By Elizabeth Prata
I discuss the significance of singing in the faith of believers, as highlighted in RC Sproul’s teachings on Biblical songs of praise. I recount Gladys Aylward’s experience in China, where her hymns reach Tibetan priests who long sought understanding of God’s love. Singing expresses knowledge of God and His gift of redemption.
By Elizabeth Prata
Music can lift the spirits, draw up emotion, or bring you down. It’s a solace after a breakup, or a lift me up during exercise. Music is great and it’s powerful on the emotions.
It is also powerful on the brain too. It can quietly instill good doctrine in us, affirm truths, or slyly draw us away with bad doctrine. Music matters.
There is a whole book of the Bible that is music: the Psalms. It’s great to sing the Psalms because they are 100% true and God-breathed. But there are many man-made songs that are also spiritual or reference doctrines from the Bible that are good to sing, as well.
speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; (Ephesians 5:19)
I enjoy singing hymns, praise songs, and spiritual songs because I like the pictures they put into my head. I like pondering the words and reviewing the metal pictures that arise. Whose heart doesn’t lift when we get to the verse in Amazing Grace,
“When we’ve been there 10,000 years…”
Just thinking about being with Jesus and singing in heaven is a mood-booster.
Eschatology is the study of Last Things. The Time of the End. The Last Days. Sadly, in these present days there is much conflict around differing interpretations of the sequence of Last Things, and often these discussions online or in real life devolve quickly into arguments.
As a result of not wanting to get into arguments, or perhaps not to be tempted to besmirch one’s witness, many people choose not to discuss it at all (or worse, not to study it). But with a wholesale eschewing of discussing the subject also comes a wholesale aversion to singing about it too.
Last things provide an assurance to the believer that this home is temporary, its woes will pass, the future with our Lord is coming, and soon. It does all that for our heart, and more.
Yet Paul expressly explained about the end time and the dead in Christ’s rising and ended with “therefore comfort one another with these words.”
The end time doctrines are supposed to comfort us. In earlier days when the subject wasn’t so contentious, many people wrote songs about the coming end.
Let’s go back to 1964 with this hit. “Sorry, I never Knew You” by Naomi Sego and the Sego Brothers was the first million-selling gospel single. Can you believe that it is based on Matthew 7:21-22, when Jesus says to the false converts and fake professors, “Depart from me you evildoer, I never knew you!”
Amazing.
Today we get happy clappy songs with endless refrains about Jesus embracing us like a boyfriend, but a song to sing the important verse about the reality of false conversion is startling. But it exists and was a hit no less. In 1964, The Sego Brothers were the first Southern Gospel Group to sell over a million records, and it was “Sorry” that vaulted them up the charts.
In this next one, Charles Johnson & The Revivers sing “I’ve Been Sealed” and the first stanza looks forward to the day Jesus raises us to be with Him.
Paul Williams and the Victory Trio sing “I’ve never been this homesick before” and really, as each day passes, I get more and more homesick for the Lord!
Alan Jackson sings “I’ll Fly Away” and truly, some glad morning I will fly upward, raised from this ole body to a glorified one to be with my Lord forever!
Someday Jesus will shout for us to rise, and here we have John Jones “At the Midnight Cry“
When the Trumpet Sounds by Triumphant Quartet reminds us of the grand place waiting for us.
I’ll See You – Charles Johnson & the Revivers sing of the joy of meeting our brethren when we are raised.
The Cloud He’s Coming Back On by The Kingsman
If The Rapture Was Yesterday, Kevin Spencer & Friends
The Jackson family, I will rise up, Bluegrass gospel
Are you in the faith? Many of these songs urge the listener to be sure. They are sobering things to think of. No matter your eschatological stance, ultimately the most important thing is to be sure you are cleansed by the blood of Christ, repented of sin, and in the faith. Life on earth will end one day. Standing on the edge of eternity, which direction will you go- up or down?
