Contemporary Christian music vs obeying Deut 11:18-21 & Ephs 6:4
Deut 4:9,15-19
Just as wooden idols are conceived & carved by man, in its own way, “contemporary” Christian music qualifies as an idol (as referenced in Judges 4:25 below) in that, being conceived by man & then used by man to supplant Biblically true worship (the faithful, week in/week out expositional proclamation of God’s Holy word) it substitutes a counterfeit based on “seeker friendly”, sensory (emotion/feeling/ experience), worldly, appealing to the flesh music all offered up in an atmosphere of worldly entertainment (smoke, flashing lights, house lights dimmed/off, etc.).
Judges 4:25: 25 “When you become the father of children and children’s children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything(my emphasis), and do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD your God so as to provoke Him to anger,
As stated above, there is a blight, in the modern visible church, that’s referred to as “worship” – meaning, in actuality, “contemporary”, sensory (emotion/feeling/ experience) driven music that is doubly erroneous by its false premise of supposedly facilitating evangelism – the root lie of the modern “seeker friendly” church movement. This ungodly movement totally rejects the truth of Roms 8:6-8 & in classic Arminian style, erroneously believes the lost are “searching for God” & just need the nudge that “contemporary” Christian music (oxymoronic), by appealing to their fleshly senses, can provide.
“Contemporary” Christian music is one of the most subtle & insidious deceptions Satan has conceived & foisted on the modern church at two points, if not more. First, he has very successfully used it to pervert the meaning & practice of true, Biblically accurate, God glorifying worship in the church. In the context of “contemporary” Christian music, the traditional “song leader”/“music director” has, in Satan’s evil scheme, been morphed into the “worship leader”, thus subtly perverting true worship by transferring the focus from the pastor & the expositional proclamation of God’s word as the centerpiece & primary focus of why the church gathers so as to, as stated above, substitute a counterfeit based on “seeker friendly”, sensory (emotion/feeling/ experience), worldly, appealing to the flesh music. Secondly, “contemporary” Christian music has also supplanted true Biblical evangelism (Mk 1:15) with yet another of Satan’s lies that promotes this music as a viable tool for evangelizing the lost. This lie stands in blatant open defiance of God’s word concerning Biblical evangelizing (Jn 3:1-8; Mk 1:15) as well as distorting the Biblically revealed role of music in the church. No where in Scripture does the Holy Spirit even suggest, let alone actually command music to be a vehicle for evangelizing the lost. To the contrary, music in the context of both the OT & the NT is always presented as a God created unique vehicle for expressing praise & worship of & to God by His children. No purer example & testimony of this truth exists than the song of Moses in Gen 15:1-18.
The commands of Deut 11:18-21 & Ephs 6:4 are about passing the principles of God & His holy truth on to each upcoming, future adult generation. In Deut 4:9 God commands the men of Israel (husbands/ fathers) to make His truth & faithfulness “known to your sons and your grandsons.”. Then in vv15-19 God describes the “contemporary” idolatry of the pagan world in which He had placed His chosen people Israel & commands them to “not act corruptly” by allowing themselves to “be drawn away and worship them and serve them.”. What God forbade Isreal to do here was the “contemporary” way/practice of worship in that day. Verse 25 is even more comprehensive when it declares making “an idol in the form of anything” to be a corrupt act that is “evil in the sight of the LORD your God.”.
I would suggest to you that “contemporary” Christian music, in the Biblical context of “anything” in v25, qualifies as idolatrous in the way it supplants true worship with the appealing to the flesh counterfeit that it is. Israel’s sin was their failure to obey God & this is equally true in the visible church in America today.
Herein is a very present example of how Christian husbands & fathers (parents) fail the test of Deut 6:7, Judges 4:25, & Ephs 6: 4 by undiscerningly embracing whatever the “church” promotes, be it Biblical or not. They fail to be Berean’s (Acts 17:11) but emulate those described in Pro 25:26 & Hebs 5:12-13.
A.W. Tozer, in the late ‘50’s/early 60’s made the following observation (Tozer died in 1963):
“For centuries the church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it for what it was – – – a device for wasting time, a refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience, a scheme to divert attention from moral accountability. For this she (the church) got herself abused roundly by the sons of this world. But of late she has become tired of the abuse and has given over the struggle. She appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the great god of Entertainment she may as well join forces with him and make what use she can of his powers. So today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so called sons of heaven. Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God. Many churches these days have become little more than poor theaters where fifth-rate “producers” peddle their shoddy wares with the full approval of evangelical leaders who can even quote a holy text in defense of their delinquency. And hardly a man dares raise his voice against it.” AW Tozer (Psalm 101:3; Isaiah 33:15; Romans 16:19; Ephesians 5:12)
Deut 6:7; Ephs 6:4
“One generation plants the trees & the next gets the shade” (This is an old Chinese proverb that unknowingly acknowledges the authority & infallibility of our God’s eternal, irrevocable Word in Deut 6:7 & Ephs 6:4, even when declared by their pagan, false religious system). Even the pagan Chinese understood that if they wanted their belief system to continue, it was vitally important that they bring every new generation of children “up in the discipline & instruction” of that belief system, albeit false & Satanic in nature.