Warfare Worship & Unbothered Christianity

Jul 7, 2020 | Article | 20 comments

I was delighted to discover this morning that a musical group I have enjoyed for years—Page CXVI—has a new release. I have been waiting for someone to produce an arrangement of “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” that doesn’t sound like a dirge or a tinny confessional for ages, so when I saw the song listed on their new record I couldn’t click play fast enough. As I sat there singing along, something odd happened. In the very first line of the song, “Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father,” Alattas sang, “O God, Creator.” Naturally, I hopped on ye ole internet to read the lyrics and confirm I was hearing things correctly. To my great disappointment (albeit not shock) her new album not only removes references to God the Father, but favors references instead to God as “mother”. For someone who set out to make hymns relevant to our modern times, she sure has attained her goal. 

The Fainting Couch Failure

There’s a monstrous regiment of women who absolutely do not want you to know that worship is warfare. They don’t like all this “warfare” talk. Flying high above the Apostle Paul, they are shocked and appalled that CHRISTIANS would EVER use shield, weaponry, or BATTLE kind of words! One might say it affronts their sense and sensibilities, if that wouldn’t also rustle their bonnets because the Victorian age—ew! 

So here’s the real irony of the situation: the enemy knows that worship is warfare, and he knows exactly how to wield that sword. The Christian music scene runs rampant with heresy and apostasy, catechizing Christians everywhere into pagan theology, lulling us into singing God is Mother (or God as “creator”, whatever removes that evil patriarchy from among us). All the while, so-called “confessional” Christians decry warfare language and demand androgynous discipleship in the pews. And we wonder why Russell Moore is producing videos about his favorite Johnny Cash songs while California is outlawing singing in church. 

 Worship Does Something

There’s a reason the enemy doesn’t want you to sing, and that’s because it glorifies God and it changes you. What you sing is what you reflect on. Singing is meditation. Singing is worship. Songs get “stuck” inside of you. Songs move you in one direction or the other. Worship is warfare. A singing people is a revived people. A singing people is a joyful people. A singing people go into battle well. Music and song, well that was God’s idea. And he gave us a hymnal in the form of the largest book in His Word. Ever sang a Psalm? Try it. 

Parents, put a song on your children’s lips. Give them Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph 5:19). You know the world is going to try to. You know they’re going to learn the words to “Let It Go”, a masterclass in narcissism and obnoxiousness if there ever was one. You can do better. You can teach them to sing, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow!”  

The honest truth is, you aren’t strong enough to not be singing. Your heart isn’t right enough for your lips to be still. You need Gospel renewal every day. You need the joy of the Lord every single day. You need a constant reminder that Jesus is King because five minutes after you finish your five minute devotional for the day, you might be living like you are king. God has given you tools to fight against your flesh, and one of them is song. 

How can you make sure you are “rejoicing in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4)? Has the Lord dealt bountifully with you? Sing! (Psalm 13:6). How can you influence others to glorify God? Sing! (Romans 15:9). How can you wage war against your flesh? Sing! (Psalm 40:3). 

It Really Is a Good Fight

Want a test of your attitude in any given situation? Here it is: Ask yourself if you can honestly sing the Doxology in response. If you can’t, you have some praying and repenting to do. Singing praise to God is warring against the flesh and the Devil. The state of California knows this. Pagans in the Christian music scene know this. The Bible plainly tells us this. Believe it, and act accordingly!

Today we have no excuse. If you have access to the internet (and I dare say that you do) you can stream music that the world hates right this very second. You can fill your home with the sound of praise. You can teach your heart a new song. You can renew your mind and have the truth of God’s word “stuck” in it. You can use these glorious tools given to us by God’s grace to praise Him and renew your mind. 

So stream those hymns. Stream those Psalms. Stream those spiritual songs. Let’s fill up our social media feeds with beautiful words that glorify God. Share your favorite hymn. Post your favorite lyrics. The world succeeds in getting all kinds of things moving on the internet with hashtags and clever posts because they deeply believe in their cause. Our cause is to glorify God, so let us do it with fervor. Let us praise God loudly, boldly, unafraid of man, unbothered by sidelined Christians uninterested in the battle against the flesh. Sing praises to God, and fear not the gates of Hell. 

