But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." - John 4:23-24 (ESV)
I understand that we like our worship music and do not often pay the same scrutiny to it that we pay to preaching. In many ways, false worship can be just as damaging because not only is the general message wrong, but we internalize it without question. I will never forget one time visiting a church, walking in late, and shuffling into the pew and putting my hands up in worship, which was already underway. It was the first time I felt the Holy Spirit literally lower my arms, which made me pay closer attention to the lyrics on the screen. The song was called "How He Loves Us" and the lyrics were horrific and heretical. Something about being a tree to God's hurricane, the Lord giving an unforeseen kiss to the world, me being the portion of the Lord, and the general narcissism of telling God how much He loves us. This is how much modern worship has devolved due to the various false theologies that these musical outfits emanate from. Most popular worship comes from Bethel, Hillsong, and Elevation, which are three of the worst bastions of false teaching on the planet. Is it any wonder they cannot produce theologically sound music?
Worship music becomes what we believe because it is repeated ad nauseum during service, what musicians refer to as the "hook." A simple example is the horrible song, "Friend of God," written by Israel Houghton, who was the worship leader for Joel Osteen at the time. Oh, and he was also fathering two children out of wedlock at the same time, hardly, friend of God material. The song itself when sung in church is just repeatedly singing to the Lord that I am indeed a friend of God, but the reality is singing that does not actually make you a friend of God - obedience does. Since the onslaught of purpose driven, me centric theology into the apostate church over the past three decades we have gone from How Great Thou Art to How He Loves Me. One song is to and about God and the other is to ourselves and about ourselves. If you ever wondered where the arrogance comes from for folks to stand by absurdly false teaching, look no further than false worship they ingest. We might point out the truth, but they have already convinced themselves that they are a friend of God and oh, how He loves them. Which brings us to today's offering, Champion by Bethel Music. So, buckle up beloved and let's go through this line by line to see why it should never be sung in churches today:
I've
tried so hard to see it
Took me so long to believe it
That You'd choose someone like me
To carry Your victory
One of the core teachings of Bethel and the apostate church in general is the sense of specialness. Ironically, Rick Warren starts off the Purpose Driven Life by declaring it is not all about you and then spends the rest of the book teaching that it is all about you. About how God designed you with a special purpose in mind from the foundations of the earth. To move mountains, or possibly serve in the Parking Lot Ministry of your local mega church. The reality is that most Christian lives are probably pretty mundane. The idea is to represent Christ to a dying world, not seek out our own personal greatness. The reason why it may have taken you so long to believe it is because He did not "choose someone like you." Jesus died so that all might be saved. I am afraid where this is going with the carry Your victory line. Continuing:
Perfection
could never earn it
You give what we don't deserve and
You take the broken things
And raise them to glory
Ok, I may think this is clumsy, but it is not overall inaccurate. You have to understand something. Not every word in a false worship song is wrong just like a false teacher often says absolutely correct things. I am reminded of the popular Hillsong record, "What a Beautiful Name." Overall, the song is nice until you get to that one part about God not wanting heaven without us so Jesus brought heaven down. If your faith includes the belief that the creator of the universe just couldn't bear the thought of being with you, then it Is not God you are worshipping. The bringing heaven down is straight up false signs and lying wonders theology, such as we see in Bethel and Hillsong.
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