Getting High on Worship Music

[Mark]

Getting High on Worship Music

A 2012 study by the University of Washington concluded that megachurches “provide the same biological ‘high’ and euphoria as that produced by sporting events and concerts” (Ecumenical News International, Aug. 21, 2012). The study, entitled “God Is Like a Drug: Explaining Interaction Ritual Chains in American Megachurches,” was co-authored by Katie Corcoran and James Wellman. They attribute the worship “high” to the “upbeat modern music, cameras that scan the audience and project smiling, dancing, singing, or crying worshippers on large screens, and a charismatic leader whose sermons touch individuals on an emotional level.”

They believe that these things “trigger chemicals in the brain to give the individual an emotional ‘high’ and feeling of transcendence as well as a need to come back for another ‘hit.’”

On a research visit to City Harvest Church, the largest church in Singapore, on February 8, 2003, I was reminded of the power of rock music to create the emotional high that contemporary worshipers are seeking.

On Saturdays, City Harvest has two services, one at 4:30 p.m. and one at 7:30. I attended the 7:30 session. The music was pull-out-the-stops rock & roll and was the loudest I have ever heard in a megachurch or Christian conference, even though I have attended many of them for research purposes. City Harvest’s music featured two drummers, electric guitars, a keyboard, and a powerful brass section. Several worship leaders, both male and female, swayed and pranced at the front of the stage.

The massive auditorium was almost full and the people were very, very exuberant. As best as I could tell from my vantage point, almost every person joined in enthusiastically during the worship time, singing, clapping, jumping, swaying to the potent music.

When I walked out of the auditorium and got away from the sound of the music, I actually felt a little lightheaded from not being accustomed to such loud, sensual music. It had been more than three decades since I last heard music that loud in an enclosed environment, and that was at a rock concert before I was saved. It was such a relief to get away from the relentless pounding.

I am convinced that if you took away the rock music, churches like this would lose their large crowds almost instantly. Rock music is a drug in itself, and this generation is high on music.

ROCK MUSIC IS A DRUG

Timothy Leary, the '60s LSD guru, who was an expert both in drugs and in rock music, testified: "Don't listen to the words, it's the music that has its own message. ... I've been STONED ON THE MUSIC many times” (Politics of Ecstasy, 1968).

Leary was right, of course, about the hypnotic, addictive, incredibly sensual power of rock and roll. And notice that he IS NOT TALKING ABOUT THE WORDS, but of the music itself, of the rhythm, the backbeat, the heavy relentless syncopation.

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith said, "[Rock music] is the strongest drug in the world" (Rock Beat, Spring 1987, p. 23).

Neil Young said, “Rock ‘n’ roll is like a drug” (cited by Mickey Hart, Spirit into Sound).

Italian composer Pietro Mascagni said, “Modern music is as dangerous as ****” (Slonimsky’s Book of Musical Anecdotes). Mascagni was referring to jazz and the blues and the music that birthed rock & roll.

Janis Joplin likened rock music to “the best dope in the world” (“Janis Joplin Followed the Script,” Wichita Eagle, Oct. 6, 1980, p. 7A).

ROCK MUSIC IS HYPNOTIC

Musician Andrew Salter observes, "Rock music is an IDEAL VEHICLE FOR INDIVIDUAL OR MASS HYPNOSIS" (Salter, cited from Pop Goes the Gospel, p. 20).

Likewise, John Fuller, in his powerful book Are the Kids All Right, warned: "Rock music in particular has been demonstrated to be both powerful and addictive, as well as CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A SUBTLE FORM OF HYPNOSIS in which the subject, though not completely under trance, is still in a highly suggestive state" (Fuller, Are the Kids All Right? 1981).

David Winter, in his book New Singer, New Song, observes: "An incessant beat does erode a sense of responsibility IN MUCH THE SAME WAY AS ALCOHOL DOES. ... You feel IN THE GRIP OF A RELENTLESS STREAM OF SOUND to which something very basic and primitive in the human nature responds."

