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On October 31, 2022 By In Culture, Film, History, Music

Jeffrey Dahmer: The Monster Who Ate Jesus

During the late ’90s and early 2000s, there was nothing more exciting to me than the underground Christian music scene. In 1997, at age 12, I started devouring all the Christian punk music I could find.
One of my favorite bands was called Blaster the Rocket Man. They were perhaps the most unique of any other band. Their lyrics centered on horror and sci-fi themes – like werewolves, vampires, and aliens – but from an explicitly Christian worldview. In Blaster’s songs, monsters could be saved from their monstrosities if they put their faith in Jesus. It was very Kuyperian if you think about it: Every square inch belongs to Jesus…even the horror genre.

One of Blaster’s albums was called The Monster Who Ate Jesus. That title might seem sacrilegious on the surface, but I’ve always taken it as a reference to the Lord’s Supper (eucharist, communion). In one of the band’s earlier songs, “American Werewolf,” the only way for the werewolf to end his curse was to eat and drink Christ’s body and blood. I was reminded of this concept while watching Monster, the Netflix show about Jeffrey Dahmer. (Warning: mature audiences only.)

Dahmer was one of the most notorious serial killers in US history, nicknamed the Milwaukee Cannibal. From the late ’70s to the early ’90s, Dahmer drugged, raped, killed, and ate his victims (mostly gay black men). Most people – Christian or not – find these crimes utterly reprehensible. Dahmer’s level of depravity cannot be overstated.

And yet, one of the most fascinating things about Dahmer is that he claimed to become a Christian in prison. Mind you, jailhouse conversions aren’t that fascinating. Many people claim to find Jesus behind bars and many of those conversions are dishonest and/or short-lived. What’s always fascinated me about Dahmer was that he never used his faith to try to get out of prison. In fact, he wanted to be executed, which is the biblical penalty for rapists and murderers (Genesis 9:6, Deuteronomy 22:25-27).

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On October 12, 2022 By In Culture, Music

A Culture of Singing

Some Practical Ways to Expand Singing in the Church, Home, and School

I work in music and choir roles for both a church and a school. A significant portion of my week involves training people to read music and sing music together. I enjoy helping people learn to sing and read music with greater understanding. Because of this, I occasionally get the opportunity to speak with the heads of schools in our association about their music programs. 

The number one question I receive from school administrators who are already convinced of the benefits of singing and music literacy for all of their school is, “How do we build up a singing culture at our school? In the book Raise the Song: A Classical Christian Guide to Music Education there is a chapter titled, “Singing School” that talks about this very thing. We want schools that are singing and that are teaching students to sing. But a singing culture must be present in more than the school. It needs to be in the church and in the home as well. Here are some things that help strengthen and identify strong singing cultures in churches, homes, and schools. This list is not exhaustive. Hopefully, you are doing many of these things and maybe this list sparks you to think of how to keep moving further up and in the singing culture around you. Feel free to comment at the bottom of the post if there are other ways that singing is happening and strengthening you and your community.

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On August 18, 2022 By In Church, Music

The Liturgical Duty of Men and Women in Singing

We must restore the role of biblical femininity into the space of worship. The woman plays the role of sacred beautifier in history. The bride finishes what the groom begins. Adam was first, and Eve was second (I Cor. 11). The Ascension was first, and Pentecost was second. This chronology of creation is the starting point of any good anthropology. This is especially appropriate when it comes to worship.

When the woman sings, she glorifies what the man started. She enhances beauty. She cannot, therefore, be the initiator. This is why men must lead in worship as ministers or chief musicians and why women must follow as glorifiers and beautifiers of music.

This stated reality exemplifies why women are so easily enamored by harmonization and ornamental melodies. She adds the descant of the closing hymn, and she layers the music with happy complexities.

The voice of the Church’s music, however, must be dominantly male. The reason men are attracted to churches where male voices are dominant is that men were created to be starters, to offer the opening pitches, to make the first movements, and to utter the first poem (Gen. 2:23). Man leads the dance, and the woman follows.

The resounding voice is Christocentric, which means the prevailing sounds of a church singing are the sounds of a church leading into battle followed by a God/Man. In fact, the men lead with their voices as an act of protection for the women in the congregation. The men sing loudly to project to the enemies that we are doing warfare in the name of Yahweh God. The opponents of the holy Gospel should know that we are not interested in bargaining for a verse here or there, nor will we put the ones needing protection in front of the line.

Music is warfare, but if we change the order by giving the church a distinctly female voice, we reverse the chronology of creation. If we persist in putting the weak vessels (I Peter 3:7) meant for protection and honor in front, we are sending the message that the voice of Christ needs protection rather than the One who protects.

