SACRED MUSIC
Many people claim that religious music is sacred, or holy. A click on this link reveals many web sites that confirm this claim. While music may be sacred in the minds of people who make those claims, it is not sacred in God’s eyes. Indeed God does speak of making music with instruments and singing, but such scriptures are only the literal interpretation of his word. The kind of music God is talking about is internal, in the heart — not external with physical instruments or with the natural voice as made clear in these scriptures:

Psalm 119:49-59: Remember thy word to thy servant, in which thou hast made me hope. 50 This is my comfort in my affliction that thy promise gives me life. 51 Godless men utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from thy law. 52 When I think of thy ordinances from of old, I take comfort, O LORD. 53 Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake thy law. 54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. 55 I remember thy name in the night, O LORD, and keep thy law. 56 This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept thy precepts. 57 The LORD is my portion; I promise to keep thy words. 58 I entreat thy favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to thy promise. 59 When I think of thy ways, I turn my feet to thy testimonies;

COMMENTARY: It is hard for the natural mind to imagine how God’s statutes can be equated with songs. When we think in terms of statutes and laws written on our hearts, however, it begins to make sense. The “house of my pilgrimage” is poetic, symbolic language for the heart, which is code language for the presence of the New Covenant. Thus, it is the presence of God’s laws written on our hearts that makes our hearts sing spiritual songs that only God can hear.

New Covenant disciples know that singing with the natural voice and making music with natural instruments are only religious forms adapted from literal readings of scripture. They know that music that can be heard with the natural ear is Old/First Covenant religion — not appropriate for a New Covenant disciple.

Ephesians 5:17-20 KJV: Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. 18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

COMMENTARY: The clear message here is that singing and music making that God recognizes as sacred happens in pure hearts of New Covenant disciples. The scripture says that singing and making music is something that happens internally where God alone can hear it — not externally where others can hear. This understanding is fully consistent with the fact that God looks at the heart and not the outward appearance of activities of people.

The word that is translated as “sacred” in many versions of the Bible in the Old Testament is translated from the Hebrew word “Qodesh” which is always translated as “holy” in the King James Version. Using the definition in qodesh, we find that it primarily means “set apart.” In the New Testament, the word “holy” is translated from the Greek word “Hagios,” but there is no further explanation of what it means. Thus our primary understanding of holy things is that they are set apart. But that does not help much, so we need to look deeper into scripture to discover what it is that is set apart and what it means to be set apart:

COMMENTARY ON WHAT IT MEANS TO BE SACRED, OR HOLY: Because Christians tend to ignore the Old Testament, they tend to think of the “holy spirit” as a New Testament phenomenon introduced at the Pentecost event in Acts 2: 1-13. This is wrong thinking. The Holy Spirit was always present and always at work in the lives of God’s people in acts of creation.

It is important to understand that it was always the presence of the Holy Spirit and God’s spoken word that enabled anyone to be holy. Holiness is a characteristic, therefore, of New Covenant disciples who have God’s laws (i.e. his spoken word) written on their hearts.  It is not the physical body, or what the body does that is holy. It is clean, pure hearts that are holy.

The qualifications for holiness have never changed. Some Old Testament characters were holy and some were not. Some New Testament characters were holy and some were not. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a person has always been the evidence that he/she was a beneficiary of God’s promise to pour out his Spirit on all flesh and send a Counselor (i.e. Holy Spirit) according to the terms of the New Covenant.

STUDY TIP: Here are the key scriptural references that instruct about holiness:

From these truths we conclude that God, his name, his word, his laws and his spirit are all the same thing because they are all holy. God is not separate from his word, and is not separate from his name, and is not separate from his spirit. This is the meaning of scriptures that say “God is one.” To try to divide God into parts is a futile task like trying to chase or divide the wind. It can’t be done. We also conclude that spritual sacrifices, offering and tithes are holy because they are all the fruit from the spiritual seed of the Tree of Life.

We also conclude that clean, pure hearts are holy because God’s word is deposited in these kinds of hearts.

Knowing what God means by sacred/holy, we should resist calling any physical thing — including a human — sacred. If anything is called sacred or holy, it is equated with God himself because only God is holy. And, because only God knows the condition of hearts, only God is qualified to determine if a person’s heart is clean and pure or evil and impure.

Nevertheless, in many religions, people are said to be holy because of all the religious things that people see them do. They base their assessment on faithfulness to obey religious rules. People who appear to obey the rules of a particular religion are therefore said to be holy. This is not what God means by holiness. God makes his evaluation on obedience to his spiritual laws that are written on the heart.

Since God is both invisible and holy, anything else that is holy must also be invisible. That condition totally rules out buildings, physical land, religious behaviors, religious artifacts, tithes/offerings of money, and audible music from qualifying as holy. People may call these things and places holy but they are not holy in God’s eyes.

For God, holiness is represented only in his spoken word and in people who have clean, pure hearts.  Holiness is not a matter of the religious things that the body does. Thus, the only thing about a person that can be rightly called holy is the heart which only God can see.

Religion, including Judaism and Christianity have totally perverted the concept of sacredness and holiness. Simply calling something like music or a religious relic or a building sacred or holy does not make it so. No one, not even a powerful religious leader has the authority to declare any physical thing holy. Calling things sacred is idle religious talk that has no real spiritual power, but it does have religious power because gullible people don’t know the truth.

We must all keep in mind that, just as God is holy (i.e. set apart), any holy thing must have the same characteristics that God has. Since one of God’s  primary characteristics is invisibility, all truly holy things must also be invisible or not observable with the natural senses such as eyes, ears or touch. Since God commands his people to be holy, their holiness characteristics will be invisible also — except to God alone who knows the heart. Thus, those who parade their ideas of holiness invite God’s rebukes for religious behaviors. They are ignorant of the reality that God’s idea of holiness is the exact opposite of public religion

Since the purpose of the New Covenant is that God’s spirit resides in the heart of people, the only part of a person that can be holy is the heart. And that is holy only because God’s laws/words are written on the heart. It is, in terms of the Tabernacle of Moses, the ‘”most holy place” where the “Ark of the Covenant” resides. Anything else (e.g. people, things, music, places, etc.) that religion falsely represents as holy or sacred falls in the category of Old/First Covenant Religion.

Claims that religious people, religious places, religious things, or religious music are holy is a false gospel. Religious people, religious places, religious things, and religious music are not set apart from religion. They are the substance of religion. Religious people, religious places, religious things, and religious music cannot be holy because they can be seen, touched, and heard with natural, human senses. If they can be seen, touched or heard with human senses, they are flesh — not a matter of faith which is the substance of things not seen. Because God and his spoken word are one, the only God and his spoken word are holy. The only place to find God and his spoken word is the hearts of New Covenant disciples.

With this understanding of what God means by sacred (i.e. holy), religious people should never consider religious music to be sacred/holy because the concept of holiness carries greater spiritual weight than the physical, visible, audible things they like to call sacred. Such things are only religious artifacts made by human hands. Similarly, religious leaders should not be called holy. None of these people or things created by human hands are sacred, or holy, as God intends the term to be understood.