Is Contemporary Christian Music/Christian Rock wordly and sinful?

[HungryInherit]

I agree with winman a lot of the time and I'm completely baffled as to how that song is sinful, or you felt guilty for playing it? Ive played in a band years ago (non Christian) and probably the one thing I have a problem with is I just can't get into CCM. A lot of it is just so cheesy and poorly written. I feel guilty thinking that way but I just do. Though I've had old hymns bring me to tears before.

 

[Winman]

And ... ? Do you know the lyrics to that song?

The words are the words. How they are received is a matter no different than how the gospel is received by one who doesn't want to hear it. This song can be edifying to one open to the message. The words of the Casting Crown song are edifying. The fact the beat of these songs drives you where you don't want to go is relevant only to you. Others may feel the same, but they, also, are finding it difficult to listen for reasons relevant only to them. It isn't a church-body decision.

There are those who will hear Stryper's music and begin to seek the truth. There are those who will read the words of Paul and cast the Bible as far from them as they can throw it.

These are matters for which the individual determines his/her own choice. It isn't right or wrong. It just is.

Nice words, and drugs and alcohol too.

It's all the same stuff you see at any rock show. You are going to get all of that. You're going to smell weed and you are going to see people drinking booze.

It's a rock show. You can pretend, I tried, but it's a rock show.

 

[quantumfaith]

All I heard was noise!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il-bJjeiOhY

Funny, I hear praise and worship.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Nice words, and drugs and alcohol too.

I know, brother, I know. One of things I tell my clients is, you are the one with the issue. It isn't fair, it isn't nice, but it is the truth. You can't make others stop because you can't. I'll pray for you anyway I can, if you want.

It's a rock show. You can pretend, I tried, but it's a rock show.

And for you, that means "no go." I know that stinks. I'm sorry.

 

[Jordan Kurecki]

We can come up with better thoughts than what are starting to be posted.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

We can come up with better thoughts than what are starting to be posted.

Obviously I can't know for sure, but perhaps they are the thoughts that need to be posted.

 

[Don]

Questdriven quoted a Geoff Moore and the Distance song: Why should Satan have all the good music?

Please allow me to post a question: should we stop using guns, or hammers, or cars?

When it comes down to it, one person uses a gun to supply for their family; another uses it to murder and steal. One person uses a car to visit the needy; another uses it to deal drugs.

One person tries to use music to glorify God and spread the Word; another uses it to satisfy the flesh and spread an un-Christian message.

I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

 

[Revmitchell]

I have a better question:


Is it sinful to question if Contemporary Christian Music/Christian Rock wordly and sinful?

 

[InTheLight]

Do you think Christian Contemporary music is sinful because it is very similiar to the worlds music?

No, I don't think CCM is sinful. Sin is an action or a thought. Just because CCM uses guitars, and/or drums or has a "syncopated beat" does not make it evil.

What do you think about artists like Lecrae? who seek to blend the message of Christ with the message of hip hop music?

I don't know Lecrae from a tree stump so I can't really comment. However blending the message of Christ with hip hop music would fall under 1 Cor 9:19-23.

What are your thoughts about whether or not a musical style is acceptable?

It's a matter of personal taste.

Do you think Music is Amoral?

Music, yes. Lyrics, no.

What would be your response to an article like this:
http://www.wayoflife.org/database/charismatic_Style_Worship_high_on_music.html

The author is seeing modern praise music through the lens of worldly, secular rock-and-roll artists. He is using a broad brush to condemn all music that happens to have a beat to it.

Watch as I alter some of the words in the article, just to show you how disingenuous and ridiculous this style of argument can be.
-------
"Don't listen to the words, it's the music that has its own message. ... I've been STONED ON THE MUSIC many times."

Leary was right, of course, about the hypnotic, addictive, sensual power of classical music. And notice that he IS NOT TALKING ABOUT THE WORDS, but of the music itself, of the rhythm, the melody, the modulation, the heavy usage of stringed instruments and woodwinds.

Musician Andrew Salter observes, "Classical 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: "Classical 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".
__________
What do you think of Psalm 33:3?

Psalms 33:3 KJV
Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.

 

[InTheLight]

But what about the nature of the sounds that hes using?

Are these sounds really Holy?

Prayers can be Holy sounds. The arrangement of musical notes produced by man-made instruments are Godly-neutral.

Should we really place the message of Christ to a sound that the world has used to promote drugs, sex, and other thug related activities?

The music itself dies not promote these things. It is the lyrics, the artist's lifestyle, the manner in which it is performed, the album artwork, etc.

 

[InTheLight]

So what about eating? that appeals to the flesh, so does that mean when we eat it is wrong?

No of course not.

Or what about a man when he goes to bed with his wife? That pleases the flesh does it not? so with that logic does that make it wrong as well?

It does please the flesh and no, it's not wrong.

All music appeals to the flesh. If we like it we are pleasing our flesh. I like the melody and pacing of "It is Well With My Soul". I perceive that as a pleasing sound. My ears like the sound of it, my brain says, "this is pleasing me".

 

[preachinjesus]

Music is music, its a style. The preaching against one genre or the next is foolishness.

Now lyrics...that's a different story.

 

[evenifigoalone]

I do not think guitars and drums are wicked.