Therefore, it is even more crucial that men and women in the life of the Church pick up their hymnals and music sheets and proceed to train themselves to see music as their fundamental duty in initiating, beautifying, and glorifying the Church’s music.

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On August 5, 2022 By In Art, Culture, Music

Ify Nsoha // Different

On the way back from church recently, my 17 year old asks, “Can we please turn the Ify songs back on?“

Ify is a rapper. And yes, we turned the songs back on.

Ify Nsoha is a Nigerian musician who has lived his life in the Czech Republic. His sound can be heard loud in our car speakers, and his tweets are often read out loud in our conversations. Here’s a recent one:

“PSA is nearly always strawmanned by its detractors and they often ignore the scriptures which clearly teach it, like Colossians 2:13-14”

– ifffster, @ifffster – 1:55 PM · Aug 3, 2022

“PSA,” by the way, means “Penal Substitutionary Atonement.” So, this is the kind of rapper I’m talking about – the kind that defends PSA on twitter.

Here’s another recent gem:

“Next time a Unitarian decides to start wisecracking make him look up the reference of Romans 10:13 in the Hebrew.”

ifffster, @ifffster – 2:11 AM · Aug 2, 2022

His point is that Paul quotes Joel who says ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’ and when Joel says it in Hebrew, it is ‘Yhwh’, and Paul quotes this verse about Yhwh about Jesus. Bam!

So if you want to listen to a rapper with a thing for soteriology and Trinitarianism…. try out Ify.

Ify has a new album out: ‘Different‘. Here’s the Kuyperian interview:

__________________________________________________________________________

Kuyperian: Ify, how old are you, and how long have you been performing in any context?

Ify: I’m 22 years old. I’ve been writing and messing around with rap music for years, but haven’t put anything out till now. I’ve always had a massive love for music. I was in choir in highschool and have done worship leading for the last five years. This was just one way I could use my gift to glorify God.

Kuyperian: What brought your family to Czechia?

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Is the Regulative Principle Scriptural?

On July 28, 2022 By In Culture, Music, Worship

The Human Body and the Regulative Principle of Worship

John Calvin’s convictions against instruments in worship developed into distinct forms of worship across the various Reformation churches. Calvin inspired a capella psalmody among the Scots via John Knox and the use of metrical psalms in the Church of England and its descendents. As Karin Maag writes a,

“John Calvin begun the project of versifying the Psalms in French during his three-year stay in Strasbourg from 1539 to 1541. But although Calvin had talents in many fields, this was not one of them. His attempts at putting the psalms into poetic meter were clunky at best, and were quickly abandoned.”

The task of Calvin’s metrical psalter was completed by his successor in Geneva, Theodore Beza, and then the first English metrical psalter was printed by Robert Crowley, who was ordained by Nicholas Ridley – whom Beza called, “the English Calvin.”

Reformation Issues with Instruments

Calvin cites several issues with instruments but his concerns could be summarized by the “Regulative Principle of Worship” which teaches that, “…God sets the bounds and gives the basic patterns for worship. We are to do what God commands, since he is the one who alone can determine how he is to be worshiped.” b Under similar convictions, Calvin concludes that the Bible did not command the use of instruments in worship and thus to use them would be prohibited. 

Some have objected to this view by citing the use of instruments in the Old Testament and for worship in the Hebrew temple. In a sermon on 2 Samuel, Calvin writes: “the musical instruments were in the same class as sacrifices…” meaning to imply that they filled a ceremonial role and had been abolished with the advent of Christ’s perfect sacrifice. It is worth noting that Roman Catholic apologists of the medieval period looked to the Old Testament patterns of worship to justify the various doctrines of a sacrificial priesthood. Calvin’s view may have been formed partly in reaction to the severity of the idolatry he saw in the medieval Roman mass. 

Did the Early Church use instruments in Worship?

