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Way of Life Literature
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Way of Life Literature
Publisher of Bible Study Materials
Way of Life Bible College
Lancaster Baptist Church and Contemporary Worship
Updated April 29, 2014 (first published January 8, 2013)
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061
866-295-4143,
fbns@wayoflife.org
Lancaster Praise Songs
The adaptation of CCM at Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California, home of West Coast Baptist College, is far-reaching, extends back many years, and continues to this time. I first became aware of this in my trips overseas, in places such as Australia and the Philippines. Many churches that are being influenced by Lancaster/West Coast are on a fast track to the contemporary philosophy.
Following are examples of CCM songs that have been and are being used at Lancaster:

“Hallelujah to the Lamb” by Don Moen has been performed at Lancaster/West Coast. Moen is a one-world church builder who thinks that God is the author of the weird charismatic “laughing revival.”

“In Christ Alone” by
Getty/Townend has been performed at Lancaster/West Coast. The Gettys are one-world church builders. In July 2012, they joined Roman Catholic Matt Maher on NewsongCafe to promote ecumenical unity.

“Stronger” by
Darlene Zschech/Hillsong was performed by Lancaster high school’s mixed ensemble in 2011 and Hillsong’s “Mighty to Save” was performed in February 2012. Zschech/Hillsong are one-world church builders who have performed for Catholic Youth Day and Pope Benedict.

“Majesty, Worship His Majesty” by
Jack Hayford has been performed at Lancaster/West Coast. “Majesty” is a Pentecostal ‘kingdom now’ anthem, and Hayford is a one-world church builder who says that God personally told him not to preach against the Roman Catholic Church.

“Great Is the Lord” and “How Majestic Is Your Name” by
Michael W. Smith have been performed at Lancaster/West Coast. Smith is a one-world church builder who has performed for the pope and a charismatic who has been “slain in the Spirit” and “laughed uncontrollably, rolling on the floor ... hyperventilating.”

“Faithful Men” by
Twila Paris has been performed at Lancaster/West Coast. Paris works with Kathy Troccoli, a Roman Catholic musician, and with ecumenist Robert Webber, who promoted unity between evangelicals and Catholics.

“In Christ Alone” by
Michael English was performed at Lancaster/West Coast. English is an ecumenist who spent the 1990s and early 2000s committing adultery with another man’s wife, bar hopping, dating a stripper, and undergoing “rehab” for drug addiction.

Songs by
Steven Curtis Chapman have been performed at Lancaster/West Coast. Chapman is the most honored “high energy Christian rocker” of the 1990s who says he doesn’t preach “fire and brimstone” and describes God as “Lord of the Dance.”

Songs by
Geron Davis have been performed at Lancaster/West Coast. Davis is an ecumenist and “Jesus Only” Pentecostal who denies the Trinity.

“I Will Rise” and “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)” by
Chris Tomlin was performed at Lancaster/West Coast. Tomlin is an ecumenist and member of an emerging church that seeks to build the kingdom in this present world. Tomlin, a one-world church builder, says “Music unites.” He has a close ministry relationship with Roman Catholics Audrey Assad and Matt Maher. The latter’s goal is to unite “evangelicalism” with Roman Catholicism.

“Word of God Speak” by
MercyMe was performed at Lancaster in 2011. MercyMe is a hard-rocking contemporary band that is both ecumenical and charismatic. In early 2011 MercyMe included Roman Catholic Matt Maher on their Rock & Worship Roadshow.

Songs by
Graham Kendrick have been sung at Lancaster/West Coast. Kendrick is a charismatic who says he was baptized with the Holy Spirit while brushing his teeth. A one-world church builder, Kendrick is co-founder of the radically ecumenical March for Jesus that unites everyone from Roman Catholics to Mormons.

Casting Crowns’ “Prayer for a Friend” was performed at Lancaster in 2011 and “Always Enough” in 2012. Casting Crowns is a one-world church building contemporary band that preaches against biblical separatism and mocks fundamentalists. In July 2012, Casting Crowns joined LifeFest in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where participants could choose from three worship services, including a Catholic mass led by Bishop David Ricken who officially approves of “Marian Apparitions.”

“Not Guilty” by the jazz CCM artist
Mandisa was performed at Lancaster’s 2011 Leadership Conference. She says her musical influences “run the gamut from Whitney Houston to Def Leppard.”

“Above All Things” by
Rebecca St. James was covered on West Coast Baptist College’s For the Faith of the Gospel CD. St. James is a hard-rocking ecumenist who performed for Pope John Paul II in 1999 and recommends books by the New Ager M. Scott Peck.

“Glorify You Alone” by
Gateway Worship was performed at Lancaster in March 2012. Gateway Worship is a radically charismatic outfit whose objective is to bring people into a “sense and experience of God’s presence.” William Young, author of The Shack, which depicts God as a non-judgmental female entity, spoke at Gateway’s Father’s Heart Seminar in 2012.

“Step by Step” by
Rich Mullins was performed at Lancaster’s Youth Conference 2012. Mullins was a one-world church builder and was reported to have been near to converting to Catholicism when he was killed in an automobile crash.


WE USE LUTHER’S HYMNS, DON’T WE?

