The Dove Award is a trophy by the Gospel Music Association to recognize outstanding achievements in Christian music in a variety of musical styles: rock, pop, hip hop, country, urban, bluegrass, traditional gospel, and contemporary gospel.
The Grammy Award is a trophy by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in the music industry: rock, hard rock, heavy metal, R&B, rap, country, Latin, reggae, and gospel/contemporary.
The television show, American Idol, is about the making of an American idol. The winner receives a contract by a recording company, which can also include movies, videos, books, and television appearances. This is when the idol makers go to work to form and fashion the person to become an American idol. In time, the person becomes a golden calf: loved, adored, and held high upon a pedastal, at which time the person becomes a sex god or a sex goddess.
As such, the golden calf is now a money-making machine, for the idol makers are now able to produce millions of dollars in sales revenue; and because of compromise for fame, the American idol enters a world of darkness by the hands of the idol makers, and as the person accepts more and more evil---in slow and in subtle ways---they reach a depth of evil from which they are unable to escape, from which they can receive a shortened life as the idol makers transform them to become messengers or agents of evil, which is the world of rock music as well as the world of Hollywood: the production and showcase of evil.
God's Word warns us about the association of people with evil, for the average life expectancy of rock music stars is 36.9 years:
As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth EVIL pursueth to his own DEATH. (Proverbs 11: 19)
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of DEATH. (Proverbs 14: 12)
For the wages of SIN is DEATH; (Romans 6: 23)
At this point in time, let us be honest: the music industry is about money; therefore, sales and profits is the bottom line, just like any other industry. And the employees of the music industry are the same as employees of any other industry: they must be able to produce sales and profits for their respective employers, or else they can be terminated, just as employees of any other industry can be terminated.
Jesus said, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. (Matthew 21: 13)
When we arrive in the arena of Christian music, we must also be able to see and believe that even Christian music is an industry; therefore, Gospel Music is an industry and Contemporary Christian Music is also an industry. As industries, all of the various styles of Christian music must produce sales and profits for the record companies, or else the companies will go out of business in the same way that all companies can go out of business.
While it is true that many, many Christian people enter Christian music to spread the Good News of Christ in music and in song, their intentions are honorable. At the same time, the owners of record companies may not be as honorable; for they use their skills to produce sales and profits for the record companies in the same way that they would use their skills as managers of secular music houses. As such, they influence Christian individuals or groups to compromise their values in order to appeal to a wider audience for the purpose of producing more sales and profits. In like manner, as in American Idol, they are the idol makers of the people in Christian music. Their hit songs produce name recognition and, consequently, build a fan base. The more their fan base enlarges and the more hit songs they can record, they become a valuable commodity to record companies: they become a golden calf---with a greater share of the Christian music market, which converts to money.
Today, in many, many churches across the United States, music is the Main Event: for more time is devoted to the music program than than to any other program in the worship service program---while the time for prayer has become less and less important; for music and social calendars receive more attention in churches than prayer, and, quite often, even more important than the teaching and preaching of God's Word.
In a way, it is as if music itself has become the golden calf of churches across America.
Music is powerful, music is strong, and music can be highly deceptive; for music strums the strings of our internal harps: thereby, we can be happy, we can be sad, we can be depressed, we can be glad, and we can even have mountaintop experiences through music and believe that surely the presence of the Lord is in this place---when, in reality, it is our own emotions that get excited. For if our mountaintop experience is based on music, what do we do when the music stops? The silence can be deafening, and to the well of music we must return in order to experience another spiritual high.
Jesus said, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Jesus never said His house should be: a house of music.
Amen.
The Grammy Award is a trophy by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in the music industry: rock, hard rock, heavy metal, R&B, rap, country, Latin, reggae, and gospel/contemporary.
The television show, American Idol, is about the making of an American idol. The winner receives a contract by a recording company, which can also include movies, videos, books, and television appearances. This is when the idol makers go to work to form and fashion the person to become an American idol. In time, the person becomes a golden calf: loved, adored, and held high upon a pedastal, at which time the person becomes a sex god or a sex goddess.
As such, the golden calf is now a money-making machine, for the idol makers are now able to produce millions of dollars in sales revenue; and because of compromise for fame, the American idol enters a world of darkness by the hands of the idol makers, and as the person accepts more and more evil---in slow and in subtle ways---they reach a depth of evil from which they are unable to escape, from which they can receive a shortened life as the idol makers transform them to become messengers or agents of evil, which is the world of rock music as well as the world of Hollywood: the production and showcase of evil.
God's Word warns us about the association of people with evil, for the average life expectancy of rock music stars is 36.9 years:
As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth EVIL pursueth to his own DEATH. (Proverbs 11: 19)
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of DEATH. (Proverbs 14: 12)
For the wages of SIN is DEATH; (Romans 6: 23)
At this point in time, let us be honest: the music industry is about money; therefore, sales and profits is the bottom line, just like any other industry. And the employees of the music industry are the same as employees of any other industry: they must be able to produce sales and profits for their respective employers, or else they can be terminated, just as employees of any other industry can be terminated.
Jesus said, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. (Matthew 21: 13)
When we arrive in the arena of Christian music, we must also be able to see and believe that even Christian music is an industry; therefore, Gospel Music is an industry and Contemporary Christian Music is also an industry. As industries, all of the various styles of Christian music must produce sales and profits for the record companies, or else the companies will go out of business in the same way that all companies can go out of business.
While it is true that many, many Christian people enter Christian music to spread the Good News of Christ in music and in song, their intentions are honorable. At the same time, the owners of record companies may not be as honorable; for they use their skills to produce sales and profits for the record companies in the same way that they would use their skills as managers of secular music houses. As such, they influence Christian individuals or groups to compromise their values in order to appeal to a wider audience for the purpose of producing more sales and profits. In like manner, as in American Idol, they are the idol makers of the people in Christian music. Their hit songs produce name recognition and, consequently, build a fan base. The more their fan base enlarges and the more hit songs they can record, they become a valuable commodity to record companies: they become a golden calf---with a greater share of the Christian music market, which converts to money.
Today, in many, many churches across the United States, music is the Main Event: for more time is devoted to the music program than than to any other program in the worship service program---while the time for prayer has become less and less important; for music and social calendars receive more attention in churches than prayer, and, quite often, even more important than the teaching and preaching of God's Word.
In a way, it is as if music itself has become the golden calf of churches across America.
Music is powerful, music is strong, and music can be highly deceptive; for music strums the strings of our internal harps: thereby, we can be happy, we can be sad, we can be depressed, we can be glad, and we can even have mountaintop experiences through music and believe that surely the presence of the Lord is in this place---when, in reality, it is our own emotions that get excited. For if our mountaintop experience is based on music, what do we do when the music stops? The silence can be deafening, and to the well of music we must return in order to experience another spiritual high.
Jesus said, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Jesus never said His house should be: a house of music.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comments will not be published openly.