Calvin’s view against instruments was not new and could find precedence in the patristic church. In his article on Church music, Paul James-Griffiths writes: “Some of the Church Fathers, like Basil the Great, thought that cithara (like a guitar) players should be excommunicated from the church, and Ambrose was concerned that if Christians turned from psalm singing to playing instruments they might lose their salvation…” 

Strangely enough, it was a Roman Pope that was most successful in curbing the influence of instrumental music in the church. As Pope Gregory I reformed the 6th century Roman church and its rite for worship, the chanting (sometimes called “Gregorian Chant” anachronistically) that would develop over the next several centuries would emphasize the “word” over its accompaniment. It was the church fathers that first brought in the idea of a capella singing of psalms via the introits, graduals, and various antiphons of the communion liturgy. John Calvin admired Pope Gregory and frequently cites his example in his Institutes — noting Gregory’s emphasis on the word was not only limited to music, but also in his emphasis on pastors as preachers and as men bound by the limits of Scripture. Calvin’s appreciation is often noted in his calling Gregory the last good pope. c

So perhaps, one might imagine that Pope Gregory would’ve joined John Knox’s “Rascal Multitude” d as they reformed the Scottish Church. Unlikely. While the Scottish reforms removed organs, they also disbanded the church choirs, destroyed noted manuscripts, and aimed to destroy Gregory’s liturgical heritage developed in the Roman Rite and Western Christendom. There is a bit of irony in Calvin and the Scots removing instruments as “too catholic” when it was the Pope himself who removed instruments first. As the phrase goes, “Is the Pope Catholic?”

Is the Regulative Principle Scriptural?

The regulative principle is further expounded upon in Chapter 21 of the Westminster Confession, “As it is the law of nature” is used to describe how the example of sabbath history forms the pattern for Sunday worship. Appealing to the “law of nature” (or natural revelation) is not foreign to our theology of worship, as St. Paul points out in Romans (1:20-21) natural revelation proclaims God’s power and that we owe Him honor, thanks, and worship. For those attempting to see how instruments may conform to the regulative principle a similar deduction may be made as the Westminster Divines approbation of a “law of nature.”

If man is a worshipping being “without excuse” how is he to offer and return back praise? Some say in psalms, some say hymns, some say with instruments. All demand man to offer himself in worship.

In an article for Banner of Truth, Terry Johnson writes:

“Circumstances of worship are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence. An example of a circumstance would be the question of illumination at an evening service or the need for amplification of voices to be heard by all.”

If a man using his voice to sing conforms to the regulative principle, then the amplification of this same voice also conforms to the regulative principle. Thus the voice through the tool (or instrument) of the speaker remains commanded by God for worship, despite the lack of chapter and verse for microphones, speakers, and all their various snake-like wires.

Man as the model for Instruments

Many years ago, I sat under a lecture from James B. Jordan that made the case that all human instruments are modeled after the pattern of worshipping man. He made the argument that what St. John’s describes in Revelation 4-5 is heavenly worship accompanied by instruments. e And that string, wind, and percussive instruments are, according to Jordan, derivative of the human capacity to worship.

The various instruments are certainly analogous to human anatomy:

  1. We have string-like vocal cords that compare to harp, guitars, and other plucked instruments.
  2. We have wind-filled lungs that produce pitch through the throat to the lips–not unlike flutes or trumpets.
  3. We have hands to clap, feet that stomp, and flesh to drum.

Instruments and the Image of God

One could see then that the development of instrumentation in the temple is not some reflection of sacrificial identity, but rather the image of God taking dominion over nature. Just as the Angels sing “glory” at the Nativity when God became flesh–the people of the incarnation sing as they transform the gifts of creation into tools of worship. The pseudo-spirituality of denying instruments rejects our human identity as a worshipping body of flesh and bone. We don’t “gnostically” think praise with our brains, Psalm 95 teaches us to “worship and bow down” and to “kneel before the LORD our Maker.” We worship with our bodies.

These bodies were put in creation to take dominion through tools. In Exodus, Moses describes all skilled workmanship as the work of one “filled” with the “spirit of God.” f Natural labor’s role in dominion by erecting homes and learning trades is no less spiritual than the liturgical arts in God’s world. Therefore, the acts of worshiping God deserve not a truncated vision of human dominion, but the first and fullest since the worship of God as the chief end of dominion. Israel understood this and reserved its most beautiful and precious manners of workmanship for the Temple. Solomon’s extravagant use of timbers overlaid with gold, bronze altars, precious stones, and colored curtains amplified the God of creation. In the same way, instruments of worship elevate the human gifts of lungs, lips, and limbs to proclaim loudly the glory of God. Even more, did not St. Paul’s say that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Does He not now deserve the beauty and splendor of instrumental Temple worship? A step further might be to consider how the incarnation and our union with Christ transforms our notion of Temple. Does not Scripture say, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up…But He was speaking of the temple of His body.” (John 2:19,21) Christians who worship Christ this Temple, also have Christ the great High Priest – let us bring him the greater and more glorious worship!

