discernment

DiM | “Always Been About You” Fellowship Creative

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Presentation1As I continue working out a blog schedule here at Faithful Stewardship, I heard a song on the radio this morning that I found rather catchy. I realized it had been a while since we last practiced discernment in music that gets airplay on Christian radio. So, I think a good topic for Tuesday posts will be a music review that we will call “Discernment in Music”. Some common reactions to my music reviews take the form of , “you’re really over-thinking these things…” or “you can’t restrict artists to only writes songs you approve of” or “you have a critical spirit”. Understand that this is an exercise in taking every thought captive… every…. thought. I don’t expect everyone to agree with my assessments, or to like them. If I’ve at least caused you to exercise discernment while listening to music, I’ve done my job.

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.

The song I heard this morning that caught my attention was “Always Been About You” by Fellowship Creative. If you listen to popular Christian radio, you’ve probably heard it recently. If your radio station hasn’t played it yet, there’s a good chance they will later (unless they’ve made a stance against certain ministries). Let’s take a look at the lyrics of the song pulled from the band’s website.

Always Been About You

Out here, the greatest love is bold
Out here, the greyest skies are gold
Out here, it’s all laid on the line
Out here, you’re always on my mind

And it’s always been about love
It’s always been about grace
It’s always been about hope
And it’s always been about faith 

It’s always been about peace
It’s always been about truth
Everything that’s ever been before
It’s always been about You

Out here, we’re running with the light
Out here, we’re breaking up the night
Out here, the lost are coming home
Cause out here, no one goes alone

And it’s always been about love
It’s always been about grace
It’s always been about hope
And it’s always been about faith 

It’s always been about peace
It’s always been about truth
Oh and everything that’s ever been
It’s always been about You

We will run for you
We will go for you
We will fight for you, you

We will run, we will run
We will go, we will go
We will fight, we will fight
With everything, everything

And it’s always been about love
It’s always been about grace
It’s always been about hope
And it’s always been about faith

It’s always been about peace
It’s always been about truth
Oh and everything that’s ever been
It’s always been about You

Now, as I said this song was very catchy. It is sung and performed extremely well. Great buildup of instruments, great backup accompaniment, just very well done. Now, the first verse starts off, well… oddly. I have no idea what “Out here” signifies. No clue. I was hoping the song would resolve it later, but it doesn’t really make it clear. I do have a thought about what this means, but we’ll save that for later, because I draw that opinion from outside the song. The chorus is very fun, and quite catchy. The idea that “it’s always been about love, grace, hope, faith, peace, and truth” is awesome and easily draws an “Amen”. The final “You” is assumed to be God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). Some Scriptures that immediately come to mind during the chorus are as follows:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV)
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Galatians 3:7-9 (ESV)
7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 (ESV)
16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

John 14:6 (ESV)
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The chorus of this song is chock full of Gospel nuggets. As the music played, my mind raced through all of the wonderful passages Gospel of Jesus Christ revealed in Scripture, and it put a smile on my face. As the song broke down into the bridge, I started to notice the song was a little unbalanced. If we will run for you, are we running for God (“you” is never clearly defined) or are we running for our brothers and sisters (“out here, no one runs alone”)? If we are fighting for “you”, what are we fighting against? By what means?

If this were a sermon, this would be an example of attempting to preach pure Gospel, while skipping over and avoiding Law. You see, until we come to grips with the reality of sin in our lives, and the debt that we cannot pay on our own, the Gospel rings hollow. This is why I’m not a big fan of the feel-good, “Just ask Jesus into your heart”. Instead, I believe it best to follow Peter’s answer after his first sermon (where he preached both the Law and the Prophets concerning Christ) in Acts 2:

Acts 2:37-41 (ESV)
37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

You see, you cannot simply skip over sin and repentance. It has indeed always been about God, but before there was grace, there was Holiness. Adam was to obey. He sinned, and God’s Grace immediately took action, as He promised to send the Messiah to redeem His creation.

This song is not a sermon. If you were attending a concert, you’d be hearing several songs. In the context of a performance, depending on when this song was sung, another song might be dedicated to preaching the Law (calling out sin and the need for repentance). On the radio, you’ll hear this song on its own. By itself, it’s a really catching “positive” message in vague language.

