Strings Against the Wind!

Larry West

Part 2

And now we bid, “Aido”

In the book, Strings Against the Wind

the prosecution, in his opening remarks, says, “We will show Strings IS guilty, that the act of sounding out in the assembly of the saints is a crime ! We will show he has broken God‘s law. And we will show it, first with two words in three books of the New Testament. We speak of the words ‘psallo‘ in Ephesians 5:19 and ‘aido‘ used there, in Colossians 3:16 and in the book of Revelation.’

Not “adieu,” not “adios,” but “aido!”

… he picks up his now famous “Revelation of Jesus Christ” and reads the three references using aido (ado):

So, the apostle John takes the stand …

And now we bid, “Aido!”

“Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang (aido) a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”

  Revelation 5:8-9

“And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing (aido) a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders….”

  Revelation 14:2-3

“And I saw something like a sea of glass

mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. They sing (aido) the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.”

Revelation 15:2-3  

And now we bid, “Aido!”

And now we bid, “Aido!”

Then, Mr. Nevermore with the prosecution called his first witness. He speaks up:

“You cannot use ‘aido,’ translated ‘sing’ in Ephesians 5:19 as permitting the instrument because ‘Did John hear the voice of many waters? No; he heard a voice ‘as of many waters.’ Did he hear a great thunder? No, he heard a voice from heaven ‘as the voice of a great thunder.’ Did he hear harpers harping on their harps? No; the voice which he heard was ‘as the voice of harpers harping on their harps.’

* As noted in the book: This quote is taken from a tract authored by a leader in a church holding to this persuasion, a booklet entitled, “Why Churches of Christ do not use Instrumental Music in Christian

Worship,” pp. 13-14. Identity of author, only in recent years deceased, respectfully kept confidential.

Prosecu

tion

Then, the prosecution’s witness drew his conclusion, saying, ‘There is not a passage in the Scriptures that remotely hints that there will be literal instruments of music in heaven!’” *

And now we bid, “Aido!”Prose

cutio

n

“And what is a simile?”

“A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two different things, usually by employing the words “like” or “as”….”

-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simile

And now we bid, “Aido!”

“The reference of Revelation 14:3, and even Revelation 15:3, is John’s use of

similes.”

Prosecu

tion

Mr. Nevermore then speaks,

And now we bid, “Aido!”

“ So, Notice the verses again,”says Mr. Nevermore.

“The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing (aido) a new song ….

  Revelation 14:2-3

“And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. They sing (aido) the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.”

Revelation 15:2-3

Prosecu

tion

“It was LIKE the instrument!”

says Mr. Nevermore.

“ “It was not the

instrument!”

And now we bid, “Aido!”Prose

cutio

n

“Did you hear me? It was not THE instrument!

It was LIKE the instrument!”

And with that, Mr. Nevermore took his chair.

And now we bid, “Aido!”Prose

cutio

n

Sooooo,when the defense was given its turn, Curly says …

And now we bid, “Aido!”Defense

“Okay, my friend, but, may I kindly ask … … IF the SIMILE is the basis for the prosecution’s argument, then

please be consistent with it!

And now we bid, “Aido!”Defense

Then, do not neglect the first of the three references in John’s Revelation, the one in 5:9.”

And may I emphasize that again! IF THE SIMILE is the basis for your

argument …

And Curly read it aloud!

“Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang (aido) a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”

  Revelation 5:8-9

And now we bid, “Aido!”Defense

“Again …” insists Curly, “IF that is the basis for the prosecution’s

argument, … then we insist you be constant about it. Do not neglect the first reference, the one in 5:9.”

“There is no simile there!”

And now we bid, “Aido!”Defense

Curly asks, do you want to read it again?

“Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang (aido) a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”

  Revelation 5:8-9

And now we bid, “Aido!”Defense

“Petroglyphs are symbols

drawn by prehistoric cultures. They’re etched in stone. The Puebloans, the Hohokam, the Mimbre and the Mogollon nations dated back to about the 750‘s in Arizona and Wyoming. They used petroglyphs. And those nations lasted until about 1450.”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” says Curly, “How many of you have heard of Petroglyphs?”

And now we bid, “Aido!”Defense

“On the back side of the Big Horns not far from Ten Sleep, Wyoming, in what used to be Crow territory there are a bunch of petroglyphs on a stretch of wall. Before the Crows came around at Medicine Lodge there‘s evidence of 60 ancient civilizations. I mean, the first one detected was 5500 years before the pyramids were built in Egypt. The Plains Indians came in, though, only about the last thousand years. Anyway, only some of them in the Hopi and Zuni nations today, even the Pima, can tell us only something of what they symbolized. Petroglyphs we know communicated things having to do with migration, clans, people, maps and spirits. Here’s the point! The ancients did not leave behind a decoding key…!‘ Did ya hear that?

“No decoding key!

And now we bid, “Aido!”Defense

“That means we’ve got a problem! Opinions as to what they mean vary! There‘s no real accuracy!”

… here‘s the good news! When it comes to psallo right here in the koine we’ve got the decoding key! There‘s accuracy! The Holy Spirit gave it to us when He used zamar to define it!

“Zamar defines first-century koine psallo!”

smiles Curly,…

And now we bid, “Aido!”

Defense

“But,”

And now we bid, “Aido!”

“Five times in the New Testament!

“That’s how many times aido is used!

“And, as we have shown the DECODING KEY OF PSALLO, how psallo permits the instrument, that now means a minimum of two of the five times where aido is used in the New Testament the

instrument is accepted.The Colossians verse is the only one where aido is

simply used alone.”

Defense

“I’d like to present to the court in evidence

this exhibit A,” then says Curly. He hands to the judge a copy of the Septuagint*, and Exhibit B, a Nestles’ Greek Testament.

And now we bid, “Aido!”

Defense

* We present in the book, Strings Against the Wind, both reliable evidence for the defense of the Septuagint and how psallo did not change from the definitions in the LXX.

“Your Honor,” says Curly, “we will now present the Septuagint. The LXX of the first century and Nestles‘ Greek Text use aido in Psalm 33:3, translating the word sing. It says, ‘Sing (aido) to Him a new song; Play (psallo) skillfully with a shout of joy.’

“Here in evidence we show the Holy Spirit uses ‘aido’ in the presence with the playing of the instrument!”

And now we bid, “Aido!”

Defense

“You will notice there also, koine ‘psallo’ was used for ‘play,’ and that follows again as

we have shown already, how classical–to-koine psallo never changed

its definition. We showed where the Holy Spirit, quoting Himself, used

‘zamar’ to translate ‘psallo’ …

And now we bid, “Aido!”

Defense

Zamar as it is written Psallo

… and He did it even in the second half of the first century!”

And now we bid, “Aido!”

Defense

“So, you cannot use ‘aido’ as evidence

against Mr. Strings in the assembly!

“Your Honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, ‘… the instrument was not objected to on scriptural grounds when it first became an issue. It wasn’t until McGarvey’s time that scriptural arguments were invented to oppose the instrument,’ and that was in the 19th century.”*

And now we bid, “Aido!”

Defense

*See, Strings Against the Wind, Burgess, p. 117

“Again, when it comes to salvation, may we focus on the GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!”

And now we bid, “Aido!”

Defense

And fellowship “in Him” (Romans 8:1)!

And now we bid, “Adieu

So, adios!Wait! Then, there’s history! Okay, that’s next with Power Point 3.