Indeed, rock music is powerful and addictive and is capable of producing forms of hypnosis, and who is to say that this is not precisely what is happening in the charismatic and evangelical rock and roll praise sessions?

ROCK MUSIC BREAKS THROUGH TO SPIRIT REALMS

No less an expert on rock music than Jimi Hendrix observed that it is hypnotic and that it connects people with a spirit realm, when he said:

"Atmospheres are going to come through music, because the music is a spiritual thing of its own ... YOU HYPNOTIZE PEOPLE to where they go right back to their natural state [which, biblically speaking, is the fallen, sinful state]... People want release any kind of way nowadays. The idea is to release in the proper form. Then they'll feel like GOING INTO ANOTHER WORLD, a clearer world. The music flows from the air; that's why I CONNECT WITH A SPIRIT, and when they come down off THIS NATURAL HIGH, they see clearer, feel different things..." (Jimmy Hendrix, rock star, Life, Oct. 3, 1969, p. 74).

Please note, too, that Hendrix was not talking about the words of rock music, but the music itself. Much of Hendrix's rock music did not have words.

The spirits with which Jimi Hendrix associated were demonic, as we know from the Bible. And his frank testimony, speaking, as it does, from beyond the grave, is a loud warning to "Christian rockers." What confusion and folly to think that we could take the same music that has allowed rockers to break through to demonic realms, "to the other side," as Jim Morris of the Doors put it, and incorporate that very music into the service of a completely different and holy realm of spiritual life!

ROCK MUSIC IS SEXUAL

Not only is rock music hypnotic, it is also sensual, sexual.

How can music that has always been acclaimed by the world as sexual, all of the sudden become spiritual through the addition of some Christian words?

Consider just a few of the hundreds of quotes that could be given. All of these are testimonies of secular rockers who have no agenda except to honestly describe the nature of rock music as they see it:

“The main ingredients in rock are ... sex and sass” (Debra Harry, Hit Parader, Sept. 1979, p. 31).

"Rock is the total celebration of the physical" (Ted Nugent, rock star, Rolling Stone, Aug. 25, 1977, pp. 11-13).

"That's what rock is all about--sex with a 100 megaton bomb, the beat!" (Gene Simmons of the rock group Kiss, interview, Entertainment Tonight, ABC, Dec. 10, 1987).

"Rock 'n' roll is 99% sex" (John Oates of the rock duo Hall & Oates, Circus, Jan. 31, 1976).

"Listen, rock 'n roll AIN'T CHURCH. It's nasty business..." (Lita Ford of heavy metal group The Runaways, Los Angeles Times, August 7, 1988).

"Rock music is sex. The big beat matches the body's rhythms" (Frank Zappa of the Mothers of Invention, Life, June 28, 1968).

"Rock 'n' roll is pagan and primitive, and very jungle, and that's how it should be! The moment it stops being those things, it's dead ... the true meaning of rock ... is sex, subversion and style" (Malcolm McLaren, punk rock manager, Rock, August 1983, p. 60).

"When you're in a certain frame of mind, particularly sexually-oriented, there's nothing better than rock and roll ... because that's where most of the performers are at" (Aerosmith's manager, USA Today, Dec. 22, 1983, p. D5).

"Rock music is sex and you have to hit them [teenagers] in the face with it" (Andrew Oldham, manager of the Rolling Stones, Time, April 28, 1967, p. 54).

"The great strength of rock 'n' roll lies in its beat ... it is a music which is basically sexual, un-Puritan ... and a threat to established patterns and values" (Irwin Silber, Marxist, Sing Out, May 1965, p. 63).

"Everyone takes it for granted that rock and roll is synonymous with sex" (Chris Stein, rock manager, People, May 21, 1979).

"Pop music revolves around sexuality. I believe that if there is anarchy, let's make it sexual anarchy rather than political" (Adam Ant, From Rock to Rock, p. 93).

"What made rockabilly [Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, etc.] such a drastically new music was its spirit, a thing that bordered on mania. Elvis's 'Good Rockin' Tonight' was not merely a party song, but an invitation to a holocaust. ... Rockabilly was the face of Dionysus, FULL OF FEBRILE SEXUALITY and senselessness; it flushed the skin of new housewives and made pink teenage boys reinvent themselves as flaming creatures" (Nick Tosches, Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock 'n' Roll, p. 58).

