Getting High on Worship Music
May/21/13 06:03
On a research visit to City Harvest Church, the largest church in Singapore, on February 8, 2003, I was reminded of the power of rock music to create the emotional high that contemporary worshipers are seeking.
On Saturdays, City Harvest has two services, one at 4:30 p.m. and one at 7:30. I attended the 7:30 session. The music was pull-out-the-stops rock & roll and was the loudest I have ever heard in a megachurch church or Christian conference, even though I have attended many of them for research purposes. City Harvest’s music featured two drummers, electric guitars, a keyboard, and a powerful brass section. Several worship leaders, both male and female, swayed and pranced at the front of the stage.
The several-thousand-seat auditorium was almost full and the people were very, very exuberant. As best as I could tell from my vantage point, almost every person joined in enthusiastically during the worship time, singing, clapping, jumping, swaying to the potent music.
When I walked out of the auditorium and got away from the sound of the music, I actually felt a little lightheaded from not being accustomed to such loud, sensual music. It had been more than three decades since I last heard music that loud in an enclosed environment, and that was at a rock concert before I was saved. It was such a relief to get away from the relentless pounding.
I am convinced that if you took away the rock music, churches like this would lose their large crowds almost instantly. Rock music is a drug in itself, and this generation is high on music.
Continue reading this article……
Eric Wyse and Contemporary Praise Music
May/15/13 21:31
Wyse served as organist at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Nashville from 1993 to 2001, when he was named music director. This church’s 2012 Summer Movie Nights features such filthy fare as the R-rated film “Knocked Up,” which “follows the repercussions of a drunken one-night stand that results in an unintended pregnancy.” The church also hosts Jazzercise classes in its gym.
As a producer and consultant, Wyse has worked with ecumenical rockers such as Keith and Kristyn Getty, Amy Grant, and CeCe Winans.
Wyse is a one-world church builder who sees music as a major aspect of this endeavor. One of the web sites most highly recommended by Wyse is Internetmonk.com, which promotes such things as handmade Franciscan-inspired rosaries, the blogs of apostate emerging church leaders Shane Claiborne and Scott McKnight, and the Merton Institute for Contemplative Living, which is dedicated to the philosophy of the Buddhist-Catholic monk Thomas Merton.
In his blog Wyse published a statement by Steven Harmon promoting ecumenical relations with the Roman Catholic Church. Note the following from Wyse’s web site:
“In a previous post I expressed my my appreciation for the Baptist-produced Celebrating Grace Hymnal (2010) in light of the implications for receptive ecumenism of the Baptist practice of hymn singing that I noted in my 2010 Lourdes College Ecumenical Lecture (subsequently published as ”HOW BAPTISTS RECEIVE THE GIFTS OF CATHOLICS AND OTHER CHRISTIANS” in Ecumenical Trends 39, no. 6, June 2010, pp. 1/81-5/85). BAPTIST HYMNALS ARE ARGUABLY THE MOST SIGNIFICANT ECUMENICAL DOCUMENTS PRODUCED BY BAPTISTS. They implicitly recognize hymn writers from a wide variety of traditions throughout the history of the church as sisters and brothers in Christ by including their hymns alongside hymns by Baptists…[In addition to numerous] patristic hymns, Baptists receive through their hymnals the gifts of Francis of Assisi and Teresa of Jesus, Martin Luther, the post-Reformation Roman Catholic author of ‘Fairest Lord Jesus’ from the Münster Gesangbuch, the Methodist Charles Wesley, and more recently the Pentecostal pastor Jack Hayford, to name a few hymn writers whose ecclesial gifts Baptists have gladly received with their voices and hearts” (“Baptist Hymn Singing, Receptive Ecumenism, and the Nicene Creed” by Steven Harmon, published by Eric Wyse at HymnWyse, March 14, 2011).
This statement reflects the spiritual blindness that permeates the contemporary praise music movement, and fundamentalist, Bible-believing Baptist churches that are messing around with this music by “adapting it” are building bridges to this extremely dangerous world. The adapters, who are trying to take the rock out of Christian rock, argue that since Baptist churches sing some Lutheran or Methodist hymns from the past, it is inconsistent to reject music written by contemporary worshippers today. This is a foolish argument used by people who are following their feelings and lusts rather than living strictly by God’s Word. I don’t know of one Baptist church that became Lutheran by singing Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress,” but I know of dozens that have become contemporary by messing around with contemporary worship music. Further, I don’t know of any teenagers in Bible-believing Baptist churches that became rock & rollers by listening to Fanny Crosby’s hymns, but I know of many that have become out-and-out worldly rock & rollers by messing around with Christian rock. Whatever Luther was, he left Rome and was not trying to yoke together with the Harlot to build a one-world church, but playing footsie with Rome and building the one-world church is exactly what contemporary worship musicians are doing. We have documented this extensively and irrefutably in The Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians, which is available in print or as a free eBook from Way of Life -- www.wayoflife.org.
Additional CCM articles
SUBSCRIBE TO THESE ARTICLES BY EMAIL
Way of Life Literature - www.wayoflife.org
Fundamental Baptist Information Service
copyright 2013 - Way of Life Literature
Contemporary Christian Music and Homosexuality
Mar/05/13 06:00
Homosexuality is a rapidly growing trend within the CCM movement. It is not a new thing, but formerly it was fairly hidden.
In the 1997 edition of The Gospel Sound, which first appeared in 1971, Anthony Heilbut said, “The gospel church has long been a refuge for gays and lesbians, some of whom grew up to be among the greatest singers and musicians.”
In 1998 gospel star Kirk Franklin said that “homosexuality ... is a problem today in gospel music--a major concern--and everybody knows it” (Church Boy, pp. 49, 50).
More recently Douglas Harrison, a homosexual who grew up Southern Baptist, said, “... you can’t swing a Dove Award without hitting upon evidence of the longstanding, deep-set presence of queer experience in, and its influence on, Christian music culture at all levels” (“Come Out from among Them,” Religion Dispatches, April 30, 2010).
