Questions and Answers (Part 8)
[Editor's Note: These questions are from the winter and spring of 2012.]
"Christian" Music
"Is it wrong to listen to or buy 'Christian' music that is available in the 'Christian' bookstores?"
The answer is, "Yes"—for the following reasons.
If it is wrong for us to do what God has not authorized, then what is right about paying someone else for doing what God has not authorized? Would we say, "I would not cheat on my taxes, but I sure admire the way my neighbor gets away with it"? Would we buy a book from him, if he wrote it, titled How to Cheat on Your Taxes and Not Get Caught? Why, then, would we want to invest in someone else's false worship?
"But it's just entertainment." Someone singing, "How Great Thou Art" is just entertainment? Is it necessary to point out that singing praises to God should not be classified as entertainment?
Another important consideration is that much "Christian" music promotes false doctrine. Some songs teach grace only or faith only. Many of them include premillennial themes. It is no more permissible to sing false doctrine than it is to teach it. That is the reason that we do not sing some of the songs in our own songbooks. Much of this music simply convinces those in error that their errors are right. So, not only is their message often wrong, so is the way it is delivered—with musical accompaniment.
If we accept the use of "Christian music," does this not compromise our influence with our denominational friends? Yes. What are friends likely to think if we refuse to use instruments in our worship but then have a dozen CDs by "Christian" artists?
About 50 years ago, when our family lived in Pennsylvania, we had some visitors from the Christian Church who came on Sunday evenings. We invited them over to dinner. Afterward, he asked me, "Do you ever play the piano and sing hymns?" I knew immediately where he was going, but I answered truthfully, "Never." "Never?" he raised his eyebrows. "Why do you have one?" "Barb and I both play popular music," I answered. "Hmm," he said, "I thought I had you when we first walked in and I saw the piano. I was going to ask you, 'If you can play and sing in your home, then why can't you do so next door?'"
And he would have been right. That would be inconsistent (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). The purposes for singing do not change just because we are in a different location--just like they don't change for prayer. Some brethren think that, if we are not in the worship assembly, it is all right for a woman to lead in prayer (camp, chain prayer, etc.), but Paul wrote that men are to lead in prayer everywhere (1 Tim. 2:8). Likewise, brethren in the first century did not use musical instruments in or out of the assembly.
Bad Things and Strong Delusion
"2 Thessalonians 2:9-12. Does God cause bad things to happen? What does it mean that He will send a strong delusion?"
God may cause bad things to happen if He is punishing an individual or a person; consider the judgments He rendered on Jeroboam's house (1 Kings 14:10), Ahab and his house (1 Kings 21:21), or Jerusalem itself (2 Kings 22:16-17). The New King James mentions "disaster" in the first one and "calamity" on the other two. The Hebrew word [7451] is usually translated "evil" in the King James, and it is the same word for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as it is in these three verses. In these instances, God definitely brings punishment. He chastises His people as well (Heb. 12:5-7).
However, this is not to say that God causes every bad thing that happens to people. Some things happen by chance, and some things occur as a result of Satan's efforts. It was Satan that brought evil things upon Job. He also thwarts the good ideas and plans that men have (1 Thess. 2:18).
Sending strong delusion is a little bit different matter (2 Thess. 2:10-11). This is probably another form of "God gave them up." When He withdraws His restraints, the result is that people give themselves over fully to sin. His allowing of Satan to deceive people is equivalent to saying that He sent strong delusion (that is, He allowed Satan to deceive them because they preferred unrighteousness to holiness. God does cause bad things to happen (as chastisement or punishment), but He also allows Satan to ensnare people when they really have no love of the truth anyway. In Romans 1:24, God gave people "up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves." He also gave them up to vile passions (v. 26).
Addendum
"Why does Moses tell God not to bring evil against His people? For God is not evil." God was within His rights to bring evil (punishment) upon His people. In the context (Ex. 32:7-14), this was a test of Moses to see what he would do; God is spoken of here anthropomorphically as changing His mind.
Did God Make a Mistake When He Made Man?
"When the Bible says that God was sorry that He made man; did He make a mistake? (Gen. 6:6)?"
