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This short and entirely scriptureless presentation wants to refute something no one has claimed. The author quotes Spurgeon issuing an imperative, a thing that we apparently must not do: "Souls are not to be won by music." This prohibition implies that someone thinks the converse, "souls are to be won by music," but no one has suggested such a thing.
Maybe it's an issue of archaic language? Is the real statement in modern language something more like, "souls are not won by music?" That would make a bit more sense. But such a statement presumes we know what God can use to save a man. God can do this thing, but He cannot do that thing.
Though he doesn't really say it, the author is probably referring to the spectacle that infects some churches, that those church services are entertainment productions where there is little or no biblical preaching. But that is an entirely another issue. The author's intent is not to examine matters of faith and church practice. He simply wants to drop a rhetorical bomb as if that's all that needs to be said:
"Souls are not to be won by music."
If this is true, then Christian music that contains lots of biblical truth, the Gospel message, or a call to repent cannot affect the soul. Which means songs like
- Rock of Ages - Augustus Toplady
- This is Amazing Grace – Phil Wickham
- Just as I am, without one plea - Charlotte Elliott
- At the Cross (Love Ran Red) – Passion, Chris Tomlin
- Mighty to Save – Hillsong Worship
- O Come to the Altar – Elevation
- The Mercy Seat - Don Moen
- This is My Surrender - New Wine Worship
- Song of Repentance – New Wine Worship
- O come to the mercy seat, needy one, come - William Stevenson
- God Would You Forgive Us – Here Be Lions
- Lord, I Need You – Passion
- Give Us Clean Hands – Charlie Hall
are never used by God to save someone. The Holy Spirit would not use these songs to call forth a sinner into the Kingdom. Even the adoration and praise in a worship service would not cause a sinner to repent.
But is there any real difference between preaching the Gospel and singing it? Can the Holy Spirit convey sufficient information in a song so that salvation is effected? Or will God only use the spoken word?
The author doesn't bother with any of this.
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Carl Spudgeon, preaching in 2023, said:
Dear friends, we know that souls are not to be won by music. If the world were indeed to be conquered by songs, to be converted by religious ditties, regenerated by guitars, and saved by pretty girls behind microphones, then it would be time for us to cease our ministry and give place to songwriters, soloists, instrumentalists, and backing singers. Then might we set up a vast array of drums, lift up the neon cross, wave the cellphone, and cry, “These are your gods, O Israel.” But, while the Word of God remains unchanged, we shall rely upon the blood of the Lamb, and resolve to know nothing among men save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Our hope of success lies, under God, in the preaching of the gospel.
Of course, if someone called Carl Spudgeon had said that in 2023, you can imagine the kind of ire he would have called down upon himself from some quarters. It was actually Charles Spurgeon who said something very similar in a sermon called, “The Triumph of Christianity,” preached in 1872. If anything, the idolisation of music in modern evangelicalism has transcended anything that Spurgeon had to contend with in the Anglo-Catholicism of his day. What he actually said was this:
Dear friends, we know that souls are not to be won by music. If the world were indeed to be conquered by chants, to be converted by sanctuses, regenerated by organs, and saved by little boys in surplices, then it would be time for us to cease our ministry and give place to choir boys, opera singers, organists, and organ blowers. Then might we set up a vast array of gilded pipes, lift up the crucifix, wave the censer, and cry, “These be thy gods, O Israel.” But, while the Word of God remains unchanged, we shall rely upon the blood of the Lamb, and resolve to know nothing among men save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Our hope of success lies, under God, in the preaching of the gospel.
And yet how close to the bone it still cuts, and how true it still is.
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