We must be just as careful with what we sing to God as we are with what doctrine we listen to...

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You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. - John 4:22-23 (ESV)

The bible warns us to not be ignorant of the schemes of the enemy. One such scheme is to constantly bombard us with polluted doctrine, like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if something will stick. We are used to examining doctrine from the gaggle of false teachers infiltrating the apostate church today but there is a more insidious way into our hearts and that is through the act of worship. What we say in worship often becomes our doctrine. Modern worship reinforces what they call the hook in each song. This is that one part that is repeated over and over again. Just the way humans are hard-wired results in deeper belief formation based upon what we repeat so often. The same concept is applied to studying as we are encouraged to repeat out loud the points we wish to remember more.

Let me provide a familiar example. My readers know I believe the song "How He Loves Us" is one of the worst worship songs ever written. Now it has all sorts of songwriting problems including the "sloppy wet kiss" line that most churches have tried to sanitize but the replacement lyric of heaven meeting earth with an unforeseen kiss is equally icky and unbiblical. You have the whole "You are a hurricane and I am a tree" nonsense but the real insidious part is the misperception that telling God how much He loves us, is worshipping God. It is not. It is worshipping ourselves. It is the age-old sin of Lucifer where we superimpose ourselves over God. For comparison, forty years ago we all sang how great THOU art and now we sing how great WE art by declaring how much God loves us. Another example of a horrifically bad worship song is the Blessing of Abraham. This catchy praise song was a regular at my old church a decade ago but it was cringeworthy then and remains so now. It is a song sung like a petulant child demanding God give him his inheritance, much like the prodigal son before he went off.

Let me also speak to the often-wielded accusation that complaints such as these are just because we do not like contemporary worship. That is correct but the reason is we need to look at where the majority of it comes from. If you want to know why there are so many problems with contemporary worship music look no further than the sources, most of which are Hillsong, Bethel, and Elevation. For Elevation music we need to look no further than Steven Furtick. Hillsong, we need to look no further than the absolutely disgraced Brian Houston. Jesus Culture/Bethel music we need to look no further than Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton and Shawn Bolz. The false theology of these teachers naturally makes it way into the music of those who have grown up under their teaching! Which brings me to the often asked - what's the harm of listening to Hillsong (and place any other heretical outfit in this question)?

The first issue comes down to financial support. The bible says to have no partnership with darkness. The reason why Hillsong grew to the heights it has is largely due to the money brought in by their music business. Buying CD's or going to concerts is a means of direct support not only for their music but for their ministry. The unspoken support is at the church level where the reprinting of lyrics, for projection during service, requires royalty fees that go directly to the source church. So, singing Hillsong in church means the church has paid this royalty to the Hillsong church, which again is a direct support of their ministry. That means supporting the disgraced Brian Houston who is currently fighting charges in Australia for covering up his father's sexual indiscretions with children. He also recently admitted to inappropriate relationships with women and has blamed everything from prescription medicine and alcohol addiction to literally blacking out. Moving outward, Hillsong NYC saw the Carl Lentz scandals as he was caught seducing the babysitter of his children to have sex in the bed he shared with his wife over a period of years. That was not even the affair that cost him his position. Hillsong has routinely discarded doctrine even within worship, with Hillsong London once sang the club hit "I like to Move It, Move It" and Australia butchered Silent Night into an erotic sleaze-fest. NYC also had their youth pastor "dress up" as the naked cowboy during a Women's Conference. The abuses do not even tell the story found in the recent documentary about individual lives that were crushed at Hillsong. The same can be said for Bethel, Elevation, IHOP, or any other heretical outfit.

The second reason is the "gateway drug" factor. Music always seems more harmless than preaching but it takes up far more of our time. Music is the gateway into the bad theology. People see us post on Facebook or tweet a song that may even be fine lyrically, but it leads people to the heretical church. Our endorsement is tacit when we give a pass to the music. The "wrongness" of the music is just as proportional as it would be for the preaching. False teachers are not wrong all of the time. The leaven gets into the yeast and ruins the entire batch. Wolves do not walk into church with a wolf sign around their necks. Discernment is more a battle of distinguishing between what is right and what is almost right, rather than what is right or wrong. I have people all the time send me quotes or sermon snippets from wolves that are technically correct but it takes reviewing the entire context sometimes to realize the dangers. Likewise, it is easy to find a good Hillsong song, meaning the lyrics are biblical. Most worship songs do not have a lot of detailed lyrics. Many are loosely based on scripture. For every "good" song however there are bad ones too and much like a false teacher, we need to throw the entire batch out.