Further Resources
What are “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”? article from G3 Ministries by Scott Aniol
In collaboration with Mark Rice and Phil Webb, Hymns of Grace and Generations of Grace present hymns featuring a brief introduction on their backgrounds and full performances. The series is called Hymnology. Here is the link to Season 1. There are 3 seasons so far.
By Elizabeth Prata
On July 8, 2012, Pastor Jim Murphy of First Baptist Church of Johnson City, NY
delivered a sermon titled “The Subtlety of Satan“. I can’t believe it’s been almost ten years! I remember the impact of that sermon like it was yesterday. The church synopsized Pr. Murphy’s sermon this way:
"Pastor Jim looked back over the last fifty years of church ministry to suggest the slow, incremental, and subtle changes that have created a theological crisis resulting in a move away from the foundational authority of the Word of God and into an experiential, emotional, and radically individualized form of Christianity. Not only will this review trace the consequences of the "little" erroneous theological conclusions that have defined the current struggle within evangelicalism, it will also define the way back to biblical Christianity."
I wrote about that sermon here. One of the things that caught my attention was the fact that the Pastor repented for not paying attention to some of the other gateway points of encroachment satan uses to enter into the church in order to corrupt it. We all know that elders are charged with guarding the pulpit from satan’s wiles against polluting the word of God. But satan enters in through other points in the church too. He enters in via the church library. Via the women’s ministry. Via the music.
Pastor Joel Webbon of Right Response Ministries interviewed Justin Peters about that very point of entry. Peters called music the “Gateway Drug” to heresy.
Music contains doctrine. It can present good doctrine or poor doctrine or heresy. As the congregation sings good or bad or heretical words, it changes the mind and heart. It’s meant to. Good music points to God and changes one’s affections toward Him and extols His attributes. Bad and heretical music points to ourselves and nudges us away from heavenly affections.
Music is one infiltration point. The music you sing in your church matters. The clip below is 6 minutes. Under the video are some resources about the importance of singing good music in church, and why.
Hymns are wonderful didactic tools, filled with Scripture and sound doctrine, a medium for teaching and admonishing one another, as we are commanded to do in Colossians 3:16… ~John MacArthur
The Master’s Seminary Press
Michelle Lesley: In My Humble Opinion…The One with the Modernized Hymns
Michelle Lesley: God’s Not Like “Whatever, Dude,” About The Way He’s Approached in Worship
Grace Community Church, Generations of Grace-Hymnody: Here, the ministry of John MacArthur’s church through opera singer Phillip Webb presents a short backstory to a hymn, and then he sings the hymn with instrumental backup. You might need to plug in your email to access the 93 hymns.
Here is a handy outline speaking to The Role of Music in Worship with scriptures.
Ligonier discusses worship music.
Truth for Life ministry by Alistair Begg discusses Music and Worship, with Keith Getty, saying,
Music has been a fundamental element of Christian worship from the earliest days of the church. As Keith Getty points out, though, its power is not guaranteed. Singing lyrics with shallow theology or leaving the actual singing to the “professionals” will not help form the body of Christ. Music’s transformative power in worship is only present when the full Gospel is proclaimed and when the congregation sings God’s truth as one body. Tend your fences...because satan is subtle.
By Elizabeth Prata
My church service in Sundays goes from 2-2:45 (Sunday School), then the main service from 3:00-4:30. I love the afternoon schedule. It gives me time to prepare my heart in the morning, arrive unrushed at church, and enjoy the day in a different way than the usual10-12:30 timing of other churches.
On the way home from church one Sunday I stumbled onto a radio station which I had not heard before. Driving home from a sweet service filled with good music, I want to keep that atmosphere going. It’s hard with today’s radio programming.
In being frustrated one day with the quality of radio stations I had set on my buttons, I took some time to really search around and found WWQE “The Life”. It’s a Dove-award winning station. During my drive home there is a particular show called Gospel Vinyl Gold. These are Southern Gospel songs from the 50’s onward that are considered classics.
I love older Southern Gospel songs, I always have. That is strange because I didn’t grow up in the South and I didn’t become converted until I was 42. Even as a newbie I liked these older songs. The radio station played some good ones.
