Against the Apocrypha as Scripture

As a sort of addendum to posts on the Apocrypha, I notice a few points made against the Apocrypha as inspired scripture:

• The Apocrypha contains several false teachings. While I agree with this statement, it is lacking as a matter of proof since it is based on the prior assumption that the Apocrypha are not scripture.
• There are no direct quotations from the Apocrypha in the New Testament, by either Jesus or his disciples. Though some claim there are similarities between the New Testament and some apocryphal writings, point of origin cannot be proven in mere references to common themes.
• Among the strongest points is that of Jesus’s references to a complete Old Testament canon. For example, Luke 24:44 records, “And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” This reference covers the three-fold division of the Old Testament, and excludes the so-called Apocrypha. Again in Luke 11:51 Jesus said, “From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.” In his illustration and condemnation, Jesus draws from the entire range of the accepted Jewish Canon of Scripture from one end to the other – “From the blood of Abel” recorded in the first book in order of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 4:8) “unto the blood of Zecharias” recorded in the last book in order of the Hebrew Bible (2 Chronicles 24:18-21). Unlike the order in our English Bibles, in the Hebrew Canon the first book was Genesis and the last book was Chronicles. Jesus effectually rejects the Apocrypha as Scripture by addressing a “list” or order of the books of the Bible that accepts the recognized canon and does not include the secondary additions.

Notes on the Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew contained 24 books – all of the same books as our 39 books, but arranged differently, both in order and by combination. In some cases what appear as two or more books in the English canon are combined in one book in the Hebrew canon. All of the 12 Minor Prophets (Hosea through Malachi) were considered one book. 1 & 2 Samuel are considered one book, as are 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles.

The Hebrew Bible was organized into three main sections – the law (Torah, or Teaching or Pentateuch), the prophets (Nebiʾim), and the psalms (Ketubim, or Writings or Hagiographa). The complete canon is referred to as the Tanakh (a word combining the first letter of the names of the three main sections). The sections or subdivisions are: Law/Torah (5 books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), Prophets/Neviʾim (8 books: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets) and Psalms/Ketuvim (11 books: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles).

Scripturalism

"Scripturalism is that system of belief in which the Word of God is foundational in the entirety of one’s philosophical and theological dealings. This system of thought avers that Christians should never try to combine secular and Christian notions. Rather, all thoughts are to be brought into captivity to the Word of God (2 Corinthians 10:5), which is (a part of) the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16)." -- "Scripturalism: A Christian Worldview" by W. Gary Crampton in The Trinity Review, March-April 2011

Elijah's example

ELIJAH fed by ravens.
1Ki 17:6

Elijah's example declares,
Whatever distress may betide;
The saints may commit all their cares
To him who will surely provide:
When rain long withheld from the earth
Occasioned a famine of bread;
The prophet, secure from the dearth,
By ravens was constantly fed.

More likely to rob than to feed,
Were ravens who live upon prey;
But when the Lord's people have need,
His goodness will find out a way:
This instance to those may seem strange,
Who know not how faith can prevail;
But sooner all nature shall change,
Than one of God's promises fail.

Nor is it a singular case,
The wonder is often renewed;
And many can say, to his praise,
He sends them by ravens their food:
Thus worldlings, though ravens indeed,
Though greedy and selfish their mind,
If God has a servant to feed,
Against their own wills can be kind.

Thus Satan, that raven unclean,
Who croaks in the ears of the saints;
Compelled by a power unseen,
Administers oft to their wants:
God teaches them how to find food
From all the temptations they feel;
This raven, who thirsts for my blood,
Has helped me to many a meal.

How safe and how happy are they
Who on the good Shepherd rely!
He gives them out strength for their day,
Their wants he will surely supply:
He ravens and lions can tame,
All creatures obey his command;
Then let me rejoice in his name,
And leave all my cares in his hand.

John Newton (1725-1807)
Olney Hymns, 1779

The vanity of man

PSALM 144 PART 2 v.3-6
C. M.

