Exposition

According to Church History, Constantine I was a Roman emperor who ruled in the early part of the 4th century. He was the first Christian emperor and saw the empire begin to become a Christian state. The church and the state, as a result, became bedfellows to the point that bishops were appointed by the emperors. The major political appointments were also a preserve for ‘Christians’. This act led to syncretism where people only joined the church in the bit of getting political appointments. The bishops at the time also indulged in open sins to the dismay of the citizenry.

These acts led the patriots to start losing confidence in religious activities, which finally resulted in secularism. Music was then composed with no regard to the word of God or in His worship and this facilitated the rise of secular music. Guillaume de Mauchaut (a French composer) and Francesco Landini (an Italian composer) were the most important composers in Europe in the 14th Century during the rise of secular music.

From today’s reading, the master sowed good seeds but the enemy also came up with weeds. Just as God used people to compose spiritual songs to nourish souls of men, so also is the devil helping others destroy souls with their kind of music. Seeing the power in music, Alice Bailey prescribed the use of ‘bad’ music to ‘kick’ God out of human existence. I must admit that it will be difficult to ‘pull out’ secular music out of contemporary society but you can decide to stick to music that glorifies God and edifies the soul. “But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.” (Matthew 13:29 NKJV)

The weeds might look like the good seed but the end result tells their kind; in the same way, secular music may look sacred but the deeper philosophy might not reflect the word of God. Beware!