Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

27 March, 2007   comments: (0) Today's Synergism   There's More To Christian Music Than The STYLE There are those who would flee the excesses of the contemporary Christian music scene thinking it safer to take refuge in a church that sings hymns instead. But not all conservative music is the same; some of it is downright horrible, containing erroneous theology. Some hymns (especially some of the newer ones from the last century) have their own set of problems, and it has to do with the lyrics themselves. As an example, this Ralph Carmichael hymn from 1958 was first used as an appeal song during evangelistic meetings and eventually spread all over the world; it's now in many standard hymnbooks. Take a look at the lyrics: The Savior Is Waiting The Savior is waiting to enter your heart Why don't you let Him come in? There's nothing in this world to keep you apart What is your answer to Him? Chorus: Time after time He has waited before And now He is waiting again To see if you are willing To open the door Oh, how He wants to come in. If you'll take one step Toward the Savior, my friend, You'll find His arms open wide. Receive Him, and all of your darkness will end Within your heart He'll abide. This hymn is rooted in man-centered theology and biblical misunderstanding. You sort of get the feeling that a pleading Jesus is on the edge of His seat waiting for unbelievers to make the first move so that God will then be able to save them. He's waiting to see if anyone is "willing", but the bible tells us that nobody is willing. "There is NONE that seeks after God" (Romans 3:11). You might remember the man on the street interviews that I posted a while back, which asked people about that very passage in Romans 3; so many of the Christians interviewed admitted to simply not believing what that passage says. Romans 9:16 also tells us that it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. Unfortunately, these are passages that often have the imaginary "black highlighter" used on them in today's Christianity. The truth is, God has to do something in us before we are ever willing to receive Him, and there is nothing He lacks or is waiting for from us in order to do that. The hymn above is based on the "behold I stand at the door and knock" passage, which is not directed towards unbelievers at all, but to the church in Revelation 3:20. Update: For an alternative example of a theologically-sound hymn, scroll down to the red text in the comments of this page. If you've never thought through some of these things before, I would encourage you to read a more detailed explanation from Walter Chantry or a great sermon once preached by Charles Spurgeon. It's really at the core of WHY today's seeker-centered evangelism has gone off the rails. Their poor theology is just like that of this hymn, in that they think it's all up to man to get his own salvation started. So they've devised a highly manipulative way of doing church that centers around what pleases man. For those of you who have an internet connection that's video-friendly, here's another great example of this man-centered theology put to music: This kind of thing is a lot less common in older hymns, being that Christianity was more God-centered, in centuries past. The examples above prove the point that a good worship song is not guaranteed by it's style or genre. As we talked about yesterday - the style is important, but as demonstrated above - the lyrics can destroy a "Christian" song just as the style can. Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.531   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism