Music: God’s Gift Or Satan’s Tool?

Bible Study
Music: God’s Gift or Satan’s Tool?

• Is God for or against music?

• (Job 38:1-7) Music is a very powerful tool, there is no doubt about it. Music has a history upon this Earth even right at the very beginning when God was creating the Earth. Here are the angels (the morning stars) which are angels (Revelation 1:20) and they “sang together”.

• (Ezekiel 28:12-15) Here is the devil when he was created, and he was created perfect (vs. 15). And we are told that God created him with “Tabrets” (percussion instruments) and “Pipes” (wind instruments). So God intended from the beginning for music to be created on this Earth.

• (Revelation 5:8-10), (14:1-3) God also has music in Heaven, so we see that God is for music, that God has nothing wrong with good godly music.

• For what purpose did God Create Musical Beings?

• (Revelation 4:11) God created everything ultimately for His pleasure. So God created the Angels, lucifer, and human beings as musical beings to bring Him pleasure. Too much of this world is focused on trying to find music to listen to or to even create themselves that pleases them rather than focusing on it actually pleasing God.

• All music should be performed primarily to please the Lord, not to please others: (1st Chronicles 16:8-9,23), (2nd Chronicles 29:25-30), (Psalm 9:11), (Psalm 30:4), (Psalm 33:2-3), (Psalm 47:6), (Psalm 135:3). (Ephesians 5:18-19) “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” God knows your heart, whether you are performing that music for yourself or listening to it for Him or for yourself or for others.

• The secondary purpose of music is to Edify and Build Up Christians: (Colossians 3:16) “…teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…” Also (Deuteronomy 31:19-22)

• Is there Music that God does Not Accept?

• Since God desires to be worshipped and glorified by music, there can be no doubt that the devil himself desires to be worshipped and glorified by music as well! (2nd Thessalonians 2:3-4)
• The devil is the great counterfeiter of God, and so he loves to be worshipped with his own type of music (Exodus 32:7-8,15-18,25) The devil loves music that sounds like a very large battle taking place. Swords, shields, and armor clashing loudly, thousands of cry’s and shouts at the top of their lungs.
• The devil loves music that sounds like that. But the Lord cannot get glory and get pleasure from that kind of music because there is a different spirit that is involved in it. There is good godly music that the devil and his devils hate and cannot stand and we see that in the case of David playing for Saul when Saul had an evil spirit in him: (1st Samuel 16:14-16), (1st Samuel 18:10-11), (1st Samuel 19:9-10).

• God accepts music that is spiritual, music that feeds your spirit not your flesh: (John 4:24), (Ephesians 5:18-19) “spiritual songs”

• The type of music that God will not accept then, is anything that is not spiritual, but fleshly: (Galatians 5:13,16-24) All throughout the Bible we as Bible Believing born again Christians are to feed the spirit, not the flesh. And so God is against any music that feeds our flesh because our flesh is wicked and is still part of the old nature. We are to feed the spirit.

• Christians have no business Participating in Rock and Roll or any other worldly music:

