I’ve come across folks that say there’s nothing wrong with holy hip hop because it brings young folks to Christ. Does the music really bring them to Christ? Does the music really make them understand the need for repentance? Does it pull a believer a...part from the world? It should be the power of the gospel that brings people to Christ and not some hip music with praise lyrics....

Colossians 3:16 instructs us to “Let the Word of Christ richly dwell in you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (NASB)

A Blog I have recently written on this subject:

What religion is, AND HOW IT OUGHT TO BE CARRIED ON , are points which man has undertaken to settle by his own wisdom, and to regulate by his own devices. But it is very evident that, both as to what God is, and HOW HE IS TO BE APPROACHED, OR WHETHER HE WILL PERMIT HIMSELF TO BE APPROACHED AT ALL, man can know nothing, and determine nothing. God only can make known these things.MAN”S OPINIONS ABOUT THEM ARE MERE VANITY AND THE OFFSPRING OF PRIDE.They are certain to be wrong; for the points are so far above man’s vision, and so inaccessible, that he must miserably misconceive them. He knows little of himself, and nothing of God; so that it is not even within the limits of possibility that he can be right.

YET THERE IS ALMOST NOTHING OF WHICH MAN IS SO TENACIOUS, AS HIS RIGHT OF THINKING FOR HIMSELF (OR SO HE CALLS IT) in matters of religion. In so far as this means merely that his fellow-men have no right to think for him, or to prescribe a religion for him, he is right. BUT INSOFAR AS HE IS CLAIMING FOR HIMSELF a right of forming opinions independent of God, HE IS WRONG–awfully wrong. MAN HAS NO RIGHT TO THINK FOR HIMSELF APART FROM GOD, OR INDEPENDENT OF THE REVELATION OF GOD. God’s declarations are to be received in unquestioning simplicity. What we are to believe, what we are to do, HOW WE ARE TO WORSHIP ARE NOT MATTERS OF OPINION OR SPECULATION: they are truths–truths not reasoned out or demonstrated by man, but DICTATED BY GOD, and coming to us, therefore, with a certainty which man cannot add to or improve, and which no strength of mathematical demonstration can surpass.

This thinking for one’s self independently of God and His Revelation, is not merely an evil, but a sin. Nay, it is a sin of more than common darkness–it is so audacious, so contemptuous towards God. It places man on a level with God, or at least sets Divine truth and human opinion on the same footing. It strips the former of all innate authority, while it gives to the latter an authority to which it has no claim.

It makes man the teacher, not the listener or the learner.
-Taken from Man: His Religion and His World, 1851, Part I, Chapter 1, The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar.

The proper method,manner, and attitude of worship is PRESCRIBED BY GOD……….it is not open to debate or opinion.

In the Old Testament and New, God Himself stipulated what is (and is NOT) worship acceptable to Him.

Cain in Genesis 4 was cursed for the very issue we wrestle with here………he thought HE should be able to approach God however HE saw fit.

Nadab and Abihu were struck down in Lev 10 for offering “strange fire” on the Lord’s altar.

They deviated from the Scriptural commands that God had prescribed for approach to Him as well.

Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 were slain for bringing an offering in an unworthy manner. Nothing wrong with the gift……….just the manner in which it was offered.

We harbor the conceit that if WE feel God should accept our offerings, or our manner of worship, or our peculiar way of approaching Him, He should accept it. The attitude seems to be “Hey, I’m offering something I value……….if it’s good enough for me,that should be good enough for God.”

Precisely the attitude God addresses in Malachi, when He excoriates the priests for bringing diseased sheep for sacrifice rather than the offerings He prescribed.

We cannot determine what it is God accepts as worship. Do we really believe that the New Testament church went about emulating the Greco/Roman culture in their services?? If so, why were they persecuted??

Can anyone truly picture Paul presenting a reflection of the popular culture in the dress or music of his day ( wearing togas with exposed breasts, or wearing phallic amulets, or constructing new words to popular hymns sung at the pagan temples) in worship to Christ, or as an enticement to unbelievers to come into the Church??

What is acceptable to our Holy God in worship is laid out plainly in the Word……..where much is made of coming OUT of the world, leaving Egypt behind, and hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Your particulr affinity for HHH, or Southern Gospel, or mindless and repetitive choruses does not change the paradigm.

God demands approach by those separated from the world……….not by those who try to clean up the world’s filth to the point where THEY feel God should accept it.

I had not as yet formed my opinion completely on this subject until this debate, so I am grateful Melvin provided this forum as an opportunity for me to do so.

Many will not agree………..but you will have to convince me from Scripture that YOU determine what is acceptable to God, or that He ever accepted the world’s goods spit-polished and sanitized as acceptable.

Just because a church isn’t full of emotionalism during the singing portion of worship, does not mean it’s dead. Emotionalism does not equal spirituality. The Bible says that you must worship God in spirit and in truth-Jn4:23

Not mention that worship should be a lifestyle, it’s not just an outshowing of emotion on Sunday, it is how you live during the week. I belive it’s in Romans 12 where it talks about being a living sacrifice, that is true worship.

The style should focus on the Verticle praise, songs that go up to Jesus like a sweet smelling aroma. Songs that repeat His word back to Him, songs that Honor Him and songs that sing about His character. Not horizontal music that appeals to man, or talks about how God paid my light bill and took me out of darkness.

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In order to eradicate any problem there needs to be TRUTH....There is no truth in mixing the dress, attitude and music that is carnal and try to replace it with "gospel words".....It is all important...what is the so-called church really doing to CHANGE LIVES?? I don't mean young people come to a "concert" I mean giving them word to transform...not just 'CHANGE PARTNERS"....This is why things are the way they are not....we don't give the young people accountability...they don't know how to live set apart because many of the leaders do not...

Now I don't know what you all have been saying about tithing however, tithing is not wrong as long as you can find a high priest and a temple...as long as you are giving 10% of your crops....If ONE of these things are missing, you are not tithing....

Shalom

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