The Independent Fundamental Baptists may have been right, or Why I stopped listening to Christian Music

 

While there are many things in which I don’t agree with the King James Only Independent Fundamental Baptists, from here on referred to as IFB, sadly I have come to the realization I have found common ground with them in regards to “Christian” music. About a month ago I felt God placing on my heart to stop listening to what the music industry considers to be Christian music, at the time I didn’t really pay attention to this prompting wondering what is wrong with it, I mean I know some of the praise and worship music comes out of churches that aren’t biblical; but those aren’t groups or songs I listen to. Then after recently watching the American Gospel documentaries, both Christ Alone and Christ Crucified, I felt God’s call to stop listening to Christian music again, and this time I am starting to listen.

While I don’t agree with the IFB stance on music regarding the style of music, I do agree that much of what we consider Christian music, including the bands are coming from churches and movements whose teachings aren’t Biblical and some when looked at hard enough are actually anti-Christian. Now I am not saying this is true of all those involved in the Christian music industry, but after listening to various artists and bands through my preferred streaming service, all I can state if most of what I heard was more focused on self and less focused on Christ. Now you may be wondering what is wrong with that, it is still good music and the lyrics aren’t as bad as what is being played on mainstream radio, you would be surprised to realize not really; I have heard lyrics from some Christian artists that I wonder how it got past the profanity filter, and when the themes being presented aren’t any different than what secular artists are singing about, the Christian artist just tries to loosely couple it to Christianity.

I grew up in the 90’s and much of the bands that I listened to on the radio had lyrics that expressed either a form of New Age spirituality or Secular Humanism, and when I recently took a good listen to the Christian music I would regularly listen to while driving to and from work a lot of what I heard was just the artists trying to put a Christian spin on those same concepts. The danger here isn’t the style of music but the lyrics; I have started to listen to strictly instrumental rock music of which God hasn’t placed on my heart not to listen to. 

The reason I say the problem isn’t the style but the lyrics is to take a look at the concept of subliminal messaging; one example is in old westerns the good guys always wore white and bad guys wore black, or in more modern terms you will never see a bad guy using an iPhone. In constantly listening to music we are subconsciously teaching and training ourselves to believe what the lyrics are presenting and to think along the same lines. The real problem comes into play when you consider we probably spend more time listening to music each week than we do listening to good Biblical teaching, and some aren’t even getting that as their churches are also teaching the same unbiblical concepts disguised as Christianity.

Now, I feel that this is such an important message to present that I have both posted this in my blog and plan to record it for YouTube so that people can share it in various formats. Now besides warning Christians to carefully examine and test the music they listen to personally, I also want to point out to the leadership of all churches you need to make sure what your music is teaching doesn’t contradict with what you are preaching. Close enough doesn’t work, this isn’t horseshoes, hand grenades, or government work; this is the spiritual welfare of those placed under your care that you are playing with.

Is the "God First Life" really about living a God first life?

Let me start out by stating the answer is both yes and no. To do a little background, a couple of years ago while filming the prayer breakfast that is part of the St. Pete Dream Center's ministry it was talked about reading through the book as part of their discussions, if you go to the Becoming God's Man YouTube channel you will see that it never happened. However, I ended up purchasing the book at that time and it sat on my virtual bookshelf collecting virtual dust until recently. Due to some things coming to my attention, both personally and regarding Christianity as a whole, I felt led to read through the book. Now let me just state that I almost walked away from reading the book after just the second chapter, which I will get to later.

This book is kind of broken up into two sections, the first two chapters provide the what and why behind living a God first life.  Chapter 3 through the end of the book is how one goes about putting God first in their life, I will say that these last chapters do a good job of informing a Christian how to put God first in their life. He talks about concepts such as being in close fellowship with other believers, being rooted in the Bible, placing yourself under the authority of a Bible believing church, etc. 

Now we get to where I had an issue, and the reason behind my title, Chapter 2. As I started to read the book, I will state I was a bit wary knowing how Prosperity Gospel preachers and the similar will use similar language, but aren't truly talking about putting God first, as their goal is to use God to get what they want. Unfortunately, as I read chapter 2, this is what it felt like was being conveyed in this book. Chapter 2 uses Matthew 6:33 as a means to state that in putting God first, He will provide everything we need and want, everything that will make us happy. Now, I am willing to provide the author the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't telling us to put God first in order to get the things we think we want; and that he really meant that in putting God first, God will reveal that the happiness we seek and desire will only be found in a relationship with Him, where He is first in our lives. The problem though is after reading the chapter I had to ask, if you are "putting God first" for any other reason than that is where God deserves to be, are you truly putting God first? The secret is you aren't, once there is a reason other than because He's God, such because of what God might give you, God is no longer first but your desires are. With these issues regarding chapter 2, I can't really recommend this book to anyone, as appears to have unfortunately lived up to my fears that it is based in the Prosperity Gospel.