The Moral Dangers of Popular & Contemporary Christian Music

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The Transformational Power of Contemporary Worship Music | Music | Way of Life Literature Inc.

The Transformational Power of Contemporary Worship Music
Dec/08/11 14:21 Filed in: Music

The following written report is available in audio visual format as one of the titles in the video series MUSIC FOR GOOD OR EVIL. This was published in July 2011 as a replacement for previous presentations we have produced on this subject. The series is packed with graphics, video and audio clips. It has seven segments. I. Biblical Principles of Good Christian Music. We cover the following eight principles: Good Christian Music is for Christians and for the Lord. It is holy. It emphasizes melody. It is Christ-centered. It flows from a submissive attitude. It is separate from the world. It creates vigilance and sobriety. It is doctrinally pure and theologically precise. II. Why We Reject Contemporary Christian Music. In this section we give eight reasons for rejecting CCM: It is worldly, addictive, ecumenical, charismatic, shallow and man-centered, opposed to preaching, experience-oriented, and weakens the strong biblicist stance of a church. III. The Sound of Contemporary Christian Music. The goal of this section is to give the believer some simple tools that he can use to discern the difference between sensual and sacred music. We deal with the following four musical styles that are not fitting for good Christian music: 1. Syncopated dance styles, including the back beat, the off beat, the break beat, and the anticipated beat. 2. Sensual vocal styles (the whispery/breathy style and scooping/sliding). 3. Relativistic styles (deceptive chord cadence). 4. Overly soft styles that do not fit the message. IV. Transformational Power of CCM. This presentation answers the question why CCM is able to transform a “traditional” Bible-believing church to a New Evangelical one. It’s transformational power resides in its enticing philosophy of “liberty” and in its sensual, addictive music. V. Southern Gospel. Here we deal with the history of Southern Gospel, going back to the turn of the 20th century, to show how that Southern Gospel became an entertainment business. We also deal with the current status of Southern Gospel, the powerful influence of Bill Gaither, and the close association between Southern Gospel today and Contemporary Christian Music. VI. Marks of Good Song Leading. In this presentation we cover eight principles of good song leading: Leadership, preparation, edification, spirituality, truth and spiritual discernment, enthusiasm and a positive attitude, wisdom, and liberty and diversity. VII. Questions Answered on Contemporary Christian Music. Here we deal with 15 of the most common questions on this subject: 1. Do you mean that Christians should only use old music? 2. Is rhythm wrong? 3. Isn’t this issue just a matter of different taste? 4. Isn’t the sincerity of the musicians the important thing? 5. Isn’t some CCM acceptable? 6. Why does traditional church music seem dull? 7. Didn’t Luther use tavern music? 8. Didn’t the Wesleys use tavern music? 9. What is the difference between using CCW and using old interdenominational hymns? 10. Doesn’t the Bible encourage us to use cymbals and loud sounding instruments? 11. Why are you opposed to drums? 12. What is wrong with “soft rock”? 13. Didn’t God create all music? 14. Since God looks on the heart, why are you concerned about appearance? 15. Since kids today aren’t listening to traditional Christian music, shouldn’t we use rock to reach them? 4 DVDs or video downloads available from the Way of Life web site -- Fundamental Baptist Publishing Ministry of David Cloud

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This report on the transformational power of contemporary praise music could be titled “The Road from Fundamental Baptist to Emerging” or “The Path from Fundamental Baptist to the Broader Church.”

This is an hour of great change. Over the past 15-20 years, many formerly fundamental Baptist churches have rejected separatism and have converted to New Evangelical rock & roll entertainment centers. We have documented this in the book Biblical Separatism and Its Collapse among Fundamental Baptists, which is available in print or eBook formats from Way of Life. It is available as a free eBook via the link along the right side of the front page of the Way of Life web site.

In this book we have given the examples of GARBC; BBFI; ABWE; Thomas Road Baptist Church of Lynchburg, Virginia; Landmark Baptist Church of Cincinnati, Ohio; Akron Baptist Temple of Akron, Ohio; New Testament Baptist Church of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Temple Baptist Church of Detroit, Michigan; Southside Baptist Church of Greenville, SC; Highland Park Baptist Church of Chattanooga, Tennessee; Southwide Baptist Fellowship; Cedarville University; Joyful Woman magazine, and others.

Consider Akron Baptist, which was founded in 1935 by Dallas Billington. From the 1940s to the 1960s it had one of the largest Sunday morning crowds in the nation. In those days it was a typical Independent Baptist church, very conservative in music and dress, committed to the King James Bible, and aggressive in evangelism and world missions. Upon the death of Dallas in 1972, his son Charles assumed the pastorate. In 1996, Dallas’ grandson Dallas R. Billington became pastor, and took the church in a contemporary direction. Today, Akron Baptist Temple is an emerging church with a “traditional service” called The Temple and a raunchy contemporary service called The Bridge. The church offers a smorgasbord of worship “experiences.” It’s all about my tastes and my choices. In The Bridge a loud rock & roll band plays 7/11 (seven words sung 11 times) contemporary worship music in a darkened auditorium. The service is advertised as “creating an environment where people who are seeking God, can do so in a non-threatening, comfortable way.” It is oriented toward “experiencing God,” which is the charismatic mystical approach to worship.

This type of transformation is happening widely. Everywhere I travel I hear of another example

The adaptation of contemporary worship music is certainly not the only factor in these dramatic transformations, but it is at the very heart and soul of the changes. I am convinced that it is spiritual lukewarmness and carnality and a love for the world that allows the CCM to enter; but the CCM acts within that atmosphere as a powerful transformational agent to carry the congregation far from its original principles.

CCM movers and shakers know that their music is transformative.

Don Moen, formerly the leader of Integrity Music, one of the biggest distributors of contemporary worship music, says: “I’ve discovered that worship music is transdenominational, transcultural. IT BRIDGES ANY DENOMINATION. Twenty years ago there were many huge divisions between denominations. Today the walls are coming down.”

In fact, they are actively targeting “old-fashioned” churches to move them into the “broader church.”

There are TRANSITION SONGS and BRIDGE SONGS designed to move “traditional” churches along the contemporary path toward Christian rock. From the perspective of the CCM artists involved in this, they aren’t doing anything sinister. They are simply trying to “feed” the “broader church.” But from a fundamentalist Bible-believing position, the effect is to draw “old-fashioned” Bible churches into the contemporary orb, and that is most sinister.

Bridge songs include “How Deep the Father's Love for Us” by Stuart Townend and “In Christ Alone” by Townend and Keith Getty.

These songs tend to be doctrinally sound and hymn-like (soft rock ballad style as opposed to out-and-out rock & roll), so they are considered “safe” by undiscerning churches.

But by using this music a church is brought into association with the contemporary world that Townend represents and this has the great potential to carry Independent Baptist church members into treacherous waters. (See the free eBook Biblical Separatism and Its Collapse among Fundamental Baptists for documentation of the treacherous waters of modern evangelicalism.)

(See “Analyzing ‘Adapted’ CCM Songs” for video clips of how one Independent Baptist church is pursuing this technique -- Adapting CCM for Use in IB Churches )

Townend is an out-and-out Christian rocker. He is charismatic in theology and radically ecumenical in philosophy, supporting the Alpha program which bridges charismatic, Protestant, and Roman Catholic churches. He is a member of Church of Christ the King in Brighton, U.K. and supports the “extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit,” which refers to the demonic/fleshly charismatic mysticism such as nonsensical ecstatic tongues, spirit slaying, holy laughter, and shaking.

Townend is holding hands with the “broader church” in all of its facets and heresies and end-time apostasies, and Townend’s objective in writing “hymn-like” contemporary songs is ecumenism. He is doubtless sincere in this, but he is sincerely and decidedly and dangerously wrong. Townend is a rock & roller, pure and simple. In his blog he says that he doesn’t go home and put on a hymns album, because this is not “where I’m at musically at all.” He wants to use the soft CCM to bring “traditional churches” into association with the “broader church.”

When “traditional” churches borrow Townend’s “soft” CCM “hymns,” the contemporary churches are in no danger of being “traditionalized,” but the traditional churches are most definitely in danger of being contemporized and led into the treacherous waters of modern evangelicalism.

Contemporary Southern Gospel is probably as dangerous as Contemporary Worship Music, and its popularity is growing by leaps and bounds among fundamental Baptists. My warnings about Bill Gaither and his crowd have, for the most part, either fallen on deaf ears or stirred up anger toward me and bitter rejection of my ministry.

(See “Bill Gaither’s Disobedience” and “Southern Gospel Music” at the Way of Life web site. There is also a segment on Southern Gospel in the video series “Music for Good or Evil,” which is available on DVD or eVideo downloads from the Way of Life web site -- Fundamental Baptist Publishing Ministry of David Cloud.)

Contemporary Southern Gospel tends to bring the same type of broadminded tolerance and ecumenical thinking and rejection of “strict separatism” as Contemporary Worship Music brings to a church.

A church will not long maintain a biblical separatist stance if it embraces either contemporary Southern Gospel or contemporary worship music.

Within a decade or two such churches will have adopted a different stance, a New Evangelical-contemporary-emerging one.

WHAT IS THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC?

Wherein lies the transformative power of contemporary Christian music? Why is it capable of changing the very character of a church, of turning it in an entirely new direction?

The transformative power of CCM lies both in its philosophy and in its music.

THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF THE CCM PHILOSOPHY

CCM is not just a different type of Christian music. It is the soundtrack of an entire philosophy of Christian faith and life. It is the piper’s tune for a worldview, and it is very enticing because it preaches a doctrine of license under the guise of a more relaxed, grace-based approach to Christian living (and usually this relaxed attitude affect’s one’s approach to doctrine as well).

