What this graph doesn't say is that the #1 reason that God smote people was because of their deadly vanity, thinking that they could be just as great as God in power.
Posted on 08/02/2013 7:49:01 AM PDT by Graybeard58
NASHVILLE (BP) -- One of Christianity's most popular worship songs has been deemed too controversial to be included in the latest edition of the hymnal for the Presbyterian Church (USA).
"In Christ Alone," a modern hymn written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, consistently ranks in the top 20 songs sung in churches of all stripes, according to Christian Copyright Licensing International. Yet it contains one line that the PCUSA's Committee on Congregational Song did not wish to include in the denomination's hymnal.
The line in question is from the song's second verse: "Till on that cross as Jesus died/The wrath of God was satisfied." Not wishing to portray a wrathful God, the committee asked to change the line to "Till on that cross as Jesus died/The love of God was magnified." The song's writers denied their request.
The decision made waves this week, as people learned about it from evangelical bloggers and through social media.
Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, was among the first to comment on the controversy.
"Sin, judgment, cross, even Christ have become problematic terms in much contemporary theological discourse," George wrote in a blog post on firstthings.com. "But nothing so irritates and confounds as the idea of divine wrath."
Russell D. Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, wrote a piece for The Washington Post regarding the song's rejection.
"As an evangelical, I would argue that it's necessary to sing about the wrath of God," Moore wrote, "because we are singing not just from and to our minds, but to and from our consciences. There's a reason why evangelical congregations reach a kind of crescendo when they sing out that line in the Gettys' song. It's not because, per the caricature, we see ourselves as a 'moral majority' affirming our righteousness over and against the 'sinners' on the other side of the culture war.
"Instead, it's just the reverse. When Christians sing about the wrath of God, we are singing about ourselves. Our consciences point us to the truth that, left to ourselves, we are undone," Moore wrote. "We're not smarter or more moral than anyone else. And God would be just to turn us over to the path we would want to go -- a path that leads to death. It is only because Jesus lived a life for us, and underwent the curse we deserve, that we stand before God. The grace of God we sing about is amazing precisely because God is just, and won't, like a renegade judge, simply overlook evil."
In a May article in the Christian Century, Mary Louise Bringle, a member of the PCUSA committee that rejected the hymn, discussed the decision.
According to Bringle, in reviewing other recently published hymnals, the committee discovered the revised lyric, "The love of God was magnified." These hymnals had changed the line, apparently without the authors' permission. When the PCUSA group sought permission from the authors and were denied, the song moved from the "yes" pile to the "no" pile by a vote of 6-9.
The committee decided "it would do a disservice to this educational mission [of the new hymnal] to perpetuate ... the view that the cross is primarily about God's need to assuage God's anger," Bringle wrote.
Boyce College professor Denny Burk was not surprised.
"Although not all PCUSA churches are theologically liberal, the denomination by and large is," Burk wrote on his blog, dennyburk.com. "Liberalism and wrath go together like oil and water; they don't mix. And historically speaking, one of them eventually has to go. When wrath goes, so does the central meaning of the atonement of Christ -- penal substitution. At the end of the day, the cross itself is the stumbling block, and that is why the PCUSA cannot abide this hymn."
Moore agreed that God's wrath is essential to the Gospel.
"I'm hardly one to tell Presbyterians what they ought to have in their hymnals," Moore wrote. "But the Gospel is good news for Christians because it tells us of a God of both love and justice. The wrath of God doesn't cause us to cower, or to judge our neighbors. It ought to prompt us to see ourselves as recipients of mercy, and as those who will one day give an account. If that's true, let's sing it."
Liberalism and wrath go together like oil and water; they don't mix. And historically speaking, one of them eventually has to go.
Ping.
Soooo many things wrong with that, but I'll just say that I, for one, am glad that it did.
Okay, I'll also add that the word 'wrath' appears 242 times in the American Standard Version of the Bible, 209 times in the English Standard Version, 197 in the King James... and whatever will they do about the lake of fire?
Liberal Presbyterians won’t be the only ones surprised on Judgment Day to witness God’s wrath toward sinners who didn’t repent and believe in Jesus for their salvation.
Baptist Ping
There is so much that could be said about this. Small minded liberal theologians are always projecting human frailties on God. They equate God’s wrath with human anger. So it becomes all about appeasing an emotional outburst of the almighty.
While God does have emotions they are not like ours very much at all. His wrath is instead a moral response to our rejection of His grace and justice. God has all His attributes in perfection. So how can his attributes of love, mercy and grace be reconciled with his attributes of justice and holiness when dealing with His people.
Romans chapter 3 explains quite clearly that God’s dying Himself on the cross is what allows His being both just and a justifier. The moral response of a perfectly holy God had been satisfied by the sacrifice of that same loving God. For those who trust in Jesus, their account has been paid in full.
All of that is Good News. If the church does away with sin, they do away with the need for a savior. The church no longer is a minister of hope but drug pusher for the hopeless. God save us from those who tell us we are not that bad and can save ourselves with a little self-help.
This is the new PCPCUSA: Godless. Soulless. Useless.
Easily one of the most powerful hymns of the past 50 years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZuIyrwSqHY
What this graph doesn't say is that the #1 reason that God smote people was because of their deadly vanity, thinking that they could be just as great as God in power.
We are living in the days of the prophesied Laodicean church, and of those having a form of "Godliness" while denying Him at the same time.
Just one more fulfilled prophecy to check off the list.
Wow! Beautiful song; powerful lyrics. Have never heard it before. I collect hymnals (mostly Baptist), and will have to see if it’s in any of them.
I’ve noticed that some of the hymns I’ve sung since the ‘50s have had lyrics changed over the years. For instance, some have taken out “for such as worm as I” and replaced it with “for sinners such as I”. People like the warm and fuzzy feeling when, in truth, if you come out of church feeling too warm and fuzzy the preacher hasn’t done his job. You should be disturbed and convicted.
We stopped attending an SBC church in California when the choir director wanted to change lyrics that mentioned Christ’s blood. He said, “It offends some people.” It’s supposed to. Without the blood, nothing matters. Anyhow, knowing that mindset was in that particular church, we moved on.
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