God Honoring Music

This is my view on music. For some reason or another this topic comes up more frequently when I am talking to people than any others. Perhaps it is because they know my parents believe something different, or perhaps it is because they know I went to BJU or perhaps it is because my wife Elissa's parents are missionaries with GFA. Frankly it doesn't matter. I have come to a different conclusion than they have and the following states my beliefs. I don't post this lightheartedly, or out of naivety, I post it out of a love for my family, and my desire to be as open honest and transparent as I can be.

What I have found in my experience and in my study is that Music is the MOST divisive issue in the church today. Why is that? Because we ALLOW it to be.

We have allowed a simple facet of our worship to interfere with our relationships with our fellow believers.

What a lot people don't know and many fundamentalist pastors won't admit is that the people who sit in their pews on Sunday are NOT the same people who live Monday through Saturday. 

From my experience, and my study at Bob Jones University, I realized something interesting. Around 10% of the students at BJU only listen to Hymns and Sound forth style music but of all the students at BJU over 50% listen to any music they want to outside of church. We're talking rap, rock, pop, or country. Most people will never know about this 50% because they are hypocrites. They won't tell people what they listen to. Around 20% would allow the hymns and Soundforth/Wilds style, but also would allow the sounds of Josh Groban, and easy listening. The last 20% don't have an issue with Hymns, sound-forth, easy listening, or CCM. I am in the latter category.

The funny thing is that more Christians have issues with my acceptance of CCM than with Christians who listen to their "Good 'ole rock and roll." I do not believe that there is an issue with ANY music that does not go against Philippians 4:8. The divisive part of this is that many people interpret this passage differently, the same way I came to different conclusions from my teachers, parents, and mentors.

The ultimate question is what DOES the Bible say about music. First we must assess the purpose of music. Colossians 3:16 emphasizes that music is to assist the Biblical truths to dwell in us richly. Ephesians 5:19 says that we should use music in the fellowship with one another, and in giving thanks to God. So we are told when to use music and the reason to use music, but how do we know what music we can use. Frankly you'll never find a passage in the bible that condemns a specific genre of music(Thou shalt not listen to JAZZ!"). What we find are principles to live by and to guide our choices. Colossians 3:1-3, rather than giving us a grocery list of things that are bad in music, emphasizes that whatever we use, must lead us to holiness. Psalms 150:1-6 throws this into the mix:

¹ Praise the Lord!

   Praise God in his sanctuary;
      praise him in his mighty heaven!
 ² Praise him for his mighty works;
      praise his unequaled greatness!
 ³ Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn;
      praise him with the lyre and harp!
 ⁴ Praise him with the tambourine and dancing;
      praise him with strings and flutes!
 ⁵ Praise him with a clash of cymbals;
      praise him with loud clanging cymbals.
 ⁶ Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord!

David here is describing the instruments that are used to praise the Lord. We see the brass section, we see the strings section, we see the percussion section, and even a vocal section. Verse 4 even mentions dancing. I can guarantee you that this was not the bumping and grinding dance of today, yet so many people of fundamentalist ideology throw the baby out with the bathwater. In the pagan temples there were drunken dancing orgies just like we have in night clubs today, but yet the worshipers still danced in worship of God.

The Psalmist describes every form of musical instrument possible to worship God available at the time. One can reason that these same instruments were also used in the pagan temples for worship of the gods. This is of no consequence though because I'm sure it was a different genre of music, right?

Fundamentalists often believe that there are certain genres of music must not be listened to. This stems from the idea that music is a moral entity. These people are wrong. Music is not a moral or immoral.

Music just IS.

A gun is a gun. It is not evil until an evil person gets behind it and starts murdering people

Sex is a beautiful thing until people start advocating prostitution and pornography.

Music is Music. The only possible way it can be evil is via the intent of the person performing it.

Inanimate objects cannot be moral. A gun does not have the ability to shoot someone unless the trigger is pulled. Music cannot make someone think a certain way or do things unless it is by specific intent of the person creating it.

At creation God created everything that is and ever will be. This includes music. Music is a creation of God. It is only through our perversion of beautiful things that we create monsters out of them. 