The third reason is that some of the heresies are subtle or may not make up the majority of the song. We end up raising our hands and singing it and as discussed, incorporating it into our beliefs often unchallenged. Shouldn't we be a little more careful what we are singing to God? Take for example the Hillsong song entitled, "What a Beautiful Name It Is." This seems to be a fairly popular song these days in church. The song is about Christ and the refrains are pretty spot on. What a beautiful, wonderful and powerful name is the name of Jesus - no argument there! The problem is the opening of verse Two:

You didn't want heaven without us

So Jesus You brought heaven down

This is unbelievably wrong. I can hear the criticism, should we throw away so much good because of two lines? YES! These two lines are central to the theologies of Hillsong, Bethel and Elevation and they are absurdly heretical. I once tweeted that if your worship song includes the line "You didn't want heaven without us" then it was not God you were worshipping! Look how great we are! The Creator of the entire universe didn't want heaven without me! Yay me! The arrogance and the petulance is staggering. This "bringing heaven down" theology is constantly taught by these three ministries. It feeds the NAR dominionism theology as well because the church believes it is their job to replicate heaven here on earth. Wrong! We are pilgrims and sojourners beloved, and our only citizenship is in heaven! Jesus overcame the world! He did not make it more like heaven! What makes this song more insidious is that the rest of the song is ok but you cannot avoid these two lines. I do not blame the writers because this is what they were taught! This is why discernment when it comes to what worship music we listen to, support and even hear in church is so crucial. I wish everything was as obvious as Rick Pino, who once wrote a worship song that included the line:

I lay my head upon Your heart

Take me to Your chambers, lead me by the hand

I can't keep my eyes off of you

I would hope I do not need to explain the eww factor here, but we should not feel the need to shower after singing a song. Jesus is not your boyfriend. There will be a Marriage Supper of the Lamb but we are not going on the honeymoon.

Beloved, worship of the Lord should be something we take very seriously. The key verse shows Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman and one of the major points of difference between the Jews and the Samaritans was geographical. The primary disagreement was where they believed God chose to dwell. While the Jews hold that God chose Mount Zion in Jerusalem, Samaritans believe he chose Mount Gerizim near Shechem. This may not seem like much but the rift was huge and the Jews despised the Samaritans. Jesus corrects the Samaritan woman in the key verses and points out that true worshippers do not quibble over such carnal matters as which mountain is better but they worship in spirit and truth. The first part of this means that what we say to God in worship must be in alignment with His spirit. The lyrics supplied here and countless others simply do not pass this test. For example, Reckless Love is a bad song because the love of God is not reckless! Sometimes it is that simple! Other times you have to dig a little deeper to properly discern as we saw with some of the previous lyrics mentioned. Not only do the lyrics have to align with the spirit of God but so does the ministry from where they came! God does not want partial alignment. He does not want lyrics that align from a church that is wildly heretical. What we are singing is what we are saying to God! I do not want to tell the Alpha and Omega to lead me to His chambers! I do not want to tell Him He needs to give me my inheritance! I do not want to brag to Hm about how much I think He loves me! These are not aligned with the spirit of God and are not worship!

The second part of the key verses deals with worshipping in truth. I know this may get tired coming from discernment ministries, but the truth matters a whole lot to God! If your worship song does not align with the bible, then it is not God you are worshipping! Heaven does not meet earth with a big sloppy wet kiss. God was not up in heaven miserable without us. He did not bring heaven down to earth not does He expect us to try and do so. Please, I am not speaking about minor differences. There has to be some leeway for creative license. If the only problem with How He Loves Us was that silly line about being a tree to God's hurricane, I would not call it heretical, just poorly written. The line about God not wanting heaven without us is untrue. It is not only misaligned with the spirit but it biblically inaccurate by miles. It does however resonate with the modern false doctrines that place man at the center of their theology. It is very much a song belonging to the doctrine of me but from a bible perspective it is flat out false. The bottom line here is God wants true worship that is in line with the indwelt spirit of God within us. The 800-pound gorilla in the room is that the vast majority of folks in the apostate church are not actually saved. Thus, there is no indwelt Holy Spirit. Thus, the things of God are foolishness to them and thus these songs are merely entertainment. Have you been to an apostate mega-church? They hype their worship as an "experience" and even provide a five-minute countdown. It opens like a rock concert as the music is used to create an emotional response that the leader and pastor try to convince you is spiritual. It is not because it cannot be so. I am very encouraged at the spread of discernment in the body and the increase in folks who take seriously the doctrine they follow and believe. It is high time to get just as serious about false worship. Jesus is not your boyfriend. God did not send Him to suffer and die on the cross because He was lonely in heaven. Worship is doctrine and we need to start discerning as such.

Reverend Anthony Wade - August 1, 2023

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.