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NASB | Ephesians 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 5:19 Speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, [offering praise by] singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; |
Bible Question: I am writing a paper on Contemporary Christian music and the controversy over it. Can I have some feedback on some views about the topic? |
Bible Answer: dablond: Were I to write a paper on contemporary "Christian" music, it would be brief indeed and say something like this: "The best of it struggles to qualify for mediocrity and the worst of it is horrendous." .... Please bear in mind that this assessment comes from a septuagenerian whose first exposure to music in the church was to the majestic hymns that have stirred the hearts and minds of worshippers for many years, some for centuries. Nothing that I've heard in contemporary music, religious or secular, begins to approach the quality of the old masters. I challenge anyone to show me a piece of contemporary religious music that is remotely comparable to "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee." The music is from the final movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and the words were penned by Henry Van Dyke. What piece of contemporary music can stir the soul like "Praise Ye the Lord, the Almighty," a hymn based on Psalms 103 and 150. set to music from a an old German song dating back to 1665? Who among contemporary composers can compare to Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Haydn, and Mozart? And who among the contemporary lyric writers can compare to John Bunyan, John Calvin (who wrote the words to the hymn "I Greet Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer Art" in 1545), Fanny Crosby ("Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine"), Francis of Assisi ("All Creatures of Our God and King," written in 1225), John Henry Newman ("Lead, Kindly Light," 1833), Alfred Tennyson ("Strong Son of God, Immortal Love," 1850), Isaac Watts, Charles and John Wesley, John Greenleaf Whittier -- the list is long, and in this sampling I've not begun even to scratch the surface. ...... I incline to equate much -- indeed most -- of the fare of contemporary religious music with much of what is being offered in contemporary translations of Scripture. As the bulk of modern translations, particularly the paraphrases, is decidedly inferior in quality to the King James Bible, so it is with contemporary religious music: it is likewise markedly inferior to the traditional hymns of the church. ..... But I don't live in a vacuum or in a cloistered environment and so I'm quite aware that so-called "contemporary Christian music" is enormously popular in some circles, chiefly I suspect among the younger generation. And its popularity has made it a lucrative industry. Which leads one to ask, "Is it popular because of its quality, or is it popular because it has been promoted aggressively by publishers whose chief aim is profit? And another question comes to mind: Do those who buy and use these products do so mainly because they haven't been exposed to truly good religious music and quite simply just don't know any better? ...... A couple of years ago while on vacation my wife and I attended a church service where contemporary music was the only kind they offered that day. And for both my wife and me the high point of that experience was when the service was over and we could leave without drawing attention to ourselves! --Hank |