Where is “Out Here”?

The Fellowship Creative is a band that serves as the praise and worship team for Fellowship Church, a seeker-sensitive Mega-church led by Ed Young. Fellowship Creative is to Fellowship Church what Jesus Culture is to Bethel Church. I mention this because it serves as a warning flag. In the vagueness of the lyrics, knowing the theology behind it is necessary for Biblical discernment. As for the “Out Here”, I believe it references their church, and their way of approaching church (seeker-sensitive). I believe it to be intended as an anthem for the seeker-sensitive model of church, where the goal of the actual church meeting is to attract non-believers into the building in hopes that they will embrace the message of Christ (while they skip/gloss over tough topics like sin and repentance). Now, if you are unfamiliar with Ed Young or the seeker-sensitive movement, I can understand if you think I’m “reading too much into things”. While looking through their YouTube channel, they had a video of themselves performing this song at the C3 conference in 2013 (C3 should serve as a warning flag, too).

No doubt an incredible performance and light show. I’ll admit, I thought “that’s cool” when I realized the band was up above the stage light screens. Such a grand display is great for entertaining the world. It’s what they do for each other and for themselves. However, when you take a vague song emphasizing a positive-only Gospel (no sin, no repentance) and wrap it in worldly showmanship, what you get is a great song that might as well have been a cooking recipe. The world often talks/sings about and extols love, peace, and a generic concept of “God”. But they don’t agree with the Biblical definitions of each. They don’t even accept the notion of absolute truth.

Do they have any good songs?

Yes. I quickly found a song on their most recent album that I liked lyrically. We still don’t have a clear picture of the sinful state of man and his need for a Savior, but at least we get more specific on what Jesus did for us.

The One I Need
This world, this beautiful world
Is still not enough for me; it’s not my home
Instead I fix my eyes on the Maker of earth and skies
My Savior, who came and died and rose for me

And I will give my heart to the One who took my place
And I will lift my voice to the Name above all names

Jesus, Lord of Heaven
I give my life to thee
All else, I surrender
You are the One, the One I need

My God, let nothing eclipse my view
Cause nothing compares to you; You’re all I need
At the cross, Your love rained over me
You’re more than enough for me; Jesus, you’re enough

And I will give my heart to the One who took my place
And I will lift my voice to the Name above all names

Jesus, Lord of Heaven
I give my life to thee
All else, I surrender
You are the One, the One I need

And I will give my heart to the One who took my place
And I will lift my voice to the Name above all names

Jesus, Lord of Heaven
I give my life to thee
All else, I surrender
You are the One, the One I need

Jesus, Son of Heaven
You left your throne for me
Forever, I will follow
You are the One, the One I need

Conclusion

This is a seeker-sensitive church band. They represent a brand, a theology, a way of doing church that isn’t prescribed in Scripture. So, when we listen to their music, we ought to pay close attention to what is actually being sung. We must take every thought captive, and that isn’t limited to the obviously sinful thoughts. Every. Thought. For Christians who are grounded in the Bible and have studied what the Bible says about sin, repentance, forgiveness, holiness, grace, love, mercy… this song can serve as a pleasant reminder of scripture. But so can any song on the radio that mentions faith, love, truth, grace. The sad part is that for an organization that calls itself the church and prides itself on reaching the lost… the song teaches nothing. It presents a half-gospel, one that implores the unbeliever to “accept Jesus” without acknowledging and repenting from their sin. That’s great for church attendance, in the short run, but it does the individual no good to only hear half of the Gospel. As with all musical artists, there are some songs that are good, others that are not so good. My concern isn’t really them, but you and your walk in Christ.

Jude 1:24-25 (ESV)
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

In Christ,
Jorge

The Mark of a False Teacher

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I hope your summer is going well.  I just returned from a short family vacation and had a wonderful time. I got a lot of reading done in my travels and look forward to getting into more bible study here. I still have a few concepts I need to flesh out here, so at least for now I know we will have much to discuss in the next several weeks.

This morning, I thought I’d share an article written by Chris Rosebrough of Fighting for the Faith. To view this article in its original form click here.