It brazenly renounces the “old” way of separatism as “legalistic” and “Pharisaical.” It is a brash rejection of “your grandmother’s Christianity,” referring to a time before the 1970s before Christian rock fought its way into the churches.

In the popular book Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller tells how that he refused to be restricted by the teaching of traditional-type churches. He wanted to drink beer and watch raunchy movies and talk trashy and run around with atheists and other rebels. Now, with his emerging CCM stance, he can do that.

At a book signing for Blue Like Jazz, a young woman who had purchased multiple copies said, “I’m a Jesus girl, but I also like to go out and do tequila shots with my friends. This is a book I can give to them.”

This is the Christianity of Contemporary Christian Music.

In A Renegade’s Guide to God, David Foster mocks “Bible thumpers” and calls for a “renegade” type of Christianity that “resists being named, revolts at being shamed, and rebels against being tamed” (p. 8). He says, “We won’t be ‘told’ what to do or ‘commanded’ how to behave” (p. 10).

In If Grace Is So Amazing, Why Don’t We Like It, Donald McCullough says that he doesn’t like the type of preaching that says, “... don’t do that, curb your appetites, reign in desire, discipline and sacrifice yourself” (p. 104).

Charles Swindoll, who has promoted the CCM philosophy for decades and who once entered a Promise Keepers rally on a Harley motorcycle to the strains of the rebel rock anthem “Born to Be Wild,” says: “There was a time ... when I had a position that life was so rigid I would fight for every jot and tittle. ... The older I get, the shorter that lists gets, frankly. ... More than ever we need grace-awakened ministers who free rather than bind” (The Grace Awakening).

A battle is raging between those who believe that the grace of God is license to drink deeply of the sensual pop culture and those who still hold to biblical separatism. When I was saved in 1973 from a rock & roll lifestyle, God taught me to separate from the sensuality of rock and the cheap, garbage pop culture which is both immersed in and was largely created by this music. Rock & roll has been at the forefront of the drug culture, free sex, feminism, unisex fashions, no-fault divorce, the mainstreaming of homosexuality, the legalization of abortion, and the misguided peace movement. The vast majority of mainstream rockers promote these things. Rock has had a large role in bringing Eastern paganism to the West.

Rock & roll is the soundtrack of end-time apostasy as described in the amazing prophecy of 2 Timothy 4:3-4.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

The apostle Paul defined the true grace of Christian living as follows:

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:11-14).

This is a very strict, very careful, very holy, very separated way of living. Paul is most definitely NOT describing the philosophy that permeates Contemporary Christian Music today. According to Scripture we are saved by the grace of God without works, because salvation is a free gift that was purchased by Christ; but we are saved “unto good works” (Eph. 2:8-10), and those good works are laid out in the canon of New Testament Scripture.

It is not “legalism” or “Phariseeism” for a saved-by-grace, blood-washed saint to have a zeal to obey every commandment of the New Testament faith.

James said that “pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is to “keep himself UNSPOTTED from the world” (James 1:27) and he solemnly warned that those who befriend the world are the enemies of God (James 4:4).

That apparently was the condition of many professing believers in James’ day, but it has become the condition of MOST today.

Paul said we are to have “NO fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).

This is a very, very strict standard of separation. It means that the believer is to constantly measure things by God’s Word to see if it is an unfruitful work of darkness, and he is to have no fellowship with such works. In fact, not only is he not to have fellowship with them; he is to reprove them. It was commandments such as this that led me to reject rock & roll as young Christian and also to reprove rock in my preaching and books. If anything is an unfruitful work of darkness in this world today, it has to be rock & roll and the rock/pop culture.

Paul taught Timothy to keep the New Testament commandments “without SPOT, unrebukeable” (1 Timothy 6:14).

It is instructive that Paul used the word “commandment” in this passage, because the CCM crowd typically rails against “rules” and “regulations.” Paul issued commandments to the brethren (2 Thess. 3:4, 6, 12). By my count, the epistle of Ephesians contains 88 commandments for New Testament believers that we to keep by God’s grace and through the indwelling Spirit.

The Psalmist said, “I esteem all thy precepts concerning ALL things to be right and I hate EVERY false way” (Psalm 119:128).

This is the mindset and worldview of a true Biblicist, and it is contrary to the mindset one typically finds in the CCM movement.

The so-called grace preached by the CCM movement is that described in 2 Timothy 4:3-4:

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

Though this was written 2,000 years ago, a more accurate description of Contemporary Christian Music has never been penned. CCM is an end-time movement of apostasy. It is characterized by the desire on the part of professing Christians for new (contemporary) things and the intention to live according to their own lusts rather than obey the path of Biblical separation, and it features heaps of teachers who are willing to tickle itching ears with a new type of Christianity that is not solidly Bible based.

The Bible exhorts us to exercise our “senses to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). This is the way of Christian growth and spiritual protection. The child of God is to take the Bible as his sole authority for faith and practice, as the infallibly inspired Book of his life, and test everything by it. We are to continually judge whether things are right or wrong, true or false, good or evil. This is contrary to the CCM philosophy and the churches that live by this standard will reject CCM, because they know that there is a right and wrong biblical standard for everything, including music and dress and entertainment.

Yes, the CCM philosophy is diametrically opposed to an “old-fashioned” Biblicist church, and those who associate with CCM pick up its philosophy. There is a rebel inside of every born again child of God that wants to follow its own lusts. The child of God can walk in the flesh or in the Spirit, and the flesh lusteth against the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-17). The CCM philosophy is attractive to those who want more “liberty.”

It is magnet for those who have rejected the “old-fashioned” New Testament faith and who despise traditional Bible-believing churches, dogmatic biblical preaching, and biblical “judgmentalism” in regard to lifestyle choices.

In a video-recorded interview in 2009, Zach Lind, drummer for the secular rock band Jimmy Eat World, told us that he grew up in a “very conservative” Baptist church and made a profession of faith when he was young, but he did so only because he didn’t want to be left out of the communion service. He said he wanted to “eat the cracker with his buddies.” He secretly loved rock & roll and didn’t like to hear preaching against that sort of thing, so he left church and did not return to Christianity until he discovered the emerging church. Now he has the freedom to be a Christian and also a drummer in a secular rock band. Following is an excerpt from the interview:

“The belief system that they emphasized did not necessarily resonate with me. For instance, when I was in junior high they played a video to the junior high group called ‘Hells Bells: The Dangers of Rock & Roll.’ And I was sort of secretly in the closet a big rock & roll music fan, listening to all different kinds of bands that typically the church wouldn’t approve. ... Ultimately in high school I started a band with some friends; that was 15 or 16 years ago, and we still are a band today; we’re a secular rock band. I’ve lived in the world, and I’ve realized that a lot of the religious goods and services that I was provided as a kid just sort of fell flat when I entered into the real world. As I was trying to reconcile those kinds of things, I was free falling. The framework of Christianity wasn’t viable to me. It was nice to come into contact with some writers like Brian McLaren and Rob Bell and Dallas Willard that gave me a different framework, a different perspective, in order to construct a life of faith that really resonated with me. Because of my experience with the band and whatever notoriety I’ve gained with that, I’ve been able to make some friendships with people that I really respect and that have really shaped me. It’s been life-giving. ... The gospel that I believe now is totally different than the gospel I grew up with. The gospel I grew up with was a transactional gospel, this idea that if I have the right belief now I will be somehow saved from some kind of punishment later. ... Dallas Willard reminded me that the kingdom of God is not some future destination, that the kingdom of God is now.”

This theme runs throughout the world of Contemporary Christian Music, and it is very tempting to many people today and herein lies its transformative power.

By the way, Zach never gave us a biblical testimony of being born again. He simply accepted “a different framework” provided by emergents such as Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, and Dallas Willard.

When this music begins to gain a bridgehead in an individual life, home, or church it brings its philosophy, and if the individual believer is not filled with the Spirit and grounded in Scripture and if he is not carefully testing everything by God’s Word he will be influenced by the promise of “the new liberty.”

THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF THE CCM MUSIC

It is not only the philosophy of CCM that is transformative; it is the music itself.

Every element of contemporary praise music is designed to create a sensual emotional experience which is very sensual and addictive and even hypnotic.

Graham Kendrick, one of the biggest names in Contemporary Christian Worship, says, “The old way of preaching and singing began to give way to an expectation that ... God would visit us, and we’d EXPERIENCE HIS PRESENCE IN A TANGIBLE SORT OF WAY” (Interview with Chris Davidson of Integrity Music, June 11, 2002).

The mission of Integrity Music and Integrity Worship Ministries is “helping people worldwide EXPERIENCE THE MANIFEST PRESENCE OF GOD” (integritymusic.com).

The objective of Worship Central is “to encounter God.”

Secret Place Ministries exemplifies the contemporary worship philosophy in that they “long for AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE PRESENCE OF GOD” and their worship music is said to “BRING DOWN THE PRESENCE OF GOD” (SecretPlaceMinistries.org).

Michael W. Smith says, “Music helps you ENTER INTO THE PRESENCE OF GOD.”

Joel Purdy of Hearts of Saints says, “Contemporary worship music gives the listener a deeper WORSHIP EXPERIENCE.”

In pursuit of this tangible worship experience, the CCM crowd gives itself over to the music, which is designed to create the sensual experience that they are seeking.

