Christian Lyrics

Warning: There is foul language used, as I quote verbatim from a song writer, so if language from a “Christian” songwriter is going to offend you then you may want to skip this blog.

I am looking for input on this blog in particular, because maybe I am missing something today or maybe I am just finally considered “old fashioned.” Either way, I am going to work through my thought process with you, and it is not complete, and I am hoping some of you can fill in the blanks. I was sent a message to listen to some songs by a singer named Derek Webb, who used to be with Caedmon’s Call.

He had a new album come out called “Stockholm Syndrome” this past summer. And yes, I am just hearing about it now. I know some of you reading are thinking that this is a great album, while others might be thinking the exact opposite. For one song, I am definitely not a fan, as I am not a fan of using swear words for shock value regardless when using them in the framework of a Christian message. Secular movies, TV shows and such do what they do, but when you say you are a “Christian” artist, actor, business man/woman or whatever, it places you on a different level because you are making a claim about what you are doing, but I digress. We will touch on this again in a bit.

I listened to three songs from this album and then read the lyrics of many of them and I must say I am a little confused and a little disappointed and a little understanding at the same time. Meaning, that is where your input comes in to help me with forming my completed thought process. I will lay out mine with Biblical support and then I ask you to do the same if you agree, disagree, or a mixture of the two. But I think this is a good conversation to have to find what the truth is in this issue.

What Matters More lyrics
You say always treat people like you'd like to be/I guess you love being hated for your sexuality/You love when people put words in your mouth/About what you believe/Make you sound like a freakCause if you really believed/What you say you believe/You wouldn't be so damned reckless/With the words you speak/You wouldn't silently consent/When the liars speak/Denying all the dying of the remedy

(Chorus)

Tell me, brother what matters more to you/Tell me, sister what matters more to you

If I can see what's in your heart/By what comes out of your mouth/Then it sure looks to me like being straight/Is all it's about/It looks like being hated/For all the wrong things/Like chasing the wind/While the pendulum swingsCause we can talk and debate/Till we're blue in the face/About the language and tradition/That He's coming to save/And meanwhile we sit/Just like we don't give a shit about/Fifty thousand people who are dying today

Colossians 3:8 Says, “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.” Yes, in contrast to the comparison he made to people dying that is a small comparison, but it is an apple to a car comparison. The problem is that the Bible tells us not to use such language regardless. Yes, we should be worried about the 50,000 dying today, and I would add to that if you count abortions into that, but I wonder if he did. Either way, why negate one part of the Bible in order to make a point about the other? He is doing exactly what he is complaining about the others doing. He is just rationalizing his is better because death is better to worry about then swearing, but I thought when we tell people about sin, we tell them sin is sin before God regardless of what it is? Seems contradictory and not a great message for youth or anyone. Why not steal then as long as I worry about those dying, and maybe even give some of what I steal to the poor? I will conclude with Ephesians 5:4 in order to give more then one verse, “neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.”

Lastly, in the video if you watch it, and not sure that I recommend that you do, so I am not going to promote it with a link. You will have to find it on your own if you so desire. But in the video Derek’s friend is smoking, and if I am not mistaken, cancer is one of the number one killers in America. Why doesn’t he get mad at his friend for smoking, as that is killing him with his second hand smoke? He talks about caring for the 50,000 dying today, but does not cut the smoking scene from his video so as not to promote something that kills. Just another apparent contradiction.

I chose one more song, but most of them all have contradictions in them, or use examples that are not comparable to make an exaggerated point in my opinion. Again, my opinion and maybe you can clear it up for me.

Below are the lyrics to Heaven and I will let you read them and then I will make my comments afterwards.

Lyrics to Heaven

I was killed in a shopping cart/turned upside down and left for dead/i saw a clown try to speak to me/as i floated overhead/i found my way to a familiar place/i swear i’d been sometime before/i would’ve thought it was the marketplace/but i could not find the door

(chorus)

oh i have been to heaven/and i have walked the streets/but i couldn’t find a hand to holdto keep me on my feet

paradise is a parking lot/a spot up front is your reward/and all the rest walk down streets of gold/to the house they could afford/i got lost in the swelling crowd/i could not afford to eat/you only have what you came in with/so i’m living on the streeti heard Jesus Christ was there/he had a car that’s bulletproof/that way everyone is safe/from the man who tells the truth

There is so much that can be said on Heaven that you can type it into my blog and read about it. This song does not do it justice at all and actually plays it down. I find it hard to believe that if he is in Heaven that he would not find someone’s hand to hold. It is the place where you find Christ and those who have died before and gone to Heaven. The chorus is far from true in my opinion and far from glorifying God in any real way. To me it denigrates what Heaven will be like and plays it down way too much. It is a place we are to desire to go, as that is where Christ is. "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (Jn. 14:2, 3).

I guess my concern in the end is how do these songs help the cause of Christ in any fashion since they use poorly done examples, foul language and he contradicts his very song within the video. I just don’t get it. Maybe you can help. All I ask is that if you are going to comment is that you use Biblical support for your arguments, as we are dealing with a Christian artist and not a secular artist.

