The names of the artists (if one could call them that) may have changed but the filthy abomination and perversion that they preach is as dangerous, if not more so. Because of the worldliness of today's church Satans hordes have infultrated the Church and is making it ineffective in the service of God because it has become unclean, "Then said Haggai, If [one that is] unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. Then answered Haggai, and said, So [is] this people, and so [is] this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so [is] every work of their hands; and that which they offer there [is] unclean." (Haggai 2:13,14)

Christian young people tenaciously defend their infatuation with secular rock stars and heatedly argue over the spiritual insight of certain rock members e.g., My Sweet Lord by Harrison of the Beatles; In the Presence of the Lord by Clapton; Spirit in the Sky by Greenbaum etc.

If you have not heard or noticed such developments, you are too isolated from youth. for a tremendous struggle is engulfing Christian young-people. The battleground is not rock festivals but the church's choir loft.

Bible schools, seminaries, Christian colleges and universities are sending forth "Christian" rock groups to local churches to entertain and inspire the saints. But the saints are confused, bewildered and approaching the breaking point.

In fact, all that some of the elders and deacons need is the information contained in this study and the three books I will be suggesting for further study to go on the offensive and cleanse the church of those who have turned the house of prayer and praise into a house of confusion, contention and carnality.

Instead of "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" to build up and edify the believer, the brotherhood is beset with a relentless beat (which weighs on one's nerves and pounds in one's head until you feel you will break open) and syncopation (which evokes the most basic sensuous response from our bodies) which is purposely aimed at the physical and sensual instead of the spirit and the spiritual.

When music is aimed at the baser part of our nature, i.e. the promiscuous, then the spiritual has a difficult time surviving. And right 'now, many parents, pastors and elders are beginning to understand the drawing power of rock music -- played by either secular or sanctified groups -- viz., sex!

Or as Bob Larsen put it, "Rock musicians and singers are not only exponents of a musical form. They are secular gods to which young people easily relate because they embody the characteristics of this generation. They advocate promiscuous love, decry war, wear freaky clothing and long hair."

The local congregation is having a difficult time believing that "Christian" rock groups are really adorning the gospel with a life style that befits Christ Jesus, the Lord. Many "Christian" or "gospel" rock groups are doing their best to fashion themselves after the world of the subculture.

Men sport long hair, tight fitting pants and black velvet jackets with Lennon sunglasses; women appear in mini skirts and establish a wiggle that exploits their sex appeal to the best advantage -- an advantage that would not, under normal circumstances, be considered conducive to worship.

Christian music, of course, should be music that worships and glorifies God and spiritually uplifts the believer or as Bach wrote, "The aim and final reason of all music should be nothing else but the glory of God and the refreshment of the spirit."

Rock music by its very nature, however, expresses an unspoken desire to smash such a worship to pieces since its appeal is not to the higher elements of man's nature, including his new nature, but to his lowest. Teenagers do not listen to rock because of its fine quality, but because of its erotic qualities.

Jerry Rubin explains: "Hard animal rock energy-beat surged hot through us, the driving rhythm arousing repressed passion. Rock-androll marked the beginning of the revolution."

And Bob Larsen said, "Rock makes an appeal to the physical and carnal. Those who live superficial lives spiritually will obviously gravitate quickly to such an approach .... rock which entertains by arousing the listener sexually, seems ex tremely ill-fitted to be clothed by the gospel, although in most instances rock becomes a cloak for the gospel."

Some time back (1971) I spoke to a young people's rally in New Orleans. Over 700 Christian teenagers assembled at a church to hear a message on The NewPop Prophets -- a critique on rock music.

Preceding my sermon, the youth were treated to some "religious" entertainment by the church band - a rock band. For 20 minutes the amplifier blared forth a new sound; not a new sound to the world, but a new sound to the church. And it wasn't only "Christian" rock challenging one's eardrums. In fact. the last song on the program was John Lennon's atheistic rendition, Imagine.

As I listened to the new sound, my thoughts went back over my study of rock music and its influence on teenagers. Whoever observed that the church is only 24 hours behind the world spoke the truth.

