Someone posed to me a question regarding the dominance of loud music in contemporary worship. Sharing here a very concise response since this is the first time I have put down my thoughts on this issue in words.
First, Christianity should be fun without being frivolous as Christians come together for fellowship and worship.
1) Worship must be governed by what God has commanded in Scripture, not by human preference or popular culture. When music becomes the central focus, it sidelines prayer, preaching and sacraments. There is a risk elevating human creativity and sensuality above God’s ordained means of grace.
2) Word-Centered Worship – Excessive reliance on music can shift attention from what God has revealed in his unchanging Word to fluid emotional experience. Worship becomes more about how we feel (human centredness) than what God has said. A word-sacrament centred worship will be God-centred and Christ-centred even as we rejoice in God’s presence.
3) Reverence vs Performance – Dominance of (loud) music distracts us from the simplicity and reverence that ought to accompany our encounter with the holy God. Performance ‘worship’ undermines corporate and individual participation in worship even as individuals come to worship meetings to 1) nourish their faith by participation in the Lord’s Supper which is a means of grace and a renewal of our covenant with God, and 2) to have our faith nourished by the Word of God.
In short, while music is a good gift from God to enrich our worship, it must remain a secondary element and not the dominant element in worship.
Good and bad theology in hymns and worship songs
Good theology is found in most hymns but sadly enough errors & even heretical teachings are found in many modern songs. No surprise, the arch-heretic Arius & the Arians in the 4th century who denied the deity of Christ were effective in promoting the heresy with a musical ditty – “There was a time when he [the Son of God] was not” – ēn pote hote ouk ēn.
[In passing, I remember N.T. Wright publicly suggesting replacing the lyric “the wrath of God was satisfied” in the hymn “In Christ Alone” (by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty) and substitute it with “the love of God was satisfied”. The song writers refused his suggestion].
Just for further reflection
Many Christians sing the song “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” in church with gusto. It is a great song – being a vocal version Beethovan’s famous “Ode to Joy” final movement of his final symphony. I even included this song in my wedding ceremony years ago.
But when I went to USA I found out that it was written in 1907 by a very prominent Universalist, Henry Van Dyke.1Clarification: While double-checking Henry Van Dyke’s life, I came to the conclusion that while his song was very popular and much used in the Unitarian Church in USA, and many regard his famous song to be universalist in orientation, technically speaking, Van Dyke remained a Presbyterian minister. Once you know the Universalist-Unitarian Church origins of this song, you can never sing it (just look closely at the universalist theology embedded in the song).
However, I usually keep quiet (don’t want to upset my fellow brethren who are happily singing it with Christian meaning!?) and refrain from unsettling them with deeper theological issues. I just refrain from singing the song myself.
To save time, I used AI to identify the universalist themes in the song and I follow up with my response.
Key lyrics highlighted in this theme include
1) “Thou the Father, Christ our Brother—all who live in love are Thine”. This line suggests a broad, inclusive view of who belongs to God’s family, encompassing anyone who embodies love.
My response – God is the Father of believers, unbelievers not included. Likewise Christ is brother only of believers – Hebrews 2:11 & Romans 8:29
2) “Father-love is reigning o’er us; brother-love binds man to man”. This explicitly links God’s universal love for humanity with the resulting duty for people to love one another as brothers and sisters.
My response – we must not confuse God’s general love (benevolence and beneficence) for all of humanity as His creation and His specific, covenantal love for believers, who are adopted as His children.
3) “Mortals, join the mighty chorus which the morning stars began”. This invites all people, universally, to participate in the joyful praise of God’s creation.
My response – As it is written – it ignores the fact that joining in the universal praise of God envisages personal redemption through Jesus Christ (Rev. 5 etc). Not insisting it must be the case for the singers in church today (they are not aware of the origins of the song), but the phrase can be misunderstood to imply universal salvation.
4) The song mentions “melt the clouds of sin and sadness”. My response – again not insisting those singing the song are necessarily guilty when singing the song.
Sin is a serious infringement of God’s law & holiness that separates people from Him. It cannot be so easily sung away by adopting a joyful outlook. The lyrics is representative of the Universalist Church minimizing the gravity of sin and the need for God’s specific intervention through Christ death on the cross.
To be fair, I am not rejecting the song just because it is written by a prominent Universalist. In the end, the final criterion of judgment is the theology embedded in the song-hymn, and not the person who writes it (it would be an ad-hominem judgment). After all, many Calvinists rightly and happily sing Charles Wesley’s hymn, “And Can it Be” even though Charles was an Arminian. Indeed, the fourth stanza is pretty Calvinist!
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free;
I rose, went forth and followed Thee.
The providence of God works mysteriously.
We sing because we must – quietly in contemplation, loudly in celebration and always, truthfully.
Question – What do you think? Or sing?
*This post was earlier shared to my readers via WhatsApp. Posting it here for filing purposes.