The Mark of a False Prophet: They Draw Away Disciples After Themselves

Chris Rosebrough

False teachers and false prophets have been and will always continue to be a very serious threat to the Church and to each and every baptized Christian. In today’s postmodern society it is not considered politically correct to speak this way because people wrongly believe that everyone who claims to be a Christian is a Christian, regardless of what they believe, teach or confess. Yet, Jesus warns us in his Sermon on the Mount about false teachers and false prophets and describes them as wolves in sheep’s clothing and not has harmless people who should be ignored—or worse—tolerated. Here’s what our Lord said:

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15–20)

Notice that Jesus warns us that false teachers and prophets disguise themselves to look like Christians. But also notice that Jesus says the sheep-like camouflage won’t work too well because we will be able to recognize the wolves by their fruits. So what are these bad fruits that make wolves easy to recognize? Answer: their messages.

One of the regular features on my radio program, Fighting for the Faith, is the sermon review. Over the past five and half years I’ve reviewed hundreds of sermons by the world’s most popular Bible twisters. Each one puts his own spin on the Bible and each one has concocted his own unique theology. Yet there is a common characteristic that each of these false teachers possesses: They preach about themselves, not Christ.

The Apostle Paul, when he warned the elders of the church in Ephesus about the false teachers who would be coming after his departure, gave them a simple way to spot the wolves:

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore be alert.” (Acts 20:28–31)

Note well what Acts 20:30 says about the fierce wolves—they draw away the disciples after themselves. The 5th century Church Father Ammonius of Alexandria, preaching on this text noted:

“In order to draw away the disciples after them.” Heretics strive to make the people their own instead of the Lord’s, so that they might boast in themselves…Paul himself checked this beforehand when he silenced and censured those who were saying, “I’m Paul’s; I’m Apollos’s; I’m Cephas’s,” since he did not want their faith to be explained by the name of a person but by Christ’s name; he wanted them all to be called Christians, even though they had been taught by different teachers. Accordingly, whenever all the teachers strive for the same goal of proclaiming the true faith, of profiting the students while suppressing their own names, they are called, by the same name, Christians.1

The fruit of false teachers, prophets and ravenous wolves is easy to spot. If they preach themselves, not Christ, then they’re wolves.

Wolves preach about their lives, their victories, their dreams, their visions, their ideas, the tips and tricks they’ve discovered to achieve success. Jesus, if He’s mentioned at all by them, is merely held up as an example to be followed. The goal of their preaching is to convince you to apply the pastor’s insights and life tips so that you can be successful, just like the pastor is successful.

Faithful teachers of the one true faith, on the other hand, are not like wolves but are like the apostle Paul who said:

“But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God….For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” (2 Corinthians 4:2, 5)

If you ever find yourself in a church where the pastor is preaching himself, not Christ, run! As a baptized sheep in Christ’s flock you must always remember that wolves are not harmless, they eat sheep! The pastor who preaches himself rather than Christ is working for the devil and is preaching himself and his congregation into the fires of hell rather than into Christ’s eternal kingdom. And when you hear the faithful preaching of Christ crucified and raised for sinners, then rejoice and give thanks for that faithful pastor through whom Jesus delivers His forgiveness and life and makes you a member of His own flock of dearly bought sheep.

 

1 Martin, F., & Smith, E. (Eds.). (2006). Acts (p. 255). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Chris Rosebrough is on the board directors of Higher Things and is also the captain of PirateChristianRadio.com and host of the Fighting for the Faith radio program.

Discernment | Prophecy or Apostasy?

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The primary goal of Faithful Stewardship is to study the Word of God. Knowing what the Word of God says as the standard of Truth will preserve you from false doctrine. However, there is a great need in this present day to understand that there are false prophets, false teachers, and even false christs leading away the saints away from the faith, from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I’d like to borrow an exhortation from Christ Rosebrough at Fighting for the Faith, “please, don’t come with an open mind; rather, come with an open Bible”. We really can’t rely on our feelings or emotions to warn us of false teaching or false doctrine, we really need to hold every teacher, writer, speaker to the Word of God. Today, I just want to look at the basis for why it is so important to practice discernment and not to just “go with it” in the name of “not being a thorn in someone’s side”.

Remembering that Jesus Christ didn’t come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it, let us look at what the Law says about false prophets.

