Eph_5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Col_3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
"THE PURPOSE OF THIS POST IS TO SHOW THE OPINIONS AND IDEAS THAT MAY AFFECT THE NEXT GENERATIONS... WE SHOULD BE CAREFUL TO LEAVE A CLEAR PATH TO THE NEXT GENERATION THAT THE CHANGES MUST BE GOD'S CLEAR WAY AND NOT A NEW TACTIC OF SATAN TO DESTROY WHAT WE HAVE FOUGHT FOR... JUDGE WELL BECAUSE WE WILL FACE JESUS IN THE BEMA... WE ARE NOT TO JUDGE HERE BY OPINION BUT BY THE CLEAR WORD OF GOD"
Music — An expression of a thought or idea, expressed through notes, pitch and harmony.
Music is one of the most influential things in the universe. Its purpose is divine. It is to worship God, and bring Him glory.
Here is why music is important to God
(1)The Psalms is the hymnbook of the Bible. It has 150 chapters.
(2) God responses to music [II Chronicles 5:12-14
(3) Angels sang at Jesus birth [Luke 2:8-14].
(4) Songs will be sung in heaven [Revelation 15:3-5]
(5) A trumpet will sound at our final calling [II Thessalonians 4:16]
(6)It is used as a distress call — Paul and Silas [Acts 16:22]
(7) It is used after a victory [Exodus 15:1- 10,21]
Music greatly affects the entirety of a person. Because music is vibration, it can easily be transmitted to a person who also receives and transmits vibration.Music affects a person...
1. Physically - Good music — increases eyesight by 25%, allows you to digest food better. Makes plant grow a few times more than normal plant growth. Bad music
— Gives headache, causes indigestion, kills plants
2. Mentally
(1 )What the musician believes greatly affects the listener even if the musician doesn’t say a word
(2) Information, attitude, idea, philosophy and even religion can be passed mentally through music.
3. Spiritually
(1)It either makes you strong or weak spiritually.
(2)Spiritual songs from God can help you flee temptation and calm fears.
(3) Check Christians who listen to rock music and you’ll find worldly, hardheaded, rebellious and wrong attituded Christians.
(4) Satan and his crowd back up rock music.
WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD NOT LISTEN TO THE WORLD’S MUSIC
(1 )The singers defy the name of God through its lyrics — Exodus 20:7
(2)It is a fountain of rebellion, because Rock Music is actually an expression of rebellion to authority. (Ex. God, Parents, Law)
(3)Because of the lifestyle, philosophy, beliefs and practices of the artists.
(4)Because the lyrics and philosophy of the songs agrees with the Satanic Church by Anton Lavey. (5)Satan uses it to control your mind, and then your life.
(6)It is against God’s will. — Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 6:1-3; Ephesians 4:24
(7)The world’s music teaches that salvation is by works, not by faith in Christ Jesus alone.
HOW TO FIGHT SATAN’S MUSIC
(1.)Decide never to listen or sing Satan’s music
(2.) Decide to replace it with God’s music. Always sing true Christian music.
(3). Burn those worldly records. (Don’t give them away).
(4)Stand on the word of God. (Ephesians 6:10-19).
(5)Be a soul winner. Have a burden for others who are bond by the devil and are going to hell.
(6)Put God first in your life. (Matthew 6:33).
(7)Love Him above all. (Mark 12:30)
“When the standard of music is lowered, then the standard of dress is also lowered. When the standard of dress is lowered, then the standard of conduct is also lowered. When the standard of conduct is lowered, then the sense of value in God’s truth is lowered.”
"In the past ten years a large percentage of churches in America, and in other countries have changed from a traditional New Testament church model to a contemporary Purpose Driven model, many with sorrowful results..
°Change in music to a contemporary rock style.
.•Removal of hymn books; eliminating the choir.
.•Replacement of organ and piano with heavy metal instruments
.•Repetitive singing of praise lyrics.
.•Dressing down to casual and informal attire.
CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC WEAKENS THE FUNDAMENTALIST STANCE OF A CHURCH
A final reason why we are opposed to Contemporary Christian Music is that when it comes into a church (or into the life of an individual) it weakens the church’s fundamentalist stance and results in a gradual lowering of standards of morality and doctrine.
