"God Likes Music of All Kinds"
In his chapter God, My Heart, and Music in the book Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World, Bob Kauflin writes,
Actually, it seems that God likes music of all kinds. No one style can sufficiently capture his glory or even begin to reflect the vastness of his wisdom, creativity, beauty, and order. That doesn't mean some kinds of music aren't more complex or beautiful than others. It just means no single genre of music is better than the rest in every way.
Tellingly, Kauflin offers no biblical support of his own for these statements.
I believe that wrong claims such as these (by Kauflin and others) about God and His supposedly liking "music of all kinds" is one of the chief reasons that we have the debacle that we have musically in the Church in our day.
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"Is it sinful for believers to sing Goodness of God?"
Since it was our third song this past Sunday morning, I certainly hope it isn't... =)
This is, in my mind, precisely the place to apply Rom 14. Who am I to sit in judgment of my brother because he is free to do this? If I believe he's wrong, I may try to convince him, but I should be very careful about how I think and speak about a fellow servant of Christ who is praising the Lord in sincerity of heart. And if he were not sincere, I would be unlikely to be able to tell, so I should assume he is unless he tells me otherwise, don't you think?
I agree with those who say that musical style is a matter of weakness/strength(Rom14). Someone might object for one of 2 very different reasons:
- “It’s a matter of conscience because it’s impossible for any music style to be wrong for any reason.”
- “It’s not a matter of conscience because some music styles are intrinsically, universally sinful.”
Considered in a spectrum:
AnythingGoes—1—Conscience—2—EvilMusic
You, Don, are concerned about #1. But this thread is about #2.
Those like Rajesh, Don, or Scott Aniol from old SI, clearly believe that music has universal meaning, and thus can make a universal application, but I still can’t see it. That doesn’t mean I don’t make any applications for myself.
I am not sure what you mean by "music has universal meaning." My beliefs about universal application do not stem from any fixed belief about all kinds of music necessarily having some intrinsic meaning to them. Scripture provides multiple bases for holding that not all kinds of music are acceptable to God for use in corporate worship; intrinsically unacceptable meaning is only one such possible basis.
Discussion