Marsha Stevens, who wrote the popular song “For Those Tears I Died” and has been called “the mother of Contemporary Christian Music,” was one of the first to come out of the closet. In 1979 she divorced her husband of seven years by whom she had two children, because she had “fallen in love” with a woman. Stevens and her lesbian partner formed Balm Ministries (Born Again Lesbian Music) through which they produce praise and worship albums and conduct training seminars. Christian Century called her “a Jesus-loving, Bible-believing, God-fearing lesbian Christian.”
Stevens’ ministry is recommended by Mark Powell, Professor of New Testament, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, and the author of An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music. He states: “The Mother of Contemporary Christian Music continues to capture hearts for Jesus. Argue interpretations of Scripture and debate the ethics and origins of homosexuality all you want--no one with sensitivity to things of the Spirit can deny God is using Marsha Stevens to bring the love and mercy of Christ to people whom God apparently has not forgotten.”
Getty/Townend and Contemporary Hymns
Feb/28/13 06:00
The following information is from The Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians, which is available as a free eBook from www.wayoflife.org.
The “contemporary hymns” of Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend are widely used among “traditional, non-contemporary” churches, because they are considered relatively safe.
KEITH AND KRISTYN GETTY
Their popular songs include “Don’t Let Me Lose My Wonder,” “In Christ Alone” (penned by Keith and Stuart Townend), “Speak, Oh Lord,” and “The Power of the Cross.”
Typically, the lyrics are Scriptural and the tunes are not blaring rock & roll (though the Gettys ca rock hard in their concerts). But the Gettys represent the exceedingly dangerous world of contemporary worship music as definitely as Michael W. Smith or Graham Kendrick.
Their ecumenical, one-world-church goal is to “bring everyone together musically” (www.keithgetty.com). They want to “bridge the gap between the traditional and contemporary” (http://www.gettymusic.com/about.aspx), but Bible-believers should know that this is a “gap” that must not be bridged, as it is a gap between Christ and the world, between the Spirit and the flesh, between true churches and harlot ones.
The Gettys are “modern hymn writers” but their music is syncretistic. They “fuse the music of their Irish heritage with the sounds of Nashville, their newly adopted home.” The Gettys list the Beatles as a major musical influence.
Keith arranged some of the songs on Michael W. Smith’s charismatic Healing Rain album.
The Gettys have a close working relationship with Stuart Townend, who is radically charismatic and ecumenical. Not only do they write and publish songs with Townend, but they also tour together, joining hands, for example, in the Celtic Islands Tour 2012.
Continue reading this article……
CCM Permeated with False Christs and False Gods
Jan/31/13 09:23
PRINT (click Title first for single article)
Whatever doctrinal differences a Baptist would have with Martin Luther or John Wesley or Fanny Crosby or KJV translator John Rainolds, we share the same Christ and the same God, but that is often not true for Contemporary Christian Worship.
Contemporary worship music has transformational power that no Protestant hymn has. We are comparing apples that have some non-deadly skin disease to apples laced with arsenic. I’ve never heard of a fundamental Baptist church that was transformed into a Lutheran church through singing Luther’s hymns or a Methodist church by singing Fanny Crosby’s songs, but I’ve personally witnessed many fundamental Baptist churches transformed into New Evangelical rock & roll emerging churches through the power of contemporary worship. (See the free eVideo presentations “The Transformational Power of Contemporary Praise Music” and “The Foreign Spirit of Contemporary Worship Music,” available at www.wayoflife.org.)
One reason for the transformational power is that the world of contemporary worship is a terribly dangerous world filled with gross heresies and false christs, and those who play with the music build bridges to this world.
Many of the influential Contemporary Christian Worship (CCW) artists worship A NON-TRINITARIAN GOD. Geron Davis, Joel Hemphill, Mark Carouthers, Phillips, Craig and Dean, Lanny Wolfe, and others are “Jesus Only” Pentecostals who deny the Trinity. To deny the Trinity is to worship a false God.
Other CCW artists worship A NON-VENGEFUL GOD. Stuart Townend, for example, who writes “modern hymns” popular in IB churches, denies that God is vengeful, which is a brazen rejection of the very God of the Bible (Stuart Townend, “Mission: Worship, The Story Behind the Song”, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdVQNyQmdM4).
A great many of the CCM artists worship A NON-JUDGMENTAL GOD. Consider the popularity of The Shack. It has been directly endorsed by Michael W. Smith and many other CCM artists and has been well received in prominent CCM circles such as Calvary Chapels, Vineyard churches, and Hillsong. It was promoted at the 2009 National Pastor’s Convention in San Diego, which was sponsored by Zondervan and InterVarsity Fellowship. Young was one of the speakers and a survey found that 57% had read the novel. Young was enthusiastically received, and in an interview with Andy Crouch, a senior editor of Christianity Today, there was not a hint of condemnation for his false god. Crouch is a CCM musician in his own right and led one of the praise and worship sessions in San Diego.
The Shack is all about redefining God. It is about a man who becomes bitter at God after his daughter is murdered and has a life-changing experience in the very shack where the murder occurred; but the God he encounters is most definitely not the God of the Bible.
Young says the book is for those with “a longing that God is as kind and loving as we wish he was” (interview with Sherman Hu, Dec. 4, 2007). What he is referring to is the desire on the part of the natural man for a God who loves “unconditionally” and does not require obedience, does not require repentance, does not judge sin, and does not make men feel guilty for what they do.
In that same interview, Young said that a woman wrote to him and said that her 22-year-old daughter came to her after reading the book and asked, “IS IT ALRIGHT IF I DIVORCE THE OLD GOD AND MARRY THE NEW ONE?”
This is precisely what a very large portion of the Contemporary Christian Music crowd is doing.
Continue reading this article……
BJU, Contemporary Music, and Rome
Jan/10/13 06:00
PRINT (click Title first for single article)
Whereas just five years ago, the overwhelming consensus was that CCM is simply wrong and unacceptable, today the consensus is quickly forming around the position that CCM can be safely used in moderation, that it is OK to mess around with it.
Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California, home of West Coast Baptist College, is leading in this direction, and we have warned about this because of their wide influence. In a September blog, Ed Stetzer said, “Pastor Chappell is arguably the most influential IFB pastor in America.” (See “Analyzing Adapted CCM Songs” for an extensive list of contemporary worship songs used by Lancaster over the last few years through late 2012 -- www.wayoflife.org/database/analyzing_adapted.html.)
Bob Jones University (BJU) is also promoting this position. The compiler and copyright holder of Hymns Modern and Ancient, Fred Coleman, heads up Bob Jones University’s Department of Church Music. It is published by Heart Publications, a ministry of Steve Pettit Evangelistic Association.
The hymnal contains 38 songs by Getty/Townend -- 16 songs by Keith Getty, nine by Stuart Townend, and 13 co-written by both men.
Soundforth’s 2013 Spring Selections preview CD contains four Getty/Townend numbers out of 19 songs.
Majesty Music’s Rejoice Hymns features about 10 songs by Getty/Townend, as well as ones by David Clydesdale, Scott Wesley Brown, Steve Amerson, Bob Kilpatrick, and Chris Christensen, all of whom are out-and-out Christian rockers and radical ecumenists who are using music to build the end-time, one-world church.
Getty/Townend are unapologetic one-world church builders. Townend enthusiastically supports the Alpha program which bridges charismatic, Protestant, and Roman Catholic churches. Townend is holding hands with the “broader church” in all of its facets and heresies and end-time apostasies, and his objective in writing the “hymn-like” contemporary songs is ecumenism.
Lancaster Baptist Church and Contemporary Worship
Jan/08/13 05:30
PRINT (click Title first for single article)
Following are a few examples of CCM songs that have been and are being used there:
“Hallelujah to the Lamb” by Don Moen (who thinks God is the author of the weird charismatic “laughing revival”)
“In Christ Alone” by Getty/Townend
“Word of God Speak” by MercyMe (a charismatic mystical song)
“Stronger” and “Shout to the Lord” by Zschech/Hillsong was performed by Lancaster’s high school mixed ensemble (Zschech is a female pastor, a radical ecumenist; Hillsong performed for Catholic Youth Day and Pope Benedict)
“Majesty, Worship His Majesty” by Jack Hayford (a Pentecostal “kingdom now” heresy anthem; Hayford says God told him not to preach against the Roman Catholic church)
“Great Is the Lord” and “How Majestic Is Your Name” by Michael W. Smith (who has been “slain in the Spirit” and “laughed uncontrollably, “rolling on the floor ... hyperventilating”)
“Faithful Men” by Twila Paris (who works with the Roman Catholic Kathy Troccoli and with ecumenist Robert Webber, who promotes unity between evangelicals and Catholics)
“In Christ Alone” by Michael English (who spent the 1990s and early 2000s committing adultery with another man’s wife, bar hopping, dating a stripper, and undergoing “rehab” for drug addiction)
Songs by Steven Curtis Chapman (the most honored “high energy Christian rocker” of the 1990s who says he doesn’t preach “fire and brimstone” and describes God as “Lord of the Dance”)
Songs by Geron Davis (“Jesus Only” Pentecostal who denies the Trinity)
“I Will Rise” by Chris Tomlin (a member of an emerging church that seeks to build the kingdom in this present world)
Songs by Graham Kendrick (charismatic founder of the radically ecumenical Jesus March that includes Catholics and Mormons)
“Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)” by Chris Tomlin was performed at Lancaster Sunday morning, Oct. 9, 2011
“Not Guilty” by the jazz CCM artist Mandisa was performed at the 2011 Leadership Conference
“Above All Things” by Rebecca St. James (covered on West Coast Baptist College’s “For the Faith of the Gospel” CD)
“Always Enough” by Casting Crowns (February 2012)
“Glorify You Alone” by Gateway Worship (March 2012)
“Step by Step” by Rich Mullins (Youth Conference 2012)
“How Can I Keep from Singing” by Chris Tomlin (August 2012)
Continue reading this article……
Carolyn Arends and the Dangerous Waters of Contemporary Music
Dec/11/12 07:57
PRINT (click Title first for single article)
She credits Billy Graham for helping change her view from that of six-day, young-earth creation to theistic evolution. In a November 2012 blog she explained how that she discussed the issue with her son as follows:
“‘Have you considered the possibility that God may have used evolutionary processes in his creation of the world?’ I asked.
“‘No! Mom! I believe the Bible!’
“‘Me too,’ I assured him. ‘But I think it's possible that Genesis 1 and 2 are more about the who of creation than the how.’
“Later that night, I read him something Billy Graham wrote in 1964: ‘I don’t think that there's any conflict at all between science today and the Scriptures. I think … we've tried to make the Scriptures say things they weren't meant to say …. The Bible is not a book of science. The Bible is a book of Redemption, and of course I accept the Creation story …. I believe that God created man, and whether it came by an evolutionary process … makes no difference as to what man is and man's relationship to God.’
“... it's actually been biblical scholarship that has convinced me that Genesis does not prescribe any particular scientific view. A significant number of Hebrew scholars who affirm the authority of Scripture argue that the biblical creation accounts simply are not concerned with the science of creation at all, having been written long before the dawn of enlightenment empiricism” (Carolyn Arends, “God Did It, But I Don’t Know Exactly How the World Was Created,” Nov. 19, 2012).
Continue reading this article……
Analyzing Adapted CCM Songs - Lancaster
Dec/05/12 05:31
PRINT (click Title first for single article)
Click to see THIS REPORT WITH VIDEO CLIPS
Some wrote to reprove me for the warnings I published in 2011 about Lancaster Baptist Church’s adaptation of contemporary worship music, claiming that Pastor Chappell didn’t know what was happening and that the situation has been corrected with the hiring of a new music director.
