So I stepped up the pace, laid down some things, and focused more on God’s will.  I thought it would be better, more ethereal and powerful.  Instead, I felt worse.  More of my faults were exposed.  I felt chastised.  What happened to the “O Happy Day” that is supposed to show up when you pray, fast, and surrender?

The fact is, when you bear fruit He purges you so that you will bear more fruit.  (John 15:2)  That is difficult to understand.  You expect a reward for more praying, more fasting, and laying down frivolous things, thereby being more available to God.  That’s a bit like expecting some award or commendation for showing up to become a Navy Seal.  The hard work is not showing up for duty, but being prepared for duty.

We should keep in mind that presenting our bodies a living sacrifices is merely “reasonable service.”  (Romans 12:1-2)  Therefore, simply deciding to do what we should have been doing all along, what God has been convicting us to do for quite some time, is not an occasion for an award.  It is simply surrender to be equipped for what He called us to do.  Equipping involves purging to be prepared to receive more knowledge, wisdom, and power.

Besides all that, there is another factor that is as much a deterrent to some professing Christians as it is an attraction to other ones.  Is there any famous person that you would want to meet?  How would you feel if you met them?  Nervous?  Subordinate?  I know that if I had ever met A. W. Tozer or Leonard Ravenhill, I would have been uncomfortable and a man of few words.  When I spoke, I would have been conscious that anything I said would probably have been considered shallow to them.

Imagine coming nearer to the completely holy and awesome God.  Many times when I have felt like I entered the Holiest of All, I felt very unclean and unworthy.  I can empathize with Isaiah. (Isaiah 6:5)  However, if you linger there long enough you will not wish to leave.  Once His glory flushes out of you all the besetting weights and other baggage, there is no greater experience and no better place to be.

The same can be said about the post-purging experience.  Have you ever prayed like David, “Purge me with the hyssop and I will be clean!”?  (Psalm 51:7, in fact the entire chapter.)  The hyssop was a rough plant that was used for cleaning out bottles and other vessels.  It is like having a spiritual wire brush plunged into your spirit.  But afterwards, you wonder, “How could I have ever allowed myself to become so unclean.” No matter how righteous you felt before that process, you will recognize it as self-righteousness afterwards.

The post-purging process is a condition that makes it all worthwhile.  Years ago, I remember after one such experience walking in the mall with my wife.  I don’t even know what we were shopping for, but it was something for one of our daughters.   Very clearly, the Father spoke to my spirit through the Holy Spirit and asked, “What do you want in here?”  I looked around and saw the expensive shoes on one side, suits on the other, casual clothing just down the way, and we had even passed an automobile displayed in the center of the wide aisle.  I replied, “Nothing, Lord.  I don’t want anything in here.  I just want more of You.”

That experience set me on a journey to expose in me anything that was not submissive to Him, and to continuously be in submission to the Holy Spirit so that I could be conformed to His perfect will.  The truth is, when we reach the twilight of life, we will not take comfort in our memories of any accomplishments beyond what we know was truly accomplished for God and God alone.  We will rejoice more in our surrender, times of purging, and the joyous afterglow.  God is light with no shadow of turning. (James 1:17) The more you shine, the more you blend.

If our constant prayer is, “For Your glory, O Lord, I must decrease and You must increase!”, then as unpleasant as it is, we will submit to the purging process again and again.   If you want your words to be powerful, to bear fruit, to defeat ego and pride, to see people as God sees them, to love beyond the human level and degree, to be spontaneously obedient, to have a pure heart with pure motives, and much more, then submit to the purging process.

Spend some time in prayer and submit the toys, the frivolous activities, and all else that you have been convicted about.  Endure the initial feelings of rejection, of unworthiness, and maintain a determination to keep your vows.  Let me know how it turns out.  Like everyone else, I would cherish the encouragement in this dark hour of Christian apostasy.

Churches give music preeminence because it entices people, especially young people, to “go to church,” something that parents used to have a battle with.  It is entertaining, so the church meeting isn’t as boring for disinterested youth and nominal Christians.  High energy music will draw secular people from all walks of life into the building.  Some of them will even profess Christianity, as long as it is a bare-bones version requiring no major changes and not initiated by conviction.  In fact, the current trend in Church Growth is to make adherents by rendering Christianity palatable to secular people.  The actual philosophy is, “If we can’t bring them in by the biblical standard, let’s lower it to a level that is comfortable and convenient for them.”

Music has been enlisted to assist in this type of conversion.  The leader of a major Christian band (at that time), “Bride”, during our debate insisted that scores of young people were getting “saved” during their concerts.  What actually occurred was another “gospel” was “preached” by the music, and during the consequential emotional cool-down period, they were invited to the front.  They said the “sinner’s prayer” and received some literature.  There is absolutely no way for the man and his fellow band members to know if that person was truly saved, or if they continued in their profession.

