Discernment in Music (DiM)

I thank the Lord for His love and grace to me, a sinner, to be adopted into the Kingdom of Heaven through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. I’m exceedingly grateful for the opportunity He has given me to exercise Biblical discernment in Music and that I get to share it with the greater Body of Christ.

The following are some blog posts sharing our perspective on music, worship, and the Gospel. These serve as a basis for what we are trying to do with each DiM post:

• DiM | Keeping It In Context
• DiM | Are we Proclaiming the Truth of the Gospel?
• CTT (Completing the Thought)| Praise, Worship, and Music
• Worship or Entertainment?
• Interview with Tim Hurd of the Bible Thumping Wingnut Podcast

So far, we’ve only been able to review a small portion of the most popular songs on the “Christian Music” charts, but I’m already at a point where sometimes I need to run a search to make sure I haven’t already reviewed a song. So, I figured it was time to put together an index of Discernment in Music (DiM) posts.

2 Corinthians 10:4-6 (ESV)

⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵ We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,⁶ being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

Approved Songs

Whenever we mark a song “approved”, we are not saying the song is without concern, we are saying that the song conveys the Gospel on its own, it stands on its own. These days, a clear reference to Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross are hard to find, but even more difficult is the call to Repent. I mean, this is what Jesus preached (Matthew 4:12-17). The following is a list of songs we’ve Approved.

Disapproved Songs

Sadly, evangelicalism is awash in mysticism and spiritual sensuality today and it is being reflected in much of what is being passed off as “Christian Music”. I don’t go looking for these songs, these are being played on the airwaves and are topping the charts, which means that the Modern Church is hearing these songs a lot. The errors in these songs are such that I simply cannot approve of any of them for Christian consumption. Most of these songs express heretical themes/ideas or so mishandled the Scriptures that we simply cannot untangle the mess. There are a few that are likable songs that simply don’t convey any sort of Christian Message and do not stand on their own.

Listen with Discerning Ears, Heart, and Mind

I do my very best to treat each song fairly, biblically, and lovingly. As with every post here at Faithful Stewardship, my primary audience is my wife and children. If an artist reads one of these DiM posts and wishes to provide a correction, back story, or interpretation I’m all for it, but I don’t expect any will see this blog. My concern is my family, and then the Body of Christ. The following list of songs fall somewhere along the spectrum between Disapproval and Approval for various reasons. Most of these songs are here due to vagueness and ambiguity. Others are here due to heterodoxy, but I don’t remember leaving any of the heretical songs in this middle ground. I expect this to be the biggest category of songs we review. In every review, we will try to equip the reader with proper (in-context) handling of scripture to correct the shortfalls found in the song, while highlighting the lyrical strengths that exist. Regardless of how we rate these songs, we have no control over their airplay; therefore, we’d like for you to consider this an inoculation against unscriptural suggestion found in so much of today’s Christian music.