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It's hip and cool, with Rock n'Roll, folk guitar, punk, rap, metal, swing and almost every form of music. There's cool clothes, pretty woman, bands, symbols, books, tapes, cds, movies, videos, you name it. They all talk about Jesus and know the scriptures. Everyone appears to have such a strong faith in Christ and is so Christian. They sing, talk and write about Jesus, God, the bible, prophesies, predictions and faith. On the outside surface, they all appear to walk to walk and talk the talk.

Take a good look here and what do you see? A picture. An external picture. It's not a bad picture, nor is it to be spoken against, and that's not the purpose of this web page. However, many, not all, who are part of this subculture, are doing and saying all the right things that pertain to it, but neither see, understand , nor live in agreement with, the real meaning of the Christ: faith with the total agape love of our fellow man.

This is NOT meant to negatively judge Christian rock music, the people and the churches

Not meant as a hard fast rule of any sort:

Look around and you will see that many who are visibly seen as zealots, missionaries, preachers, teachers and musically inclined, exercising their talents, are in many cases, but certainly not all, caught up in personal achievement, being the blatantly obvious ones who lack love, mercy and kindness to the unimportant, unknown and socially "incompetent," who fail to live up to their unique world of Christian subculture. While the older, slower and wiser ones, the nobodies in the background, have the compassion of Christ.

involved, for there are many real Christians buried inside, who really do know and apply agape love to their fellow man. Even though the Christian faith, that the many people sing, teach and write about is internal, the entire, core meaning of the Christ, the love and consideration of our fellow man, is totally over shadowed and in many cases completely lost. It is replaced with an external veneer covering of the Christian Subculture, doctrinal knowledge, religion and sacrifice and faith in Christ with a personal salvation, making it a very pretty package indeed.

The music and subculture can be a great tool to be used for teaching persons about Jesus Christ and attempting to know him. But what does it teach? In most cases, solely putting faith in Christ, in order to be "saved." But Christ tells us that in order to really know him, we must be loving our neighbor as ourselves. While the message of putting faith in Christ for personal salvation may be true, the more important meaning of the Christ: love, mercy, forgiveness, compassion of our fellow man, is lost and is not taught as the primary teaching, crowding out "love of neighbor" with the "right," Christian lifestyle, the "right" religion and the Christian subculture movement.

Christian Sub Culture Movement

 

True Meaning of Jesus Christ

Sing, Talk, Write About Christ

Sing, Talk, Write About Faith

Sing, Talk, Write About Personal Salvation

Sing, Talk, Write About Sacrifices

Sing, Talk, Write About Christianity

Sing, Talk, Write About The Bible

Vs

A Continual, Daily Effort
In Agape Love (Mercy, Love and Forgiveness) Of Our Fellow Man

Faith In Jesus Christ Is Required
- Hebrews 11:6

HOWEVER,

God Differentiates Between The Ignorant And The Evil, As The Only Judge Of Men's Hearts. We, On The Other Hand, Are Not.

- Romans 2:14-16; 25-29

Persons Can Walk this Walk And Have No Agape Love For Their Fellowman

 

The ONLY Obligation of Man

In addition, many churchgoers put faith in the subculture itself, in the bible itself, in the music or art itself and not God the person, for God alone is God. This produces legalism, and in many cases puts, knowledge far ahead of forgiveness, mercy and agape love. Some are mildly lost in scripture and religion and are not far from being balanced individuals. But sadly, it's the others, who are radically lost in a self righteous and smug satisfaction of themselves, assured of being "saved," resulting in both a judgmental assessment of others and a total lack of mercy and love for the people they meet, who are also speaking, singing, writing and performing all the right sacrifices of Christ. They blindly follow all of Christ's laws, rules and words, yet they don't even know him because they do not know love. "Any man that says, I love God, but hates his brother, is a liar." (1 John 4:20) They know his writings, they have faith in Christ, they know the Christian religion, they know God's name, they know his commands and they perform all of his sacrifices, but sadly they do not know love and therefore do not know Christ. They look at the man on the street, who in their eyes, is a drunkard, fornicator and judge him as a lost soul, who will either burn in a fiery hell or die, and yet this so called sinner shows true kindness and empathy to almost everyone he meets. Yet they, who have this faith in Christ, who know all the writings of scripture and perform all the sacrifices each and every day, do not show true kindness, empathy and consideration towards their fellow man, "considering all others to be superior to them." (Philippians 2) The man on the street, who has no faith in Christ, who breaks many of the laws, and performs none of the external sacrifices, is not only more righteous than they are, but is acceptable by God. (Romans 2:14-16) Where as they, who have faith in Christ, are blinded by their sacrifices, legalism, scriptures and religion, having no idea that they don't even know God and will be in shock one day when this is revealed. (Matt 7:21-23)