Deuteronomy 13 (ESV)  1 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 6 “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, 8 you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. 9 But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 11 And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you. 12 “If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there, 13 that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, 14 then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you, 15 you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword. 16 You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again. 17 None of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers, 18 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

I’d like to make a couple of notes here. Firstly, according to the old covenant, they were to be put to death. Under the new covenant, we are not to physically put them to death, but death is still what is required for this sin. According Romans Chapter 6, we know that we must die to sin, die to our flesh, by joining in Christ’s death, so that we might be made alive in Him. Repentance, Atonement, Returning to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The false teachers are to repent of their idolatry! That is why we still have the Law and the Prophets. The letter of the law kills, so that those of us who have died to sin might be made alive in Christ before we die in the flesh and face Judgement. This is real. If you ascribe to the secessionist view, then you probably believe the office of the Prophet to be closed. I do not hold to that view, because I don’t see any support for it in the Bible. Neither do I see anything in Scripture that modified the office of Prophet; therefore, the standard for a Prophet of God remains unchanged. God promised His people to send Prophets, because Israel begged Moses to speak to them the Words of God, for they were too scared to hear God’s voice for themselves (Exodus 20:18-21). In this present day, for anyone who claims to be a Prophet, even if their signs/wonders come true, if they preach themselves, or a god that is not the One True God of the Bible (pantheism, gnosticism, humanism, etc.) they are to be put to death (called to repentance and cut off from the people until such repentance according to the Law) and we are NOT to listen to them. As Paul told Titus, “they are to be silenced” (Titus 1:11). I would also argue that this same test be applied to anyone claiming to be a present-day Apostle. Again, even if the signs/wonders come true, if what they preach is not in keeping with sound doctrine (Titus 2) they are to be silenced and “put to death” (called to repent). Now, we also run into some abuses in the current charismatic/evangelical circles where they are wise enough not to claim for themselves the office of Prophet or Apostle, yet they feel completely free to claim to speak on God’s behalf via a gift of the prophecy, knowledge, understanding from God the Holy Spirit. For some reason, in this community they think it’s okay to “prophecy” in the Name of God things that do not come to pass. Is that okay? There is also a test for that in the Law as well.

Deuteronomy 18:9-22 (ESV) 9 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, 14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. 15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

Here, we see that false prophets are not to be feared. So then, the bigger sin here, even in the Law, is anchored in the teaching of the one who claims to be speaking the Words of God. If their teaching leads the Children of God astray, they are to be silenced and put to death (again, we understand this now in the New Covenant to be a call to repentance, that they might die to their sin and repent and turn back to God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ). It is one thing to falsely prophecy signs and wonders that don’t come true… for the Law identifies that the prophet has spoken presumptuously, and they need not be feared. Do not fear these individuals, they are speaking of their own. I think this happens when young Christians are poorly discipled in the Word of God and out of their zeal try to “operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit” and end up speaking from themselves rather than from the Holy Spirit”. This is not a “safe zone” because if they take the next step to preach/teach/or lead to a false gospel, false spirits, false teachings, then there is a major problem. For according to the old covenant, this false teaching and leading astray from the One True God bore the penalty of death. This is Sin.

Even more troubling, is that false teachers often buy their own lie first, even before leading away others after gods they have not known (borrowing from the passages in Exodus above). We understand that only the work of the Holy Spirit is capable of opening the hearts of sinners to the Gospel of Grace… how much more then does the Hand of God have to fall on those who once professed a faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, only to have let themselves be led astray by spirits of error or by pride/presumptuous assertions? The Apostles spoke strongly against false teachers, false prophets, and false christs. That is because when Jesus was asked about the end times (Matthew 24), He warned strongly against false christs even leading astray the elect. Being deceived is a worse state than being lost.

2 Peter 2:17-22 (ESV) 17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

I encourage you, brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ, to hold firmly to the Word of God. Scrutinize heavily anything extra-biblical (outside of scripture) being presented as the Word of God. Test the spirits (1 John 4), for God the Holy Spirit will never object to His Spoken Word being measured by His Written Word, for He is One God. Silence the false teachers and issue a rebuke and a call to repentance, burn up the false doctrines and do not return to them. Preach the Word of God and teach in accordance with sound doctrine. For we are stewards of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is His Gospel, entrusted to us as His stewards. And do not fear the false prophet, false teacher, even the false christ. Fear and love the Lord God.

