Rock Music - Is it really a sin?

[secretoceanmystery]

I don't know why but for some reason over my years as a christian I've got the idea that Rock music is a sin if your a true christian. A few threads I have read have said not exactly, but given the impression that classical music is the 'right' music and anything else is 'wrong' or 'bad'. I enjoy soft rock a lot, including bands such as Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Guns 'n' Roses and Queen..I was even privaledged(sp?) enough to meet def leppard after a concert which I went to for my 13th birthday. I don't listen to newer stuff like Marylin Manson or any of the new goth/emo music, because I believe that is why they are so many problems with these people, and all the songs by people like Marylin Manson are full of death and are very satanic. I saw a video of his once and it was full of bunnies being ripped up and girls laying on beds. I'll say no more.

However would you consider rock music from the 80's/90's to be turning away from God and what quotes can you give to support this? A lot of songs by Bonjovi etc. are about love, and although I like classical music, I love my soft rock more!

Bonjovi - Without love (lyrics)

She wasn't young, but still a child
There still was innocence
In painted smiles
She called to me as I passed her by
Lady of the night looked in my eyes
She said: I been through some changes
But one thing always stays the same

[Chorus:]
Without love, there's nothing without love
Nothing else can get through the night
Nothing else feels right without love

I saw a man down on lonely street
A broken man who looked like me
And no one knows the pain that he's been living
He lost his love and still hasn't forgiven
He said: I've been through some changes
But one thing always stays the same

[Chorus]

There's nothing without love
Nothing else but love can burn as bright
And nothing would mean nothing without love

I see my life
There's some things I took for granted
Love's passed me by
So many second chances
I was afraid
But I won't be afraid no more

[Chorus]

There's nothing without love
Nothing else but love can burn as bright
And nothing would mean nothing without love

I think he's songs are very powerful and he writes about true stuff - everyone takes things for granted in life, amd wasted second chances - does this make the musicunpure????

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!!!

God Bless
xxxxxxxx

 

[holo]

I don't know how that would be more sinful than, say, coffee or the colour orange.

 

[asianchexmix]

Like here is my view...you can like the genre but you have to be VERY careful on what the lyrics are suggesting. Not the beat or the sound or rhythm...but the actual lyrics. The sound and beat traps you in thinking "Hey sounds good...just groove with it" when in reality they could be feeding you pure trash. The reason why most people, I being one of them, say to watch what you listen to is because most music nowadays talks about things that doesnt help your spiritual growth and understanding of God (in a good way...we know how people talk about God in a bad way). Don't hate rock music...God created rock music. God created rap. God created pop. God created punk. God created heavy metal. God created music for us to enjoy and for Him to get glory. If you are hearing about beating up girls (usually the b word) or smoking weed and whatnot, is that really glorifying God? I love rap and I found a lot of Christian based rap songs and am loving it. Satan is the imitator, God is the creator of all things. If you want the answer in a nutshell, the MUSIC iteself isn't a sin but the lyrics that they artist may use and whatnot could lead you to sin so guard your ears.

 

[mysparrow]

ask yourself if it glorifys God , we are to all things as doing them unto God. Ask him and let him lead you in whether it is affecting you in that way.

 

[Catholic Wife]

The notion of rock music being sinful started a very long time ago. Some of the classical music that we think is okay today was actually considered scandalous in its day. Most recently, back in the Roaring 1920's when jazz music became popular, skirts got shorter. Deeply religious types found this all to be offensive and called it sinful. The same was said for swing music and dancing in the 30's - 40's (do you know how men and women touched each other when they danced and flipped around!!! ), rock and roll in the 50's - 60's (Elvis couldn't be shown on TV below the waist because of the way he moved!!! ), and all music since.

The fact that there are Christian rock and heavy metal bands tells me that the problem is more with the lyrics of some mainstream bands rather than the music itself. If the lyrics don't lead you away from God, then the song probably isn't that bad.

 

[BalaamsAss51]

Hello secretoceanmystery.

Those who have said that rock music is evil have confused piety with pietism.

Piety is the concept of being dutiful in the tenants of your religion. This is a good thing.

Pietism is a movement which emphasized the wrong things. It thinks that religion should not have anything intellectual or formal within it but that practioners should only be concerned with experience and practices. Because of this those who followed this movement turned against secular amusements and taught that certain types of music were inherently evil, that you "must" dress only in certain ways, or that you "must" perform certain acts to "really" be a "true" Christian.

In other words they went overboard, and tried to get everybody else to go along with them. And probably because they don't understand rock music it fell into the "bad" catagory.

That being said, there is a lot of stupid, empty, repititious nonsense out there in the music world. Plenty of it not to bother with or waste your time on. But just because a piece of music is a certain style, that would not make it something to be avoided.

I would go along with those that feel that certain styles of music are not appropriate in worship settings, but that has nothing to do with them being evil in and of themselves.

Pax

 

[holo]

If a song would actually lead you away from God, you have serious problems with your faith anyway, and probably need to replace it with another and better one.

 

[Treasurer]

Words have such a deep profound meaning. I guess I never knew before how much so until my studies into the Word of God. There can be so much power in what you say, did you know that? But it isnt so much because you just spewed out words...no. What makes it so powerful is when people believe them. Read scriptures and you will find truth in that!

Not only that but in my own life I had to reprogram years of being told how worthless and stupid I was. By schools and the kids I went to school with. You know what made it so bad, I believed them. That is what gave those words power (over me).

Do you see ... even in what I am writing... words... Jesus is known as the Word of God! By believing in him, his name, the most powerful Word of them all... we are given everlasting life!!!!!!!!