Of course, they didn’t thank me for bringing the issue out in the open so that it had to be faced.
But the sad fact is that nothing of substance has changed even after the matter has been aired and discussed. Lancaster has come down solidly on the side of messing around with contemporary worship music and justifying it. They think they can play with fire and not get burned. They think that they can tame the cobra of contemporary worship.
They are encouraged in this by their friends at Majesty Music. Many selections from contemporary worship artists, such as Keith and Kristyn Getty, are included in Majesty Music’s latest hymnal.
That nothing has changed is evident by the March 27, 2012, YouTube posting of a Lancaster group performing “Glorify You Alone” by Gateway Worship and by the use of “Step by Step” by Rich Mullins at the Lancaster Youth Conference 2012, which was “sung and sung in an extended manner.”
Gateway Worship and Rich Mullins are radically ecumenical and are bridges to the one-world church. Mullins was on the verge of converting to the Roman Catholic Church when he was killed in a car crash. (See the Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians, which is a free eBook at the Way of Life web site, for extensive documentation.)
In our new video presentation, The Foreign Spirit of Contemporary Worship Music, we offer documentation of the frightful fact that contemporary worship represents “another spirit.” There is no question about this, and Gateway Worship, led by Thomas Miller, is a prime example. Gateway Worship is the praise team at Gateway Church, a charismatic megachurch in Southlake, Texas. Miller and the other members of the worship team graduated from the charismatic Christ for the Nations Institute. Gateway’s objective is to use their powerful rock music to bring hearers into a “sense and experience [of] God’s presence” (gatewaypeople.com). This is pure mysticism created by sensual music (composed of dance rhythms, non-resolving chord sequences, the dramatic rise and fall of the sound, repetition, sensual vocal styles, and electronic distortion). If you remove the music, you remove the “experience.” Gateway Church holds heresies such as the continuation of sign gifts, prophesying, and end-time apostles. They are using music to build the one-world church through their heresy that ecumenical unity pleases God. Recent speakers at Gateway include some of the most heretical voices in the charismatic latter rain movement. These include James Goll and his “revelatory teaching” (Feb. 8, 2012), “prophet” and “apostle” Dennis Cramer (March 31, 2012), and Jaye Thomas and Corey Russell of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, part of the New Apostolic Reformation movement (April 21, 2012). Cramer, for example, operates a “School of Prophecy,” promising, “When I’m through with you you’ll be prophesying over everything that moves” (“Level One Prophetic School,” YouTube, Jan. 6, 2007). If that isn’t enough, that Gateway Worship is following “another spirit” is proven conclusively by their acceptance of “The Shack” and its cool, non-judgmental male/female god. On January 12, 2012, The Shack’s author, William Paul Young, spoke at Gateway’s Father’s Heart Seminar. Why would a Bible-believing church like Lancaster want anything whatsoever to do with music written by people like this?????? Why do they continue to use and to justify it and criticize people like me who warn about it? Their poor example is influencing large numbers of people, and they will not be able to undo the spiritual damage they are causing. (For a “mash-up” of Lancaster Baptist and Gateway’s performances of “Glorify You Alone” see http://vimeo.com/39451317)
Continue reading this article……
Prominent BJU-Associated Pastor Defends Use of CCM
Nov/15/12 07:54
PRINT (click Title first for single aArticle)
Pastor Fuller writes: “If I recall correctly, it was at our 2003 New England Leadership Conference that Dr. David Parker sang How Deep the Father’s Love for Us to a capacity crowd of New England fundamentalists. A chorus of hearty ‘amens’ followed this theologically robust text and appropriate tune by Stuart Townend. That was 2003. This is 2012. You see, 2003 was a somewhat blissful time when the ‘association’ or ‘source’ question of the original style of modern hymns wasn’t being necessarily fingerprinted. That benevolent spirit of heartily affirming the truths of these modern hymns has all but evaporated, unfortunately. Frankly, as a believer I feel a little ‘robbed’ that the spiritual gift I received in hearing that hymn back in 2003 has now been flagged as a potential stumbling block to other believers. Beyond the ‘offense’ objection, I have discovered that there seems to be a political element to this issue. In attending conferences and fellowships, I have noticed the ‘source and association’ issue of modern hymnody is raised with rapidity and frequency. If not stated explicitly, the attitudinal implications of some of the discussions are that there is little room at the table for a difference of opinion. A pastor’s ‘true-blue’ separatism might be questioned if he discerningly embraces these modern hymns. There is a definitive suspicion that is detected from others about your teetering on the ‘slippery slope’ if you view the source and association elements as mostly irrelevant, illogical or extra-biblical” (“Of Modern Hymnody at Trinity, Feb. 13, 2012).
Fuller went on to defend the Getty/Townend “contemporary hymn movement” as being (allegedly) different in character than the Contemporary Christian Music field.
In this he is dead wrong. As we have documented in The Directory of Christian Worship Musicians, Stuart Townend is an out-and-out Christian rocker, a radical charismatic, and a rabid ecumenist who associates with Rome and promotes the Alpha program and is therefore building the one-world church. By their intimate and non-critical association with Townend, the Gettys have demonstrated that they are one in spirit.
The people who are writing the “contemporary hymns” are not separated from the wider field of CCM. They are ALL holding hands. They are ALL the same rebellious spirit. NONE of them are friends of a fundamentalist position. ALL of them are avowed enemies of biblical separation. ALL of them have an ecumenical, charismatic mystical agenda. This is not mere opinion. We have studied these things “from the horse’s mouth” for nearly 40 years and have carefully documented our warnings.
To not consider “the source” of the contemporary music is unscriptural foolishness. God’s Word forbids us to associate with end-time apostasy. We are to touch not the unclean thing. To be careful about associations is the very heart and soul of biblical separatism.
“Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33).
The use of CCM is definitely a “slippery slope” toward compromise and error, and those who are playing with it are playing with fire.
This warning has nothing to do with “politics.” I can’t speak for others, but I know that my motive in warning against the slippery slope of CCM is a passion for the truth that I found in Christ.
