What if...

[petrafreak2009]

This is the game you can play to say what if something. In this case, let's talk about Petra. You can make up your own or comment someone else's. Mine is What if... Greg X. Volz never left Petra. I think that God would have led John Schlitt to start his solo early and God would have given John the ideas behind Back to the Street, This Means War, On Fire!, Petra Praise 1, Beyond Belief, Unseen Power, Shake, Unfit for Swine, God Fixation, Revival, Jekyll and Hyde, and The Grafting in that order. I believe the CD's for Petra would have included Greg X. Volz's own solo albums, though with God giving BOB the ideas for ...More Power to Ya, Beat the System, The River is Rising, Come Out Fighting, No Room in the Middle, The Exodus, Wake Up Call, No Doubt, We Need Jesus, Breakout Praise, Ready or Not...Here He Comes, Let the Victor's In, The Next Sphere, In God's Presence, No Greater Love, Vertical Expressions, O' Holy Night in that order.

[Shell]

Yeah, eveyone loves the "Dream Team". John, Bob, Greg Bailey and Paul were good too, and so was the lineup of Greg, Louie, Mark Kelly, Johnny L. and Bob. John Slick, Quinton, Bryce, Trent, Pete and Justin were all good too.

[RockOn]

What if EVERYONE from EVERY era of Petra came together for a SUPER REUNION? Sell DVDs and CDs of the concert with songs from EVERY era included!

Maybe even bring back Wayne Seboa to promote the thing...
mmmm...MAYBE NOT!

[Jonathan]

The Big Bubba? Nice.

What if Beat The System was released in 1991?

[brent]

What if EVERYONE from EVERY era of Petra came together for a SUPER REUNION? Sell DVDs and CDs of the concert with songs from EVERY era included!

Maybe even bring back Wayne Seboa to promote the thing...
mmmm...MAYBE NOT!

It will never happen. It could have happened at the last DVD shoot. It didn't.

BTW, I love it when bands prove me wrong, and would welcome it in this case. But odds are on my side unfortunately.

[Preacherman777]

I think that God would have led John Schlitt to start his solo early and God would have given John the ideas behind Back to the Street, This Means War, On Fire!, Petra Praise 1, Beyond Belief, Unseen Power, Shake, Unfit for Swine, God Fixation, Revival, Jekyll and Hyde, and The Grafting in that order. I believe the CD's for Petra would have included Greg X. Volz's own solo albums, though with God giving BOB the ideas for ...More Power to Ya, Beat the System, The River is Rising, Come Out Fighting, No Room in the Middle, The Exodus, Wake Up Call, No Doubt, We Need Jesus, Breakout Praise, Ready or Not...Here He Comes, Let the Victor's In, The Next Sphere, In God's Presence, No Greater Love, Vertical Expressions, O' Holy Night in that order.

I highly doubt that would have happened. We must understand that music is not inspired by God. People who write music can take their inspiration from God or from the Bible, but when we say that something is inspired by God, this is what we say of scripture and this is what is true of scripture. So to think that somebodies songs are inspired of God is to place them on the same level as scripture and that is a theological no no.

Having said that, it really comes down to the question of whether John, taking is inspiration from God and the Bible, had the talent and abilities to write the kind of songs that Bob wrote. I doubt that. John is a singer and a little bit of a writer, but there is a reason that God used Bob as the primary writer for Petra.

The other question is whether Bob would have wrote the kind of music that Greg did as a solo act, had Greg remained with Petra. Again, I doubt it. Some of it may have seen the light of day since Greg does write some songs here and there, but primarily, I believe the themes and concepts that Bob wrote about over the next 20 years would have remained pretty much the same, though the style of music probably would have been a bit different.

[petrafreak2009]

I'm going to have to correct you. What a CHRISTIAIN does should be inspired by God. If you shoot someone tommorrow, that's NOT inspired by God. But if you write a song that ends up saving a Billy Graham number of people, that's a GOD thing. Man can't save you. Only the blood of the lamb and the music of praise(any genre that sings his glory) can save someone. The words touch someone's heart, because they come from... the LORD!!! You need to have your heart inspected if you think it's not of God.

