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“Whatever my lens is, it’s always going to be trying my best to see something through what I believe is going to be God's word, and not God's word in the essence of dogma or in the essence of religion, or to be right and to make other people wrong. I first would probably always want to say I'm very sorry for all of the ugly and all of the painful things that people have even heard from church people, because things can come from a very homophobic lens. ... I always want to stand on in the Book of Romans. It says (in chapter three), ‘For there is none righteous, (no) not one.’ ... God sees us all as broken people that need His love and His grace. ... Jesus died for our sins. So if we're all sinners, that means everybody’s in the pot together needing the same love, the same grace and the same forgiveness” (Kirk Franklin, “Sway in the Morning,” cited from Christian Post, June 4, 2013).
By analyzing this statement in light of Scripture we will learn a lot about the CCM philosophy, and it is the CCM philosophy that is destroying the Biblical character of individuals, families, and churches that are unwisely building bridges to it by messing around with contemporary worship.
First, Franklin’s view of “God’s word” is that it is not dogmatic and doesn’t present one right way, which means He has a grossly heretical view of Holy Scripture. In contrast to Franklin’s view, Jesus continually cited Scripture as dogma, including on the marriage issue.
“The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:3-6).
Jesus said that marriage is for one man and one woman. Period. That means it isn’t for one man and two women, or two men and one woman, or a woman and a woman, or a man and a man, etc. Jesus was dogmatic on everything and cited Scripture as absolute authority, but large numbers of people within the CCM crowd don’t know this Jesus. They worship the cool, non-dogmatic Jesus of “The Shack.”
Second, instead of criticizing the sin of homosexuality, Franklin criticized those who cite God’s Word against homosexuality. This, too, represents the CCM philosophy. The main “sin” that they make an issue of is the supposed sin of “judgmentalism” and “criticism.” This flies in the face of Holy Scripture, which is filled with the plainest, strongest preaching against sin and error and which demands that God’s people “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). Compare the milk-toast, “beat around the bush” CCM approach with that of any preacher in the Bible, and it will be clear that we are talking about two different spirits and philosophies. For an example in a nutshell, consider Enoch’s bold sermon against last-days sinners:
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude 1:14-15).
Good luck trying to find a preacher at a contemporary rock concert who preaches like that!
Third, Franklin’s “grace” is not the grace defined in the New Testament epistles. Franklin’s grace ignores the necessity of repentance and holiness, which are both emphasized in God’s Word.
Franklin ignores the Bible’s command that “all men everywhere repent” (Acts 17:30).
Franklin says he wants to stand on the book of Romans, but he skips over most of Romans. He ignores the part in Romans 1 which says homosexuality is an abomination before God. He ignores the entire section of Romans 6-8 which is summarized in this way: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom. 6:1-2).
In Titus 2 the apostle Paul taught that the grace of Christ does not lead to moral license and spiritual carelessness; rather it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world (Titus 2:12).
If Franklin were speaking biblically, he would have said:
“I am happy to answer that question and to give a witness for the thrice holy Creator God and His holy Word in this evil and adulterous generation. My answer is that God loves homosexuals as much as any “other” type of sinners, and that Jesus died for the sin of homosexuality as for other types of sin, and that God commands all sinners everywhere to repent, and that is exactly what homosexuals must do if they want to be saved and if they want to be church members and if they want to serve as disciples of Jesus Christ. Next question.”
The heresy-spouting Kirk Franklin is a good representative of Contemporary Christian Music. His foundational philosophy contains the building blocks of the apostate one-world “church,” and those who are messing around with contemporary worship music are building bridges to this “church.”
In his 1998 autobiography Franklin said that “homosexuality ... is a problem today in gospel music--a major concern--and everybody knows it” (Church Boy, pp. 49, 50).
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