Saturday, May 28, 2011

Every Tongue Will Confess What?


Day 330 in my "Year In My Life Through Pictures" blog series

Philippians 2:9-11 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

If you are not from around these here parts, the station 90.1FM probably doesn't mean much to you. Now if I tell you that it is the local KLOVE station it will probably ring a bell or two. I often times find myself turning the radio off of KLOVE almost as much as I turn it on. "Why?", you might ask. Because they play some songs that are not very biblically sound and actually border or fall over into the heretical side. Oh, and they also have Phillips, Craig and Dean in heavy rotation which is altogether another issue chronicled in this blog post of mine and earlier in this one.

If you could have heard the song playing tonight when I snapped this picture you would see the correlation with the verse I posted at the beginning of this posting. I'm sure you have heard of Mark Shultz, singer of such theologically sound hits such as "Letters From War" and "Walking Her Home", both real powerhouse hits on CCM radio. I would actually put those right up there with "Butterfly Kisses" and the more recent "Cinderella". The latest hit (miss actually) from Shultz is "Love Has Come", which takes Philippians 2:9-11 and mangles the passage.

There is a stark difference between the lyric of the Shultz song and scripture. Let's look:

Shultz:
"Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess
That God is love and love has come for us all
Every heart set free, every one will see
That God is love and love has come for us all"

Philippians:
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So, there is a huge difference in what Shultz has put to song here. It does sound nice and fuzzy on the surface, but when you actually listen to what he is saying it really is Easy Believism 101. The favorite term "God is love" is carried a step further and says the "Love has come for us ALL". All? Who is this all he is talking of? The listener of the song? Anyone that hears the song, even if they are lost in their sins, unrepentant and actually headed to an eternal damnation? Are they included in Shultz's "ALL"? It's a pretty nice hook to a song and makes one feel good to know that everyone will confess that God is love, but wait, scripture says that everyone will confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, which is quite different. Even the "ALL" or "every" sinner that is on their way to hell will say that Jesus Christ is Lord as they stand before Him in judgment for rejecting Him, the Judge of all.

So, this is one of those songs that was probably written because it would be a hit and sell a few records. It did and it continues to be a staple on KLOVE, which gets turned off when the song comes on. Good thing I have a iPhone so I can just plug it in to the auxiliary input and actually hear some music based in scripture and not some catchy hook of twisted scripture.

I would suggest that you carefully comb through your music collection for songs and artist like this and toss them. Don't we owe it to the Lord to scrutinize all aspects of our entertainment and music listening to be more specific? Shouldn't we match lyrical content against scripture and make sure it aligns? Shouldn't we stand strong on the Word of God and call out these song writers and singers that twist and tweak the Word to fit their music and weak message? We need to make sure we stand fully on the Word of God first and foremost and then the discernment will come and I promise you that songs like Shultz's and others will be exposed for what they are.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen! I have had similar feelings about this song. Thank you for your boldness in sharing about the heretical theology in this song.

Anonymous said...

Amen! I have had similar feelings about this song. Thank you for your boldness in sharing about the heretical theology in this song.

Unknown said...

Finally, someone out there who accurately addresses the mangling of Scripture by Mark Schultz. Fuzzy song. Doubt if he meant it to be intentionally deceptive, but the song misses the true intent of Scripture terribly.