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As Christians, we are to test everything, and hold onto what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). But how can we tell what is worth holding on to? Jesus gives us the answer in Matthew 7:16:
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
In order to determine our response to the rock and pop industry, we must take a look at its fruit.
Here's what heavy metal musician Blacky Lawless has to say about rock and roll:
Rock 'n' Roll is an aggressive art form, pure hostility and aggression. I believe in that like a religion.i
We don't know whether Blacky Lawless is referring to religion here in the traditional sense. He may just be describing the passion that he feels for his music—a passion that obviously verges on the religious. What matters here is Lawless' statement about the fruits of rock: "pure hostility and aggression."
Rock and roll's fashions, attitudes, and interests are not fruit of the Spirit. They are the fruit of fallen humanity trying to live without God—and that just doesn't work. One example of this fruit is the idolatry found in all rock circles.
Thousands of years ago, God set out some laws for His people. These laws, called the Ten Commandments, were to help His children throughout history stay close to Him; to keep them from stumbling. One of these laws tells us that we must avoid making idols of anything or anyone (see Exodus 20:1-5). God is the only entity worthy of worship.
Rock music is defined by its icons: those people who are idolized because of their talent or "look." And even rock music itself is an idol when it becomes the sole focus of a person's life. Placing rock and roll, or anything else, above God is an act of spiritual unfaithfulness. The Bible even calls it spiritual adultery (see Ezekiel 23).
If the only problem with the rock industry was its idolatry, then it would be a whole lot easier to deal with. However, rock's skewed sense of worship is only the beginning.
The fruits that come abundantly from the tree of rock and roll are sexual promiscuity, drug abuse and addiction, love of money, and confused spirituality that causes an infatuation with the occult. This is not the fruit that grows from the True Vine—Jesus Christ.
i. Blacky Lawless, in an interview with Washington Post (February 8, 1987): F2.
Read several authors' thoughts on papal Rome's history.
This article highlights quotes from historical and Catholic sources proving the Papacy's aggressive nature.
An Italian mystic. A minister to a British king. An Augustine monk. A Swiss farmer's boy. What do these men have in common? They were used by God in powerful ways to bring about the Protestant Reformation. Enter into the lives of these ordinary people with extraordinary stories.
Inspiration for these articles comes from Gideon and Hilda Hagstoz' Heroes of the Reformation
