Rock Music Is NOT Worship (More on Bethel, Hillsong & Elevation / CCM)

Hello and thank you for listening to the Testing the Spirits podcast. The title of this episode is Rock Music Is Not Worship. Rock music is not worship. So the rock concert that you see before most contemporary church services, you know, some are more mellow like a Bob Dylan or Simon and Garfunkel concert.

Others are more heavy. It's like before the sermon you're listening to like Led Zeppelin, that style music or Creed, something heavier. But I'm here to tell you that is not worship. Now if you're listening on YouTube, please do not, you know, rush to judgment and you're already typing a negative comment because I'm actually going to make, it sounds like I'm saying one thing, I'm actually building up to a different point.

So you have to follow along. I actually think just about everybody is going to agree with me when you hear what I'm actually trying to say here. But in recent podcasts, we've been talking about the Bethel Hillsong Elevation.

This is kind of the popular Christian, if you want to call it Christian rock and roll that's in churches now, the popular stuff. And I said how these are heretical movements. They hold to word, faith, prosperity, gospel, theology.

Therefore the Bible tells us to mark and avoid them. So if you haven't listened to the previous podcast, go and check those out. We went through all of the verses, Romans 16, you know, 2 John 9 -11. And here's the thing, even if you wanted to make the argument and say, well, I don't think Bethel and Hillsong, I don't think they are heretical.

Let's say, you know, for example, some of our charismatic brethren, someone like Mike Winger who in the past has said that, no, these, they're just, they're brothers in Christ, they're just in error. Listen, I totally disagree with that.

But even if someone wanted to make the argument that these groups are not heretical, still you have Paul telling the Thessalonians to not keep company with a brother who is walking disorderly. So if you are promoting word, faith, theology, if you are platforming and promoting and ministering alongside of Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland, which Bethel does, you know, either way, we're still told to avoid them.

So, no, I don't think when it comes to Bethel Hillsong Elevation, I do not think that churches should promote their music. Certainly, it's wrong, I think, to pay them money, to pay them royalties, to get the approval to play their music.

Okay, we went over all of that. What does that have to do with the main topic? I'm building up to it. So you've got to follow along with the logic. Let's go through the history. Rock music is not worship, okay.

Why do I say that? Because most of the churches that have the rock band, some of them, they've got the full deal, right? Drums, fog machine, purple lights. Most of them are charismatic, even the Reformed churches that have gone contemporary that are not charismatic.

Here's the thing. That whole contemporary scene that brought in all the new music, where did it come from? That's what I want to look at. Where did that originate? Well, it really came out of the charismatic movement and the Jesus people movement of the late 60s, early 1970s.

If you saw the movie based on Calvary Chapel and Chuck Smith, remember the movie that came out a year or two ago, Jesus Revolution? That's literally what started this trend, where they got rid of the hymns and they brought in the contemporary rock music that was popular in the late 60s, early 70s.

So all of these hippies, if you saw that movie or if you know what happened, the hippies started coming into the churches and the churches, in order to accommodate the younger generation, they got rid of the hymns.

They got rid of the suit and ties. Anyone who would wear a suit and a tie to church, they were branded a legalist, a Pharisee. And then the music of the 1960s, again, some was soft like Bob Dylan, others were more heavy like Jimi Hendrix.

That type of music though, that rock and roll started to replace the old hymns, so that by the time the 1990s rolled around, the Jesus people movement, which again, is directly connected to the charismatic movement.

I don't think you can separate them. And Calvary Chapel is charismatic. But the 1990s, by the time that decade rolled around, the hippies had all grown up, they cut their hair. But that trend, here's the point, that trend not only continued, that trend really started to take over, take over almost all of the churches.

So more and more, even to this day, it's the majority today, but more and more churches were going contemporary. And they basically were accommodating the culture. And that's building up to my point that in the process, church was being redefined.

And part of that redefinition of church, I needed to go through the history so that this.

Makes sense.

But the one thing that really got redefined is worship got redefined. So that worship is the music and music is the worship. So back in the day, before the charismatic movement, before the Jesus people movement, before that, the whole service, the whole church service was worship.

It's a worship service. Everything was worship. Praying was worship. You know, the giving of tithes and offerings, that was worship. Public reading of the scripture, the sermons, taking communion. It was all worship and it is all worship.

But this Jesus people movement, the contemporary movement, everything got redefined in the charismatic movement so that now only the music is worship. So this is my point. I'm not saying that if your church plays, you know, contemporary music or you got a guitar instead of the organ, that that's not really worship.