Jude 1:24-25 (ESV) Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

May the Lord Bless you and keep you,
In Him,
Jorge

DiM | “I am Mountain” by Gungor

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Over the past couple of days, I’ve heard a new song being pushed by Air1 radio. The song melody is very different from other songs of the day. Not entirely unique, but different enough to catch my attention. However, this morning I caught the song from beginning to end, and thought I’d try to catch the meaning of the song… I was disappointed. Who is the mountain? The artist, apparently. Let’s take a look at the lyrics of the song:

I AM MOUNTAIN
(Michael Gungor / Lisa Gungor)

I am mountain, I am dust
Constellations made of us
There’s glory in the dirt
A universe within the sand
Eternity within a man

We are ocean, we are mist
Brilliant fools who wound and kiss
There’s beauty in the dirt
Wandering in skin and soul
Searching, longing for a home

As the light, light
Lights up the skies, up the skies
We will fight, fight
Fight for our lives, for our lives

I am mountain, I am dust
Constellations made of us
There’s mystery in the dirt
The metaphors are breaking down
We taste the wind and sight is sound

As the light, light
Lights up the skies, up the skies
We will fight, fight
Fight for our lives, for our lives
2x

Momentary carbon stories
From the ashes
Filled with holy ghost
Life is here now
Breathe it all in
Let it all go

You are earth and wind

If there is one line that makes sense, it is “The metaphors are breaking down”, because this is song has no discernible Gospel message. None. What it does have is mysticism and pantheism in that it seems to extol the glory within us (by loosely referencing that we were made from the earth/dirt therefore glory, mystery, and beauty being in the earth and in us), and some odd reference to being filled with holy ghost and living in the moment. Just, odd. The plain reading of the lyric does not point to Jesus, the Cross, or even the Bible or God the Father in any way. It points to man, and some metaphysical philosophy that glorifies the moment by highlighting the temporary state of man. Even if you tried to put into the lyrics a Christian filter, you wouldn’t get a coherent Gospel interpretation. At best you get random allusions to comments made in the Bible, but nothing that would point to a Christian message.

So, I decided to take a look at their “BIO” to see if they are taking the approach of other Christian bands (like Skillet) who focus on sharing the Gospel message outside the songs. Now, I’m already stretching for that connection, because while Skillet doesn’t always have a clearly discernible Gospel message, they aren’t pointing to mysticism/pantheism/humanism, they just don’t always clearly define who their “hero” is in the song that they very clearly need. But I’ve heard them share the Gospel in concerts so they do a good job in that regard (personally, I’d rather they did both, but I’m happy they share the Gospel). Anyway, let’s look at the Gungor BIO taken from their website:

We don’t have to look far to find the results of what happens when filters are removed and people create what they think they want to create. Most often, it’s chaos.
It takes the truly gifted artist, at the exact moment when personal uncertainty is as its peak, to reach within and draw out music both noticeably free from constraints and laser-like in its focus.
Michael Gungor, through the musical collective known simply as Gungor, has achieved just such a work. Setting aside his reliance on what he called “metaphysical constructs I’d known all my life,” Gungor has tapped his considerable musical reserves for a song set simultaneously re- velatory in its lyrical content, ambitious in its sonic scope and compelling in its approachability.
Finally given the opportunity to self-identify, Gungor uses his skills as an accomplished multi- instrumentalist, arranger and producer on “I Am Mountain” to kick off a journey of stories told, some personal, some allegorical, but all honest and forthright.
“There’s that sense of searching, wandering and loss within all these songs,” Michael says. “On the other side of that, there’s a rebirth of hope and life within that. There’s a freedom and em- brace of mystery and the unknown, and finding a joy and childlikeness within that.”
Michael’s path of creative rediscovery allows the tracks on “I Am Mountain” to exist in their own needs, be it the dark east/west musical dichotomy of “The Beat of Her Heart” or the me- lodic hooks of “Long Way Off,” from the galloping synths of “God And Country” to the descent from beauty into deconstruction in “Upside Down.”
Michael shares vocalizations in Gungor with wife Lisa, and together they interact, counter-play and underscore each song’s arc with precision and versatility, be it the plaintive whisper of “Yesternite,” the lost-then-found effect choices made on “Wandering” and ‘70s-era evocation on the chorus of “Let It Go”.
In this age of musical homogeneity, such diversity might be a danger sign. But Gungor’s deft manipulation of such moments piques interest not only in the immediacy of an individual song, but throughout the album’s listening experience as a whole. That variety is most assuredly on purpose.
“I recently had the best meal of my life, an eight-course Japanese/sushi thing,” Michael says, “and just the balance of the plates they’d bring and how they handled each of the flavors after the next to build to something, it was amazing. “That’s how I wanted to approach this record,” he continues. “To have a palate cleanser when its needed, something easy to go down, a breath for a second when things get too dark or heavy. “Any good film, meal, symphony, album, whatever, has those kinds of moments that allow you to breathe.”

