An in depth examination of what is so wrong with worship music today...

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Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! - Psalm 95:6 (ESV)

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, - Hebrews 12:28 (ESV)

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! - Psalm 96:9 (ESV)

Another facet of the design of God's church that has been corrupted by the Purpose Driven Church model is worship. When we think of worship today, we view it more as entertainment than what it should be - acknowledging the Creator of the entire universe. Worship however is crucially important in the lives of believers and the health of the church, which is why the devil loves debasing it. Most modern worship is banal and droning in its repetitiveness. We rarely ever give pause to what we keep repeating but it ends up informing our theology. What you say over and over again about the God we claim to worship becomes imbedded and informs our faith. I remember once visiting my pastor's new church and we walked in a little late, so the worship had already started. Like good, churched folk, we quickly sat down and raised our hands, but I kept feeling the literal presence of God pushing my hands down. After the third time, my eyes shifted to the screen with the lyrics, of a song I had not heard before. The song was "Oh How He Loves Us" and it turned out to be horrifically bad and so cringeworthy as a Christian. Sure, they had swapped out the "sloppy wet kiss" reference that was in the original lyrics but saying God greats earth with an unforeseen kiss is equally disturbing. It was poorly constructed and written. It included a bizarre reversal in saying we are God's portion, when He is supposed to ours. The worst facet of the song however was in the overarching theme. It is not worship to tell God how much He loves us. This is the typical problem in a great deal of today's worship, which is focused on man and not God. Decades ago, we sang How Great Thou Art and that is the polar opposite of How Much He Loves Us. The latter is actually worshipping ourselves. Consider the three key verses above. When we sing songs about ourselves, or how much God must love us, we are not kneeling before our Maker. We are in fact making Him kneel before us. The second verse reminds us that our worship must be acceptable to God, a concept that is never taught in churches today. What is acceptable to God? Reverence and awe! As the third verse exclaims, we should be trembling before Him. That is how we should approach the Creator of everything, including humanity. Unfortunately, in modern purpose driven church teachings, Jesus is just our friend. He is our buddy. I once heard a sermon that said He was our wingman. There is a popular heresy that eschews religion in favor of "relationship", but relationship Jesus is not real. It is a figment of our sin and imagination that we create to make sure we are the ones on the throne. It is the sin of Lucifer really. To prefer to be God as opposed to worship God. If Jesus is not Lord than there is no relationship. Now, let us consider one of the more recognizable sections of scripture regarding worship:

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." - John 4:16-25 (ESV)

The Samaritans and the Jewish people were always at odds. Jews considered Samaritans half-breeds because their ancestry was not purely Jewish but mixed. Samaritans believed that true worship should only take place on Mount Gerezim, where Moses worshipped, and they believed was the first place Noah disembarked after the great flood. They even built a temple there to rival the one in Jerusalem. That is what Jesus is saying to the Samaritan woman. Stop thinking of all the man-made views of worshiping God. Gerizim or Jerusalem does not matter. Relationship or religion does not matter. Who are you worshiping and why? The Osteens once famously argued that we worship for ourselves, not for God. They caught a lot of flack for that, including from me at the time but maybe they were just being honest? That is true for most modern worship, isn't it? We worship to feel better about ourselves when we need to feel better about Christ. A great deal of worship lyrics today are simply unbiblical as well. That means there is no spirit or truth in them. They often reflect the false theologies of the churches those worship outfits come from. Take the some of the lyrics from the song "Champion" by Bethel:

