Does the music matter?

Years ago I remember reading the autobiography of the singer Tori Amos. She talked about how she felt like she couldn’t take credit for her songs, because the ideas didn’t feel like her own, they were spiritual and popped in her mind from another place.

I could relate to this a lot. For a few years I struggled with writer’s block until I realised what the cure was - to stop choosing what I wrote and instead just listen for the stories that want to be told. I remember starting yoga and my writing voice changing. It felt like writing was ‘opening up’ and just allowing the ideas to come.

But who or what is doing the writing?

Is there ever a time when it’s just our own minds and there isn’t a spiritual element?

These are questions I sometimes ponder and I don’t know the answer.

In 2021 when I first experienced the presence of God I watched a lot of YouTube videos while I figured out where the truth lay. One of these was the story of Joe Schimmel.

When Schimmel was a teenager he wrote rock songs. He also started getting into the new age and trying things like astral projection. He wrote a song talking about how he loved rock n roll so much, he’d give his family away to the devil. He thought it was just a bit of fun. Then one day he had an episode of sleep paralysis. He was terrified and called out to Jesus for help. Immediately the paralysis left him, and after that he became a Christian.

Looking back on his musical composition Schimmel realised that he was writing things that were linguistically beyond his capability as a 15 year old boy. His writing gift was from the devil. He has since gone onto create a documentary ‘They Sold Their Souls For Rock n Roll’ which reveals the occult connections of many music stars.

But the point of this post is not to discuss mainstream music, but to ask questions about the mainstream Christian music we listen to in church.

In the first few years of following Jesus I went to some different churches. I was part of one church for a year that was cessationist, and then I moved onto another church. I also tend to visit other churches in various places when I’m travelling.

As I did so I became familiar with the concept of contemporary Christian music and how a lot of the churches were singing the exact same songs. Something about it bothered me. Maybe it’s just the simplicity of the songs, the fact that they all have a similar ‘mood.’ I stopped listening to secular music since so many of the songs were about the devil, or Lucifer, but I felt dissatisfied with contemporary worship music.

Through a Facebook group I learnt that some of the most popular music comes from churches with theology can be a bit dodgy. In this group I got a link to a spotify playlist called ‘Theologically Correct Songs,’ - not a very exciting name, but from here I discovered so much beautiful music. Songs with lyrics that are a bit more complex, renditions of the psalms. I discovered more work from the bands and singers on this playlist, and found something that was much more to my personal taste.

As a writer and a creator I’ve never liked the idea that we all read the same books, or listen to the same music. When I read fiction when I was younger, I would love the quirky and the different, and the same with music.

But is it more than that?

Spencer Smith has created a four part documentary called Third Adam. He has a gift of discernment for seeing how the new age is coming into the church, and the number one way it’s happening is through the music.

The theory is that simple, repetitive music - simple chord structures and lyrics repeated over and over again, put the mind into a trance-like state. (you can see my previous articles, such as (My Thoughts On Why Jesus Never Told us to Focus on our Breathing). When we are ‘sleeping’ mentally, it is a state of hypnosis hypnosis, where we are opened up spiritually so ideas can come in that are not from God.

I do not know the spiritual state of the writers of contemporary Christian music, but I do believe it matters who is doing the writing. Is it coming from the Holy Spirit or from another spirit? What does God think about the way the gift of singing and composition has been dominated by some ‘big names’? What does he think about how much of this music comes from NAR style churches?

I know there are some theological problems with some of the lyrics. But in a sense, whatever the lyrics are saying, any kind of repetitive words can open us up to trance. (similar techniques are used in hypnosis - which I wrote about here).

So my question is, does the music matter? I have seen people forgoing church completely because it bothers them so much which has always felt like the wrong decision to me. We aren’t going to find a perfect church.

But I do think we need to have a conversation collectively about music, how other spirits can influence our thoughts, actions, and even songs.

In one church I noticed an open laptop playing a playlist called ‘Endless Praise’ - the symbol for the playlist was the infinity symbol - a Pagan symbol which actually represents the snake, coiled into a figure of 8 eating its own tail.

Has the snake entered the church?

I don’t know what to do about this when the music is so widespread, but perhaps it helps just to have our eyes open, to keep praying for discernment, to talk with others, and most importantly to ask God, what does he think fo the music?

Thank you for reading. All these posts are available to read free of charge, but if you’d like to support my work you can via the links below.

Check out my other projects

My Learn A Language With The Bible devotionals are available from Amazon in versions to learn Italian, Spanish and French.

Your can also subscribe to Learn A Language With The Bible, On Substack.