Integrity Music's Foreign Spirit
Oct/30/12 06:50
The following is excerpted from The Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians, available in print and as a free eBook from www.wayoflife.org --
The very influential Integrity Music company (also owns Hosanna Music) arose from the charismatic movement, and the character of the music it spreads to well over 100 countries is worldly and radically charismatic and ecumenical in nature.
Integrity has helped launch the ministries of some of the most influential contemporary worship musicians, such as Darlene Zschech, Lincoln Brewster, Don Moen, Israel Houghton, and Paul Baloche.
Integrity recorded an album at the Brownsville Assembly of God (home of the strange “Pensacola Outpouring”). Don Moen, the “creative director” for Integrity, described the power of the Laughing Revival music in these words: “Because something is imparted when you listen to this tape. I don’t want it to sound spooky or mysterious, but there’s something powerful about embracing the music of the revival. The fire of the revival can stir in you even as you listen to the songs that took place at the Brownsville revival” (“Don Moen Discusses Music at Brownsville Assembly,” Pentecostal Evangel, Assemblies of God, November 10, 1996).
The “revival” to which he refers was not a biblical revival; it was a “revival” in which people become drunk and staggered about and shook uncontrollably and fell down and were unable to perform the most basic functions of life. The pastor at Brownsville, John Kilpatrick, testified that it took him a half hour just to put on his socks when he was drunk with the Brownsville spirit. He laid on the church platform for as long as four hours, unable to get up. His wife has been unable to cook their food or clean the house. Some people had to be carried out of the church. One mother lay on the platform until 1am in the morning “basking in the spirit” until an usher collected her neglected kids, took them home, and put her to bed. Whatever this “revival” is, it is not something that conforms to Scripture. The Spirit of God doesn’t render pastors incapable of tending their flocks or mothers, their children.
Yet Moen testifies that this “spirit” can be imparted through Integrity music.
We believe this is true and it is one of the reasons why contemporary praise music is so effective at transforming the character of staunchly Bible-believing churches.
Integrity’s Hosanna! Music worship albums include songs by ROBERT GAY, who records music from alleged prophecies given by charismatic latter rain “prophets.” Gay has written hundreds of choruses, and many of them have been professionally recorded. His songs include “Mighty Man of War,” “No Other Name,” “On Bended Knee,” “More Than Enough.” Gay was a worship leader at Integrity, and Integrity has produced many of his “prophetic” songs. Gay claims that the Holy Spirit gives him visions for his songs, yet we know that these visions are not of God as they are not Scriptural.
Gay is connected with “apostle” Bill Hamon’s (b. 1934) Christian International network of supposed prophetic ministries, which promotes the deception that God is continuing to give revelation through prophets and apostles today. Hamon holds the latter rain miracle-revival heresy that God will raise up new apostles who will operate in miracle-working power even exceeding that of the first-century apostles who will unite the churches and establish the kingdom of God. Hamon claims that the Laughing Revival (Toronto, Pensacola, Lakeland, Holy Trinity Brompton, etc.) and Promise Keepers are part of this restoration process (Hamon, Apostles, Prophets and the Coming Moves of God: God’s End-Time Plans for His Church and Planet Earth, 1997; The Day of the Saints, p. 129). Hamon says, “I refuse to be boxed in. But I may say certain things that you may try to box me in, but I am not trying to propagate any particular eschatology” (“Battle of the Brides,” New Life Church, Nov. 13, 1997). He doesn’t want to be tested by God’s Word.
Continue reading this article……
Integrity has helped launch the ministries of some of the most influential contemporary worship musicians, such as Darlene Zschech, Lincoln Brewster, Don Moen, Israel Houghton, and Paul Baloche.
Integrity recorded an album at the Brownsville Assembly of God (home of the strange “Pensacola Outpouring”). Don Moen, the “creative director” for Integrity, described the power of the Laughing Revival music in these words: “Because something is imparted when you listen to this tape. I don’t want it to sound spooky or mysterious, but there’s something powerful about embracing the music of the revival. The fire of the revival can stir in you even as you listen to the songs that took place at the Brownsville revival” (“Don Moen Discusses Music at Brownsville Assembly,” Pentecostal Evangel, Assemblies of God, November 10, 1996).
The “revival” to which he refers was not a biblical revival; it was a “revival” in which people become drunk and staggered about and shook uncontrollably and fell down and were unable to perform the most basic functions of life. The pastor at Brownsville, John Kilpatrick, testified that it took him a half hour just to put on his socks when he was drunk with the Brownsville spirit. He laid on the church platform for as long as four hours, unable to get up. His wife has been unable to cook their food or clean the house. Some people had to be carried out of the church. One mother lay on the platform until 1am in the morning “basking in the spirit” until an usher collected her neglected kids, took them home, and put her to bed. Whatever this “revival” is, it is not something that conforms to Scripture. The Spirit of God doesn’t render pastors incapable of tending their flocks or mothers, their children.
Yet Moen testifies that this “spirit” can be imparted through Integrity music.
We believe this is true and it is one of the reasons why contemporary praise music is so effective at transforming the character of staunchly Bible-believing churches.
Integrity’s Hosanna! Music worship albums include songs by ROBERT GAY, who records music from alleged prophecies given by charismatic latter rain “prophets.” Gay has written hundreds of choruses, and many of them have been professionally recorded. His songs include “Mighty Man of War,” “No Other Name,” “On Bended Knee,” “More Than Enough.” Gay was a worship leader at Integrity, and Integrity has produced many of his “prophetic” songs. Gay claims that the Holy Spirit gives him visions for his songs, yet we know that these visions are not of God as they are not Scriptural.
