THE MODERN DANCE

By: Michael Tao


Different churches have different teachings on the issue of dancing. In the Bible there are no direct commandments about dancing, but there are records of dancing.

When there is no direct teaching on certain issue, the truth is always preserved in certain Bible characters or in the Bible principles. New Testament puts more emphasis on the principles, while the Old Testament the examples, 2 Peter 1:21 says, "For the prophecy came not in old times by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost", Romans 15:4 says, "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope", and 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works". All scripture includes Old and New Testament, and both of them are able to teach people; what is right which is doctrine; what is not right which is reproof; how to get right which is correction; and how to stay right which is instruction.

There are two kinds of dancing in the Bible:

1. One is acceptable unto God.

a. During King David's reign, when the Ark was returned back to the tabernacle from Philistines after God's intervention, David was in an extremely joyful state that he "danced before the Lord with all his might" (2 Samual 6:13-15) which is to jump, leap for joy. And when his wife Michal "saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart"(v16). What happened to Michal's dispising attitude was that she"had no child unto the day of her death"(v23). God approved King David's joyful dance.

b. When the prodigal son return to his father, there was "music and dancing"(Luke 15:25), dancing was a social activity for the Jewish women and girls(Exodus 15:20, Judges 21:21). Although not mentioned in the Mosaic law, men did the religious dancing in certain ceremonies by stepping around a circle with very little other movements. Men did not dance with the women in any occasions. There is no scriptural record that the men danced with the women, nor is there any indication that there were female dancers that performed in front of men.

c. "A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance"(Eccl 3:4). When the Hebrews were merry, the females would dance among themselves, occasionally men might dance too, but only with the same sex and in a group format.

2. The other kind is the dance with seduction and temptation in nature, which lead men into ungodly imagination, and even sin afterwards.

a. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the stone tablets, "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"(Exodus 32:19). This is the sensual kind of dancing, men danced with women, actually they were in the middle of the sinful sexual act, and they did this before the gold calf as a worship to it.

b. Herodias's daughter danced at her step father's sensual birthday feast for the purpose of pleasing him and his guests(Matthew 14:6), it is the dance introduced to the Jewish people under the corrupt Greek influence in the name of "art". It was done with a female dancer before men, which is never God's will and this dance cost the life of John the Baptist.

There are two types of dance today:

1. Quick type: man with woman, they move, shake and wriggle one's body in front of each other by following the beats of the music, and certainly Rock 'n Roll music is one of the most popular ones. Rock 'n Roll is not an godly type of music, even the Rolling Stones admitted that their music is the music of the devil in 1991 at their Vancouver concert, and they boasted they were going to give out free condoms "particularly for the young girls under the age of 13". With a mind of Christ, we can judge that these people have a filthy and correct mind, and their music is promoting the same. However the Rolling Stone Band was formed about 20 some years ago; their costumes, music type and performance when compared with many other groups, are fairly mild. Most of the R'nR music players, if not all of them, live a very morally corrupt life, they practise chemical abuse, adultery, sex perversion, violence, abnormal behavior, antisocial behavior, hatred, ill-temper, immorality, devil worship, occultism, nudity, indecent costumes and certainly profane speech. Their music is composed under the influence of illegal drugs; and they have no shame in telling you about this, because without doing this they are unable to compete in the market. Rock n' Roll music players also have one thing in common: they die prematurely, that is because their abuse of their health, and also God 's judgment is upon them.

Listening to their music is to open our heart into their devilish influence:. Music with heavy beats stirs up the impetuosity in man; in ancient time the warriors used drums to arouse the blood-thirst instinct before going into battles. The content of the R' n R' music is no doubt a promotion of the devilish life-style of the composers and singers that live. Yet men and women, boys and girls dwell in the R'nR' music at all times. The same popular Rap music or light Rock music are basically a milder form of Rock 'n Roll, they prepare the heart of our precious young schoolers so that they will have no problem in accepting the Rock 'n Roll in the future. People can so easily get addicted to this type of music because things of the flesh please the heart of the flesh (John 3:6).

When the Bible teaches "keep your heart with all diligence; for our of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23), to open our heart gate into the devil's music and support them by buying their unclean products, without obeying God's commandment to guard our heart is definitely unwise.

Christians have to understand not all the activities carried out in a social format are acceptable unto God, we have to seek God's will, and please God and not men (Galatians 1:10). We should not be embarrassed if we refuse to follow the crowd to do things that are displease our God Almighty. The world is looking for an answer in life, God has put emptiness in mankind so that they will look for the ultimate answer. We, Christian are the ones that have the only true answer, that is our Lord Jesus Christ. We should never compromise with the world to cause confusion, and give Satan a chance to accuse us. The world is always keeping an eye on Christians' behavior, we need to keep our testimonies.

2. Slow type: men with women have various degrees of physical contact, following the beats of the music, under the influence of the emotional, worldly rhythm, saturated in the melody; man with woman, making slow steps is not for the glory of God. Most of these slow music are so-called love or romantic music, they describe and encourage the illicit relationship; they attack the sacredness of marriage, when marriage is the only God ordained relationship between man and woman. God wants man to have no contact with any woman unless she is his wife, he wants us to be pure. God definitely does not want us to have any imagination with sexual content, outside the confines of marriage no matter what the world says: "Cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5). Our heart can betray us long before we know it (Jeremiah 17:9), it is much easier to guard our heart with all diligence than to repent afterwards.

What about school dance?

They use the same type of music as the world does. The school systems are part of the world and not everything they teach or do have to be biblically right. Through school dances, schools are actually guiding their students into ungodly feelings, ungodly relationship. It is one of the reasons why the immorality, misconducts in the schools are so prevalent today. When the schools are doing or supporting the worldly things, yet they expect the young ones to exercise right judgment, and will power to retain purity during temptations. This is asking for something impossible.

The schools are motivated by the society to prepare the students to be socially active, to have a boarder scope of life so that they could have admirable futures, good quality of life, happy marriages, successful careers, and adorable interpersonal relationships, etc. they start from the foundation of humanism, which is a shaky foundation

But What does the Bible teach?

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; all these things shall be added unto you"(Matthew 6:33). With God, we do not have to follow the crowd to get what the crowd wants to get. All we have to do is to seek his righteousness - we love God so much for what he has done for us, to an extent that we are willing to obey his Words; John 14:15 it says "if you love me, keep my commandments".God is not convinced that we love him until there is outward and visible obedience.

We really do not have to date different people so that we can make a choice for our marriage. God will show that person to us in His own way, His own time frame; guided by the work of the Holy Spirit and confirmed by His Word repeatedly - so that we cannot miss him or her. The same principle applied to all things in our life, all we have to do is to love God: not just with our heart, but also with "all thy might" (Deuteronomy 6:5), or "with all thy strength" (Luke 10:27). Then He will line up things in our life, for the best of our benefits, and with our consent, this is a faithful promise from God to men.