A series of
articles I wrote for NEW LIFE , Australia’s Weekly Christian Newspaper .
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HYMNAL
INACCURACIES ??
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Sometimes the hymn writer gets it wrong.
Take for example John
Newton’s great hymn, “Amazing Grace”.
Is it true, as verse two says, “’Twas grace that taught my heart
to fear?” Or should it be, “’Twas the
law that taught my heart to fear?”
Mmm.?
……………………………….
( P.S. A few weeks ago I
pointed out that some have suggested Newton’s great hymn contains a theological
inaccuracy in the second verse.
Was it ‘grace’ that taught my heart to fear, or ‘the law’?
Some
readers have responded that it was God’s grace – in giving us the law - to show
us
our
need of a Saviour – that taught our hearts to fear.
Fair
enough ? )
* * * * * * *
Timothy Dudley-Smith, an
evangelical Bishop of the Anglican Church, “is recognized as one of the
foremost English hymn writers of today” (“A Hymn Companion”, by F. Colquhoun,
p.266).
In “Mission Praise” (481) is
his hymn:
“Name of all
Majesty;
fathomless
mystery…”
Great! But in verse 3 we get
this: …
“Saviour of
Calvary,
costliest
victory,
darkness defeated
and Eden restored
…”
Eden restored? No!
“not as the offence so also is the free gift” (Romans 5:15, KJV).
In other words, there is no
comparison between the depths to which the fall of Adam took us … and the
heights to which the Saviour has raised us.
“Much more!” is Paul’s cry
(Romans 5:15,20).
Not just Eden restored … but
“much more” have we recovered “abundance of grace!” (Romans 5:17).
Isaac Watts is more
theologically accurate in his “Jesus shall reign …”:
“Where
He displays His healing power,
death
and the curse are known no more;
in Him
the tribes of Adam boast
more
blessing than their father lost.”
Sadly this verse is omitted
in many hymnals today.
* * * * * * *
“He
left His Father’s throne above
so
free, so infinite His grace.
Emptied
Himself of all but love,
and
bled for Adam’s sinful race …”
But is it true that the Lord
Jesus “emptied Himself of all but love”?
Did He empty Himself of His
holiness; or His justice, or any of His attributes?
* * * * * * *
Well … it all depends upon
your prophetic viewpoint.
“Jesus
shall reign where’er the sun
does
his successive journeys run;
His
Kingdom stretch from shore to shore…”
“Aha!” says Dr. Lee Roberson, American fundamentalist,
“This is a song post-millennialists sing without an understanding of its
truth!” (“Some Golden Daybreak” p .75) The
irony of his statement lies in the fact that he thinks it is speaking of the
Lord Jesus reigning during the millennium.
But Isaac Watts, who wrote
it, was a post-millennialist !! And he was writing about Christ reigning
through His Church before the Second Coming. To say post-millennialists do not understand this hymn when it
was written by a post-millennialist in the first place is curious indeed.
Inconsistent? Well … it depends upon whether you are “pre”
or “post” or neither!
* * * * * * *
Verse 4 of Hymn 339 in the
“Australian Hymn Book” begins:
“Thanks
to God Whose Word is published
in the
tongues of every race …”
Hardly! There are about 6,000 languages and dialects
spoken world-wide – and only just over 2,000 have any Scripture in their own
tongue!
* * * * * * *
One of Charles Welsey’s
greatest hymns is:
“Arise,
my soul, arise,
shake
off thy guilty fears;
the
bleeding Sacrifice
in my
behalf appears …”
“My
God is reconciled,
His
pardoning voice I hear …”
The problem is – who needed
to be reconciled? God, or the sinner?
In one Church, of which I personally know, someone went through the copies of the Methodist Hymn Book
and – in ink – altered this first line to “To God I’m reconciled…”
Is that better? Or are we just playing with words?
* * * * * * *
There are many hymns that
speak of death as “crossing over Jordan”.
William Williams, for
example, wrote:
When I
tread the verge of Jordan
bid my
anxious fears subside…”
Samuel Stennet expressed the
same emotion:
“On
Jordan’s stormy banks I stand
and
cast a wishful eye …”
Isaac Watts uses the same
figure of speech in “There is a land of pure delight…”.
Verse 2 closes with the
lines:
“Not
Jordan’s stream, nor death’s cold flood,
should
fright us from the shore…”
(Sankeys,
1016).
Many a Negro Spiritual
speaks of Jordan … with Heaven on the other side. Joshua crossed over Jordan
River and found that the land of Canaan was a place where battles were fought
and giants defeated.
Canaan is not a picture of
Heaven (no giants there!), but of the victorious Christian life.
The overcoming life! Out of the wilderness of carnality into the
promised land of victory.
And Jordan, therefore, is not
a picture of physical death but of death to the ‘flesh’, the old sinful nature.
The old Elim Chorus (17) was
not speaking of physical death, but got it right:
“Oh,
this is like Heaven to me …
to
Canaan’s fair land,
And
this is like Heaven to me!”
* * * * * * *
It was Canon Henry Twells
who wrote a well-known hymn in 1868 while he was overseeing an examination at
Godolphin School. “I was supposed to be
seeing all fair” (that is, no cheating), he later confessed.
The hymn is:
“At
even ere the sun was set,
the
sick, O Lord, around Thee lay;
Oh, in
what divers’ pains they met,
Oh,
with what joy they went away.”
This is now it was
originally written – and how it appears in older hymn books (for example,
Sankeys, 79; Baptist 1933 edition,
558; Churches of Christ, 152; Methodist, 916; Mission Praise, 43, etc).