Gay is connected with “apostle” Bill Hamon’s (b. 1934) Christian International network of supposed prophetic ministries, which promotes the deception that God is continuing to give revelation through prophets and apostles today. Hamon holds the latter rain miracle-revival heresy that God will raise up new apostles who will operate in miracle-working power even exceeding that of the first-century apostles who will unite the churches and establish the kingdom of God. Hamon claims that the Laughing Revival (Toronto, Pensacola, Lakeland, Holy Trinity Brompton, etc.) and Promise Keepers are part of this restoration process (Hamon, Apostles, Prophets and the Coming Moves of God: God’s End-Time Plans for His Church and Planet Earth, 1997; The Day of the Saints, p. 129). Hamon says, “I refuse to be boxed in. But I may say certain things that you may try to box me in, but I am not trying to propagate any particular eschatology” (“Battle of the Brides,” New Life Church, Nov. 13, 1997). He doesn’t want to be tested by God’s Word.
Continue reading this article……
Keith and Kristyn Getty
Sep/27/12 08:01
The following is from the Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians, which is available in print or as free eBook from Way of Life Literature, www-wayoflife.org --
____________________
Keith and Kristyn Getty’s “contemporary hymns” are widely used among “traditional, non-contemporary” churches, because they are considered relatively safe. For example, at least eight of their songs are included in Majesty Music's newest hymnal.
Their popular songs include “Don’t Let Me Lose My Wonder,” “In Christ Alone” (penned by Keith and Stuart Townend), “Speak, Oh Lord,” and “The Power of the Cross.”
Typically, the lyrics are Scriptural and the tunes are not blaring rock & roll (though the Gettys do rock hard at times in their own concerts). But the Gettys represent the exceedingly dangerous world of contemporary worship music as definitely as Michael W. Smith or Graham Kendrick.
Their ecumenical, one-world-church goal is to “bring everyone together musically” (www.keithgetty.com). They want to “bridge the gap between the traditional and contemporary” (http://www.gettymusic.com/about.aspx), but Bible-believers should know that this is a “gap” that must not be bridged, as it is a gap between Christ and the world, between the Spirit and the flesh.
The Gettys are “modern hymn writers” but their music is syncretistic. They “fuse the music of their Irish heritage with the sounds of Nashville, their newly adopted home.” The Gettys list the Beatles as a major musical influence.
Keith arranged some of the songs on Michael W. Smith’s charismatic Healing Rain album.
The Gettys have a close working relationship with Stuart Townend, who is radically charismatic and ecumenical. Not only do they write and publish songs with Townend, but they also tour together, joining hands, for example, in the Celtic Islands Tour 2012.
In July 2012, the Gettys joined Townend and Roman Catholic Matt Maher on NewsongCafe on WorshipTogether.com. They played and discussed “The Power of the Cross,” which was co-written by Getty-Townend. The 10-minute program promoted ecumenical unity, with Maher/Townend/Getty entirely one in the spirit through the music. Major doctrinal differences are so meaningless that they are not even mentioned. Spiritual abominations such as papal supremacy, the mass, infant baptism, baptismal regeneration, and Mariolatry were entirely ignored. Jude 3 was despised and Romans 16:17 completely disobeyed for the sake of building the one-world church through contemporary Christian music.
____________________
Keith and Kristyn Getty’s “contemporary hymns” are widely used among “traditional, non-contemporary” churches, because they are considered relatively safe. For example, at least eight of their songs are included in Majesty Music's newest hymnal.
Their popular songs include “Don’t Let Me Lose My Wonder,” “In Christ Alone” (penned by Keith and Stuart Townend), “Speak, Oh Lord,” and “The Power of the Cross.”
Typically, the lyrics are Scriptural and the tunes are not blaring rock & roll (though the Gettys do rock hard at times in their own concerts). But the Gettys represent the exceedingly dangerous world of contemporary worship music as definitely as Michael W. Smith or Graham Kendrick.
Their ecumenical, one-world-church goal is to “bring everyone together musically” (www.keithgetty.com). They want to “bridge the gap between the traditional and contemporary” (http://www.gettymusic.com/about.aspx), but Bible-believers should know that this is a “gap” that must not be bridged, as it is a gap between Christ and the world, between the Spirit and the flesh.
The Gettys are “modern hymn writers” but their music is syncretistic. They “fuse the music of their Irish heritage with the sounds of Nashville, their newly adopted home.” The Gettys list the Beatles as a major musical influence.
Keith arranged some of the songs on Michael W. Smith’s charismatic Healing Rain album.
The Gettys have a close working relationship with Stuart Townend, who is radically charismatic and ecumenical. Not only do they write and publish songs with Townend, but they also tour together, joining hands, for example, in the Celtic Islands Tour 2012.
In July 2012, the Gettys joined Townend and Roman Catholic Matt Maher on NewsongCafe on WorshipTogether.com. They played and discussed “The Power of the Cross,” which was co-written by Getty-Townend. The 10-minute program promoted ecumenical unity, with Maher/Townend/Getty entirely one in the spirit through the music. Major doctrinal differences are so meaningless that they are not even mentioned. Spiritual abominations such as papal supremacy, the mass, infant baptism, baptismal regeneration, and Mariolatry were entirely ignored. Jude 3 was despised and Romans 16:17 completely disobeyed for the sake of building the one-world church through contemporary Christian music.
The Beatles and Contemporary Christian Music
Sep/20/12 09:28
All of that was “the bad old days,” to say the least. I look back on my life before Christ as foolishness and waste and shame, and I thank the Lord that He gave me a new life.
He also gave me a new song. “And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD” (Psalm 40:3).
A couple of months after I was saved the Lord began dealing with me about rock & roll. It was a real struggle, because I absolutely loved rock and had listened to it practically every waking moment for many years. I had begun to study the Bible zealously as soon as I was saved. Each day I would find a private place away from distraction and would read and meditate upon the blessed Word of God. I had been deceived and in bondage to Satan for many years; and now that I had received the truth, I never wanted to be deceived again. I held on to Christ’s promise in John 8:31-32. “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” And in John 7:17: “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”
I desired for God to purify and use my life, and one of the first things He dealt with me about in a very specific way was my music. God’s Word tells us that we cannot serve two masters. I cannot say I love the Lord if I love the things that the Lord hates. “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4). Those are strong words.