Only yesterday the world, the flesh and the devil initiated rock 'n' roll as an invaluable tool to populate hell and only yesterday it was rejected as heathen, atheistic and immoral. Today, the church is mimicking the world and trying desperately to dry clean or launder the music to make it acceptable for worship.

The Scriptures, of course, urge the believer to imitate God (Eph. 5:1 ) not the world, but in this modern age -- when everyone 13 to 16 years of age knows more than God -- who cares!

And, to add sin upon sin, Christian men who should know better, and probably do, write "Christian" rock music and apologize for it.

"Christian" rock music is as consistent as "Christian" pot parties, "Christian" promiscuity or "Christian pornography. In fact, it might not be too long betore the latter will be defended with the same logic as "Christian" rock is presently being defended, viz., "You don't want to lose these teenagers now, do you?"

Lose them? What are we saving them from? And besides when has the end ever justified the means! Christians are never to pervert the right ways of the Lord. (Acts 13:10) Squeezing in a few "thank you, Jesus,'' or "Hallelujah, it's done" in rock music does not cleanse rock of its evils. Indeed, the lyrics of rock were not its main sin for some time. The beat of the music was its evil. In fact, a leading Marxist writer, Irwin Sulber, acknowledged that beat music was un-Christian. He said the great strength of rock was its beat, a beat which is "basically sexual, un-Puritan (i.e., un-Christian) and a threat to established patterns and values."

And Bob Larsen noted in his work, The Day Music Died, "Syncopated rhythms evoked the most sensuous response from the human body, particularly when they are electronically accentuated. Many of the vital processes of life are based upon mythm. The vascular, respiratory and autonomic nervous systems all use it to perform their functions. Man is a rhythmic being and therefore has an inherent affinity for certain rhythms." Adding Christian words to a sensuous beat does not change its evil nature any more than adding Christian morals to a sinner changes his sin nature. The core is bad.

Alice English Monsarrat in an article enlitled Music- Soothing, Sedative or Savage? wrote, "With the advent of the 20th century, the meters began to gallop brokenly stirrup to stirrup with harmonic dissonance and discord in the melodic line.

"A broken meter in the treble, played over an insistently regular beat in the left hand with gradually increasing rapidity almost to the point of frenzy... is capable of producing the identical disintegrating and almost hysterical effect on an organism; as if a person would try to rush madly in two directions at the same time."

She concludes, "Any psychiatrist knows that it is precisely this two-directional pull of conflicting drives of emotions that is helping to fill our mental hospitals with broken wrecks of humanity."

Miss Monsarrat correctly points out that it is precisely at this point that rock 'n' roll becomes potentially dangerous. To maintain a sense of well-being and integration, it is essential that individuals are not subjected too much to rhythms not in accord with one's natural body rhythms.

Add to this the fact that rock music is a music rooted in uncoated sexuality and you have an explosive situation. Jeff Greenfield in his work, No Peace, No Place, points out that Alan Freed, father of rock 'n' roll, made a discovery that shook the world. He discovered that white teenagers were attracted to rhythm and blues records recorded for black adults. Freed rechristened the adult music rock 'n' roIl and made history.

Greenfield writes, "The twelve thousand who danced and sang and cavorted for hours let New ,York City know that this music was a good deal more than a fad --it was reaching something deep within the American teenager."

That "something," of course, was sex. "Each night, sprawled on my bed on Manhattan's upper west side," says Greenfield, "I would listen to the world that Alan Freed created: To a 12 or 13-year-old, it was a world of unbearable sexuality and celebration; a world of citizens under 16, in a constant stage of joy or sweet sorrow. The rhythms of the fast tempo songs were hypnotic; and you could lie still when Little Richard screamed out 'Tutty-Fruity,' or when 'Shake, Rattle and Roll' came bouncing out. New sexual sensations, driven by the impulses that every new adolescent generation knows, we were the first to have our music rooted in uncoated sexuality. In a sense, the editorials in the Archdiocese papers that demanded a stop to this obscene music were right; having been aimed for a decade to an adult audience, rhythm and blues music was a powerful boost of sexuality for a 13year-old."

