STEVE CAMP's CALL for REFORMATION
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
NOTE: In 1997/98, well-known Christian musician Steve Camp
wrote the following hard-hitting commentary on today's Christian
music industry:
Out of love and zeal for Biblical truth and the desire
to bring it to light, I come to you, brethren,
burdened and broken over the current state of
Christian music. I come not out of a heart of
condemnation, but out of convictions immersed in tears
one in desperate need daily of our Lord's grace to be
conformed to His image. I come being aware of the
depravity from which I have been saved and that my
heart, apart from the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
is desperately wicked and eternally sick. Early in my
own musical journey I wrote songs that neither
represented good music or precise theology. My motives
were vitiated; my actions were not godly; and my lips
were unclean. The thirst for prominence and position
made my heart prideful, judgmental and callused. But
the Lord, out of His infinite grace and otherworldly
love, broke me with His chastening hand to bring true
repentance in my own life-and it's that life of
repentance which is my greatest desire and my greatest
failing. It is out of the crucible of those
experiences that I am driven to speak with conviction
to these issues.
This document is a call to Reformation-a clarion call
to recover Biblical Christianity in the arts. Music is
a powerful tool from the Lord Jesus to His church
intended for worship, praise, encouragement,
edification evangelism, teaching, admonishing, and
exhorting God's people to holiness-with always our
chief aim to glorify God and worship Him forever." But
beloved, the serpentine foe of compromise has invaded
the camp through years of specious living, skewed
doctrine and most recently secular ownership of
Christian music ministries. While I assert this, I
recognize that there are godly men and women who love
the Lord, that work for these companies and record for
these companies, but that's not the issue here. The
crux of the matter is that the overall nature of our
industry has dramatically shifted. The Apostle Paul
warns "it takes only a little leaven to leaven the
whole lump." (1 Corinthians 5:6) When sin is tolerated
ultimately permeates and corrupts the entire church.
What is pure today will inevitably be polluted
tomorrow if we do not "purge out the old leaven. . . "
(Ibid. 5:7) In the past several years, there has been
a not-so-subtle drifting away from Christocentric
music to an anthropocentric music. Sadly, this has
resulted in various visible manifestations of
spiritual sedition-where currently, the CCMI finds
itself on a slippery slope sliding away at accelerated
speeds from the Savior, the Scriptures and the church.
Contemporary Christian Music originally began
unashamedly declaring Jesus Christ as Lord. Within a
few years His name was replaced by several generic
titles filtering out the name of God ultimately to the
non-specific cognomen, "Love." This led to a multitude
of pseudonyms: "The Man Upstairs"; "My Higher Power";
"Our Family Values Expert" ad nauseam...ad infinitum.
This Biblical illiteracy I've coined as theological
ebonics-Biblical language diminished to cultural
unintelligible chatter affirmed as profound,
acceptable spiritual truth. Os Guinness is "spot on"
when saying, "[we have seen a change] from an emphasis
on 'serving God', to an emphasis on 'serving the self'
in serving God." The object of faith is no longer
Christ, but our self-esteem; the goal of faith is no
longer holiness, but our happiness; and the source of
faith is no longer the Scriptures, but our experience.
Christian music currently reflects this. We are
producing a generation of people that "feel" their
God, but do not know their God.
We have been given a solemn and sacred duty to
communicate through music the fathomless riches of
God's eternal Word. The Word of God is the most holy
thing we will ever hold in our hands in this lifetime.
As Dr. John MacArthur says, "This book contains: the
mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation,
the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers.
Read it to be wise, believe it to be saved and
practice it to be holy...."
Lamentably, the music of heaven has been sold to the
world-to the ones who had the deepest pockets and made
the sweetest promises. In a very real sense, "Simon
the Sorcerer" has succeeded in purchasing the work of
God from the "apostles" of our industry. (Acts 8:
14-25) What has been the result of this partnering
with the world? Gospel music today has become music
for the moment, but not for eternity. Transitory,
temporal, trivial messages that devalue Deity and
raise "felt need" affairs above eternal "real need"
concerns produce disposable, consumer driven,
cotton-candy music. This is playing marbles with
diamonds.
