What a great thing is happening in our west Texas Church, people are raising their hands, praising God with their hands and hearts. No one has complained or caused divisive trouble. Praise God. We are throwing off the shackles of our non scripture based traditions. God is good, all the time God is good.

Congratulations: Apollo has landed. He is the Abaddon or Apollyon in Revelation and the LOCUST word is well documented to be Abaddon (the having fallen star) Muses: in Revelation 17 the Babylon of Harlots or the well documented MOTHER GODDES or Queen of Heaven (ZOE) in Revelation 18 uses "lusted after fruits" as the same baskets of summer FRUITS in Amos which was the MARK that God had been there "and would not pass that way again." The slick speakers, singers and instrument players are called SORCERERS who had deceived the whole world.

So, one of the PLAGUES in Revelation is defined as A New Style of Praise singing (I kid you not) which cannot reach its climactic point (A Vineyard goal) of clapping until the Mother Goddes emasculates you and forces YOU to worship HER.

Ken quotes his inspiration - the pagans.

I will quote my inspiration - the Spirit of God:

"Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name" (Psalm 63:4).

"Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle" (Psalm 28:1-2).

"Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee" (Psalm 88:9).

"My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes" (Psalm 119:48).

"Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD!" (Psalm 134:2).

"LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!" (Psalm 141:1-2).

"I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah." (Psalm 143:6).

"And he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands: For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven" (2 Chronicles 6:12-13).

"And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God" (Ezra 9:5).

"And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground" (Nehemiah 8:6).

"Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens" (Lamentations 3:41).

"Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name" (Psalm 63:4).

If you want to understand the Word of God you WILL want to understand both the meaning of the words and what they meant in that culture. You will find no religious singing, clapping or playing instruments which does not mean in the words of one writer by "women and males but only if they are drunk, perverted or just having fun." Now, that is the PERSONA people see when you make LOTS of them feel uncomfortable and despise you EVEN if they refuse to let YOU deliberately sow discord and chase them out of THEIR church family.

Firstly, David had no role to play in the sacrificial system which was added as a curse. Nextly, maybe David who loved to dance and play instruments with the girls to make himself vile, but no masculine priest ever WAVED HIS ARMS in the air which always meant I AM AVAILABLE as all pagans did double duty.

The hand is the PALM LIFTED UP:

3709. kaph, kaf; from 3721; the hollow hand or palm (so of the paw of an animal, of the sole, and even of the bowl of a dish, hollow

The Psalmist lifted up his PALMS to God's commandments: then and now among Jews and Arabs this was the act of reading from the Word.

"My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes" (Psalm 119:48).



"And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground" (Nehemiah 8:6)

The problem with doing worship or "praise singing" as the world's OLDEST profession is that it thinks that the gods need help is that it GUARANTEES that no one will EVER know the whole truth. Singing was permitted by those not permitted to write or teach TRUE HISTORY. Here is some context which defines the ABSOLUTE TOTALITY of the synagogue or church:



Both vocal and instrumental "rejoicing" was outlawed in Numbers 10:7 when the congregation (Qahal or synagogue) was called to hear the Word of God.

Neh. 8:1 And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.

Paul denounced SELF-pleasure (all of the performing arts) and commanded that they speak "that which is written" or Scripture with ONE MIND and ONE mouth: this creats unity rather than deliberate discord.

Neh. 8:2 And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.

Neh. 8:3 And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.

Paul's ONLY worship word meant to GIVE HEED to the Word as the only way to give heed to Jesus Christ as opposed to the theatrical performers.

Both preaching other than reading and clarifying the word and singing was outlawed for the synagogue and this continued in the church for almost 400 years before pagans flocked into the church because they got paid by the government: singing was introduced in 373 and caused the split between the east and west church. This singing style was a pre-muslim style.

Acts 15:21 For Moses of old time hath in every city
........them that preach him,
........being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

Neh. 8:4 And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

Neh. 8:5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people;
........(for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up:
Neh. 8:6 And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered,
Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands:
........and they bowed their heads,
........and worshipped the LORD
........with their faces to the ground.

7812.shachah, shaw-khaw´; a primitive root; to depress, i.e. prostrate (especially reflexive, in homage to royalty or God):bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship.

Neh. 8:7 Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place.

Neh. 8:8 So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly,
........and gave the sense,
........and caused them to understand the reading.

Most often the Biblical text was not translated or altered: this guaranteed that writers and preachers could not interject personal opinions. The readers read the text which would not be understood by all of the people so the READER translated into the common language to GIVE UNDERSTANDING. The role of the PEOPLE is to UNDERSTAND because church is synagogue or "school of the Bible." Singing, clapping and exposing too much persona DIRECTLY SILENCES the Word as READ.

What Paul commanded was SPEAK in the external sense. It was and is impossible to SING the Word which is the direct command: none of it is metrical but the people added accent notes to make the READING DISTINCT without any uhs and ohs and input from the pulpit:

6567. parash, paw-rash´; a primitive root; to separate, literally (to disperse)

When spiritual people heard the WORD OF GOD their impulse was to WEEP.

I.2. A. Raba b. R. Hanin said to Abbayye, "We have learned in the Mishnah [M. Bes. 5:2]: [On a festival day] they do not clap hands, slap the thigh or dance, [lest they come also to play musical instruments].

This cantillation would be RYTHMICAL PROSE but not METRICAL: "Melody as tunefulness belongs to the 19th century" says the Britannica and others.

Ken, your doctrine sounds a lot like Marcion's whose heresy discounted whole sections of God's word that did not fit his doctrine.

I truly discount the Levitical Warrior Musicians who made exorcism noise during the burning of animals because God had abandoned them to worship the starry hosts. The purpose prophesied in Psalm 41 and fulfilled was "to make the lambs dumb before the slaughter." You cannot do "school of the Bible" if you see "worship" in the sense of paganism.

http://www.piney.com/DSSPsa41.html

In Romans 15 Paul outlawed SELF-pleasure which includes all of the performing arts and commandes that we pleas others for their GOOD to their edification. That means: I.To reconcile, at peace with himself, tranquil, to quiet, soothe, calm, assuage, appease, pacify, soothed, appeased, calmed; quiet, gentle, still, calm, peaceful.

That includes to control the soul "the mind as thinking, feeling, willing, the intellect, the sensibility, and the will, acc. to the almost universally received division of the mental powers, heart, soul, spirit etc. That is because the sole purpose of the ekklesia or synagogue or church is to be a school of the Bible.

Paul begins by showing how the "worship" at Mount Sinai was in contrast to the PAUO or REST Jesus died to give us: the word REST includes STOP all of the noise and movement so you can "learn of Me.".

Congratulations on your church being freed from the shackles of traditon. Worship is what comes from your heart, and not only the worship we give on Sunday.I'm glad you're church is free and there are not members being divisive and trying to split the church.What a blessing for you.God must be an active, living presence in your church.Continue praising God and he will continue blessing your church.

By the way, don't expect people on this website to be happy for you.They are bitter,divisive people who only like to argue.They don't understand the praise and worship we're talking about because they are too busy trying to be "right" all the time.They are still living under law, and not walking in God's grace.Pray for them as I do, that God will soften their hearts and have mercy on their souls.

Your friend in Christ,

Lisa James