Secular Music Sacred Music
Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul. Reflections of Life Music Program
Secular Music
Evil?
Using Musical Styles and Music Elements in this program For 38 years I have been in music. As a church organist since 12 and a National Concert Artist for the Wurlitzer Company I have performed many musical styles. And all music was created to glorify God. I have heard many Christians say that a certain style of music is of the devil. These are words that one must be very careful in how and what they say.
The ever burning question in many Christians' hearts is, "Can I listen or play secular music?"
There is something already wrong with this question. The problem that is inherent in a statement like this is separating music into Sacred and Secular, Spiritual and Non-Spiritual.
Let us start from the beginning, before creation of man. Only God existed. He created things like heaven, angels, the world and birds, bees, flowers, trees, even cows. He also created music.
God created everything to glorify himself.There is not one thing that was created that did not glorify God. Can God make something that does not glorify himself? No. God did not make a sacred and a secular, let me say that again...God did not make a sacred and a secular, everything to God was God's. God created all music to gloriy himself. In God's universe there is no such separation, all is unified as glorifying to God.
So if I wrote a song about birds or bees, cows and sausages, there would be nothing wrong with that. As a Christian I can write songs about math and the circulatory system and meeting girls, dancing or nature. God created all those things. Why would it be wrong to sing about such things? I am singing or playing about God's wonderful creation, and at the same time using a God created medium – music.
So why do so many Christians get so upset about a band of Christians not preaching in their lyrics or from stage? Why do Christians say, "They're just singing about bikes and food, they're not ministering, therefore its not glorifying to God?" When one thinks like this way its shows that they don't understand that God created one universe - one universe glorifying to God. In this universe both spiritual and physical things all glorify God. But this other view creates a false dichotomy, a false separation. In this separation comes the view of - God is in the spiritual and not in the non-spiritual (the secular). If its not spiritual then it is non-spiritual, that is secular, and secular is evil. And the only things that are spiritual are things like Jesus, the Bible, evangelism, and discipleship. In the secular there are things like bikes, food, nature, and cows. Therefore, in this thinking, you cannot sing about the secular and still glorify God.
But if that were the case then that would mean that if other God created things are "non-spiritual" then they are not glorifying to God, and therefore evil.So that simply means if you are an accountant that would mean a "secular" job like accounting is not glorifying to God and therefore useless or evil. That would mean Adam's God-given task of farming was useless, and Christ's carpentry was useless. Christ has now been reduced to doing things not glorifying to himself.
You see the evil in splitting God's world into a sacred and secular? Believing that non-spiritual is useless leads us into thinking that God does useless things. It leads us to think our jobs are useless to God, and that we must trudge through our jobs just so we can get to Sundays, the only spiritual day and therefore the only useful day. This is very destructive thinking.
You do not have to justify music and art and cows and food. God made it, its good, its justified.
But that is not to say that music cannot be used for evil.
More of the facts
Can one separate the music from the band and evil lyrics? The best way to answer this question is with a few examples.
Example #1:
Food is good. But can be used for evil, such as gluttony. The food is not evil, the sin is.
Example #2:
Money is not evil. But idolizing money is. The idolization is evil, not the money.
Example # 3:
Music is not evil. But the way we use it can be
Music by bands singing about evil things, does not make the musical notes evil, but this is where the example takes a turn. Food and money cannot sin, but bands can. So is it wrong to listen to someone sinning? No. We read in the Bible examples on people sinning throughout; we watch the news and they report on sins (murders, etc.) all the time - and we don't consider watching that a sin. But with Food and Money, if it makes you sin, you can then fix that part of your life. If music by bad bands causes you to sin, then don't listen to it. You really can't do the same with Food or Money (if they make you sin) since you need them to live. But that's what makes this music thing easier than those, you can live without music, so dealing with this type of sin is easier.
A more extreme example: Satan has said a lot of evil things in the Bible. It is not wrong to read his words. Satan's words in the Bible does not make literature medium or the Bible wrong. Certainly his words are a lot worse than cuss words and anything anyone has ever sung about. Merely listening to evil music (like reading Satan's evil words) is not a sin. Sin enters when the music causes you to sin.
If it causes you to sin we are told to flee from those things, it is a very simple anwser just...... Stop listening to it.
The Rest of the Story
Causing Others to Stumble
It was previously stated that things like music and food can be used for good - or can make us sin. Although it might not be a sin to merely hear music not intended for the Christian market, listening to it can cause some to sin in other ways. I have found that today the music that is being used to cause sin is simply of rebellion, and sex, no respect for the family or authority. Disobeying your parents by listening to certain music when you've been told not to is a common example of music causing sin. Another example is when listening to music causes others to stumble.
What do I mean when I say that music can be used in "causing others to stumble" It is not merely offending someone, or doing something they don't like. If you hate smoking and your friend comes up and smokes around you, you might be offended and annoyed, but you are not being tempted to smoke. Stumbling involves sin.
The example that the Bible uses is in Romans 14: eating meat sacrificed to idols. The Romans, along with much of the world back then, thought that there were many gods. People would sacrifice meat to these gods, who were represented by idols. But sometimes these people converted to Christianity. Many of these new converts would not know some basic Christian doctrines. In their minds, if they bought meat from the market that the seller had "blessed" to some pagan god, this would make the meat sinful to eat.
Of course, the meat was not evil. God made the meat. Meat is good. But the new convert in the above example did not realize that. He or she thought it would be evil to eat this particular meat. He or she therefore believed it would be a sin to eat it. So, would it be a sin if he or she ate it? Yes. Not because the meat was now sinful to eat, but because the motivation for eating it was sinful. It would be like saying, "God I think it's a sin to eat this, but I'm going to eat it (and sin) anyway." That is a sin of rebellion, and not of eating.
How does causing others to stumble come into this? It comes in when you, a stronger Christian who knows that eating meat sacrificed to idols is okay, cause the weaker Christian to sin by eating that meat in front of them, tempting them. If they eat it, you are causing them to sin, and by causing them to sin, you are making them stumble.
Music, movies, alcohol, etc., are things that could make other Christians stumble. What is Paul's command in cases like those? It is to refrain from eating (listening, watching, drinking) in front of the weaker Christian.
Wellness and healing, We have to be cautious with our motivations and actions. Even the best of things can make us sin (e.g., reading the Bible might make us prideful). We must be careful not only for ourselves, but also for those around us. As it says in Romans 14: 15, we must act in love. So, don't just go around making weaker Christians listen to your music simply because you think it's okay - because it is now you who is sinning by not acting in love. Music...all music was created by God it is how man uses it that can cause one to stumble into sin.
Copyright © 2004, thank you for bringing this to out attention
http://www.keyboardsforchrist.com/All%20Music.html
Music is God's gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven."
Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.
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