 

 

 

 

I was delighted to discover this morning that a musical group I have enjoyed for years—Page CXVI—has a new release. I have been waiting for someone to produce an arrangement of “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” that doesn’t sound like a dirge or a tinny confessional for ages, so when I saw the song listed on their new record I couldn’t click play fast enough. As I sat there singing along, something odd happened. In the very first line of the song, “Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father,” Alattas sang, “O God, Creator.” Naturally, I hopped on ye ole internet to read the lyrics and confirm I was hearing things correctly. To my great disappointment (albeit not shock) her new album not only removes references to God the Father, but favors references instead to God as “mother”. For someone who set out to make hymns relevant to our modern times, she sure has attained her goal. 

The Fainting Couch Failure

There’s a monstrous regiment of women who absolutely do not want you to know that worship is warfare. They don’t like all this “warfare” talk. Flying high above the Apostle Paul, they are shocked and appalled that CHRISTIANS would EVER use shield, weaponry, or BATTLE kind of words! One might say it affronts their sense and sensibilities, if that wouldn’t also rustle their bonnets because the Victorian age—ew! 

So here’s the real irony of the situation: the enemy knows that worship is warfare, and he knows exactly how to wield that sword. The Christian music scene runs rampant with heresy and apostasy, catechizing Christians everywhere into pagan theology, lulling us into singing God is Mother (or God as “creator”, whatever removes that evil patriarchy from among us). All the while, so-called “confessional” Christians decry warfare language and demand androgynous discipleship in the pews. And we wonder why Russell Moore is producing videos about his favorite Johnny Cash songs while California is outlawing singing in church. 

 Worship Does Something

There’s a reason the enemy doesn’t want you to sing, and that’s because it glorifies God and it changes you. What you sing is what you reflect on. Singing is meditation. Singing is worship. Songs get “stuck” inside of you. Songs move you in one direction or the other. Worship is warfare. A singing people is a revived people. A singing people is a joyful people. A singing people go into battle well. Music and song, well that was God’s idea. And he gave us a hymnal in the form of the largest book in His Word. Ever sang a Psalm? Try it. 

Parents, put a song on your children’s lips. Give them Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph 5:19). You know the world is going to try to. You know they’re going to learn the words to “Let It Go”, a masterclass in narcissism and obnoxiousness if there ever was one. You can do better. You can teach them to sing, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow!”  

The honest truth is, you aren’t strong enough to not be singing. Your heart isn’t right enough for your lips to be still. You need Gospel renewal every day. You need the joy of the Lord every single day. You need a constant reminder that Jesus is King because five minutes after you finish your five minute devotional for the day, you might be living like you are king. God has given you tools to fight against your flesh, and one of them is song. 

How can you make sure you are “rejoicing in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4)? Has the Lord dealt bountifully with you? Sing! (Psalm 13:6). How can you influence others to glorify God? Sing! (Romans 15:9). How can you wage war against your flesh? Sing! (Psalm 40:3). 

It Really Is a Good Fight

Want a test of your attitude in any given situation? Here it is: Ask yourself if you can honestly sing the Doxology in response. If you can’t, you have some praying and repenting to do. Singing praise to God is warring against the flesh and the Devil. The state of California knows this. Pagans in the Christian music scene know this. The Bible plainly tells us this. Believe it, and act accordingly!

Today we have no excuse. If you have access to the internet (and I dare say that you do) you can stream music that the world hates right this very second. You can fill your home with the sound of praise. You can teach your heart a new song. You can renew your mind and have the truth of God’s word “stuck” in it. You can use these glorious tools given to us by God’s grace to praise Him and renew your mind. 

So stream those hymns. Stream those Psalms. Stream those spiritual songs. Let’s fill up our social media feeds with beautiful words that glorify God. Share your favorite hymn. Post your favorite lyrics. The world succeeds in getting all kinds of things moving on the internet with hashtags and clever posts because they deeply believe in their cause. Our cause is to glorify God, so let us do it with fervor. Let us praise God loudly, boldly, unafraid of man, unbothered by sidelined Christians uninterested in the battle against the flesh. Sing praises to God, and fear not the gates of Hell. 

