It is a strange thing. Many Bible-believing churches which are strongly opposed to charismatic DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE are being influenced by charismatic MUSIC. In attending charismatic churches and conferences through the 24 years since I have been saved, in an effort to analyze this influential movement, I have observed that one of its key elements is rocky music. The charismatic world has given us "Christian" jazz, "Christian" rock, even "Christian" rap.

The jazzy church music can be found almost everywhere today. Charisma magazine, February 1994, made the observation that "Today, praise music has entered the mainstream. Songs that were only sung in charismatic churches a few years ago are now heard throughout mainline and none-charismatic churches."

This is an accurate observation. Since the early 1970’s, many churches have traded in their traditional hymn books for praise songs accompanied by guitars and drums. Many others, though not bringing the actual rock band into the sanctuary, use accompaniment music that incorporates the jazzy styles. The accompaniment tapes, in fact, are commonly produced by the very ecumenical charismatic crowd fundamentalist and Baptist churches warn their people.

Billy Graham crusades, once noted for the heart-warming traditional Christian music of George Beverly Shea, now feature hard rock music and charismatic-style "praise" choruses. Every week we receive reports of rock concerts held on the campuses of evangelical and fundamentalist Christian colleges, including Biola, Wheaton, Liberty, and moody. As an illustration of how expansively the jazzy Pentecostal music has permeated non-Pentecostal circles, consider the following description of the 1992 National Religious Broadcasters conference, the participants of which include a very wide representation of professing Christians: "The lyrics of much of the music were doctrinally flimsy. There was a soft rock version of Handel’s Messiah, and a Black NRB concert had the people standing, dancing in the aisles, and emitting high-pitched ecstatic gibberish" (Christian News, Feb. 10, 1992).

In his book Making Musical Choices, Richard Peck makes the following important point about the modern church music.

"Aside from its commercialism and its increasing resemblance to the world, contemporary Christian music is becoming a religious melting pot. Some in the community admit that they are not believers. And while this is still an exception, CCM IS PROUD OF ITS ECUMENICAL AND CHARISMATIC SPIRIT. THIS ECUMENISM EXTENDS OPEN ARMS TOWARD APOSTATE PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH" (Making Musical Choices, Bob Jones University, 1986, p. 86).

Though the jazzy music has begun permeating non-Pentecostal churches only in recent decades, it has been a part of the Pentecostal movement from its inception. Consider the following overview:

"Shortly after it began to emerge in 1901, Pentecostalism sensed through some strange form of intuition that success would come through emotionally-charged music. The first pattern was jazz. Speaking of the years 1901 to 1914, Howard Goss said, ‘Without it (jazz) the Pentecostal Movement could never have made the rapid inroads into the hearts of men and women as it did. Neither could we have experienced a constant victorious revival over the fifty years’ (The Winds of Change, p. 212). He also noted: ‘It was generally not the conventional church-hymn singing of that era. Entirely unpretentious, there appeared to be neither poetry nor musicianship in the composition. But, there was something far more effective than either.... We were the first, so far as I know, to introduce this accelerated tempo into Gospel singing’ (Ibid. pp. 207,208).

"The Pentecostal leader should know for he was the most prominent among the early founders of the Movement. He was the leading organizer of a nation-wide gathering of Pentecostals held at Hot Springs, Arkansas in April 1914. He was elected General Superintendent of the Pentecostal Church Incorporated and served as the General Superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church until 1951.

"’We were the first, so far as I know,’ Goss said, ‘to introduce

this accelerated tempo into Gospel singing... Slow, dragging, and listless, much of the approved church music of that day (1901-1914) was irksome, to say the least, to the young-in-heart...But, God changed all that... Jazzed-up hymns they were sometimes designated...such music is now somewhat dignified by the expression "Evangelistic Music" which is fitting. WITHOUT IT THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT COULD NEVER HAVE MADE THE RAPID INROADS INTO THE HEARTS OF MEN AND WOMEN AS IT DID, NEITHER

COULD WE HAVE EXPERIENCED A CONSTANT REVIVAL OVER THE ENSUING FIFTY YEARS’ (Ibid., pp:-208-212; emphasis ours)" (Wilson Ewin, The Pied Piper of the Pentecostal Movement, Wilson Ewin, 1986, pages 49-51).