The late Gordon Sears, who had an evangelistic music ministry for many years and ministered with Rudy Atwood, was saddened before his death by the dramatic change that was occurring in many fundamental Baptist churches. He warned: “When the standard of music is lowered, then the standard of dress is also lowered. When the standard of dress is lowered, then the standard of conduct is also lowered. When the standard of conduct is lowered, then the sense of value in God’s truth is lowered.”
Frank Garlock of Majesty Music warns, “If a church starts using CCM it will eventually lose all other standards” (Garlock, Bob Jones University Chapel, March 12, 2001).
The late fundamentalist leader Ernest Pickering gave a similar warning: “Perhaps nothing precipitates a slide toward New Evangelicalism more than the introduction of Contemporary Christian Music. This inevitably leads toward a gradual slide in other areas as well until the entire church is infiltrated by ideas and programs alien to the original position of the church.”
We can see this happening on every hand today.
CONSIDER THE EXAMPLE OF LANDMARK BAPTIST CHURCH, CINCINNATI, OHIO. It used to be an old-fashioned Baptist church with old-fashioned standards of music and dress and a commitment to the old English Bible.
In the 1990s the church took at turn away from its roots and at the heart of this change was music. In 1996 the church brought in a Campus Crusade band that played “high energy ‘50s and ‘60s rock and roll.”
In 2001, Mat Holman became the pastor. The church web site says, “Being a firm believer that church should be fun and on the edge, Matt puts all his energy into making Landmark a place where everyone belongs.”
The church now features a teen ministry called EnterRuption. “The purpose of EnterRuption is to create a relevant environment for students to bring their friends. We utilize a live band (secular and Christian music), dramas, skits and a relevant message.” I wonder if Paul’s message on Mars Hill, in which he boldly rebuked his listeners’ idolatry and demanded repentance, was “relevant”? I have a sneaking suspicion that the messages presented at EnterRuption aren’t exactly Acts 17 in nature. Somehow, such a message doesn’t fit an atmosphere geared toward “fun” and bathed in rock and roll.
The pop group Jump5 performed at Landmark Baptist Church on Dec. 6, 2003. “The music of the Nashville-based group is thoroughly modern pop, high-spirited and 100% fun.”
CONSIDER THE EXAMPLE OF BETHLEHEM BAPTIST CHURCH IN FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA. This church illustrates the changes that contemporary music brings. At one time this church was an old-fashioned Baptist church that believed in separation and was committed to the King James Bible, but for many years the church has been moving ever more gradually in a contemporary direction. By the time the 2002 Baptist Bible Fellowship International conference was held here the contemporary “worship team” was led by four women.
Today the Bethlehem Baptist Church has much gone about as far as you can go away from its roots in the matter of standards. In a letter dated July 3, 2003, Pastor David Stokes said: “With regard to dress and modesty issues, we enforce NO RULE on our folks. … apparel issues are really of NO CONCERN to us” (emphasis added).
If the pastor really means what he says, then it would be fitting for a Sunday School teacher to come in her bikini! Of course, the pastor probably wouldn’t allow that, which proves that what he really means is that he has rejected the OLD strict conservative Bible standards and has replaced them with his NEW loose worldly standards. All churches draw lines in dress, but while some draw them using biblical principles, others draw them using the world’s principles. Of course, the latter group consistently labels the first group mean-spirited legalists.
Stokes also led the church to drop its “King James Only” clause from the by-laws and he now preaches from the New American Standard Version and the New Living Translation, among others.
In recent years the church’s name was changed from Bethlehem Baptist Church to Fair Oaks Church.
One of the church’s ministries is Skate Night, which is sponsored by secular skateboarding companies. Thus the church is blatantly yoking together with unbelievers in open defiance of Scripture (2 Cor. 6:14-18). A description of Skate Night was given by a local newspaper: “CHRISTIAN ROCK THROBS inside the small gymnasium off West Ox Road in Fairfax, just a few decibels louder than the clacking of wheels. ... It’s Sunday night and more than 170 teenagers and young adults -- all but one of them male -- line the walls of the Bethlehem Baptist Church gym, waiting their turn to grind and swoop and dive over a maze of makeshift ramps and rails” (Washington Post, April 4, 2001).