Dr. Ronald Spranglet, chief school medical officer in Nottingham, England, charged that teenage pop music was probably to blame for the mounting obsession with sex. And Dr. Masterson, head of the adolescent outpatient at Payne-Whitney Psychiatric Clinic says, "The music is, in a way; a kind of sexual expression. The beat has genuine sexual implications."

Dr. Granby Blaine acknowledged an element of sexuality in the primitive rhythm and Dr. Bernard Saibel, supervisor of the State Community Services in the state of Washington reported a Beafte concert by stating, "The music is loud, primitive, insistent, strongly rhythmic and releases in an undisguised way the all too tenuously controlled, newly acquired physical impulses of the teenager."

And, finally, Frank Zappa of the Mothers of Invention put it very plainly, "Rock music is sex. The big beat matches the body's rhythms."

Is it any wonder that Martin Perlich, vice president of Disc Records, insists that rock music has radicalized the young. Perlich says, "It radicalizes them by estranging them from the traditional virtues which they no longer see as relevant." And Time magazine notes that all rock is revolutionary because by. "its very beat and sound it has always implicitly rejected restraints and has celebrated freedom in sexuality ."

Reader's Digest (November, 1964) also observed something very important regarding rock music. "Rock 'n' roll," says Reader's Digest, "treats the concept of love with a characteristic doubleness. The lyrics generally capitulate to the Concept of true love, but the music itself expresses the unspoken desire to smash it to pieces."

CAN ROCK MUSIC BE HOLY?

The church is hugging to its bosom, therefore, a form of music that will not turn its worshipers to God, but to the genitals, which is exactly What the old paganism did.

Although its lyrics might capitulate to the concept of true worship, the music itself will express an unspoken desire to smash it to pieces. "Christian" rock, therefore. is a form of spiritual fornication.

Phallic religion, whether Baal worship or Moloch, was essentially sexual. For some reason, it seems promiscuity is ever one stop away from religion. Indeed Rushdoony, in his Institutes of Biblical Law accents this very point. He says, "The relationship of sex and religion is thus a real one, it is an aspect of man's revolt from God. When man turns to self-worship, he ends by worshiping his own sexual vice."

He also says, "The frequently close connection of sex and religion can be granted; fertility cults are found in every part of the world, past and present. This relationship is, in fact, declared in Scripture to be an attribute of false religion... (Rom. 1:22-25)."

"As one approaches the death of an age," says Rushdoony, ."man's sexual activity becomes all the more intensely perversed, because his religious hunger has increased, and sex is his substitute God."

Rushdoony concludes by saying, "Sex and religion are thus closely and inescapably linked in every nonBiblical faith. It is the religious result of apostasy: man worships his own sexual evils and exalts his disgrace into a way of life."

Unfortunately, today, Christians are mimicking the rock stars who indeed could pass as high priests of any phallic cult. And although some Christian teens have their eyes open to the evils of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane, they generally have their eyes closed to the Osmonds, Cassidy's and otherr bubblegum rock stars. Only the most naive, however, can believe that these singers are morally acceptable for Christians.

As Bob Larsen writes, although words like "wholesome" are used to describe the Osmonds, "These words are really a shame, for the, whole performance is based on a crescendo of excitement that amounts to an orgiastic climax not known to the audiences of even some of the heavier rock stars. If the mother is naive enough to think that such idol worship is merely child's play, one can only feel pity knowing that slick Hollywood promotional agents have groomed these five soul-bubblegum idols into sex symbols with the adolescent record market."

Referring to David Cassidy of the television series, The Partridge Family, Larsen says, "He readily admitted his involvement in drugs and spoke mockingly of his female fans who after his concerts leave behind thousands of sticky seats."

And one need only look at a "modern" congregation to see those who are mimicking the new masculinity look -- a look originating with the rock subculture. Just a few years' ago, we spoke of the long-hairs who appeared to have emerged from Central Park Zoo. Today, the "gorilla look" is in the Sunday school and church.

