Dancing With the Devil
Michael E. Grooms
Introduction:
A. Mention “prom dress” on display in store
B. The retail world is marketing to our youth to get ready for the prom
C. I want to market to our youth also: to get ready to make the right decision about the prom
1. Not marketing “my opinion”
2. Please open your mind to consider God’s Word on the subject
I. The Appeal of School Dances and the Prom
A. That “special” feeling
1. Dressing up in a nice gown or tuxedo
2. “Fixing up” hair and wearing special jewelry for girls
3. Opportunity to ‘ask out” that special girl for guys
4. Renting a limousine
5. What makes a person special? 1Tim. 2:8-10; (Women) Prov. 31: 10, 30
B. Social Acceptance
C. A mark of “growing up”
II. What Does God Want?
A. He wants us to be sanctified 2 Cor. 6:17, 18
1. The world does not set our standard!
2. “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom. 6:2)
B. He wants us to be holy 1 Peter 1: 16,17
C. He wants us to avoid things that defile us Mark 7:20-23
1. What we do is a reflection of who we are
2. The pure heart avoids those actions, places, or associations that would harm ones spirituality
III. The Modern Dance is a Work of the Flesh That Defiles
A. Galatians 5:19-21 uses three words that condemn the modern dance.
1. Those who participate in the modern dance are guilty of “lasciviousness.”
a. Wanton, lewd, lustful--tending to produce lewd emotions; (Webster).
b. "Indecent bodily movements, unchaste handling of males and females" (Thayer's Greek Lexicon).
2. Those who participate in the modern dance are guilty of “revelings.”
a. The word primarily means "the all-night festivals in which men and women were drinking, dancing,
and carrying on as they do today at our night clubs, dance halls, and road houses".
b. "Revelry,” a feast with noisy merrymaking, with dances or other forms of entertainment" (Twentieth
Century Dictionary).
c. "Entertainment provided as dances, usually a party or ball, the dance, a social assembly of persons
of both sexes with purpose to dance" (Webster).
3. “...and such like”
a. Whatever lasciviousness and revelings leave out, "and such like" includes.
b. Anything unchristian.
c. Paul wrote, "Abstain from all appearance of evil" (I Thess. 5:22).
d. By these simple definitions, the Bible does condemn the modern dance.
B. A closer look at “lasciviousness”
1. The Greek word is aselgia, defined by Thayer as "unbridled lust...wanton acts or manners
(including) filthy words, indecent bodily movements, unchaste handling of males and females"
2. The English word lascivious is defined "exciting sexual desires; salacious"
3. Anything which excites the lust of the flesh (words, bodily movements, unchaste handling) is sinful
a. This applies to the stirring up of sexual desires and sensual pleasures outside the bond of marriage
b. The excitement of lust between those not married is sinful, condemned by Jesus in Mt 5:28
c. It is wrong to lust for another person, it is therefore wrong to do things to cause lust
IV. The Modern Dance is Recognized By Non-Christians as Lustful
A. "The popular teen-age dances of the mid20th century have no set steps; the dancers respond spontaneously
to the beat of the musicians. The degree of satisfaction attained by young people "twisting" or "shaking" to
the blare of amplified music in dance halls, further enlivened by psychedelic lighting, is different from the pleasure
derived by their elders waltzing to the `Blue Danube' - but it is only a difference of age and time. Fundamentally,
both age groups are enjoying the pleasure of dancing in their own way...The end product is doubtless the same –
physical pleasure in the activity of dancing and sexual awareness of a partner, whether embraced or half-
consciously observed." - Encyclopedia Britannica, "The Art Of Dance", Vol. 5, p. 455-456 (1979 edition)
B. "...The social dance has usually been the result of joint physical exuberance and sex stimuli..." - Collier's
Encyclopedia, "Dance", Vol. 7, p. 683 (1964 edition)
C. "Another motive for the dance is the sexual motive - the dance has always been used as a means of
expressing sexual desire and as a means of wooing...We find this same sex motive in the modern ballroom dance, which has now degenerated into dull and stupid forms, but it is a legitimate opportunity for contact." - Dance We Must (1938, reprinted 1950), p. 6 (from a series of lectures given by Ted Shawn at George Peabody College For Teachers)
D. "All ballroom dancing in pairs looks toward intercourse. In this respect the Puritans were dead right....The
development of no-contact dances has come about because one doesn't now need a social excuse to embrace a girl, but as an excitant it need not involve contact at all - in fact, dances like flamenco or the twist are far more erotic than a clinch because you aren't too close to see one another. At its best this sort of dance is simply intercourse by remote control." - The Joy Of Sex, Alex Comfort, p. 162 (1972)
E. "No man who is sober dances, unless he is out of his mind, either when alone or in any decent society, for dancing is the companion of wanton conviviality, dissoluteness, and luxury." – The Roman orator Cicero, New Unger's Bible Dictionary
Conclusion:
A. Satan has marketed to appeal to your desires
C. God appeals for your holiness
D. Will you walk with God…or dance with the Devil?