Music & Men
Bridal Mysticism and Music in the Church
Bridal Mysticism:
This is a top-to-bottom approach to understanding what may be happening with ‘worship’ music in the church and how it is affecting men and so subsequently, boys.
The conversation starts with a definition of bridal mysticism:
Bridal Mysticism is a Christian spiritual movement that invites people to experience spiritual oneness with Jesus. It can be traced back to the mystics, like Bernard of Clairvaux, in the Middle Ages. At that time there was an important shift from the biblical teaching that the church is the bride of Christ to the idea that we are individually brides of Christ.
While this philosophy may seem harmless enough, the ramifications, when taken too far, can be misinformed and even heretical. This is especially true for men. Jesus becomes more of a personal lover instead of Savior, whose union with believers can even be described in erotic terms. It’s not a stretch to consider how our intimate longing to be with Jesus can turn into something else, especially in the twisted minds of fallen man. Genesis 5:6 reminds us that man is wicked and his every thought is bent towards evil.
Bridal mysticism is one of the factors that many advocating for men in the church point to when addressing the problem with masculinity, or just plain men, in the church.
It’s sometimes used to explain why the church of Jesus Christ, a formidable force for fighting evil in the world, is predominantly female. The statistics supporting this fact go back to the Middle Ages, ironically. Where were/are the men?
The church has a man problem.
I’ve often referenced the video from Jordan Peterson where he addresses this very point and implores churches to ‘invite men back’. You can view it by copying and pasting the address below:
Music
What I would like to do is address a broader issue about music in the church, in general and then bring it back to couple with this idea of bridal mysticism and its impact on men.
I heard a recent message by Dr. Tom Wadsworth entitled, “Why the Early Church Didn’t Have Worship Services”
I received an MA from Liberty University in Worship Arts. I must say that it was a disappointing degree for a variety of reasons. But most notably, THEY DIDN”T GET THIS RIGHT. And the reason they didn’t get it right is that the music department was actually driving the degree program.
Worship is a theological matter. While music is part of the worship scene, it is only part of it. The idea of worship is much broader as Romans 12:2 attests:
Therefore, I urge you brother, in view of God’s mercy, to let your bodies be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God for this is your reasonable act of worship.
You may be surprised to learn that the early churches didn’t have worship services. Actually, ‘worship’ was never applied to what they did in the early church. There were no ‘worship teams’, no ‘worship leaders’, no ‘order of worship’ and no ‘worship’ services. That may seem odd considering how much the word ‘worship’ has infiltrated our ekklesia.
Wadsworth makes two very important points in his discourse on the subject:
NO WHERE in the New Testament is the word ‘worship’ used to refer to the assembly or its activities. NO WHERE.
What we are called to do when we gather is edify one another. (1 Corinthians 14:26)
Actually the word used in the referenced passage means ‘to build one another up’. It’s translated edify (7x), building (6x) edification (4x). Get the picture?
So, what about our singing in the ekklesia is edifying? There is no doubt we should sing together when we gather as believers. This is obvious throughout scripture. And we should definitely sing as believers, even as part of our own spiritual development. But there is a billion-dollar industry called “praise and worship’ that has maligned our use of singing in the church. It is not biblical. You can see some of the ‘confusion’ this has wrought in the church through ‘worship wars’. Also, you don’t have to have a huge amount of discernment to note that the elevated platform, the lights, the smoke and the whole guise for what we are doing is NOT focused on God. It is clearly focused on the band or an individual. This is not the point of singing together. And the ‘notion’ of worship has infiltrated the thinking of contemporary churches until it has shifted the focus away from what ought to be happening in our gatherings.
Don’t think church buildings.
Don’t think anachronistically.
Think about first century gatherings of believers in homes.
I’m not espousing house churches, although I lead one and I love the koinonia of that fellowship.
I’m saying that Paul never says or suggests that a person goes to church to worship.
And here’s the teaching:
Worship and its language were only used for temple activities. Three times a year, Jews traveled to the temple to offer sacrifices prescribed by the Law of Moses. There they would ‘prostrate’ themselves (worship) and offer sacrifices (worship). These are the only places were a word CORRECTLY translated as worship appear in the New Testament.
Do you see it?
We do not do those things anymore in the church as part of our ‘worship’. Do you fall prostrate in the church where you go as a regular state of being? Do you bring your ‘sacrifice’ to be received by the priest and slaughtered on the altar?
You may find metaphorical ways to relate to that, but you certainly don’t DO that every week….at church! And there are good reasons for that. There is no temple. You are the temple of the living God and your reasonable act of worship is to offer you bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to the Lord. THIS is your reasonable act of worship according to Romans 12:2.
Fifteen New Testament passages on what happens when believers gather together and NONE of them use words for ‘worship’, ‘service’, or ‘worship service”.
And so here we go….
When they did gather in HOMES, the point was to reach out HORIZONTALLY: Encouraging. Strengthening. Edifying. The singing was part of that.
Let me insert a notion here which may help you better understand the point.
I’m currently teaching a series on the Psalms of Ascent. 15 songs sung by pilgrims as they traveled to Jerusalem for the feasts; a playlist for the journey. Think of these people walking from their homes on their way to the temple in Jerusalem as tributaries of small streams that grew until they were a river of people. Two join two more and they are four people traveling together. Then they come to a junction in the road and meet up with a small caravan of four more people…strength in numbers. They are traveling together in bands and they are SINGING. What are they singing? Psalms of ascent gathered together for us from Psalm 120-134. The songs reminded them of God’s faithfulness. The singing encouraged them to keep going.
I was an Army officer in a training brigade at Fort Lee. We did a LOT of marching. We also did a lot of running in masse as a company of soldiers. We sang ‘jody’ calls’. They were ditties; echo songs. The sergeant would sing and lyric and the whole company of soldiers would sing it back. Glorious. People would stay in step. They could go further together. The songs put their focus on something other than any pain they may have been experiencing.
That’s exactly what the Israelites were doing. They sang to encourage one another; to remind one another of their mission; to reconsider their ‘spiritual journey’. THAT is what should be happening when we sing. Singing with a vertical emphasis is good, but more so as an individual exercise.
Now…
Compare the two forms of singing and tell me, which is more appealing to men?
Hey, I love the contemporary stuff too. But you can not make a biblical case that we should be singing THAT type of music in church. Look around and watch the men when they are singing these songs….that is if you can see anyone else because you are in the dark while the band is onstage in the lights. They are NOT engaged. They are not easily engaged by this.
I know it’s not the whole picture of the feminization of Christianity, but It is a part and to ignore it is to bar the gates to men as you gather.
As I mentioned, I got a degree in this subject from a Christian university and I can tell you now that they got it wrong and I was duped into a heretical notion of what ‘worship’ is and what we should be doing when we gather together. Singing should be part of that. But not for the reasons we are currently doing it.
If you are truly interested in bringing men back to the church and subsequently boys and raising them in a proper understanding of how faith is played out in the ekklesia, then start paying attention to the music you are using and how you’re employing it in the assembly.
Jesus is not my boyfriend. He is my Savior. He is my Redeemer. What he did to accomplish that was the definition of masculinity; sacrificial love. He is coming back as a VICTOR, riding a white horse and followed by an ARMY of saints who will completely destroy the works of the enemy. That’s my Lord.