 

 

 

 

SUMMER JAEGER
Summer Jaeger is the wife to one excellent man and a homeschooling mother of four. When she is not blogging or podcasting, she is perfecting the art of the slow-cooked meal and wishing she was taking long-ish walks on the beach.
@SummrWrites Facebook sheologiansblog@gmail.com

20 Comments

  1. Crystal Kidd

    Yes! Thank you for the kick in the pants! We haven’t done family worship in so long and my sweet daughter has even stopped asking for it. Allowing the teenager attitude to sway my decision to fight the good fight, or allowing the dualing baseball schedules to rule our family time, is simply not ok. There is just far too much at stake.

    Reply
  2. Brittany

    Rightly said. Thank you, Summer!

    Reply
  3. Sarah Istre

    Amen!

    Reply
  4. Amanda

    This so encourages me because singing God’s Word and worship songs has been so crucial in my life. However, singing hasn’t been something I’ve been doing as often in the last few months because I realized about a year ago that so much of the worship music out there was not biblical. With that, I’ve been in need new (and older, theologically sound) songs to learn so that I can again get to singing. But even more, singing only God’s Word even if I must make of the melody would be best of all. Thank you for this post.

    Reply
  5. Katie Howard

    Dude. I’m standing in my living room applauding every word of this. THANK YOU FOR SPEAKING TRUTH. Glory be to God.

    Reply
  6. Julianna

    That is so disheartening to hear about Page CXVI. I listened to a podcast series she did a year or two ago. She went through a pretty bad divorce. It is worth a listen if only to understand what is in her head right now.

    Reply
  7. Rodney K.

    O be careful little ears what you hear…

    Reply
  8. Megan

    Thank you so much for this very timely reminder. I’ve been feeling so discouraged by some of the “Christian” music out there right now. I’m continually hunting for the good stuff when I’m not singing my own tunes. I really appreciated this good dose of kick in the butt.

    Reply
  9. Jenna

    So good thank you for this

    Reply
  10. Deborah Follett

    As a woman who loves war movies and the scriptures about fighting the good fight, etc, this resonates with me deeply. Thank you so much for pointing out a way I can wage war in my own home! I love that ❤❤

    Reply
  11. Sharon Rhyne

    Thank you so much! This article is so true! I basically never sang hymns outside of church, but I started with our first baby because I was so tired and singing to her was the only thing I could mentally do. I’d fall asleep reading. And she loved my singing.(only she would ?) We sing so many hymns together! It was revived my life like nothing else. I can’t agree more with this! And I’m thankful for the reminder to stay faithful!

    Reply
  12. Alexandria

    Hey ladies! I’m new here but I am very interested in all of this cool reformed stuff! Can you guys recommend any Christian music that meets the standard that Summer is referring to? Thanks ??

    Reply
    • Summer Jaeger

      Hey friend!
      So some of the groups I’m enjoying listening to right now are:

      CityAlight
      Shane & Shane
      Citizens
      Sovereign Grace Music

      🙂 Hope that helps!!

      Reply
  13. Jessica

    Your blog has confirmed what I was hoping was not true but realizing all the same. In fact, now that I look into the lyrics of this particular song I also hear a deeper falling away that is along the lines of new age – “christ” within all of us, oneness – no need for a savior, we save ourselves. Think anything religious Oprah endorses.

    The titles and images of this new album made me suspect something was off and looking deeper into lyrics and also the singer’s other works I see this is really not a band I can listen or recommend anymore. I feel somewhat violated that the hymns now have been hijacked by this new age band and it taints all the other hymnal works they have done previously. Really sad for me to discover.

    Reply
  14. Megan

    Yes, and so sad about Audrey Assad too! The apostasy will be widespread and so sad! Be careful!

