Crackpot Prophet Does Not Like The Fact That "Christians-so-called" Mention Jesus In Their Hymns

 

In COGland, there's a stark contrast in how often Satan and Jesus are mentioned. Satan is portrayed as the all-powerful deity of the church, constantly referenced, while Jesus is rarely mentioned, typically only as "Jesus Christ." Using just "Jesus" is deemed too "Protestant" for these self-proclaimed true Christians. Moreover, Jesus is depicted as perpetually angry, eager to return and annihilate two-thirds of humanity. However, his return is continually postponed by speculative leaders who keep messing up the date, like Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland, Bob Thiel, and Alton Billingsley. I can see why he is getting angry!

Jesus also frustrates Armstrongite legalists, who demand strict law-keeping and crave punishment for transgressors. These individuals, believing they perfectly uphold the law, aspire to become mini-gods to mete out divine justice. The graceful Jesus, who offers justification and sanctification, undermines their legalism, which they despise.

Even more offensive to these so-called Christians is singing about Jesus in hymns. Not the modern "Jesus is my boyfriend" worship songs, but classic 17th- and 18th-century hymns that convey the gospel message more effectively in a few verses than all COG leaders have since Armstrongism emerged in the 1930s.

No COG leader is more affronted by these hymns than the self-proclaimed Great Bwana Bob Mzungu Thiel. He insists the only acceptable hymns are Dwight Armstrong’s metrical psalters, adaptations of Psalms often found in 17th- and 18th-century Bibles. Apparently, true Christians only sing these, finding lyrics about smashing heads or crushing enemies more fitting than a wretch overwhelmed by being saved by grace.

In the COG, it seems like a lot of people look at Dwight Armstrong's hymns as sacred, sitting on the shelf right next to the Bible,  Mystery of the Ages, and the Missing Dimension in Sex.

This has led out Great Bwana to lash out again about hymns and boasting about his church’s perfection in singing Dwight Armstrong’s compositions or Psalm-based metrical psalters. He’s still riled up over an article in The Journal: News of the Churches of God that criticized the church for not having hymns focused upon Jesus Christ and what he accomplished:

Bwana Bob writes:

While Roman Catholics and Protestants tended to sing songs that had religious messages, the old Worldwide Church of God (WCG) mainly sung hymns which were extracted from the Psalms in the Bible. Most of those of us in groups with ties to the old WCG still do. 

 

And we even have been criticized for that by who who used to sing them. The January 31, 2003, issue of old The Journal: News of the Churches of God, on page 22, contained a paid advertisement titled What Can We Learn From a Church Group’s Selection of Hymns? The ad glosses over certain key points that I would like to address.

After being critical of the Church of God practice to attempt to distance itself from the Protestant practice of having a significant portion of songs addressed to Jesus, the ad states:
 

Of the 114 special songs by Dwight Armstrong appearing in the 1974 Hymnal, how many do you think contain the name Christ or Jesus? Do you think most of them, say, about 100? Surely at least half, say 57? Would you be surprised to learn that of all 114 songs, not one contains the name of our Savior. 

 

There are two points glossed over here. The first is that in the entire Bible there are no songs/hymns/psalms that mention the name Jesus–thus I wonder if this ad intended that as a criticism of the Bible (it is clearly intended as a criticism of the Church of God practice of singing Bible-based songs). The second is that three of the songs Dwight Armstrong wrote, that are in the 1974 edition of The Bible Hymnal (otherwise referred to as the hymnal), do contain the term ‘Christ’ (see page numbers 54,120,121). Furthermore, terms such as “Lord” and specific teachings of Christ are included in many of the hymns. Additionally, the hymnal contained songs written by others that do mention the name Jesus. 

 

The ad asks:

How can a church be doing the work of God (according to John 6:29) if its very own 114 specially written hymns, hymns which are supposedly ‘more scriptural’ than the ones used by others, do not even contain the name Jesus Christ? 

He then writes this: pay particular attention to the first sentence:  

The author may wish to ask God why none of the psalmists, who wrote 150 psalms, were inspired to use the term ‘Jesus Christ’. Until that happens, I would suggest that the fact that ‘Jesus Christ’ is from Greek and the psalms were written in Hebrew would be one factor. Another fact is that the songs in the old WCG hymnal (which we in the Continuing Church of God sang from each week until getting a slightly updated/expanded replacement in late 2013) are more directly biblical than any hymnal from any non-Church of God group that I have ever seen. 