Beyond the Temple’s beauty, worship with instruments was to have the power of dominion. The walls of Jericho fall to the final blow of the trumpets and David’s harp bound the King’s demons. If Worship is warfare, to go unarmed in a capella singing is to ignore the clear scripture example of so many of the Bible’s sainted accompanists.

Tools for Worship-based Warfare

Even Christ’s recasting of the dominion mandate as the Great Commission in Matthew 28 is prefaced with dominion by worship. In v. 17, we read “And when they saw him they worshiped him.” The language St. Matthew uses for worship is in the greek etymologically related to “proskynesis” as in bowing down before him (or literally to kiss toward, reminding me of the end of Psalm 2.) In response, Jesus claims “all authority in heaven and on earth.” Christians ought to recognize that Christ’s pathway to “discipling the nations” (v.19) and “teaching them” begins with worshipping. Don’t go into battle unarmed.

  1. Karin Maag is the Director of the H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies (in Hekman Library), one of the world’s foremost collections of works on or by John Calvin.  (back)
  2. Orthodox Presbyterian Church. (2017, May 27). Q&A: Regulative Principle vs. Normative Principle. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Retrieved June 15, 2022, from https://www.opc.org/qa.html?question_id=567  (back)
  3. In Book 4, Chapter 17: “Gregory, whom you may with justice call the last Bishop of Rome…”   (back)
  4. Knox’s Iconoclasm sermon instigated a 2-day riot against St. John’s on May 11, 1559  (back)
  5. e.g. “the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp”  (back)
  6. see context of Exodus 31:1-6, e.g. “And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass…”  (back)

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On May 28, 2021 By In Books, Music

Singing as Pastoral Theology in Bonhoeffer

Reading Bonhoeffer’s pastoral heart during my dissertation writing was a sweet sound to my soul. His prison letters led me down a path of admiration and excavation to my own heart. I read almost 1,000 pages’ worth, and I left with a sense of passion for the holy. Among the many glorious things gleaned from Bonhoeffer, in particular, I was drawn to the musical component of this astute and brave Lutheran scholar. His engagement of congregational singing with young seminarians and his particular thoughts on singing in the community has largely inspired my mission for my local body and the role I see sacred music play in parish life.

For Bonhoeffer, singing is a relational tool. If there is one thing quite clear in his writing is that there is a special bond created when people sing together. Life together does not just happen; it is cultivated. The young seminarians were not immune to temptations; in fact, it is precisely their singing together that alleviated some of those natural temptations to pursue sin. Singing is and ought to be a tool of healing and reconciliation. We can engage in spectacularly contradictory forms of protests today with our yard signs and vocal cords, or we can engage in spectacularly harmony-driven singing that cultivates relationality.

As Bonhoeffer notes:

“Music … will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.”

A few years ago, I was invited to visit one of my parishioner’s grandmother on hospice care. She asked me to minister to her family, whom I had never met. By the time I arrived, her grandmother was no longer responsive. It was just a matter of hours before she died. I walked in there and saw that dear woman and the first reaction I had was to sing: so, I did. We all gathered, and I asked them permission to sing. I sang Psalm 23 and prayed. I was a stranger to all these people, but suddenly that old Irish melody brought everybody together. It was a mystical moment, if I can use that term.

For Bonhoeffer, one of the great pastoral means to deal with pain and death is singing. Paul says to encourage one another with psalms and hymns and Spirit-songs, which is to say, singing as a church invites the church to enter each other’s stories and narratives. Singing allows pastoral theology to come alive.

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On March 16, 2021 By In Church, Music, Worship

Ecclesiology 101: The assembly must edify one another

In this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

The third duty that assembly-members have is to edify one another. You have the obligation to edify, uplift, and encourage your brothers and sisters.

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers (Ephesians 4:29)

Therefore comfort each other and edify one another…pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all (1 Thessalonians 5:11, 15)

These verses teach that we are to build each other up. The Greek word for edify (oikodomé) means “to build.” It’s the same word for building a house. We build up the house – the assembly – through mutual edification.

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On June 22, 2020 By In Music

Bonhoeffer and the Role of Singing in Tumultuous Times

Bonhoeffer’s wisdom is needed in these tumultuous times. There is certainly a rise in interest in what the Lutheran martyr would say in our our own day. I will be delivering a talk at the Psalm Tap Colloquium this Wednesday on what Bonhoeffer would say to evangelicals today about singing.

My current doctoral project spends half of a chapter thinking through Bonhoeffer’s understanding of friendship and how the role of community shapes relationships. Of course, when you read hundreds of pages of an author’s words and interpreters of said author, you end up exposing yourself to a host of topics which I kindly tuck in a folder and reserve the right to peruse at a future date. Bonhoeffer’s Ethics, for instance, has always been one of those enchanting works that I had the opportunity to read through, but not with the intensity it deserves.