Continue reading this article……
CCM Pioneer Bridge Builder Thomas Dorsey
Aug/28/12 06:01
The following is from the latest edition of the 400-page Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians (June 20, 2012), which is available in print as well as a free eBook from the Way of Life web site.
____________________
In 1999 CCM Magazine labeled Thomas Dorsey a major pioneer of contemporary Christian music. “It’s entirely arguable that Christian music would not exist if it were not for the Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey” (Thom Granger, “Say ‘Amen,’ Somebody, Thomas Dorsey Remembered,” CCM Magazine, July 1999, p. 12).
CCM Magazine was not saying that Dorsey was the father of Christian music in general, but of contemporary Christian music in particular.
Dorsey was a pioneer in CCM in that he popularized the integration of sacred lyrics with sensual party music.
Dorsey was a filthy blues musician who performed under the name of Georgia Tom and joined hands with the likes of Tampa Red (Hudson Whitaker) and Ma Rainey. They enflamed the sinful passions of the patrons of juke joints, whorehouses, and gambling dens with vulgar lyrics set to a sensual, body-jerking backbeat blues rhythm.
“The two [Dorsey and Tampa Red] became so notorious for their cunningly erotic blues they coined a word for the style [hokum] and went on to name their duo after it, the Famous Hokum Boys” (We’ll Understand It Better By and By: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers, p. 180).
Pious blacks who took Jesus Christ and the Bible seriously and who were faithful to biblical churches, condemned the blues because of its intimate association with immorality and drunkenness and violence. This is clear from the histories that have been written of that time, such as the following:
Continue reading this article……
____________________
In 1999 CCM Magazine labeled Thomas Dorsey a major pioneer of contemporary Christian music. “It’s entirely arguable that Christian music would not exist if it were not for the Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey” (Thom Granger, “Say ‘Amen,’ Somebody, Thomas Dorsey Remembered,” CCM Magazine, July 1999, p. 12).
Dorsey was a pioneer in CCM in that he popularized the integration of sacred lyrics with sensual party music.
Dorsey was a filthy blues musician who performed under the name of Georgia Tom and joined hands with the likes of Tampa Red (Hudson Whitaker) and Ma Rainey. They enflamed the sinful passions of the patrons of juke joints, whorehouses, and gambling dens with vulgar lyrics set to a sensual, body-jerking backbeat blues rhythm.
“The two [Dorsey and Tampa Red] became so notorious for their cunningly erotic blues they coined a word for the style [hokum] and went on to name their duo after it, the Famous Hokum Boys” (We’ll Understand It Better By and By: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers, p. 180).
Pious blacks who took Jesus Christ and the Bible seriously and who were faithful to biblical churches, condemned the blues because of its intimate association with immorality and drunkenness and violence. This is clear from the histories that have been written of that time, such as the following:
Continue reading this article……
P.O.D. - A Popular "Christian" Rock Band
Aug/21/12 08:43
P.O.D. is a rock band from San Diego, California, that is popular with professing Christians. They were part of Franklin Graham’s Rock the River crusade in 2011. In fact, P.O.D. is even popular with some “fundamentalists.” Rob Hoerr, the youth pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Fairfax, Virginia, wore a P.O.D. T-shirt in a photo that appeared in the church paper in 2002. The Baptist Bible Fellowship International (BBFI) national conference was held at Bethlehem Baptist that year.
P.O.D. stands for Payable On Death. The original members of the band were Sonny, Traa, Marcos, and Wuv. Marcos left the band in 2003 but returned in late 2006.
The band members wear tattoos, earrings and other piercings, and flaunt long dreadlocks in direct disobedience to God’s Word in an attempt to be as closely conformed to the world as possible (Romans 12:2). P.O.D. tours with vile rock bands such as Korn and has performed multiple times at Ozzy Osbourn’s Ozzyfest.
The band claims they play concerts with secular groups and record on a secular label “to be heard by the lost people.” Note the following statement by Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D.
“A secular label will help us be heard by the lost people. … if they hear the music first, people will not be as quick to judge the Gospel being preached through the lyrics. That way, they can hear that not all Christian music is cheesy” (Sonny, POD, HM magazine, May-June 1998, p. 48).
Continue reading this article……
The band members wear tattoos, earrings and other piercings, and flaunt long dreadlocks in direct disobedience to God’s Word in an attempt to be as closely conformed to the world as possible (Romans 12:2). P.O.D. tours with vile rock bands such as Korn and has performed multiple times at Ozzy Osbourn’s Ozzyfest.
The band claims they play concerts with secular groups and record on a secular label “to be heard by the lost people.” Note the following statement by Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D.
“A secular label will help us be heard by the lost people. … if they hear the music first, people will not be as quick to judge the Gospel being preached through the lyrics. That way, they can hear that not all Christian music is cheesy” (Sonny, POD, HM magazine, May-June 1998, p. 48).
Continue reading this article……
The Rock Group U2
Aug/15/12 08:15
The following is from the latest edition of the 400-page Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians, which is available in print as well as a free eBook on this site.
U2 was formed in 1978 and has been hugely successful. The band was selected as Rolling Stone magazine’s Band of the Eighties and was still called “the biggest band in the world” in Rolling Stone’s December 2004 issue. U2 front man Bono was Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2006.
But U2 is much more than a popular rock band. U2 has a great influence in the emerging church and the contemporary worship movement. U2’s lead singer Bono is praised almost universally among contemporary and emerging Christians. Phil Johnson observes that “Bono seems to be the chief theologian of the Emerging Church Movement” (Absolutely Not! Exposing the Post-modern Errors of the Emerging Church, p. 9).
“Bono played a far more significant role on the formative years on those who became emergent than anyone else, from a human standpoint. Bono, in the 1980s, was, if not worshipped, then absolutely adored by millions of Christian youth who were hanging on his every word. They saw his cool kind of Christianity. He helped lead people into what eventually became the emerging church. Bono has led people into a version of Christianity that is so slippery, so undefinable, so liberal, yet he is considered the main icon of the emerging church” (Joseph Schimmel, The Submerging Church, DVD, 2012).
Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, says U2 has a prophetic voice to the world and says Bono is a prophet like John the Baptist (foreword to Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog).
Continue reading this article……
But U2 is much more than a popular rock band. U2 has a great influence in the emerging church and the contemporary worship movement. U2’s lead singer Bono is praised almost universally among contemporary and emerging Christians. Phil Johnson observes that “Bono seems to be the chief theologian of the Emerging Church Movement” (Absolutely Not! Exposing the Post-modern Errors of the Emerging Church, p. 9).
“Bono played a far more significant role on the formative years on those who became emergent than anyone else, from a human standpoint. Bono, in the 1980s, was, if not worshipped, then absolutely adored by millions of Christian youth who were hanging on his every word. They saw his cool kind of Christianity. He helped lead people into what eventually became the emerging church. Bono has led people into a version of Christianity that is so slippery, so undefinable, so liberal, yet he is considered the main icon of the emerging church” (Joseph Schimmel, The Submerging Church, DVD, 2012).
Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, says U2 has a prophetic voice to the world and says Bono is a prophet like John the Baptist (foreword to Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog).
Continue reading this article……
Calvary Chapel and Maranatha Music
Aug/09/12 08:08
(first published January 3, 2012)
The following is excerpted from the DIRECTORY OF CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP MUSICIANS, which is available as a free eBook from the Way of Life web site -- wayoflife.org
Founded in 1971, Maranatha Music was one of the first contemporary Christian music publishing companies. It was founded by Chuck Smith, Sr., of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California, to publish the music of the early Jesus hippies.
Calvary Chapel played a major role in the birth of the Jesus People movement. Mesmerized by a charismatic Jesus hippie named Lonnie Frisbee, Chuck Smith baptized massive numbers of hippies who had professed Christ, many of them “led to the Lord” by Frisbee. By accepting the young people pretty much as they were even for Christian service--long hair, immodest clothing, rock & roll, culturally liberal thinking--Calvary Chapel exploded in growth from one small church to a mega-church and beyond to a large association of churches.
“With his long brown hair, long craggily beard, dusty clothing, scent of Mary Jane [marijuana] and glint of his last LSD trip in his eyes, Frisbee showed up out of nowhere ... literally on Chuck Smith’s doorstep” (Matt Coker, Orange County Weekly, March 2005).
Frisbee was “commissioned” by Chuck Smith Sr., after Smith’s wife, Kay, received a “prophecy.”
“The Spirit of God came through a prophecy with Kay Smith and said, ‘Because of your praise and adoration before My throne tonight, I’m gonna bless the whole coast of California.’ And when we started to receive the word as from God, the Spirit of the Lord fell upon us and we began to weep and the Lord began to give people visions of that prophecy and then the Lord continued on to say that it was going to move across the United States and then go to different parts of the world” (David DiSabatino, Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippy Preacher).
Maranatha Music was built upon this unscriptural spiritual foundation. In those days, at least, Calvary Chapel was quick to accept the flimsiest “profession” and wasn’t careful to try to ascertain whether the hippies were truly born again. They encouraged the newest babes in Christ (assuming they were even saved) to perform music. Take the members of Love Song, one of the first and most influential of the Calvary Chapel Christian rock bands. Band member Chuck Girard said in 1997:
“It was early 1970 when three of my buddies and I walked into a church called Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa to play some songs for the pastor at the suggestion of a young hippie preacher named Lonnie Frisbee. We were hippies who had turned our lives over to the Lord only days before, yet we had a few songs that we had written before we met the Lord that were about God and Jesus. The pastor thought the songs were of God, invited us to play at one of the weekly Bible studies and we accepted the invitation. ... We didn’t know much about what people called ‘gospel music,’ we were just writing the same kind of songs we would write if we weren’t Christians but now we had Jesus to sing about” (Girard, foreword to History of the Jesus Movement by David DiSabatino, One-way.org/jesusmusic).
Independent Baptist Music Wars
Jun/28/12 10:18
Since 2011 I have been hearing from church members who are being mistreated by their pastors because they don’t agree with what Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California, (home of West Coast Baptist College) is doing in regard to the adaptation of contemporary worship music.
Consider an example.
A pastor has taken to “blasting” me from the pulpit because he has a family who is resisting the church’s contemporary direction in music. This family has refused to sing contemporary worship songs by Getty/Townend and others. They have done this quietly without talking around to try to cause trouble among the members, but they cannot in good conscience sing these songs. They told the music director personally, and that was all. The husband said, “I told my wife that, since I did not want to cause divisions, we would not talk to anyone about the reasons for my decision, and we didn't.”
Even so, the pastor has made this family feel very uncomfortable by saying that questioning the pastor is evidence of a critical spirit and that being concerned about things such as “beat anticipation” is to “waste time about minor things while souls are dying and going to hell.”
Last year this pastor had seemed to agree with my warnings, but after he attended a conference at Lancaster he developed a bad attitude toward me personally and toward my ministry and toward those who listen to me. He is now treating me as an enemy of good churches and an underminer of pastoral authority.
The pastor preached a sermon that appeared to be directed toward that faithful family. The husband testified as follows of how he felt when his own pastor treated him like some sort of enemy of the truth:
“I don't think I have ever felt so despised and worthless as I did at the end of that sermon. Just as he never mentioned your name when blasting away at you, he never mentioned my name when blasting away at me. But it was obvious to everyone involved in the music ministry, and perhaps to some others as well, EXACTLY who he was talking about. He stood up there and mocked me for ‘taking a stand’ on such a supposedly trivial issue. He accused me of being more loyal to an ‘Internet pastor’ than to himself. He accused me of being unsubmissive to pastoral authority and causing divisions. He accused me of thinking that I'm ‘more spiritual’ than everyone else. He even implied that my actions were somehow preventing people from being saved.”
Continue reading this article……