    Reply
  15. Noah

    Hi,

    Great article. If you are looking for worship music that fully worships the various aspects of Jesus (including as a Warrior King), I would highly recommend the album Ballads of the Revelation by Anna and Dalton Thomas of FAI (Frontier Alliance Institute situated in the Golan Heights Israel). It’s on Apple Music, and they actually have a full length movie with gorgeous cinematography to go along with the album (available for free on their FAI app). It’s really refreshing to see the fullness of God represented, especially in light of all the heresy we see perpetuated by CCM these days. God Bless.

    Reply
  16. Laurel

    My favourite word-for-word Scripture songs are from Esther Mui at
    http://www.scripturesongsforworship.com
    She uses the NKJV mostly, some KJV and a couple songs are in Biblical Hebrew.
    Not to everyone’s musical taste, but I love how the music flows.
    She is from Malaysia and you can hear that in her pronunciation sometimes, which is a little odd, and I know nothing of her theology, I just love that singing these songs is memorizing Scripture with ease.

    Reply
    • stacey

      I know this comment is old, but just had to add that I love playing the Seeds Family Worship songs for my kids. Along the same lines, the lyrics are word-for-word scripture. My boys (11 and 6) both love them.

      Reply
  17. Timothy Daugaard

    I know this was not the point of the article, but here’s a recommendation comment on something you said in the first paragraph. I don’t know if you’ve listened to Fernando Ortega’s “Great is Thy Faithfulness” (from the “Shadow of Your Wings” album) but I’ve always found it to be bright and undirge-like. That could be because I sing tenor and it’s an easy one to harmonize, but it remains my favorite tune to sing the hymn to. I also very much like the version of “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus” that he sang with Audrey Assad. While her apostasy is really sad, she wrote neither the lyrics (Samuel T. Francis) nor the music (Bunessan) for the song, so I think we can listen to it with a clear conscience. The music fits the lyrics. If we’re extoling the length, breadth, height, and depth of the love of Jesus, should not the music itself reflect the scope of that endeavor? And it does.

    Reply
  18. Sean E

    And I realize this article is three years old, but since I just came across that, I’m sure others will too, and I appreciate the comments as well. I’ve long felt that our church music is too much conformed to pop, Christian radio station music and if you don’t listen to that you are not in touch with the music at all and it changes so often that it’s hard to keep up unless if you’re a person who listens to the popular Christian radio stations. There is much music I do enjoy, but with the old hymns, we would play them in the key that people were able to sing easily, and you can hear people in church, sort of stumbling and mumbling through the music, because the modern singers have a great vocal range that nobody can meet, and the way they slide in and out of notes. The music is actually unrepeatable. We used to sing the songs and specials but now we only have praise and worship teams. We used to follow along the notes in the handbook and now people can’t even read music, and we stumble along in a dark theater, setting in the old too often forget to turn up the lights at the end to where you can actually see peoples faces and get to know one another, adding to the pandemic, separation and distance. The old hymns go way further back than just the last couple centuries and had a lot of theology in them. There’s a place for emotional songs that are songs of worship but so many of the old hymns were really Squirrley lined up with Christian theology.
    The enemy is constantly conditioning people and watering down the truth before long. You are so far down the road that you can hardly comprehend how you ended up in that place, as we see in our churches today. But we must remember that the enemy is always infiltrating in the church. Some people who are not believers are just tools of the enemy unwittingly, others, purposely try and infiltrate the church to do the enemies will. I have loved music in particular Christian music all my life. As a child in elementary school, I was in a Lutheran church, children’s choir, took piano lessons, and was in choirs and singing groups, and perform solos all the way to adulthood where I used to leave the singing in church, and for a while lead the choir.
    I just don’t see the benefit of throwing everything out that we used before for something that is popular and trendy, but yet I see all the churches have done it almost… And I am happy to say after the pastor of my satellite church left, I have found a new church Where the lights stay on, they mix the old with the new, they still have a choir and they have a nice blend of old and young special ensembles performing in a nice variety of music, including the great hymns of the faith. I felt guilty disliking so much of the music in my old church. But being in an environment, where apparently other people embrace my point of you makes me feel justified in my perspective, and I can sing out wholeheartedly these songs.

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

©2021 Sheologians

©2021 Sheologians

Share This