The church testifies that it is using rock music and skateboarding to win young people to Christ, but the Skate Night web site’s gospel presentation is so weak as to be almost meaningless:
“We’re not talking about religion; we’re talking about a relationship. It’s about recognizing that you are not perfect. We’ve all made mistakes. From pimping and drug abuse to telling a little white lie, we are all in need of a Savior. He doesn’t care what you look like, what bad things you have done, or even how good you may think you are. He just wants you to know Him!”
That is not the gospel message that we find in the New Testament. There is no clear explanation of man’s sin. There is nothing about God’s holiness and justice, nothing about what Jesus did to become our Saviour, nothing about His death, burial, and resurrection. Nothing about the blood. There is nothing whatsoever about repentance or turning. And as for God not caring how good a person might think he is, He most certainly does, because if a person thinks of himself as good in any sense, he cannot be saved. Someone might get saved through Fair Oaks Church’s Skate Night ministry, but it would be in spite of its gospel presentation and not because of it.
The Bethlehem Baptist Church paper in 2002 featured a photo of the church’s new Youth Pastor, Rob Hoerr. Bedecked with a goatee, an earring, and a P.O.D. T-shirt, this independent Baptist youth director is proudly promoting the Christian rock lifestyle.
P.O.D. is a rock band. The initials are supposed to stand for Payable On Death. The tattoo-covered band members curse in interviews, smoke, watch R-rated movies, and criticize kids “who want to segregate themselves from the world.” The group’s leader said, “Jesus was the first rebel. He was the first punk rocker going against all the rest of it” (Sonny of P.O.D., www.shoutweb.com/interviews/pod0700.phtml). In another interview, P.O.D. said, “We’re not passing out pamphlets saying ‘Get your life straight or you’re gonna burn in hell” (Sonny, Guitar World, Oct 2000, p. 78). Sonny says, “I like Slayer. I like Manson. I like music and this dark imagery” (2001 interview with Theresa McKeon of Shoutweb titled “P.O.D. The Fundamental Elements of God Rock”). He is talking about the antichrist rocker Marilyn Manson. P.O.D. guitarist Marcos says, “You know, everyone is free to rock ---. When we go on stage we go crazy. We are like four guys you should put in a mental hospital” (interview with Hwee Hwee Tan of Singapore, October 2002).
Is that the example you want your young people to follow, dear parents? I say woe unto the worldly youth directors who are leading young people in such paths, and woe unto those pastors who appoint such youth directors!
Thus we can see that Bethlehem Baptist Church has gone a long way down the road from its roots as a conservative, fundamentalist Baptist church, and music is at the very heart of the changes.
CONSIDER THE EXAMPLE OF TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN. This church was pastored by J. Frank Norris from 1935 to 1950 and by G. Beauchamp Vick from 1950 to 1975. In past days, it was the most prominent church in the Baptist Bible Fellowship International (BBFI). Vick was one of the founders of the BBFI in 1950 and was president of Baptist Bible College. It was a conservative, fundamental Baptist church that eschewed ecumenism, preached strong Bible doctrine, and promoted holy living and separation from the world. It also used only the King James Bible. Preaching in 1975 at the 25th anniversary of the founding of the BBFI, G.B. Vick said:
“It’s become fashionable to use many different versions of the Bible today. ... Listen! This King James Version, our English Bible, the Bible of our fathers and mothers, is the one that has come floating down to us upon the blood of Christian martyrs, our forefathers. It has been, I say, the one text of the Baptist Bible College, and it will be as long as I have anything to do with this school! [loud amens and applause] ... Let’s stick to the old Book.”
In those days at Temple Baptist Church it was the old Book and the old Paths, but that changed in the 1990s.
In 1990 the church got a young new pastor named Brad Powell, and he began to lead the church into a contemporary direction.
The church’s music today is described at its web site: “The PRAISE BANDS provide music for all services. The Praise Bands consist of the piano, synthesizer, acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums.”
The church began having CCM concerts in the early 1990s, starting out with the softer rock groups. In September 1993, for example, they had Steve Camp. By October 1996, they featured Michael Card, who is radically ecumenical, working with Roman Catholic John Michael Talbot (who prays to Mary) and claiming that denominational distinctives are not important.
