God wants us to reject the world's way of worship!

When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods/ even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which He hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. (Deut. 12:29-32)

We see that following the world's methods of worship leads to failure (29-30). God would destroy the other nations who do not worship Him (29). The question was not if God was going to destroy the heathen nations but when will He destroy them. Because of the nations' worship of other gods and of their methods, He would utterly destroy them. The gods and characteristics of the lifestyle of this world are found in II Tim. 3:2-5. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection...lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. We must avoid these gods, lifestyles, and all forms of these elements which includes music. The world's worldview and view of God comes out both in the sound and in the lyrics of their music and will eventually affect its audience. Tip O' Neill, former Speaker of the House, describes rock music as "a type of sensuous music unfit for impressionable minds." Furthermore, Frank Sinartra concurs that rock music is "the most brutal, ugly, desparate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear. If unregenerate men can recognize the evils of the worlds' music then how can we use this music, which conveys anti-christian and anti-God idioms, in our worship of a holy God? According to Deut 12:29, the world's music and their way of worship is a failure since God destroys those who do not worship Him. God also warns Israel not to be enamored with the heathen nation's worship. Throughout history, including today, there is a tendency to respect and to check out the gods of the other nations that we may either worship those same gods to pick up various things from their worship. For example, G.A. Pritchard explains that the programming team of Willow Creek, another influential seeker church, "goes to plays, musicals, concerts, and movies to understand the culture of unchurched Harry. The entire programming team went to the musical Les Miserables and to a Janet Jackson concert." God knows about this tendency and clearly warns us to not be curious or enamored with how the world worships. God does not even want us to check the world's music out! Curiosity of how the world worships can lead us to worship that very same way as Willow Creek and Saddleback Community Church has done! Satan attempts to blind and deceive us, and through his deception, we justify what we are doing. We are in the world but we are not to be of the world (Jn 15:9). Rather, we are commanded to "come out from among them, and be ye separate (II Cor. 6:17).

Not only does following the world's methods of worship lead to failure but it also leads to disobedience (31-32). God commands Israel to reject the worship methods of the heathen nations (31). The commandment is clear; we must not worship our God the same way the world worships their gods! If we do, then we are clearly disobeying God no matter how sincere our intentions are. God clearly commands us to "learn not the way of the heathen..." (Jer. 10:2), "...to henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk..." (Eph. 4:17), and "to be not conformed to this world..." (Rom 12:2). This includes not using the world's music or any of its forms in our worship. There shouldn't be any question in the mind of a growing believer that Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) is not different from rock music; the musical genre that epitomizes the world's music and worldview. Kevin Young of the Christian rock band Disciple reveals that CCM is "the only style of music that gets put into a different genre because of what you are talking about. It has nothing to do with what we sound like...but the moment you talk about Jesus you become a 'Christian' rock band..." Furthermore, Nathan Currin of Family Force 5 comments, "It may be a style that you wouldn't at first associate with as being Christian. They may be lyrics that relate to a very personal situation in that person's life that you may not be able to show someone who's unsaved and have them say, 'That's a Christian lyric.'" God hates how the world worships and does not want believers to follow their methods of worship. God also demands Israel's complete obedience to His worship instructions (32). We must not add to or take away from God's commandments to us. Clearly, it we are not following God's instructions in how we should worship Him, we are living in disobedience and will answer to God for this disobedience using the world's methods in our worship.

~Pastor Erik