It took barely five years for Christians to accept rock into the Church and even less to accept men who call themselves fathers but Iook like mothers; Jacks who look like jills. It has been one of the slickest coups in church history, and all in the name of not wanting to offend youth. If Christian youth had been told the truth from the start, the Church would not be treading water now. But, of course, in a promiscuous age, there are no blacks and whites.

The Christian long-hairs tell their eiders that the length of hair isn't an issue. but again only the totally naive and uninformed could fail for Such a ploy. In Jerry Rubin'.s book, Do It, a work which its publisher, Simon and Schuster, says is the "Communist Manifesto of our modern era" Rubin says. "Young kids identify, short hair with authority, discipline, unhappiness, boredom, rigidity, hatred of life -- and long hair with letting go, letting your hair down, being free, being open ."

He says, "our hair tells people where we stand on Vietnam, Wallace. campus disruption, dope. We are living television commercials for the revolution. We are walking picket signs."

Rubin further states, "Man was born to let his hair grew long and to smell like a man. We are descendants from the apes, and we are proud of our ancestry... long hair is the beginning of our liberation from the sexual oppression that underlies this whole military society. Through long hair we are engaged in a sexual assault that is going to destroy the political-economic structure of American society."

Evangelicals smirked when rock bands brought two strippers dancing down the aisles in liberal churches, but recently in Tulsa, Andre Crouch, at a Wednesday night prayer and praise service, had the worshipers prancing in the aisles.

And Bob Larsen in his work, Rock and the Church, relates an incident Of a rock group from a well-known Midwest Christian university which performs in Southern California during the summer in the following manner:

"The introductory song was Cream's big acid-rock hit, In the Sunshine of Your Love. It contains lyrics with reference to the sex act that are too crude to repeat. Fortunately this was a completely instrumental version. This group almost out-creamed the Cream. The driving rhythm and brass sections were kept going by not one, but two drummers, each with a complete trap set. For the first half-hour of the performance I waited vainly for at least one tame pop message song. No way. Just lots of good old heavy,'savage rock. At one point a young man from the group led the way with uninhibited frenzy in a dance up and down the aisles. Others followed him. I hadn't seen anything like this since l left the Far East where I observed heathen self-mutilation and torture rites."

This rock group, according to Larsen, told the audience "We're here to tell you of our personal faith in God." He said this statement was followed by a medley from the atheistic production Hair. Larsen said he waited in vain to hear about their personal faith in God, and in fact, the rock band never mentioned the school they represented which was probably a blessing in disguise for the school.

Of course, I'm sure some will argue that those prancing up and down the aisles were under the control of the Holy Spirit. Someday, the Holy Spirit will have the opportunity to defend Himself, but in the meantime, the Church will continue to sexualize and paganize her youth with "Christian rock."

WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD OPPOSE "GOSPEL" ROCK

Christians, therefore, should seriously and prayerfully reassess "Christian" or "gospel" rock music, for following reasons, some of which are sufficient alone and others accumulative:

First, since Christian music is primarily music which worships and glorifies God and spiritually edifies the saints, "Christian" rock does not qualify since by its very musical nature it is erotic and not spiritual.

Turning worshipers on sexually was always part or pagan worship but never part of Christian worship. Christian worship accents the spirit. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).

Second, since rock 'n' roll initially and obviously was of the world, flesh and the devil, and not of God, it would seem quite apparent that Christians should have nothing to do with it....

Some music is doubtlessly neutral regarding good and evil and some music can be either good or evil, but other music as Dr. Howard Hansen noted, "Can be soothing or invigorating, ennobling or vulgarizing, philosophical or orgiastic. It is power for evil as well as for good."

Why would Christians wish to toy With a music that is vulgarizing and orgiastic? Certainly, II Corinthians 7:1 should be considered cogent at this point, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

Third, "Christian' rock is essentially the uniting of Christian words tbeat music. If God condemned the uniting of an ox and an ass (Deut. 22:10, 11) under a common yoke and wool and linen in the same garment (remembering the ox, ass, wool and linen were all of God) it seems nearly self-evident that God would condemn the uniting of His Word or words with music that is of the old nature.

