philosophizer
New member
Originally posted by Nimrod
"Not all emotions are good ones. Surely man and his emotions were created in the image of God, but man has fallen, and with him has gone the purity with which he was created. Hate, when directed at sin, is good and acceptable. But when it is directed at a brother in Christ, it is sin. Anger is unacceptable except when the one who is angry is not sinning. An emotion like lust is never right. It is an adulteration of God-given emotions. Since music is an emotional language, and since some emotions are wrong for the child of God, then some music is wrong for the Christian"
I disagree with this. I don't think "emotions" are necessarily good or evil either. Emotions can be directed toward good or evil. Your quote stated that "hate, when directed at sin, is good and acceptable." See, hate is not inherently evil. It is not the emotion it is the direction of the emotion.
All emotions have perversions. Your quotation also said "an emotion like lust is never right." Well, certainly lust is never good. But lust is a perversion of love. It is an evil twist on the purer emotion. It is the because of the direction and the context that the "emotion" of lust is evil.
"The Music within you" written by Carol Merle-Fishman and Shelly Katsh two practicing certified music therapists and instructors at New York University, states:
"Music is communication and communication is music."
"Music is a form of non-verbal communication."
If I make a fist and make a threatening motion with it, it is also a form of non-verbal communication. If I did that to someone I didn't know as I was walking down the street, that would be wrong. But if I did that to a burglar who has broken into my house, it would not be wrong. Every form of communication has a context.
"Music is not just a special part of life; it represents life itself. From it we receive inspiration, excitement, and emotional enrichment. With it we create, communicate , and express who we are"
"There is surely no doubt that music actually conveys very real and sometimes very specific emotional states from the musician to the listener"
"Like human nature itself, music cannot possibly be neutral in its spiritual direction"
I am certainly not saying that music leaves the listener unaffected. That is not what I mean by neutral. But the nature by which the listener is affected is dependent on a lot of other factors. If the music has words, the words affect the direction. If the listener knows the artist's view of the particular song or their worldview in general, that will affect the direction. If the music is experienced within a certain context in the listener's life, the context will affect the direction.
I guess my question for you will be, why are you a more qualified person about music than the people in the music business?
Do you know anyone in the music business (other than CCM) that believes music is neutral?
What do you mean by "in the music business"? Do you mean in the music business and famous? I'm a musician. Technically, I'm even in the music business. I have gotten paid for performing before.
Also, you're suggesting that this is the only opinion shared among professional musicians. I think that's a false claim.
(BTW, who is CCM?)
Now lets look at the Word of God.
1 Samuel 16:16 "And it shall be, when the evil spirit from God is on you, then he shall play [with] his hand, and [it shall be] well with you"
1 Samuel 16:23 "And it happened when the spirit from God was on Saul, that David too a harp and played with his hand. And there was relief for Saul, and [it was] well with him, and the evil spirit departed from him.
Music is not neutral, otherwise it would not have "relief" Saul. Music does has an effect on people.
But if music is neutral, then I need you to explain to me these verses from the Word of God.
Thanks.
:think:
I think Em7add11 gave a pretty good response to this. If Saul was really distressed by an evil spirit from God, do you really think that David's music would by itself have the power to chase the spirit away?
Here's a hypothetical situation:
Imagine for a minute, David sitting in front of Saul playing a lovely melody on the harp. While playing, David begins to sing the lyrics, "Saul, you are a terrible king, you suck, God hates you, you're gonna kill yourself in battle someday." All of this over top of the same lovely harp melody. I think Saul would have gotten kinda mad if that would have happened, despite the soothing music. So is it the music that would have made Saul angry? Or is it the message of the lyrics?
Suppose that David didn't sing those lyrics, but Saul knew he was thinking them because he overheard him saying that earlier. Saul would still be angry even though the music is beautiful and the insulting lyrics are not present. In this case, Saul's prior knowledge of David's views have tainted his lovely melody.
Music is the medium for many types messages. Music affects people in a variety of ways. But music alone, without a message or an underlying context, has no direction and cannot be good or evil.