• There are many Christians that believe God is okay with them listening to the music of the world such as rock and roll, but God is against music that feeds the flesh as we have seen in the last point. And as we look at quotes from men and women that founded rock and roll, you will hear from their own mouths how fleshly and anti-God their music truly is!
• “the main ingredients in rock are…sex and sass” (Debra Harry, Hit Parader, Sept. 1979, pg. 31)
• “Rock is the total celebration of the physical” Ted Nugent, rock star, Rolling Stone, August 25, 1977, pg. 11-13)
• “at the very least, rock is turning sex into something casual” (James Connor, Newsweek, May 6, 1985)
• “The whole Beatles idea was to do what you want…do what thou wilst, as long as it doesn’t hurt somebody” (John Lennon, cited by David Sheff, The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, pg. 61)
• “The best rock and roll music encapsulates a certain energy—an angriness—whether on record or onstage, That is, rock and roll is only rock and roll if its not save…Violence and energy—and that’s what rock and roll’s all about” (Mick Jagger, as told to Mikal Gilmore, Night Beat, pg. 87)
• “Rock n roll is all sex. One hundred percent sex” (Debbie Harry of the rock band Blondie, cited by Carl Belz, “Television Shows and Rock Music,” as it appeared in the Age of Communication William Lutz, Goodyear Publishing Company, 1974, pg. 398)
• “…the whole idea of rock n roll is to offend your parents” (Rock drummer King Coffey, The Truth about Rock, pg. 30)
• “Our music is intended to change one set of values to another…free minds…free dope…free bodies…free music” (Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane, cited by Ben Fong-Torres, “Grace Slick with Paul Kantner,” The Rolling Stone Interviews, 1971, pg. 447)
• “Atmospheres are going to come through music, because the music is a spiritual thing of its own…you hypnotize people to where they go right back to their natural state which is pure positive the subconscious what we want to say…People want release any kind of way nowadays. The idea is to release in the proper form. Then they’ll feel like going into another world, a clearer world. The music flows from the air; that’s why I connect with a spirit, and when they come down off this natural high, they see clearer, feel different things…” (Jimmy Hendrix, rock star, Life, October 3, 1969, pg. 74)
• “Rock music involves a neurophysiological conditioning in connotation or felt meaning, linking aggression and sexuality, aggression linked with sexuality…Our basic claim is that the rock music itself induces a behavioral link between aggression and sexuality” (Drs. Daniel and Bernadette Skubik, The Neurophysiology of Rhythm)
• “Rock’n roll doesn’t glorify God. You can’t drink out of God’s cup and the devil’s cup at the same time. I was one of the pioneers of that music, one of the builders. I know what the blocks are made of because I built them” (Little Richard, The Dallas Morning News, October 29, 1978, pg. 14a)
• “Rock n roll is 99% sex (John Oates of the rock duo Hall and Oates, Circus, January 31, 1976)
• “Listen, rock ‘n roll AIN’T CHURCH. It’s nasty business. You gotta be nasty too. If you’re goody, goody, you can’t sing or play it…” (Lita Ford of the heavy metal group The Runaways, Los Angeles Times, August 7, 1988)
• “Rock n roll is pagan and primitive, and very jungle, and that’s how it should be! The moment it stops being those things, its dead…the true meaning of rock…is sex, subversion and style” (Malcolm McLaren, punk rock manager Rock, August 1983, pg. 60)
• “In a sense all rock is revolutionary. By its very beat and sound it has always implicitly rejected restraints and has celebrated freedom and sexuality” (Time Magazine, January 3, 1969)
• “Rock music has got the same message as before. It is anti-religious, anti-nationalistic and anti-morality. But now I understand what you have to do. You have to put the message across with a little honey on it” (John Lennon, spoken not long before his death in 1980, Pop Goes the Gospel, pg. 84)
• “Rock is the perfect primal method of releasing our violent instincts” (Ted Nugent, Circus, May 13, 1976)
• “When you’re in a certain frame of mind, particularly sexually orientated, there’s nothing better than Rock and Roll because that’s where most of the performers are at” (Aerosmith’s manager David Krebbs, Circus, October 17, 1978, pg. 34)
• “Rock music is sex and you have to hit them (Teenagers) in the face with it” (Andrew Oldham, manager of the Rolling Stones, Time, April 28, 1967, pg. 54)
• “Rock n roll is synonymous with sex and you can’t take that away from it. It just doesn’t work” (Steven Tyler, Entertainment Tonight, ABC, December 10, 1987)
• “Everyone takes it for granted that rock and roll is synonymous with sex” (Chris Stein, rock manager, People, May 21, 1979)
• “Rock and roll aims for liberation and transcendence, eroticizing the spiritual and spiritualizing the erotic, because that is its ecumenical birthright” (Robert Palmer, Rock and Roll an Unruly History, pg. 72)

• Some may argue that if we don’t bring it into the church then it is okay:

But our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost if you are saved (1st Corinthians 6:19-20) and we are to not be conformed to this world (Romans 12:1-2) and deny ungodly lusts in this world (Titus 2:12).

• Christians have no business listening to or performing “CCM” or Christian Rock music:

• Some will argue that they have changed the lyrics from the rock songs to those that glorify God. But it’s not just the lyrics that are filthy and feed your flesh, it’s also that style of beats and guitar rifts, it’s the music itself. Again the rock stars admit it’s not just the lyrics, but the beat, rhythm and music itself that is all about sex, rebellion, and anti-God:
• “That’s what rock is all about—sex with a 100 megaton bomb, the beat!” (Gene Simmons of the rock group Kiss, Interview, Entertainment Tonight, ABC, December 10, 1987)
• “My true belief about Rock n Roll is this: I believe this kind of music is demonic…A lot of the beats in music today are taken from voodoo, from the voodoo drums.” (Little Richard)
• “An incessant beat does erode a sense of responsibility in much the same way as alcohol does…You feel in the grip of a relentless stream of sound to which something very basic and primitive in the human nature responds” (David Winter, New Singer, New Song)
• “Rock music is sex. The big beat matches the body’s rhythms” (Frank Zappa of the Mothers of Invention, Life, June 28, 1968)
• “There is a great deal of powerful, albeit subliminal, sexual stimulation implicit in both the rhythm and the lyrics of rock music” (Dr. David Elkind, chairman of the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study at Tufts University in Massachusetts)
• “We take the kids away from their parents and their environment to where the only reality is the rhythm and the beat.” (Donnie Brower of the 70’s group Grand Funk)
• Michael Jackson was asked why he did the filthy hand gestures on state and he said this; “It’s the music that compels me to do it. You don’t think about it, it just happens. I’m a slave to the rhythm.”

• Christian music should not have anything to do with the world’s music:

(Isaiah 5:20), (Ezekiel 22:26)

• What about if the Christian Rock is reaching the lost?

Music is never given by God to reach the lost or to attract them to church. It is preaching that saves the lost not music (1st Corinthians 1:21)

• What if I have a bunch of CD’s or MP3’s or Tapes or Albums of this type of music?

You should destroy it and replace it with good music! Destroy it instead of selling it so that it will not harm anyone else that can get their hands on it. (Acts 19:18-20)