"For white Memphis, the forbidden pleasures of Beale Street [where the bars and whorehouses and gambling dens were located] had always come wrapped in the pulsing rhythms of the blues. ... Elvis's [rock & roll] offered those pleasures long familiar to Memphians to a new audience" (Larry Nager, Memphis Beat, p. 154).

"Rock and roll aims for liberation and transcendence, EROTICIZING THE SPIRITUAL AND SPIRITUALIZING THE EROTIC, because that is its ecumenical birthright" (Robert Palmer, Rock & Roll an Unruly History, p. 72).

"Rock and roll is fun, it's full of energy ... It's naughty" (Tina Turner, cited in Rock Facts, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, p. 12).

"Rock and roll was something that's ****, rough and wild and sweaty and wet and just loose" (Patti Labelle, cited in Rock Facts, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, p. 17).

ROCKERS ARE SIMPLY IN LOVE WITH ROCK MUSIC

Kind reader, did you consider the previous quotes carefully? What do these, the movers and shakers of rock and roll, know about rock music that the "Christian rockers" do not know?

In fact, I believe "Christian rockers" know these things very well, but they will not admit it, perhaps not even to themselves, because such an admission would not fit into their agenda of being able to hold on to their beloved rock music with one hand and supposedly hold on to the holy Christ with the other.

After Dan Lucarini spent years using rock music as a praise and worship leader, the Lord led him out of it and he wrote the excellent book Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement: Confessions of a Former Worship Leader.

Looking back, he testified about what was really going on in his life after the veneer of piety and the high wall of arguments in defense of rock music was removed:

"During our weekly practices, the praise band would often switch into a rock and roll 'jam session'. As the leader, I could have discouraged this but I CHOSE INSTEAD TO INDULGE MY OWN APPETITE FOR ROCK AND ROLL. ... As I look back on this, I see how hard it was to restrain the rock music beast and prevent it from taking over completely" (Lucarini, Why I Left, p. 31)

"At the seeker-sensitive churches we attended, the music was ostensibly designed for the unchurched but that excuse was really just a smoke screen obscuring our real reason for bringing CCM into the service. THE BOTTOM LINE WAS THAT WE SIMPLY WANTED TO USE OUR MUSIC IN THE CHURCH..." (Lucarini, pp. 62, 63)

Few are willing to be this candid, but whether Christian rockers admit it or not, the fact is that rock has been sex music since it blasted on the scene in the 1950s. Its rhythms are deliberately designed to stimulate physical sensuality above all else.

FLESH AND SPIRIT, LIGHT AND DARKNESS CANNOT BE MIXED

The flesh is contrary to the Spirit.

"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other..." (Galatians 5:17).

Likewise, light cannot mix with darkness. Holiness cannot affiliate with unholiness. Truth cannot countenance error. God has no fellowship with the devil. Does the Word of God not confirm this?

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).

GETTING HIGH ON PRAISE MUSIC

The point is that worshippers who use rock music as their vehicle of praise, who think they are high on God, are more likely to be high on music.

The City Harvest Magazine for July-December 2002 contained a question/answer section. One question by a new member to City Harvest was instructive:

"I just started attending church a few months back and really felt drawn to the presence of God, ESPECIALLY THROUGH THE TIMES OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP. Yet, each time when I try to meet God in the same way during my personal quiet time AND 'FEEL' THE TANGIBLE PRESENCE that I always sense during church services, I always fail. Is this because there's something that I'm not doing right? Am I not worshipping in the correct way?"

The answer to the person's question is that he or she is looking for the wrong thing and is confused about the nature of true worship of God. Worship has nothing to do with my feelings or with a "tangible presence." Those things are easily counterfeited by the flesh and the devil. TRUE WORSHIP IS TO GIVE THANKS TO GOD AND TO SERVE HIM OBEDIENTLY BY FAITH NO MATTER HOW I FEEL AND NO MATTER WHAT THE CIRCUMSTANCE.

