Russian president Vladimir Putin recently made some striking remarks about rap music:
“Rap is based on three pillars: sex, drugs and protest.” But he is particularly concerned with drug themes prevalent in rap, saying “this is a path to the degradation of the nation.”
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Nearly 8 years ago, God answered my prayers by allowing me finally to have a website of my own! I would like to express my great gratitude to two friends who helped make my having a website a reality: Ashish Majmundar and Mark Ward.
From February 8, 2011 until today, I have posted 1000 times on my website! This total in slightly under 8 years averages to more than 125 posts per year and more than 2 posts per week.
I posted at least once a day from February 8 to June 5 of 2011 (119 posts in 118 consecutive days). My pace of posting has slowed considerably since those first four months. I now am trying to post at least once every two weeks.
I have posted in 10 categories on my site:
I find it rewarding and confirming that the categories with the most posts (Discipleship [741] and Interpretation [370]) are fully in keeping with my ministry burdens and my PhD being in NT Interpretation.
By far, my post with the most views has been about whether Solomon perished eternally: Nine Reasons Why Solomon Did Not Perish Eternally, which has been viewed 19,849 times since it was posted on August 19, 2013.
This screenshot lists the views of my posts that have been viewed 1000 or more times.
I praise God for giving me the ministry of this blog and pray that He will continue to use it for His glory for many more years!
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
The Spirit has spoken about what took place in the Golden Calf Incident (GCI) in at least six passages in six different books of the Bible (59 total verses in Exod. 32, Deut. 9, Neh. 9, Ps. 106, Acts 7, and 1 Cor. 10). God has thus highlighted what took place in the GCI in a way that demands our careful attention to what He has revealed about that event.
Exodus 32, the longest record of that event, reveals that singing was a part of what took place on that occasion:
Exodus 32:17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. 18 And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear. 19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.
Because the Spirit has given this revelation to us about their singing, we know that He intends for us to profit from it. Does He want us to understand that their singing on this occasion was ungodly singing?
To answer this question, we note that the passage does not provide any record of an explicitly negative evaluation of the singing. The record, however, shows that from a distance the sound of the singing was not of such a nature that it would have led everyone who heard it to know definitively that it was the sound of singing.
We know that this is true because Joshua did not accurately interpret that sound that he was hearing as the sound of singing. For him, the sound was of such a character that he thought that the people were engaged in fighting a war (Exod. 32:17).
Moses, however, discerned correctly that the sound that they were hearing from a distance was the sound of singing (Exod. 32:18). Because the passage does not record any evaluative statements by Moses of the singing, we cannot determine its character from any direct statement by him.
In order to evaluate further the nature of the sound of the singing that Moses heard, we have to examine the passage more broadly. When we do so, we find that this singing did not take place until the people had first engaged in eating sacrifices that had been offered to the golden calf:
Exodus 32:6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
Because the Spirit says that the people “rose up to play” after they had consumed the sacrifices and then He reveals to us specifically that what the people did was to sing (Exod. 32:18) and dance (Exod. 32:19), we learn that their playing on this occasion consisted at least of their singing and dancing.
Based on Moses’ anger waxing hot when he saw the dancing (and the calf; Exod. 32:19), we know that their dancing was ungodly dancing. Was their singing also ungodly?
The NT answers that question by revealing the divine evaluation of their playing on this occasion:
1 Corinthians 10:7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
It is crucial to note that Paul writes that their idolatry included not just their eating and drinking those sacrifices but also their subsequent playing. This revelation tells us that their playing on that occasion was of a wicked, idolatrous nature and that God commands us through this revelation not to be idolatrous in that way.
Based on this NT revelation, we know that both their singing and dancing were of a wicked, idolatrous nature that God commands us not to engage in.
The sound that Joshua and Moses heard from a distance was the sound of people engaging in singing idolatrously—Exodus 32 is the record of an event featuring the sound of ungodly singing!
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
“Satisfied” by Clara T. Williams is a hymn that powerfully testifies to the satisfaction that knowing Jesus brings to the life of a believer. This PDF provides the first stanza, melody notes, and chord symbols for all the chords to play the song in the key of D.
If you are an advanced guitarist, play all the chords to this song. To make the song easier to play, play the chords as normal chords instead of playing them as slash chords (for example, play Em7 instead of Em7/D).
With this mp3 audio of the song, you can practice playing the chords while hearing the melody (there are 5 introductory beats before the song begins).
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
The Golden Calf Incident (GCI) is an infamous biblical account of idolatrous worship. Exodus 32 provides the lengthiest record of what took place on that occasion and informs us that both singing and dancing were part of their worship:
Exodus 32:18 And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.
Exodus 32:19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.
In spite of the record of their singing and dancing, many people believe that the lack of mention of musical instruments in any of the passages that record the GCI means that there were no musical instruments used in their worship at that time. Is it a reasonable position to hold that these people sang a cappella and danced “a musica”1?
After the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea and God had drowned Pharaoh and all his hosts, the Israelites sang praise to God for the deliverance that He had provided them (Exod. 15:1-19). Miriam then led all the women in singing and dancing that was accompanied by the playing of timbrels:
Exodus 15:20 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. 21 And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
Exodus 15 thus establishes an important precedent that the Israelites used musical instruments in corporate worship of God that included both singing and dancing. Because we know that the Israelites had at least timbrels and had used them prior to the GCI in worship that included both singing and dancing, we do not have any biblical basis to hold that the Israelites did not use at least timbrels in the GCI.
Allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture, there is no reasonable basis to hold that the GCI was an occasion of idolatrous worship where the people sang and danced without the use of any musical instruments. Exodus 32 is not a record of singing and dancing without the use of musical instruments.2
1 “A musica” is a term that I coined to signify when dancing is done without the use of musical instruments to accompany the dancing.
2 For more information about the Golden Calf Incident, see point #12 on this page.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
I recently read through Ezekiel and was again struck by what God said that He would do when He would judge Tyre:
Ezekiel 26:13 And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.
Based on conversations that I have had online with some other believers, it seems that the common interpretation of this text is that it is not revealing that there was anything bad or sinful about the music of Tyre; rather, the text communicates that God would bring to an end the enjoyment of music in Tyre.
I have never found this interpretation tenable. I think that there are at least the following four problems with it:
1. If the point of verse were that God would bring an end to their enjoyment of music when He would destroy them, why does the text elaborate by speaking of both their vocal music and their instrumental music instead of just saying that He would cause their music to end?
2. When a nation becomes wicked to the extent that God determines to destroy it, we do not have any good reason to think that their wickedness would not also express itself in what they sing, how they sing what they sing, what they play on musical instruments, and how they play what they play on those instruments.
3. In the immediately surrounding context of this statement, God’s judgment on many other nations surrounding His people is related, but none of the passages that relate His judgment of all those other nations speaks of His bringing their enjoyment of music to an end:
Ammonites (25:1-7); Moab & Seir (25:8-11); Edom (25:12-14); Philistines (25:15-17); Tyre (26:1-28:19); Sidon (28:20-26); Egypt (29:1-32:32)
Why is the cessation of music only said about the people of Tyre and not about any of the other nations that God was going to destroy at that time?
4. If the point is that destroying them will bring about the denial of their enjoyment of all good things, why does the passage mention explicitly both their vocal and instrumental musical activities instead of their art, dancing, literature, drama, sports, etc.? To put it differently, according to the denial-of-enjoyment-of-good-things view, how do you explain that the cessation of their music is specifically mentioned but there is no mention of the cessation of their enjoyment of any of these other cultural activities that people also enjoy?
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Ezekiel 26:13 And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.
Because God revealed that He would do this and inscripturated it, we can be certain that we are to consider what this statement reveals to us.
How does God want us to profit from this statement about what He would do to the sound of the harps of Tyre?
Here are some possibilities to consider:
God decreed that He would bring an end to the sound of their harps because . . .
1. The people of Tyre were ungodly people.
2. The people who were playing the harps were ungodly people.
3. The setting, purpose, motivation, etc. of the people who were playing the harps was ungodly.
4. The actual sounds of the music that was being produced by the harps were themselves ungodly.
What exegetical and theological principles do we use to determine whether God wants us to understand that one or more or all of these were true about His bringing the sound of the harps of Tyre to an end?
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Many Christians today are quite dismissive of testimonies from secular rock musicians and music authorities who have said that rock music is perverse music that should be rejected, especially by Christians in their ministries. These believers argue that unbelieving musicians and music authorities are unable to judge spiritual truth accurately concerning whether rock music is fit for use in ministry.
I have previously presented evidence from two passages that counters this dismissiveness by pointing out that lost people were reliably able to give testimonies about spiritual realities. Judges 7 provides additional evidence to hold that unbelieving people can accurately assess spiritual realities.
During the period of the judges who ruled over Israel, the Lord directed Gideon to be His deliverer of the Israelites from the Midianites (Judg. 7:7). To alleviate possible fearfulness on Gideon’s part to carry out this mission (Judg. 7:10), the Lord directed him and his servant to go and hear what certain men in the host of Midian would say (Judg. 7:10-11).
The record of this incident reveals that an unsaved man in the camp of the enemies of Israel remarkably interpreted the spiritual significance of a dream with striking accuracy:
Judges 7:13 And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along. 14 And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.
Observing what transpired, Gideon was moved to worship God for the testimony that he had received through these two lost people:
Judges 7:15 And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.
The biblical record of this incident is yet another passage that shows that lost people have given accurate testimonies to spiritual realities in spite of their being unbelievers. Just because people are unbelievers does not automatically invalidate anything that they say about the spiritual significance of any event or the spiritual fitness of any practice.
Christians should not dismiss the validity of testimonies by secular rock musicians and music authorities about the perverseness of rock music and its unfitness for use in Christian ministry simply because these authorities on music are unbelievers. Judges 7:13-14 and other passages provide evidence that doing so is not a right approach to such information.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Scripture warns true believers in many passages that they must not associate themselves closely with those who hate God. One of the most sobering warnings is found in the following account from the life of king Jehoshaphat:
2 Chronicles 19:1 And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. 2 And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD. 3 Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God.
Jehoshaphat was a true believer in the Lord, yet a prophet of God said to him that there was wrath on him from the Lord because he had helped the ungodly and loved those who hate the Lord.
The prophet also made known that at the same time as there was wrath on him from the Lord, there were yet good things found in him. This revelation warns us that true believers can have good things about them and yet be at the same time a source of great provocation to God.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
I had the privilege of preaching a message this past Sunday that treats extensively a glorious subject: The Biblical Importance of Music. I am very grateful for much positive feedback from brethren that God used the message to encourage and edify them greatly.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Rajesh Gandhi holds a Ph.D. in New Testament Interpretation from Bob Jones Seminary; he's a long-time member of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC.
