Hi Cristo Rei. Yeah, I think Beethoven was the master of masters when it came to music composition. If you take a music appreciation class (you don't have to, you can discover what I'm about to write on your own), you see that Beethoven bridged the gap between the Classical (enlightenment, intellectual age) and the Romantic period (feel good). He was between Bach and Mozart who were before him, and Chopin who came after him. While listening to Beethoven (not all of his stuff was great, mind you) you can hear the intellect in his music as well as the feel good. A combination of both periods.
I did not know it at the time it happened, but I was sitting at my mom's piano in February, 1981 (Billy Joel had caused me to find a new interest and love in piano a few years earlier) but I was sitting there doodling on some songs I had been struggling to teach myself by Billy Joel (painstakingly, one note and chord at at time, struggling to read the sheet music I had bought), when this thought came over me: "Write my own music? Where did that come from?" And so I did. I sat there and tried to compose something and a month later I had finished my first composition. This went on for 3 more months (I was working on my 4th composition) when the girl I was two-timing my main girlfriend with, told me she was not going to see me anymore, for I was bad for her morality. That evening, we spent 3 hours in my car talking about Jesus and how one gets saved, and she had gotten her bible from her house and was reading stuff to me. I got saved that night, and then I realized that the Holy Spirit had come over me 4 months earlier, and that the music He was giving me was for His purpose. 4 months earlier the Spirit was upon me, but not in me.
When one analyzes the music I have been granted by God, it truly is a new style. To describe it does not do it justice, but it's a combination of Classical, Jazz and Rock, all in one. It does not follow the format of verse, verse, chorus, verse. It's like going on a musical adventure.
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Answering your question above: Saints is the term the bible uses for His people. If I recall correctly, its idiom means "soldier?" or loosely "people of the Lord". Catholics really distorted its meaning. It has nothing to do with what that organization thinks of it. Saints are the Christians. In Old Testament times it was the Jews who were faithful to Him.
So if nothing else, I'm germinating the field with my original post to get people thinking things they should be thinking. That's the least side. The plentiful side, would be if over the months and years, we who have found good dialogue with one another, could try and rendezvous and take it from there.
Let's take a not too hypothetical example: If Christians living in California are not allowed to leave California by order of their communist governor (they are deemed to owe the state of California money for having been given the privilege of having enjoyed their wonderful sunshine and weather that only their state provides, so the people cannot take their savings, businesses, and possessions out of the state). And if anybody attempts to leave, prison time.
How would we help them?
Or how about the 500 conservatives in torture and prison in Washington D.C. right now, who went to the Trump rally on January 6 and are now considered "Insurrectionists" and being treated worse than you can imagine, being in isolated prison cells, not getting clean drinking water, only allowed out of their cells for 1 hour a day, cold, miserable, filthy, not able to shower every day, and I know one woman already tried to commit suicide.
Not aware of the D.C. story? Try this:
Jan 6 protesters/trespassers/rioters held in solitary, no bail, some without charges
This is already happening.
What do you think is next?
We know from the scriptures that the saints are going to be imprisoned, tortured, delivered up to death, beheaded. And we need to stand with Christ regardless. Give testimony.
But by all means, try to flee and help others escape the horrors.