Abraham doubtless did not feel very good and had no tangible presence when he trudged toward the mountain with his most beloved son in tow with the purpose of sacrificing him in obedience to God's command, but he was performing a most supreme act of worship.

Job did not feel tingly, wonderful emotions or any sort of "tangible presence of God" when he was sitting in the ash heap scraping his boils with pieces of clay pots and contemplating the loss of his children and wealth and rebutting his wife's complaints. But he was worshipping God acceptably when he endured that terrible condition and did not curse God, but trusted Him in spite of how miserable he felt. In that horrible condition, Job said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him."

That is true worship.

It has nothing to do with being under the sway of powerful music or stirring up high emotions and pursuing a perception of God's tangible presence.

Hebrews 13:15-16 describes true worship: "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."

Note the attributes of true worship from this passage:

• thanksgiving to God in all circumstances
• doing good works or obedience to God's commands
• communicating to those who have needs

One does not need rock music to accomplish any of these things, and, in fact, rock music provides no benefit whatsoever in any of these endeavors. Rock music is rock music, and the praise of God is the praise of God; and they have nothing to do with one another.

I challenge those committed to the contemporary philosophy to give up rock music for one month and serve the Lord without it. If you need rock music in order to enjoy and serve the Lord, you have a serious problem.

If rock music is necessary or even important for the service and worship of Christ, what did God's people do in A.D. 65 or 1240 or 1530 or 1850 or 1945?

"Oh, Lord God, I beseech you by the blood of Jesus Christ and for His glory, deliver many of your saints and assemblies from this powerful contemporary drug and give victory over the wiles of the enemy even in the very midst of end times apostasy."
__

http://www.wayoflife.org/index_files/getting_high_on_worship_music.html

[Psalm 51:17]

Yeah - when I used to listen to rock music - my imaginations just got INCREDIBLY *high*(it was as if I was traveling myself into another distant world).

It's QUITE the CONTRARY when you read your bible and fellowship with others!

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.av1611.org/crock/jefchp16.html
What's Wrong With My Excuses?
by Jeff Godwin

Every excuse in the book, no matter how ridiculous, has been given to show why C-Rock MUST be used to minister to youth and young adults. Let's look at ten of the most popular excuses and match them against the Bible. You be the judge. If the excuse matches the Word, then accept it. If not...

1.) They're going to listen to Rock music anyway! At least this is a better alternative.

The first part of that statement is a bold-faced lie. Not every new convert is as hard-hearted and rebellious as the CCM stars. Many young people are giving their hearts and lives completely to the Lord at salvation and have turned away from vile Rock filth. I've got a file drawer full of their precious letters. They recognize the difference between the holy and the profane, and are choosing holiness.

But what about the "better alternative?" Are you kidding? C-Rock looks the same, sounds the same and produces the same rotten fruit as its secular cousin: rebellion. It teaches kids how to love the New Age and hate authority. Some alternative.

2.) We have to use C-Rock because this is the music kids relate to today.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 tells Christians to SEPARATE from every ungodly work, not invite it home for dinner!

Here's the heart of the problem - the "relating" hoax is really about friendship WITH sin, not coming out from among them and being separate. Instead of "touch NOT the unclean thing", C- Rock says: "Touch it all you want to! We'll use it as a bridge to get to something better! Who cares if God forbids it? What does He know, anyway?"

Another point to consider: If you as a pastor, parent, youth leader, or church have to use gimmicks like "Christian" Rock to "relate" to youth, where does this leave the ministry of the Holy Ghost? Matthew 7:6 says not to throw pearls before swine. Yet we've got it backwards!

We'll dump Rock filth in the laps of God's people and call it a blessing!

A Christian" Thrash singer once told me I'd probably get my teeth knocked out if I went into the ghetto to witness. He said I'd have no chance of getting anyone to listen to the Gospel looking like that. (I was dressed in a shirt and tie.)