Newer songs are good too. Matt Papa and Keith Getty write good lyrics. Some of these are included in the new hymnal John MacArthur and others created called Hymns of Grace. I am not against new songs. But oftentimes newer songs leave out important doctrines.
I wrote previously about a song I heard back along while driving that struck me so much I had to stop the car. It was a song of eschatology, where the rapture happened and a father was left behind. The man turned out to have been having a dream, but the song focused on the scripture from Matthew 7:21-23 where (in his dream) he discovers he is a false convert. He faces Jesus and Jesus tells him ‘Depart from me, I never knew you.’ When the man in the song awoke to discover it was only a dream, he hastened to fall on his knees and really repent.
How often do we hear a doing like THAT these days? How often do we even hear a sermon like that? Rarely. The essay I wrote about that song was titled “Sorry, I never Knew You” – Should we Sing Songs of Judgment?”
My pastor friend posted this morning from Patheos (a site I don’t generally recommend for women) and the section of that online magazine called Church for Men. The article was titled, Where did the Call-to-Repentance Songs Go? by David Murrow.
The author is reminiscing about singer-songwriter Ketih Green. Murrow says,
As my wife and I listened to Green’s music, we were struck by how strange his late 1970s lyrics sounded to our 2019 ears. Green employed a lyrical technique that used to be common in Christian music, but is virtually absent today: the call to repentance, or CTR. CTR songs are designed to convict the singer of his own sin. Here are two reasons CTR songs sound so out of place today:
1. While most contemporary worship songs focus on comfort and assurance, CTR songs point out our shortcomings. CTR songs are anything but positive and encouraging.
2. While most of today’s praise songs are sung from the perspective of the disciple, CTR songs are sung from the perspective of God (or a prophet). In praise and worship, we are the speaker, telling God how we feel about him. With CTR, God is the speaker, telling us how he feels about us.
CTR songs are sometimes hard to listen to. Too much CTR can lead to discouragement and even legalism. However, I can personally testify to their effectiveness. Keith Green’s songs were the slap in the face I needed as a young believer.
Slap in the face is a good way to put it. When I heard Sego Brothers And Naomi’s song Sorry, I Never Knew You, it WAS a slap in the face. I was dumbstruck. Lyrics like that catch your attention and re-orient the mind toward eternal things, holiness of Jesus, and our own sin. It’s good to get back to that occasionally.
Bible Studies aimed at women, the publishing industry aimed at the female demographic, the songs aimed at ladies these days, tend to focus on phrases and concepts that assure women of their worth, that they are loved, that they have power and abilities, that they are esteemed, and so on. Where are the songs that call us sinners to repentance? Remind us that we are sinners? Remind us of the eternal consequences of sin? Largely absent.
I agree with Murrow that a steady diet of call-to-repentance songs would lead to dispirited attitudes and/or legalism. But a stead diet of affirming-only songs also isn’t healthy. Those simply puff us up and don’t always point to the real hero, Jesus. We must forget what is past but also remember we are sinners called to daily repent – as the Lord’s Prayer says. (Philippians 3:13-14; Matthew 6:12). We look forward to eternity but examine ourselves now to see if we are in the faith. (2 Corinthians 4:18; 2 Corinthians 13:5).
I told the Lord that I had been
A Christian all the while
But through his book he took a look
and sadly shook his head
then placed me over on his left
and this I heard him say,
“Sorry, I never knew you.
I find no record of your birth.”
Oof. A gut punch.
Bob Kauflin at Worship Matters wrote a few essays that I enjoyed on this topic. Here is his essay, Should we sing songs about God’s judgments?
Songs that Reference God’s Judgments, is Mr Kauflin’s follow up to the previous.
Don’t avoid songs with hard truths. Ones that sing of the blood, redemption from sin, salvation. Here are a few:
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
There is a Fountain
The Old Rugged Cross
Alas and Did My Savior Bleed
When we survey the wondrous cross
All for Jesus! All for Jesus!
New arrangement:
Traditional arrangement
the-end-time.org 