To be fair, this doesn’t seem like they wrote their own BIO. However, notice the big thing that is missing here? The Gospel. So let’s look at their Blog. They actually have a post entitled “What Do We Believe?” It is incredibly long, so I will not be sharing all of it. Here are some key points I find most telling:

What Do We Believe? Let’s do a little experiment together. Pick up some droppable object near you. Keys, a pillow, a small child, whatever. (For the literalists, I should add that I am just kidding about the child, and that you really shouldn’t ever drop children.) Ok, now look at it and really try to believe that when you drop it, that it is going to float into the sky. I am going to do this with you. I just picked up a stuffed rabbit that happened to be on the couch. Now using your free will, REALLY try to BELIEVE that when you drop your object, gravity is not going to exist anymore. If you are anything like me, you will find that this is not possible. While I was staring at the rabbit, I actually was able to create this superficial feeling of suspense and tried to really expect it to not drop. But if you stopped me and asked me in the middle of that if I would bet my life on the results, I am going to go ahead and admit that I would have bet on gravity. I dropped it. And guess what?! It didn’t drop! It floated in mid-air! Isn’t that amazing? Do you believe me? No? Why not? Because by the time you can use your conscious mind to “believe” something, your unconscious mind has already sorted through the data and there is no way you can force yourself to un-know what you know. You might be able to convince yourself that it is possible for gravity to stop for a moment. It’s like when I was in junior high and I kept almost breaking my glasses to prove that I really believed God would heal my eyes. But when the rubber meets the road, you really can’t choose to believe or not believe in something like gravity. Every moment of your existence has been influenced and limited by it. You’ve never escaped it, and unless you leave this planet on some space adventure some day, you never will. I grew up in an environment that placed a high priority on belief. Belief was everything. Belief was made you “us” rather than “them”. Belief was what determined not just your life, but your afterlife. But what is belief really? Do I believe in gravity or do I know that it exists? After all, isn’t it theoretically possible that gravity as we currently understand it doesn’t exist? I mean, our views of what holds us to the ground has changed pretty radically through history. Who is to know that we won’t discover that our current understanding of gravity is wrong? Even the most straight forward assumptions are still assumptions. There’s always another possibility. For example, isn’t it theoretically possible (even if unlikely) that we are part of a computer simulation that holds us to the ground simply because that’s what the programmer wanted the program to do? So on that level, pretty much EVERYTHING is a belief because EVERYTHING we know is built on assumptions. We “know” that gravity is real, but that assumes that your perception of existence is real and not a dream or some sort of momentary simulation in the mind of God. Everything you believe or know is built on a lot of assumptions that have already been processed by your unconscious mind and that is the foundation upon which we can start forming words and ideas about what we “believe.” So what happens when your unconscious mind removes some of the assumptions? What happens when some of what you built the words and concepts on does not exist anymore? For instance, let’s talk about God. When I was a kid, I would pray up to the sky all the time. During worship services, I would look up because I was somehow taught that God was this Supreme Being “up” in Heaven, and someday he would come “down” here to rescue us. But then in school, of course, we learned about space and the earth and how it rotates and how there is really no such thing as “up” or “down.” These are ideas relative to earth and our position within its gravitational pull. And in fact, what is up to me right now is down for a lot of other people on earth, and in a few hours, up has drastically changed for all of us. So if up and down aren’t real, then what do we mean by God being “up” in Heaven? And why do so many worship leaders stare at the lights of the sanctuary and reach their hands into the sky as though trying to reach somebody “up” there? Up where? Towards which planet? Which galaxy? Because if it’s in some direction that we are supposed to think about God, that direction would be constantly changing. Sometimes the congregation should be gazing down and