Psalm 33:3, "Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy."
From a toddler to teens, I went to a Baptist church and attended a Christian school that was connected with the church. The church along with the school had a very strict policy about the music that was played: traditional hymns accompanied only by the piano or organ; no basses, drum, or guitars. Now, as an adult, my own family and I attend a Vineyard church, which is probably one of the most noted protestant churches promoting Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) in the church today.
One day, I started thinking, “What does The Bible truly say about the whole subject of music and instruments and is there such a thing as "proper music" to be played in church?" Well, growing up in the Baptist church and the Christian school I was taught along with everyone else that secular music (non-Christian) was wrong because it never glorifies God, it only glorifies self or man and the style emphasizes the music not the words. So, as Christians, we need not to be conformed to this world based on this verse:
Romans 12:2, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Well, you might ask, "What does this have to do with CCM--the music may sound like the worlds music, but the message of the song is about God?" This is a great question that was asked by many and the answer was always--even though the message is about God, the entertainment side of the music is of the world; therefore, the message is lost and it is no longer good or pleasing to God. Being a kid growing up in this, you pretty much accepted the answer, and never questioned it.
Well, as I got to my late teens, my attitude and thinking towards this subject was that all music either traditional, CCM, or even secular music was fine as long as the message of the music was decent. After graduating high school, I started walking my own path and not God's and I stopped attending the Baptist church; and frankly, stopped attending church all together. From 18 to my late 20s, I was big into secular music. When I was 29, I started attending the Vineyard church and it was there when I gave my life, completely, back to Christ. Soon after that decision, my interest for secular music faded and my interest for to CCM grew, it soon became everything I was playing, singing, writing, and listening too and is still that way today. Moreover, if this is so wrong according to how I was taught than why does it feel so right in my life.
Now, getting back to my question, "What does The Bible truly say about music and instruments?" Well, seeing that the internet is a great way to find information, I searched for articles and references about music in The Bible, and to my surprise, tons of articles came up about the matter. There were, actually, more articles contending that CCM is in no way Biblical. Most of the "anti" CCM articles were doing there best to rip to shreds the music and its artists, by what they called "clear cut scripture against it." The majority of these articles, in my opinion, were very argumentative and attacking by using words like: satanic, demonic, worldly or evil, and then at times would even relate it to some kind of paganism. Most of the verses that were used to derail CCM had nothing to do with music; they were, mainly, verses like Roman 12:2. Even the verses they used that had something to with music were the verses referring to "singing praises to God" or verses that referred to having a "new song," which are all great verses that deal with spiritual matters of the heart, but never, specifically, point to a style of music or instruments preferred by God. I am not going to get into the details about every example about why critics of CCM feel its wrong, but from what I see, most of the articles are very opinion based, more about assuming intentions on the music or artists, and they tend to only go with Bible verses that could backup their opinion, but they seem to leave out other verses that contradict their opinion.
Mainly, the critic’s over all theme tends to be that any music that has a beat or rhythm is wrong. They contend that according to The Bible, music should never appeal to the "flesh" and when that happens music brings out a physical responses, which is no longer a heart expression to God; therfore, that physical expression is wrong. These critics must forget or overlook the fact that all music either with or without instruments has rhythm--sound in time ; plus, The Bible explicitly has verses that correlate instruments with dancing as praising the Lord, example, Exodus 15:20-21 and there are several others in Psalms and the New Testament, note: these are the verses they usually leave out in their argument. Concerning the drums, the critics often state that drums are not even mentioned in The Bible because back in The Bible times the drums were often related to pagan rituals; therefore, because of that reason the drums must be wrong. Well, I guess the critics would also have to agree that because the name of God is never mentioned in book of Esther, we must conclude that God was not around during that time: right. Of course, we all know that is not the case--do you see my point? God is not the author of confusion, man is and when we fall into only using some of The Bible to make our point sound valid it can cause contradictory, confusion, and mis-leading statements.
To conclude, when you clear all the smoke that the CCM critics have on this issue, it all comes down to a pure and simply dislike for the style of the music, let me repeat, the style of the music. The Bible does not, specifically, dabble into the style of music that is proper for Christians or the proper music to praise God, and to say so--is an error. Music and/or instruments in themselves are in no way wrong according to what I read in The Bible, it only becomes wrong and not pleasing to God when we choose to glorify ourselves with it, rather than God, and God knows our heart when we come to Him in praise and worship. God, also, tells us as Christians not to judge each other and for the critics to say that CCM and its artists are in any way wrongfully enticing, misleading, and leading others down the wrong path away from God is assuming intentions of the heart. Clearly, spiritual matters of the heart and judgment, for that matter, is God's department: not ours. This verse has always helped to give me a clear understanding to what is right or wrong according to God concerning not only music, but everything I do in my Christian life, and I believe, in general, it can help us all as believers.
Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or
praiseworthy—think about such things."
