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Should Christians Listen to Secular Music?

No study of Christian living would be complete without considering the influence of music.  Secular music over the recent years has crossed the boundaries of language, culture and now even religion.  The Christian church has been invaded by this so called 'Christian Rock' which has become the vehicle to communicate with the youth of the world.  But what message is being communicated by this 'rock' music, and is God pleased with it?  Should Christians listen to it?

Just think about this for a moment.  The young people of today, and even some older people have been so saturated with rock, pop, dance and all the other kinds of secular music, that listening to and singing good traditional worship songs has become boring to them.  Their minds have become degraded by this rock and roll, and pop and dance music.  It's the same with movies.  People's minds today have been so saturated with tv and big blockbuster movies, that Bible study has become boring.  And who is the one causing this?  Satan!  His aim is to draw people away from God, and he has done a fine job in doing that over the past 30 years.  He is infiltrating our minds through the medium of music and television, and we now have a generation of youth that spend all their time watching tv, going to the movies, listening to secular music and playing games.  Christ Jesus their Saviour is out of the picture.  He's just not that interesting anymore to today's generation.  "Take up your cross and follow Me" means nothing to the majority of young Christians today.

This is the reason why churches have started introducing the world into church.  They are trying to find a way to make church "more interesting", "more fun", "more entertaining", because people today have so FILLED their lives with entertainment, that a good old traditional church service with plain Bible preaching and good traditional worship songs would not be "interesting" enough for them.  It's not a case of going to church to worship God anymore, it's about being entertained!  We have the Laodicean church all over the world today!

Effects of Secular Music

There are few people who understand the power that music has over the mind.  The moods of listeners change as they listen to various kinds of music.  Do you want an example?  Put a young man in a car and let him drive it while listening to fast paced rock music, and see how he drives!  Actual tests have proved that music has a direct influence on the pulse rate, blood pressure, and the nervous system.  Take a look at this quote from Dr Schoen:

"Music is made of the stuff which is in and of itself the most powerful stimulant known among the perceptual process.... Music operates on our emotional faculty with greater intensiveness and rapidity than the product of any other act."  (The Psychology of Music, Page 39)

Let me give you an example from my own experience.  Recently, a church I attended had a worship band on stage, which most do these days, and during a particular worship song, in the chorus, the drummer would start drumming really loud which would excite the people, and when he did it, I could feel the drumming inside me, and it created a false feeling inside.  This is what concerns me in church worship, as our worship and joy for God should be totally natural and not manufactured by the drummer.  And how many people are thinking they are being filled with the Holy Spirit, when in fact they are just feeling the beat of the drum inside them?

An important discovery made in the field of music shows that music is heard in the portion of the brain which received the stimuli of emotions, sensations and feelings, and bypasses the brain centres involving reason and intelligence.  Time magazine described rock and roll music in this way .... "The hypnotic beat works a strange kind of magic.  Many dancers become oblivious to those around them.  They drift away from their partners.  Inhibitions flake away, eyes glaze over, until suddenly they are seemingly swimming along in a sea of sound." ..... The worrying thing for Christians listening to secular music is the assault of it upon the emotions and then actions.  Since the music goes straight to the part of the brain which receives emotions and sensations, the Christian will be affected by the music without making any conscious decision.

When asked why he did sexual hand gestures on stage, Michael Jackson replied, "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."  (The Evening Star, Feb. 11, 1993)

Doctors have started using music to reach the minds of the mentally ill and retarded.  Words may mean nothing to them, but the music opens up the sensory part of the brain providing a way in.  The problem with this, although helpful for doctors with the mentally ill, is the fact that satan can use rock and pop music to make a sneaky attack upon any Christian who listens to it.  When you think about the facts, it easy to understand how the beat of modern rock music has created so much moral havoc among the young.  The theme of sex, drugs, violence and rebellion have been drilled into their minds, creating an emotional acceptance of these sins.

