A couple that leads worship in Canada are having real problems with the Old Testament, especially with anything having to do with the military, or violence, or weapons, or warfare. So they are wondering about deleting or expelling worship songs that take part in this. As one short video of this says: “Canadian worship leaders Jodi and Chris King are having a difficult time singing songs with ‘violent language’ in church, including references to weapons, because ‘Jesus is a peacemaker,’ so they skip over lyrics.”
Oh dear, it never ceases to amaze me how woke weirdness has contaminated the churches. That secular left ideology and agendas have long been infiltrating into the churches is well known. But as political correctness and woke lunacy ramps up in the West, we see even more Christian leaders and pastors being sucked into all this.
Before giving you one glaring recent example of this, I had better explain what Marcionism is for those of you struggling with that term. It simply refers to an old church heretic, Marcion. As I wrote in an earlier article:
He was a second century bishop who was condemned for his heretical teachings, including his views on God and the Old Testament. In brief, he regarded the God of the Old Testament as a vengeful, harsh, vindictive and judgmental God, who in fact was not the same as the God of the New Testament. On the other hand, he taught, the God of the NT was a loving, compassionate and gracious God.
He not only posited a radical disjunction between God as found in the two Testaments, but between the OT and the NT itself, and between Israel and the church. His utter rejection of Judaism and the OT was just part of his heresy. He was a major proponent of Paul – or as one historian put it, he had an “exaggerated Paulinism” – so much so that he chopped the NT canon down to just 11 books: ten epistles of Paul and part of Luke. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2012/02/27/modern-day-marcionism/
So what does worship have to do with this heretic? Well, it seems a couple that leads worship in Canada are having real problems with the Old Testament, especially with anything having to do with the military, or violence, or weapons, or warfare. So they are wondering about deleting or expelling worship songs that take part in this.
As one short video of this says: “Canadian worship leaders Jodi and Chris King are having a difficult time singing songs with ‘violent language’ in church, including references to weapons, because ‘Jesus is a peacemaker,’ so they skip over lyrics.” See it here: https://x.com/Protestia/status/1801976805995229417
What are we to make of all this? Well yes there are indeed hundreds of Old Testament examples where military language, talk of weapons, and dealing with enemies, etc., are found. And that includes heaps that are found just in the Psalms. As you should know, the psalms were all sung as part of Israel’s collective worship of God. Just think of a few of these ‘militaristic’ passages:
Psalm 18:34 He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
Psalm 18:39 You armed me with strength for battle; you humbled my adversaries before me.
Psalm 24:8 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, mighty in battle!
Psalm 144:1 Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
who trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle;
But since it seems these worship leaders are worried about all this, let me just deal with what is found in the New Testament. There are dozens of military metaphors, allusions to soldiering and warfare, and related terms and ideas found in the NT. And none of these biblical authors for one moment were concerned about using such imagery and language. Indeed, they were inspired by the Holy Spirit to do so. Consider just some of these:
Luke 14:31-33 Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
Romans 7:22-23 or in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
Romans 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
1 Corinthians 9:7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk?
1 Corinthians 9:26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.
1 Corinthians 14:8 Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?