MAJOR ELEMENTS OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP EXPERIENCE

Having studied Contemporary Christian Music since the 1970s, I have identified six elements of the music that work together to create the sensual experience sought by contemporary worshipers. These are as follows:

* Syncopated dance rhythm
* Unresolving chords
* Sensual vocal techniques
* Electronic modulation
* Rise and fall in intensity
* Repetition

Syncopated Dance Rhythm Is a Major Element of the Contemporary Worship Experience

Irwin Silber, a communist who desired the see social degeneration that would overthrow the “old order,” observed that rock music has this power and it lies in its backbeat rhythm. He wrote: “The great strength of rock & roll LIES IN ITS BEAT. It is a music that is BASICALLY SEXUAL, unpuritan” (Sing Out, May 1965).

I can concur with this statement, along with thousands of others who have been “transformed” by the power of rock & roll music. It was the “beat” of rock that reached into a Christian home and captured my heart and soul as a teenager in the early 1960s. I can testify that the influence was indeed “basically sexual, unpuritan.”

And the heavily syncopated rhythm, the rhythm that literally grabs the body and encourages it to move in a modern dance fashion, is a MAJOR part of the contemporary worship experience.

The heavily syncopated rhythm is what has always made rock & roll sensual party music. That’s its very essence. John Makujina says, “Rock’s danceability is due predominately to its emphasized syncopated rhythms” (Measuring the Music). The very name rock & roll was a euphemism for fornication. Since the 1950s, the phrase “let’s rock” has meant “let’s party, let’s drink, let’s get high, let’s do as we very well please.”

Rock music has always been about living as you please and thumbing your nose at authorities. It was summarized by the Rolling Stones in 1965: “I’m free to do what I want any old time.” And by The Animals: “It’s my life and I’ll do what I want/ It’s my mind, and I’ll think what I want.” And by the Mamas and Papas: “You got to go where you want to go/ do what you want to do.” And by the Isley Brothers: “It’s your thing/ do what you want to do.”

And this licentious anti-God philosophy has been driven by the heavy dance syncopation.

Graham West, a pastor in Australia who has a background in writing, recording, and producing pop music, says, “When you take away the accent from where the strong beat should fall the human body is instinctively inclined to move into the gap and mark where the missing accent should be” (video presentation “The Rhythm of Rock”).

Some common types of syncopated dance rhythm are the back beat, the silent beat, the staccato beat, and beat anticipation.

The backbeat, which rockers and social commentators have identified as “sexy,” has been the chief characteristic of worldly dance music since the beginning of the 20th century. It was the rhythm that drove ragtime, the blues, boogie woogie, jazz, big band swing, and honky tonk or Western swing.

Fifties rocker Bill Haley said: “I felt that if I could take a ... tune and drop the first and third beats and accentuate the second and fourth, and add a beat the listeners could clap to as well as dance this would be what they were after.”

Indeed, it was! The backbeat drove a virtual revolution.

The backbeat emphasizes the offbeat, such as

one-TWO-three-FOUR

The backbeat is in contrast to the straight or march beat, which has the emphasis on the first beat or every beat equally:

one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four
or
ONE-two-three-four, ONE-two-three-four

The silent beat is another type of syncopated dance rhythm. By simply dropping a beat, a sensual rock effect is created

Da Da Da Da, Da Da Da Da
vs.
Da Da -- Da, Da Da -- Da

In the staccato beat the notes are clipped.

Da Da Da Da, Da Da Da Da
vs.
Dop Dop Dop Dop, Dop Dop Dop Dop

Beat anticipation, as Graham West explains in his video presentation The Rhythm of Rock, is a type of syncopation that falls at the end of a phrase and is unresolved; it is as much a major element of rock as the backbeat. It can create the jerky rock feel even when the other types of syncopation aren’t present. It leaves the listener anticipating something that is not there and the body wants to fill in the gap. Beat anticipation is a major part of contemporary worship music, and fundamentalist churches that are “adapting” contemporary worship songs are typically buying into the beat anticipation, not understanding that they are actually performing soft rock ballads. They think that since they don’t have drums and a bass guitar thumping out a heavy backbeat that they have removed the rock from Christian rock, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

The backbeat, the silent beat, the staccato beat, and beat anticipation are some of the many kinds of off beat dance syncopation that go into the creation of rock. The Rhythm Bible has “over 1,000 examples of rhythmic figures common in jazz, rock, Latin, blues, funk, and other styles -- rhythms that make contemporary sounds so exciting.”

(We give examples of the previous types of dance syncopation in the video series “Music for Good or Evil,” which is available from Way of Life Literature.)

The point is that rock is made up of many types of syncopation, but they all have the same type of effect on the body. Whether rock is soft or hard, quiet or loud is irrelevant. It matters not if it is played in an electric bass guitar or a piano. It moves the body and makes you want to dance.

The heavy syncopation is why pop music is so physical.

Jimi Hendrix said this of his music: “Perhaps it is sexy ... but what music with a BIG BEAT isn’t?” (David Henderson, ‘Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: The Life of Jimi Hendrix. p. 117).

Gene Simmons of Kiss said, “That’s what rock is all about—sex with a 100 megaton bomb, THE BEAT!” (Entertainment Tonight, ABC, Dec. 10, 1987).

Describing how she felt when attending her first big rock concert, Janis Joplin said: “I couldn’t believe it, all that rhythm and power. I got stoned just feeling it, like IT WAS THE BEST DOPE IN THE WORLD. It was SO SENSUAL, so vibrant, loud, crazy” (Joel Dreyfuss, “Janis Joplin Followed the Script,” Wichita Eagle, Oct. 6, 1970, p. 7A).

The sensual dance rhythm of rock music has addictive, transformative power.

Dan Lucarini, a former contemporary worship leader, led churches from using traditional hymns to a contemporary worship program, and in the book Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement he describes how he did it. The key was starting out with “soft” rock, which acts as an addictive, transformative influence on the congregation. He writes:

“The rock was softer, but it still contained the rock rhythm that undeniably appeals to our flesh. The listener soon develops a craving for it. JUST LIKE AN ADDICT, THERE IS NO TURNING BACK. What happens over time is a steady slide down the slippery slope away from all traditional music into the latest, edgiest contemporary styles.”

Graham West, formerly associated with the pop music industry, issues the same warning:

“Once you begin listening to soft rock, you begin sliding down that slippery slope to the more aggressive forms of rock. SOFT ROCK BEGINS TO ORIENT THE WHOLE WAY OF PERCEIVING MUSIC AROUND RHYTHM and away from melody. Your musical interest will change. Hymns will seem dull in comparison to your newly acquired tastes. It’s a progression I’ve seen over and over again in the lives of Christians. IT’S A DOWNWARD SPIRAL. It happens in the lives of individuals; it happens in the lives of families; it happens in the lives of churches.

“There is a GRAY AREA OF IGNORANCE ABOUT THE POWER OF POP SYNCOPATION. And the devil, taking advantage of this, being not only the master musician but also the master of subtlety, comes along to a strong fundamental church or a Bible college and he offers his wares of CCM rock ballads. It sounds great. There’s no drums, no wild electric guitars, no obvious back beat, just the piano or guitar and the singer. And it’s almost the same as the songs that they used to sing, except the rhythm kind of trips a little bit. But that’s O.K. because it’s exciting, and the young people love it. The problem is that when the rhythm does that little trip it means that the music contains a basic, distinctive rhythmic feature of all rock & roll since its inception in the 1950s. In this way, before you’ve even known it, you’ve been deceived by the subtle strategy of Satan. This is the blind spot that Satan is using to his advantage. He knows that once a church accepts rock ballads, complete capitulation is almost inevitable.

“In the case of vigilant, serious-minded Christians, he has to start them up at the very top of the slope with very gentle rock so that the conscience doesn’t scream out, ‘This music is wrong!’ Just as long as he can get you started, he has won, because just like a drug pusher he knows that his users will want more and more of that sensual rhythm” (Graham West, The Rhythm of Rock).

Many churches that are adapting CCM think they are removing the “rock” from Christian rock, but they are actually just toning it down to “soft rock.”

Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California, has been doing this for a long time. In the report “Analyzing Adapted CCM Songs” we consider three examples that were performed by Lancaster in 2011. We provide actual video clips comparing the Independent Baptist “adapted” editions of CCM intercut with the “real stuff” performed by the original CCM groups. These clips change back and forth between the CCM artists and the music recorded in the fundamental Baptist church, though in some instances, they are so close in sound and feel it is hard to tell which is which.

See Adapting CCM for Use in IB Churches

Unresolving Chord Cadence Is a Major Element of the Contemporary Worship Experience

Another major element of the sensual contemporary worship experience is the unresolving chords.

Contemporary worship music tends to use a chord cadence other than the “perfect” or “authentic” cadence, which is used by the old hymns and which resolves back to the first tone. A “weak cadence” or an “imperfect cadence” does not resolve in this way. It is always more “feely.”

In the video series Music for Good or Evil we give audio examples of this.

Pastor Tim Kelly of Maine has taught music theory for almost 25 years and was previously deeply involved in the pop, rock, new country rock, rap, R&B music culture. He makes the following observation about contemporary praise music:

“The emphasis is on the IV chord. The V chord is always called the dominant chord in music, but in CCM it is avoided as often as possible. It doesn’t resolve. Music works like this: You have a question (phrase) and then an answer (phrase). There is tension and then release (resolve). Contemporary praise music seems to present questions with no answers, no absolutes. It is wispy and draws on the emotions, with no intellectual purpose or guide. This is the philosophy of the Devil.”

Sensual Vocal Styles Are a Major Element of the Contemporary Worship Experience

Another major element of the contemporary worship experience is the sensual vocal techniques that have been borrowed from the morally corrupt pop music field.

There is the BREATHY STYLE, in which the microphone is held extremely close to the singer’s mouth. This gives a feeling of intimacy and sexuality. Elvis Presley and other pop sex god “crooners” used this technique to great effect, and contemporary Christian musicians follow this pattern.