to the right or reaching their hands straight out behind them… So what do you do when you lose the up and down assumption in your unconscious? Well, you either stop looking up, or you look up in a more metaphorical way. But once you lose that assumption, it’s impossible to once again BELIEVE that God is UP there. You can’t do it. You have seen that up is not real, and you will never be able to un-see that. So here’s my point in all of this: we should be very slow to judge people for their beliefs. I’m talking to myself as well here. There are some beliefs that drive me crazy. I find them backwards and limiting and destructive. But while I think it’s okay to make value judgments on beliefs, I think so many of us are so quick to label, categorize and dismiss human beings because of their beliefs. But here’s the reality. We don’t really get to chose our beliefs. They are handed to us from our environment. Who of us came up with any our beliefs on our own? You can’t even have concepts or beliefs in your head without words. And where did you get those words? Did you make them up? Did you invent the word ‘God? Did you invent the words ‘science’, ‘humanism’, ‘good’, ‘evil’, ‘love’…? No, these words do not exist as something separate from your experience and environment. These words come to you with concepts and experiences that have been handed to you from your particular environment. And you either accept them, change them, or deny them, but even those decisions are largely out of your control. You will see what you will see, and those things cannot be un-seen. You will think with words that your environment hands you and you have no ability to unlearn those words or concepts. They are burned into your brain, and they always will be. This sounds awfully fatalistic, but I don’t think it has to be. Because I believe that you can choose with your conscious mind what you want to do with the (un)beliefs that you have. Back to the “up” thing. Even if you know God isn’t up there somewhere, perhaps you are a person that finds great solace in looking up while you pray or lifting your hands when you sing. Perhaps it makes you feel like a child looking up to a parent. Or perhaps it makes you feel lighter and more human, more connected and a part of everything. So maybe you decide to keep looking up sometimes. Maybe lifting your hands makes you feel like you are surrendering something of yourself to something or someone “higher” than yourself. Even though you realize the absurdity of thinking of God as some being that lives somewhere in the direction of Galaxy 54-tx42… You have a choice on what to do with that belief (or lack thereof) now. You can stop looking up. Or you can look up. That’s your decision. Unlike believing that the rabbit is not going to hit the floor when you drop it, that’s something you can actually choose. Over the last year, I have had so many questions asked of me about what I believe. Just tonight I had a conversation with someone extremely close to me that said that he wouldn’t consider me a Christian anymore. Why? Not because of my life.. Not because my life looks like Jesus or doesn’t look like Jesus. But because of my lack of ability to nail down all the words and concepts of what I exactly BELIEVE. Because I’ve lost so many of the unconscious assumptions that I used to have and have no ability to un-see what I have seen. I have no more ability to believe, for example, that the first people on earth were a couple named Adam and Eve that lived 6,000 years ago. I have no ability to believe that there was a flood that covered all the highest mountains of the world only 4,000 years ago and that all of the animal species that exist today are here because they were carried on an ark and then somehow walked or flew all around the world from a mountain in the middle east after the water dried up. I have no more ability to believe these things than I do to believe in Santa Clause or to not believe in gravity. But I have a choice on what to do with these unbeliefs. I could either throw out those stories as lies, or I could try to find some value in them as stories. But this is what happens…

If you try to find some value in them as stories, there will be some people that say that you aren’t a Christian anymore because you don’t believe the Bible is true or “authoritative”. Even if you try to argue that you think there is a truth to the stories, just not in an historical sense; that doesn’t matter. To some people, you denying the “truth” of a 6,000 year old earth with naked people in a garden eating an apple being responsible for the death of dinosaurs is the same thing as you nailing Jesus to the cross. You become part of ‘them’. The deniers of God’s Word.

