The numerous fans interviewed for the history of country music program could recite the sad, mournful, misery-exalting, sin-glorifying, blasphemous lyrics from hundreds of songs, THEN GIVE GOD CREDIT FOR PRODUCING THEM. Apparently He wrote the words using the hands of His human stenographers. Consensus holds that country music writers are precious instruments the Lord uses to get His message out to the masses. It is the Biblical God Who writes songs about fighting, cheating, killing, divorce, lying, criminality, drinking, betrayal, jealousy, abandonment, deception, etc. God did write about such things in His Word. The difference is that He wrote to convict men to stop doing such things. Country music assures men that they must do such things, but that God understands and looks the other way.

According to country star-worshipers, because God writes sin-exalting music He refuses to hold them accountable when they practice the evil actions, thoughts and words glorified by His songs. He knows they cannot help themselves because of Adam’s miraculous transfer of his sin gene into their spiritual dna. He understands their helplessness and therefore refuses to see the sins of all the “Honky Tonk Angles” out there, including the ones with “broken wings.” He approves of the one who “wish(ed) to God that I (he) was stoned.” The church-attending Christian who had “killed a man in Reno, just to watch him die” was really a good person at heart. And the good-timing man who repeatedly cheats on his good-hearted wife is actually a terrific fellow. She is lucky to have him. And the wife who wants a wino to decorate her home because her husband is an alcoholic, well, she just accepts reality–he is just a man. And we all know what men do. He was, after all, a member in good standing at the local __________ Church (fill in the blank–they’re all good).

Millions of people are able to regurgitate the lyrics of dozens of Satan-exalting songs only by repeatedly hearing them, singing along with them, embracing them, internalizing them and identifying with them. And what do those words do for them? They enable them to be totally self-absorbed and self-excusing. But what about God’s Words?

God’s Words are left undisturbed. There is no studying of them, speaking of them or memorizing of them. There is neither internalizing of them nor identifying with them. Operating on the basis of “A little bit goes a long way,” once each week God’s Words are taken off the shelf and their cover dusted off. Moments later they are carried into Satan’s palaces as proof that their owner is one with their Author. The World’s most purchased Book is its least understood. Lack of use by its less-than-enthusiastic owner has that effect. Unlike the Bible, country music is eagerly sought and used by its adoring fans, which explains why so many people can repeat it.

Incredibly, I watched as people cried while listening to some nicotine addicted, alcoholic reprobate grunt out a string of sin-exalting, Satan-serving words. If the Lord’s name is used at all it is in a blasphemous way. Satan’s false prophets have assured his subjects that God knows their struggles and understands why they do what they do. After all, as I was told by an ex-missionary, Jesus died so that church people will not be held accountable for their sins. Sin, I have been told, is an unavoidable part of the Christian Walk. It is as natural as breathing. God expects only that the “sinner saved by grace” go to church on Satan’s Sabbath and there repent of his inevitable sins. But didn’t Jesus command the prostitute and the man at the pool at Bethesda to “Sin no more?” Yes, He said it, but He really didn’t mean it. As a local spiritual giant proclaimed, “God doesn’t like sin. But He won’t do anything about it.” Everyone knows that sin is part of the Christian’s nature, and that we can’t change our nature. And the country music world shouts “Amen.”

But country music fanatics are not alone in the “Jesus loves you” religious world. Today, three billion plus churchites can talk at length about the world, politics, the weather, sports, who is doing what to whom, t.v. lineups, what time the game starts, movies, books, etc., BUT DO NOT KNOW WHAT GOD SAID IN HIS WORD. All they know is what their ancestors have handed down to them. And when shown what God actually said, they refer to “… what I’ve always been taught” as their spiritual truth. It is such people who will call Jesus “Lord, Lord” on the day of judgment and remind Him of all of the wonderful works they had done “in your name.” Then they will hear Him say, “I NEVER KNEW YOU; DEPART FROM ME ….” (Mat. 7:23). Jesus is called “the Word” in Scripture. It is that same Word/Jesus that celebrity worshipers and other Bible-rejecting churchites do not know. It is that Jesus Whose Words they have not memorized and internalized, Whose commandments they have not obeyed. It is that same Jesus Who will say to them: “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord and do not what I say?” (Lk. 6:46). Summary: “… as He said” is a matter of life and death. L.J.