Freed-Hardeman Bill Swetmon Clement of Alexandria
Dan Lucanrini's book, "Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement: Confessions of a Former Worship Leader," presents much revealing information about the mindset of the CC music industry from one who was on the "inside." Just as the poster on the IBelieve site told of the ungodly lives that many (but not all) CC performers led, Lucarini tells a similar story from personal experiences.
At the church where I was a former member, CC music reigned. On one Sunday before Christmas, the "praise team" presented several rock renditions of traditional Christmas carols during a worship service. As the drums crashed, as the beat pounded, and as the electric guitars screeched, some of the teenage girls standing in the pews were swaying their hips and gyrating to the rhythm, as if they were in a secular rock concert, as if they were "coming on" to the performer and "gettin' down."
At that same service, a man came on stage and presented a solo rendition of "What Child Is This?" on the electric guitar. The performance began in traditional fashion, then suddenly he let loose with the wildest rock/jazz arrangement while prancing, jumping back and forth, and waving his instrument around in the air. The crowd went crazy with thunderous applause and jumped to their feet in a standing ovation. Was the crowd's response indicative of worshiping God or the performer?
"Whatever it takes to get kids to the Lord" is the pragmatic philosophy of the Change Movement. Yet by choosing the world's music for the Church, that philosophy deliberately ignores and defies Romans 12:2 and James 4:4. Posted at Concerned Members. Both Worship and Souls are for Sale. Dr. Bill Crump
Being Bible literate and having Read Ezekiel Josephus understood that the musical Levites were given in the first place because of the musical idolatry at Mount Sinai. He notes that the Levitical Musicians--lusting to be clergy to wear linen garments--had caused the fall of the nation once and were about to do it again.
"Although Josephus tells of the wonderful effects produced in the Temple by the use of instruments, the first Christians were of too spiritual a fibre to substitute lifeless instruments for or to use them to accompany the human voice.
"Clement of Alexandria severely condemns the use of instruments even at Christian banquets (P. G., VIII, 440). St. Chrysostom sharply contrasts the customs of the Christians at the time when they had full freedom with those of the Jews of the Old Testament (ibid., LV, 494-7). Similarly write a series of early ecclesiastical writers down to St. Thomas (Summa, II-II, Q. xci, a. 2).
"In Carlovingian times, however, the organ came into use, and was, until the sixteenth century, used solely for the accompaniment of the chant, its independent use developing only gradually
"The cultivation of both sacred and profane music by the same musicians proved detrimental to church music, and finally the Church had to wage open war on modern theatrical music in church services. Catholic Encyclopedia
In 1911 one could not "come into the presence of the Pope" deemed to be the Vicar of Christ with instrumental music:
The organ must be subordinate to the singing, must support and not drown it.
The purely vocal style is the ideal of the Church.
The papal choir, the Sistine, has always excluded instrumental music.
By what kind of a stretch could the Post-Modern, post-Biblical authority church jump over two thousand years of church history and believe that a "musical worship facilitator (manipulator) can move the audience into the presence of God" when they couldn't get into the presence of the Pope? Even Catholic choirs are authorized as Old Testament Levitical choirs.
The Church Fathers utterly condemned instrumental music as a tool of worship. They allegorize the use of instruments in the Old Testament and attribute Instrumental Music as worship to paganism which believed that music had the power to attract or appease the gods. It certainly had the power to attract the paying customers to the prostitute-run temples.
Bill Swetmon claims,
Another piece of evidence comes from the writings of Clement of Alexandria around A.D. 150. "Even if you wish to sing and make melody to the accompaniment of the kithara or lyre, there is no blame." ( Instrumental Music, Faith or Practice, Freed-Hardeman University, p. 37)
If you believe this about Clement I have some swamp land just waiting. Click for what Clement really said. We quote just enough to dispute the false charge which still lies there in a Freed-Hardeman published book still spreading poison:
Clement was against most forms even for social gatherings. This does not prevent pro musical worship authors from quoting Clement out of context without out a Judas blush.
It is important to note that Clement's first and most important heathen "mystery" which should be abandoned by the Christian was the use of music as a supernatural, magical power. Music has always had the power to manipulate people or "facilitate worship" because, from Nimrod onward, there was a belief that the universe was composed of seven heavenly spheres through whom human bodies descended. To overpower the gods in worship one had to mystically ascend to bring them down. Paul to the Ephesians and Romans warned against this. Finally, at death one had to ascend back to heaven by climbing the ladders or steps by the use of music. These were "hymns of ascent" never approved for Jerusalem.
If music had the power to manipulate people then surely it had power to manipulate stones into towers of Babel, Solomon's temple, pagan temples and even modern cathedrals. It worried Clement that Christians might fall for the sily notions and he, therefore, attacked paganism at its musical roots by beginning--
"Amphion of Thebes and Arion of Methymna were both minstrels, and both were renowned in story. They are celebrated in song to this day in the chorus of the Greeks; the one for having allured the fishes, and the other for having surrounded Thebes with walls by the power of music." (Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 171-172)
Don't we still honor song writers by telling their stories (offering them praise) interspersed with singing their magical incantations?
ADAM CLARK COMMENTED:
The Freed-Hardeman lectures fail to look where Clement of Alexandria poings. For instance, the stones of the Jerusalem were put into place effortlessly but Clark believes that Solomon put them into place by enslaving even his own people. The musical worship teams or overseers or excellers were the Levitical teams acting as tyrants to drive the slaves. They were truly Musical Facilitators:
"Amphion was connected with Orpheus who was the "father of them that play the lyre."A Greek Tretise on Music, by Philodemus; and here we have the truth represented which lay hidden under the fables of Orpheus and Amphion. This latter was a skilful harper, who was frequently employed by the Theban workmen to play to them while engaged in their lavour, and for which they rewarded him out of the proceeds of that labor. So powerful and pleasing was his music, that they went lightly and comfortably through their work; and time and labour passed on without tedium or fatigue; and the walls and towers were speedily raised." Clark, II Chron 34:12).
Orpheus originated the mystery called orphic and scholars identify the great awakenings in the East and at Cane Ridge Kentucky with the orphic mysteries. Those at Freed-Hardeman promoting music also see Cane Ridge or the Second Great American Awakening or charismatic experience as the model of the church more than the first century.
However, Layard's description of devil or fire worship in Babylonia compares almost totally with what happened at Caneridge when men thought that mind-manipulation to break down the mind was proof that the gods were among them.
"Orpheus was the first who introduced the rites of father Liber (the wineskin god) into Greece; and he first celebrated them on a mountain of Boeotia, very near to Thebes, where Liber was born; and because this mountain continually resounded with the strains of the lyre, it was called Cithearon (lyre). Those sacred rites are even now called orphic, in which he himself was lacerated and torn in pieces." (The Divine Institutes, Ante-Nicene Fathers, VII, p. 38).
"It is fabled of Orpheus, a most celebrated musician, that such was the enchanting harmony of his lyre, that he built the city of Thebes by it: the stones and timbers danced to the melody; and by the power of his harmony rose up, and took their respective places in the different parts of the wall that was to defend the city. (Clark, II Chron 34:12)
As the Jews came to worship the bronze serpent and even the Ark of the Covenant, Israel too quickly forgot that it was God and not the music Who caused the walls of Jericho to come down:
"The OT retains vestiges of the magic use of music, which antedates most of the biblical narratives by many centuries. The collapse of Jericho's wall, after the ritual sounding of the ram's horns, is mythologically akin to the Greek legend of Amphion of Thebes, whose lyre-playing moved the stones to rebuild the broken wall. (International Dictionary of the Bible, p. 458, Abingdon). (See Homer Odyssey XI.260 ff)
The Bible is totally devoted to showing that it is by God's power that things get done. It is not by the power of the serpent in the garden (related to musical soothsaying).