No, He knew what would happen; for that reason we are told that Jesus was slain from the foundation of the earth (Rev. 13:8). Nevertheless, He experienced sorrow and grief as a result of His decision. We undergo the same process. For example, I know what the truth is concerning divorce and remarriage, but when I need to explain it to those who no longer have God's authority to marry, it is painful and causes me grief. It is still the truth, however, no matter how painful it is. God knew what would happen, but it still made Him sorry to see it (Gen. 6:5-6). He grieved over the reality of it.
The Clever Serpent
"Please explain Genesis 3:1 in depth. The serpent was (a) more cunning; (b) beasts could speak in those days???"
This is an interesting question but difficult to answer since we do not know all the conditions that existed back then. We do know that myna birds and parrots today can sound just like a human voice. For all we know, some animals had these capabilities back then, and it might be that Adam and Eve heard some of their own words repeated in the Garden. In fact, the first question asked basically repeats what God had said. Whether serpents could make human sounds back then or not we do not know.
Apparently, however, they did not have to crawl, since that was part of the curse. The subtlety cannot refer to the serpent's ability to reason, since it is Satan who is the one doing that, who is later called the serpent. Some have suggested the subtlety possibly pertained to his movement—in sneaking up on someone, which might mean that the serpent caught Eve by surprise. However, the subtlety seems to relate more to the temptation than his geographical location.
Satan speaks through the serpent. He repeats what God has said in the form of a question, and then throws in a lie that sounds plausible—that God didn't tell them everything because He was holding some blessings back from them. He still uses this technique because it is successful. He still suggests that God does not care about us in order to encourage us to seek a sinful solution to our problems. We must listen to God in His Word instead—and refuse to let the devil talk us out of the truth.
Where Do Evil Thoughts Come From?
"Do all evil thoughts and deeds come from the devil, or do some come from within ourselves without the devil's direct help? For example, Matthew 2:16 describes Herod having young children killed. Did Herod do this on his own, or did Satan have a part in this? Please consider Genesis 6:5."
Let's begin with Genesis 6:5. Was Satan supplying all the evil thoughts that the human race was having? If he was, then why does he not do so all the time, thus producing this same level of wickedness constantly? What many people fail to forget is that Satan is not omnipresent. He does not have the ability God does to be everywhere at once. So how did the world become so corrupt?
In the first sin, Satan did have a conversation with Eve, through the serpent; thus, he introduced into the world at that time the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (Gen. 3:6; 1 John 2:15-17). But once those concepts were introduced, they remained. Even though Adam and Eve repented of their sins, the focal point of their stumbling remained behind.
Satan can use anyone—even an apostle of the Lord—or any other Christian (Matt. 16:21-23). Does anyone doubt that Peter said those things out of love and loyalty to Jesus—in other words with the very best of motives? But Satan had used his zeal for the Lord against him, and the apostle did not realize that Jesus was describing part of God's plan for making salvation available to us.
We do not know when Satan is giving us individual attention or not. Corrupt ideas are always present. For example, was Satan personally nudging David to commit adultery with Bathsheba? He may have engineered the opportunity, but certainly the idea of being intimate with a beautiful woman was not new at that point in the world's history. On the other hand, when David decided to number Israel; no one could talk him out of it; the devil had something to do with that, although we do not know what. Sometimes a person is struck with an idea, and they follow it through no matter what (1 Chron. 21:1).
Actually, the devil can always be given credit for anyone's sins, since he originated it and has made all manner of sinful ideas attractive to people. And some people, having begun to be the devil's disciple, might even invent some new things (Pr. 4:15; Micah 2:1).
Some sins are simply in harmony with the way we have developed our character, as with Herod. He had several people put to death, including his wife Mariamne, several of his close friends (Josephus 412-13), and his sons, Alexander and Aristobulus (449). When he died, he had given orders for others to be put to death (463) so that mourning would be heard all over the city at the news of his death—even though people were mourning for others—not him. He was already Satan's; the evil ideas he formulated were his own.
As Christians, we may get some suggestions from the devil. "Why don't you do this?" "Why don't you say that?" But if we act and speak carefully, in concert with the kind of character that we have developed, we can overcome those types of sins. In that case, the sin would be in not trying to develop the proper character. Even Christians are subject to the lust of the flesh (which too many illustrations attest), false doctrine, and pride. Satan does not directly attack us; we give in to his subtle techniques.