Hymns that sound Gnostic (tradition, Gospel, church, Revelation)

[OzzyRules]

Do you think some traditional hymns sound more Gnostic?

One example is the song "He Lives". (You ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart.)

Do you think some of these hymn writers had a different belief than the traditional one? Maybe some churchgoing believers have a different belief than what most people view from the outside.

Whoa! After I started this post, I looked up the song in Wikipedia and found this interesting fact:
"The hymn discusses the experience claimed by Christians that Jesus Christ lives within their hearts. It is disliked or excluded by some conservative evangelicals, on the grounds that the appeal to experience is less reliable than the words of scripture and can lead to heresy."

[pcamps]

Yes i do. This hymn is an all time favorite of mine since first hearing it in the late 80's

“Within the Veil“: be this, belov’d, thy portion,
Within the secret of thy Lord to dwell;
Beholding Him, until thy face His glory,
Thy life His love, thy lips His praise shall tell.
2
“Within the Veil,” for only as thou gazest
Upon the matchless beauty of His face,
Canst thou become a living revelation
Of His great heart of love, His untold grace.
3
“Within the Veil,” His fragrance poured upon thee,
Without the Veil, that fragrance shed abroad;
“Within the Veil,” His hand shall tune the music
Which sounds on earth the praises of Thy Lord.
4
“Within the Veil,” thy spirit deeply anchored,
Thou walkest calm above a world of strife;
“Within the Veil,” thy soul with Him united,
Shall live on earth His resurrection life.

F H Allen

[Arach Angle]

Originally Posted by OzzyRules

Do you think some traditional hymns sound more Gnostic?

One example is the song "He Lives". (You ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart.)

Do you think some of these hymn writers had a different belief than the traditional one? Maybe some churchgoing believers have a different belief than what most people view from the outside.

Whoa! After I started this post, I looked up the song in Wikipedia and found this interesting fact:
"The hymn discusses the experience claimed by Christians that Jesus Christ lives within their hearts. It is disliked or excluded by some conservative evangelicals, on the grounds that the appeal to experience is less reliable than the words of scripture and can lead to heresy."

Gnostic means knowing not to take religion literally. Using the notion of proteins and memes and you can have Jesus rise. It's just that it would make Jesus "bigger" and the literalist can't understand that.

so living the "Jesus perspective", otherwise stated as in the heart, is most certainly valid.

I am worried that when we "raise people from the dead" they will claim "see, we can, so Jesus did."

[Vizio]

Originally Posted by OzzyRules

Do you think some traditional hymns sound more Gnostic?

One example is the song "He Lives". (You ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart.)

I would not suggest this song is gnostic. Eph 3:17 says that Christ dwells in our hearts through faith. It's also been a long tradition for people to share the Gospel by saying "Invite Jesus into your heart", although that is not necessarily theologically correct.

Do you think some of these hymn writers had a different belief than the traditional one? Maybe some churchgoing believers have a different belief than what most people view from the outside.

Whoa! After I started this post, I looked up the song in Wikipedia and found this interesting fact:
"The hymn discusses the experience claimed by Christians that Jesus Christ lives within their hearts. It is disliked or excluded by some conservative evangelicals, on the grounds that the appeal to experience is less reliable than the words of scripture and can lead to heresy."

The idea of Jesus living in our hearts is kind of a newer idea. The apostles didn't really teach that we would "invite him in". So yes--the song has some potential theological issues. There are also other hymns that may express things in some ways that may agree with one theological tradition more than another. Of course, they reflect the religious views of the writer.

[OzzyRules]

"God rest ye merry, gentlemen" is another.

I started looking at a lot of Christmas songs this same way this past holiday season. They are often just expressing things found in the Bible. They don't necessarily try to make theological assumptions. Sometimes they are just elements in a story, but that certainly doesn't require that the story be a literal one. It may just be a fable within the Bible.

For example "save us all from Satan's power" in this song could refer to the attacks which are created entirely by our own minds, and are referred to symbolically as Satan. It doesn't have to be a conservative interpretation (even though most listeners would probably hear it that way).

[Arach Angle]

remember logistics too. The words have to match the song. So they would most certainly change words to fit the song without changing the meaning too much. Well, to a non literalist anyway.

[OzzyRules]

Another one I like is "In the Garden" with this chorus:

And He walks with me and He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known