DISTURBING Trends in Christian Music...

The Deception of Emotion-Driven Worship

Hillsong, Elevation, Bethel. There's nothing inherently wrong with the vast majority of their songs, but the way they are being used is deceiving millions of Christians into thinking they are saved because they had an emotional experience, when the reality is that they haven't yet truly repented and submitted to the Bible's teachings, which is the inevitable fruit of true saving faith.

Let's take a look at four major concerns related to Christian worship music. Especially among younger Christians and youth groups, musical talent is oftentimes valued more than spiritual maturity or even being a Christian.

Worship as Theology and Teaching

You will find most of the texts about the attributes of God in the book of Psalms. Our singing ought to be theological, and if you are going to have a worship leader, he needs to be a theologian, he needs to know God, and he needs to walk in the fear of God and holiness probably even more than the one who preaches the word.

It is a terrible thing that we do in churches today with regard to worship, because we do not know the fear of God. A young boy has a guitar and he can sing well. Let's let him lead worship. We ought to realize that in the book of Leviticus, God killed two worship leaders because they did not worship him conformed to the scriptures.

Worship is a dangerous thing. As someone who used to be involved with various youth groups, I've noticed the disturbing tendency to recruit into the worship band anyone who is skilled at the guitar, drums, piano, bass, and singing, even if there are serious concerns about their spiritual lives.

Many of the worship leaders at the youth group I was a part of are now firm non-Christians who hate what the Bible teaches. Hey, this is Michael.

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The purpose of Christian worship music should be to glorify God, communicate and teach about who God is, and to express praise for what God has done. In other words, it should be God-centered. However, much of the worship music we hear today is man-centered in the sense that they focus more on emotion and entertainment than on God.

Another thing that we need to realize is this. Worship is supposed to be didactic. It is supposed to be a tool for teaching. Let me read a text to you. In Colossians 3, 16, it says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

So worship springs forth out of someone who is saturated by the word of God. With all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So the purpose of singing in the church is first and foremost to bless God.

Secondly, it is didactic to teach those who are singing, to encourage them, admonish them, and to even be, I suppose, a witnessing tool for those who are listening that are unbelieving. This is a problem I have with much of the modern music.

Not all of it, but a lot of it. They don't follow these principles. It's more about feeling. I'm gonna be very honest with you, and if you get angry with me, just forgive me. I'm an American. I'm rude sometimes.

Emotion, Presence, and Reverence for God

Much worship in the churches today is nothing more than a celebration of flesh. It is an exercise in emotion. If you begin to feel the presence of God during the high, emphatic notes of the song, when the rhythm has been lifted up and the music is just glorious, and you only feel the presence of God then, it's not the presence of God you're feeling.

It's emotion. I have known people, some of the holiest people I know, that will sit down and worship. They have no music. I'm not saying this is the only way to do it. It's not, but they have no music.

Someone will say, let's sing hymn number 52, and they'll start singing. And then another person will say after it's over, what about hymn 103? And they'll start worshiping. They are some of the godliest people I know on this planet who understand worship deeply.

And yet I'll bring people to that church who are all about the music, and they'll go, boy, this is dead, because their idea of life is not the true presence of Christ. It's these amazing songs that lift your emotion.

Now, there's not necessarily something wrong with that, but be very careful. One time I was with a group and they said, God is here. Man, the music was going, God's here. I said, no, he's not. And they said, how do you know?

I said, because most of you would be dead if God was here, because he's a holy God, and you know the sin that's going on in this church. People get so in the flesh because they feel something. I'm gonna stop here, but just realize this.

I hear people, I was shaving this morning, and Jesus appeared to me. Did you stop shaving? They're so nonchalant about the presence of God. In the Bible, when the presence of God showed up, woe is me, I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

Isaiah's experience. You say, oh, that's the Old Testament. John on the Isle of Pethmos, Christ appears, falls as a dead man. Now, I'm not saying that the presence of God is always like that, but when it's never like that, when it's always bless me, bless me, bless me, joy, joy, joy, dance, dance, dance, something is terribly wrong.

The Manipulation of Modern Worship Concerts

Hillsong, Bethel, and Elevation concerts are filled with extremely loud music that drowns out the sound of corporate singing so nobody can hear each other sing. They are designed to manipulate emotions with lighting, the pacing of the music, exciting songs that make people want to jump up and down even if they don't know God, and even fog machines to set a particular mood.

The songs are often about how we feel and what we will do rather than about who God is and what he has done. The modern worship experience often results in Christians judging their own spiritual maturity and others' spiritual maturity by how they express themselves while they sing rather than by their knowledge of and obedience to the Bible.

I mean, if the beat is right and the band is hot, I can sing all kind of lines and feel like I've met with God.

Just because someone gets excited by music that is designed to get them excited does not at all mean they are living a life that pleases God, or even that they are actually a Christian. Because of all this, millions of Christian youth and Christians who attend emotion-driven worship concerts have been deceived into thinking God accepts their worship while at the same time, they reject what the Bible teaches about sin, hell, salvation through faith in Christ alone, human sexuality, and more.

False Teaching in Bethel, Elevation, and Hillsong

Even if most of these songs are acceptable theologically, there are major concerns with the teachings of the churches that this music draws people into. Bethel is the most egregious of the three.

Does God ever choose not to heal? No. Do you know that Jesus so restricted his function on earth that he actually couldn't heal anyone?

And Stephen Furtick of Elevation Church has also taught some extremely concerning things.

And the process of discipleship is not God changing you into something else. It's him revealing who you've been all along.

And Hillsong never disciplined Carl Lentz for teaching some unbelievable things.

But do you feel like you have a moral imperative to speak publicly about some of these more controversial issues?

No, because we try to be like Jesus. Very rarely did Jesus ever talk about morality or social issues.

And all of these churches endorse extremely problematic teachers.

It's so fun to be here. This is like the largest family reunion on the planet.

How Worship Music Leads People into False Churches

For millions, worship music is the gateway into these problematic ministries.

And so know that when you sing those songs, your money's going to support false churches that are opposed to Jesus Christ. They rarely talk about sin. If you listen to Bill Johnson or Brian Houston or Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, any of these, Benny Hinn, sin is not something that you commit against a thrice holy God that incurs his wrath.

In fact, Bethel Church actually will flat out teach you that man is inherently good. That man is inherently good. That's one of their staple teachings. So sin is not something that you commit against a thrice holy God that incurs his wrath.

Rather, sin is something that prevents you from having your best life now. It prevents you from experiencing the abundant life. It's just something that hinders you. It's not something that incurs the wrath of God.

So a major fruit of Christian worship music is that countless supposed Christians who jump up and down to worship music have been drawn into churches where the gospel is either obscured or non-existent.

And countless others will, later on in life, abandon the faith because their supposed faith was purely emotion and they had no real theological foundation in the word of God.