The vanity of man and condescension of God.

Lord, what is man, poor feeble man,
Born of the earth at first?
His life a shadow, light and vain,
Still hasting to the dust.

O what is feeble, dying man,
Or any of his race,
That God should make it his concern
To visit him with grace?

That God who darts his lightnings down,
Who shakes the worlds above,
And mountains tremble at his frown,
How wondrous is his love!

Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
The Psalms of David, 1719

The Christian

The christian.

Honor and happiness unite
To make the christian's name a praise;
How fair the scene, how clear the light,
That fills the remnant of his days!

A kingly character he bears,
No change his priestly office knows;
Unfading is the crown he wears,
His joys can never reach a close.

Adorned with glory from on high,
Salvation shines upon his face;
His robe is of th' ethereal dye,
His steps are dignity and grace.

Inferior honors he disdains,
Nor stoops to take applause from earth,
The King of kings himself, maintains
Th' expenses of his heav'nly birth.

The noblest creature seen below,
Ordained to fill a throne above;
GOD gives him all he can bestow,
His kingdom of eternal love!

My soul is ravished at the thought!
Methinks from earth I see him rise;
Angels congratulate his lot,
And shout him welcome to the skies!

William Cowper (1731-1800)
Olney Hymns, 1779

Does God control chiggers?

"And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow (Joshua 24.12)."

"Some of the preacher brethren have been criticized as being 'extreme' on the doctrine of predestination, just because they believe that God predestinated and controls the whereabouts of chiggers, fleas, flies and gnats, and these preachers are neither afraid nor ashamed to say publicly that they believe it...If God cannot or does not control chiggers, then I suppose either devils or angels must, or else chiggers control themselves. We know for certain that man cannot control them. Now, if God doesn’t control a chigger and man can’t, then it is doubtful that angels or devils do." -- Hornets, by C. C. Morris

Lamp, Wick...no oil

"The devil dresses up countless swarms of goats as preachers, writers, and talkers, with the lamp and wick of correct doctrine. Not a drop of oil." -- John Kay, "Inspiration" in The Gospel Standard, 1838

The passion and exaltation of Christ

HYMN 84 S. M.

The passion and exaltation of Christ.

Come, all harmonious tongues,
Your noblest music bring;
'Tis Christ the everlasting God,
And Christ the man, we sing.

Tell how he took our flesh,
To take away our guilt;
Sing the dear drops of sacred blood
That hellish monsters spilt.

Alas! the cruel spear
Went deep into his side,
And the rich flood of purple gore
Their murd'rous weapons dyed.

The waves of swelling grief
Did o'er his bosom roll,
And mountains of Almighty wrath
Lay heavy on his soul.

Down to the shades of death
He bowed his awful head;
Yet he arose to live and reign
When death itself is dead.

No more the bloody spear,
The cross and nails no more
For hell itself shakes at his name,
And all the heav'ns adore.

There the Redeemer sits
High on the Father's throne;
The Father lays his vengeance by,
And smiles upon his Son.

There his full glories shine
With uncreated rays,
And bless his saints' and angels' eyes
To everlasting days.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book II, 1707

What we say

Today I heard an auto glass commercial promoting fixing dings on the windshield before they crack. Good idea. But the commercial suggested that if you have insurance there is "no cost". Hundreds of dollars a year for auto insurance is "no cost"? I don't think so. Yes, if you have insurance there may be no extra cost to you, but there is a cost.

Right now a lot of people are talking about what they're getting back from the Internal Revenue Service. Some people are. But a person who is receiving more from the IRS than he or she paid in income tax is not getting back (some of what they paid in). That is person is getting someone else's money!

How often I hear someone who has purchased a lottery ticket talking about what he was "won". Do the math! If you just told me you purchased a $5 lotto ticket and won $3 -- hey, you actually just lost two dollars!

Happy Valentine's

"None can see Him but His friends,
And they were once his foes....
Did He but shine alike on all,
Then all alike would love."

