STEVE CAMP's CALL for REFORMATION

STEVE CAMP's CALL for REFORMATION

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/