Then there is SCOOPING AND SLIDING, by which instead of hitting the note cleanly and directly, there is a slide from above or below its true pitch. It adds a great sensuality to the music. The 1950s book How to Sing for Money said, “Scooping is a common practice ... as a swing effect.” Thus, the scooping technique was created as part of the commercial dance music scene, and it works with the syncopated rhythm to create the sensual atmosphere that dancers desire. It is a technique that fits the night club, the bar, the gambling den.

But it has been adapted by contemporary Christian musicians and Southern Gospel performers.

These styles are not only sensual, they draw attention to the singer, which is another major element of both secular pop and contemporary Christian music.

Electronic Modulation Is a Major Element of the Contemporary Worship Experience

Sometimes contemporary praise is performed with acoustic instruments only, but typically it incorporates full-blown and very loud electronic instruments with reverberation, echo, feedback and other types of electronic modulation. This is used to intensify the sensuality of the music and to create a mystical atmosphere.

The Rise and Fall of the Intensity of the Music Is a Major Element of the Contemporary Worship Experience

A contemporary worship experience typically involves a dramatic rise and fall in the sound level and intensity of the music. This is used to create an emotional roller coaster. One minute you’re body is twisting and jerking to ear-splitting rock & roll and the next minute you are immersed in a near trance-inducing atmosphere in which the music is toned down and less physically demanding but more mystical.

Repetition Is a Major Element of the Contemporary Worship Experience

Repetition is another major element of the contemporary worship experience. Because of the repetition, CCM has been called 7/11 music -- seven words sung 11 times.

Actually, the repetition can be much more extensive than that. In Kevin Prosch’s song “Signs and Wonders,” the words “signs and wonders, healings, deliverance” are repeated at least 20 times and the words “the kingdom of God is here” are repeated at least 25 times. At the 1996 Heart of David conference, they sang Prosch’s “Praise the Lord, Oh My Soul” for 20 minutes, and they sang another song for over three hours! That must be the epitome of contemporary repetition!

This music is indeed transformational. By yielding to it, the CCM crowd is carried along into a “tangible experience.” When combined with the syncopated, body-jerking rhythms, the electronic modulation, the unresolving chord progression, the rise and fall of the intensity, and the sensual vocal styles, the repetition can have a hypnotic effect on those who yield themselves unreservedly to the experience.

We have seen that the transformative power of contemporary worship music lies both in its enticing philosophy of “liberty” and in its sensual, addictive music.

CONCLUSION

By “adapting” CCM, churches are creating a bridge to the ecumenical-charismatic world. And the influence will gradually permeate the entire congregation and change its fundamental character.

Every Independent Baptist church that doesn’t take this matter seriously and doesn’t educate itself continually and doesn’t take a strict stand will be well down the emerging road within a decade or two. Contemporary music is that powerful and it is that much at the heart of end-time apostasy.

Walls are being broken down and borders are being erased!

The Bible warns, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Cor. 15:33).

The sad fact is that in the typical Bible-believing church today many of the people are ripe for picking by the CCM philosophy. Many aren’t even born again, having merely prayed a sinner’s prayer without genuine repentance and heart-felt faith. Many are carnal, walking with one foot in the world. Many are not sold out to Christ, and the reality of Romans 12:1-2 is entirely foreign to their daily experience. This is true for large numbers of young people who grow up in the churches, but it is also true of large numbers of adults.

Unless we get serious about our Christianity and bring our churches back to the absolute standard of God’s Word and put Christ at the center of everything, we are going to be swept along by the floodwaters of end-time apostasy.

Pastors must face this issue and make the effort to educate both themselves and the people. To use the excuse of ignorance is no excuse at all, because education is available.

We must establish godly standards of music and be consistent. To condemn “CCM” while using contemporary Southern Gospel is not consistent. To say you are opposed to CCM while you use soft rock and adapted CCM is not consistent.

It is better to err on the side of being too careful and too “strict” than too tolerant.

We need to narrow our associations today so that we aren’t dragged down with the compromise of others. When I see that a preacher is careless about music and associated things and isn’t interested in being properly informed and makes flimsy excuses for using the wrong music, I am not going to have anything to do with him as far as joint-ministry goes. I am not going to attend his church; I’m not going to preach for him, and I’m not going to preach with him in some meeting.

This issue is not a matter of personal opinion and taste. The music issue is not “peripheral.” It is a doctrinal issue and getting it right is absolutely necessary for spiritual victory and protection today.

“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3).

[micah719]

[micah719]

The whole series from which the OP clip was excerpted:

[micah719]

Another series:

[micah719]

A book, now on my ever-growing to-buy list. If anyone would like to make a solid investment in the future, please contact my optometrist and buy shares in his business; then cobble together a deal to subsidise my reading supplies.

Dan Lucarini -- Why I Left The Contemporary Christian Music Movement

[micah719]

A series of 5 articles:

The Contemporary Christian Music Movement (CCM) # 1
The Contemporary Christian Music Movement (CCM) # 1
May 29th, 2011

This series comes by gathering over 400 pages of research and months of digging for the truth.

How about the Contemporary Music Movement (CCM) in bridging the gap to the One World Church?

This is not a para-church organization but it is used profoundly in the para-church groups to promote the breaking down of the barriers. It is making fast inroads into the fundamental churches of our land.

So let us take a real look at what we are dealing with. Beware of Contemporary Christian Music’s Ecumenical Philosophy, Distributed by Way of life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service.

Contemporary Christian Music is one of the glues holding together the end-times ecumenical movement. It represents a great danger to Bible-believing churches.

In a recent interview with Christianity Today, Don Moen of Integrity Music said: “I’ve discovered that worship [music] is transdenominational, transcultural. It bridges any denomination. Twenty years ago there were many huge divisions between denominations. Today I think the walls are coming down. In any concert that I do, I will have 30-50 different churches represented.”

Ecumenical terms which permeate the CCM scene include “anointed,” “the body,” “united,” “John 17,” “tolerance,” “non-critical love,” “judge not,” “no finger pointing,” etc. These are terms which identify the philosophy of the end-times ecumenical movement which is described in 2 Tim 4:3-4 – “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

The end-times apostasy is characterized by a rejection of strong Biblical absolutes and reproof and doctrine and by teachers who pamper instead of preach, who generalize instead of being specific, who are positive rather than “negative,” who build self-esteem rather than call for repentance.

Contemporary Christian Music is at home in the most ecumenical of contexts. The same music will be perfectly at home in a Roman Catholic retreat or a World Council of Churches conference or a charismatic Laughing Revival.

And now is being made at home in fundamental churches.

---

The Contemporary Christian Music Movement (CCM) # 2
The Contemporary Christian Music Movement (CCM) # 2
May 30th, 2011

This series comes by gathering over 400 pages of research and months of digging for the truth.

How about the Contemporary Music Movement (CCM) in bridging the gap to the One World Church?

This is not a Para church organization but it is used profoundly in the Para church groups to promote the breaking down of the barriers.

It is making fast inroads into the fundamental churches of our land.

CCM is the music of ecumenical evangelism, as epitomized by Billy Graham and Luis Palau crusades.

The following is a description of Billy Graham’s 1997 crusade in San Antonio, Texas.

“More than 700 San Antonio churches representing over 50 denominations have joined together for the Graham crusade, which hopes to attract South Texas youth with big-name Christian rock acts [Amy Grant, dc Talk, Charlie Daniels Band, Michael W. Smith, Steve Green, and Jaci Velasquez] and a Saturday service just for kids” (Houston Chronicle, April 2, 1997).

CCM was the music of the massive “Key Î73” evangelistic program which was promoted by Billy Graham and many other key Christian leaders.

The program brought together Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Charismatics, and Roman Catholics.

To create such a broad ecumenical unity requires that doctrinal issues be ignored.

The message must be limited when the fellowship is enlarged.

This ecumenical philosophy controlled the type of music which was used:

“An extensive invitation was sent out for new music to be written that promoted the message of Key Î73’ with several stipulations: the words righteousness, judgment, holiness, repentance, and several other biblical terms were not allowed to be used, and THE LYRICS WERE TO BE OF A POSITIVE NATURE.

There was an intentional effort made to write NON-OFFENSIVE songs” (H.T. Spence, Confronting Contemporary Christian Music, p. 142).

Contemporary Christian Music was also the music of the largest ecumenical charismatic conference of the 1980s.

This was New Orleans Î87, held in July 1987.

After four days of “renewal” choruses and Christian rock, it was obvious that CCM was the preferred music of the roughly 40,000 ecumenical-charismatics in attendance.

Approximately 40 different denominations and groups came together under one roof, including Episcopalian, Church of Christ, United Methodist, American Baptist, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church USA, and dozens of others.

Fifty percent of those in attendance were (20,000) Roman Catholics.

Roman Catholic priest Tom Forrest delivered the closing message and brought the mixed multitude to their feet when he called for unity. “We must reach the world,” he cried, “and we must reach it the only way we can reach it; we must reach it TOGETHER!”

At those words the crowd became ecstatic, leaping to their feet, shouting, stomping, speaking in tongues, dancing.

A Catholic mass was held every morning during the conference.

The music that held all of this confusion together was CCM.

CCM is perfectly at home in the midst of such apostate ecumenical confusion.

---

The Contemporary Christian Music Movement (CCM) # 3
The Contemporary Christian Music Movement (CCM) # 3
May 31st, 2011

This series comes by gathering over 400 pages of research and months of digging for the truth.

How about the Contemporary Music Movement (CCM) in bridging the gap to the One World Church?

This is not a Para church organization but it is used profoundly in the Para church groups to promote the breaking down of the barriers.