With the onset of the charismatic movement in the 1960s, the ecumenical branch of the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement, the "jazzed-up hymns" have gone mainstream and have swept across much of the professing Christian world.

The following are just a few of the Pentecostal-Charismatic personalities behind the "jazzed-up hymns" which are being used in non-charismatic churches. The large majority of the Christian rock musicians are associated with the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement--

*JACK HAYFORD, author of the song "Majesty" and many other very popular worship songs, is pastor of Church-on-the-Way Foursquare Church, the Pentecostal denomination which was founded by a woman, Aimee Semple McPherson. Paul and Jan Crouch, of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and entertainer Pat Boone, are members of Hayford’s church. In 1996, Hayford endorsed Robert Schuller’s autobiography, Prayer: My Soul’s Adventure with God, in spite of the fact that Schuller is a dangerous false teacher who has perverted the Gospel by his self-esteem theology.

*The very popular BILL AND GLORIA GAITHER are graduates of Anderson College, a Church of God school. They provided the music one evening at Indianapolis ’90, a large ecumenical charismatic gathering, I attended with press credentials. One-half of the 25,000 participants were Roman Catholics. A Catholic mass was held each morning during this conference, and a Catholic priest brought the closing message. During a concert tour in New England in 1986, Bill Gaither admitted that he had changed his musical styles due to the influence of the "world’s culture." He said he believed there was a place for Christian rock, and he expressed his philosophy of music in these words: "’God speaks through all different kinds of art forms and musical styles and musical forms" and the "format itself is not necessarily spiritual or non-spiritual" (FBF News Bulletin, March-April 1986, p. 3).

*JOHN MICHAEL TALBOT is a charismatic Roman Catholic who prays to Mary and believes in tongues speaking, dreams, and other forms of extra-biblical revelation. In his book Simplicity, Talbot stated: "Personally, l have found praying the Rosary to be one of the most powerful tools l possess in obtaining simple, childlike meditation on the life of Jesus Christ." In 1996 Talbot produced an album jointly with fellow CCM performer Michael Card. Of this venture, Card testified: "Doing this project has enabled us to become real friends. And along the way, the denominational lines have become really

meaningless to me, and to John, too" (CCM Magazine, July 1996).

* SHEILA WALSH is a member of a charismatic congregation and frequently "performs" in charismatic settings. Together with roughly 20,000 Roman Catholics, she participated in the North American Congress on the Holy Spirit & World Evangelization in 1987.

* TWILA PARIS, popular CCM singer, has been associated with the charismatic-oriented Youth With A Mission (YWAM) since 1976. In an interview with a leader in YWAM leader in New Orleans in 1987, I was told that a large number of the short-term workers with YWAM are Roman Catholics.

* DOUG OLDHAM is a graduate of Anderson College, a Church of God school. In 1978 he said that those who attend his concerts "can’t talk doctrines or there would be fights. ...Music unites people."

* PAT BOONE is a member of Jack Hayford’s Foursquare Pentecostal Church. In 1996 Boone released an album of heavy-metal rock songs under the title "Pat Boon in a Metal Mood -- No More Mr. Nice Guy." There were songs by openly demonic rock groups such as Alice Cooper, Guns N’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, and Judas Priest. On April 15, 1997, Boone’s pastor joined him on a Trinity Broadcasting Network broadcast with Paul Crouch and defended his heavy metal album.

* Popular CCM singer SANDI PATTI is a Pentecostal. In 1987 she performed for Pope John Paul II prior to his mass in the Los Angeles Coliseum.

* CCM trumpeter PHIL DRISCOLL attends an independent charismatic church in Cleveland, Tennessee, and continually appears at Charismatic-Pentecostal churches and forums. He trumpeted, for example, at Kenneth Copeland meetings and at the radically ecumenical Washington for Jesus rallies, he has also been featured at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University.

* DINO KARTSONAKIS, popularly known simply as DINO, was the piano player for the divorced Pentecostal healer-evangelist Kathryn Kuhlman and frequently appears on the Trinity Broadcasting Network program with Paul and Jan Crouch.

