What’s wrong with contemporary Christian music?

There is a great evil within many modern churches today in the music they actively promote.

That this is a new development can easily be identified by looking back even 50 years ago, where we find the majority of churches still singing out of hymnals to the accompaniment of piano and organ. Today, however, they have traded in their instruments for a base guitar and drums, and now sing and sway to so-called praise songs somehow projected on the wall behind performers they call worship leaders.

This is part of what is now called contemporary Christian music, and is called such because it is a break from the past. Traditional Christian music is no longer in style — it’s too old and stale, like a moldy piece of bread, to suit their tastes. Instead of what stirs the soul, this music clamors for what gratifies the flesh. Instead of heartfelt conviction, these churches demand that which will soothe their guilty consciences.

Now, that this is evil is without a doubt to those who are thinking individuals. Though its proponents parrot old arguments, they only further the observation that they are addicted to a herd mentality, oblivious to the cliff that lies before them. It is all too telling that they cannot find scriptural authority for their preferences.

Although I could offer several biblical reasons against contemporary Christian music (CCM), only two issues need be honestly considered by Christianity at large today: dishonesty and compromise. Forget about the issue of rebellion, the secret motivations of those who want to do their own thing and break from the past. And we can forget about those who serve as their predecessors, who also broke free of their own pasts, such as Lucifer, Adam and Eve, as well as Cain, the first murderer. We will not even consider their contempt for Bible doctrine and their assertion that there is only one that is important, all the rest being optional.

No, there are really only two issues that need to be addressed, and once done all the others will neatly fall into place.

The first issue for us, then, is the issue of dishonesty. The Bible plainly declares that it is impossible for God to lie. It also says that Jesus is the truth. CCM, however, is patently dishonest because it is a renaming of an old product: Christian rock. Somewhere along the line someone became aware that the old name was drawing too much heat, so a new name had to be invented to disguise its true nature.

I don’t know about you, but I get a little leery when someone tries redefining what is formerly well established. The truth is that the CCM of today is still the Christian rock of yesterday, a vain attempt to mix Christian words with this world’s sensuous and rebellious music.

This in turn leads us to our second issue, that of compromise. I wish to reference here the scriptural authority for why we must call this into question: II Corinthians 6:14-18 and Revelation 3:14-22. You would do yourself well to read these passages carefully.

To begin with, it is not surprising to find so many churches infatuated with this so late in the church age, for the Laodicean Church of Revelation is earmarked by compromise. Christ wanted them either hot or cold, but they instead chose to be lukewarm — a compromise between the two.

Go ahead and study it for yourself, but the average person, when backed into a corner, will utter the magical incantation, “That’s a gray area.” This is the language of compromise, and this is also why most modern believers are afraid of doctrine, because literal Bible doctrine is black and white, not gray.

Furthermore, if there is any doctrine those who dwell in the gray area hate, it is especially that of separation, as found in II Corinthians 6. They are not willing to give the passage more latitude than the application of marriage, but the passage is drawn from Old Testament law in that Israel was not to plow their fields with an ox yoked to an ass. The reason for this is that it is at least unfair to the ox that he must bear most of the burden and is likely to plow a crooked furrow.

The application, therefore, is that Christianity has never been authorized to partner up with the world to accomplish the work of Jesus Christ. And what’s more, not only is he not obligated to bless such nonsense, his words to them will someday be those of Matthew 7:23.

Ron Hamman is pastor for Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla. Contact him at

357-4229.