Brother Music Minister, you need not be nearly as concerned with unbiblical influence from pagan music as you do from influences under the umbrella called “Christian”. It takes much less knowledge and discernment to recognize what ought not to be done in watching a Marilyn Manson concert than it does to listen to many CCM artists on your local radio station. Please study the following quote from this 17th Century writer:
The nearer a false worship approaches to a true one, the more dangerous it is. Israel came nearer to the true worship of God than the heathens: now the prophet saith not, “Though the heathens be idolators, yet let not Judah be so too; but, ‘Though Israel play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend.’” There was more danger that Judah should be drawn aside by Israel, than that they should be drawn aside by any of the heathen. And so there is more danger that we, at this day, should be drawn aside by those that join with us in many things that are right, than by papists, who are hateful to us, and whose ways we see to be abominable. There is not so much danger, especially for those that profess godliness, of being drawn aside by those who grossly violate the laws of God, as by brethren that join with us in many things that are right, and come very near to the true worship of God…We must not approach places calculated to draw us into sin, especially to false worship… It is dangerous to indulge curiosity in visiting places of idolatry…
–Comments on Hosea 4:15 by Jeremiah Burroughs [1599-1646]
Brother Music Minister, be careful to weigh lyrics that you are prone to add to your church’s repertoire against the revealed will of God in the holy scriptures. As you have heard or read me say before—if it can’t be preached from your church’s pulpit then don’t let it be sung from the platform either.