 

As usual, no one—absolutely NO ONE—on Earth is as perfect as the improperly named "Continuing" Church of God and its highly favored leader. There's not enough nonsense on the planet to match that level of absurdity he wrote above.

The Psalms were written over approximately 1,000 years, with the earliest possibly penned by Moses around 1400 BC and the latest composed after the Babylonian exile, around 450 BC. This period far predates Christ’s time. Jesus isn’t mentioned because He wasn’t on earth then. Apparently, Bwana Bob’s supposed education at Fuller and a diploma from a Trinitarian diploma mill in India failed to clarify this.

Here is more of his criticism of the article:

The ad asks the question:

What should be the focus and center of a Bible-led, Christian church?

The obvious answer is that the Bible, the word of God, should. So, let’s look at all the scriptures in the New Testament (NKJ) that use the term ‘sing’:

“And that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles, And sing to Your name’ ” (Romans 15:9).

This is a quote from Paul based on II Samuel 22:50; note that Paul is stating that Gentiles are to sing to God–Jesus’ name is not mentioned.

“What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding” (I Corinthians 14:15).

Again no mention of Jesus. The latter half of this scripture is a quote from Psalm 47:7.

“Saying: ‘I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You’ ” (Hebrews 2:12).

This is a quote from Paul of Psalm 22:22; it also does not mention Jesus’ name.

“Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms” (James 5:13).

Psalms are what approximately 90% of the songs the 1974 WWCG hymnal are based on.

“They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: ‘Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested’ ” (Revelation 15:3-4).

Note that the term ‘Jesus Christ’ is not mentioned in this particular song and the ‘song of Moses’ is believed to be from Exodus 15. Also, note that one song from D. Armstrong (on page 116 in the 1974 hymnal) is based on Exodus 15.

The Apostle Paul noted:

Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm (1 Corinthians 14:26).

Now who did Paul and Silas sing to? Acts 16:25 states,

  

“Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.”

Colossians 3:16 does mention the term ‘Christ’ and singing in the same verse (and is the only place in the Bible where that occurs) as it states,

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

Note that this verse does not indicate that it is necessary to sing the term ‘Christ’.

Acts 13:33 is the only verse in the Bible that mentions the term ‘Jesus’ and ‘Psalm’–but they are two separate statements, neither of which suggest using the term ‘Jesus’ in any psalm.

There are also several other New Testament scriptures that mention songs, psalms, and/or hymns (Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26; Luke 20:42;24:44; Acts 13:35; Ephesians 5:19; Revelation 5:9;14:3;15:3), but none of them mention the term ‘Jesus’ or ‘Christ’ or ‘Jesus Christ’ in any of them.

After complaining that none of the hymns in the 1974 edition contain the term ‘Jesus Christ’, the ad speculates:

Do we dare speculate? Could Herbert Armstrong’s WWCG have been doomed from the beginning?

The ad implies WWCG was doomed from the beginning because of its hymnal not using the term ‘Jesus Christ’ in any of the songs. The answer to that speculation is, no this did not doom WWCG. For if that speculation were true, then the Bible would also have been doomed from the beginning since it does not use the term ‘Jesus Christ’ in any song.

The ad concludes with:

Give the only name under heaven whereby we must be saved more focus in worship services by singing most, not necessarily all, of the hymns about our Rock and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Then, in his typical sanctimonious self-serving glory, the Great Bwana writes:

The unnamed author of this ad is entitled to an opinion. But it is an opinion, and not a particularly biblically defensible one (perhaps it should be added that the term ‘Rock’ is applied to God or the Lord in the hymnal on pages 24,49,50,53,72,&117; and that “Lord” or “God” is used in almost every song). 

 

Everything Bwana Bob writes and preaches is merely opinion, and not particularly defensible ones. His so-called biblical education is grounded in Armstrongism, which doesn't make him an authority on anything biblical. 

Bwana Bob would do well to listen to some great church hymns; he would learn a lit that he never heard in Armstrongism or in his Indian diploma mill.