Notes And Quotes For Today
The 79th Anniversary of Peoples Gospel Hour!
Here We Stand Without Compromise,
Building And Battling – IV
Battles We Must Confront And Face Today:
THE MUSIC BATTLE: This is the second vital battleground where discerning Fundamentalists must valiantly contest for the truth. Perhaps also more than the manuscript s battle, this issue is literally tearing apart sound churches today. Beloved, music is a permanent part of God’s economy. In other words music is related to theology. It convey ideas and can we understand. If music communicates ideas then we must know what sounds what. As we know that music affect us, then understanding that we can make an intelligent choice as to what kind of music we ought to have, because of the kind of effect that music has upon us. In fact music is one of the only things that was in heaven before God made the world, that we have down here on earth, and the only thing we take to heaven someday! We don’t need preaching in heaven! we don’t pray in heaven, but we will sing in heaven, why? Because God is musical! It is part of God’s nature!
Someone has counted Scripture verses and they have found 800 references about music in the Bible. These are references specifically to music! There are more references to music than there is to heaven, than there is to hell. More references to music than there are for grace. Now if it is that important to God, beloved, it behooves us to find out what God says about music. What kind of music is honoring to God and uplifting the believer, and be a tool to worship God! The trouble is that most people do not take time to find out what God says. This is not only in the area of music but in almost all walks of life.
And anything that God endorses in His word, we want to endorse also! The sad tragedy however is that every good and perfect thing created by God has been distorted, perverted, abused and misused by the Devil. The Devil has never created anything. Dr. Romnore Parker once said, “ the Devil never created any liberal colleges and schools; all he had ever done is take over Fundamentalist institutions.” you know, that is also true of music. The Devil never created a bar or a note of music in his life; but he surely knows how to take it over.
Formerly sound N.T. churches are gradually weakening their resistance to the religious rock sounds called Contemporary Christian Music- CCM. With new subtle sounds coming down the religious pike literally every week, perceptive Fundamentalist must raise the battle cry loud in this war against sensual sounds. The current CCM strategy is taking sound Biblical words and putting them into a subtle but also sensual strain of music. On this front, Fundamentalist churches must wage vigilant battle! The Pastor is the key person here. He must never turn over to a music director that spiritual responsibility which belong to him. The pastor is the pastor of the music as well as the message. Pastors need to honestly confront this battle ground on a weekly basis and earnestly contend against any and all CCM sounds and lyrics.
One can not take Scriptural truth, sensualize it with unwholesome sounds and then pawn it off as genuine spiritual music! No legitimate worship music was ever created for entertainment. The arts of the churches have as their purpose the lifting upon men’s hearts in praise to God . As one commentator once said, ” music which once made folks pat their foot on the floor now, for the most part, makes them bang their heart against the wall.” Yes, the “psalm, hymns, and spiritual songs” of Colossians 3:166 do not include any worldly beat and sounds and lyrics.
Beloved, the right view of God will always lead us to the right view of music for our life. The CCM crowd are changing songs that were wrought in suffering and born as a spiritual out let. They are just making jam sessions out of them which is nothing but wicked.
THE MORAL BATTLE: This is the third important battle ground where pastors and churches must constantly wage war. This battle is first and foremost a standards battle . While evangelistic oriented N.T. churches should warmly welcome visitors even if their clothing styles represent the shoddy, sloppy, sensual models of the ungodly world, Fundamentalist churches must maintain platform standard that manifest the difference in lifestyles by modest clothing that is distinctively male and female!
Christian wives and Christian husbands should wear modest clothing that distinctly agrees with their God given gender, where both the dress and the decorum agree. Church leaders should come to churches dressed for church, not like thy were attending an athletic contest! God deserves our best, not our worst! The wives and children of pastors, deacons and male church leaders must be modest, and while the clothing can be stylish, it must never be worldly or immodest. This is a battle where pastors, in particular, must regularly take a stand.
Concluding Remarks: In battling for the faith we must diligently guard against unbiblical actions in the conflict. Uncompromising Fundamentalists can be militants without being mean! They can be strong and still be sweet. Yes, they can be militant and still be majestic. We must guard against mishandling conflict. We must guard against an unbiblical dogmatism to matters that are truly personal preferences and not eternal principles. And to the end we must resist the pressure to grow weary in the battle or become soft in the conflict.
May God Help Us!!!
From The Peoples Gospel Hour Staff