[charl]

God uses means. This doesn't mean they are "Divinely Inspired" in the stricter sense. This is a term reserved for his direct revelation of himself recorded in scripture.

That reminds me of the purgatorio post Signs You Shouldn't Lead Worship Anymore: when someone in your congregation presents you with a song they've written saying "God gave me this song", you reply "can you give it back?"

Thanks for making me think of that.

[sue d.]

Hehehe... good one Charl.

I've gotten a number of cassettes (not CDs) and hand-written lyrics on scratch paper, all saying the same thing - "God gave me this music to give to John to use."

Ummmm..... 'Thank you very much. I'll make sure he gets it."
And he gets it. What he does after that - I don't want to know!

[Preacherman777]

I'm going to have to correct you. What a CHRISTIAIN does should be inspired by God.

No. A Christian should be moved by the Spirit of God to do godly things, based on the word of God, which is God's only infallible revelation to man. But when God inspires something, it becomes sacred and holy. This is why scripture is scripture. You may want to study what it actually took for a writing to be declared as scripture.

Charl and Sue made good points about people who write songs and say God gave me this song. God may have put into someones heart to write about a subject and may have given that person a gift or talent to write about that subject effectively, (thus the result of being effective for salvation) but inspiration is a much bigger word than you seem to think it is.

People who believe that God inspires the things they write have been responsible for much error in the modern church and to no small degree virtually every cult and heresy which has challenged orthodoxy.

[petrafreak2009]

Once again, you miss the picture. You sound like the anti-Petra fan's of the 70's and early 00's. You doubt what God can do. Yes, Scripture is the big thing, but the words of the songs come from him. Sermons come from the Lord, because they are of Christ. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Christian songs contain this same Word in its theology. You can also use that verse against a person whose against the Trinity. It goes with Genesis verses that say "God spoke" That means Christ is who God used to create this Universe. Words come out when you speak, but God's Word was different. I say that to say this, anything that is Christian SHOULD come from inspiration of the Word. If not, it's just man's opinion. That's why I appreciate all the Christian bands that put Scriptures with the song titles.

[Preacherman777]

Now what MatthewRJ said makes sense, but it's a far cry from what Petrafreak suggested. The suggestion was that the albums from Petra could have been duplicated in a John solo career and the albums of Volz could have been duplicated in Petra had he stayed on. This suggests that those songs are not just blessed by God or by the spiritual presence of Christ, but that they are rather word for word and note for note directly received from God, and that can be nothing short of direct in inspiration.

Christian songs contain this same Word in its theology.

They most certainly do not. Jesus is the "Word" and the "Word" is God. Scripture is a direct revelation of the "Word", but scripture is not God. We call it the word but that is in reference to it being the "Word" revealed to us in print. Since it is the "Word" of God revealed to us, it is sacred, holy and infallible. This is not the case with Christian songs and therefore they are testaments to the "Word" and therefore, they may be blessed for that, but they are not the "Word" for not even scripture itself is the "Word." The "Word" is part of trinity and scripture is not a part of the trinity. If you don't understand this, you may want to study some theology.

[petrafreak2009]

Preacherman, I'm afraid we'll have to agree to disagree. The Bible says to stray away from arguements, so therefore get off of it and give your "What if" or go to a different post.

[Preacherman777]

so therefore get off of it and give your "What if" or go to a different post.

God bless you too.

[petrafreak2009]

I really wasn't trying to be mean. I was just tired of trying to explain that belief I have about music. You have your belief about it, however, I too have considered what you talked about and came to the conclusion I did. What upset me was that it seemed you were TOTALLY against what I believed and there was NO possible way it could be true. Not to give a sob story, but I'm facing a rather hard time in my life. The world seems to be against me. I'm about to turn 18 and I live with my guardians and it will soon be time to decide to allow them to adopt me and change my name. Also, I've been accused of stalking and harassing my ex-girlfriend, which is COMPLETELY UNTRUE. I was sent to the principal's office yesterday, and it took everything I had to get him to believe me. Please pray for me about this if you would. It's a teacher at my school who happens to be her dad who's the one accussing me. I need your prayers bad. It's not a mid-life crisis per say. Can't really describe it other than that. God bless you.