In that period, which was near the end of the last century, they would have been hard pressed to find a church offering the religion they experienced at the concert.  Today, they can come back to the concert Sunday after Sunday.  “Saved” has been reduced to any sign and degree of commitment, even if it is just attending a concert/church meeting.  The philosophy is, “Anything to get them inside of the church.”  That is no guarantee that they have been included in the Body of Christ.

Salvation is not getting people inside of a church building, convincing them to say the “sinner’s prayer,” or any of the modern methods for getting someone onto the attendance rolls.  Salvation is the result of being convicted by the Holy Spirit after hearing the Gospel.  One must come to the realization that he or she is a sinner, else why would he or she need the Savior.  If they do not recognize the need for the Savior, they do not see the need to be saved.

The struggle of rebirth begins during that conviction.  The individual decides during that struggle whether to accept deliverance from the chains of sin and darkness, or to reject God’s gift of salvation.  If salvation occurs, it is because that person submitted to the atoning work of Christ Jesus as well as surrendering to His Lordship.

The ones who claim salvation by gradually merging into a Seeker-Friendly, Emergent, Launch, or another church where music is given preeminence over the Gospel, have no spiritual birthdays.  Further, they may never have one if they do not believe they are lost.  They came into a church where the major force was overwhelming carnal and devilish sensationalism.  The preached word is more like an afterthought that one endures.  The only validation of this method of “conversion” is its widespread acceptance.  It has no scriptural paradigm.

What has actually occurred is, a generation has arrived that does not recognize the line of demarcation between light and darkness, good and evil.  A verse in Isaiah caused me to think about what might have caused this deficiency.

“Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, And sin as if with a cart rope;” – Isaiah 5:18.

After reading that verse long ago, I had a vision of Christianity tied to the world system with a rope.  When the world system moved on and became worse, eventually Christianity was drawn into the position the world system once occupied.  Trying to maintain a certain distance between us and the world system may eventually bring us to accept evil that we once rejected.  The biblical pattern is to draw near to God.  If one has that mindset, the gap will continually widen between them and the worlds system.

I refuse to compromise to appease people who desire the apostasy.  If it means our church will remain small, or become even smaller, so be it.  Someone might say, “But don’t you care that you are not getting them into the church?”  That was never my goal.  I was commissioned to invite them into the kingdom of God.  If getting them into the church is the goal, then sure, use whatever means necessary.  In fact, turn the church into a musical circus with all the sights and sounds and back-flipping clowns that the flesh desires.  However, as the apostasy degenerates into such rancid wickedness that churches completely replace every vestige of Christianity with secular patterns to get people to come, what’s next?  Where does Hillsong go next when what they are doing now gets old and boring?

A couple of decades ago, I wrote a book entitled, “The Music of the Great Apostasy.” When I revamped my website, I did not upload the book.  I intended to revised and add to it.  I believe the title is appropriate for this article.

In the book, I predicted error in Christian music would progress until it became the music of the Great Apostasy.  We have been seeing the actuality of that prediction, and it’s going to get much worse.  The prediction was simply a matter of looking down the logical road to its conclusion.  There is no way that Christianity’s music can be almost totally supplanted by a secular-inspired genre and not fall into the basement of carnality.

That moment arrived long ago.  But now the matter has gone beyond simply playing around with music styles of the world system.  Just as Christianity is apostatizing in doctrine and practice, so it is apostatizing in music.  Consider that when Israel apostatized, their music and the way they worshipped reflected their apostasy.  Since widespread heresy is making many churches susceptible to demonic activity, no doubt the music is conducive for it.

It’s not the words that are bad—shallow and repetitive, but not necessarily bad.  It is the obsession with music, the downright addiction that drives churches to become so music oriented that true worship and God’s word are shamefully marginalized.  It is also the bizarre way the music is performed, the atmosphere, darkness, flashing lights, smoke, etc.

The standard defense is an old one, “If it feels good, do it.”  Or as one adulteress said, “How can anything that feels so good be bad.”  Truth or rational consideration of God’s word is not a factor in determining whether it is right or wrong.  There is no consideration of Divine Order.  It is all about what feels good.  Therefore, Satan has taken that old adage and tweaked it a bit.  The result is, “If it feels good, it must be God.”

Any input from the older generation is met with scorn.  They assume that the generation that invented Rock-n-Roll doesn’t know anything about good music.  Thus, they exchange knowledge and experience, their rightful heritage, for emotion (feelings).

When Hillsong’s music began to get popular with Darlene Zschech and Rueben Morgan, who are still worship leaders at Hillsong, I liked their music.  The more popular they became, the more the focus on music drew people away from true worship.  Eventually, the music that was supposed to be the facilitator of worship became the object of worship.   One could witness the digression into what I call Adrenalin Worship.