And even the world admits that. beat music is not of heavenly origin. Nor is it from the higher order of man's nature, but from his lowest. "Christian" rock, therefore, fails under the prohibitions of II Corinthians 6:14f, i.e., uniting the righteous with the unrighteous, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with dark"ness?"

Fourth, "Christian" rock is an obvious compromise with the world, flesh and devil, and the Scriptures, both Old and New, exhort believers to choose the godly and shun the ungodly. Paul i.n II Corinthians 6:14 17 establishes the truth that there is no concord between Christ and compromising with the world of unrighteousness. are supposed to come out and be separate "and touch not the unclean thing."

Joshua, in Joshua 24:15. asked Israel to choose between the Lord and the false gods of Canaan,.and Elijah said: "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him" (I Kings 18:21).

Rock music today. as Dr. Barn Ulanov said, "might be a liturgical music for a new kind of religion." But it is a false religion and the sooner Christians make up their minds and choose which God they wish to worship, the better for the Church.

Fifth, "Christian" rock is essentially spiritual fornication and, therefore, fails under the condemnation of Scripture. The Greek word for fornication is porne from which we derive our English word pornography. The expression "fornication" covers a much wider swath than just a sex act.

It includes sexual perversion of the mind as well as the body. Indeed, rock music, with its erotic. promiscuous nature, performs in music what pornography performs in literature.' I1 arouses the lewd side of human nature. Scripture. therefore, condemns rock under the aegis of fornication and/or pornography.

Sixth, "Christian" rock conditions Christian young people to listen to secular rock with its emphasis on drugs, sex and revolution. In fact, most of those advocating "Christian"' rock have little or no criticism of secular rock and some even have a permissive attitude toward pot. Such influence on Christian teenagers is catastrophic.

Seventh, "Christian" rock bridges the gap between the secular and the sacred and therefore breaks down the barrier between the Church (the ground of Truth) and the pagan world. Christians are forgetting that "friendship of the world is enmity with God ... a friend of the world is an enemy of God" (James 4:4).

Eighth, "Christian" rock enhances the possibility of neurosis since the music causes a conflict between knowing one should be spiritual but feeling carnal.

Ninth. "Christian" rock makes a shambles of means and ends. Christianity has never believed the end justifies the means. There is a right way to present the claims of Christ (Acts 13:1 O) and a wrong way (Acts 16:17, 18). Yet Christians are now arguing t!at the end (saving teens) justifies the means (rock music).

Tenth, "Christian" rock ends up glorifying the identical things secular rock glorifies viz., "the big beat, ??ncopation, long hair, mini-skirts, freaky clothes, and 'in many instances tne subculture's lett-wing stance. Since most Christian young people know nothing of the Communist conspiracy. they should listen carefully to the following statement by Susan Sontag, a Castro apologist.

Writing in Ramparts Magazine, Sontag said, "Tne American new left is correct to be anarchic, because it is out of power. The freaky clothes, rock, drugs. sex are pro'revolutionary forms of cultural subversion and so you can have your grass and your orgy and still be moral and revolutionary. But in Cuba, the revolution is in power, and so it follows that such disintegrative 'freedom' is inappropriate."

Unfortunately, many Christians are aiding the pro-revolutionary subversion of our culture.

Eleventh, "Christian" rock groups are constantly playing secular rock, including some of the most blasphemous material available. This. of course, gives an aura of respectability to a music that has no spiritual justification or redeeming Christian qualities. This, in turn, makes it more difficult to warn Christian teenagers about the dangers of rock music in general.

Twelfth, "Christian" rock groups have brought into the Church a music created by a permissive society. Thus, Christian youth are not even being given our culture's finest music, but worse. Indeed, we are musically feeding these youth our cultural refuse.

Thirteenth, "Christian" rock groups are mimicking the secular rock groups life style instead of adorning the gospel of Christ and imitating God (Eph. 5:1; Phil. 1:27). Yet there are few as immoral as the secular rock stars.

In fact, one writer stated that these stars "have the morals of a rabbit hutch." Why Christians would desire to reflect such a life style is proof that Satan is still the prince of power of the air.

