After forcing myself to listen to the local Evangelical station, I was again struck by the constant refrain found in the latest CCM songs - themes that were not present in the music back in the 80's. Over and over again the singers talk about believing lies about themselves and how now they understand they are wanted, special, etc.
To understand the shift I thought of some questions or statements and how today's theology (expressed in music) understands and answers them.
Some will celebrate this as a mark of success and entry into the mainstream of society. In reality it simply testifies to Evangelicalism's truncated understanding of Scriptural authority. While lip service is paid to Scripture Alone, an episode such as this reveals how the doctrine becomes an empty and hollow profession when divorced from the concept of Sufficiency.
https://churchandfamilylife.com/events/69c40801815349696337c4c8
This conference brochure arrived in my inbox and I was taken aback by the notion that these people think they're pursuing quiet lives. They haven't released the speaker list yet but based on what I've seen in the past it's mostly dominated by Theonomic Postmillennial types - which would include Scott Brown, the head of the organisation. Under normal circumstances they despise those who seek to live quiet obedient lives. They sneer and call it pietism, defeatism, apathy, and as of late I keep hearing the charge of cowardice.
It's one thing for Christian musicians to compose works that are informed or influenced by the faith and the ideas associated with it. But when such music is labeled 'Christian' then several important lines are blurred. It becomes a form of 'sacred' music in the minds of many and as such its performance can be associated with worship.
https://g3min.org/on-baby-grands-and-expensive-hymnals/
This would have to be reckoned as a sequel to a previous post
responding to G3 on the issue of pianos. Apparently this ministry website
excels at missing the point.
One has to chuckle when one considers that the author of this
G3 article considers himself to be a 'hardcore' or die-hard Calvinist – a real
old school type.
And yet as the article makes clear his thinking is in fact
terribly divorced from Church history and the historical theology surrounding
the larger Calvinist movement and in particular its views on the issues of
worship.