The music style of the CCM groups at Northridge Church has gotten ever harder. In September 2003, the church hosted Sonic Flood, and Charlie Hall was scheduled to be there in October. In September 2003, the church was scheduled to host Darlene Zschech (pronounced check), who promotes ecumenism and unscriptural charismatic doctrines and practices.
In February 2000 Temple Baptist Church changed its name to Northridge Church of Plymouth, Michigan, after taking a survey of the community and finding out that most people don’t like the name Baptist.
CONSIDER THE EXAMPLE OF SOUTHSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH, GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA. This church was founded in September 1946. From 1965 to 1996 it was pastored by Walt Handford. His wife Elizabeth is one of the daughters of the famous fundamentalist evangelist John R. Rice, founder of the Sword of the Lord. It was long associated with the Southwide Baptist Fellowship. It was an old-fashioned fundamental Baptist church until the 1990s.
Elizabeth Rice Handford is editorial consultant of Joyful Woman magazine, which in the 1990s began to feature ecumenical personalities such as James Dobson and Elisabeth Elliot, both of whom have non-critical affiliations with the Roman Catholic Church.
In September 1993, Southside Baptist Church hosted Ray Boltz for a CCM concert.
That same year Southside gave up the King James Bible in favor of the NIV. In support of this move, the speaker at Southside for the Sunday evening service, September 12, 1993, was Kenneth Barker, chairman of the New International Version translation committee.
By 1994 the church had a staff member who was also employed by the extremely ecumenical Campus Crusade for Christ. In an interview with Charisma magazine in 2001, Campus Crusade founder Bill Bright described his philosophy: “I have felt that God led me many years ago to build bridges. I’m a Presbyterian . . . and yet I work with everybody who loves Jesus, whether they be charismatic or Catholic, Orthodox or mainliners. ... I’m not an evangelical. I’m not a fundamentalist.”
In 1996, Charles Boyd became pastor of Southside Baptist Church. He is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, both of which are New Evangelical to the core.
Southside Baptist Church recently changed its name to Southside Fellowship.
It is good that these churches are changing their names, because they are certainly changing their philosophy. In each case, they will profess that they have not changed anything important. Brad Powell of Northridge (formerly Temple Baptist of Detroit) claims that by following church growth guru Bill Hybels of Willowcreek, he has not changed anything of significance. For those who have eyes to see, this subterfuge won’t fly. If Temple Baptist Church was right and scriptural in its early days, Northridge Church is wrong today, and if Northridge Church is right and scriptural today, the old Temple Baptist was wrong. The doctrine and practice and philosophy of the old church and the new are not compatible. For the Bible believer, the choice between the contemporary church growth philosophy and the old traditional fundamentalist philosophy is not “both and,” it is “either or.”
The pastors who follow the contemporary church growth principles claim that they are not changing doctrine, only style. That is simply not true. Many of the so-called “style” changes are doctrinal. To allow church members to dress immodestly like the world without any reproof or correction is a doctrinal issue. To borrow the music that the world uses for sexual pleasure and to incorporate that very music into the church program is a doctrinal issue. To claim that music is neutral is a doctrinal issue. To yoke ecumenically with charismatics and such is a doctrinal issue. To say that preaching should focus on the positive is a doctrinal issue. To take Matthew 7:1 and Romans 14:4 out of context to approve a non-judgmental, doctrinally non-controversial approach to the Christian ministry is a doctrinal issue. To use community surveys for planning church policy is a doctrinal issue. To adopt a New Evangelical philosophy is a doctrinal issue.
When a church changes its “style” in these areas, it is undergoing a radical doctrinal change; and continual boasting to the contrary is mere noise without meaning and only deceives the willfully blind. There is little doubt that J. Frank Norris and G. Beauchamp Vick would consider the current “style” at Northridge doctrinal issues.
Therefore, we believe Gordon Sears was right when he said: “When the standard of music is lowered, then the standard of dress is also lowered. When the standard of dress is lowered, then the standard of conduct is also lowered. When the standard of conduct is lowered, then the sense of value in God’s truth is lowered.”
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LD Foreman 1913-1984
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