The World, the Flesh and the Devil: A Look at The CCM Controversy in the Modern Church

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The World, the Flesh and the Devil:A Look at The CCM Controversy in theModern Church

©Eric Bolden, 2000-2006CONTENTS:What's the Problem with Rock?"The World""The Flesh""The Devil"So What Does All of This Mean?"Scientific" Studies and "Natural" EffectsWhat Has Been Proven So Far?Lively Music and Dancing in the BibleRejecting the flesh just as unscriptural as indulging itThe pagan origins of austerityIs it the Old Covenant that's pagan; and Platonism God's 'spirit and truth'?Preliminary Assessment of the IssueThe Spirit Behind the MusicShallowness and Personal ExperienceSubjectivity, Preference and Conscience"Evil Communications" and Outward Appearance/"Appearance of Evil"God's Creativity and The Development of MusicBehind the Criticism: The Quarrelsome State of Modern SeparatismGod, Race and Culture

The Fear of EcumenicismTraditional Society and Causes of RebellionStanding Against EverythingConclusion: A Word to the CCM CrowdAPPENDIX:Scriptures on Separation"Reaching the World"Answers to Bill Gothard's statements on the fruits of rock Summary of Logical FallaciesIllustration of debate: "The Vicious Cycle"

T

he dispute over music styles in worship is being labeled a "battle", with "apostasy anddeception" in Christian music. Modern artists are being labeled "not our allies", "their guns pointed at God's truth, not the Devil's lies"

1

, and are seen as "denigrating theChurch", and causing "division" and "fostering the generation gap" by setting asideestablished traditions or "landmarks", in favor of their "rebellious" "selfish preferences".Some label Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) a "golden calf" (idolatry) in theChurch. One Fundamentalist magazine features articles and book excerpts blasting the"jungle beat"

2

, or "jungle sound"

3

, connected with the emotional "charismatic nonsense"

4

pervading the modern church. Others even blame it on society's moral decay, which inturn is said to lead to our national tragedies. (i.e. Modern preachers/churches have"compromised", by among other things bring these "wicked" styles into the church, andthis has affected society from the top down).

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This is such strong language coming fromsome Christians aimed at others, and all involving not major theology, but rather just thesound of music! The CCM advocates themselves have taken a somewhat passiveapproach in responding. Their basic answer was that "music is neutral", so we don't haveto take what these people say seriously. But the critics have answered this repeatedly.Music is

not

neutral, but can be shown to affect people for bad or good. It is nocoincidence, for example, that a song like "Born to be Wild" is associated with fastreckless driving. Another big criticism is that many artists have copied secular rock musicto the point that it hardly has any Christian distinctness. The CCM crowd hasn't reallyanswered this. They seem to be taking a "just ignore 'em; you can't convince themanyway; it's a just waste of time" attitude. So they continue in the path that they're on,and instead of the debate dying down, the critics seem to have gotten even louder andmore boisterous in their message, with some ministries churning out new books on thesubject every few years, all repeating the same things. The silence or repeated weak arguments of the CCM crowd are proof to the critics that they are right, and that theyounger Christians are just plain wrong and know it, but are simply doing whatever theyfeel like, in total disregard of God and His Word. Scripture tells us to rebuke Christianswho persistently live in open sin, and if it keeps up, to even regard them as unbelievers,and this is what we are close to having happen in these "New" versus "Old" evangelicalcontroversies. But the truth is that the younger crowd is simply not convinced that theyare scripturally wrong, even though they may not be good at defending their stance. Sosome

sense

needs to be brought into this issue which is causing so much conflict among

the brethren. Just what style is or is not compatible with Christian music?1

Fisher,

Battle For Christian Music, p

177

2 Mayes, Rev. Robert A "Christian Rock",

Sword of the Lord

, 12-12-97, p.12. Bob Jones University's

Faith for the

Family article on "Child abuse" by

Sword

editor Hugh Pyle(www.bju.edu/faith/vol10num3/abuse.html) even mentions the "

savage

jungle beat"

3 Sears, Gordon:

Apostasy and Deception in Christian Music

; excerpted in

Sword of the Lord

, 10-2-98, p.9

4

ibid

, "Editor's Notes" 2-6-98, p.75) See Dennis Corle

Revival Fires

magazine, 10-01

What's the problem with Rock?

"Rock music" has always been suspect to conservative Christians, albeit for good reason.Taking a good look at the artists, their philosophies, messages and lifestyles, and evenhow the sounds they produce may go along with rebellion, unrest and sensuality, I canunderstand why rock, rap, disco and even blues have been associated with these things. Itis quite true that the rock, and black music industries have been among the leaders of thesexual revolution, along with rebellion, drugs, and often violence and false religion, andto this day the industry never ceases to add more and more sex to its lyrics and videos.Even the term "rock and roll" is said to have originated as a slang for sexual motion. I canvery well understand why people would think these styles were the antitheses of Christianity. However, the problem is their failing to state their concern and warningswith love, rather than blasting the brethren and then trying to back it up with endlessarguments. Many fundamentalist circles are taking legitimate scriptural concerns aboutmusic, and pushing them to the point of excluding much of

Christian

music except"traditional" styles. Their formula is "If rock=rebellion, then Christian rock='Christianrebellion'". The line of argumentation is:

Scripture

teaches Christlikeness and condemns paganism, sensuality and rebellion. The beats and rhythms used in rock music were created by pagans and used to convey falsereligion and promote sensuality and rebellion.

Conclusion:

The Bible explicitly condemns all forms of "rock" and related styles.They start with various scriptures and then conclude that they rule out things by principle,even though they do not say this. A whole genre of music is then treated as if thescriptures forbid it as clearly as adultery and idolatry, and Christians who partake of it aredenounced as if they were living in such sins. My objection is not that I think thateverything out there is OK, but it's the argumentation that's really bad, and based on poor logic that is often contradictory. Yet it is preached with such authority. Their emphasis ison the world, the flesh and the devil.