williemac said:
Do you not attempt to be justified by works? How consistant are you in all this? The fact is, God accepted the praises of His people the way they were given. Why would He change the way we are to give thanks to Him? Those things are not part of the rules that govern a covenant. They are part of our loving and thankful response to God. He is the same God.
But I know what is really underneath your agenda in this thread and all others. You are invaildating the protestant church. Let's face it. You are doing what all cults do (though your religion is not actually considered a cult). What they do is consider themselves part of an exclusivie group and therefore deny the validity of any group outside of their organization.
If my observation is accurate, you have been indoctrinated but have not been enlightened. When Jesus declared "I will build My church", He was thnking and speaking of something outside of and beyond any one organization. The spiritual church is not confined within the walls of a human organization. His church is neither a building or an organization. The people are His building. I know my Lord, and He knows me, and accepts my praise and worship. It's just too bad if you don't like that. Are you happy for me, or angry....or jealous?
So let me ask you. Show me where the new covenant bans or forbids the use of instruments. If it is that important to God, do you not think that it would have been mentioned?
Not me, but God justifies those that have obedient works as James said Abraham was "justified by works".
As far as singing, God has instructed His NT church to sing and that has not changed, nor ever will change, since God gave his word concerning it some 2000+ years ago.. It is man that has tried to change what God has instructed on singing.
There is no Protestant chrurch, or for that matter, a Cahtolic church found anywhere in the bible. Both are man-made organizations. All you will find in the bible is where Christ established one church, "
one body", Eph 4:4,5.
An odd but serious and simple question: how many is one? Do you know that there are adults with PhDs from theological schools who have no idea how many one is? Some of them think one is equal to thousands. But with religious groups coming and going all the time, one to them is equal to some uncertain, ever changing number.
Eph 4:4,5 there is one
body and
one faith.
Jesus prayed to God "
thy word is truth" and since truth does not condtraidt itelsef as al these groups do, it is not possible they can all possess the truth.
Yet if you claim there is more than one body and many condtradicting fatihs,then how will you go about rectifying all those contradictions? You cannot just ignore those contradictions or think they don't matter. Many of the ocntradictions are mutually exclusive not allowing for two different things at the same time.
If CHristainity were truly made up of varying groups with contradicting beliefs I would not waste my time with it. Is it truth or lies that is wrappted in contradictions? Lies are wrappted in conradictions so lies must be involved in all the varying beliefs among religious organizations. And since Satan is tha father of lies, Satan absolutely LOVES the contradictions that exist between all the various religious groups for he knows God's word can never be found in all the contradictions. There is no truth or credibility to contradictions so if someone came to me that thinks all these contradicting groups are "Christians" and are following the bible and tells me I am lost or biblically wrong, my simple response is "
who are you to tell me I am lost or wrong when you people cannot even agree among yourselves as to what is right! That's hypocrisy!!!"
If you think all these various groups are "Christians" and are following the truth of God's word,
then you are implying that God's word is a book full of contradictions that was written by a confused author. Yet the bible does not contradict itself and God is not confused, so the contradictions are a corruption of man. So you have the choice to either: (1) accept the contradictions and reject the bible or (2) accept the bible and reject the contradictions. It is impossible to chose both the contradictions and the bible therefore I have chosen the latter.
So you have an impossible task cut out for yourself in reconciling all those contradictions.
As far as your question: "
So let me ask you. Show me where the new covenant bans or forbids the use of instruments. If it is that important to God, do you not think that it would have been mentioned?"
The bible, like everything else, works on the logical principle of incluson and exclusion. So when God
included singing then that automatically
excluded everything else without God having to specifically exclude everything else by name. Just as when God
included gopher wood, then that automatically
excluded all types of other wood without God having specifically exclude them all by name. Could Noah have used oak wood since nowhere did God specifically ban/fobid using oak wood and yet still do as God said?
No.
When you order off a menu, do you go through the entire menu specifically banning/forbidding everything you do not want until you have banned everything but the one item you do want? Or do you tell the waitresss the one item you do want (
inclusion) with that
excluding all other items on the menu without you having to specifically tell the waitress you do not want them?
A grocery store may have 10,000 items on it's shelves. Does your grocey list
include just 10 items you do want knowing that
excludes all other items not on the list? Or does you grocery list include the 10 items you do want and it also specifically lists a ban of 9,990 items you do not want?
The law of inclusion and exlusions means you do not have to specifically forbid the 9,990 items you do not want. By just
including on your list what you do want, then that automatically
excludes the other 9,990 items with you having to specifically fobid them by name on your list.
Likewise God uses that exact same logic. If God had to list everything by name he wants and does not want, then the bible would be too many volumes long to even read, it could fill a library if God had to do such.