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CONTEMPORARY MUSIC EXPERIMENT:AN APPROACH TO APOSTASYThe Word of God states in Colossians 3:16:
This is an article about music, and I assume that you are already aware of my position. It is a much abridged version of a message that I preached in our church. Personally you may hate or love contemporary Christian music; you may allow your children to listen and participate in it, or forbid them to have anything to do with it; or you may feel the best policy is to grit your teeth and tolerate the inevitable tidal wave that is sweeping across every denominational line. Evangelist Billy Sunday said in a message that he preached in Richmond , Indiana , in 1922: "You assault any old or powerful stronghold in the church and you must prepare to have yourself become the object of the scorn or derision of the gang or clique who feed on that." I believe that Christians who stand for or against this new music in the churches must be ready to face facts: Contemporary Christian Music (CCM hereafter) divides Christian people, divides Christian homes, and divides Bible-believing churches. How many churches today have gone with two services, not solely because of size, but because of the music they allow? Blended services were tried. They were proven to not work. CCM won out every time. It was fun and lively. Entertaining. Churches then began to lose people with backbone and scriptural maturity. And for what, a worldly approach to worship and holiness. It doesn't make sense, but it does build or maintain attendance at churches, youth groups, and colleges. And that's all that counts, right? Growth, no matter the cost. Just grow! Galatians 1:4, states, "Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world , according to the will of God and our Father:" After eating out one evening my wife and I went to a national home improvement store to pick out a phone system. Once inside, the played music was loud - much too loud, and very irritating. It was one of the many forms of the world's rock music. I found myself unable to concentrate on what I went there for and desirous to just get out of there. Today, most restaurants and stores feature the same menu of music. After getting our vehicle fixed at a garage, our radio was turned on loudly to a country rock station. Major theme parks in the Orlando area send materials to our church which feature special nights for young people to listen, sway, gyrate, and even dance to CCM artists performing the world's music and beat, but sung with religious phraseology. A local Christian school advertised a concert before school started last fall: it was called 'Rock-Fest' (And Jesus Christ wasn't the rock). Many evangelists report that as they travel to various churches around the country, CCM is now regarded as normal (A well known pastor and college head recently declared that there is a spiritual awakening taking place in the land, and attributed one of the two reasons to CCM). Even our Christian bookstores headline these artists. After all, this music reaps huge profits. In those bookstores that are in larger outside mall settings, try being blindfolded and led around by someone to several stores, including the Christian bookstore. In most you'll never be able to tell the difference between the Christian bookstore and a Marshall 's, Old Navy, or Payless Shoes. They are exactly alike in the style of music. Where can all of this lead us? Well, a larger Baptist church in the area is hosting a 'Pops Concert' which is to feature among their totally secular selections the music of the decadent Beatles. Brethren, I said that to say this, the LAST PLACE that I, as a born-again child of God through faith alone in Jesus Christ and redeemed by His precious blood from " this present evil world ". the very LAST PLACE I want to go and be subjected to ANY form of the world's music. is at CHURCH! I praise the Lord for Christian music - whether Messianic, Praise, Southern Gospel, or otherwise - but only on these conditions:
The second message the prophet Jeremiah gave to Judah contained this important verse:
I put forth a challenge to us all: Which one best represents us as individuals or ecclesiastically in verse 16 in relation to the music situation: The world's way or the old paths- the good way of God? My 85 year- old aunt lived about 30 minutes north of me. She was a tremendously godly woman and faithfully attended an evangelical church in her town for many years. Well, that is, until they started experimenting with the music; and then the service times. Once CCM completed the take over, the 'traditional' people, mostly older saints in the Lord Jesus Christ, were relegated to attend the 8:30 AM service. Many of them found that difficult due to their age. The prevailing attitude was, 'too bad, "the times they are a changin," and you either fit in where we put you or you find another place to go.' Have any of you tried finding a church lately which still has services the way they used to be? They are out there, but they are falling away in great numbers every week. One last thing. Seeing how CCM divides Christian people, Christian homes, and Bible-believing churches, and we say that the Scriptures are our authority for faith and practice, let us consider our response to Romans 16:17:
May the Lord give all of us the courage to do the scriptural thing. For Jesus' sake. And for the sake of the souls of the next generation. |
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“And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.” - Ezekiel 33:31 There is much in all of life that is not what it appears to be. On the surface, one could conclude it to be so. But, going deeper reveals something else altogether: sometimes sinister, sometimes deadly, or sometimes perverted– but always deceptive. James 1:22, says, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own souls.” It is incredible how much effort we put into being deceived by others when ultimately the deception comes from within ourselves. Let’s cite some examples, though these are not the sum total of all that goes on in life. We are interested in buying or renting a house. We drive up and look at it from the outside, and check it over a second time. It is to our liking by what we see. Then we go inside and inspect the rooms, the flooring, the appliances, the a/c and heat. Our entire time of inspecting however, is on the basis of the outside only. We go ahead and get the house, and slowly and surely discover major and expensive problems that were there had we checked. The house was not what it appeared to be. The same is true with things, or groups, or churches, or people. We can, and should try to check out as much as we can about those we become involved with, but even then we do not know the extent of everything. There is an element of trust involved, yet we must always remember Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” The LORD knows the hearts of all people, but we do not know the extent of what our hearts are capable of. The examples of this are so numerous, we could take years citing them all, and by then, there would be a whole new list. May this serve as a warning to each of us: things and people may not be what or who they appear to be. Impulsive action on our part, based on primarily the external, can injure or cause us to compromise or worse, destroy our testimonies for Christ. |
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