This man didn't know that two nights before, I was dressed the same way and shared the Gospel face-to-face with three lost Rock addicts. They understood the Gospel fine. Their hair, leather and studs didn't bother me, and my shirt and tie didn't bother them. It's the GOSPEL that does the relating, not Rock music or any other ungodly trick. The Holy Spirit's blessing is on God's Word, (John 17:17) not on pagan noise.

Do you know what those three headbangers told me during our meeting? They said, "Yeah, but it's O.K. for you CHRISTIANS to listen to Christian Rock, isn't it?"

Something's dead wrong in the way we're "relating" to the lost, Brother and Sister. The WORLD is mocking and laughing at us! They see through such hypocrisy in a minute; why can't WE? It's because churches have made friends with their chains (2 Peter 2:19). They've been too busy listening to "the experts" instead of the Holy Spirit (John 16:13 & 1 John 2:27).

3.) God created music, and everything God created is good, so Rock music must be good and godly, too.

Christian author LaMar Boschman's answer to this popular excuse is better than anything I could say. His reply is based on the scriptures found in Ezekiel 28:13 and Isaiah 14:11, which prove Lucifer's musicianship:

"The day Lucifer fell, music fell. Music that once was used to worship Almighty God now became music of an earthly nature, it became the music of the world and began to appeal to our lower nature instead of appealing to God and our spiritual man (that part of us that has been born of God). Music then, became corrupted. That anointed and powerful ministry of music that Lucifer had in heaven is now corrupted. That ministry is cursed. It now has a false anointing... He still has that same powerful ministry to create worship but now it is corrupted, and Lucifer uses that ministry to get worship for himself because he craves it..." 1

4.) Music is the universal language all young people understand, so we'll use Rock music to speak their language.

First of all, that's supposed to be impossible, because the doctrine of CCM says all music is neutral! But if it IS a language, then what is that music SAYING? This ad from CCM magazine is a perfect example of guilt-trip propaganda:

"Ask any youth pastor or any parent of a teenager and they'll tell you the same thing: Most of today's praise and worship music simply does not reach today's teenagers. We all know that music is the language of teens, and let's face it: most of the praise and worship music available today is a foreign language to them. That's why youth leaders are having such a difficult time getting their kids involved in their worship services. Says one youth director, 'As hard as I try, my kids just sit back with their arms folded when we begin our praise times.' In order to communicate effectively, you must speak the right language..." 2

Pastor and youth leader: if your young people are sitting on their hands during praise and worship time, the problem is in THEIR HEARTS, not the church's music! If you feed your kids the Rock and Rap slop they demand, they'll learn a new language alright - Satan's.

You know what? Once you start playing that game, they NEVER WILL BE satisfied, no matter what you do! "Give 'em what they want at any cost." Where's that found in the Bible? If you've got a youth group that's acting like poor, pampered little pouters, then demand their respect by refusing to cater to their rebellion.

In fairness to the kids, many youth won't give up THEIR idolatry because the youth leaders won't give up THEIRS! (Jeremiah 5:31). Incidentally, the kids aren't supposed to run the church! God gave the man behind the pulpit that responsibility, and he is subject to Jesus Christ (Titus 1:7-2:1).

Churches in general demand very little (if anything) from their youth today. There's plenty of busywork - plays, skits, pizza parties, roller rinks, bowling alleys and water parks. But where's the hard, dedicated service? It's gone the way of the all-night prayer vigil, the family altar and godly teens. Dead and buried.

The results are obvious - weak, spiritually flabby Christian youth with no roots. This eventually leads to a stiff-necked generation who proudly parade spiritual arrogance, all the while mistaking it for holiness. It's the trap of the Pharisee mindset: "We've got it together. We know what we're doing and NOTHING is going to change our mind."

Praise God for the holy remnant. Not ALL churches are this way (Isaiah 1:9). If you feel alone in your stand against 'Christian" Rock, be encouraged. The Lord Jesus is watching and your labor is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).

5.) "No young person is going to stay in a stuffy" church. You've got to have some excitement! We've got to give the kids what they want or we'll lose them. Right?"