It is making fast inroads into the fundamental churches of our land.

The intimate charismatic connection within Contemporary Christian Music guarantees that it will be ecumenical.

For example the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International, in its earlier days, popularized a song which proclaimed, “I don’t care what church you belong to.” That was dropped and replaced with a Catholic song, “We Are One in the Spirit,” which proclaims, “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord …. and we pray that all unity may one day be restored…” (Michael Harper, Three Sisters: A Provocative Look at Evangelicals, Charismatics, & Catholic Charismatics and Their Relationship to One Another, pp. 28, 29).

When the Roman Catholic Church sings about Christian unity, of course, it is singing about non-Catholics being united with Rome!

The 1996 CCM hit “Gather at the River” promotes the ecumenical theme: This is not the “We’ll Gather At The River that we know.

Here are the lyrics to this Gather At The River

Sometimes we don’t see eye to eye
We don’t agree, we don’t know why
But Jesus prayed that we’d be one So for the sake of God’s own Son Can we put away our differences Lay down our pride
I think it’s time we start turning the tide

(Chorus) Shall we gather at the river of forgiveness
Come together at the waters of love
Flowing like a fountain from the mercy giver
Shall we gather at the river

We have all made enemies of
The ones we’re called by Christ to love
But there’s redemption at the riverside
The water’s deep, the water’s wide It can wash away our bitterness The current is strong
I think we’ve been out in the desert too long

We can wade into the middle Where the healing waters flow
It only takes a little
To heal a wounded soul
It will only bring us closer
Than we’ve ever been before
This is just what Jesus was praying for

This song is built upon the false ecumenical interpretation of John 17:21, which claims that the unity for which Christ prayed is an ecumenical unity of professing Christians which disregards biblical doctrine.

The context of John 17 destroys this myth.

In John 17 the Lord plainly emphasizes that the unity He desires is one based on salvation and Truth.

It is not a unity of true Christians with false.

It is not a unity which ignores doctrinal differences for the sake of an enlarged fellowship.

Christ emphasized that He was praying for those who love and obey the Word of God.

This is certainly not a prayer which envisions the modern ecumenical crowd which downplays and ignores the Word of God for the sake of a broad, lowest-common-denominator unity.

---

The Contemporary Christian Music Movement (CCM) # 4
The Contemporary Christian Music Movement (CCM) # 4
June 1st, 2011

This series comes by gathering over 400 pages of research and months of digging for the truth.

How about the Contemporary Music Movement (CCM) in bridging the gap to the One World Church?

This is not a Para church organization but it is used profoundly in the Para church groups to promote the breaking down of the barriers.

It is making fast inroads into the fundamental churches of our land.

CCM’s influence toward ecumenism is well stated by a man who at one time preached against it–BOB LARSON.

“Have you ever seen a bunch of young people (be they Lutheran, Presbyterian, or Baptist, charismatic or evangelical) setting aside their religious idiosyncrasies to jump and shout when Petra walks on stage?…

The shared experience will send them back to their own churches less theologically exclusive.

From that moment on, they are “not of this world’ with all of its petty ecclesiastical divisions.” (Bob Larson, Contemporary Christian Music Magazine, December 1985).

This statement by Larson is extremely sad.

There was a time when he preached against Christian rock, yet he refused to separate from charismatics and others who were walking a path of disobedience and error.

He held meetings under charismatic and ecumenical sponsorship, as well as the sponsorship of other groups and churches which were not scriptural.

Now we see the fruit of this disobedience and reckless disregard for biblical separation.

Has God not warned that evil communications corrupt good manners?

Once Larson preached against Christian rock; now he is ensnared by it and promotes the Devil’s grand worldwide ecumenical schemes.

THE GAITHERS are very ecumenical and have a close, non-critical relationship with the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement.

They provided the music one evening at Indianapolis Î90, another large ecumenical charismatic gathering.

One-half of the 25,000 participants were Roman Catholics and the other half represented roughly 40 different denominations.

A Catholic mass was held each morning during this conference, and a Catholic priest brought the closing message.

The Gaithers were at home in this unscriptural gathering and entertained the mixed multitude with their jazzy music.

The Gaithers frequently perform and record songs which present an ecumenical philosophy. “Songs that Answer Questions”

An ecumenical Gaither song is “Jesus Built This Church on Love” from their Back Home in Indiana album. The lead on the song is performed by Candy “Hemphill” Christmas, who travels with the Gaithers. The song is sung at many of the Gaither concerts. It is done in the style of a mid-tempo, jazzy black spiritual with heavy drums and bass guitar.

Do you ever just get to wonderin’
’bout the way things are today?
So many on board this gospel ship
Trying to row in a different way
If we’d all pull together
Like a family me and you
We’d come a lot closer to doin’ What the Lord called us to do.

This song implies that the divisions within Christianity are largely if not entirely man-made and unnecessary.

That if professing Christians would merely “pull together” and exercise love the divisions would be healed.

It is a feel-good sentiment, a nice fairy tale which has wide appeal, but it is unreasonable and unscriptural.

The Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostles warned repeatedly that false teachers would lead many astray, that there would be false Christ’s, false spirits, false gospels, false churches, doctrines of devils (Matt. 7:15-23; 24:3-5,11,24; Acts 20:28-30; 2 Cor. 1:1-4; Galatians 1; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:13; 4:3-4; 2 Pet. 2; 1 John 4:1; Jude; etc.).

The book of Revelation predicts a one-world end-time harlot Christian religion (Rev. 17).

Those who preach an ecumenical unity rarely even mention these Bible warnings and never focus on them.

They do not tell us where these false Christs, false gospels, false spirits, false teachers, and false churches are in Christianity today.

They imply, rather, that the denominational divisions are largely unnecessary and petty which could be overcome by a little ecumenical love.

---

The Contemporary Christian Music Movement (CCM) # 5
The Contemporary Christian Music Movement (CCM) # 5
June 2nd, 2011

This series comes by gathering over 400 pages of research and months of digging for the truth.

How about the Contemporary Music Movement (CCM) in bridging the gap to the One World Church?

This is not a Para church organization but it is used profoundly in the Para church groups to promote the breaking down of the barriers.

It is making fast inroads into the fundamental churches of our land.

Beware of Contemporary Christian Music. Not only is it worldly; it promotes false doctrine.

Let us see how this music has come into our churches.

November 8, 1997 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, 1701 Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277) – Continually I am hearing from people who are broken hearted that the worldly contemporary music has taken over their churches.

Let me give an example of what is happening widely among those who only a short time ago would have nothing to do with Contemporary Christian Music.

Liberty University was founded by Jerry Falwell, an Independent Baptist preacher. He once had high spiritual standards for music in his church and school and on his Old Time Gospel Hour program, but that is no longer the case, and this exemplifies what is happening on many fronts.

The October 1997, issue of Charisma magazine reported that “Jerry Falwell Is Now Open to Charismatics.” The report mentioned that Integrity Music, which is very influential in spreading the contemporary music and which rose out of the Charismatic movement, is planning to record a live praise and worship album at Liberty University.

The Editor of Charisma, Stephen Strang, said that FALWELL ADMITTED THAT “YEARS AGO HE WOULD NOT HAVE ALLOWED THIS TYPE OF MUSIC IN HIS SCHOOL.” Strang continued, “Now Liberty is not only co-sponsoring Integrity’s live recording, IT IS WORKING WITH INTEGRITY TO ESTABLISH AN INSTITUTE THAT WILL TRAIN A NEW GENERATION OF WORSHIP LEADERS IN LYNCHBURG” (Charisma, October 1997, p. 122).

This church and school, which years ago stood for the traditional Christian music that was born out of spiritual revival, has capitulated completely to the siren call of the charismatic-ecumenical Contemporary Christian Music. Now it will spread this unscriptural philosophy of music far and wide through its students and the churches under its influence.

Why is CCM sweeping into so many formerly strong bible-believing churches? First, CCM is sweeping into so many formerly strong Bible-believing churches because it is pervasive.

Unless it is steadfastly resisted, it will be accepted. No church can be neutral in this battle. Even the strongest Bible-believing churches are continually tested in the area of music, and this battle is going to rage stronger as the return of Christ draws closer.

Church members encounter worldly music on Christian radio and television stations. Further, in most Christian bookstores today one will not find music that is truly spiritual. Instead, the shelves are filled with Christian rock and charismatic “praise” and all sorts of worldly ecumenical beat music.

The companies producing this music are largely owned by secular corporations which have only one motive: profit, money. Nothing truly spiritual and acceptable to the Lord can come out of such a compromised, worldly, unscriptural situation.

Second, the new music is enjoyable. It is a great temptation because it is very satisfying to the flesh. This is why one can draw large crowds to attend church if a very rhythmic music is provided. But many of those same people will not come to a prayer meeting or to a preaching service which features traditional Christian music.

Worldly music appeals to worldly people. The sad problem is that even the born again child of God has an old nature which still enjoys carnal things, and the most spiritually-minded Christian is perpetually tempted by the lusts of his own flesh. It is easy to enjoy Contemporary Christian Music. Just relax then allow the flesh to have its way.

Third, CCM is the easiest way to draw a crowd. One of the most effective ways for a church to appeal to this present generation is through its music. Pastors are tempted to let down the standard for the sake of increasing the attendance and making the church more popular in the community.

If he does not have his eyes directly upon the Lord of His calling, a pastor will think he is in competition with other churches in the area. How can a church compete with Contemporary Christian Music? By providing the same type of music. Pastors all over the land are falling prey to this temptation. It is a sign of spiritual decadence.