Clement continues to discuss another "mystery."
He says, in our words: "If you believe that let me tell you a bigger whopper." He made fun of the people but he knew that Christians were falling for the notion of music as having the power to change their lives even as they rejected the Word (as in Job, Isaiah, Amos).
He tells the story that during an assembly at Pytho, to celebrate the death of the Pythic serpent, Eunomos sang a hymn in praise of the serpent and in the process...
"Another, a Thracian, a cunning master of his art tamed the wild beasts by the mere might of song; and transplanted trees--oaks--by music.
I might tell you also the story of another, a brother to these--the subject of a myth, and a minstrel--Eunomos and Locrian and the Pythic grasshopper. A solemn Hellenic assembly had met at Phytho, to celebrate the death of the Pythic serpent, when Eunomos sang the reptile's epitaph. Whether his ode was a hymn in praise of the serpent, or a dirge, I am not able to say. But there was a contest, and Eunomos was playing the lyre in the summer time: it was when the grasshoppers, warmed by the sun, were chirping beneith the leaves along the hills;
but they were singing not to that dead dragon, but to God All-wise,--a lay unfettered by rule, better the numbers of Eunomos.
The Locrian breaks a string. The grasshopper sprang on the neck of the instrument, and sang on it as on a branch; and the minstrel, adapting his strain to the grasshopper's song, made up for the want of the missing string.
The grasshopper then was attracted by the song of Eunomos, as the fable represents, according to which also a brazen statue of Eunomos with his lyre, and the Locrian's ally in the contest, was erected at Pytho. But of its own accord it flew to the lyre, and of its own accord sang, and was regarded by the Greeks as a musical performer.. (Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 171-172)
Clement used the common theme that the music is held to have magical power while the Word of God cannot be understood. Music, therefore, is one of the primary "mysteries" of ancient religions and the total misuse of history at Freed-Hardeman is a prime example--
"How, let me ask, have you believed vain fables, and supposed animals to be charmed by music; while Truth's shining face alone, as would seem, appears to you disguised, and is looked on with incredulous eyes? And so Cithaeron, and Helicon, and the mountains of the Odrysi, and the initiatory rites of the Thracians,
mysteries of deceit, are hallowed and celebrated in hymns. For me, I am pained at such calamities as form the subjects of tragedy, though but Myths; but by you the records of miseries are turned into dramatic compostions." (Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 171-172)
Paul condemned the roving bands of for-hire-apostles by saying that he was not trained in the Greek Theater. He had no good looks to get on the team. He didn't depend upon rhetoric and he did not put on a wild, loud performance to prove that what he was saying was true. He certainly had no mixed-sex worship teams and He shut them down in Corinth.
When Israel rejected God at Mount Sinai, Paul said that they "rose up to play." This involved mocking, singing, instrumental music, dancing and more. Much ancient worship was a fertility play or some other ritual drama to change the attitude of the gods.
"But the dramas and the raving poets, now quite intoxicated, let us crown with ivy; and distracted outright as they are, in Bacchic fashion, with the satyrs, and the frenzied rabble, and the rest of the demon crew, let us confine to Cithaeron and Helicon, now antiquated."
But: "let us bring from above out of heaven, Truth, with Wisdom in all its brighteness, and the sacred prophetic choir, down to the holy mount of God; and let Truth, darting her light to the most distant points, cast her ray all around on those that are involved in darkness,
and deliver men from delusion, stretching out her very strong right hand, which is wisdom, for their salvation. And raising their eyes, and looking above, let them abandon Helicon and Cithaeron, and take up their abode in Sion. "For out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.--
the celestial word, the true athelete crowned in the theater of the whole universe." (Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 171)
Bill Swetmon at the Freed-Hardeman lectures does not tell you that Clement demands that people abandon the magic of musical grasshoppers and temple-building magical music and accept the Word of God because--
"Contrary to this, Clement demands that "the celestial Word, the true athlete crowned in the theatre of the whole universe. "What my Eunomos sings is not the measure of Terpander, nor that of Capito, nor the Phrygian, nor Lydian, nor Dorian,
but the immortal measure of the new harmony which bears God's name -- the new, the Levitical song.Soother of pain, calmer of wrath, producing forgetfulness of all ills.
Sweet and true is the charm of persuasion which blends with this strain."(Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 171-172)
Bill Swetmon at the Freed Hardeman lectures Clement continues a common theme: that music as magic is a method of sorcery. Others associate it with necromancy or soothsaying:
"To me, therefore, that Thracian Orpheus that Theban, and that Methymnaean, -- men, and yet unworthy of the name, -- seem to have been deceivers, who, under the pretense of poetry corrupting human life, possessed by the spirit of artful sorcery for purposes of destruction, celebrating crimes in their orgies,
and making human woes the materials of religious worship, were the first to entice men to idols; nay,
to build up the stupidity of the nationswith blocks of wood and stone,-- that is, statues and images, --subjecting to the yoke of extremest bondage the truly noble freedom of those who lived as free citizens under heaven, by their songs and incantation." (See Amos 6; 5 and 8)"But not such as my song, which has come to loose, and that speedily, the bitter bondage of tyrannizing demons; and leading us back to the mild and loving yoke of piety, recalls to heaven those that had been cast prostrate to the earth. It alone had tamed men, the most intractable of animals" (Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 171-172)
Clement connects the magical music with the sorcery of idolatry. The belief was that even the gods or demons could be calmed or controlled by musical incantations given more power by musical instruments which, they believed, had been given to them by the chief demon--Satan himself. Thus music as empowered magical incantations is connected to sorcery, necromancy and other magical rites for controlling the dead heros who became gods because of their magical music. To Clement, only the Word of god has the power to tame man who is much more difficult than dead gods but Bill Swetmon at the Freed-Hardeman lectures does not tell you that Clement blamed the problems on the sheep skins of the world--
"Others he figuratively calls wolves, clothed in sheep-skins, meaning thereby monsters of rapacity in human form. And so all such most savage beasts, and all such blocks of stone, the celestial song has transformed into tractable men. 'For even we ourselves were sometime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hatful, hating one another.' Thus speaks the apostolic Scripture; 'But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour to man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us.' Behold the might of the new song!
"Behold the might of the new song! It has made men out of stones, men out of beasts. Those, moreover, that were as dead, not being partakers of the true life, have come to life again, simply by becoming listeners to this song. (Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 172)
The "mysteries" held that there was perfect harmony in the universe. However, in time the planets seemed to disobey and they "roved" around. This proved that the planets might be gods.
"It also composed the universe into melodious order, and tuned the discord of the elements to harmonious arrangement, so that the whole world might become harmony."
However, Clement denies that magical music set the universe in order. Rather, he says that God has harmonized the universe but--
"not according to the Thracian music, which is like that invented by Jubal, not according to the paternal counsel of God, which fired the zeal of David.
And Bill Swetmon at the Freed Hardeman lectures does not tell you that Clement totally rejected literal instruments which Paul called lifeless or carnal and said:
And He who is of David, and yet before him, the Word of God, despising the lyre and harp, which are but lifeless instruments, and having tuned by the Holy Spirit the universe, and especially man,--who composed of body and soul, is a universe in minature,--
makes melody to God on this instrument of many tones; and to this instrument--I mean man--he sings accordant: 'For thou are my harp, and pipe, and temple.' -- a harp for harmony--a pipe by reason of the Spirit--a temple by reason of the word; so that the first may sound, the second breath, the third contain the Lord." (Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 172)
Bill Swetmon at the Freed Hardeman lectures fails to reveal that contrary to David being a worshipping harper, Clement notes that his music was for the purpose of driving the demons away so that the true music of the Word might be taught.