It has been argued that since Baptist churches use Protestant hymns, it is acceptable to use contemporary worship songs that are have a biblically sound message.

A pastor asked the following question:

“What is the difference from using songs that every denomination uses across the board from the past (‘Just as I Am,’ ‘Amazing Grace,’ etc.) to using songs that everyone uses across the board in the present (‘How Deep the Father’s Love for Us,’ ‘Holy Ground,’ ‘Majesty,’ etc.) if they follow Biblical principles and if we do not promote a particular artist whose lifestyle we don’t support?”


The answer is that there is no comparison between these two practices.

Those who are making this argument don’t understand the issue and are uneducated about the character and nature of contemporary worship music and of the spiritual world that it represents.

To see the difference between using old Protestant hymns as opposed to borrowing from the world of contemporary worship, all we need to do is consider the fruit.

While I do not know of even one fundamental Baptist church that has become Lutheran by singing “A Mighty Fortress” or that has become Methodist by singing Fanny Crosby’s hymns, and I don’t know of one Baptist youth group that has become worldly by singing old Protestant hymns, I know a great many formerly separatist Baptist churches that are now New Evangelical, non-judgmental rock & rollers (including my alma mater, Tennessee Temple, and Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee), and contemporary worship is ALWAYS in the midst of those great changes. We have documented this in the free eBook
The Collapse of Biblical Separatism and in the report “Contemporary Music Brings Great Changes.”

As for youth groups, show me one that is messing with contemporary music, and I will show you one that is on a fast track to the world.

This fact speaks volumes to those who have an ear to hear.

The old Protestants were much closer, doctrinally and spiritually, to the position of an old-fashioned Baptist church than to that of the contemporary movement. The old Protestants were militant for the Christian faith and were not infiltrated by theological modernism and new philosophy. They hated Popery!

In contrast, the contemporary worship crowd represents a philosophy and a movement of end-time apostasy that is diametrically opposed to an “old-fashioned” Bible stand. It represents a world that is an absolute enemy of what an “old-fashioned” Baptist church stands for.

There is a transformational power in contemporary worship that can and eventually always will change the very character of a Bible-believing separatist church.

This is because the contemporary worship crowd represents the one-world church. Almost to a man the influential contemporary worship artists are radical ecumenists who do not separate from the Roman Catholic Church as the old Protestants did, but who affiliate with Rome. We have documented this extensively in the free 500-page eBook
The Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians.

Consider the very popular Stuart Townend. He is charismatic in theology and radically ecumenical in philosophy, supporting the Alpha program which bridges charismatic, Protestant, and Roman Catholic churches. He wrote his popular song “How Deep the Father’s Love” as a bridge to draw “traditional” churches into the contemporary orb and associate them with the “broader church.”

Consider the very popular contemporary hymn writers, Keith and Kristyn Getty. Their songs are used used widely among “traditional, non-contemporary” churches, because they are considered relatively safe. At least eight of their songs are included in Majesty Music’s
Rejoice Hymns. Twenty-nine of their songs are featured in Hymns Modern and Ancient, published by Heart Publications, a ministry of Steve Pettit Evangelistic Association and compiled by Fred Coleman who heads up Bob Jones University’s Department of Church Music. Both Crown Baptist College and West Coast Baptist College, the two largest independent Baptist Bible colleges, perform Getty material in their services. Yet the Getty’s one-world-church goal is to “bring everyone together musically” (www.keithgetty.com). In July 2012 the Gettys and their close friend Stuart Townend joined Roman Catholic Matt Maher on NewsongCafe on WorshipTogether.com. They played and discussed “The Power of the Cross,” which was co-written by Getty-Townend. The 10-minute program promoted ecumenical unity, with Maher/Townend/Getty entirely one in the spirit through the music. Dramatic doctrinal differences are so meaningless to this crowd that they are not even mentioned. Spiritual abominations such as papal supremacy, the mass, infant baptism, baptismal regeneration, and Mariolatry were entirely ignored. Jude 3 is despised and Romans 16:17 completely ignored for the sake of building the one-world church through contemporary Christian music.

Preachers who claim to believe in biblical separation and end-time apostasy and who claim that they want to keep their churches in the “fundamentalist” philosophy and orb, but who are playing with CCM, are playing with fire; and their people, and especially the next generation, are going to be burned.

These preachers can huff and puff at me all they want, and they can try to make
me the issue in this battle, it doesn’t change the fact that they are playing with fire. It doesn’t change the dangerous character of contemporary worship music.

Time will tell, but that will be too late for those who do draw clear lines of separation from contemporary worship.

For documentation of the great spiritual danger represented by contemporary worship musicians that are being used by Bible-believing churches and the fact that this music is a bridge to the one-world church see the following free materials at www.wayoflife.org.

“The Transformational Power of Contemporary Praise Music” (free eVideo download)
http://www.wayoflife.org/free_evideo/

“The Foreign Spirit of Contemporary Praise Music” (free eVideo Download)
http://www.wayoflife.org/free_evideo/

“The Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians” (free eBook)
http://www.wayoflife.org/free_ebooks/

“Analyzing Adopted CCM Songs”
http://www.wayoflife.org/index_files/analyzing_adapted_ccm_songs_lancaster.html


copyright 2013, Way of Life Literature

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