let's talk about "worldly music," verses "secular music."
i defined "worldly" in the first post, showing this word to mean satan's system of deception and self-worship. i said i would define secular, or what i mean by secular.
by secular i mean music not specifically written about God or to God. i believe "secular music" can glorify God or satan, depending upon the musicians intention or expresssion, whether christian or non christian.
for example, a love song expressing a man's desire to marry a woman glorifies God, the Creator of marriage. this man may or may not be a christian, but he sings songs that express the truth of man's love for a woman consummated in marriage, which honors God.
worldly music, no matter how good it sounds, does not honor God.
the musician deliberately dishonors, dismisses, or dissassoicates herself from God.
he hates God.
she hates anything and everything that tells her there are limits to her expression.
secular musicians may not hate God or His ways. they may not fully know the source of the beauty they see and feel. but they love the beauty, and to a certain extent they love the source, though they may misname or misunderstand the source. now here is where christian musician copying comes in.
some christian musicians, knowing Christ as the source of all beauty and ecstasy, realize that secular musicians build musical alters to "an unknown God." what they sing to as unknown, the christian musican seeks to make known. so they take the secular style, lyrics, etc., and use it to glorify God.
christian musicans may do the very same thing with worldly music!!
take the musical genre of "heavy metal" for example. this music is usually associated with devil worship, wild drunken sex orgies, etc. notice, it is THE ASSOCIATION of this music with these activities that is powerful. but the musical style, rhythms, or notes are not inherently sinful.
a good example for me is the song "down with the sickness." by the band "disturbed."
some of you may ask,
"Cru, how in THE LITERAL HELL did you come into contact with such a horribly demonic song?"
i used to be a bouncer. i heard and saw things that should not be heard or seen. i refuse to link you to the lyrics. if you haven't heard the song or lyrics, you are blessed for it. but i can tell you, as a musican, that the music itself is very good, meaning the beats, notes, arrangement, composition. but the goal of the musicians is antiGod!!
another good example is almost any of prince's earlier songs where he seemed to love raunchiness. "darling nicki" is another perfect example. filthy lyrics. very good music. (i saw the movie in which prince sang this, and I've heard it live. the music sounds even better live, though i am ashamed to like it because the lyrics are so bad.)
now, imagine a christian musican taking the music to both of these songs and changing the words. he uses the exact same music and the rhythm of the lyrics, but makes a completely legitimate christian song, with rightly interpreted scripture and application, and deepest expression of devotion and emotion to God. after all, this seems to be what happened with old bar songs that were used for the music of hymns. could this glorify God?
it depends. some music from some sources is so associated with the devil that it is difficult, if not impossible, to dissociate the devil from it.
but let's just take heavy metal in general as a musical style. or use prince's musical style in general. these, in and of themselves, belong to no one and can be used by any muscian. secondly, the styles in and of themselves can be used for the glory of God, depending on the musician, if they are simply the basic characteristics, verses an imitation of a song of satan, .
take as another example rap music, whether the style of a specific rapper, or of rap in general; NOT the syle of a specific rap song. now some "christian rappers" simply like rap as a style of expression. some were former "thugs" and now consider themselves "gangstas for Christ," whatever that means. now with "gangsta rap," for example, there are assumptions about money, respect, violence, etc. the "gangsta disciple of Christ" may reinterpret these in "kingdom language." they may speak of spiritual wealth in Christ, the glory of God, and the violence done to satan's kingdom. an example of this is changing the scriptural idea of the word of God being a "sword of the Spirit" to a "gun for Christ."
the danger comes when the christian rapper expresses the same worldly assumptions as worldly rappers, going beyond merely using the style of music, and promoting worldly thinking. they still may give some glory to themselves, though they give MOST of the glory to God. they thank God FOR THEIR BENTLEY OR MERCEDES OR MONIES. their videos look and feel the same as worldly videos, but they talk about Jesus more.
so the christian musician that copies a secular or even worldly musical style can still glorify God if he or she doesn't promote worldly assumptions, or copy a worldly/secular artist to the extent that the worldly artist cannot be forgotten when one listens. the styles of secular/worldly music are not sinful. but the assumptions behind he lyrics very well may be. (the closest i've come to hearing music that sounded "sinful" is the introductory notes to prince's darling nikki. it JUST COMES ON WRONG!! the MUSICAL NOTES sound "SINFUL....." like WHATEVER prince is about to "sang" CANNOT BE GOOD!!)
as for traditional christan music, like hymns, the issue is usually talent. the lyrics of hymns tend to be good, as defined in the last post. however, there are some hymns that sound very much like "sermon songs," and some that are off scripturally. this is the exception and not the rule. if hymns or traditional christian songs of the past are sung with skill and spirit filled emotion, the presence of God will indeed be felt, and thus the goal of the good christian musician will be achieved.
i plan to write about "sorry cliche christian music" in the next, and concluding, post. i believe this discussion will bring us to the climax of our topic. in the next post, i'll deal with this last type of christian music, showing why it seems at times that "satan's music" is better than "God's."
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