AND WHATEVER YOU DO IN WORD OR DEED

“AND WHATEVER YOU DO IN WORD OR DEED, DO ALL IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS, GIVING THANKS TO GOD THE FATHER THROUGH HIM. ” COLOSSIANS 3: 17 THEME: DO ALL IN THE NAME OF THE LORD

CULTURE The totality of socially transmitted behavior, patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. • American Heritage Dictionary

THE EFFECTS OF CULTURE “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good & acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12: 2). “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2: 15 -16).

Do All In The Name Of the Lord (Col. 3: 17) ?

SHALL WE DANCE? “I think it would be certainly an extreme thing for someone to say that any and every kind of dancing must be of a sensual nature. ” • Dances that are okay: folk, square, cultural, ballet, formal, classical, & evening dancing. § “Do these form of dances ever cross the line? Yes they do. So we must be careful about that. ” § “I cannot think of anything more pure than the bride and groom’s first dance at a wedding celebration or the father and bride. ” • “Is any & every kind of dancing wrong? Absolutely not!”

SHALL WE DANCE? Is there any Bible authority for dancing? Where does the Bible say not to dance? Are some forms of dancing okay? What about when David danced? Is modern dancing really sinful?

DANCING IN THE BIBLE Dances of Religious Devotion • Ex. 15: 20 -21 – Miriam led all the women in dance to celebrate deliverance from Egypt. • Judges 21: 19 -21 – yearly feast of the LORD in Shiloh where women come out to dance. • 2 Sam. 6: 14 – David before the ark of God. • Psalm 149: 2 -3; 150: 4 – describe dancing done in connection with worship.

DANCING IN THE BIBLE Dances of Joy and Celebration • Judges 11: 34 – joyful dancing of Jephthah’s daughter when she saw his return from battle. • I Sam. 18: 6 – women came out to meet king Saul after the slaughter of the Philistines. • Luke 7: 32 – the innocent play of children. • Luke 15: 25 – the homecoming of prodigal son.

NO COUPLE DANCING IN BIBLE? “While the mode of dancing is not known in detail, it is clear that men and women did not generally dance together, and there is no real evidence that they ever did. Social amusement was hardly a major purpose of dancing, and the modern method of dancing by couples is unknown. ” – Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, “Dancing, ” Vol. 2, p. 12 (1977)

NO COUPLE DANCING IN BIBLE? “Social dancing, as we now understand it, was almost, if not altogether, unknown in ancient times…” – Hastings Bible Dictionary, p. 550. “Women seemed generally to have danced by themselves…Of the social dancing of couples in the modern fashion there is no trace. ” • ISBE, “Games, ” p. 1170 “There is no evidence of couples dancing together, however; that was to happen much later, probably in Provence in the 12 th Century. ” • Ency. Britannica, “The Art of Dance, ” Vol. 5, p. 452 (1979)

DANCING IN THE BIBLE Dances of Sinful Merrymaking • Exodus 32: 19 -25 – the children of Israel dance in a shameful and unrestrained manner before the golden calf. • 1 Sam. 30: 16 -19 – Amalekites, who stole and kidnapped, celebrated their spoils of war. • Job 21: 11 -15 – the righteous man Job describes the life and attitude of the wicked. • Mark 6: 21 -24 – the sensual dance of Salome before King Herod on his birthday.

GALATIANS 5: 19 -21 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, (lasciviousness, KJV; sensuality, NASV) 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

LASCIVIOUSNESS DEFINED “unbridled lust…wanton (acts or) manners (including) filthy words, indecent bodily movements, unchaste handling of males and females. ” • Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, pp. 79 -80 The English word lascivious is defined as “exciting sexual desires; salacious. ”

1 THESSALONIANS 4: 3 -7 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.

NON-CHRISTIANS RECOGNIZE DANCING AS LUSTFUL “Another motive for the dance is the sexual motive – the dance has always been used as a means of expressing sexual desire and as a means of wooing…We find this same sex motive in the modern ballroom dance, which has now degenerated into dull and stupid forms, but it is a legitimate opportunity for contact. ” • “Dance We Must” (1938, reprinted 1950), p. 6 from a series of lectures given by Ted Shawn at George Peabody College for Teachers

NON-CHRISTIANS RECOGNIZE DANCING AS LUSTFUL “The popular teen-age dances of the mid 20 th century have no set steps; the dancers respond spontaneously to the beat of the musicians. The degree of satisfaction attained by young people ‘twisting’ or ‘shaking’ to the blare of amplified music in dance halls, further enlivened the psychedelic lighting, is different from the pleasure derived by their elders waltzing to the ‘Blue Danube’ – but it is only a difference of age and time. Fundamentally, both age groups are enjoying the pleasure of

NON-CHRISTIANS RECOGNIZE DANCING AS LUSTFUL dancing in their own way…The end product is doubtless the same – physical pleasure in the activity of dancing and sexual awareness of a partner, whether embraced or half-consciously observed. ” – Encyclopedia Britannica, “The Art of Dance, ” Vol. 5, p. 455 -456 (1979 edition) “Because of its physical appeal, dance lends itself to erotic purposes and has been practiced to these ends by both sexes. ” – Encyclopedia Britannica, “The Art of Dance” (ibid)

NON-CHRISTIANS RECOGNIZE DANCING AS LUSTFUL “All ballroom dancing in pairs looks toward intercourse. In this respect the Puritans were dead right…The development of no-contact dances has come about because one doesn’t now need a social excuse to embrace a girl, but as an excitant it need not involve contact at all. ” • The Joy of Sex, Alex Comfort, p. 162 (1972) Dancing “affords a partial satisfaction to the sex impulse which (among the adolescents) cannot as yet achieve full and specific expression. ”

NON-CHRISTIANS RECOGNIZE DANCING AS LUSTFUL “…The social dance has usually been the result of joint physical exuberance and sex stimuli…” –Collier’s Ency. , “Dance, ” Vol. 7, p. 683, 1964 “There can scarcely be any doubt that dancing came about as an adjunct of sexual stimulation” (Medical Review of America). “…the secret of the popularity of dancing (or is it a secret? ) is the exciting sexual stimulation resulting from the close embrace of male and female, whether it be in dancing or w/o music in petting and necking” (Dr. J. P. Gibson, M. D. ).

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ON DANCING “We do not stop to inquire whether dancing is worse than something else, or not so good; or whether one kind of dancing is better than another, or not so bad. It is all bad; and we want none of it. We are not set to compare and measure evil, and decide how much evil one can possibly do and be saved, or at least not lost. ”

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ON DANCING “We do not desire those whom we instruct to study how much evil they can do and still enter in at the strait gate, or how they can live and gain a bare entrance into the everlasting kingdom; but we desire them to so live that they may “gain an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1: 11). ” • Gospel Preacher, Vol. 2, p. 408

ROMANS 13: 12 -14 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.