Music also has great power for both righteousness and wickedness as we see in Christianity and the hymns and in contemporary music and the combination of words, drum beat and rhythmic patterns of sound to effectively create spells. These musical spells have had a massive impact of society and resulted in much of the moral degeneration of the last fifty years.
I think the reason for this is that a catchy tune set to innocuous words seems pleasant and harmless. Think of songs like the ‘60's folk song “Puff the Magic Dragon’ or the ‘70's favorite the ‘Coke Cola’ song. Harmless ditties you might say. But what if Puff was a song to influence attitudes toward dragons and in particular that old dragon from the bible, Satan. The Coke song was an influential advertisement for a drink which is less than healthy when over consumed and also became an anthem for the peace movement and those involved with the New Age anti-Christian movement of the ‘60's through to the current era.
The thing about songs and particularly pop songs is that the lyrics are often disguised by the beat and the tune. Yet all three components of music combine to make powerful spell into the life of the person who hums or sings parts of the song into their hearts with little thought for the powerful spiritual force that they are inadvertently meddling with on a daily basis.
A song by a well known songstress called ‘Sent From Above’ has a verse which says: “I can't imagine looking in someone else's eyes; What we have surpasses even paradise; It's hard to fathom; Reaching for someone else's hand; What we share is magic; Heaven had a plan.” Again it seems harmless enough but can what a couple has while courting surpass paradise? Is it right to share magic and when we say Heaven had a plan who in particular are we talking about? The fallen angels maybe?
Not the God Christians worship I’m thinking. Now add to this that many who sing this song and love the rich powerful voice of the songstress. The melody of the tune but don’t know the lyrics particularly well and yet would sing the parts they know quite frequently or hum happily along with the song as it is playing. Would it not be fair to say this song or spell is being sung into their life, their heart. Will it not unknowingly change their moral attitudes toward sex and muddy the waters of who God is and what is right?
What about the music that is sung in Churches. Over the past fifty years that music has changed and so has the Church. Up until the ‘60's the music of the Church was mainly hymns that contained no drum beat and which were written to be sung by congregations with whatever musical support was available. The lyrics were always in praise of Jehovah and any hymns which were considered dubious would not have been sung.
In the ‘70's Scripture in Song began to become popular along with a hybrid musical style which while not being rock ‘n roll it was more contemporary than the previous hymns. As time moved by and the Church began to be more liberal moving rapidly toward the seeker movement and beyond. There has begun to be little difference between the rock music of the secular culture and music that is sung in seeker churches. Even the often cavernous, dark style of auditorium is somewhat forbidding when compared to the light and airy nature of the traditional churches of earlier eras. It almost seems that the music has driven this evolution of moving Christians away from the concept of being ‘In the World but not of it,’ to a new mantra of ‘No need to change anything, just bring yourself.’ The music is certainly a big draw-card or that’s how it seems.
Perhaps it is time for Christians to be cautious about what they read or sing into their lives and Churches to reconsider what is appropriate to be sung by their congregation. The question is what is of God? In the time of Jeremiah in the Old Testament the nation went deeply into the worship of other Gods and idols. God spoke through Jeremiah to warn Israel what would happen to them because of their infidelity. It seems that we are witnessing a similar infidelity in many of our Churches today. Perhaps the messages of Jesus to the Churches in chapters 2 and 3 of the book of Revelation need to be read aloud in many of today’s Churches. Particularly the message to Thyatira and the message to Laodicea about idol worship and being of luke warm commitment. We really do need to be much more careful about what is acceptable when compared to the founding authority of God’s word the Bible. We need to understand the not all of the contemporary music is acceptable to God. In fact quite the opposite if it contains beat, rhythm and lyrics that come out of paganism.
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