In the last battle... guess what will destroy the enemy? The sword of our Lords mouth! Imagine that...the Word of God as a Sword!

Ok, so do you see where I am going with this? Put that with another form of ... not sure what you call it, but music really has a way of sticking in a persons head! Music is an amazing tool, have you read some of the things in the new testiment, or old for that matter on what it was used for? Other than just in worship and praising God? It opened prison doors in the new testiment of Acts- way cool! For Joshua it took down stone walls of a fortress!

If you can imagine using this, words with worship together... what do you have? Now add into the mix faith. Because you know when you listen to the music, your heart and mind are involved, so you may or may not be believing what you are hearing....right? If used for the Lord, you have a powerful...not sure what you would call it (shield of faith, sword of the spirit, breastplate of righteousness...) you'd be armed pretty good in the Lord.

Because if you are truely worshipping in your heart and mind with these words, amazing things can happen in the presence of God.

So, do I believe other music is bad, yes I do. I loath anything that does not promote faith. (Personally it drives me up a wall to hear it. I cant even stand a lot of christian music today because...it doesnt promote faith...but that is me).

God Bless

 

[jamiepr79]

Hi Secret

I don't think Bon Jovi is that bad because he asks questions, and that is all most people need, sometimes you need to ask questions to understand how much God loves you.

I like living on prayer, because I am and I can fully appreciate that song, lol.

You should check out other Christian rock bands like "Live" or "Creed" they are really cool.

Keep the faith

 

[TheDag]

Also bear in mind that music can become an idol including christian music.
Once again of course that does not make the music wrong.

When it comes to love songs I find many of them don't actually portray love but rather selfishness on the part of one person. So keep checking the lyrics like you do now and think about if it is a benefit or not.

 

[Mr.Cheese]

I think what is marketed as Christian music these days is a sin. Not all that glitters is gold.

 

[salvation12288]

Rock music itself is not sinful, but the lyrics maybe. I listen to rock music all the time, but it's always Christian. For instance, Pillar and Switchfoot. You just have to make sure that the lyrics are not feeding you things that are unspiritual. You may be saying to yourself, I don't listen to the words though. I just listen to the music, but you are still hearing the words and you are still feeding yourself those words. Just keep that in mind!

 

[Robinsegg]

There are two issues here: The music, and the lyrics. Is any music, in and of itself, evil? No. God created us with the ability to create music for Him.

Now with the lyrics: Of course there are sinful lyrics! Any lyrics which praise or ask you to sin are evil. 8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
What you're talking about, though, is one generation's belief about the "new" stuff the next generation is doing. How many of the people you've talked to about this would think the waltz sinful? Ah, but when it first came out, it was thought to be sinful, because the man held a woman in his arms.

Christianity isn't all about rules and regulations, but about a relationship with God. If God convicts you to stop doing something and you continue anyway, that's sin. If God convicts you to start something and you don't, that's sin. All else is man-made rules (which, in my mind, don't matter so much), unless it's explicitly stated in Scripture.

One other thing: There are Christian bands who've copied the sound of secular bands. There are also secular band members who've converted to Christianity and started doing Christian music (example, John Elefante, lead singer for Kansas).

Rachel

 

[RomanPrincess]

the real issue would be the words in the music rather than the music it's self.However some of that hard music is just dowm right satanic.Be careful to what you listen to some of The music is hypnotic and trys to saduce a persone into listen to it.

 

[angielives4jesus]

I think what is marketed as Christian music these days is a sin. Not all that glitters is gold.

Why do you think contemporary Christian music is a sin? I'm not trying to antagonize you, I'm just curious.

 

[Sketcher]

However would you consider rock music from the 80's/90's to be turning away from God and what quotes can you give to support this?

Here is the problem with what you said. You're asking for quotes to back up the case that rock is evil, and you posted some song lyrics. This is what I take it you mean by quotes. However, there are thousands of songs out there with bad lyrics, and hundreds with good lyrics. Presenting a random sample of musical lyrics isn't going to prove a thing about how good or evil a genre of music is. It might say something about the band, and it will definitely say something about the song, but it can't say anything about the genre itself.

There is no Biblical evidence for any form of music in and of itself to be inherently good or evil. Scripture doesn't even mention that possibility.

I choose to judge secular music on a song by song basis, because surprise surprise, not all of it is evil. If you've ever sung "happy birthday," you've sung a secular song. Some Christians choose to only listen to Christian music anyway, and that's their choice. But whatever your choice is, don't go branding a genre spiritually evil. Bands can be evil. Songs can be evil. I personally believe they need to involve the occult in the songwriting process to qualify as evil. Otherwise, they're just non-Christians making music. I don't imagine it's all that different from non-Christians making visual art, and I have been around for that. It's not all pot smoking and seances, I assure you.

 

[silentpoet]

How about all the country songs about drinking and cheating?

 

[jamiepr79]

How about all the country songs about drinking and cheating?

Yeah but some of those are insanely funny and have some nice life lessons, I like some Johnny Cash songs though, esp the reverend Black.

 

[secretoceanmystery]

Thanks for all the replies, sorry I didn't post back sooner I've had 6 exams + 2 lots of coursework in 2 days!

All posts greatly appreciated...they helped a lot.
God Bless
xxxxx

 

[silentpoet]

Yeah but some of those are insanely funny and have some nice life lessons, I like some Johnny Cash songs though, esp the reverend Black.

My point is that alot of people who condemn rock music for being sinful go out and listen to country music that is just as sinful, if not worse in some cases. No one form of music has a monoply on being good or bad. And consider classical music, think about how bad the lives were of some of the composers. If you think about that when you listen you might be lead to sin. You can always find something to complain about if you look. And you can always find God if you really look.