So, the Bible is open to interpretation and meaning must be given to its “stories”. That doesn’t bode well at all. It is okay to struggle with the timeline of Genesis, but not okay to dismiss it. One more bit from the blog:

I’m not saying that language is unimportant. It is important. Just not important enough to divide over. People are more important than ideas. Love is more important than the concept of love. We should never hurt or lessen the humanity of actual human beings because of the language, beliefs, and concepts that their environment and experiences have given them.

The language of the Gospel is critical. They go on to quote James 2 in order to prove their rejection of statements of faith in favor of deeds. However, in getting there, they have already rejected the notion of defining Love according to scripture in their statement “love is more important than the concept of love”.

This is not sound doctrine, and it is not Gospel. This is dangerous theology. Air1 doesn’t claim to be a Christian radio station (in fact, they argue against the notion often employing a poor argument that since songs can’t be saved they can’t be labeled “Christian”), they just play “positive” music. Apparently mysticism and pantheism are welcome on their airwaves. Pity. Another of Gungor’s blogs echos this attitude of rejecting the “Christian Music” label, and it is hardly “positive” and demonstrates how failure to confess the Word of God is in itself divisive. The sinful comments they cite are in-fact sinful, and were clearly not made in love. However, that does little to exonerate Gungor from the original blog post, nor from this current blog about that blog.

An artist who questions the Authority of the Bible, refuses to confess the Gospel of Salvation and rejects the sinful state of man is not one I’m willing to embrace as a brother in Christ. How you describe Jesus, how you describe God, means all the difference in creation. I pray these two find the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and repent of this false doctrine. In the meantime, I do not want others to be unaware of the false doctrine behind their music.

Jude 1:24-25 (ESV) Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

In Him,
Jorge

CTT | As long as Christ is preached…

Faithful Stewardship Leave a comment

CTTI recently read a blog article that misapplied the following verse in Philippians.

Philippians 1:18 (ESV)  What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

I say it was misapplied, because it was inflated to cover all doctrine and practices of a mega-church pastor who has come under fire recently from secular and Christian media over money, messaging, branding, and doctrine. The odd thing here is, that the use of the Scripture did not, in any way,  defend the individual; rather, it got warped into an attack on any who would dare speak out against what may have been viewed to be out-of-step with Scripture. It is even issued as a blanket accusation of pride to any that would dare speak against this particular ministry, and issued a call for repentance. But was Paul attacking Timothy, accusing him of pride, calling Timothy to repentance? Let’s look at the verse in its immediate context:

Philippians 1:1-20 (ESV)
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

If Christ is proclaimed, then I can rejoice in that. If the motives of the proclaimers are wrong, but the proclamation or teaching of Christ is correct, then we can rejoice in the latter, but that does not remedy the former. The former is still a problem, for that person, and should not be emulated with reckless abandon. In this case, though, Paul identifies the wrong motive as an attempt to afflict Paul in his imprisonment. Interesting. Paul is forgiving the personal attack for the sake of the Gospel. Paul never forgives false teaching. In fact, look at how he instructs Timothy at the end of his first letter:

1 Timothy 6:3-10(ESV) If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

The doctrine we preach/teach/share matters. If what we preach/teach/share isn’t plainly stated in the Gospel of Jesus, or in the teachings/writings of the Apostles in the New Testament, we need to be careful. There is a big difference between “words” and “Word”. Arguing over “-isms” without relying on the Word of God to explain the Word of God is tantamount to arguing over “words”. When we open our Bibles, the prevailing thought should be, “What does God’s Word say?” Too often, we skip that question and jump right into interpreting the meaning of bits and pieces of scripture without ever really understanding what it plainly says in context.

There is One Holy Spirit. If anyone thinks he has received a direct revelation that cannot be substantiated in the Word (by which the Holy Spirit teaches all Christians)… I recommend he test the spirit (1 John 4) behind that “revelation”.  Am I against mega-churches? Not if they preach sound doctrine. If they don’t preach sound doctrine, my heart breaks because their false teaching is affecting a much larger audience wholesale. We judge a tree by its fruit,  but “congregation size” isn’t included in the Fruit of the Spirit. If the one speaking out against a mega-church is doing so out of envy, then the accuser is wrong. However, accusing everyone who speaks out against a mega-church of doing so out of envy, is equally wrong.

1 Timothy 4:11-16 (ESV) Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

May the Lord bless and keep you,
In Him,
Jorge