That is not what I'm saying. First of all, yes, there are some performances, some styles of music where it's not reverent. It's not glorifying to God. When you have a band up on stage and it's so loud, I mean, nobody is so heavy.

No one can understand the lyrics and you got to wear earplugs and it literally doesn't look any different from a secular rock concert. I mean, that is a problem. But really, my argument is that the whole service, it's all worship.

I remember I went to a Christian retreat and this was years ago and we got together and we prayed and then the guy who was a pastor, he got up and he opened the word of God and we listened to his message.

And when he was done, he said, okay, now we're going to worship. And I thought, what now we're going to worship. And what he meant was, okay, now we're going to worship. And he went over and he got his guitar and we started singing praise songs.

That's when I first realized it. It's like, okay, I thought, wait a minute, you're saying only the music is worship? That none of that other stuff was worship, only the music? Yeah, that's how a lot of people think.

And that is why, you know, doctrine shapes practice, right? But that is why in many churches today, the rock concert before the service, that is the main event because to them, that's the worship. So in many contemporary churches, it's all built around the music, the concert.

That's why instead of singing, like our church, we sing three or four hymns. That's the way most churches used to do it. But now it's a solid half hour or more of just music that just kind of drones on and on and on.

And listen, again, a lot of people misunderstand. I'm not against new music. I mean, yes, I obviously do prefer the hymns because worship should be something. Maybe this is the bigger point. Worship should be something we all do.

This is why we have congregational singing because the hymns were written for that purpose. We have other types of music and it's great and I like it. And again, I support new music, but here's the thing about the hymns.

They were written for congregational singing. They were written so that it's easy for everybody to sing along to it. But the modern praise music, on the other hand, a lot of it is meant to be performed.

So it's not meant for the congregation to sing along. I know you've noticed this in contemporary churches. You've got the praise team up on stage and they're swinging and swaying with the music. And sometimes you've got these girls with mini skirts up there swaying back and forth.

And that's a whole other issue. But yes, the praise team, they know the music and they sing it. But you've noticed this, everyone else is just kind of standing there. Now that can happen with hymns too, I realize.

But with the modern contemporary music, a lot of people, they're just standing there and they don't know what to do because they can't sing along. When the praise team, they're up there, ooh, ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's not meant to sing along to. So again, I prefer music because I believe, again, worship is the whole service. We should all be involved. So I think the congregational singing is best. Jesus and his disciples, after they ate the Lord's Supper, what does it say?

They sang a hymn and they went out to the Mount of Olives. They didn't have a worship team and let's watch these people do it. And again, I'm not against someone being up on stage and watching someone.

But generally speaking, the practice should be everyone singing together. That's what Jesus and his disciples did. So that, again, it's all the worship. I just think that's better. So this really isn't a style thing.

This is not a superficial thing. The main point of the podcast, I think you're getting it. Church, it's a worship service. The music is not the worship. Okay, worship, or maybe better to put it this way, the worship is not only the music.

So let's go back to the main title of the podcast. When I said rock music is not worship, yeah, I sort of said that to grab people's attention, maybe a little bit, but you got to listen to the whole argument.

It's this redefinition of worship that is problematic. So when you change the definition of worship, okay, now worship is the music. Okay, now the music just takes over. Why is that a problem? Well, if you look at the pastoral epistles, when you look at what, say, the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy or Titus in the New Testament, when the apostles laid out what worship looked like, especially in the pastoral epistles, but even in the book of Acts, it's the apostles' doctrine, the breaking of bread, communion, fellowship, prayer.

Music, it's interesting, it's not even mentioned. Music isn't mentioned at all. I want music, it's good, but, Paul, let's just end on this. In the pastoral epistles, what is the thing that is focused on the most?

The reading of Scripture and exhortation, right? Preaching and sound doctrine. When you redefine worship as music, the music takes over, that is now what's important. According to the Bible, preaching and sound doctrine, that's what's important.

This is what people need. I'll end with this. People need to hear the gospel preached. They need to be instructed in sound doctrine to know how to apply God's Word and to properly live out the Christian life.

But so many church services today, again, yeah, the worship is the music, and you just listen to a concert, and then following that, you're not getting sound doctrine. You're getting a motivational speaker.

You're getting a pep talk. So, we need more than that. We need the meat of the Word, and even the songs, the songs should reinforce the doctrine. So, it really is all about the doctrine. But this redefinition that worship is just the music, no.

Worship is more than the music.

Amen? Amen.

All right.

Thanks for listening, and until next time, may the Lord be with you, and have a great day.