Secular and Biblical history shows that when people call for the instruments and the female or effeminate teams "for my pleasure" in the mind of Solomon, they have tried about everything else and desperately seek for the psychological tool of music to sooth the depression.
When Israel rejected God and demanded a king like the nations it was so that they could worship like the nations. God said that when this happened they would perish like the nations. It was fitting, therefore, that God sent the prophesying musicians from the high places to sound the doom of the nation as God destroyed their grain crops and warned that the king would enslave them.
"And David the king, the harper whom we mentioned a little above, who exhorted to the truth and dissuaded from idols, was so far from celebrating demons in song, that in reality they were driven away by his music. Thus, when Saul was plagued with a demon, he cured him by merely playing.
"A beautiful breathing instrument of music the Lord made man, after his own image. And He Himself, also, surely, who is the supramundane Wisdom, the celestial Word, is the all-harmonious, melodious, holy instrument of God. What, then, does this instrument--the Word of God, the Lord, the New Song--desire? To open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf, and to lead the lame or the erring to brighteousness, to exhibit God to the foolish, to put a stop to corruption, to conquer death, and reconcile disobedient children to their father. The instrument of God loves mankind."
"The Lord pities, instructs, exhorts, admonishes, saves, shields, and of His bount promises us the kingdom of heaven as a reward for learning; and the only advantage he reaps is, that we are saved." (Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 172-3)
The Thracians because of their music and the Arcadians by their poetry were held to be the oldest heros of the world. However, Clement notes that others took priority.
"But inasmuch as He has now assumed the name Christ, consecrated of old, and worthy of power, he has been called by me the New Song. This Word, then, the Christ, the cause of both our being at first (for He was in God) and of our well-being, the very Word has now appeared to man..."This is the New Song, the manifesttion of the Word that was in the beginning, and before the beginning. p. 173
"For that wicked reptile monster, by his enchantments, enslaves and plagues men even till now; inflicting, as seems to me, such barbarous vengeance on them as those who are said to bind the captives to corpses till they rot together.
The wicked tyrant and serpent, accordingly, binding fast with the miserable chain of superstition whomeoever he can draw to his side from their birth, to stones, and stocks, and images." (Clement, 173)
Contrary to the methods which he says is from Satan
"By the fear which these inspired He addressed the hard-hearted; while by Moses learned in all wisdom, and Isaiah, lover of truth, and the whole prophetic choir, in a way appealing more to reason,
He turns to the Word those who have ears to hear.
Sometimes He upbraids, and sometimes He threatenes. Some men He mourns over, others He addresses with the voice of a song, just as a good physician treats some of his patients with cataplasms, some with rubbing, some with fomentations; in one case cuts open with the lancet, in another cauterizes, in another amputates, in order if possible to cure the patient's diseased part or member. The Saviour has many tones of voice, and many methods for the salvation of men: ... He pities by the voice of Song He cheers p. 173
"For the gates of the Word being intellectual, are opened by the key of faith p. 174
Satan or the serpent is associated linguistly with magical soothsaying, brass, copper and the polluting pipe. Therefore,
"The bacchanals hold their orgies in nonor of the frenzied Dionysus, celebrating their sacred frenzy by eating of raw flesh, and go through the distribution of the parts of butchered victims, crowned with snakes, shrieking out the name of that Eva by whom error came into the world. The symbol of the Bacchic orgies is a consecrated serpent.
Moreover, according to the strict interpretation of the Hebrew term, the name Hevia, aspirated, signifies a female serpent." (Clement, p. 175).
This was Eve or ZOE or Mary as the "Mother of the gods."
Clement takes note of "hunting" fables and "funeral" fables among the Phrygians and others.
From The Absurdidity and impiety of the mysteries and fables.
"These she taught to sing deeds of the olden time, and play melodiously on the lyre. And they, by assiduously playing the lyre, and singing sweetly to it, sooth Macar, and put a stop to his ill temper. Wherefore Megaclo, as a token of gratitute to them,
on her Mother"s account errected brazen pillars, and ordered them to be held in honor in all the temples. (Clement, Exhortation II, p. 175)
"Recount to us the useless oracles of the other kind of divination, or rather madness, the Clarian, the Phythian, the didymaean, that of Amphiaraus, of Appolo, of Ampliochus; and if you will, couple with them the expounders of prodigies, the augurs, and the interpreters of dreams. And bring and place beside the Phythian those that divine by flour, and those that divine by barley (hallucination producing ergot), and the ventriloquists still held in honor by many. Let the necromancies of the Etruscans be consigned to darkness." (Clement, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 174-175)
Of the mysteries of Demeter and and Zeus the ritual of castration
"Then there are the mysteries of Demeter, and Zeus's wanton embraces of his mother (Le 18:8; 1Cor 5:1), and the wrath of Demeter...The symbols of initiation into these rites, when set before you in a vacant hour, I know will excite your laughter, although on account of the exposure by no means inclined to laugh.
"I have eaten out of the drum (1Cor 13:1), I have drunk out of the cymbal, I have carried the Cernos (vessel containing poppy), I have slipped into the bedroom. (Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 175)
"Do you wish me to go into the story of Persephatta's gathering of flowers, her basket, and her seizure by Pluto (Aidoneus), and the rent in the earth, and the swine of Eubouleus that were swallowed up with the two goddesses; for which reason, in the Thesmophoria, speaking the Megaric tongue, they thrust out the swine? (Clement, Exhortation, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 176)
Bill Swetmon at the Freed Hardeman lectures did not tell you that Clement associated music and loud ritual with the worst form of paganism:
"The central act of the Thesmophoria consisted of women called "antleriai" or "bailers" into trenches to bring back the decaying remains of piglets and offerings of dough which had previously been thrown down there. The bailers were required to be pure, and thus they abstained from sex for three days before performing their duty. When the bailers descended into the trenches to retrieve the sacred objects,
the other participants in the festival clapped and shouted to scare away any serpents which might be down there. The objects which were retrieved from these pits were sacrificed piglets, replicas of snakes and male genitalia, all symbols of fertility.
"Instead of helping their babies become stronger, these women nourished wild animals. This could have been quite dangerous for the survival of the family.
The rites of these mysteries also contained a reversal of sex roles as seen when the women went hunting.
This probably scared the men because it showed that the women had as much ability as the men did to perform typically male jobs. Men must have also feared that there was sexual immorality at the festival, an idea which must have flourished because the rites took place at night and often in the presence of a man. The Mysteries of Dionysus did not have any advantages for the men, but they did allow for a great deal of freedom for the women, at least for one night. It was this freedom that made the men fear and dislike this religious ritual. Click for more."The mysteries of Dionysus are wholly inhuman; for while still a child, and the Curetes danced around his cradle clashing their weapons, and the Titans having comne upon them by stealth, and having beguild him with childish toys, these very Titans tore him limb from limb when but a child, as the bard of this mystery the Thracian Orpheus, says:
- "Come, and spinning-top, and limb-moving rattles,
- And fair golden apples from the clear-toned Hesperides."
And the useless symbols of this mystic rite it will not be useless to exhibit for comedemnation. They are dice, ball, hoop, apples, top (a piece of wood attached to a cord, and swung round so as to cause a whistling noise), looking glass, tuft of wool." (Clement, Exhortation, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 176)
After condemning those who "were intoxicated with mere ignorance" and "delight with music for the common ear" also condemns the ritual dramas and directs people to the Word which is the true music of God.
He then condemned the Christians atheists, and accused them of shameful rites
remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. Eph 2:12
Bill Swetmon at the Freed Hardeman lectures fails to hear Clement saying "Wherefore the apostle reproves us, saying, 'And ye were strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.
