What a gift from the American Minute; Check it out below. But one quick share: As many of you know, I have a love for the study of Christian Apologetics, and within that, are arguments for the existence of God. Here is one since we are on the topic of Bach here:
“The Argument from Aesthetic Experience (*)
There is the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Therefore, there must be a God. // You either get this one or you don’t” lol // (*) – from “The Pocket Handbook of Christian Apologetics” by Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli – pg. 27 – ISBN-13 reference #: 978-0-8308-2702-2. (highly recommended by Jimmy)
American Minute with Bill FedererJohann Sebastian Bach & the Bible -“In devotional music, God is always present with His grace”
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenbach, Germany, on MARCH 21, 1685, the youngest of eight children. He had three siblings die, then in 1694, his mother died. Eight months later his father died. Christened at St. George’s Church, he attended St. George’s Parochial Latin School, where he sang in the choir, just as Martin Luther had over a century earlier. Read as PDF …
In 1521, 37-year-old Martin Luther, on his way to hiding after the Edit of Worms, stopped to preach in St. George’s Church before being sequestered in the nearby Wartburg Castle.
The orphaned 10-year-old Bach moved in with his older brother, Johann Christoph Bach, who was the organist at St. Michael’s Church in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Johann Sebastian Bach sang in the choir, in addition to playing the organ and harpsichord. At 18, he became a church organist, then held positions in several cities and royal courts.
While serving as cantor at Thomas Church of Leipzig,Bach taught Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. In 1717, Bach was imprisoned for a month in Wemiar because he fell out of favor with the Duke, who did not want him employed elsewhere. He was then employed by Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen to be director of music. The prince was Calvinist and did not use elaborate music in worship, so much of Bach composing during this time was secular court music, including orchestral suites, cello suites, sonatas and partitas for solo violin, cantatas, and formal dance music.
In 1724, Bach wrote the sacred oratorio St. John Passion, based on chapters 18 and 19 of the Gospel of John in Martin Luther’s German translation of Bible. In 1727, Bach wrote the sacred oratorio “Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Evangelist Matthew,” based on chapters 26 and 27 of Luther’s Bible.
Bach’s “Saint Matthew Passion” was performed in 1829 in Berlin by 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn, the grandson of the famous Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.
Widowed with 7 children, he remarried and had 13 more. Considered the “master of masters,” Johann Sebastian Bach’s works not only exhibit mastery of musical composition, but also reveal his devout relationship with God.
His works include: Gott ist mein König (God is my King); Jesus, Meine Freude (Jesus, My Joy!); Christen, ätzet diesen Tag (Christians, engrave this day); O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden (O Sacred Head, Now Wounded); Christen, ätzet diesen Tag (Christians, engrave this day); Easter Oratorio; Magnificat; and Christmas Oratorio.
Bach wrote more than 300 sacred cantatas, including: Christ lag in Todes Banden (Christ lay in death’s bonds); Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God’s Time is the very best Time); Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers Awake); and Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem (Behold, let us go up to Jerusalem).
In the 1730s-1740s, Bach wrote two versions of a magnificent thirty-minute cantata, with four-voice choral and instrumental harmonization of Martin Luther’s most famous hymn “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (A mighty fortress is our God): A mighty fortress is our God,A bulwark never failing: Our helper He, amid the floodOf mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foeDoth seek to work his woe; His craft and power are great,And armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide,Our striving would be losing; Were not the right Man on our side,The Man of God’s own choosing. Dost ask who that may be?Christ Jesus, it is he; Lord Sabaoth is his name,From age to age the same, And He must win the battle.
One of Bach’s orchestrations, Tocata y Fuga, was used in the opening of Walt Disney’s movie Fantasia.
In “The Story of Mankind,” 1921, Hendrik Willem van Loon wrote: “By the middle of the 18th century the musical life of Europe was in full swing. Then there came forward a man who was greater than all others, a simple organist of the St. Thomas Church of Leipzig, by the name of Johann Sebastian Bach …
… In his compositions for every known instrument … to the most stately of sacred hymns and oratorios, he laid the foundation for all our modern music. When he died in the year 1750, he was succeeded musically by Mozart, then Ludwig van Beethoven.”
Bach’s library was catalogued after his death. Prominent on the list of books was “Calovii Schriften,” a three-volume Bible with commentary notes written by Lutheran theologian Abraham Calovius.
Bach’s“Calovi Schriften”Bible came with German immigrants to Philadelphia, where it was purchased in the 1830s by the Reichle family, who moved to Frankenmuth, Michigan. In June of 1934, the Missouri Synod of the American Lutheran Church held a meeting in Frankenmuth, Michigan. Attending was Lutheran minister Rev. Christian G. Riedel.
He stayed at the farmhouse of his cousin, Leonard Reichle, who showed him a volume of the Bible. Rev. Riedel immediately noticed Bach’s signature, and they searched and found the two other volumes in his attic. Leonard Reichle donated them to Concordia Seminary Library in St. Louis, Missouri, in October 1938.
The Bible contains hundreds of underlines and margin notes in Bach’s handwriting.