* THE VINEYARD churches, founded by JOHN WIMBER, have had a wide influence with their "praise" music. Wimber himself has written many poplar songs, and many of the Vineyard churches are noted for their influential music groups. (As of 1990, 52 of the 53 songs in the Vineyard Songbook did not mention the cross of Jesus Christ.) Wimber has conducted many "signs and wonders" conferences in various parts of the world, teaching the error that effective evangelism requires the working of miracles. Wimber has sown great confusion through his allowance for extra-biblical revelation. Music groups from the Vineyard movement have performed at the influential Urbana youth conferences, sponsored by the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, since 1990. A Charisma magazine report on Urbana ’90, noted that "delegates swayed and clapped to the beat" of the 11-piece Vineyard group. The music group had the young people raise their hands for "prayer for inner healing." A Roman Catholic priest led one seminar at Urbana ’90. The

Promise Keepers movement was founded by men involved in the Vineyard. PK founded Bill McCarthey is a member of a Vineyard church in Boulder, Colorado. The pastor of that church, James Ryle, and Randy Phillips, another member of his church, also are leaders in Promise Keepers.

* THE "LAUGHING REVIVAL," with headquarters in Toronto and Pensacola, has produced music which has been used widely in non-charismatic circles. (continued)

Copyright 1997, David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist News Service, 1701 Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277

http://wayoflife.org/-dcloud/ E-mail: dcloud@whidbey.net

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--Timothy Fellows, Jr.

The Publican of Jesus’ day had it much better off than many self-professed publicans today. While he acknowledged his wretchedness, unworthiness, guilt and sinfulness, the Bible says, "this man went down to his house justified" (Luke 18:14).

Many today live, ever beating their breasts, ever proclaiming their unworthiness. Heaven can almost be heard to whisper, "They have their reward" (Matt. 6:1-7,16-18). For such people want nothing more than the praise, attention and glory of men.

It is possible to be hypocritical, pharisaical and still pray "the sinner’s prayer." Pharisees today know which man in the verse is the winner, so they naturally pray using the words of the publican -- and boy do they ever -- to the point they become a hybrid monster between the Pharisee and the Publican, ever glorying in their breast-beating, and letting God and everyone else know so.

Christians who wallow in their worthlessness are putting themselves back under the cruel and oppressive Law; they pan with Christ and go the other way. It is the characteristic of ungodly sinners to glory in their shame, yet it seems many devout and pious Christians today glory more in their unworthiness than in Christ and His cross. Paul said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. 6:14).

It seems that some would rather stand on the street corners and cry aloud, "Oh, how horrible I am!" than to shout for joy, "I once was lost but now am found; I once was worthless, miserable, wretched, blind, and naked, but now Christ has made me to be a King and a Priest unto God and His Father, and has clothed me and given unto me a new name, and He can do the same for you!" What a contrast! It sounds like good news.

When Paul groaned in Romans 7:24, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" he answered confidently in the next verse "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." He was loathing his flesh and longing to live after the Spirit, yet he was loathing the dead part of him that the Lord Jesus conquered, but he must carry through life. The very next chapter and verse begins unabashedly, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Perhaps those who feel so condemned should be reprimanded for walking after the flesh.

Believers are just, yet to be made perfect. While we must die daily and crucify the old man which is ever with us, we are not the old man. Christ has made us new creatures. Granted, if a man is not a new creation, but just as he always has been, he of all people should beat his breast in penitence till God gives him relief. And when God grants relief, he only wounds himself unnecessarily who keep on beating.

So lift up the hands that hang down, strengthen the feeble knees, do not be cast down Oh child of the King. Lift up your eyes from the troubled sea about you, and hope in God, for you shall yet praise him who is the health of your countenance and your God.

We have about 3,000 extra copies of last April’s II Peter 3:9, Biblically-exegeted in context, which our printer accidentally over-copied. Write for as many as you want.

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Pastor Fellows is continually getting better but still cannot preach or write. He did preach June first for the first time. While every word was not understood, all got the message and were thrilled.