PFL
Oh, I don’t know. Most people enjoy singing the same phrase 800 times with their hands in the air. And, heck, if people like it, it’s got to be good.
Never understood the Prosperity Gospel thing. Even though the Gospel exhorts: Blessed are the poor in spirit, I don’t believe God wants me to live in squalor. If one is blessed with material wealth, I believe one has an obligation to be very charitable. I could be wrong, but the little I have read on Prosperity Gospel is if one has a positive attitude one’s energy will attract riches and blessings (material and spiritual). But, my question is where does one go from here? As we all know, money changes people. Is there any exhortation to beware of this negative change that happens in many people when they acquire wealth?
Check songwriters like Daniel Nahmod.
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me...”
“Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?”
The above are powerful lyrics from two different classic hymns that acknowledge a basic Biblical truth. That truth is that man is inherently sinful and needs a savior. That truth is the basic truth that, I believe, marks a basic dividing line between liberals and conservatives.
Liberals live in a fantasy land where men are basically good. They continue to sing “Where have all the flowers gone” and wonder why we can’t all get along and coexist. Utopia is possible, they think, if only the right smart people take charge.
This is a good summary by Tim Challies. Pay attention to the lyrics in the songs you sing...and that includes all the songs you listen to and sing. If you are a Christian, your worship does not end on Sunday. All things should be done in the name of Christ.
The best hymns are based on solid theological content, not feel-good emotionalism. I cringe every time I open the paperback “new” songbook, wondering what sort of awfulness might be imminent. Sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised.
The prosperity gospel is mostly devoid of solid theological content, so its music is going to be the same.
“Broad is the road that leads to death,
And thousands walk together there.
But, wisdom shows a narrow path,
With here and there a traveler. “
Doubt that you find that in today’s hymnals, but it is in all the 19th century shape note books.
If I were to be put in charge of editing our Methodist hymnal, I would first throw out the musically and theologically insipid hymns and gospel songs—which seems to be most of the stuff written after 1939. They would be replaced by some of the great but forgotten hymns and gospel songs by the great hymn writers of the Methodist faith such as Lelia Morris, Charles Gabriel and William Kirkpatrick as well as evangelical Protestants such as Ira Sankey, Daniel Webster Whittle and P. P. Bliss. It’s a shame that the current Methodist hymnal does not contain a single hymn by Lelia Morris, one of the greatest Christian hymn writers.
But it wouldn’t just be a book of “oldies.” Newer hymns of good quality such as “Because He Lives” by Bill and Gloria Gaither (1971) that are already in the book would be allowed to stay, and Randall Wallace’s “Mansions of the Lord” (2002) would be added.