Take a look at these quotes from well known rock artists:

"Rock has always been the devil's music ... I believe rock and roll is dangerous ... I feel we're only heralding something even darker than ourselves."  (David Bowie, Rolling Stones Magazine, Feb. 12, 1976)

"Hopefully I'll be remembered as the person who brought an end to Christianity."  (Marilyn Manson, Spin, August 1996)

"I'd kill my mother for rock and roll.  I would sell my soul."  (Bon Jovi, Smash Hits Magazine (for kids!!)

"First of all we want to thank Satan!"  (Red Hot Chili Peppers, receiving an award at MTV awards in 1992)

It is no secret that some rock and roll performers are not only tied in with drugs, but with spiritualism.  Some performers have even attributed their success by way of a covenant with satan, meaning satan is controlling the production of the music.  And the vast amount of teenage rebellion today can be attributed in part to the constant exposure of broken rhythms in rock music.

"A broken meter in a treble, played over an insistently regular beat in the left hand with gradually increasing rapidity almost to the point of frenzy, is capable of producing the identical disintegrating and almost hysterical effect on an organism; as if a person would try to rush madly in two directions at the same time.  Any psychiatrist knows that it is precisely this two directional pull of conflicting drives of emotions that is helping to fill our mental hospitals with broken wrecks of humanity."  (Alice E. Monsarrat, Music - Soothing, Sedative or Savage)

Christians and Secular Music

There is only one correct attitude that the true Christian should have towards rock music, and that is to close the door to it.  There can be no compromise with the degrading music forms which satan has used to corrupt and destroy the minds of people all over the world.  Are you trying to be a friend to the world, by listening to secular rock music?..... James 4:4 .....'Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.'

I attended a church service near where I live a couple of years back, and they showed a video of Bono (from the rock band U2) being interviewed, talking about his "Christian" faith.  And do you know what he said? .... "Rock music is my FIRST LOVE".  And this was openly accepted by the church!!  Now Jesus warned the church in Ephesus in Revelation that they had fallen from their FIRST LOVE, which is Christ Jesus.  And He told them to repent, otherwise they would no longer be His church.  We cannot go around saying it's ok for people to put other things before Christ Jesus, like Bono does.

Christians should be listening to and singing real worship music that only gives praise and honor to Jesus Christ.  And that praise should come from the heart, NOT from a set of drums or a guitar.

Should not everything we do be for the glory of God?

Psalm 9:2 .....'I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.'

Psalm 28:7 .....'The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.'

The purpose of Christian music is to praise the LORD.  When we accept Jesus into our lives and give ourselves to Him, and obey God, He fills us with His Holy Spirit and we sing a 'new' song of salvation to Him ..... Psalm 40:3 .....'And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.' ..... So it isn't something we have to work at, or create ourselves to keep up with the times, or with the world, it's something that God puts in us, and it is a result of Him redeeming us.  It shouldn't be the music that enables our devotion and feelings of love toward God, we should already have those feelings in our hearts.  No, praise toward God in music is merely part of our expression of love to Him.

Ephesians 5:18-19 .....'be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.' ..... Did you catch that?  Singing and making melody in YOUR HEART to the Lord.  Our praise should come from the heart, NOT from the music that the church worship team, or the Christian musician or rock band are playing.  I feel God has done this with me as I have stopped relying on the world and now rely only on Him.  He has put a new song in my heart and I regularly walk around each day singing praises to Him, either quietly or out loud.

Are Christians really singing a 'new' song to God when they are listening to Christian rock music and secular music?  What about all the Christian rock concerts that millions of Christians attend each year?  Is God really being praised in these places?  Or are the performers being praised more?  Listen to what Keith Green has to say about this:

"Why do we idolize Christian singers and speakers?  We go from glorifying musicians in the world, to glorifying Christian musicians.  It's all idolatry!!  Satan is getting a great victory as we seem to worship these ministers on tapes and records, and clamour to get their autographs in churches and concert halls from coast to coast."  (Keith Green, 'So You Wanna be a Rock Star')

Think about this:  Why is it that the covers of the CD's of Christian artists have glorifying photos of themselves?  Why are they trying to bring attention to themselves?  Shouldn't they step into the background so that Jesus gets all the glory?  Afterall didn't John the Baptist say in John 3:30 .....'He must increase, but I must decrease.' ..... We MUST NOT put ourselves in a position to take glory away from Jesus.  But sadly, this is exactly what a lot of modern Christian musicians are doing.