[billiefan2000]

micah:


funny u posted this today, cause Jackie Alnor is talking about this subject on her show tonight



Apostasy Alert Buffed Up Radio 12/09 by Rapture Ready Radio | Blog Talk Radio


Apostasy Alert & Buffed Up Radio
by Rapture Ready Radioin Religion

Airdate:12/9/11 8:00PM


Jackie takes on unbiblical lyrics of worship music and other liturgical traditions in the modern church that make believers uncomfortable /


Matt goes one on one with with Joel Osteen as they discuss the new reality show Joel is kicking off.


Plus, hear an original song from B Pain, Jamier, Otis the Occupier and special appearances from many others.

That is just the first half! Hear thoughts on Santa Claus, Tim Tebow and much more. Get ready for a wild ride!


Apostasy Alert Buffed Up Radio 12/09 by Rapture Ready Radio | Blog Talk Radio

[mattfivefour]

I agree that there is great danger in so-called Christian out-and-out rock-and-roll and rap music. And I say that as someone who, prior to being saved, lived in the R&R world, both as a musician, a broadcaster, and an aficionado. I can plainly and advisedly say that people have their flesh tickled by the rock and rap genres while the words are almost incomprehensible and without manifestation of the Spirit.

However to lump all contemporary music into the same barrel is just plain wrong. To suggest that the worship music of the Gaithers is dangerous is beyond stupid. Somebody ought to remind the writer that 100 years ago, many of the old hymns which we (and apparently the writer) so love today were excoriated for being un-Christian and harmful to the gospel. In fact the majority of hymns in old-style gospel hymn books (hymns such as There's Within My Heart a Melody, Since Jesus Came Into My Heart and O Happy Day) were condemned because of their syncopated beat which mimicked the ragtime and other upbeat music of the world. How stupid!

I sometimes get so very tired of the legalists who love to see people chained to their man-made ideas. In their very words they manifest their failure to understand God's Word. They fleshly latch to the letter without comprehending the spirit. It is absolutely necessary to warn of danger where it truly exists; it is absolutely necessary to stand up against doctrinal error where it can corrupt the Church. But, in their chained and finite minds, the legalists—as sincere as they are, as in love with the idea of their Savior as they are—fail to discern where danger truly lies and so see it everywhere outside of their interpretations and opinions. Frankly, the neo-Judaizers are as dangerous to the health of the Church as the purported dangers they seek to combat.

[micah719]

One of the defining characteristics of the spiritually lethal end days apostacy and deception is not legalism, it is LAWLESSNESS. So bad, that the love of many will grow cold. Would you strive with Paul that delighted in the perfect law, and explained so clearly what its purpose was, and fought so hard against works salvation?

If you do a little research you will find that David Cloud, the author of the first article in this thread, can by no means be accused of promoting salvation by lawkeeping. He is one of the few Christians these days to make a stand against worldliness creeping or being invited into the church. He has diligently researched the subject of CCM. He is well accustomed to being called a legalist and worse. Finally, he is a rabid Calvinist-hater, so I thought that at least on that point you and he might find personal agreement. You even have similar backgrounds, at least in the early years of youthful rebellion and hedonism. Perhaps it might be worth your while to read a bit more of what this Christian man has written, and examine the fruits of his walk.

The several sources I quoted go into the way in which music (meaning, melody and rhythm) changes thinking patterns and emotions. This is to demonstrate that even songs that may have theologically clear and correct lyrics (fewer and fewer nowadays) can still be dangerous. Actually, by using lyrics as cover for the experience, they could be seen as even more dangerous. Is your mentioning of previously condemned music with wordly rhythms in support of the thread purpose or attempting to refute it? Just because somebody compromised 100 years ago does not justify doing even worse now. It is the classic frog-in-water method....gradualism. The danger for churches is that the wall is breached and little by little the world gets in, and the sheep wander into the world. The time to act is at the first cracks, not when you're facing a pile of rubble and the enemy entrenched inside.

I am so very tired of compromisers. "But, in their chained and finite minds, the" insert blinded and deceived watchmen " —as sincere as they are, as in love with the idea of their Savior as they are—fail to discern where danger truly lies and so see it everywhere outside of their interpretations and opinions." Or, we could infer from that sentence as originally written that conversely, the non-legalists have "unchained and infinite minds also sincerely in love with their infallibly correct idea of Saviour discerning every danger without fail because they have no personal interpretations and opinions". Woe to the sheep guarded by that kind of shepherd! He might tickle their ears but that is no comfort to them when being torn apart. It is about time the CCM danger was warned about on RF. If you agree, as you say, that there is a danger in rock and rap in CCM, why aren't you saying anything about it at all? If legalism is such a plague in these lawless days, why aren't you writing about it actively? Or, at the least explain what's so fantastic about the Gaithers...mind you, that might just be your personal taste and opinion, unless you expect every Christian to follow suit.

Isa 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
Isa 30:2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
Isa 30:3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
Isa 30:4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
Isa 30:5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
Isa 30:6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
Isa 30:7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
Isa 30:8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
Isa 30:9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
Isa 30:10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
Isa 30:11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
Isa 30:12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
Isa 30:13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
Isa 30:14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
Isa 30:15 For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
Isa 30:16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
Isa 30:17 One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
Isa 30:18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
Isa 30:19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
Isa 30:20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
Isa 30:21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
Isa 30:22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.
Isa 30:23 Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.
Isa 30:24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.

[mattfivefour]

Brother, both lawlessness and legalism are equally destructive to Christianity. The fact that David Cloud is a respected evangelical has absolutely nothing to do with his beliefs on contemporary Christian music. That is an argument by appeal to authority. That I dispute his belief that CCM is dangerous is no different that that you would dispute Cloud's belief that Calvinism is the most dangerous error in the Church today and that "Arminius was closer to the truth than Calvin" . (Indeed, Cloud on his website says Calvin "acted more like a devouring wolf than a harmless sheep" and questions whether Calvin was even saved!) I only raise this to show that arguments must not be based on man's ideas, regardless of how elevated a man may seem to be; because if you dig into any man long enough you will find beliefs that run counter to your own.

But all this is a morass of vain dispute in theological backwaters in which so many love to swim. Discussing a concern that somebody raises is worthwhile. Therefore, we should consider David Cloud's arguments prayerfully and go to Scripture for confirmation of our subsequent views. But we do not have to hold our noses and ignore obvious stupidity of belief, so that we may not be accused by some of "compromise".

The simple fact of the matter is that keeping one's eyes on Jesus and walking in the Spirit is not a matter of regulation but relationship. It is God, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, who will expose the dross in a person's life to that person and remove it as it is acknowledged and surrendered. What a person does out of their desire to please the Lord is between that person and the Lord and is not to be judged by any other Christian. Contradiction of scripture is to be judged; nothing else.

[micah719]

Yes, I am aware that Brother Cloud is a fallible sinner, and a better Christian than me by far. He has done his homework very carefully and while I disagree strongly with him about sovereign grace (aka Calvinism aka Augustinianism etc) I can listen to his experience and reasoning on the CCM issue because his reasoning is Scriptural and the connections and implications he draws are valid. He freely and generously quotes the CCM artists themselves to show that he is not fighting straw men nor is he chasing windmills.

While legalism always has been a danger and will continue to be so, the danger from lawlessness is greater. We who are called to live by grace still consider and meditate on the perfect law, not as a rulebook to follow in the flesh but as a character description and reference standard. The Lord did not set aside the law, He completed it and His perfect obedience is imputed to us by grace through faith. If we walk in the Spirit, we will find ourselves keeping that law automatically, though not yet perfectly in this life.

Now the CCM thing is not so much about lawkeeping as it is about separation from the world, we are commanded to remain unspotted by the world. In it, but not of it. They hate us and the Gospel, but the Gospel's power is still there even while they despise it. If we compromise on it in the mistaken idea it will be palatable to them, we make it of no effect, and deceive them with a false Gospel. So, with regard to the music we listen to or use for edification in worship, it should conform to Biblical standards. The dangers pointed out by the musicians in the videos posted above should make us aware that it is not merely the lyrics that are to be judged, it is also the medium.

Having good intent is not enough...the practice must be in accordance with Scripture. Otherwise we go back to the days of the Judges, every man doing what is right in his eyes. On the matter of this being a private issue....no, it is a church matter, and a matter between brothers. On the level of the church, it is important what the congregation does in worship. A healthy congregation will be united in faith and in truth, things are spoken about openly. They are to remain separate (holy) from the world. On the individual level...if a believer is corrupted by what he does in private he will bring it into the church. If he infects others, eventually the whole loaf is leavened. And if we see a brother sinning we are to correct him, for his good and for the good of all. Am I my brother's keeper? Yes, and he is my keeper, in the sense that we watch each other's backs, in humility and fear lest we also be deceived and led astray. Considering the many warnings to believers about deception and being on guard and the difficult times we seem to be living in, it would be prudent to err on the side of caution rather than take foolhardy risks. One can do this without falling into legalism. Also, it will not be popular with the world, with worldly brethren, and worldlings that are in our midst thinking they are sheep. Yes, there are such, many, sadly. They take offence at having their dross exposed, and take pleasure in others that join them and mutually strengthen one another.

Let's beware the things that appeal to the flesh and the emotions. The better a thing looks and sounds, test and test it again, to be sure it really is good and wholesome and not a most clever forgery. We are not dealing with an amateur forger!

