Squeezed into a Mould? 3
By Mark Stapleton
And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2
Mr. Stapleton continues with his timely warnings about contemporary worship music and its allowing the world to squeeze the church into its mould.
Matt Redman – author of the song “Jesus Christ, I think upon your sacrifice,” “Bless the Lord oh my soul..,” is another one who is very much ecumenical in his beliefs, and practices. He is keen on secular rock and roll; his favourite performers are the Beatles, and he is glad for his children to be brought up on their music. At one time he was working with Terry Virgo at the New Frontiers church of Christ the King in Brighton – the same church that Stuart Townend attends. New Frontiers is a church network which believes in Apostolic appointments as well as accepting Contemporary Christian Worship.
Brian Doerksen, author of “From Everlasting to Everlasting (You Are God),” and “Faithful One, so unchanging,” is affiliated to the Vineyard churches of Canada.
Darlene Zschech, author of “My Jesus, my Saviour” has published “worship” songs under the Hillside Music label. She is also associated with Integrity Music and the Hosanna label. Her church, in Sydney Australia, features a large rock band with five back-up singers and a Word-Faith prosperity message. She is keen on ecumenical unity. She participated in Harvest ’03 in Newcastle, NSW, Australia, which included an ecumenical rock concert.
Twila Paris, author of “He is exalted”, preaches an ecumenical message through his life, ministry, and music.
Gloria and William Gaither, authors of “God sent His Son,” believe that any type of “raunchy music” (David Cloud’s words) can be used for the glory of God. He has admitted that he has changed his style of music due to the influence of the world’s culture. He also believes that there is a place for “Christian rock” music. When Bill (William) “entertained” a 15,000-strong audience some years ago, the music was so worldly and loud, that some people left with their hands over their ears! He has an ecumenical agenda and has “performed” at large ecumenical/charismatic gatherings.
There are other aspects of CCM that are disturbing and unhelpful. Many CCM authors and musicians have their own Web-sites. These show their latest music CDs promoting a following of musicians’ talents, and give updates on musical entertainment tours. They give the appearance of running a well organised fan-club, and are little different from the world’s pop-stars. They seem unaware that they clearly show a departure from Christian values and Biblical principles. Words for the songs written are often penned in an irregular metre. This means that the accompanying music is unique to the words, thus making it more difficult for the musician, who should have alternative tunes available, but has no possibility of avoiding the secular “pop” style.
It is a great temptation to ask the question: “What can we do to get people into the church? What about the young people – should we not listen to what they want?” It is often the case of satisfying their desires, instead of attending to what they need: good solid Bible teaching and true discipleship to Christ.
Let us not be conformed to this world and those who preach a false Gospel, but firmly fix our eyes on the One whom we seek to follow and obey – the Lord Jesus Christ. It has been said that if you want to change a church then change its hymn book. One of the problems has been that hymn books have appeared that incorporate CCM material alongside “traditional” hymns – i.e. those that have stood the test of time, and which were written by authors who knew their God. Such hymn books have caused confusion and have led to a weakening of doctrine, and introduce music which moves closer to that of the world’s pop scene. We know that “Christian Hymns” (Old Version) has been used for a number of years since it was introduced in 1977 by the Evangelical Movement of Wales (EMW). It had been accepted as a good, strongly Biblical collection of traditional hymns. After 25 years, EMW felt that the time had come to issue the New Christian Hymns. Because this new hymnbook had departed from the strong Biblical basis of the Old Christian Hymns and was now incorporating CCM, and other changes, a group of ministers met in March 2005 to commence the process of producing a new hymnbook – “Christian Worship.” The new book was based on 5 principles –
1. The inclusion of a complete metrical Psalter.
2. The inclusion of many paraphrases and other Scriptural portions.
3. The inclusion of only traditional hymns, and not modern worship songs.
4. The retention of the second person singular, “Thee,” “Thou,” and “Thine,” etc.
5. The rejection of anything authored from within the charismatic Movement.
With regard to point 4 above, it is interesting to note that the producers of another hymnbook, “Praise,” decided to omit the Thee, Thou and Thine. As this often necessitates changing other words, different doctrinal meanings are sometimes introduced which are not according to the original hymn writer’s intention. This may also make the hymns more difficult to sing. “Mission Praise,” came out of Billy Graham’s Mission England of the 1980s, and includes CCM hymns. Among them was Graham Kendrick’s –“Shine Jesus, shine.” Such a “song” is an example of CCM used by churches who once maintained adherence to a strong Reformed faith.
So what else can we say about the effect of CCM and how it causes churches and their people to be “conformed to this world”? Does it matter if a church does go over to CCM, whether using such hymns occasionally or regularly? Let me suggest a few pointers –
1. It means leaving the long-held understanding that the popular music of the world is not the right vehicle for Biblical truths.