But when we look at rock music at its roots and where it comes from, It's was all built upon drugs and sex.

Are we just trying to take of the Lords Table and the table of devils at the same time when we do this very thing with CCM and Christian Rock?

I have been going back and forth on this issue for a while, and the thing I keep coming back to this is that we are to be holy and different, and that we are not love the world or the things in this world, also that no man can serve two masters...

It seems to me that Christians of the CCM and Christian Rock scene are doing this very thing.

Aren't they taking the Lord Jesus Christ and trying to combine him with something that is unclean?

The lyrics were about drugs and sex. I would not argue that the music itself signifies such. Even before Christian rock became popular, though, it could hardly be said that all rock was about sex and sensual pleasures. Some of it was quite innocent. (I'm semi-familiar with classic rock, and like some of it.)
And even in the case that rock did signify that at one time, most people don't seem to think of it that way anymore because the music has been used for things other than glorifying sin. In the end it's the heart of the person or persons, both behind the music and listening to it, that makes the most difference, I believe.

I don't think being separate from the world means avoid anything that's popular. (If that were the case, are jeans wrong simply because they're popular?) I believe rather, it means avoiding the things that come from the world, as in concepts that are certainly not of God.
Rock music is not inherently about worldly concepts, or at the very least it doesn't have to be. Some say it's about rebellion, and while rebellion is wrong--well, there is such a thing as Godly rebellion. I sometimes think of Christian rock as rebelling against the world.

Music is about expressing yourself--so a Christian musician or singer or artist will naturally write or sing songs that reflect his worldview and values. I'm now fairly familiar with the Christian music scene (as well as some Christian artists who choose to work outside the Christian label), and there IS a pretty big difference between what comes from God-fearing Christians and what comes from nonbelievers. By their fruits ye shall know them.

Well, that's my 25 cents anyway. <.<

 

[evenifigoalone]

Thanks for your input.


I am struggling at the moment with the issue of music,

I am beginning to question whether or not CCM and other new styles of Christian music are wrong or not.

I was saved in a super conservative Baptist Church where our Pastor preaches against Rock music.

I want to make sure when I stand before God that I am not guilty of condemning what he has not condemned, But I also do not want to stand before the Lord as a compromiser.

Pray for me please that the Lord would show me his will.

Ah. I'm sorry if I've seemed overbearing here or anything. I feel a tad strongly about this subject...
When I began to accept CCM, I did so very carefully and paid close attention to the lyrics. I still do, lyrics and their meaning are important to me.

Can't fault you for treading carefully, certainly.:thumbsup:

 

[evenifigoalone]

All music appeals to the flesh. If we like it we are pleasing our flesh. I like the melody and pacing of "It is Well With My Soul". I perceive that as a pleasing sound. My ears like the sound of it, my brain says, "this is pleasing me".

:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:
I play the piano. I find certain piano pieces very pleasing. I love playing Canon in D on the piano, I could lose myself in the melody. Although the piece is purely instrumental, I hear in the melody a story about all the joys and sorrows of life, simultaneously. It's very comforting to play, at times I've played it purely to vent and relieve stress.

 

[InTheLight]

:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:
I play the piano. I find certain piano pieces very pleasing. I love playing Canon in D on the piano, I could lose myself in the melody. Although the piece is purely instrumental, I hear in the melody a story about all the joys and sorrows of life, simultaneously. It's very comforting to play, at times I've played it purely to vent and relieve stress.

Yes, it's not just rock that can create an emotional response, it's the nature of all (good) music. Classical music can be mesmerizing as the article in the OP said of rock music.

 

[Winman]

I know, brother, I know. One of things I tell my clients is, you are the one with the issue. It isn't fair, it isn't nice, but it is the truth. You can't make others stop because you can't. I'll pray for you anyway I can, if you want.

Well, I don't have either drug or alcohol issues, even when I played in bands for many years.

And for you, that means "no go." I know that stinks. I'm sorry.

Correct, for me it doesn't work. It doesn't feel right. I was actually persuaded by a Baptist pastor a few years back to play in a CCM band. He had the same arguments you see here about music being neither good or evil. Seemed like a reasonable argument.

But in a short time we just got heavier and heavier. It was no different from the bands I played in as a teen and young man. I just was not happy playing this style, it didn't go with the lyrics. So, I had to quit. That pastor still plays CCM I believe, haven't seen him in awhile.

I don't buy the argument that music is neutral. Good hymns are joyful and uplifting, I do not get that feeling from most CCM music I have heard.

To each his own.

 

[Jordan Kurecki]

I believe this conversation is benefiting. keep it coming!

 

[OldRegular]

The Apostle Paul has some words of wisdom regarding the babble that some call Christian Rock or Christian hip hop! Not that their devotees will hear what the Apostle has to say?

1 Corinthians 14:6-11
6. Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?
7. And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
8. For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
9. So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.
10. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.
11. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.

 

[webdog]

It all boils down to one thing...personal preference. If one doesn't like loud music, guitars or drums it is "worldly".

I can't stand bluegrass or country...yet how many hymns or songs would fit this genre and be given a thumbs up? How is it not "worldly" to enjoy that type of music? To me that is babble.

The entire debate over music is silly.