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The author's complaint seems to be pretty prevalent among the more conservative parts of the church. However, because him of being unacquainted with some of the Scriptures that come to bear, his conclusions are errant.
My purpose is not to defend the song or Bethel church, it is to examine the author's claims.
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Holy Spirit is a popular and powerful (Hmm. Powerful? In the very next paragraph he will deem it heretical.)
worship song currenty (sic) played on Christian radio stations and sung in Sunday Services all across America. The song was first released in 2012 by the band Jesus Culture and has since made its way westward from Redding, California, the band’s home. It’s lyrics are as follows:
There’s nothing worth more
That could ever come close
No thing can compare
You’re our living hope
Your presence, Lord
I’ve tasted and seen
Of the sweetest of loves
Where my heart becomes free
And my shame is undone
Your presence, Lord
Holy Spirit, You are welcome here
Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere
Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for
To be overcome by Your presence, Lord
Your presence, Lord
(...)
Let us become more aware of Your presence
Let us experience the glory of Your goodness
(...)
If this song is being sung in your local church, you should be very alarmed.
First and foremost, it presents a heretical view of God. (I thought it was powerful?)
The singers of this song “welcome” the Holy Spirit to “fill the atmosphere” of the room. God the Holy Sprit (sic) is not some element in gaseous form who can be expected to fill the room like oxygen, nitrogen, or helium. He is not to be breathed in to an intoxicating effect. The Holy Spirit is just that, spirit. He is immaterial. (The author is offended by the literary license taken by the song's writer.
However, figures of speech are not blasphemy.
Or is it blasphemy to describe God as a mighty fortress? Is it wrong to "bring forth the royal diadem?" How about "at the cross where I first saw the light?" These metaphors are intended to use somewhat loose word pictures in an artistic way. It's very common in hymns as well as many other songs.
Further, is the Psalm writer being blasphemous by giving God wings?
Ps. 17:8 Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings...Or what about Isaiah referring to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
The author objects to the common [and biblical] practice of allegory and simile.)Is. 44:3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.
He is also the sovereign God of the cosmos. He requires no invitation. (This is incorrect. The Scriptures clearly teach that the Holy Spirit manifests in varying degree.
Lk. 1:41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Lk. 1:67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit...
Ac. 4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people!"
Ac. 4:31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Ac. 10:44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.Then we look at Paul's situation:
Ac. 9:17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord — Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here — has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Saul [Paul} would be filled with the Holy Spirit due to Ananias' ministry here, at his point of salvation, but...)
Ac. 13:9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said... (If he had the Holy Spirit already, how can he be filled again?)Paul is clear that the Holy Spirit manifests in the lives of people...
1Co. 12:7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good....and that those manifestations should be eagerly sought:
1Co. 14:1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.We can seek to be filled with the Spirit, even after being saved:
Ep. 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
2Co. 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (Implying that where the Holy Spirit isn't there is bondage.)
Ep. 1:17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Paul was writing to a church of believers. How can Paul "invite" the Holy Spirit to increase in them if they already had the Holy Spirit at salvation?)We conclude that the Holy Spirit can vary in "quantity" in the believer, and as such we are commanded to keep being filled [Ep. 5:18].)
Secondly, the source of this song is wicked to the core. The band Jesus Culture hails from Bethel Redding Church, a den of blasphemy and deception that is a prominent part of a greater heretical movement, the New Apostolic Reformation. At Bethel Redding, the “presence” of the the Holy Spirit is physically counterfeited, among many ways, in the form gold dust “glory clouds” and angel feathers falling from the ceiling. (Irrelevant tangent.)
Should a song which includes chants about the presence of a Holy God be provided by a group of blasphemors (sic) who make a living out of faking it, who make a living out of decieving (sic) others? Bethel Redding and Jesus Culture use their music to whip their followers into an emotional state fit to manipulate them. They do so in the name of “Jesus” and “The Holy Spirit.” Is the worship pastor of your church doing the same when he asks you to sing this song? The Holy Spirit is God. Respect him enough not the sing this song about him. Love your brother enough to challenge him in his error when he does. Do not welcome Holy Spirit at your church. (Whoa. Is the author suggesting blocking the door or something?)
For information on Bethel Redding see this well-researched article.
For an example of how to challenge this song at your church, see this letter I sent to my former music minister:
Gary,
I’d like to generally commend you for your Sunday morning song selection. In all the time I’ve been attending RSBC, I can only remember hearing Hillsong once and the songs you pick are almost always sound.
One glaring exception is the song “Holy Spirit”. Not only is this song theologically unsound, it comes from the minds of “Jesus Culture”, the popular band hailing from Bill Johnson’s Bethel Redding Church. I’d like to offer you the following wisdom from Pastor Gabe Hughes about singing Jesus Culture songs in Christ’s church:
“Here’s three reasons why you shouldn’t play their music in church. First, their songs offer nothing substantive. Your church will not be missing anything if you don’t play Jesus Culture songs, but you will be missing something if you do. As I’ve written about before, there’s nothing biblically solid about their music. If you think you hear doctrinally sound lyrics, that’s because the song is ambiguous enough to allow you to impose your (probably better) theology upon it. But if their teaching isn’t biblical, neither will their music be.
Second, you would inadvertently be endorsing their church. If someone found out the song you sang on Sunday came from Jesus Culture, that could open the door for that person exposing them to Bethel’s teaching and heresy. I shared an occasion of this happening in a previous article (linked above).
And third, you would be paying them for their songs. If your church is singing something other than hymns or what’s in the public domain, then you probably have a CCLI license. That means you pay royalties on the songs that you sing. If some of those songs are from Jesus Culture, you are paying them to sing their music. (By the way, these reasons also apply to why we shouldn’t sing Hillsong tunes either.)”
http://pastorgabehughes.blogspot.fi/2016/12/the-false-teaching-of-bethel-church.html?m=1Even if the song were not written by some of the most dangerous people in the Christian music industry, the Holy Spirit is not some kind of tangible gas that “fills the atmosphere” nor is he someone who needs our invitation or “welcome” to a specific place, especially a church. God tabernacles with believers. We needn’t ask for his presence. (This of course is false. If the presence of the Holy Spirit varies by degree, then it is quite fitting to ask for His increase.
In fact, Jesus commanded this:
Lk. 11:11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”John the Baptist actually witnessed the tangible descent of the Holy Spirit:
Jn. 1:32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him..."There is no limit to the amount of the Holy Spirit we can have:
Jn. 3:34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.God intends for a great manifestation of the Spirit in the latter days:
Ac. 2:17 In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.Conversely, the Holy Spirit can be resisted, grieved, quenched, and insulted:
Ac. 7:51 “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!
Ep. 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
1Th. 5:19 Do not put out the Spirit’s fire...
He. 10:29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?The Holy Spirit dwells in the temple, the body of believers, and that imagery hearkens back to the filling of the Solomon's temple:
1Co. 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
1Kg. 8:10 When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD.I hope Gary, that you will never perform this song in our church (or anywhere else) ever again. It is not fit for God’s people.
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