Making a case for Lyrics to Christian Music Rock and Christian Rock
Lyrics to Christian Music Rock: Good or Bad thing?
Dear Editor:
This letter is in regard to Pastor Nelson's sermon during second service on Oct. 4, when he shouted, "Christian rock music is an oxymoron!" He supported his point by stating that scientific research shows that a certain kind of drumbeat and guitar sound stimulated human sexual senses and in some cases, violent thoughts. He also said that rock music was originally intended by the devil to draw people closer to a secular world and away from God. Furthermore, he stated that Christian camp songs (i.e. "Side by Side" and "I Love You Lord") are acceptable since they are more Christian-like tunes and do not carry a so-called psychedelic drum beat and a guitar sound.
According to him, an appropriate way to praise God is through a choir, traditional hymns and Christian camp songs, rather than by contemporary Christian rock music. My biggest question is this... what is written in the Bible about music? How did the Israelites worship God? I have summarized these two questions in three main parts.
1) Israelites praised God with a "shout." Psalm 66:1: "Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth." Isaiah 12:6: "Cry out and shout, o inhabitant of Zion..." These verses are just a few examples among many others, but in any case, the Israelites seemed to enjoy shouting to worship God.
2) Israelites worshiped God by clapping and raising their hands. Psalm 47:1: "Oh clap your hands all peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph." Psalm 134:2: "Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord." When was the last time someone told you to lift your hands up in the sanctuary? Again, verses listed above are just a few examples of many other similar texts in the Bible.
3) Israelites used a number of instruments to praise God. Psalm 150: "Praise him with the sound of the trumpet, praise him with flute and harps. Praise him with the timbrel and dance. Praise him with strings instruments and flutes! Praise him with loud cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord, praise the Lord!"
There are endless quotes about how noisy these people were when they worshipped God with clapping and dancing. So what happened to the churches today? Why did we change the style of worship from shouting and dancing with cymbals in our hands to listening to a pipe organ? As we all know, the Roman Catholic church took a great place in the history of Christianity. They changed the focal point of worship from "Shout, dance and sing praises to the Lord with anything that makes noise" as described in the Old Testament to, "Hush! You must quietly be seated" style of worship.
Lyrics are the first to be inspected before labeling
christian rock as oxymoron because a true christian will know what is off-the-wall
christian music that is just used as secular song and what is a real christian rock song by the
lyrics.