Wrong! If the only thing keeping the youth in your church is "Christian" Rock music, then let them go! If that's the glue holding the youth group together, you don't really have a youth group. To say that you must have Rock or the kids won't come is to dishonor and demean the drawing power of the Holy Ghost (John 6:44, 12:32). This ad for CCM star Morgan Cryar's music is a perfect case in point:

"Fuel On The Fire - A good pop/rock sound for the teen-age audience. The songs deal with youth issues and situations without being preachy." 3
Without being "preachy." To hear the CCM industry tell it, preaching the uncompromising Word of God is a fate worse than death. Someone might get turned off, and ruin their whole day. What does the Bible say?

"For the PREACHING of the cross is to them that perish I foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a PREACHER?" Romans 10:14

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; PREACH the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." 2 Timothy 4:1,2 (Emphasis author's).
If your church is dead, dry or 'stuffy," then let some of the starch out! The Church should never be an organization; it's an organism - a living, vibrant body of believers.

If your church is full of snoring pew bums, don't think young people don't know it. They can spot a phoney a mile away. Give those kids something scriptural worth respecting, and they will. Keep feeding them gimmicks like 'Christian" Rock, and you'll soon have contempt and rebellion coming out your ears (Proverbs 18:3).

SUBMISSION VS. REBELLION
The real battle is not about a musical generation gap, it's about SUBMISSION vs. REBELLION. Submission is the hallmark of the Christian life. Without it, all you have is counterfeit spirituality. To resist the devil, you must first be submitted to God (James 4:7). Since C-Rock fans aren't truly submitted, they'll never be able to resist Satan, no matter how often they sing "To Hell With The Devil" (by Stryper).

The classic hymns so despised by youth today were all about SUBMISSION; that's why carnal Christians want no part of them.

Songs like: "Washed In The Blood," "Haven of Rest," "Jesus Paid It All," "To God Be The Glory," "Lord, I'm Coming Home," "Victory In Jesus," "Have Thine Own Way, Lord," "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross," "Take My Life And Let It Be," "I Surrender All," "Jesus Is All The World To Me." These are all songs of SUBMISSION.

Here's a lyrical example from just one of them:

"Have thine own way, Lord/ Have thine own way/ Thou art the potter/ I am the clay/ Mold me and make me/ After thy will/ While I am waiting/ Yielded and still..."
Now read these C-Rock lyrics to see the difference between submission and rebellion:

ROCK THOSE BLUES AWAY - Bride

"I don't need nobody to ease my aching mind. Don't need nobody complaining all the time. I need to roll those blues, rock those blues away... Let me tell you honey, what I need. I need a smooth playing guitar in my hand. Listen to the rhythm of my band."
Lots of godly submission in that one, isn't there?

If none of this describes your church, then shout hallelujah to the Lord, and back your pastor 100%, because he's standing strong against deception!

The 1990's will see the most intense war for the souls of youth ever fought, and it's getting hotter by the day. The carnal, C-Rock supporting Church has already cut deals with the antichrist system (whether they know it or not). And they will cut many more in the weeks and months to come. Is YOUR church one of them?

6.) No one can live under those kind of rules! That's too hard and legalistic!

This is the most popular excuse in all of CCM. Submission to God cramps people's style. Someone might actually have to give up their desires and change their lives to make them conform to God's will. How harsh of God to ask us to obey Him.

Fortunately, Jesus was willing to obey the Father and give up the glory of Heaven to come to a filthy earth and die for our sins. Because of Christ's obedience, we can have eternal life. Where would we be now if Jesus Christ had used excuse # 6? (We'd be in hell.)

2 Timothy 4:3 predicted a time when Christians will not endure sound doctrine (That time is here right now). Isaiah 30:8-14 says many of God's people only want to hear "smooth things." The CCM stars are fulfilling these scriptures! They're trading sound doctrine for slick, carnal compromise by telling masses of believers that:

A. Music is neutral.

B. Jesus was a "cool dude" who would never want you to have a boring day, and

C. It'll all work out in the end, as long as you "feel good" about what you're doing.

This is rank apostasy of the worst sort, but plenty of duped Christians are eating it up like candy. Why? Because it's just what they want to hear.

