often the people who have a well thought out written music philosophy are careful not to take Scripture out of context in order to twist into supporting their philosophical beliefs.   GLW


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