Would He devote that sacred headYou younguns, if you ever sang a hymn, might know the words slightly different.
For such a worm as I?
Would He devote that sacred headWe are witnessing an attack of the Self Esteem Police in this hymn. The old version is mocked as “Worm Theology” and is being eradicated. We are people, not worms. Calling ourselves worms is belittling and demeaning. God wants us to feel good about ourselves.
For sinners such as I?
“Worm Theology” is Biblical and should be acceptable. We only reject it because of our modern philosophy.
Today our culture has rejected “worm” for “sinner.” The church has gone along with the change. Already the attack is starting on “sinner.” The whole concept of sin is rejected in the heretical part of the emergent church. If we back off from one Biblical standard, rest assured that the forces of apostasy will push on to the next high point.
Another example I have come across is the song, “So Send I You.” Here are the original words of the first verse that I grew up on:
So send I you to labor unrewarded,The words you will find now are a little bit different. Again I give you the first verse:
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing–
So send I you to toil for Me alone.
So send I you-by grace made strong to triumphYou can find both sets of lyrics on line. The point of view is totally different. The first is the original. In this case the second was also written and revised by the original author.
O'er hosts of hell, o'er darkness, death, and sin,
My name to bear, and in that name to conquer-
So send I you, my victory to win.
We also need to be aware of the Gender Police. Sunday I lead the singing using my guitar. My daughter said that the words I sang were different from what the hymnal had in one place. I thought I had them straight out of the hymnal, but such was not to be. In the second verse of “O How He Loves You and Me” the old words I had were “His love for mankind to show.” Guess what the problem is. Right. Mankind is not politically correct today so they had changed it to “sinners.” Theologically correct but not the way it was originally written.
Obviously some change is good. Some is required, but too much of the change we see is in response to philosophies that are not based on Bible truth. They are based on old pagan lies. I came across an interesting verse in my study of Proverbs.
(Proverbs 24:21 NASB) My son, fear the LORD and the king; Do not associate with those who are given to change,The problem is not “change” but being “given to change.” Don’t believe the label that says “new and improved.” Some things cannot be improved on.
homo unius libri
To slightly misuse (and maybe misquote) a verse from Ecclesiastes to comment on modern theology, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.”
ReplyDeleteI once had a professor who said that everyone defined original sin in terms of their own weakness. I guess that might be one way to define vanity. It certainly is a motivator. I sometimes think the tendency to blog is all vanity.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Grace and peace.
Greetings from Wordwise Hymns.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the modern trend is to shy away from a recognition of just how weak and unworthy we are before God. And the word "worm" conveys that. David called himself a worm (Ps. 22:6), and the Lord called Israel a worm (Isa. 41:14).
However, I don't think you can label the late Margaret Clarkson as "anti-worm." I met her, years ago--she was born and raised not far from where I'm living now. She came across as a strong and no-nonsense person.
Miss Clarkson wrote the second hymn not to cancel out the first, but to provide some balance. Yes, there are painful hardships to face in the service of Christ, but there is also His sustaining grace, and great reward.
Thanks for the clarification. I agree on sustaining grace. The key word is balance. My fear is that the culture, and by not reading Romans 12:1-2, the church, is going in the wrong direction.
ReplyDeleteKeep me straight.
Grace and peace.