Quotes from "Fool’s Gold? Discerning Truth in an Age of Error" by John MacArthur

This book has twelve chapters covering some controversial issues including evaluations of several books like The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren and Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. It also contains chapters on questions such as contemporary worship music and altar calls to name a few.

In this review I would like to quote some statements from chapter 7 titled Solid Rock? What the Bible Says about Contemporary Worship Music by John MacArthur.

…this chapter focuses on the often controversial topic of contemporary music. Should the church only sing hymns, should it sing praise choruses, or should it land somewhere in the middle? And what are the biblical principles for determining these standards?

…a profound change took place in church music sometime near the end of the nineteenth century. The writing of hymns virtually stopped. Hymns were replaced by “gospel songs”—songs generally lighter in doctrinal content…

The key difference was that most gospel songs were expressions of personal testimony aimed at an audience of people, whereas most of the classic hymns had been songs of praise addressed directly to God.

A NEW SONG
The man most commonly regarded the father of the gospel song is Ira Sankey, a gifted singer and songwriter who rode to fame on D. L. Moody’s coattails.

…for more than seventy years virtually no hymns have been added to the popular repertoire of congregational church music.

My remarks are by no means meant as a blanket criticism of gospel songs. Many familiar gospel songs are wonderfully rich expressions of faith.

In general, the rise of the gospel song in congregational singing signaled a diminishing emphasis on objective doctrinal truth and a magnification of subjective personal experience.

…traditionalist critics who attack contemporary music merely because it is contemporary in style…need to think through the issues again.

…the concern I am raising has to do with content, not merely style. Judging from lyrics alone, some of the most popular old-style music is even more offensive than the modern stuff. example “In the Garden”

Numerous gospel songs suffer from the same kind of weaknesses. In fact, many…are practically devoid of any truly Christian substance and are thick with sappy sentimentality. “Love Lifted Me,” “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” “Whispering Hope,”…

…neither the antiquity nor the popularity of a gospel song is a good measure of its worthiness.

Sadly, by the end of the century the gospel song had muscled in and elbowed out the classic hymn. And so the trend Sankey began all but ended the rich tradition of Christian hymnody that had flourished since the time of Martin Luther and even long before.

Before Sankey’s time, hymns were composed with a deliberate, self-conscious, didactic purpose. They were written to teach and reinforce biblical and doctrinal concepts…

Indeed, it may be the case that modern church music has done more than anything else to pave the way for the sort of superficial, flippant, content-starved preaching that is rife today.

THE ERA OF THE PRAISE CHORUS
Praise choruses, like hymns, are usually songs of praise addressed directly to God.

But unlike hymns, praise choruses generally have no didactic purpose. Praise choruses are meant to be sung as simple personal expressions of worship, whereas hymns are usually corporate expressions of worship with an emphasis on some doctrinal truth.

SONGS, HYMNS, AND SPIRITUAL SONGS
The biblical prescription for Christian music is found in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

…careful distinctions between these words is not essential, or Scripture would have recorded those distinctions for us.
The greater significance of the expression “Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” seems to be this: Paul was calling for a variety of musical forms and a breadth of spiritual expression that cannot be embodied in any one musical form.

The prevailing mood in modern evangelical churches—where people seem to want to binge on a steady diet of nothing but simplistic praise choruses—also destroys the principle of variety Paul sets forth here.

…I am convinced Christian songwriters today are making a similar mistake by failing to write substantial hymns while purging the old hymns from our congregational music repertoire and replacing them with trite praise choruses and pop-song look-alikes.

TEACHING AND ADMONISHING ONE ANOTHER
Few modern praise choruses teach or admonish. Instead, most are written to stir the feelings only. They are too often sung like a mystical mantra with the deliberate purpose of putting the intellect into a passive state while the worshiper musters as much emotion as possible. Repetition is deliberately built into many praise songs precisely for this purpose.

Like it or not, today’s songwriters are teachers too. Many of the lyrics they are writing will soon be far more deeply and permanently ingrained in the minds of Christians than anything they hear their pastors teach from the pulpit.

Although not true in every case, the theological depth that generally characterizes contemporary praise choruses is not as profound and not as precise. In fact, for some songs it might be appropriate to ask if the contemporary church is collectively guilty of dishonoring God with our faint praise.

ADDENDUM: A CHECKLIST FOR CHURCH MUSIC
So how can churches be God-honoring in the music they use?
Neither personal preferences nor cultural trends can be our guide. …Scripture must be our authority. (John lists ten questions church leaders should ask about the worship music they use).


Quotes for Pastors
Tommy Jenkins