When I lift my voice and shout

Every wall comes crashing down

I have the authority

Jesus has given me

When I open up my mouth

Miracles start breaking out

I have the authority

Jesus has given me

I am who You say I am

You crown me with confidence

I am seated

In the Heavenly place

Undefeated

By the power of Your name

Now, Bethel embraces nearly every false theology out there today. Word faith, or the ability for us to speak things into existence is certainly among them, as well as Narcigesis, which is reading ourselves into the texts of the bible. Discernment is often defined as being able to tell the difference between right and almost right. So, many worship songs have acceptable lyrics in some places and then dive off the theological cliff in others. There are lines in Champion that are perfectly acceptable and then there is the biblically ignorant notion that our voice brings the walls crashing down, and obvious reference to Jericho. The problem of course is that we were not at Jericho and that story is not in the bible so we can shout at our problems and watch them crumble before our eyes. Even though it is a historical narrative, the story does have spiritual lessons for us. It teaches us that we should always obey God as I am sure the command to march around for seven days did not make much sense in the natural. The power in the story is not from the shouting but from the obedience. Bethel, however, teaches a me-centric theology and a narcissistic faith so they focus naturally on the move of God but ascribe it somehow to the acts of the men. Instead of teaching us to obey God in all things, they teach we need to usurp the power of God and do as they did in Jericho that day - shout. Here is another example from Bethel, entitled "Too Good Not To Believe:

And I can't resurrect a man with my own hands

But just the mention of Your name can raise the dead (yeah)

All the glory to the only One who can

Jesus, it's You, Jesus, it's You (come on)

We've seen cancer disappear

We've seen broken bodies healed

Don't you tell me He can't do it

Don't you tell me He can't do it

We've seen real life resurrection

We've seen mental health restored

Don't you tell me He can't do it

Don't you tell me He can't do it

We'll see cities in revival

Salvation flood the streets (come on)

Don't you tell me He can't do it

Don't you tell me He can't do it

We'll see glory fill the nations

Like the world has never seen

Don't you tell me He can't do it

'Cause I know that He can

This also falls into the "God can do anything" bucket and yes, God can do anything. That does not mean He will, however. Can the mention of His name raise the dead? Sure, He is God. How many times have you seen that happen in your life? I am guessing zero. Yet, they claim in this song to have witnessed real-life resurrections! Please, show me where! What a great and powerful testimony that would make for God. The problem is that they have not seen any real-life resurrections. Bethel has a "dead Raising Team" that claims to have resurrected over 14 people. They have not one documented of course. I am reminded of when a Bethel worship leader had a child pass away at the age of 2. Bethel embarked on a campaign to raise little Olive Heiligenthal from the dead. It was all the buzz for days but in the end, little Olive was not resurrected. Oh, and Bethel, from their 96-million-dollar campus, set up a GoFundMe along with the pleas for resurrection with the goal of $100,000. Why? No one knows. How much was raised? No one knows. Where the money went? No one knows. Going back to the song, it sets up more false hope and expectation in people by declaring things that may or may not ever come to pass. God can do all of these things because He can do anything. The problem is these refrains imbed in people the notion that only the miraculous is an acceptable outcome. The reality of faith is that when the cancer is not healed, we still worship God. When the mental health is not restored, we still worship God. I am not telling you He can't do it. I am saying sometimes the answer to our prayers is no and THAT is when real faith is needed. Not this candy-coated sugar high of fake worship that unravels in our lives when the walls of Jericho do not come tumbling down. Bethel also is NAR and believes in the revival chasing nonsense from dominionism. Thessalonians however promises a great end times apostasy, not a great end times revival. Salvation will flood the streets? While we certainly hope so, heaven rejoices when one sinner repents and the way we seek is narrow and few find it. Along the Jericho narcissistic worship path leads us to Elevation music, which is taught by the master narcigete, Steven Furtick. Here are snippets from Elevation's popular song, "Praise."