"Oh but modern Christian Rock music helps to reach out to the world"  No.  The Word of God is to be used to reach out to the lost world, not worldly music with a few Christian words added in.  If you think you need to reach the lost with music, then you are denying the power of God's Word in the Bible, and the work of the Holy Spirit.  Did Peter and the apostles need worship bands playing at the day of pentecost?  No, they relied on the Word of God and the power of His Spirit.

Up until a few years ago, I listened to and loved all kinds of music, including pop, dance and rock music.  But then as I grew with Jesus, that love of worldly music was replaced with a 'new' song.  My new desire was to praise God with all my heart and to only listen to real Christian melodies that gave glory and honor to God.  If you are walking with Jesus each day and are growing in Him, then God will put a new song in your heart.

"There are a lot of bands out now who do not feel it necessary to speak about God or Christ."  (HM Magazine, Issue 67, p.26)

It seems that a lot of the modern Christian bands are more interested in pleasing man than God.  This is a good reason to leave them alone and not listen to their music ..... Galatians 1:10 .....'For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.'

"Oh, but the Bible doesn't give any guidance to Christian music".  Actually it does:

Ephesians 5:19 .....'Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.'

Colossians 3:16 .....'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.'

I think God is pretty clear in His Word about how we should worship Him in song.  'With psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs' from the heart.  What does this mean?  It means that our song should be full of praise and devotion to God, and it should come from the heart, and not need to rely on drums and guitars with a worldly beat and rhythm to get you going.  We are to worship God in spirit and truth.  It's from the heart.  Worldly music feeds the flesh, whereas true Christian music should feed the spirit.  That's why the world loves rock music, because it is carnal.  But we who are Christ's have 'crucified the flesh' and no longer walk in it, but now walk according to the Spirit.  Notice in Ephesians 5 it says that we should make MELODY in our hearts to the Lord.  Not mad rock rhythms and beats, but melody.

"True Godly music will be composed of three elements, all in perfect balance with each other.  They are melody, harmony and rhythm.  Rock music has no melody, only fragments of melody endlessly repeated.  Since there is no true melody, there is no real harmony.  There is only rhythm.  And rhythm in of itself is not music."  (Leonard J. Seidel, 'Face the Music' - Contemporary Music on Trial, pp 46-51)

It has been said that the fundamental riffs, licks, bass figures and drum rhythms that make rock and roll can ultimately be traced back to African music of a primarily spiritual or ritual nature.  "In a sense, rock and roll is a kind of voodoo."  (Robert Palmer).  This is why a drum is not mentioned in the Bible (King James Version), because the drum was a common worldly instrument used in Egypt and the lands around Israel.

"My true belief about rock and 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."  (Charles White, The Life and Times of Little Richard, page 197)

Will the majority of Christians hear this message and act upon it, according to the Word of God?  Only if God touches their hearts.  The sad fact is that the professing Christian of today will try and make excuses as to why they should be able to carry on in their old sinful ways, rather than basing their lives on the true Word of God in the Bible.

Should Christians listen to secular music?  From the evidence, I would say no.

Is Christian rock music true worship and acceptable to God?  I would say no.  There is no benefit for the Christian to listen to secular rock music, and God calls us to be separate and live holy lives for Him.  We need to worship God in spirit and truth.  We need to stop mixing our Christian faith with the world and walk away from secular music, and allow God to put a 'new' song in us, and worship Him in spirit, from our hearts, not from the beat of a drum.  Do some research yourself about rock music, you might be surprised what you find out!

I plead with you to give your all to Christ Jesus and worship Him in spirit and truth.  Stop listening to secular rock, pop and dance music and let God put a 'new song' in your heart today.  Search through this site to find the truth about being a TRUE disciple of Christ, and find out why this message is so urgent from the end times prophecy website.