But the problem is that word
‘ere’ in the first line. Mark 1:32 in
the KJV reads: “at even, when
the sun did set they brought unto Him all that were diseased…”
In other words, it was after
the Sabbath ended that the sick were brought to Him, not before. Thus some recent hymnals have altered the
first line –
“At even, when
the sun was set”
(The Hymnal, 141, Baptist
1967 edition, 688; Australian Hymn
Book, 169) etc.
However, Canon Twells, who
was alive at the time these alterations to his hymn were being made, defended
the use of ‘ere’ on the basis of Luke 4:40 –
“Now when the sun was setting …”
It could be that those who
were able to walk hobbled on their crutches to be healed before the Sabbath
ended, others who needed to be carried on their beds were brought after the
Sabbath was past?
Maybe ‘ere’ is not wrong
after all?
* * * * * * *
In her lovely hymn, “Beneath
the Cross of Jesus”, Elizabeth Clephane ended the fourth verse with the words:
“And
from my smitten heart, with tears,
two
wonders I confess –
The
wonder of His glorious love,
And my
own worthlessness.”
Worthlessness?
That’s the word used in
Sankeys (139); Baptist 1933 edition (237); (Keswick (82); Great Hymns of the Faith (309);
Church of Christ (492), etc. But
was sinful man ‘worthless’ in the sight of God?
So it is, as some recent
hymnals have changed the line to read “and my unworthiness”. The Hymnal (376); Rejoice! (Presbyterian) (210).
Which is right? Or is there truth in the use of either word?
* * * * * * *
ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED ??
Was Charles Wesley in error
when he wrote, “A charge to keep I have” (Methodist, 578)?
The last verse reads:
“Help
me to watch and pray,
and on
Thyself rely.
Assured,
if I my trust betray,
I
shall forever die!”
Neither Charles nor brother
John held to the “once saved, always saved” teaching, But many evangelicals regard such teaching as
thoroughly Biblical. So let’s not open
a can of worms here. Just as many would
say “Amen” to Wesley’s sentiments. as there would be in opposition.
It all depends on one’s
theological bent as to whether this is an example of inaccuracy in the hymn
books!
* * * * * * *
“He
lives, He lives!
Christ
Jesus lives today …
You
ask me how I know He lives,
He
lives within my heart!”
Many a time we have sung
A.H. Ackley’s great gospel song – and meant it! But is there a danger in that last line of the chorus? The answer to, “You ask me how I know He
lives” is surely, “Because the Bible tells me so!” Not because I have a happy
feeling in my heart !!
It was Martin Luther who
wrote:
“Feelings come
and feelings go;
But feelings are
deceiving.
My trust is in
the Word of God –
naught else is
worth believing!”
Feeling Christ Jesus within
my heart may well be a by-product of one’s conversion experience … but what if
one has a ‘bad’ day and the feeling is not there? Does that mean Christ has not risen?
In this day when experiences
are oft-times exalted over the unchanging Word of God, it may be good to assess
afresh why you believe He lives!
* * * * * * *
“Gracious
Spirit, dwell with me;
I
myself would gracious be.
And
with words that help and heal,
Would
Thy life in mine reveal.”
Of course, there is nothing
wrong with these words. They are found
in most hymnals – Baptist, 231;
Rejoice! (Presbyterian) 270; The
Hymnal 261; Faith and Life, 198; Keswick, 142; Church of Christ, 177 … and so it goes.
So what’s the problem??
The author of these lines,
the Rev. Thomas Toke Lynch, a Congregational minister, was not referring
to the Holy Spirit!
“The subject is not the Third Person of the Trinity, but the
non-theological spirit of God that pervades the universe and inspired the human
spirit” (“The Gospel in Hymns”, A. Bailey, p465).
When Lynch issued his book
of hymns in 1885 called “The Rivulet”, he provoked a fierce controversy. which
split Congregationalism. Spurgeon
entered the fray and condemned Lynch for his “negative theology” and
“non-doctrine scheme”. And the Editor
of “The Christian” described “The Rivulet” as “crude, disjointed, unmeaning,
unchristian, ill-rhymed rubbish!” (Bailey, p119).
When Albert Peel wrote the
history of Congregationalism he had a chapter dealing with “The Rivulet”
controversy, which he aptly titled “Almost Wrecked!”
The whole issue is a
reminder that hymns are not necessarily true to Scripture teaching.
* * * * * * * *
“Spirit,
we love You,
we
worship and adore You,
(Mission Praise,
142, verse 3)
This well-known chorus seems
to fly in the face of John 16:14 – it is not the task of the Holy Spirit
to have His Name exalted, but to exalt the Name of the Lord Jesus.
* * * * * * *
“Lord,
keep us steadfast in Thy Word,
curb
those who fain, by craft or sword,
would
wrest the Kingdom from Thy Son,
and
set at naught all He hath done.”
(Lutheran Hymnal, 1979 Edition, 197).
So wrote Martin Luther … or
did he?
The above verse is Catherine
Winkworth’s translation – and alteration – of the reformer’s
original. What Luther wrote was:
“Lord,
keep us steadfast in Thy Word,
restrain
and foil the craft and sword
of
Pope and Turk, who from Thy throne
would
wrest Christ Jesus, Thine own Son.”
Such words may not be
‘ecumenically correct’ to sing these days.
But in the light of Rome’s current move toward a more exalted Mariolatry
and the ever-increasing onslaught of Islam, maybe Christian congregations
should be singing, prayerfully, Luther’s original words again.
* * * * * * *
So watch what you sing… it
may not be always true to the Word of God.
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