From "Seeking the Beloved" by William Cowper

Prayer for the continuance of the gospel

Once, while we aimed at Zion's songs,
A sudden mourning checked our tongues!
Then we were called to sow in tears,
The seeds of joy for future years.

Oft as that memorable hour
The changing year brings round again;
We meet to praise the love and pow'r
Which heard our cries, and eased our pain.

Come, ye who trembled for the ark,
Unite in praise for answered prayer!
Did not the LORD our sorrows mark?
Did not our sighing reach his ear?

Then smaller griefs were laid aside,
And all our cares summed up in one;
"Let us but have thy word, we cried,
In other things, thy will be done."

Since he has granted our request,
And we still hear the gospel voice;
Although by many trials pressed,
In this we can, and will rejoice.

Though to our lot temptations fall,
Though pain and want, and cares annoy;
The precious gospel sweetens all,
And yields us med'cine, food, and joy.

John Newton (1725-1807)
Olney Hymns, 1779

Seen on a billboard

"The Master Weaver knows what looms ahead."

I saw the above quote on a church billboard. I agree with it. But the thought struck me that there are many who agree with the above -- that God knows -- but deny that the Master Weaver not only knows, but also planned the tapestry and is actively weaving it.

Words

Christopher Morley once said, "Words are a commodity in which there is never any slump."

Mothers and church

(Two tales I received via e-mail)

One Sunday morning, a mother went in to wake her son and tell him it was time to get ready for church, to which he replied, "I'm not going."

"Why not?" she asked.

I'll give you two good reasons," he said. "They don't like me, and I don't like them."

His mother replied, "I'll give YOU two good reasons why you SHOULD go to church. You're 59 years old, and you're the pastor!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An elderly woman walked into the local country church. The friendly usher greeted her at the door and helped her up the flight of steps, "Where would you like to sit?" he asked politely.

"The front row please," she answered.

"You really don't want to do that," the usher said "The pastor is really boring."

"Do you happen to know who I am?" the woman inquired.

"No." he said.

"I'm the pastor's mother," she replied indignantly.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked.

"No." she said.

"Good," he answered.

Interesting...

...since I work in Nacogdoches.

The Marx Brothers came to Nacogdoches, Texas in 1912, performing (mostly singing) at the Opera House. Their performance was interrupted by someone shouting about a runaway mule. Many in the audience went outside to see what was going on. Julius Marx (aka Groucho) was angered by the interruption. When the rest of the audience came back, he began to insult them with "Nacogdoches is full of roaches" and other comments. The audience laughed, thinking he was joking. It is claimed that this incident made the Marx Brothers aware of their comic potential.

The Fuging Tune

Just putting together some comments on the "fuging tune" [Example], a song type of British origin and popularized by the "First New England school". The "First New England School" includes American musicians such as William Billings, Supply Belcher, Daniel Read, Oliver Holden, and Justin Morgan (most of whom lived from the mid-1700s to the early-1800s). These writers developed a musical style largely independent of European models. Because of this, the "First New England School" is usually considered the first uniquely American music.

Most scholars agree that the term fuging tune is a shortened form of the English phrase "fuging psalm tune".

"Fuging tune: A tune upon which a fugue is built." -- Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary

In The American Fuging Tune: 'Marks of Distinction', Maxine Fawcett-Yeske describes fuging tunes as "three- or four-part polyphonic choral settings of metered sacred texts" and notes that "Imitation, sequence, and the rudimentary spinning-out of musical motives are procedures present in the early British models that find their way to varying degrees into the American repertory."

In American Fuging Tunes in The Sacred Harp, Molly Cronin describes the common form: "The fuging tune as we know it today is a binary form with a homophonic, homorhythmic A section, followed by a repeated polyphonic B section, often using points of imitation. The earliest fuging tunes had these contrapuntal sections simply as optional extensions of the homophonic section."

"fuging tune, a form of hymnody developed by American composers of the so-called First New England school during the period of the American Revolution (1775–83).

