I hear various things on Christian music these days. When I say that, I not only mean that I hear about different genres of Christian music or types of songs (such as hymns versus newer songs), although I do. I also mean I hear opinions about contemporary Christian music, such as Spirit 105.3.
I know what you're thinking now. You think I'm going to just blast Spirit 105.3 and say it sucks. Fortunately, that's not what I'm going to do at all. Unfortunately, I do have a lot of concerns about that radio station (and Christianity in general) that I want to talk about, and you, my faithful reader(s), are the perfect victims to hear me out.
Okay, so, Spirit 105.3. Anyone who listens to it will constantly hear about how good they are (particularly because they like to flaunt the listener praise every ten minutes or so). They get several calls a day about how they lift people's days and make work bearable, etc., etc. So obviously some people have a high opinion of it. Then there's the other spectrum of people, the folks who think it's too wishy-washy and lovey-dovey. They may or may not give their reasoning for this, choosing instead to just rant about it.
Predictably, I fall closer to the latter of these two camps. But unlike some people, I'll actually give my reasons for what I think, at least from my personal experiences listening to it.
When I listen to it, I hear a lot of what I described earlier: the phone calls about how they and God make people feel better and whatnot. Well, that's great. I won't deny that's what they do. I won't deny that God wants us to be joyful in all circumstances. Read Romans 8:28 if you want proof of that. But so often I hear about people wanting to "have a personal relationship with Jesus" and "be close to God." They don't tend to describe what that means. I don't usually hear talk of salvation, grace, redemption, brokenness because of their sin. The fact is that Satan has a personal relationship with Jesus. It just happens to be one of animosity and hatred. Everyone on earth has a personal relationship with Jesus; it's only a matter of whether it's they love or hate Him. There's no in-between. There's no indifference, not Biblically. It's for or against.
I also think that Spirit 105.3, the songs they play in particular, focus far too much on one attribute of God: love. Now, I'm not trying to minimize that God is loving. God is love. God is the most loving being of all. And this fact is mentioned a great many times on Spirit 105.3, albeit with a certain vagueness at times. And that's another problem. How did God love you? Love isn't just a happy feeling; it's an action. The Bible says the way He loves us is that He gave His Son to die for our sins. Some songs mention this, and that's great. But others tend to just say He loves and don't mention what that means either.
Love is not all there is to God. One thing I hear frequently said, but likely not understood, about God is that He is holy. In fact, holiness is the only thing about God that is mentioned in the Bible in a superlative sense: "Holy, holy holy" (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8). Saying a word multiple times in a row was the way in those days that they emphasized words. Saying a word three times was extreme. So God is truly holy, and the Bible emphasizes that greatly.
But what do we mean when we say God is holy? We frequently mean He is good. That's true, and certainly a part of it. But it's such a complex topic that R.C. Sproul wrote an entire book on the subject.
Then there's the feel-goodiness of it all. "Oh, life is sad, but God is happy and yay." (That's a slight exaggeration). You know, I absolutely believe God comforts us in our time of need and brings us through trials. But once again, that's not all there is to it.
Let's go to Isaiah 6. This is the passage I mentioned earlier, where the Bible says God is "holy holy holy." Isaiah, encountering the living God Himself in all His holiness, is not overcome with joy about the fact that he is face-to-face with the holy God. No, he's overcome with grief and tears because he realizes that God is absolutely perfect, he is not, God will judge him by that standard, and Isaiah has absolutely no hope in that judgment. This is the ultimate feeling of "I'm not good enough." God then shows mercy and purifies him in a beautiful picture of salvation, not because Isaiah deserved it, but because God wanted to and had a purpose for it. Isaiah was absolutely broken because of his sin and realization that he couldn't measure up to God. God saved him anyway.
I don't hear that much on the radio. I usually hear about people being broken about life circumstances. Certainly that happens, and certainly God is there for His children in those times, and I don't want to minimize that fact. But where is the brokenness from our own sin? Where is the fact that we don't and can't measure up to God? We frequently say that God saved us. But from what? Why did He have to save you? Do we ever think about that? Do we ever realize that God is far more than a happiness machine, waiting to give out blessings to people who are sad? And do we ever realize that God is far more than just the guy who saved us and takes care of us, He is also our King and Lord Who will someday bring His Kingdom to earth?
At this point, I've deviated from only talking about Spirit 105.3. I think they promote a weak, kind of pathetic, sappy view of God, but they aren't the only ones. So many churches talk about how they want to "help you with your problems" and "make you feel better." There's a church here in Olympia that wants to "spread the love of Jesus," but has absolutely no mention as to what that really means. No mention of salvation, holiness, anything at all. It's just disturbing to me how far from the Bible we've gone.
I won't doubt that people probably get saved because of what Spirit 105.3 does. It's great to have at least one radio station not filled with sex and drugs. But how much more could they do if they promoted the full truth of God to the world? Don't people need to realize they are sinful and can't measure up before they can truly come to God in earnest repentance and be saved?