"Heraclitus the Ephesian prophesies, as 'the night-walkers, the magi, the bacchanals, the Lenaen revellers, the initiated.' These he threatens with what will follow death, and predicts for them fire. p. 177
"Once on a time night was silent, a veil for the pleasure of temperate men; but now for the initiated, the holy night is the tell-tale of the rites of licentiousness; and the glare of torches reveals vicious indulgences. Quench the flame, O Hierophant; reverance, O Torch-bearer, the torches. p. 177
"All honor to that king of the Scythians, whoever Anacharsis was, who shot with an arrow one of his subjects who imitated among the Scythians the mystery of the Mother of the gods, as practiced by the inhabitants of Cyzicus,
beating a drum and sounding a cymbal strung from his neck like a priest of Cybele,
condemning him as having become effeminate among the Greeks, and a teacher of the disease of effeminancy to the rest of the Cythians. (Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 177).
Having connected the effeminate musical practices with the Gentiles and in Paul's words, "going all the way and castrating themselves," Clement then connects them to the Jews--
"And do you not see Moses, the hierophant of the truth, enjoining that no eunuch, or emasculated man, or son of a harlot should enter the congregation? By the first he alludes to the impious custom by which men were deprived both of divine energy and of the virility; and by the third, to him who, in place of the only real God, assumes many gods falsely so called--
as the son of a harlot, in ignorance of his true father, may claim many putive fathers. (Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen, II, p. 177-8)
"There was an inate original communion between men and heaven, obscured through ignorance, but now at length has leapt forth instantaneously from the darkness, and shines resplendent; as has been expressed by one (Euripides) in the following line:--
- See'st thou this loft, this boundless ether,
- Holding the earth in the embrace of its humid arms."
- And O Thou, who makest the earth Thy chariot,
- and in the earth hast Thy seat,
- Whoever Thou be, baffling our efforts to behold Thee.
"And whatever the sons of the poets sing."But sentiments erroneous, and deviating from what is right, and certainly pernicious, have turned man, a creature of heavenly origin, away from the heavenly life, and stretched him on the earth,
by inducing him to cleave to earthly objects. For some beguiled by the contemplation of the heavens, and trusting to their sight alone, while they looked on the motions of the stars, straightway were seized with admiration, and deified them, calling the stars gods from their motions... (Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen, II, p. 178) ) (Modern musicians are called stars)
Because the philosophers got their ideas from the poets they made idols of fear, love, joy, hop, insult and impudence. Clement then says:
"There is a sixth mode of introducing error and of manufacturing gods, according to which they number the twelve gods, whose birth is th theme of which Hesiod sings in his Theogony, and of whom Homer speaks in all that he says of the gods." Clement of Alexandria p. 178
Clement then once again recalls Paul's warning in Ephesiand 2:3-5 and directs believers to the Word of Christ. The Greek fathers and mothers of music were always children of the Gods:
- From Zeus and Leto daughter of the Titan Koios
- Apollo god of medicine, music and prophecy. Killed the serpent
- From Zeus and Mnemosyne daughter of Ouranos and Gaia goddes of memory.
- The Nine Muses (patronesses of the arts) under the direction of Apollo.
- Kleio history
- Euterpe music
- Thalea comedy
- Melpomene tragedy
- Terpsichor light poetry and dancing
- Erato amorous poetry
- Polyhymnia singing and rhetoric
- Ouranis astronomy (astrology)
- Kalliope epic poetry
In defining the muses Clement wrote:
"As for the Muses, whom Alcander calls the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and the rest of the poets and authors deify and worship,--those Muses, in honour of whom whole states have already erected museums, being handmaids were hired by Megaclo, the daughter of Macar.
This Macar reigned over the Lesbians, and was always quarrelling with his wife; and Megaclo was vexed for her mother's sake.
"These she taught to sing deeds of the olden time, and play melodiously on the lyre. And they, by assiduously playing the lyre, and singing sweetly to it,
sooth Macar, and put a stop to his ill temper.
Wherefore Megaclo, as a token of gratitute to them, on her Mother"s account errected brazen pillars, and ordered them to be held in honor in all the temples. Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation II, p. 179
Bill Swetmon at the Freed Hardeman lectures does not say that Clement of Alexandria noticed that:
"It were tedius to recount his adulteries of all sorts, and debauching of boys. For your gods did not even abstain from boys... Let such gods as these be worshiped by your wives, and let them pray that their husbands be such as these--so temperate; that, emulating them in the same practices, they may be like the gods.
Such gods let your boys be trained to worship, that they may grow up to be men with the accursed likeness of fornication on them received from the gods." Clement of Alexandria , p. 180
Many of the pagan songs were licentious. Clement held that the priests believed that they were attracting the gods but the practices were important because they were really sexual practices and hiding the truth:
"And now the Magi boast that the demons are the ministers of their impiety, reckoning them among the number of their domestics (familiar spirits), and by their charms compelling them to be their slaves. Beside the nuptials of the deities, their begetting and bringing forth of children that are recounted, their adulteries celebrated in song, their carousals represented in comedy, and burst of laughter over their cups, which your authors introduce, urge me to cry out, though I would fain be silent. Oh the godlessness!
"You have turned heaven into a stage; the Divine has become a drama; and what is sacred you have acted in comedies under the masks of demons, travestying true religion by your demon worship [superstition].
'But he, striking the lyre, began to sing beautifully.' (Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene,II, p. 188-9)
"For such are the begging priests of Cybele. Hence Antisthenes replies appropriately totheir request for alms: --
- I do not maintain the mother of the gods,
- For the gods maintain her."
Again, the same writer of comedy, expressing his dissatisfaction with the common usages, tries to expose the impious arrogance of the prevailing error in the drama of the Priestess, sagely declaring: --
- If a man drags the Deity
- Whither he will by the sound of cymbals,
- He that does this is greater than the Deity;
- But these are the instruments of audacity and
- means of living Invented by men.
- --(Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen,
- Ante-Nicene, II, p. 193).
Clement of Alexandria urges the people to abandon their old religious practices and listen to Christ. The custom of listening to the mythic sirens chokes man and leads them to shipwreck. They should "sail past the song that works death."
Clement contrasts the music composed by the comic and tragic poets used for divination and the introduction of charismatic ecstasy with sitting with Christ as the only true song and hearing the word is joining in the heavenly chorus--
"Then shalt thou see my God, and be initiated into the sacred mysteries, and come up to the fruition of those things which are laid up in heaven reserved for me, which 'ear hath not heard, nor have they entered into the heart of any.'
- "And in sooth methinks I see two suns,
- And a double Thebes,'
Said one frenzy-striken in the worship of idols, intoxicated with mere ignorance. This is the mountain beloved of God, consecrated to dramas of the truth, -- a mount of sobriety, shaded with forests of purity; and there revel on it not the maenades, sisters of Semele, who was struck by the thunderbolt, practicing in their initiatory rites unholy division of flesh,
"but the daughters of God, the fair lambs, who celebrate the holy rites of the Word, raising a sober choral dance.
The righteous are the chorus; the music is a hymn of the King of the universe.The maidens strike the lyre, the angels praise, the prophets speak; the sound of music issues forth, they run and pursue the jubilant band; those that are called make haste, eagerly desiring to receive the Father.Come thou also, O aged man, leaving Thebes and casting away from thee both divination and Bacchic frenzy, allow thyself to be led to the truth." --(Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 205).
Clement urges them to leave the physical torch-light ceremonies and come to God as the true torch and Hierophant--
"The Lord is the hierophant, and seals while illuminating him who is initiated, and presents to the Father him who believes, to be kept safe for ever. Such are the reveries of my mysteries. If it is they wish, let thou also initiated;
and thou shalt join the choir along with angels around the unbegotten and indestructible
and the only true God, the Word of God,
raising the hymn with us." Clement of Alexandria against instrumental music, p. 205"He said: "I anoint you with the ungent of faith, by which you throw off corruption, and show you the naked form of righteousness by which you ascend to God." p. 206
"For the law is the training of refractory children. 'Having feasted to the full,' accordingly, it is said, 'they rose up to play;' senseless repletion with victuls being called (fodder), not (food). And when, having senselessly filled themselves, they senselessly played; on that account the law was given them, and terror ensure for the prevention of transgressions and for the promotion of right actions." --(Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 193).
