"Unfortunately?" Instrumental music is unfortunate?

Big words relating to interpreting the Bible and the study of *how* we determine what God wants us to do.

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"Unfortunately?" Instrumental music is unfortunate?

Post by email » Sun May 15, 2011 9:30 pm

In the statement that "music is referenced many times throughout the Scripture," the use of the preceding word "unfortunately" indicates that it's somehow negative for the Bible to reference music. Music, mentioned, as stated, "over 1100 times," is clearly important to the Lord, and thus, of great importance to Him - He must love music.

I understand, of course, in context, use of "unfortunately" logically makes sense, because it's harder for us to interpret His will from over 1100 related or even unrelated verses. However, as you read, it appears to state that it's unfortunate that the Bible should reference music so much. Unless this is part of the intended effect, PLEASE consider revising. Thank you.
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work of human hands

Post by m273p15c » Mon May 16, 2011 1:19 pm

Thank you for your feedback. As a work of human hands, the framing of the referenced article will always bear some polishing, and even coarse sanding too. :) As you noted, the sense of "unfortunately" applies only to my desire and ability to fully digest and summarize over 1100 references in a given amount of time and web-space, as indicated in the article's context:
The best way to understand God's will on any point is to survey the Scriptures, looking for any clue referring to God's preference on the question. However, the task becomes increasingly challenging, if it is mentioned frequently throughout the Bible. Although the bulk of passages may help to make a conclusion more sure, it also makes it harder to consider every passage fairly, which increases the chance that a significant point may be overlooked.

Unfortunately, music is referenced many times throughout the Scriptures. Over 1150 verses in the Bible reference a form of the following words ...
I have no prejudice against music, as I listen to it regularly as part of my daily routine. However, I would not want to given any unnecessary occasion for someone to accuse the author's article of prejudice and use that as a "rock of offense" for ignoring its or other article's contents. Therefore, I will gladly change the wording to remove that hindrance (I Corinthians 9:19-23). Thank you for this needed feedback. :)

That being said, I think your judgment that the Lord loves music, just because music is referenced abundantly in Scripture, is hasty. Please keep in mind the frequency of the following words and related ideas in Scripture:
  • the Devil and demons = about 100
  • trees = about 300
  • Jesus = less than 1000
  • hands = more than 1300
  • houses = more than 1700
Since trees are mentioned more times than the Devil and his legions, does that make trees more dangerous? Since "hands" and "houses" are each mentioned more times than Jesus, does that mean the Lord loves them more than His only begotten Son? Also, proportionally there are many more references to music in the Old Testament than in the New. Does that mean that God loves music less in the New Testament? If we are to be consistent, would that not indicate that there has been a change in God's attitude toward us and music between the Old and New Testaments?

I pray you will please reconsider giving any attention to the frequency of word occurrences, unless you are planning how much time is required to invest in a study on a related topic. Otherwise, such malleable statistics should have no bearing on anyone's actual judgment.

Incidentally, we have had a similar question on this topic previously: isot1284.html

Thanks again for your feedback. I hope to fix the article right away.

May God help us to have a sincere love of the truth (II Thessalonians 2:9-12).
May God help us to love truth sincerely and supremely (II Thessalonians 2:11-12)

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