The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70--13, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1--800--55--GRACE. Copyright 1992 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

I have a question about the Christian rock movement. Is Christian rock music non--biblical, and if so, is there any biblical proof?

Answer

Let me say it this way: is Christian rock music unbiblical? Well, a lot of music is unbiblical. A lot of church music is unbiblical. There are some hymns that are unbiblical! There are some gospel songs that are terrible, because they don’t say the right thing. And, when you say Christian rock, I mean, that’s a big thing. That goes all the way from what some people would think is Christian rock, that’s nothing more than a ballad--but, you know, if you’re over 70, that’s “rock.” You know? And to a teenager, that’s, you know, old-people’s music…all the way to the heavy metal slam-bang kind of trash music that--well, I mean, you know what I mean…to what now is Christian rap, Christian rap. So, it’s a big field.

What I would say is, here’s some general criteria, okay?…To use with any music:

1. Are the words distinctively biblical? Are they distinctively biblical? Don’t tell me you sang “You Light Up My Life, Baby” and you were talking about Jesus. That’s not distinctly biblical. You could be talking about your sweetheart, your girlfriend, your mother, your daughter, Buddha, or anybody else. So, that’s not distinctively biblical language. We’re not talking about that, we’re talking about are the words distinctively Christian? Theologically accurate, biblical.

2. Does the means, the vehicle, which transports those words--which would be tune, arrangement, style--fit those words? In other words, if I’m going to sing a song called “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,” I had better be restricted to a certain genre of music or I will trivialize the profound. Understood? I can’t sing “Holy, Holy, Holy” to the tune of “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” You know what I mean? Or to some hip, snap-your-finger, rock beat. Because that trivializes the profound! So, I want to find a vehicle, musically, that’ll move those lyrics on a level that they’re worthy of. Now, if I want to sing “I’m so happy in Jesus and I’m really enjoying my Christian experience,” I can turn the tempo up. If I want to sing about the fact that life is bitter and life is painful, I might choose some kind of a blues mood to do that. But, there has to be some sense about that. And one of the things that I just can’t comprehend in rock music is to take profundity and trivialize it with a kind of music that is trivial. Or, worse (I guess), to take profound lyrics and profound theology and to put them to cheap musical style, that is not lofty in terms of its musicianship, it’s not lofty in its ability to comprehend music as such.

3. And thirdly, I don’t ever want to use a style that will drag down the content. It’s highly unlikely that I can put the gospel, for example, in a very contemporary musical genre, and elevate the genre, you understand? The tendency is going to be to pull the gospel down to that level. This isn’t new. There was a song--and I’ve used this illustration before, I’ll use it again--there was a song that came out in the schmaltzy 40s, when everything was sleazy barroom kind of crooning. The pop music, the big time music was all the crooners. And, songs were written for the church like that. And one of them that was very popular, and I remember it even a kid: “I’m in love, deeply in love with the lover of my soul”--yuck!! That is terrible! Because now what you’ve got is you’ve reduced loving God to such schmaltzy sort of sexy relationship that you put in a song sung in a barroom!

So, the church isn’t new at doing that. So, what I’m saying is you have to be very careful because musical style can communicate so much culture that all it does is take profound gospel truth and pull it down, rather than the truth elevating the music--it usually works the other way.

4. And a fourth principle, and this is a simple one. Amos 5 says, “Stop your songs; your hearts aren’t right.” And I would simply say this, all I would ask of a musician is, whatever musical style he chooses to use, I want to know that he’s filled with the Spirit. Because if the Spirit of God is using him, his sensitivity to the Holy Spirit will come through in any musical style. He’ll modify it enough so that it doesn’t cheapen the profound. If his heart isn’t right, God doesn’t want to hear his songs. That’s Amos, chapter 5, “Stop your songs; your hearts aren’t right.” Go back, get your heart right, then come sing your song to me.

And I really believe you leave it at that point: if the heart of the musician is right, it’s amazing how many different kinds of forms and styles he can communicate the truth in. But, those are the tests that I would use in that issue.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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