Fourteenth. "Christian" rock stars whose morals approach the secular rock stars have no more business singing about Christ and the Christian life than preachers who can't practice what they preach.

Christ labeled the Pharisees hypocrites because they outwardly appeared righteous, "But within were full of hypocrisy and iniquity" (Matt. 23:28). Paul also took out after those who failed to walk their talk (Rom. 3:22).

Since rock music inevitably leads to loose morals, if most "Christian" rock groups would cease living a double life, most "Christian" rock groups would cease for lack of participants.

Fifteenth, "Christian" rock groups, by looking like the secular hippie subculture, are helping to promote the blasphemous idea that Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, is the ideal super hippie.

Sixteenth, "Christian" rock groups prove the validity of Luke 16:8, "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." The children of the world along with the powers of darkness know exactly what rock is doing to teenagers. If Martin Pedich knows that "rock radicalizes them by estranging them from the traditional virtues which they no longer see as relevant," then Christian musicians should know as much. But for some reason, the children of light cannot or will not grasp the most elementary facts of life regarding rock music.

Seventeenth, "Christian" rock groups are establishing the bunkers in which carnal Christians may hide from the reality of true spirituality. When Christian young men and women can dance up and down the aisles with uninhibited frenzy to the heat of "Christian" rock, approaching the antics of the heathen, then it's time someone preached on sowing and reaping to the flesh (Gal. 6:8).

Eighteenth, "Christian" rock is divisive. Whereas both young and old can enjoy the Haflelujah (;horus, oider saints cannot take the loud, heavy, rock sound and are walking out of services. Since secular rock was geared to fracture still further tne generation gap, it seems rather foolish for Christians to be responsible for splitting young and old because of music bred in hell. Besides, Christian young .people are to love their fathers, mothers and their elders.

Nineteenth, "Christian" rock, like its progenitor "secular" rock, manifests a characteristic doubleness, Although its lyrics may respect, for example, the concept of true love, the music itself expresses the unspoken desire to smash it to pieces.

So in worship, although the lyrics might acknowledge the concept of true worship, the music itself expresses the unspoken desire to smash it to pieces. 1'his, of course, leads to the most basic denials on the pan of Christian young people including a deniai of God, salvation and true spiritual Christianity. The spiritual shipwrecks caused by rock -- Christian or secular -- will be legion.

Twentieth. it seems a bit inconsistent if not incongruous, for Christian young people to praise "Christian" rock because someone tacked a Christian or near Christian message to beat music when these same Christian young people defend their listening to secular rock by arguing they do not listen to the lyrics, but only to the beat. If this is true, why should the unsaved listen' to the lyrics of "Christian" rock?

Twenty-first, the Christian Church has neglected a basic principle enunciated in I Timothy 5:22, "Lay hands suddenly on no man." Following the conversion of many drug and rock freaks, Christians forget to instruct them tully in the ways of the Lord, but instead made them into instant Christian leaders.

Many of these drug freaks became "Jesus" freaks, by .substituting "jesus" for pot, heroin, cocaine. etc., but continuing the same basic life style of the pagan hippy subculture.

Instead of a real break with the world these youth simply transferred their hang-ups to the Church, thereby infecting Christian youth with their hang-ups. Talking of "Jesus" swinging to ,Christian" rock, sporting Lennon or Rubin hairdo's became the new Church look.

All talk of separating from the world (II Cor. 6:14f) was ban i shed as irrelevant and Pharisaism. All that mattered was showing the world that "Christian" young people could be just as hip as it.

And finally, St. Paul sets forth two thoughts [hat are germane to this discussion. ln I Timothy 4:1, he says that in the end times some shall depart from the faith, '*giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrine of demons."

And in I Thessalonians 5:21 he says, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." Rock music should not be held fast since it is not good and it could well be a seducing spirit promoting doctrines of demons.

In this late hour it is time for those who truly believe to "show their deeds" (Acts 19:18), .by doing exactly what the early Christians did with their "Satan-inspired works" viz., "burned them before men" (Acts 19:19). And the results would undoubtedly be similar, "So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed" (Acts 19:20).