We are unequally yoked with an unbelieving world, sin
goes undisciplined, is even tolerated for some artists
because of their visibility and sales power and the
truth and authority of Scripture is ail but abrogated.
Biblical illiteracy is pandemic. Accountability to the
local church has all but been abandoned. Moral
pluralism and erroneous forms of ecumenism are the
dyslexic doctrines of today. A politically correct,
reductionist gospel that appeals only to the flesh and
a syncretistic methodology in communication through
the arts have sought to replace the true "Gospel
According To Jesus" evidenced in the fruit of an
obedient life fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit and
His truth.
Could it be that the love of money is at the root of
it all? Or could it be that ignorance has revealed the
unschooled in matters of faith and doctrine?
Unquestionably both. For many, money has been and
continues to be the prerequisite for "ministry" and
Biblical truth is no longer vital but vicarious!
Departure from the Word of God is now clearly
evidenced in our music, lyrics, business practices and
Alliances. Beloved, if we do not repent of our sins,
God's judgment will surely be upon us.
When Martin Luther stood at Wittenberg's Door he
called for reformation from the
recalcitrant Roman Church. Now it is our turn, almost five
centuries later, to sound the alarm in our generation. This time,
to call the Christian Music Industry to reformation back to the
supremacy, sufficiency and Lordship of Jesus Christ. Genuine
revival-a fresh return to obedience in Christ is surely needed
today, but that would be almost impossible given the current
environment of our industry.
Why? True revival is marked by repentance; true repentance brings
restitution; true restitution demands that Christian music be
owned and operated only by believers whose aim is the glory of
God consistent with Biblical truth. This means that the current
CCMI labels must return all the money they have received to their
respective secular counterparts that purchased them and divorce
alliances with them. The CCMI has gone too far down the wide road
of worldliness and there is not the tenacity of character and the
Biblical courage of heart and mind to do the right thing no
matter what the cost.
These are serious times, brethren, that call for real answers.
This is not a time for duplicitous people, proclaiming a diluted
message, from disingenuous ministries. It is a time for those
whose lives are tempered with the steel of righteousness, girded
with the belt of truth, standing firm in the gospel of peace,
raising high their shield of faith, guarded with the helmet of
salvation, to wield the sword of the Spirit with a surgeon's
exactitude, praying always with all prayer and supplication, with
all perseverance for all the saints in the Spirit. (Ephesians
6:10-20)
Will we champion again the manifesto of the Reformers: Sola Fide
(by faith alone); Sola Gratia (by grace alone); Sola Scriptura
(on the Word alone); Solus Christus (because of Christ alone);
and Soli Deo Gloria (to the glory of God alone)? Do we have the
conviction of heart and courage of mind to do what's just? Do
we have the boldness to shout above the roar of the marketplace
that the Emperor has no clothes? Will we leave our careers, our
contracts, our carefully cultivated plans and press releases, our
unequally yoked record companies to serve the Lord again with all
our heart, soul, mind and strength? There is no gray in
this-it's a matter of obedience.
Oh brethren, "we have a name to be alive, but we are dead."
(Revelation 3:1) There is no greater love song to proclaim than
the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord at Calvary,
but yet others feel content to sing about the chaff of this
world. What the New Testament church wrestled with the least is
what our industry craves the most money. How dare we think we
can play politics with God, with His truth and with His church.
We can't negotiate with sin no matter what kind of capital is at
stake-and that really is the issue here.
Let us "press on, that [we] may lay hold of that for which Christ
Jesus has also laid hold of [us]. (Philippians 3:12) Let us
"lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us
and let us run with endurance the rave that is set before us."
(Hebrew 12:1) Let us fall on our faces before our Holy Lord,
repent of our sin and return to our First Love. With lives
bathed in His grace, let us provoke one another to love and good
works. With undivided hearts may we leave the prodigal's pigpen
and come back to the Father's house. Let us commit to prayer and
fasting seeking the Lord's will with a broken, contrite and
obedient heart. Let us return to our churches and to the
faithful pastors/elders that shepherd us - submitting ourselves
to their godly leadership. May we be students of His Word
filled daily with His Spirit.
Pray on this. Pounding on "Wittenberg's Door", let us come
together to make history to make Contemporary Christian
Music...Christian again.
-Source - reformationmusic.com/