In the current generation the pop culture is the culture of godlessness and rebellion. The church has to maintain a distinction in the music used for the worship of God. “Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them” in today’s world (Ezekiel 22:26).
There must be a marked distinction between sacred and secular. Isaiah 52:11 declares, “Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.” And 2 Corinthians 6:17, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you …”
2. CCM is not sound in doctrine.
Although the church may try to retain a Biblical “basis of faith,” the congregation’s ability to discern the true from the false is affected. “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or ifye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him” (2 Corinthians 11:4).
3. CCM may make the non-Christian feel at home: the church begins to fear anything that may disturb this.
Gradually the preaching is affected, sin, judgement and repentance being soft-pedalled.
4. CCM not only blurs the distinction between the church and the world, it also blurs distinctions between denominations.
Its lack of doctrinal clarity makes it well suited to ecumenical gatherings.
5. How can we square the mixture of truth and error with the One who is the Spirit of truth?
John 16:13 “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, thatshall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”
6. CCM departs from the Biblical teaching that rational worship should be our response to truth received by the mind.
CCM aims at stirring up the emotions and by-passes the understanding. Their ecstatic type of worship seeks to achieve a warm, happy feeling in order to manufacture a sense of God’s presence, and uses music, movement and other emotional stimulants to achieve this. God’s Word is quite clear, John 4:24, “God is a Spirit, and those that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth.” Worship in any other way is dishonouring to God and cannot be accepted. Ecstatic worship is a reversal of the Reformation: the Church of Rome hits the emotions in a slightly different way, with “bells and smells,” stained glass windows and beautiful music with words in a foreign language.
Consider by contrast, Exodus 4:31 “And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.” Psalm 47:7 “For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.” 1 Corinthians 14:15 “What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.”
7. Our worship should be reverent.
Psalm 89:7 “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.”
8. Our worship is to be governed by the Word of God.
In the Old Testament the people of Israel were to obey that which was laid down in respect of worship. The Book of Leviticus taught the Israelites that they must come into God’s presence to worship Him in His way. The language of heaven in the Book of the Revelation shows the redeemed saints bowing down in worship. Revelation 7:9-11 “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God …”
9. Worship is “words” – whether spoken, prayed, sung, preached etc. Revelation 7:11-12 “…saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.” CCM blurs the thinking and leads to a worldly form of worship.
10. We are living in times when perilous days shall come, when people will look and hunger after anything but the truth of God’s word.
2 Timothy 3:1 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” 2 Timothy 4:3,4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
11. We are in the presence of the Almighty and Holy God when we come to worship.
Psalm 96:9 “O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.”
12. When we come to worship we are to recognise God as our Maker.
Psalm 95:6 “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.”
13. The Old Testament has plenty to say about separation from the world. Time and again God warned His people not to worship the idols/gods of the nations around them; not to adopt their evil ways and not to inter-marry with them. For example, later in life, King Solomon “married many wives” who “turned his heart after foreign gods.” This is recorded in 1 Kings 11: 1-3. Such warnings are also in Exodus 34:14-16; Deuteronomy 7:3,4; 31:16-18; 2 Chronicles 7:17-22.
14. Unless Christian worship, work and service is based upon the Word of God, it is man-made, and will be of no spiritual and eternal value.
Psalm 127:1 “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it …”
15. This jeopardises our young people, who are almost certain to meet CCM when they leave us for college or university.
Unwarned of the dangers, attracted by the different atmosphere, they may be led into charismatic/ecumenical circles.
Christians who take a stand on this matter are often accused of putting forward their “personal preferences.” This is to doubt the sincerity of brethren whose sole desire is to warn the churches of the danger they could so easily fall into.
I know that a lot has been said about CCM, because of its rapidly spreading influence on the Christian church. But let us not lose sight of the fact that this is only one part of the Contemporary Christian Worship (CCW) scene. There is also the influence of the Charismatic and ecumenical movements as has already been mentioned; three inter-related movements bringing strong pressure upon Bible believing churches.
A book of Christian Biographies by Dr Peter Masters includes a chapter about Philip Bliss, the hymn writer, who lived 1838 to 1876, and composed the hymn, “Man of sorrows! What a name …” His friend Dr Gardiner of Chicago says, “Too often the Lord’s house is turned into a concert hall and the service of song made a device for filling pews. The minister comes to his duties in the pulpit after the world, the flesh and the devil have set things moving to their liking. Little wonder, the preaching in such circumstances saves few souls.”