Adrenalin Worship did not begin with Hillsong, but they have taken it to a new level.  It has always been a stumbling stone for professing Christians.  You can witness it in Southern Gospel and Black Gospel.  Music.  Music that was meant for encouragement or entertainment was commandeered for worship.  The more sensational it became, the more people wanted it.

The problem with Adrenalin Worship is, it is not true worship.  Instead, it is worship from the flesh.  When the music affects the flesh that powerfully, it is impossible to worship God.  The reason is because when flesh is permitted to emote unrestrained, the soul cannot express through the body.  True spirituality cannot thrive in the atmosphere.

The Millennial Generation and subsequent generations do not understand that.  Worship leaders are greatly responsible for that deficiency.  I have watched “high energy” praise bands rock the crowd into a frenzy.  When the frenzy subsides, the worship leader might say, “God showed up tonight.”  That was false teaching.  God is in us as the Holy Spirit.  He does not “show up” if true Christians are gathered because He is already there inside of them.  However, the doctrine planted in the minds of the people is that the emotion they corporately felt, entirely generated by the worship band, was God “showing up.”  Thus, the activity they just demonstrated is considered as true worship, and God showed up to receive and be involved in it.

Churches recognize the Millennials and succeeding generation’s attraction to and strong dependency on music.  If you are going to build a church numerically, you must have the present genre of Christian music and a band capable of performing it.  I have watched failing churches literally turn around their sagging attendance record with nothing more than the addition of Contemporary worship music.

As much as it is advertised otherwise, in many church settings the worship music is not about God.  Consider that Bethel Music flows from one of the most deceptive New Apostolic Reformation churches, deemed by some to be a cult.  Hillsong music flows from a church with false doctrine and other serious concerns, including financial accountability.  The music was not born in worship, so how could it inspire true worship?

A significant percentage of Contemporary worship music was not created by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, but involves styles borrowed from the world system.  The world system creates music appealing to secular people.  That is how the secular music business functions.  If the world system created music that made people want to repent, draw near to God, or worship Him, the secular world would reject it.  They create music for the flesh.  Adapting that style of music to Christianity causes an immediate problem of exciting the flesh long before the soul is stirred, if the soul is ever stirred.  That’s a big problem.

God’s word is clear.  John 4:23-24, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

True worship is spiritual, not fleshly.  It must be in truth, not heresy.  How can music created in heresy and carnal emotionalism initiate true worship?  In fact, it cannot.  When the music begins, those warm and fuzzy feelings, or the rush of adrenalin, are not the true spirit of worship.  One can get the exact same emotions at a secular music concert.  If it is true worship, the band could suddenly shut down, leave the stage, turn off the lights and smoke machines, and the worship would continue unabated.

In this period of great deception and apostasy, many professing Christians are not going to understand that.  However, consider that the churches filling up because of the music are mostly drawing nominal Christians at best.  They have no palate for the anointed word of God.  Most of them will not tolerate conviction or altar calls.  If you want them to stay for the preaching, it had better be short, interesting, and non-convicting.  That doesn’t comport with the attitude of a true Christian.  If that type of people sway, lift their hands, dance, jump, and otherwise move with the music during “worship” time, who or what are they worshipping?

One could make the case that the music is drawing secular people into the church meeting.  Okay, but if that is the goal, what are they receiving once they come inside?  Is the church actually making them disciples of Christ, or are those individuals dictating by their finicky and flighty natures how much truth is offered to them, and the manner in which it is offered?  If the latter, then they are simply being entertained, not converted.

By morphing their church into a movie production with a music concert, Hillsong has reached the end of the logical road.  It is now a church where the lost can feel completely comfortable, and the Holy Spirit is very uncomfortable.  Is that what God intended when He poured out His Holy Spirit on the 120 in the Upper Room 2000 years ago?  If so, then why didn’t He supernaturally make them all fabulous singers and musicians?  Then they could have come dancing out of the Upper Room and entertained the crowd. Instead, He gave them power to be witnesses and to do great works.   The modern church has willingly discarded that power and opted for Adrenalin Worship as its most powerful tool.  Its “mighty works” are accomplished by technology.

There is definitely a place for music in church meetings.  Used properly (that is, producing true worship and bringing honor to God and His word), music is a benefit.  I believe the improper elevation of music in youth church decades ago was probably the beginning of the present error.  Music was woven into the meeting to the extent that it went from entertainment to dominance over and subsequent displacement of the traditional paradigm.  What at first appeared as liberty has become a pleasant bondage.

Finally, nothing I write or say is going to change it.  If we are in the great and final apostasy, the masses will not alter their focus or methods.  I receive hope from the possibility of getting through to the ones who truly love God and have not fully surrendered to the aberrant standard.

I will close with this final question.  If the contemporary worship music pattern typified by Hillsong and Bethel music is not the music of the great apostasy, then where is that music?