He continues the analogy to spiritualise all musical instruments in the meetings of the church.
"The Holy Spirit, uttering His voice by Amos, pronounces the rich to be wretched on account of their luxury: 'Those that drink strained wine, and recline on an ivory couch,' he says; and what else similar he addes by way of reproach. Especial regard is to be paid to decency (as the myth represents Athene, whoever she was, out of regard to it, giving up the pleasure of the flute because of the unseemliness of the sight). Clement of Alexandria, p. 245
The flute, in some accounts, began as the windpipe of a crane used first to bring a message from the gods. It was sometimes used as a drinking tube to "drink to the gods." However, as most musical instruments were made in the form of idols (the Babylonian bull) or phallic or other sexual symbols, the polite lady would not be caught sucking or blowing on a flute or being "attacked" by a shapely lyre.
Chap. IV. -- How To Conduct Ourselves at Feasts
Clement, like Paul to the Ephesians, does not draw a sharp line between secular and religious life. Paul, for instance, outlaws the drinking singing methods (don't get drunk with wine) and demands filling up with the Word or the Spirit and then teaching and admonishing one another. Clement was aware that complicated harmonies came from the same source as the musical instruments and had the same effect.
Clement describes how the world conducted its feast with music and wine. Now, in this chapter he describes the rational festivals of those who depend on the Word of God. The early church continued to meet and be organized much like the "self-help" ecclesias of the Greek world and to practice something like the Agape or common love-feast.
"Let revelry keep away from our rational entertainments, and foolish vigils, too, that revel in intemperance. For revelry is an inebriating pipe, the chain of an amatory bridge, that is, of sorrow. And let love, and intoxication, and senseless passions, be removed from our choir. Burlesque singing is the boon companion of drunkeness. A night spent over drink invites drunkeness, rouses lust, and is audacious in deeds of shame.
For if people occupy their time with pipes, and psalteries, and choirs, and dances, and Egyptian clapping of hands, and such disorderly frivolities, they become quite immodest and intractable, beat on cymbals, and drums, and make a noise on instruments of delusion; for plainly such a banquet, as it seems to me, is a theatre of drunkenness. " (Clement of Alexandria against Instrumental Music in the Instructor, Eerdmans, p. 248).
The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of [darkness] and put on the armor of light. Rom 13:12
Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rom 13:13
Clement is describing something which is opposite to that described in the Christian church. This is proven when he quotes Paul--
"For the apostle decrees that, 'putting off the works of darkness, we should put on the armour of light, walking honestly as in the day, not spending our time in rioting and drunkenness, in chambering and wantoness.'
Because this is condemned in this passage as well as his description of Christian "song" as the work of the Spirit. In Colossians he interprets this as "the word of Christ." Therefore, Clement continues to discuss his earlier association of music and wine with the "mysteries" of the pagan world--
"Let the pipe be resigned to the shepherds, and the flute to the superstitious who are engrossed in idolatry.
For, in truth, such instruments are to be banished from the temperate banquets, being more suitable to beasts than men, and the more irrational portion of mankind. For we have heard of stags being charmed by the pipe, and seduced by music into the toils, when hunted by the huntsman. And when mares are being covered, a tune is played on the flute--a nuptial song, as it were." (Clement of Alexandria, Instructor, Eerdmans, p. 248).
"And every improper sight and sound, to speak in a word, and every shameful sensation of licentiousness--which, in truth, is privation of sensation--must by all means be excluded; and we must be on our guard against
whatever pleasure titillates eye and ear, and effeminates. For the various spells of the broken strains and plaintive numbers of the Carian muse corrupt men's morals,
drawing to perturbation of mind, by the licentious and mischievous art of music." (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, Eerdmans, p. 248 [This is the meaning of external melody]
Clement
continues to contrast pagan festivals
to that which the Holy Spirit has revealed. "In the
church" is opposed to" at the common festivals which a Christian
might attend. He specificially contrasts this music with Christian
music by spiritualizing Psalm 150 which defines instruments not even
permitted during animal sacrifices [Remember that Paul called musical
instruments "lifeless instruments" and "carnal weapons or
instruments]. You have to agree with the generally allegorizing
of the Psalms: psalms are poems tend to be poetic, or you are forced to
PRAISE as in making self vile and literally attacking your enemies
because most of the instruments came from war or from the musical
prostitute.
"The Spirit, distinguishing from such revelry the divine service, sings, 'Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;' for with sound of trumpet He shall raise the dead....
Praise him on the psaltery;
for the tongue is the psaltery of the Lord.
And praise Him on the lyre.
By the lyre is meant the mouth struck by the Spirit, as it were by a plectrum.Praise Him with the timbrel and the dance,
refers to the Church mediating onthe resurrection of the dead in the resounding skin,
'Praise Him on the chords and organ.'
Our body He calls an organ, and its nerves are the strings, by which it has received harmonious tension, and when struck by the Spirit, it gives forth human voice.
'Praise Him on the clashing cymbals.'
He calls the tongue the cymbal of the mouth, which resounds with the pulsation of the lips.
Therefore He cried to humanity, 'Let every breath praise the Lord,' because He cares for every breathing thing which He hath made.
"For man is truly a pacific instrument;This also agrees with the allegorizing the human voice as musical instruments in the Dead Sea Scroll version of Psalm 41 etc.
while other instruments, if you investigate, you will find to be warlike, inflaming to lust, or kindling up amours, or rousing wrath." (Clement of Alexandria allegorizes Instrumental Music, Instructor, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 248).
Because he is a student of Paul, Clement continues to contrast Christian teaching of the Word to the use of instruments of war. The tongue is a peaceful instrument while musical instruments are for warfare. Indeed, the Hebrew uses one word to define both "weapon" and "psaltery." And Paul uses the equivalent Greek word to describe both "lifeless instruments" and "carnal weapons."
Clement shows that he is contrasting the pagan festivals with the practices of Christians by showing that Christians did not use the instruments of warfare. These had been replaced with the instrument of peace, the Word of God--
"In their wars, therefore, the Etruscans use the trumpet, the Arcadians the pipe, the Sicilians the pectides, the Cretans the lyre, the Lacedaemonians the flute, the Thracians the horn, the Egyptians the drum, the arabians the cymbal.
'The one instrument of peace, the Word alone by which we honour God, is what we employ.
We no longer employ the ancient psaltery, and trumpet, and timbrel, and flute, which those experts in war and contemners of the fear of God were wont to make use of also in the choruses at their festive assemblies; that by such strains they might raise their dejected minds."