Spurgeon, in his day, would accept virtually any hymn, as long as the words were doctrinally correct, whatever its origin. However, we are living in very different days from Spurgeon’s time. Things have changed so much. Unfortunately, in today’s world it seems that anything goes, whatever the music and words are, and whoever composed them. There is an even greater need to be able to discern wholesome words and music and to find out who wrote them. We have to keep in mind the twofold agenda of CCM writers: to encourage popular, secular style music in the church; to encourage all, catholic and protestant, liberal and evangelical, to “sing from the same hymn sheet.”
Let every Christian and every church consider their standing before God and ensure that they are not conformed to the world, but are transformed by the renewing of their minds. And why should they do this? “that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Remember the words of our Lord in Luke 11:23 “He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.” To the outside world, the fact that we use CCM and CCW in our times of worship, shows that we are identified with them and their worldly influences. We are being identified with something that is not of God nor Scriptural.
The late Rev Vernon Higham wrote a forward to the 2015 Revised words edition of the new hymnbook “Christian Worship.” In it he said, “The hymns that we sing have a profound effect upon our attitude in the worship of God and should encourage reverence in our services. The hymns that we sing have a profound effect upon what we believe. What we sing, we ultimately believe and, therefore, it is essential that we keep close to the principles and truths of Scripture in the choice of material that we use. Such principles must be jealously guarded in the days in which we live. We must keep faithfully to the truths of the Bible and yet, at the same time, maintain a spiritual warmth.”
In January of 2006 a BBC documentary was shown on television, depicting the life and working of the Royal Yacht Britannia, before it was de-commissioned. The commentator described the arrival of the Queen, and made the remark that everything that is done on board ship must always be focused on her Majesty, and that nothing must be done to divert attention away from her. In our times of worship, we too, as Christians must always focus entirely on our Saviour, and ensure that nothing will divert our attention away from Him. This applies particularly in today’s world where the pressure to compromise our worship by using Contemporary Christian Worship and Music is upon us. The crew on board the Royal Yacht Britannia always knew when her Majesty was expected to come aboard. We do not know when our Saviour will return for His Church or take us to be with Himself, but we must always be ready for that Day.
There is a marked decline in the distinctiveness of the true Christian church. Some “churches” have nothing to distinguish them from the culture around them. Many churches try to use worldly methods as well as trying to teach the truth from God’s Word. This has disastrous effects and is not glorifying to our God. What is the remedy for this situation?
1. We must separate ourselves from those who practise such things.
How important it is to shun such things.
2. We must warn others, especially our young people. To use CCM and other CCW practices in our churches is to be guilty by association.
Let us not be squeezed into the world’s mould but always look to our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to the Authority of His Holy Word, the Bible, for guidance and for blessing. Bible believing churches must be strong and strive to maintain, and seek from Almighty God, a spirit of discernment in the lives of members and ministers of the Gospel.
Some helpful reading –
“The Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians” – David Cloud – Way of Life Literature.
See also, “The Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians” – David Cloud – for purchase through the Way of Life Literature web-site, or available as a free Download at
https://www.wayoflife.org/free_ebooks/directory-of-contemporary-worship.php
“Worship in the melting pot” – Dr Peter Masters – The Wakeman Trust.
“They Have Forgotten…” – R E Palgrave – Unity in Truth Literature.
“Alpha – New Life or New Lifestyle?” – Elizabeth McDonald – St Matthew Publishing.
“Falling short? The Alpha Course examined” – Chris Hand – Day One.
“Words of Truth 3 – Praise! – A Critique” – John Thackway – Bible League Trust.
“Words of Truth 5 The New Christian Hymns A Critique” – John Thackway – Bible League Trust.
“Pop goes the Gospel” – John Blanchard, Peter Anderson & Derek Cleave.
“It’s Not About The Music – a journey into Worship” – Dan Lucarini.
“Graham Kendrick: A Health Warning to the Churches” – Alan Howe – the Journal of the Christian Research Network, Summer/Autumn 2000.
“A Musician’s Perspective on Contemporary Christian Music” – Neil McGovern – From: The Sword & Trowel 2015, issue 1.
“Lessons from the Charismatic Movement” – Pastor John Thackway, Words of Truth – 8 – Bible League Trust.
“Subversion of Evangelicalism” – a lecture given by Dr E S Williams at the gathering of the United Protestant Council in March 2013 – Web-site link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiiNk1P3mQI
“The foundations under attack – the roots of Apostasy” – Michael de Semlyen. Dorchester House Publications.
“All Roads Lead To Rome? – The Ecumenical Movement” – Michael de Semlyen. Dorchester House Publications.
“The New Calvinists – Changing the Gospel” – Dr E.S. William – The Wakeman Trust.
“The Tragedy of Compromise – the Origin and Impact of the New Evangelicalism” – Ernest D Pickering. Bob Jones University Press.