"A typical fuging tune places the tune in the tenor voice and harmonizes it with block chords. In the next-to-last phrase, called the fuging section or fuge, each of the four voices enters in turn singing the tune or a slightly varied version of it. The last phrase is again chordal. The fuge, although all four parts follow each other in melodic imitation, is not a classical fugue but merely a passage that uses imitative writing."
"fuging tune." -- Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 21 Jan. 2011.

Karl Kroeger’s definition of fuging tune is one which "contains at least one section in which the voices sing different words simultaneously." (American Fuging Tunes, 1770-1820, 1994.)

"A shape-note fuging tune has one or more sections with staggered entrances; the various parts begin the fuge in different measures, rest, enter again, and sing over each other, indeed making the music soar." -- Malinda Snow, Georgia State University in "The Sacred Harp" in The New Georgia Encyclopedia

George Pullen Jackson provides more of a description than a definition the fuging tune in White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands, as follows:

"In the fuging tune all the parts start together and proceed in rhythmic and harmonic unity usually for the space of four measures or one musical sentence. The end of this sentence marks a cessation, a complete melodic close. During the next four measures the four parts set in, one at a time and one measure apart. First the basses take the lead for a phrase a measure long, and as they retire on the second measure to their own proper bass part, the [tenors] take the lead with a sequence that is imitative of, if not identical with, that sung by the basses. The tenors in turn give way to the altos, and they to the trebles, all four parts doing the same passage (though at different pitches) in imitation of the [part in the] preceding measure. ... Following this fuguing passage comes a four-measure phrase, with all the parts rhythmically neck and neck, and this closes the piece; though the last eight measures are often repeated."

Not everybody liked them:
"Instead of those plain and easy Compositions...away they get off, one after another, in a light airy jiggish Tune....The matter of the Psalm has very little Share in their Attention." -- From a 1764 letter to a Boston newspaper, quoted in Church Music in America, 1620 to 2000, by John Ogasapian, p. 34

That Old Ship of Zion

Some songs using the "ship of Zion" metaphor:

1. I was standing on the banks of the river
Looking out over life's troubled sea
When I saw the old ship that was sailing
Is that the old ship of Zion I see.
2. Its hull was bent and battered
From the storms of life I could see
Waves were rough but that old ship kept sailing
Is that the old ship of Zion I see,
3. At the stern of the ship stood the captain
I could hear as he called out my name
Get on board it's the old ship of Zion
It will never pass this way again
4. As I step on board I'll be leaving
All my sorrows and heartaches behind
I'll be safe with Jesus the captain
Sailing out on the old ship of Zion.

M. J. Cartwright, 1889
I was drifting away on life’s pitiless sea,
And the angry waves threatened my ruin to be,
When away at my side, there I dimly descried,
A stately old vessel, and loudly I cried:
“Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy!”
And loudly I cried: “Ship ahoy!”

Prayer for children

Prayer for children.

Gracious Lord, our children see,
By thy mercy we are free;
But shall these, alas! remain
Subjects still of Satan's reign?
Israel's young ones, when of old
Pharaoh threatened to withhold;
Ex 10:9
Then thy messenger said, "No;
Let the children also go."

When the angel of the Lord
Drawing forth his dreadful sword,
Slew, with an avenging hand,
All the first-born of the land:
Ex 12:13
Then thy peoples' doors he passed,
Where the bloody sign was placed;
Hear us, now, upon our knees,
Plead the blood of CHRIST for these!

LORD we tremble, for we know
How the fierce malicious foe;
Wheeling round his watchful flight,
Keeps them ever in his sight:
Spread thy pinions, King of kings!
Hide them safe beneath thy wings;
Lest the rav'nous bird of prey
Stoop, and bear the brood away.

William Cowper (1731-1800)
Olney Hymns, 1779

Happy Birthday, Kim

J-E-S-U-S

We are not fond of acrostics, but we remember an old preacher describing the name of Jesus: "J-E-S-U-S: Jesus Exactly Suits Us Sinners." -- B. A. Ramsbottom, editor of The Gospel Standard