When Clement spoke of conduct during feasts he does not exclude the feasts connected with the Christian assembly of the church. Therefore, Clement quotes the Ephesian and colossian command to sing by filling up with the Word of God--
"But let our genial feelings in drinking be twofold, in accordance with the law. For 'if thou shalt love the Lord thy God,' and then 'thy neighbour,'
let its first manifestation be towards 'God in thanksgiving and psalmody,
and the second toward our neighbour in decorous fellowship.For says the apostle, 'Let the Word of the Lord dwell in you richly.' And this Word suits and conforms Himself to seasons, to persons, and places. (p. 249)
"In the present instance He is a guest with us. For the apostle adds again, 'Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to God.' And again, 'Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and His father.' This is our thankful revelry.' (p. 249)
Clement does nto restrict these acts to the "worship service" but notes that "singing" to God is a constant practice even if we are eating at home or getting ready for bed. The singing of the Word of God in contrast to the weapons of warfare is called "revelry." We cannot believe that he is promoting literal revelry. Rather, this and all that he says of musical instruments is figurative. Note how he continues--
Bill Swetmon at the Freed Hardeman lectures never tells you about the quote:
"This is our thankful revelry. And even if you wish to sing and play to the harp or the lyre, there is no blame (Footnote: Here instrumental music is allowed, though he turns everything into a type.) Thou shalt imitate the righteous Hebrew king in his thanksiving to God. 'Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; praise is comely to the upright,' says the prophecy. 'Confess to the Lord on the harp; play to Him on the psaltery of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song.' (p. 249)
Clement then makes it clear that the literal methods which king David used in his private devotions can be repeated in our own partaking of food. Indeed, everything should be a song to god upon the instrument which God gave--the psaltery is the Word or Jesus--
"And does not the ten-stringed psaltery
indicate the Word Jesus, who is manifested by the element of the decad?And as it is befitting, before partaking of food, that we should bless the Creator of all; so also drinking it is suitable to praise Him on partaking of His creatures.
For the psalm is a melodious and sober blessing. The apostle calls the psalm 'a spiritual song."
"Finally, before partaking of sleep, it is a sacred duty to give thanks to God, having enjoyed His grace and love, and so go straight to sleep.
'And confess to Him in songs of the lips,' he says, 'because in His command all His good pleasure is done, and there is no deficiency in His salvation."
"Further, among the ancient Greeks, in their banquets over the brimming cups, a song was sung called a skolion, after the manner of the Hebrew psalms, all together raising the paean with the voice,
and sometimes also taking turns in the song while they drank healthy round;
while those that were more musical than the rest sung to the lyre."But let amatory songs be banished far away, and let our songs be hymns to God. 'Let them praise,' it is said, 'His name in the dance, and let them play to Him on the timbrel and psaltery.'
And what is the choir which plays? The Spirit will show thee: 'Let His praise be in the congregation of the saints; let them be joyful in their King.' And then he adds, 'The Lord will take pleasure in His people.
The Skolion derives from skolias or the CROOKED GENERATION Peter said we should save ourselves from.
Bill Swetmon at the Freed Hardeman lectures never tells you that the almost universal view is that the form of music he is proposing was always called "the effeminate art"--
"For temperate harmonies are to be admitted; but we are to banish as far as possible from our robust mind those liquid harmonies, which,
though pernicious arts in the modulations of tones,
train to effeminacy and scurrility.But the grave and modest strains say farewell to the turbulence of drunkenness. Chromatic harmonies are therefore, to be abandoned to immodest revels, and to florid and meretricious music. (Clement, Instructor, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 249).
The editor of Clement of Alexandria then notes that his wish has not been fulfilled in the modern church
"Yet modern Christians delight in these florid and meretricious compositions, and they have intruded into the solemnities of worship. In Europe, dramatic composers of a sensual school have taken possession of the Latin Ceremonies." (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume II, p. 249, Eerdmans).
"For the seemly relaxation of the countenance in a harmonious manner--as of a musical instrument--is called a smile. So also is laughter on the face of well-regulated men termed. But the discordant relaxation of countenance in the case of women is called a giggle, and is meretricious laughter; in the case of men, a guffaw, and is savage and insulting laughter." (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume II, p. 250, Eerdmans).
"Moreover, silver-footed couches argue great ostentation; and the ivory on beds, the body having left the soul, is not permissible for holy men, being a lazy contrivance for rest." (Clement, The Instructor, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 257).
"The lust which commits fornication with gold becomes an idol, and is tested by fire; for which alone luxury is reserved, as being an idol, not a reality. Hence the Word, upbraiding the Hebrews by the prophet, says, 'They made to Baal things of silver and gold,' that is ornaments (Hos 2:8). And most distinctily threatening, He says, 'I will punish her for the days of Baalim, in which they offered sacrifice for her, and she put on her earrings and her necklaces. And he subjoined the cause of the adornmnet, when He said, 'And she went after her lovers, but forgot Me, saith the Lord." -- (Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 269).
From Ezekiel: Making souls fly with women soul pilots.
Clement compares body embellishment to an idol temple
"But if you enter the penetralia of the enclosure, and, in haste to behold something better, seek the image that is the inhabitant of the temple, and if any priest of those that offer sacrifice there, looking grave, and singing a paean in the Egyptian tongues, remove a little of the veil to show the god, he will give you a hearty laugh at the object of worship...
The god of the Egyptians appears a beast rolling on a purple couch. (Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 272).
Under "Religion in Ordinary Life" he wrote
"And in this way those who frequent the market-place and the shop philosophize. 'For thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.'
"But those who act contrary to these things--the avaricious, the liars, the hypocrites, those who make merchandise of the truth--the Lord cast out of His father's court not willing that the holy house of God should be the house of unrighteous traffic either in words or in material things." --(Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 290).
Instrumental music Out of Church
By describing what often took place "out of church" Clement clearly showed what he would have approved in church.
"Such ought those who are consecrated to Christ appear, and frame themselves in their whole life, as they fashion themselves in the church for the sake of gravity; and to be, not to seem such--so meek, so pious, so loving. But now I know not how people change their fashion and manners with the place.... Nay, in laying aside the artificial mask of solemnity, they are proved to be what they secretly were.
"After having paid reverence to the discourse about God, they leave within [at church] what they have heard. And outside they foolishly amuse themselves with impious playing, and amatory quavering (feminine vibrato), occupied with flute-playing, and dancing, and intoxication, and all kinds of trash.
Preliminary findings to this point in the research have led me to look more closely into frequency and resonance. The resonant frequency of our skulls is around 3.5 Hertz, and this coincides with the 14th sub-harmonic of G above middle C, which is the main frequency used in the 'Phoenix and the Firestone'. This is the frequency directly connected to the pineal gland and is, therefore, linked to the transcendent realm and the expansion of the subconscious. Sir Andrew Wagner.
They who sing thus, and sing in response, are those who before hymned immortality, -- found at last wicked and wickedly singing this most pernicious palinode, 'Let us eat and drink, for tommorrow we die.' But not tommorrow in truth, but already, are these dead to God; burrying their dead, that is, sinking themselves down to death. The appostle firmly assails them: 'Be not deceived; neither adulterers,
nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers... shall inherit the kingdom of God." (Clement, Instructor III.Xi.80,4, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, p. 290)
Bill Swetmon at the Hardeman lectures does not tell you that Clement of Alexandria identified the "effeminate" mention by Paul with the musicians and singers:
"From 1 cor 6:9, 10: "The apostle firmly assails them: 'Be not deceived; neither adulterers, effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind'... shall inherit the kingdom of God." (Clement, Instructor III.Xi.80,4, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, p. 290).
Clement was aware that people might reject his teachings because he used philosophical ideas to teach Divine truth. For instance, earlier he seemed to allow musical instruments but then compared them to the Word of God.
He noted that people believed that human philosphy was from the devil. However, he believed that philosphy was of Divine Providence. In describing the philosophical ideal of "containing the truth mixed up in the dogmas of philosophy" he shows that the wise can pick out the real Christian Truth from philosophy. Earlier, he illustrated this by saying--
"In this respect the resources of learning are like a relish mixed with the food of an athlete, who is not indulging in luxury, but entertains a noble desire for distinction.
By music we harmoniously relax the excessive tension of gravity.
And so those who wish to address the people, do so often by the herald, that what is said may be better heard; so also in this case.For we have the word, that was spoken to many, before the common tradition. Wherefore we must set forth the opinions and utterances which cried individually to them by which those who hear shall more readily turn." (Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 302).