Let's examine our music in the light of Scripture and the warnings given by people who understand music and its effects. Even unbelievers confirm what the people in the videos above say about mind-altering effects of music! This is not to condemn all music, it is a call to be very careful about what we are admitting to our eyes, ears and hearts. It is not as though it is a new phenomenon either, even in the reformation when the church was rescued from mysticism and nicolaitanism, there were corrupting influences on both sides of the ridge. On the one side the danger of legalists and liturgical hypocrisy (dead ritual worship), and on the other side worldly fleshiness in the form of vain and profane entertainment. Eventually, those two extremes converge! There is plenty of wholesome Christian music to choose from without having to go fishing in murky waters. Some say the devil was worship leader in heaven before he fell...whether or not that is true, music is a wonderful thing from God and a terrible weapon in the wrong hands. Check the melody, the rhythm, the lyrics, the musicians, and the effect. And just because it is popular or makes you feel good does not mean it is good.

[arapahoepark]

So why don't we follow the Church of Christ's rules on music then? Lets go back to homophonic gregorian chants! Pagans used to do such things as well!
I fail to see how music is evil, it's not inherently. Lady Gaga and some rappers make it that way. I don't want people to come to church just for the music either that is wrong, which is what we can agree but, what's wrong with contemporary christian bands?
Syncopated rhythms=devil? Hardly. The gregorian chants sound more devilish than a lot of today's music.

With every generation the Old hates the new music...so what? When it comes to christian music though I have no problem if the message is proper.

[arapahoepark]

Brother, both lawlessness and legalism are equally destructive to Christianity. The fact that David Cloud is a respected evangelical has absolutely nothing to do with his beliefs on contemporary Christian music. That is an argument by appeal to authority. That I dispute his belief that CCM is dangerous is no different that that you would dispute Cloud's belief that Calvinism is the most dangerous error in the Church today and that "Arminius was closer to the truth than Calvin" . (Indeed, Cloud on his website says Calvin "acted more like a devouring wolf than a harmless sheep" and questions whether Calvin was even saved!)

Cloud misquotes Calvin and uses ideas from his systematic theology out of context....someone not telling the whole story to get ahead I would be cautious about

[mattfivefour]

Let's examine our music in the light of Scripture and the warnings given by people who understand music and its effects. Even unbelievers confirm what the people in the videos above say about mind-altering effects of music! This is not to condemn all music, it is a call to be very careful about what we are admitting to our eyes, ears and hearts. It is not as though it is a new phenomenon either, even in the reformation when the church was rescued from mysticism and nicolaitanism, there were corrupting influences on both sides of the ridge. On the one side the danger of legalists and liturgical hypocrisy (dead ritual worship), and on the other side worldly fleshiness in the form of vain and profane entertainment. Eventually, those two extremes converge! There is plenty of wholesome Christian music to choose from without having to go fishing in murky waters. Some say the devil was worship leader in heaven before he fell...whether or not that is true, music is a wonderful thing from God and a terrible weapon in the wrong hands. Check the melody, the rhythm, the lyrics, the musicians, and the effect. And just because it is popular or makes you feel good does not mean it is good.

With this I agree ... with the caveat that "feel good" mean feel good in the worldly sense rather than "feel good" in the sense that it brings you into a position and attitude of worship before the Lord. There can be no danger from music that does that, regardless of anything else: if the lyrics are scriptural and the music brings your emotions and spirit into communion with God, then there is absolutely no need to fear anything else related to that music.

[Meg]

I sometimes get so very tired of the legalists who love to see people chained to their man-made ideas. In their very words they manifest their failure to understand God's Word. They fleshly latch to the letter without comprehending the spirit. It is absolutely necessary to warn of danger where it truly exists; it is absolutely necessary to stand up against doctrinal error where it can corrupt the Church. But, in their chained and finite minds, the legalists—as sincere as they are, as in love with the idea of their Savior as they are—fail to discern where danger truly lies and so see it everywhere outside of their interpretations and opinions.

Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen... Did I say AMEN!!

This is beginning to look a lot like paranoia! When a song was written has no bearing on anything, nor does musical style. If you want the truth about anything, read the lyrics! What, did God stop giving people worship songs over 100 years ago? Of course not!! Does God have a problem with Rap? No, I have heard of a few very sincere Jesus worshiping Rap artists, God meets us where we are, not asking us to turn into somebody else!! The truth sets free, blind accusations are opposed to truth and very possibly opposed to God Himself!

[SteveJM]

As one who's opposed to Calvinism, who also enjoys and is blessed by some CCM, I find this a very interesting thread. There's a lot of material here to explore, and I'll do that when I can. I will say that I've been brought to tears by some Contemporary Christian music. I'm sure that in the past, Gospel quartet music created a few frowns for some, but I enjoy it, and feel no guilt about it. I do believe that much of CCM can't even come close to the old hymns. The old hymns are, in my opinion, great! Would I call listening to any CCM, compromise? I wouldn't.

That's my two cents worth for now.

[Carl]

Micah I,m with you on this. I listen to the old hymms and classical music mostly. I like my music relaxing.

[JoelH]

So why don't we follow the Church of Christ's rules on music then? Lets go back to homophonic gregorian chants! Pagans used to do such things as well!
I fail to see how music is evil, it's not inherently. Lady Gaga and some rappers make it that way. I don't want people to come to church just for the music either that is wrong, which is what we can agree but, what's wrong with contemporary christian bands?
Syncopated rhythms=devil? Hardly. The gregorian chants sound more devilish than a lot of today's music.

With every generation the Old hates the new music...so what? When it comes to christian music though I have no problem if the message is proper.

There is a similar but a deeplytheological argument for an approach called the regulative principle of worship. Simply put, RPW is "God institutes in the Scriptures everything he requires for worship in the Church and that everything else is prohibited". Predominantly adhered to a large set of Calvinists but also Anabaptists.

This is a good article of defending this approach theologically. Before we dismiss the argument aside, make sure you can refute it theologically first:

(Disclaimer: I'm not a classical Calvinist in the 5-point or 4-point sense even though I believe in unconditional election. But I think on average they have more good things than bad things to say)

Banner of Truth Trust General Articles

The Regulative Principle of Worship

by Terry L Johnson

Banner of Truth Trust

Jesus rejects the worship of the Pharisees saying their worship was futile because they were teaching their doctrines rather than God's doctrines. They were worshiping according to their will rather than according to His will.

In Taylors, South Carolina on March 11th 2003, the Rev. Mr. Terry Johnson, Senior Minister at Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Georgia, opened the spring theology conference for Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary with an address on the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW).

A minister in Central Georgia Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), Mr. Johnson began with the subject of the importance of worship, stating, "You can make a case that there is a true sense that the whole Bible is the story of the establishment of the true worship of the true God." Citing John 4:22, Mr. Johnson proceeded to defend the biblical basis for the regulative principle.

Because the whole Old Testament is in a sense the story of the establishment of the true worship of the true God, Biblically there could be no more important subject, and certainly that is also true of our Reformed tradition. Carlos Eire, in his War Against the Idols, reminds us that the central focus of the Protestant Reformation was this very issue. Furthermore, the Puritans and the British monarchs battled over it for 100 years, and today the importance of worship is being underscored again.

...

Jesus rejects the worship of the Pharisees saying their worship was futile because they were teaching their doctrines rather than God's doctrines. They were worshiping according to their will rather than according to His will.

In addition to the explicit teachings of scripture, whole doctrines assume if not teach that these things must be:

1. The doctrine of God in relation to man. God is infinite and we are finite. How ever are we to know how to approach him? How would we ever conceive of God aright and conceive of the right worship? There has been no tradition, no system of theology that has appreciated more the vastness of that gap between God and man. Of course we need to turn to Him to find out who he is and what he wants of us.

2. The doctrine of sin: Is there any theology that has so emphasized the devastating effects of the fall on human nature as has Reformed theology? There is none who seeks God. So not only are we finite, we're corrupt. And we're attempting to approach one who is not only infinite but holy. And, as Calvin says, our hearts are factories of idols. We are not competent to devise God-honoring worship. This is the natural implication of the understanding of the doctrine of the fall and of sin.

3. The doctrine of scripture: No tradition has so elevated the authority and sufficiency of scripture to the heights that our tradition has. Scripture alone is finally authoritative for the faith and practice of God's people; scripture alone can order the worship of the people of God. It is sufficient to equip us for every good work, and that includes worship.

4. The doctrine of the church: God has given true declarative and ministerial power and authority to His church. We declare and administer God's truth in the church, but we may by no means bind the conscience by creating rules and forms of worship not addressed or commanded or implied by scripture. The Regulative Principle is an expression of the limits of church power such that the church in its worship may require of its members only that which Christ requires and no more.

5. The doctrine of God's sovereignty: God alone can order His worship, and God alone does order His worship. So, it was asked rhetorically, "What HAS God authorized for our worship?" Quoting from the Westminster Confession of Faith, Mr. Johnson's answer was, "Prayer with thanksgiving, the reading of the scriptures with Godly fear, the sound preaching and conscionable hearing of the word, the singing of psalms with grace in the heart, the due administration and worthy receiving of the sacraments by Christ are all parts of the ordinary religious worship of God."

We can further define what we mean by the Regulative Principle when we speak of forms, circumstances; and elements. Scripture authorizes this limited number of elements to be used in worship, but then we can also speak of the forms that those elements take and the circumstances within which they are expressed. It is important to understand the difference between elements, forms, and circumstances. Preaching is an element, but you can't dance it. There must be consistency with the nature of the element to uphold the integrity of the RPW. For instance, preaching is a spoken word, so it would be inconsistent with the nature of the spoken word to dance it. We must not compromise the integrity of the element by choosing the wrong form.

Circumstances of worship are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence. An example of a circumstance would be the question of illumination at an evening service or the need for amplification of voices to be heard by all.

WORSHIP MUST BE FILLED WITH SCRIPTURE

The second major point of the address is that worship in truth means that our worship must be filled with scripture. It not only provides the structure of our worship and determines the elements we are to use but also provides the content.