Legalism is defined like this: LAWS WITHOUT LOVE. Pursuing Biblical holiness isn't legalism; it's real freedom! Knowing the truth sets people free, according to John 8:31,32.

Here's the truth, if you'll receive it: C-Rock music and everything it represents is satanic because it blocks the path to self-denial, purity, holiness and total devotion to the Lord Jesus.

There's only one foundation, and that's Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). What we build on it is up to us. When that foundation gets cracked, weedy and full of garbage, it's time to clear aside the spiritual stumbling blocks and haul off the trash (Jeremiah 1:4-10). That's not legalism. It's repentance in action.

7.) I can't serve a God out of fear. Jesus is about love, and this music shows kids that.

There's nothing wrong with a good holy fear of God. Those who truly love God WILL fear Him. The awesome, knee-shaking fear of God is a theme conspicuously absent from C-Rock music. (See Daniel 10:7-10, Isaiah 6:1-5, Ezekiel 1:28, 3:23, Hebrews 12:18-21, & Revelation 1:12-17). The C-Rock crowd is a perfect picture of what happens to people when there is no fear of God before their eyes.

Psalm 40:3 says our conversion will put a NEW song in our mouth that will cause those who hear it to FEAR! (Does C-Rock do that? They're too busy dancing!)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, (Psalm 111:10). Only by fearing God can we know what true godly love is. The fear of God is as Biblical as John 3:16.

8.) There's more important things in the church to worry about than music.

Satan would love for you to believe that lie. If "Christian" Rock is in your church, you've already got deception, rebellion and soul pollution in the minds of your young people. Anything more important than that?

If church leadership will diligently look, they'll see that MUSIC is a prime key to the spiritual health (or sickness) of any church. Preaching, teaching and the Great Commission are all major elements of the Body of Christ. And so is music.

Don't ever sell it short.

9.) Times have changed. It's time we changed too. The old ways don't work any more. We"ve got to update our approach and try something new. "Christian" Rock is the tool to better ministry.

Those "old ways" you are tossing onto the garbage heap just so happen to be God's ways. They've worked for thousands of years, and no matter what any C-Rock fan tells you, they still work today.

When holy servants of God pray and clearly preach the Gospel, the Holy Spirit still convicts hearts and draws lost sinners unto repentance. Souls are still being saved every day. Here's how God sees it:

Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16

Do you dare to claim you've got a better plan for soulwinning than outlined in the Bible? If you do, I'd like to hear it., because that means you're smarter than God.

10.) As long as kids are getting saved, nothing else matters. So butt out, buddy.

When you reach this point in any discussion about CCM and all its ungodliness, it's time to stop., shake off the dust and move on. Any believer so bound will never understand the difference between the flesh and the spirit until God Himself makes it real to them.

They don't understand that fleshly lusts war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11). They won't accept the fact that flesh and spirit cannot peacefully co-exist (Galatians 5:16,17).

These are the people who go to dark "Christian" nightclubs and boogey all over the "Christian" dancefloor, while listening to "Christian" Rock. After all, the torture Jesus endured on the cross doesn't mean we can't have any fun. Right? God's heart breaks over such foolishness:

"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him." 2 Corinthians 11:3,4

The Church of Jesus Christ has ignored the obvious for far too long. Excuses can be made from now until judgment Day, but none of them will change one simple fact: there's nothing Christian about "Christian" Rock. You can make a list of excuses a mile long, but that's all they are - excuses.

My prayer is that you will see that God wants you to crucify your old flesh (Galatians 2:20) so Christ can live His life through you. I pray Jesus will change your affections form the inside out. Then you can learn to walk with God in ways you never thought possible.

It's the only way out of bondage, and I pray you'll take it.

FEEL FREE TO MAKE COPIES

If leadership in your church is pro-"Christian" Rock, feel free to photocopy this chapter as well as chapter 17 as a scriptural witness to them.

[Psalm 51:17]

Part 1 of 4

[Psalm 51:17]

Part 2



Part 3



Part 4