The herald was not the philosophical teacher. He often warned of danger and shouted from the housetop like a Paul Revere. He didn't have time to separate the relish from the food. The athlete might like healthy food spiced up by relish and music is used to soothe people so that they are not overly concerned. Clement used these analogies to show why he explained Christian principles by discussing philosophy and even music.
In Against The Sophists Clement mixed his relish with good food in many ways.
For mortal's tongues are glib, and on them are many speeches;
And a wide range for words of all sorts in this place and that."
A river of silly words--not a dropping."...
For the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain;the Scripture calling those the wise who are skilled in words and arts, sophists...
Such a hive of sophists have ye examined."And similarly Iophon, the comic poet, in Fluteplaying Satyrs, says--
For there entered
A band of sophists, all equipped.Of these and the like, who devote their attention to empty words, the Scripture most excellently says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise." (Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 304).
"He admonishes us to use, indeed, but not to linger and spend time with, secular culture. For what was bestowed on each generation advantageously, and at seasonable times, is a preliminary training for the word of God.
For already some men, ensnared by the charms of handmaidens, have despised their consort philosophy, and have grown old, some of them in music, some in geometry,others in grammar, the most in rhetoric." p. 306
"Some more fabulously say that certain of those called the Idaean Dactyli were the first wise men; to whom are attributed the invention of what are called the 'Ephesian letters,' and the numbers in music." --(Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 316).
"The Etruscans invented the trumpet, and the Phrygians the flute... In music, Olympus th Mysian practised the Lydian harmony; and the people called Troglodytes invented the sambuca, a musical instrument. It is said that the crooked pipe was invented by Satyrus the Phrygian; likewise the diatonic harmony by Hyagnis, a Phrygian too; and notes by Olympus, a Phrygian; as also the Phrygian harmony, and the half-Phrygian and the half-Lydian, by Marsyas, who belonged to the same region as those mentioned above." --(Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 317).
Clement was aware that many of the Greeks came after Moses but believed that their system was superior to all others.
"The first to adapt music to poetical compositions was Terpander of Antissa; and he set the laws of the Lacedaemonians to music... Pindar the Theban, the dance accompanied with song. Timotheus of Miletus was the first to execute those musical compositions... on the lyre, with dancing." --(Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 318).
"Several suppose that certain powers (the devil), descending from heaven, inspired the whole of philosophy (including music)." -- (Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 318).
Bill Swetmon at the Hardeman lectures does not tell you that Clement of Alexandria considered all of these efforts to control the gods with music as thieves and robbers:
"But, say they, it is written, 'All who were before the Lord's advent are thieves and robbers.'... The devil is called 'thief and robber;' having mixed false prophets with the prophets, as tares with the wheat. 'All, then, that came before the Lord, were thieves and robbers;' not absolutely all men, but all the false prophets, and all who were not properly sent by Him. For the false prophets possessed the prphetic name dishonestly, being prophets, but prophets of the liar.
"And the Shepherd, the angel of repentance, says to Hermes, of the false prophet: 'For he speaks some truths. For the devil fills him with his own spirit, If perchance he may be able to cast down any one from what is right. (Clement, Stromata, p. 319)
The "bag" Judas carried was for carrying the mouthpieces of wind instruments and means "speaking in tongues" and "of the world" and the player is usually naked.
"It is foreign also to the piety of Clement that the (song) instituted for drinking companies, to be sung in the convivial feasts of the Gentiles... As if he [Clement] did not know that Psalms, not 'wine songs,'... were recited at the close of the Supper... I say that so great a profanation of the Psalms is most severely condemned by God in the third [commandment] of the Decalogue and Amos 5:23; 6:5" (Joseph Bingham, Antiq. of the Christian Church, Vol. 2, p. 485 quoting Clement).
I pass over in silence Heraclitus of Ephesus, who took a very great deal from Orpheus (cf Ephesians 5:19)... And at Delphi, on the expedition of Xerxes against Greece, the Pythian priestess having made answer: --
'O Delphians, pray the winds, and it will be better,' (1Cor 14:2, 9) See Speaking into the Air
they having erected an altar and performed sacrifices to the winds, had them as their helpers...
"For instance, they say that the Magi at Cleone, watching the phenomena of the skies, when the clouds are about to discharge hail, avert the threatening of wrath by incantations and sacrifices... And those skilled in the matter of consecrating statues, in many of the temples have erected tombs of the dead, calling the souls of thes Daemons, and teaching them to be worshipped by men.....
"How then shall the Greeks any longer disbelieve the divine appearance on Mount Sinai, when the fire burned, consuming none of the things that grew on the mount; and the sound of trumpets issued forth, breathed without instruments. -- (Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 487)."Now the compilers of narratives say that in the island of Britain there is a cave situated under a mountain, and a chasm on its summit; and that, accordingly, when the wind falls into the cave, and rushes into the bosom of the cleft, a sound is heard like cymbals clashing musically. And often in the woods, when the leaves are moved by a sudden gust of wind, a sound is emitted like the song of birds. (Clement, Stromata, p. 487-488).
Noting the musical sounds made by a cave Clement wrote
"Be it is possible for God Almighty, even without a medium, to produce a voice and vision through the ear, showing that His greatness has a natural order beyond what is customary, in order to the conversion of the hitherto unbelieving soul." --(Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 488).
In showing how the Greeks borrowed from the Egyptians and connects the musical worship to the stars.
"For the Egyptians pursue a philosophy of their own. This is principally shown by their sacred ceremonial. First advances the Singer, bearing some one of the symbols of music. For they say that he must learn two of the books of Hermes, the one of which contains the hymns of the gods, the second the regulations for the king's life. And after the Singer advances the Astrologer, with a horologe in his hand, and a palm, the symbols of astrology.
He must have the astrological books of Hermes, which are four in number always in his mouth." --(Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 488).
"And that is is said, that we and the Greeks know the same God, though not in the same way, he will infer: 'Neither worship as the Jews; for they, thinking that they only know God, do not know Him, adoring as they do angels and archangels, the month and the moon. And if the moon be not visible, they do not hold the Sabbath, which is called the first; nor do they hold the new moon, nor the feast of unleavened bread, nor the feast, nor the great day. -- (Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 489).
In discussing the mystical meaning of numbers and measurements of the tabernacle and temple Clement wrote
"Farther, as an example of music, let us adduce David, playing at once and prophesying, melodiously praising God. Now the Enarmonic suits best the Dorian harmony, and the Diatonic the Phrygian, as Aristoxenus says.
The harmony, therefore, of the Barbarian psaltery, which exhibited gravity of strain, being the most ancient, most certainly became the model for Terpander, for the Dorian harmony, who sings the praise of Zeus thus: --
- O Zeus, of all things the Beginning, Ruler of all;
- O Zeus, I sent thee this beginning of hymns.
"The Lyre, according to its primary significance, may by the psalmist be used figuratively for the Lord; accordingly to its secondary, for those who continually strike the chords of their souls under the direction of the Choir-master, the Lord. And if the people saved be called the lyre, it will be understood to be in consequence of their giving glory musically, through the inspiration of the Word and the knowledge of God, being struck by the Word so as to produce faith.
"You may take music in another way, as the ecclesiastical symphony at once of the law and the prophets, and the apostles along with the Gospel, and the harmony which obtained in each prophet, in the transitions of the persons. --(Clement of Alexandrian allegorizes instrumental music, Stromata, Book VI, Chapt XI, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 500).
Bill Swetmon of the Hardeman lectures does not tell you that Clement knew what all of the musical manipulators and modern science: music stops the rational ears. Clement compares everything to faith in God through the Word which people do not handle with skill
"But, as seems, the most of those who are ascribed with the Name, like the companions of Ulysses, handle the word unskilfully,
since they know that, after lending their ears to Hellenistic studies,
- passing not by the Sirens,
- but the rhythm and the melody,
- stopping their ears with ignorance;
they will never subsequently be able to retrace their steps. (Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, p. 500).About the time of Christ the Jews knew the story of Genun who is a composite of Jubal, Jabal, Tubal-Cain and Naamah -- all Chaldean type magicians. Once Satan caused the people to come down off the holy mountain of God and into a musical ministry they could never go back. Click Here.