One day, I started thinking, “What does The Bible truly say about the whole subject of music and instruments and is there such a thing as "proper music" to be played in church?" Well, growing up in the Baptist church and the Christian school I was taught along with everyone else that secular music (non-Christian) was wrong because it never glorifies God, it only glorifies self or man and the style emphasizes the music not the words. So, as Christians, we need not to be conformed to this world based on this verse:
Romans 12:2, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Well, you might ask, "What does this have to do with CCM--the music may sound like the worlds music, but the message of the song is about God?" This is a great question that was asked by many and the answer was always--even though the message is about God, the entertainment side of the music is of the world; therefore, the message is lost and it is no longer good or pleasing to God. Being a kid growing up in this, you pretty much accepted the answer, and never questioned it.
Well, as I got to my late teens, my attitude and thinking towards this subject was that all music either traditional, CCM, or even secular music was fine as long as the message of the music was decent. After graduating high school, I started walking my own path and not God's and I stopped attending the Baptist church; and frankly, stopped attending church all together. From 18 to my late 20s, I was big into secular music. When I was 29, I started attending the Vineyard church and it was there when I gave my life, completely, back to Christ. Soon after that decision, my interest for secular music faded and my interest for to CCM grew, it soon became everything I was playing, singing, writing, and listening too and is still that way today. Moreover, if this is so wrong according to how I was taught than why does it feel so right in my life.
Now, getting back to my question, "What does The Bible truly say about music and instruments?" Well, seeing that the internet is a great way to find information, I searched for articles and references about music in The Bible, and to my surprise, tons of articles came up about the matter. There were, actually, more articles contending that CCM is in no way Biblical. Most of the "anti" CCM articles were doing there best to rip to shreds the music and its artists, by what they called "clear cut scripture against it." The majority of these articles, in my opinion, were very argumentative and attacking by using words like: satanic, demonic, worldly or evil, and then at times would even relate it to some kind of paganism. Most of the verses that were used to derail CCM had nothing to do with music; they were, mainly, verses like Roman 12:2. Even the verses they used that had something to with music were the verses referring to "singing praises to God" or verses that referred to having a "new song," which are all great verses that deal with spiritual matters of the heart, but never, specifically, point to a style of music or instruments preferred by God. I am not going to get into the details about every example about why critics of CCM feel its wrong, but from what I see, most of the articles are very opinion based, more about assuming intentions on the music or artists, and they tend to only go with Bible verses that could backup their opinion, but they seem to leave out other verses that contradict their opinion.
Mainly, the critic’s over all theme tends to be that any music that has a beat or rhythm is wrong. They contend that according to The Bible, music should never appeal to the "flesh" and when that happens music brings out a physical responses, which is no longer a heart expression to God; therfore, that physical expression is wrong. These critics must forget or overlook the fact that all music either with or without instruments has rhythm--sound in time ; plus, The Bible explicitly has verses that correlate instruments with dancing as praising the Lord, example, Exodus 15:20-21 and there are several others in Psalms and the New Testament, note: these are the verses they usually leave out in their argument. Concerning the drums, the critics often state that drums are not even mentioned in The Bible because back in The Bible times the drums were often related to pagan rituals; therefore, because of that reason the drums must be wrong. Well, I guess the critics would also have to agree that because the name of God is never mentioned in book of Esther, we must conclude that God was not around during that time: right. Of course, we all know that is not the case--do you see my point? God is not the author of confusion, man is and when we fall into only using some of The Bible to make our point sound valid it can cause contradictory, confusion, and mis-leading statements.
To conclude, when you clear all the smoke that the CCM critics have on this issue, it all comes down to a pure and simply dislike for the style of the music, let me repeat, the style of the music. The Bible does not, specifically, dabble into the style of music that is proper for Christians or the proper music to praise God, and to say so--is an error. Music and/or instruments in themselves are in no way wrong according to what I read in The Bible, it only becomes wrong and not pleasing to God when we choose to glorify ourselves with it, rather than God, and God knows our heart when we come to Him in praise and worship. God, also, tells us as Christians not to judge each other and for the critics to say that CCM and its artists are in any way wrongfully enticing, misleading, and leading others down the wrong path away from God is assuming intentions of the heart. Clearly, spiritual matters of the heart and judgment, for that matter, is God's department: not ours. This verse has always helped to give me a clear understanding to what is right or wrong according to God concerning not only music, but everything I do in my Christian life, and I believe, in general, it can help us all as believers.
Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or
praiseworthy—think about such things."
Posts
1 comments:
It's not the music wrong. The money-business behind it.
They have a radio. We need a raido. They have concerts. We need concerts. They have stars. We need stars.
Please give me one account from the Bible when Christians used cultural events instead of the power of the Holy Spirit.
You should not got saved because you feel good on a concert. You should turn to God because you are lost in your sins and deserve eternal punishment. - That is the TRUE GOSPEL.
There is a problem with todays Christian music. The lack of repenting songs. You could not SELL a cd if you sing hell, judgment, repentance on it. Because these are so harsh thing.
Go back to William Booth. They marched on the streets singing repentitive songs! And what was the reaction: "Kill them", and: "Down with the Salvation Army!"
wow, times changed.
Post a Comment