The argument that most people against CCM is guilt by association. This means that if something is associated with evil that Christians should not partake in it.

Well I say that Christians should not drive Cadillac Escalades because these vehicles are predominately driven by drug dealers and gang bangers.

I also say that Christians should not eat Chocolate because chocolate is eaten by gluttons and fat people.

Christians should not have sex because people use it to make money via prostitution and pornography.

You would say I'm crazy if I said these things, but yet fundamentalist Christians do it all the time. You can't listen to jazz because the saxophone makes a noise that people in Timbuktu use to call out demons. You can't listen to something with syncopation because that makes you want to dance and we learned earlier that we can't dance because some people like to dirty dance and we don't want people getting the wrong idea.

Many times people against CCM pull out the arguments that "We did a study and it proved that CCM is bad because. . . ."

Many times this argument is people's blood pressure goes up when they listen to CCM. Yes you're right it could. If I took someone who believes that CCM is evil and wrong and force them to listen to it, I guarantee that their blood pressure would go through the roof. The same thing would happen if I was forced to listen to Gregorian Chants; my veins would explode! Anti-CCMers pull these experiments out of thin air and expect everyone to believe them. One experiment I heard about back in the day was the houseplant experiment. How do your plants do if you expose them to different types of music. It turns out that the answers are subjective. Anti-CCMers claimed that classical grew the best plants while rockers, thought theirs grew the best.

Another argument is that the messages presented in this music is vague. Sometimes yes the meanings are vague but so are hymns sometimes. Not every song we sing has to have a direct spiritual message. Does the ittsy bittsy spider have a direct spiritual message? No but you sing it to your children. While some groups may have vague song or two, the majority of the songs are direct and many quote scripture. Shocking?

In closing I want to present a few more questions with verses as their answers for consideration.

Q.  What is the whole purpose of music anyway?
A.  Colossians 3:16 So that God’s word (His Bible truth) will dwell in us “richly”.

Q. Does God ever sing?
A.  Zephaniah 3:17 YES! Can’t you just imagine it?

Q.  How often should we use music?
A. Ephesians 5:19,20 “Always” in giving thanks to God and in our fellowship with one another.

Q.  Is God pleased when we praise Him in song?
A.  Psalm 69:30,31 Absolutely! It’s one of the best offerings we can give Him.

Q. What about musical instruments?
A.  Psalm 150:1-6 How many do you count? Instruments of all types, for all occasions,

Q.  Is music supposed to be only upbeat praises and happy songs?
A. Psalm 13:1-6 David often sang dark and depressing kinds of music but an answer of hope was always there (see verses 5 & 6).

Q.  Does the Bible tell us what songs to listen to and what not to?
A.  Colossians 3:1-3 Not exactly, but they must lead us to think of things that are holy.

Q.  What about love songs?
A.  Song Of Solomon 1:1,2 Love songs can be beautiful when sung  1) from a heart that honors God and 2) in the context of marriage. [How many popular love songs fit this criterion?]

Q.  Are there any promises for those who keep their minds pure (including music choices)?
A.  Matthew 5:8 What better reward can you ask for?

Q.  Will there be music in heaven and on the new earth
A. Revelation 14:1-3 Awesome! Would you like to be there to sing it?

(Q&A from - http://ccmwhatisit.bizland.com/biblestudy.htm)

 Nothing in Scripture forbids CCM or any other music for that matter. What we see is people in fundamental Christianity condemning CCM because of its "Roots." Most people argue that CCM is no different than any other modern secular music. I would urge you to give a sample disk of CCM to an unsaved person and ask them if they honestly like it and enjoy it. If you weren't first looked at like you were insane, you would end up finding that the non-Christian/unsaved world does not like CCM. They find it repulsive because it does not appeal to the fleshly desires they crave.

As with any activity any Christian partakes in we must measure it up to the litmus test of Scripture. If Scripture condemns something we must forsake it. If it does not condemn something, we are required to give grace.

Perhaps that's the key that we as Christians are missing. We've forgotten grace. We've forgotten what saved us and what bonds us together as Christians.

My urge is that we would stop majoring on the trivialities and differences bur rather rejoice and be united in the atoning work of our savior Jesus Christ.