After discussing the use of the embelishment of philosophy one should take his departure and return to true philosophy, which is a strong cable for the soul, providing security from everything. Clement then advises that we cull what is useful from the Greeks. For instance, we "must not abstain from erudition, like irrational animals." He suggests that certain kinds of music can calm the musical banquets to something useful. This is his figure of speech for Hellenistic studies "incapable of teaching the truth" which has some value--
"Music is then to be handled for the sake of the embellishment and composure of manners. At a banquet we pledge each other while the music is playing; soothing by song the eagerness of our desires, and glorifying God for the copious gift of human enjoyments, for the perpetual supply of the food necessary for the growth of the body and of the soul.
But we must reject superflous music, which enervates men's souls, and leads to variety, -- now mournful, and then licentious and voluptuous, and then frenzied and frantic." (Clement, Stromata, Ante-Nicene, II, p. 500-501).
It is clear that this music is the study of all things including the law, the gospels and even astronomy. As music "helps the food go down" the study of philosophy will broaden ones understanding of the Word.
Music along with Astronomy could be misused by the Greeks in ignoring the True God. Clement, therefore, suggests that Astronomy along with other philosophy be used lawfully but not used as the Greeks did."
Chapter IV (The Instructor 2:4.) is explicitly titled 'How to Conduct Ourselves at Feasts' and describes the excesses of pagan revelry witnessed at public Festivals." (Shelly, p. 98-99). We might point out that most of the evidence for various forms of non congregational singing are taken from non-church assemblies.
"He speaks not of what was then in use in Christian churches, but of what might lawfully be used by any private Christians, if they were disposed to use it; which rather argues that instrumental music, the lute and the harp, of which he speaks,
was not in use in the public churches. (Joseph Bingham, Antiq. of the Christian Church, Vol. 2, p. 485).
Nothing therefore has Clement written which would favor organs and their present-day use even the least, yea directly the contrary. (Suicer's Thesaurus, Vol. 2, p. 502).
The Recognitions and Homilies of Clemetine was being quoted just after the year 230 A.D. They were not written by Clement but may express many of his views. It was considered a vital document needed to understand the early views of Christianity.
Bill Swetmon promoting instrumental music at the Hardeman lectures could not have known how anti-music Clement was. However, the casual audience will take his message as the truth. Clement notes that after the world was purified by water Instrumental Music as worship was restored
"men turned again to impiety; and on this account a law was given by God to instruct them in the manner of living. But in the process of time, the worship of God and righteousness were corrupted by the unbelieving and the wicked, as we shall show more fully by and by.
Moreover, perverse and erratic religions were introduced, to which the greater part of men gave themselvs up, by occasion of holidays and solemnities, instituting drinking and banquets, following pipes, and flutes, and harps, and diverse kinds of musical instruments, and indulging themselves in all kinds of drunkenness and luxury. Hence every kind of error took rise; hence they invented groves and altars, fillets and victims, and after drunkenness they were agitated as if with mad emotions.
Musical worship of most forms is a charismatic form calculated to manipulate the paying audience into believing that they are experiencing the gods personally -- i.e. sexually. However, Clement of Alexandria or his student note that:
By this means power was given to the demons to enter into minds of this sort,
so that they seemed to lead insane dances and to rave like Bacchanalians; hence were invented the gnashing of teeth, and bellowing from the depth of their bowels; hence a terrible countenance and a fierce aspect in men, so that he whom drunkenness had subverted and a demon had instigated,
was believed by the erring to be filled with the Deity." (Recognitions of Clement, Book IV, Chapt XII, Ante Nicene Fathers, Vol 8, p. 137)
"Now therefore, since you do not yet understand how great darkness of ignorance surroungs you, sometime I wish to explain to you whence the worship of idols began in this world.
And by idols, I mean those lifeless images (poles) which you worship, whether made of wood, or earthenware, or stone, or brass, or any other metals: of these the beginning was in this wise.
Certain angels having left the course of their proper order, began to favour the vices of men, and in some measure to lend unworthy aid to their lust, in order that by these means they might indulge their own pleasures the more; and then, that they might not seem to be inclined of their own accord to unworthy services, (Clement alludes to the Genun or Jubal story common in many early writings).
taught men that demons could, by certain arts--that is, by magical invocations--be made to obey men; and so, as from a furnace and workshop of wickedness, they filled the whole world with the smoke of impiety,
the light of piety being withdrawn." (Recognitions of Clement, Book IV, Chapt XXVI, Ante Nicene Fathers, Vol 8, p. 140)
Of course, when men were involved Satan disguised as an angel of light looked like a female. Therefore, when he engaged males in the activities brought on by music and other devices it was a homosexual relationship. These were the "children of Cain" and
Of Cain the Homily says:
"For he was a murderer and a liar, and with his sins was not willing to be at peace with respect to the government. Moreover, those who came forth by succession from him were the first adulterers. And there were psalteries, and harps, and forgers of instruments of war. Wherefore also the prophecy of his descendants being full of adulterers and of psalteries, secretly by means of pleasures excites to wars." (The Clementine Homilies, Homily III, Chapt XXV, Ante Nicene Fathers, Vol 8, p. 243).
The flood did not remove Satan's influence
"But they did not cease to worship images by reason of the evil intelligence of the magicians, who found excuses for them, which had power to constrain them to the foolish worship. For, establishing this things by magical ceremonies, they assigned them feasts from sacrifices, libations, flutes, and shoutings,
by means of which senseless men, being deceived, and their kingdom being taken from them,
yet did not desist from the worship that they had taken up with. To such an extent did they prefer error, on account of its pleasantness, before truth.They also howl after their sacrificial surfeit, their soul from the depth, as it were by dreams, forwarning them of the punishment that is to befall such deeds of theirs. (The Clemetine Homilies, Homily IX, Chapt VII, Ante Nicene Fathers, Vol 8, p. 276).
Again Bill Swetmon nor others at the Hardeman lectures correct the total error. Because most forms of "church music" is a charismatic effort, modern forms of the Vineyard movement deliberately intends to confound your thinking so that you do not know enough truth to fire the manipulators whose Post Modern ecumenical cry is "we don't have any principles worth upholding":
"Oh men without understanding! Judge ye rightly of what is said. For if it were necessary to give one's self to some pleasure for the refreshment of the body, whether were it better to do so
among the rivers and woods and groves, where there are entertainments and convivialities and shady places,
or where there is the maddness of demons, and cuttings of hands, and emasculations, and fury and mania, and dishevelling of hair, and shoutings and enthusiasms and howlings, andall those thing which are done with hyprocrisy for the counfounding of the unthinking, when you offer your prescribed prayers,
and thanksgivings even to those who are deader than the dead?" (The Clemetine Homilies, Homily XI, Chapt XIV, Ante Nicene Fathers, Vol 8, p. 287).
Being a little bit charismatic is like being a little bit pregnant or drunk. Therefore, Bill Swetmon and others continue to mislead people by their misuse of Clement of Alexandria and unfortunately the Hardeman lecturers did not correct him. He is still other's authority for introducing instrumental music because they believe that Clement approved of it while Clement said just the opposite. This, too, is the universal result of having the mind dissociated by music and other charismatic methods of Satan.
Was Clement of Alexandria Against Instrumental Music for worship? Yes, along with all church fathers who understood both the Biblical prohibition and the pagan connection.
You need this book: Clement of Alexander, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II
Kenneth L. Sublett
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