Alas, I delved deeply into his letters and the tenderness of his notes to family members and friends. Beyond the books, there is an entire array of technical works hidden from the public eye written by capable scholars who engage at a more profound level with Bonhoeffer. Robert Smith’s essay Bonhoeffer and Music Metaphor was one of those happy discoveries. Smith brings together Bonhoeffer’s hermeneutic with his music, thus providing a sample of the musical theology of the German theologian.

Smith offers a sample of how music shaped Bonhoeffer. His home was filled with what he called the “Grundton of joy.” Grundton speaks to the first degree of a major or minor scale in music, so that Bonhoeffer speaks of the prominence of music in the home as that which stimulated and promoted joy. Indeed, the later Bonhoeffer would contemplate those early days as preparatory for his latter days in a prison cell, which eventually led to his execution right before the end of the war.

Bonhoeffer notes that the greatest gifts that children can receive are “spiritual values” and “intellectual stimulation.” But he also notes that music is what will bring you to clarity in times of confusion. It is the practice that will sustain you in times of sadness. Bonhoeffer lived that out in his prison cell as he bathed himself in hymns from his Lutheran tradition and his favorite Psalm settings from Heinrich Schütz. He sang not just as a pastime but as an objective of way of remembering God’s promises amidst uncertainty.

Bonhoeffer’s legacy to our uncertain times is not some mystical mantra, but the concrete singing of psalms and hymns. It’s how we “point the Christian to his foundation.” For his Lutheran theology, that meant God as a suffering God would take our song and minister to us in our suffering. Thus, singing took us to the cross where the note of greatest joy sounded on Good Friday.

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On May 7, 2020 By In Culture, Family and Children, Music

10 Notes on Food, Feasting and Friendship

I begin with the assumption that the church has been powerfully de-ritualized this quarantine season. Habits die quickly or become rusty when not exercised. As Dru Johnson notes in his book Human Rites, we need to know our rites. The more we understand our rituals the more meaningful they become. And we have forgotten those rites and/or meaningfully ceased to practice them. I offer ten brief notes on three main rituals we need to recover in this age.

First, we eat without thanksgiving. Gluttony exists because thanksgiving does not. Eating is not a neutral exercise. Christians eat as acts of triumph over the world.

Second, the ritual of eating is undervalued in America. In this country, food is consumption. We eat because we want to, therefore we eat without intentionality. When rites become trite, our experiences become trivial, and the doors for abuse open wider.

Third, corporate eating is de-valued because we allow teenagers to rule over the table. Parents must re-assert their authority over the table, and keep food at the table and not on laps in front of laptops.

Fourth, feasting suffers when worship looks like a funeral. If every head is bowed and eyes are closed, we cannot see the feast or hear the feasters. Feasting is diminished when worship is feast-less in character.

Fifth, feasting is best formalized and appointed. When it is that way, it can be adorned with fancy napkins and plates. It allows family members to long for something better. We are gnostics to think that immediacy is best. Christians understand that better feasts means preparing more to enjoy best.

Sixth, feasts are more meaningful when we incorporate singing. Feasts in the Bible are celebrations of our freedom from bondage. Singing to Yahweh a new song is declaring Pharaoh will never rule again.

Seventh, there is no friendship without Christ. There are shared experiences and stories, but friendship is rooted in a shared Christ.

Eighth, relationships change and are re-directed. Someone who was a friend in eighth grade may not be a friend now. God gives us a rotation of friends through life because He knows that our changes will require new people to speak into our particular phases of life.

Ninth, many of us are worse friends than we think, but we have better friends than we deserve.

Tenth, all rituals require practice. All rituals require meaning. All good things require work.

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On November 28, 2019 By In Culture, Music, Theology

Kanye gets Adam and Eve right

If you follow pop culture at all, you know who Kanye West is, and you know that he is now a professing Christian. His recent album, Jesus Is King, is a Christian album filled with surprisingly orthodox lyrics. No blatant heresies or misuses of scripture are detected. In fact, they are quite good insofar as they reveal where Kanye is in his faith.

As I listened to the album, the following lyrics – from the song “Everything We Need” – stuck out to me in particular:

What if Eve made apple juice?
You gon’ do what Adam do?
Or say, “Baby, let’s put this back on the tree,
‘Cause we have everything we need”

These four short lines are immensely profound, for they correct a common misunderstanding about the fall of man (i.e. the doctrine of original sin).

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