""Ladies and gentlemen of FReeRepublic, I'm just a caveman." |
Posted on 06/30/2004 3:27:30 AM PDT by RaceBannon
CCM MUSICIANS LOVE SECULAR ROCK
Updated June 30, 2004 (first published June 27, 2001) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -
One of the problems with Contemporary Christian Music is its refusal to separate from the world. God's Word is very plain about this matter. "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4). Separation from the world is not an option; it is a solemn obligation. Most CCM musicians ignore this warning and remain intimately connected to the world by their love for ungodly secular music.
Some parents and church leaders are of the opinion that Christian rock is safe for kids because at least they are not listening to secular rock or rap or whatever. This argument makes no sense in light of the fact that most CCM musicians are themselves not separated from secular rock. Not only do most CCM musicians listen to secular rock, but they perform secular rock on their albums and in their concerts. Thus young people who are hooked into CCM remain associated with the secular music scene.
While some defenders of Contemporary Christian Music warn about the evil in secular rock, they turn right around and say that it is fine to listen to Christian rock. Steve Peters does this in his 1998 book Truth about Rock. This is a strange position because the Christian rock musicians themselves are certainly listening to every form of secular rock.
Consider some examples of this:
Only non-Christians would listen to love songs Rosie... RaceBannon said so.
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""Ladies and gentlemen of FReeRepublic, I'm just a caveman." |
Michael W. Smith's album, Change Your World, has 2819 words — Jesus occurs — ZERO!
Michael W. Smith's album, I’ll Lead You Home, has 2046 words — Jesus occurs — ZERO!
Michael W. Smith's album, Live the Life, has over 1100 words — Jesus occurs — you guessed it — ZERO!
There is NOTHING CHRISTian about Michael W. Smith's music!
Hmmm, interesting logic. So how many times does "Jesus" occur in the Old Testament? If it's not there, must it be discarded as being "un-Christian"?
You help prove my point.
How so? It would appear that you didn't really read my post. If you did, i'll pray for your reading comprehension skills to improve so that you can assimilate something more complicated than Jack Chick Comics.
The message of the Gospel is that we are to be transformed into HIS likeness, not a beter likeness of ourselves.
Silly me! Here i thought that this was the Gospel:
21) But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22) Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23) For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24) Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25) Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26) To declare, I say at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
27) Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28) Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Romans 3:21-28 KJV
If all you do is glorify a worldly fleshly activity and try to claim it is Christian just because some of the people who do it are Christian, you are deceiving yourself
All of which begs the question. Seems to me that you need to prove that the music that you don't like is "fleshly". After you prove that, you need to prove that other "fleshly" activities, such as Breathing, eating, sleeping, breeding, and working are Inherently unGodly.
It seems as if you have a great deal of work to do, don't let me stop you.
If once a musician becomes Christian, all forms of popular music that does not mention God is wrong.... I wonder if all other forms of employment outside the church are also wrong.... Buiding roads and making cogs, singing love songs to your sweetie, selling goods and services, all wrong, all the work of the devil.
That's what I would assume from his posts.
***Music and rhythm are tools, and as such are amoral in and of themselves.***
Yes, but theses things don't exist in a vacuum.
They are linked by association with behaviour and lifestyle. We have been conditioned by culture to associate heavy metal with rebellion, rave with sex and John Philip Sousa with patriotism.
And that really is the core of the issue.
How many times do you suppose the words Gospel, Jesus, propitiation, resurrection, crucifiction, repentance, baptism, God, Spirit, etc appear in the music written by J.S. Bach? While we're on that subject, how many of Bach's tunes even have words?
***I used to be into Christian Rock, so, I guess I do know what I am talking about.***
I have an aquantance who is a Christian counselor in Memphis (or is it Nashville - wherever the CCM capital is). He is very much into the CCM scene and has counseled quite a few of the "stars". His reports of the type of lifestyles that many CCM stars lead is very discouraging...
... rampant drug and alchohol abuse, adultery, homosexuality etc.
Indeed it is - if your moral associations are being conditioned by the culture, and not by God's word. Could John Philip Sousa's music be considered "completely apostate" and a millstone around our necks?
Show me from the scriptures the specific injunction against playing blues licks?
Gossip is such an ugly thing, is it not?
Well, thank the LORD that doesn't happen anywhere else in the church...
***Gossip is such an ugly thing, is it not?***
I't not gossip, my friend. He is reporting on the condition of a specific geography, not any individual.
As in...
1 Corinthians 5
"It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife."
I don't think you would accuse Paul of gossip.
i've often wondered how much of that exists (as a percentage of the sample population) among those who play "Acceptable" forms of Religious music.
It has always bothered me that the sins of a Michael English, or Amy Grant/Chapman/Gill, yet the sins of a Jimmy Swaggart, or Sandi Patti, or Richard Roberts and Patty Roberts/Thompson are glossed over. It appears as if there is a double standard in effect somewhere.
***Indeed it is - if your moral associations are being conditioned by the culture, and not by God's word.***
The fact that we must take cultural conditioning into account when determining right from wrong behaviour is illustrated in the following passage...
"All things are lawful," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful," but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor....
If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience-- I do not mean your conscience, but his."
I remember that Michael English felt there was very much a double standard when his news broke as compared to when the news broke about Sandi Patti.
I do remember that Sandi Patti took a break, I think delaying the release of an album. And when she came back I remember her talking quite openly (to Jan Crouch even) about the fact that she got to a point that she had to say "God, I can't go on like this." And that's when she took the break. I'm sure getting exposed didn't help.
I don't necessarily fault these folks for their mistakes. We're all fallible. What speaks volumes though is how they responded.
***the sins of a Jimmy Swaggart, or Sandi Patti, or Richard Roberts and Patty Roberts/Thompson are glossed over***
Not by those with eyes to see.
:^D
Anybody who can make you sound like a left-winger worries me.
***Well, thank the LORD that doesn't happen anywhere else in the church...***
Not that that's a justification of it - right?
Where did I say that it was?
***Where did I say that it was?***
"Well, thank the LORD that doesn't happen anywhere else in the church..."
Seemed like you were saying "everybody does it".
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