Walking the Walk

Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

A week ago I gave my testimony to a youth group. When I am asked to give my testimony, I am always a little nervous because I have to refrain from giving details of my past life, as people can get caught up in the enticement of the sin I committed. During my talks on my testimony I tend to just give enough of a highlight to give people an idea of what I was like as a non-believer. It was not a pretty picture to say the least, but that aspect is for another time.

As I prayed and thought about it, I talked about my testimony, but I did so in light of where Christianity in my opinion, and again I say in my opinion, is at today. I think especially within the youth group scenario. With that in mind, below is the challenge that God gave to me for them, for me, and now I am giving to whoever is reading this right now as a follower of Jesus Christ.

I just heard an interview of Bishop Spong who said that he believed that the Bible was to only be taken symbolically, and that no one educated believes in the major claims of the virgin birth, resurrection, and even a literal Heaven anymore. What was shocking is this interview was given by a leader who says he is a Christian, though I would challenge that since he also does not believe in most of the core beliefs of Christianity. What upset me most, is that he never challenged Spong on any of the very mistaken claims he made and even supported the belief that there is probably no literal Heaven. The Emergent movement is one of the major areas I was thinking about when preparing for my testimony and challenge of the youth, because these guys are very popular among the youth because they write well, make cool videos, dress sharp, and speak eloquently for the most part. But what they write is pretty much worthless dribble lined with sugar so you don’t realize you have taken the poison until it is too late.

Why didn’t Mr. Pagitt defend the core beliefs with Spong, or at least say he disagreed. He did neither. As I say many times, silence is a form of agreeance. 1 Pet. 3:15 says, ABut sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.@ He could have given easy answers for the truth of the resurrection, virgin birth and Heaven. Why not also give him names of prominent Evangelical believers that do believe those beliefs, and also others out there as well. How about Josh McDowell, Sean McDowell, Dr. Norman Geisler, Ravi Zacharias, Dr. J.P. Moreland, Dr. William Lane Craig, Dr. Montgomery Ward, Dr. Peter Kreeft, and Dr. Francis Beckwith, just to name a few off the top of my head. All well respected theologians, philosophers and academics. Even Christopher Hitchens, a stringent atheist knows what Christians are to believe as a foundation.

When interviewed by a self proclaimed liberal Christian, Marilyn Sewell, Hitchens said, “I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.” I would say he gets it better then most Emergent Church people.

Pagitt did not fulfill Jude 3:22, as it says ABeloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. As believers today we need to be contending for the faith, and if you do a study on the word “contend,” then you will find it is used in the form of being in a war. Our youth are in a battle today, and not just from the world, but from inside our very own system, as many are trying to have them move toward a very liberal, or not Christian at all, form of faith.

We are to hold fast to the Bible as told to us in Titus 1:9, Aholding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict. This will give us the ability to see these people in disguise and also strengthen our faith that is based on evidence that is unseen (Heb. 11:1). Today many cannot defend, explain, or answer contradictions to the Christian beliefs.

We are allowing our youth to use these men and women as an excuse for their weak understanding of Scripture and lack of ability to be able to defend or have confidence in what they believe. How do you have confidence in something you don’t know or understand? How do you deepen your faith if you don’t know the One you are following?

Today we need to train our youth to stand up for Christ so it is easier for someone else to do so. Let’s be their excuse so they can be the excuse for their peers not to sin or fall into the snares of wrong belief, instead of being the excuse to sin. “Hey look their Christian and they do it, so why can’t I?” “They look cool and it sounds good, so why isn’t true?” We need to train them to be able to see the truth and to be able to defend with confidence what they believe.

We have the answers to the questions above that were posed by Spong and now many times by the Emergent Church movement. It does take time to read, research and find the answer in Scripture and utilize those before us who have already walked through the fire of trials.

My challenge to the young adults today Don’t be those church group kids that believe it because it was a recent best seller in the Christian market, as Brian McClaren’s books or Rob Bell’s. If you don’t believe it then stop pretending. Walk what you believe. I and most would personally respect you more for it. But if you do believe then walk it. Follow what the verses given above say about being able to answer questions and defend your faith. Be bold, Jesus Christ died for you so that you could have Heaven. Is that worth a little teasing from friends because you are Bible Thumper? Or maybe some friends stop talking to you and instead about you?
Someone is watching you. What excuse are you giving them? That you stand up for Christ and will be there for them? Or are you the one that does one thing on Sunday and during youth groups and is another person outside of here? Again, that is weak and what I would call a chicken. If you believe then walk, and if you don’t then don’t, but be real.

I am going to end with a lyric from a song that is not from a Christian group, but he certainly also gets the point like Christopher Hitchens. Again, this person is not a Christian, but he knows that if you choose to follow then you follow. Why is it today some who are not Christians seem to understand better then those that claim to be believers?

“Bow down before the one you serve, you’re going to get what you deserve”—Nine Inch Nails.