Pagan worship is non-cognitive, but we are called to worship God with our minds, and that which we are supposed to have fill our minds is scripture. The language of Christian worship is scripture. We are either reading it or expanding upon it through exposition, singing it, or praying it. We do this because faith comes by hearing the word of God; it is the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation.

The preacher admonished, "Do You believe that we are born again by the Word, that we grow as we feed upon the pure milk of the Word, that the Word performs its work in us, that when the Apostle Paul preaches it's in demonstration of the Spirit and the power? That we are sanctified by the truth? That God's Word is truth? So, if it's by the word that we're converted and by the word that we're sanctified, and by the word that we're matured, and if it's faith that comes by hearing the word of God, then our worship services must be full of scripture."

Most alarming to Pastor Johnson is the rapid decline of the amount of scriptural content in worship over the last century. It is, he believes, an accelerating decline, even in conservative Presbyterian denominations. The decline has occurred in the amount of scripture read in typical worship services as. well as in a failure of preachers to preach the whole counsel of God, working their way sequentially and expositorally through the books of the Bible.

"I grew up hearing evangelistic sermons addressed only to the lost. In college I started attending Grace Community Church where John McArthur was preaching verse by verse through First John in the morning and First Corinthians in the evening. There was a period of time where I was particularly consistent where I walked in one person and walked out a different person every Sunday." The sermons were expositions of scripture- simple Biblical preaching.

We are, according to Mr. Johnson, also singing less Bible. We ought to be singing the Psalms and experientially, theologically rich hymns patterned after the Psalms. We went from these rich hymns to Gospel songs with even less Bible, and then on to choruses which have even less Bible. There is some Bible, but there is all the difference in the world in singing an entire Psalm and one verse repeated over and over.

"Be reminded also of the way Protestant ministers used to pray. Then visit the typical contemporary service and go ahead and clock how much time is being given to prayer. And note what kind of prayers are being offered. It's an embarrassment .to the tradition when you consider the frivolous, limp, and weak prayers that are typically being offered in our services today." The Bible gives us the language of prayer, and many churches seldom use it.

"People are coming to church and just hearing a bunch of talk and singing a bunch of songs," says the preacher. But faith comes by hearing the word of God, and if it's not being preached, sung, read, and prayed, and if the content of our services are decreasingly Biblical, it is an ominous thing that is happening - a tragedy unfolding before us of monumental proportions."

[Meg]

There is a similar but a deeplytheological argument for an approach called the regulative principle of worship. Simply put, RPW is "God institutes in the Scriptures everything he requires for worship in the Church and that everything else is prohibited". Predominantly adhered to a large set of Calvinists but also Anabaptists.

This is a good article of defending this approach theologically. Before we dismiss the argument aside, make sure you can refute it theologically first:

(Disclaimer: I'm not a classical Calvinist in the 5-point or 4-point sense even though I believe in unconditional election. But I think on average they have more good things than bad things to say)

Banner of Truth Trust General Articles

The Regulative Principle of Worship

by Terry L Johnson

Banner of Truth Trust

Jesus rejects the worship of the Pharisees saying their worship was futile because they were teaching their doctrines rather than God's doctrines. They were worshiping according to their will rather than according to His will.

In Taylors, South Carolina on March 11th 2003, the Rev. Mr. Terry Johnson, Senior Minister at Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Georgia, opened the spring theology conference for Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary with an address on the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW).

A minister in Central Georgia Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), Mr. Johnson began with the subject of the importance of worship, stating, "You can make a case that there is a true sense that the whole Bible is the story of the establishment of the true worship of the true God." Citing John 4:22, Mr. Johnson proceeded to defend the biblical basis for the regulative principle.

Because the whole Old Testament is in a sense the story of the establishment of the true worship of the true God, Biblically there could be no more important subject, and certainly that is also true of our Reformed tradition. Carlos Eire, in his War Against the Idols, reminds us that the central focus of the Protestant Reformation was this very issue. Furthermore, the Puritans and the British monarchs battled over it for 100 years, and today the importance of worship is being underscored again.

...

Jesus rejects the worship of the Pharisees saying their worship was futile because they were teaching their doctrines rather than God's doctrines. They were worshiping according to their will rather than according to His will.

In addition to the explicit teachings of scripture, whole doctrines assume if not teach that these things must be:

1. The doctrine of God in relation to man. God is infinite and we are finite. How ever are we to know how to approach him? How would we ever conceive of God aright and conceive of the right worship? There has been no tradition, no system of theology that has appreciated more the vastness of that gap between God and man. Of course we need to turn to Him to find out who he is and what he wants of us.

2. The doctrine of sin: Is there any theology that has so emphasized the devastating effects of the fall on human nature as has Reformed theology? There is none who seeks God. So not only are we finite, we're corrupt. And we're attempting to approach one who is not only infinite but holy. And, as Calvin says, our hearts are factories of idols. We are not competent to devise God-honoring worship. This is the natural implication of the understanding of the doctrine of the fall and of sin.

3. The doctrine of scripture: No tradition has so elevated the authority and sufficiency of scripture to the heights that our tradition has. Scripture alone is finally authoritative for the faith and practice of God's people; scripture alone can order the worship of the people of God. It is sufficient to equip us for every good work, and that includes worship.

4. The doctrine of the church: God has given true declarative and ministerial power and authority to His church. We declare and administer God's truth in the church, but we may by no means bind the conscience by creating rules and forms of worship not addressed or commanded or implied by scripture. The Regulative Principle is an expression of the limits of church power such that the church in its worship may require of its members only that which Christ requires and no more.

5. The doctrine of God's sovereignty: God alone can order His worship, and God alone does order His worship. So, it was asked rhetorically, "What HAS God authorized for our worship?" Quoting from the Westminster Confession of Faith, Mr. Johnson's answer was, "Prayer with thanksgiving, the reading of the scriptures with Godly fear, the sound preaching and conscionable hearing of the word, the singing of psalms with grace in the heart, the due administration and worthy receiving of the sacraments by Christ are all parts of the ordinary religious worship of God."

We can further define what we mean by the Regulative Principle when we speak of forms, circumstances; and elements. Scripture authorizes this limited number of elements to be used in worship, but then we can also speak of the forms that those elements take and the circumstances within which they are expressed. It is important to understand the difference between elements, forms, and circumstances. Preaching is an element, but you can't dance it. There must be consistency with the nature of the element to uphold the integrity of the RPW. For instance, preaching is a spoken word, so it would be inconsistent with the nature of the spoken word to dance it. We must not compromise the integrity of the element by choosing the wrong form.

Circumstances of worship are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence. An example of a circumstance would be the question of illumination at an evening service or the need for amplification of voices to be heard by all.

WORSHIP MUST BE FILLED WITH SCRIPTURE

The second major point of the address is that worship in truth means that our worship must be filled with scripture. It not only provides the structure of our worship and determines the elements we are to use but also provides the content.

Pagan worship is non-cognitive, but we are called to worship God with our minds, and that which we are supposed to have fill our minds is scripture. The language of Christian worship is scripture. We are either reading it or expanding upon it through exposition, singing it, or praying it. We do this because faith comes by hearing the word of God; it is the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation.

The preacher admonished, "Do You believe that we are born again by the Word, that we grow as we feed upon the pure milk of the Word, that the Word performs its work in us, that when the Apostle Paul preaches it's in demonstration of the Spirit and the power? That we are sanctified by the truth? That God's Word is truth? So, if it's by the word that we're converted and by the word that we're sanctified, and by the word that we're matured, and if it's faith that comes by hearing the word of God, then our worship services must be full of scripture."

Most alarming to Pastor Johnson is the rapid decline of the amount of scriptural content in worship over the last century. It is, he believes, an accelerating decline, even in conservative Presbyterian denominations. The decline has occurred in the amount of scripture read in typical worship services as. well as in a failure of preachers to preach the whole counsel of God, working their way sequentially and expositorally through the books of the Bible.

"I grew up hearing evangelistic sermons addressed only to the lost. In college I started attending Grace Community Church where John McArthur was preaching verse by verse through First John in the morning and First Corinthians in the evening. There was a period of time where I was particularly consistent where I walked in one person and walked out a different person every Sunday." The sermons were expositions of scripture- simple Biblical preaching.

We are, according to Mr. Johnson, also singing less Bible. We ought to be singing the Psalms and experientially, theologically rich hymns patterned after the Psalms. We went from these rich hymns to Gospel songs with even less Bible, and then on to choruses which have even less Bible. There is some Bible, but there is all the difference in the world in singing an entire Psalm and one verse repeated over and over.

"Be reminded also of the way Protestant ministers used to pray. Then visit the typical contemporary service and go ahead and clock how much time is being given to prayer. And note what kind of prayers are being offered. It's an embarrassment .to the tradition when you consider the frivolous, limp, and weak prayers that are typically being offered in our services today." The Bible gives us the language of prayer, and many churches seldom use it.

"People are coming to church and just hearing a bunch of talk and singing a bunch of songs," says the preacher. But faith comes by hearing the word of God, and if it's not being preached, sung, read, and prayed, and if the content of our services are decreasingly Biblical, it is an ominous thing that is happening - a tragedy unfolding before us of monumental proportions."

Outstanding post!!! Thank you Joel for sharing this!! The points I bolded are so true! My favorite Christian music either builds on the Word of God or speaks of serving Him in a self-sacrificial way. When I first noticed Bible verses and themes in Christian music, I was surprised and delighted. Then I became aware of Christian pop, which is self centered and devoid of Scripture references and mentions of being uncomfortable or challenged. I agree that most churches are more likely to promote a comfort zone than anything resembling reality too. Many people have developed an appetite for entertainment and comforts of the flesh...