I'll praise when outnumbered

Praise when surrounded

'Cause praise is the water

My enemies drown in

Because my praise is a weapon

It's more than a sound (more than a sound)

Oh, my praise is the shout

That brings Jericho down (oh)

There is no bible verse that Steven Furtick cannot read himself into. We do not praise God because we want walls torn down. The story of Jericho has nothing to do with us and everything to do with God. You are not David staring down your Goliath with the slingshot of your faith. Ugh. If you want to see who you are in that story, look at the cowering Israelites. David is of course, a type of Christ. The entire bible is a book about Jesus, not us. When we read ourselves into David, we are reading ourselves into the role of Christ. It is once again, the sin of Lucifer. Today's deep theology is that the job opening to be God? Yeah, that's already been filled. Praise is a weapon to remind us of who God is and what God can do and more importantly, what He has already done. Does anyone remember Calvary anymore? This transactional Christianity from Warren theology only focuses on what God can do for us now, as opposed to what He did for us thousands of years ago. Because the Bethels and Elevations of the world are enamored and idolize this life, they never stop to give thanks for the eternal life God has secured for us. By the way, should we be praising God in the hopes that He will kill our enemies? Didn't Jesus teach that we should pray for our enemies? That mean boss at work or the neighbor we do not get along with? They are not the Egyptians chasing us to the waters of the Red Sea. We ought not be hoping they drown, dear Lord. In case you thought I forgot Hillsong, I have not. I had plenty to choose from, but a popular song today is entitled, "What a Beautiful Name." While most of the lyrics are fine, there is one that is horrifically bad:

You didn't want Heaven without us

So Jesus, You brought Heaven down

My sin was great, Your love was greater

What could separate us now?

Now, this notion of bringing heaven down is core to Bethel but Hillsong is equally heretical. Sure, Hillsong has plenty of fine songs from a lyrical perspective but if your theology begins with Jesus not wanting heaven without us, then it is not Jesus you are worshiping. God created us. He does not need us. He does not need our help with anything. If we are not in heaven He is not moping around, missing us. We are not quite as special as modern worship music make us out to be. While we are here, let us discuss the fact that some of the songs from these heretical entities are acceptable lyrically. Should we still listen to them? Should they be played in our churches? The answer should be a resounding no. Let me explain. Let us start with the money. Last year, Elevation Music made about 10 million dollars and Bethel made about 18 million dollars. Hillsong has been going through so much scandal that the last year we could find was 2017 and that year Hillsong Music raked in 14 million. This is not against capitalism. People can make and sell whatever they want but all of that money lines the pockets of wolves and allows them more ability to deceive people and lead people away from Christ. We tend to view things like worship in a vacuum, but these music outfits are the engine that feeds the heretical churches. Secondly, they are the draw. Many people get hooked into the bad theology of Bethel, Elevation or Hillsong and then naturally gravitate to those churches, teachings and leaders. To correctly say that you do not follow the teachings of these churches on doctrinal grounds but listen to and promote their music is incongruent. What we listen to and promote is seen by others as tacit acceptance. This is the point that people like Dr. Michael Brown never get. I saw a recent advertisement for Brown having an appearance with Todd White. He has also appeared on the Benny Hinn show, has taught at Bethel's phony school of the supernatural and still writes for Steven Strang. Who we share the stage with matters. Who we support matters. Jesus used the analogy of sheep as believers for a reason. Sheep need to be led. We need to be shepherded. So, in what direction are we leading them?

As we wrap up here, please recognize this is only scratching the surface. There is also the genre of "Jesus is my boyfriend" music made infamous by IHOPKC and people like Rick Pino, who once included the extremely creepy line, "take me to your chambers, lead me by the hand" in a popular song. We should not feel the need to shower after singing a worship song. There are also the petulant songs demanding things from God, such as Blessing of Abraham that declares - "Get your inheritance!" I go back to the beginning here and emphasize that worship is incredibly important in the lives of a believer because it should remind us of who Jesus is. Not what we want Him to do but what He has already done. It should emphasize our role as the created, not usurping the role of the Creator. Our posture should be one of kneeling down in reverent awe, trembling before Him. Only then are we worshiping in spirit and truth. It should recognize as Job did that sometimes the Lord gives and sometimes, He takes away. In all things, however, I will bless the Lord. It is not about how much He loves us, even though the bible makes clear that He does. It is a matter of recognizing how great Thou art. Not merely for what we are hoping for or want, but for everything he has already done.

Reverend Anthony Wade - August 28, 2024

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.