Hey,
SupporterOfCristo. I hope you won't make the mistake others are making in understanding what I wrote. to think that an example (a pastor having sex with a prostitute in order to evangelize her) of a bad principle of reason (ie. the ends justifying the means) that I offered is the same as "making a joyful noise unto the Lord." The example was given to demonstrate the serious problem with thinking that the ends (evangelism) justify the means (sex with a prostitute). And the example was rather extreme so that the problem with thinking the ends justify the means was very evident. The point of my example was to show how this sort of thinking is bad, that it lends itself to very twisted thinking and behavior, and so ought to be carefully avoided (especially by Christians); it was NOT to say that "making a joyful noise unto the Lord" was to justify the means by the end. Nowhere did I even hint at such a thing.
It's slippery reasoning, a kind of fallacious "equivocation of terms," that equates
any musical "noise" with the "joyful noise" that the Psalmist wrote about. You can be certain the Psalmist DID NOT have heavy/death metal in mind when he wrote what he did about a "joyful noise." The only ones making anything like heavy metal music in the Psalmist's time were
the pagans, who, during their evil rituals, pounded their drums at a deafening level in order to drown out the screams of the children they sacrificed to their demonic gods. This is nothing like the "joyful noise" the Psalmist wrote of and neither is the blasting drums, screaming guitars and growling, howling vocals typical of heavy/death metal "music."
In every place in the Psalms where the phrase "joyful noise" is used, it is always chiefly connected, not to
instrumental "noise," but to
singing.
Psalm 66:1-3
1 Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:
2 Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious.
3 Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! ...
The ESV renders this passage as follows:
Psalm 66:1-3
1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise!
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! ...
The NASB puts it like this:
Psalm 66:1-3
1 Shout joyfully to God, all the earth;
2 Sing the glory of His name; Make His praise glorious.
3 Say to God, "How awesome are Your works! ...
In "noise-making to the Lord," joyful voices lifted in glorious praise of God are described, not entertainers on a stage, fog machines and lights dazzling the eye, high-volume drums and guitars blowing the ears off their audience. Nothing like this was in the mind of Psalmist when he urged Israel to worship God. And the Psalmist certainly wasn't thinking the "noise-makers" would sell tickets to hear them "praise God," or hawk albums, t-shirts and posters to their fans. Instead,
congregational singing was what the Psalmist was urging:
Psalm 81:1
1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
Psalm 95:1
1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Psalm 98:4-5
4 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
5 Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.
Psalm 100:1-2
1 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
And what about the instruments? Were they to be of a sort and at such a volume that the singing of "glorious praise" to God was impossible to make out, as is often the case with "Christian" heavy/death metal? None of the Psalms that urge a "joyful noise" indicate any such thing. Instead, they list harps, lyres, trumpets and tambourines. That's it. No drums, you'll notice, which were a favorite instrument of pagans.
One other thing you might want to take note of is the how poor the argument is that "metalheads," fans of metal music, can't possibly be evangelized except by doing so with metal music. This positions
the musical preference of the "metalhead" as the crucial element in evangelizing them, however, not
the power of God, the drawing, convicting and illuminating power of the Holy Spirit (
John 6:44; John 16:8; 2 Timothy 2:25b). But Scripture is very clear that
God needs nothing but Himself, His own power, to save a person. God is entirely sufficient
all by Himself to save any "metalhead" He knows will trust in Christ as Savior and Lord. All the "metalheads," then, whom God knows in His omniscience will come to a saving faith in Christ,
will come even if they never hear the Gospel in a metal music concert.
God is the important thing in salvation, not me or you, not our "seeker-sensitive" approach to the lost, not our careful building of friendships with the lost, not our clever evangelistic patter, not emotional manipulation in a carefully-orchestrated evangelistic service. God needs none of these things and we lie to ourselves and to each other when we position any of these things in evangelism such that they equal, or exceed, in priority God's saving power and work.
What insinuating these things into evangelism often does is dilute and/or confuse the Gospel and distract from the necessity of the saving power of God in evangelism. Effective evangelism is, you see, the product of a holy, Christ-centered life, a life submitted to the will and way of the Holy Spirit and thereby filled with Him, with His power. This was the way the newly born-again disciples brought
three thousand strangers into God's kingdom in
Acts 2. No relationship-building, no manipulative music, no appealing to the preferences of the "seeker," just the preaching of the Gospel in the power of the Spirit. It's completely false, then, to propose that the metalhead can only be reached with the Gospel by way of "Christian" metal concerts. Biblically, this is a bunch of baloney and, in the case of "Christian" metal music, has resulted in the mixture of light with darkness and the merchandising of worship of God.
So,
SupporterOfCristo, be careful of the reasoning some Christians employ in justification of compromise with the World and the Flesh (and, perhaps, the devil, too).
Ephesians 5:8-11
8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),
10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