"Any man that says, I love God, but hates his brother, is a liar: For, how can a man that doesn't love his brother who he can see, love God who he can't see?"
1 John 4:20

In all fairness, people who listen to Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osborne, Slayer and various punk, death metal, rap and hard-core music are not going against the Christ, nor are they following Satan, as some fundamentalist Christians are so quick to accuse. Rather it

I LOVE OZZY

Is That A Bad Thing? No. Fundamentalist Thinking Would Say Otherwise.

is all about our faith and whether we are walking in agreement with God's spirit of how each one us treats our fellow man. We're all selfish, get angry, tend not to forgive and tend to unfairly judge other people. But it's people who do this with no concern for others, not making any attempt to change themselves, that are listening and walking to the wrong beat. Others, who also have these same exact tendencies, but continually try to adjust themselves each and every day are the ones who listen and walk to the sound of the Christ, no matter what type of wild musical bands they listen to.

I mean what good is it to listen to music, watch cartoons, play video games that only have the theme of Christianity? If it actually brings a person to gain real faith in Christ and in turn walk with the spirit of love, then it's worth every note, chord, sound and breath, for this is the very meaning and salvation of life. However, anyone can listen and watch media designed only with Christian subculture overtones and still treat the guy next to them like crap. But the guy who listens to the nastiest death metal and plays some bloody video games treats all the people around him with respect and consideration. Whose the Christian there? I can recall watching a cartoon as a young kid and seeing a character slam a guitar over someone's head. The springs would come out, there would be stars and birds circling the victims head. "El-Ka-Boom!," he would shout and "wham-o," he slammed his guitar with full force over the other guy's head. I then went to my neighbor's house and met another small kid my age and proceeded to slam my little toy plastic guitar over his head. As he went home crying, I thought, "hey it was nothing like the cartoon."

Does this mean that all cartoons that have any type of violence are bad? To the unbalanced fundamentalist thinking person, who labels things, "black and white," it would be, but to a mature and balanced person, discernment and discretion come to play. It all depends on the individual watching, listening and how seriously they interpret and act. According to most psychiatrists, a mentally paranoid schizophrenic is a person who takes all of his thoughts seriously, equal to reality, when in reality they are just mere thoughts, produced from his very mind. We have the power and control to believe all of our thoughts as reality and act on them, or recognize them for what they truly are, thoughts, and simply ignore and dismiss them. When we can recognize the difference between thoughts and reality we achieve healthy physiological thinking.

This is the case with any form of entertainment. For instance, there was a case not too many years ago of some young men who viciously murdered one store clerk and tortured another with the intent to kill. Afterwards, the survivor tried to sue the death metal music industry, the music the thugs listened to. What she failed to realize is that how individuals react to their own thoughts, ideas and concepts are unique to their individual character. To put a blanket condemnation on the music they listen to, the shows they watch, and the books they read, is completely unfair and discriminatory. Don't get me wrong, singing about murder is not a good thing, however to blame the music on an individual's actions is to limit their freedom and free will, their expression and creativity. It is putting others in bondage according to our interpretation of "right" and "wrong." Where do we draw the line?

The bible, the very book that teaches love and mercy has the same God, murdering men, women, elderly and little children. Does this make the scriptures an evil book? No, for with discretion, discernment and balance, comes maturity and one can see the overall theme of the bible as a book that teaches agape love of mankind, justice, mercy and a faith in a God, who supplies a spirit, enabling mankind (the flesh) to live a spiritual life. It is only reading the Bible with God's Spirit that can bring us to the truth, for we are to "worship in Spirit and truth."

Whether it's Christian rock, style, dress, church going, praying, healing, preaching, singing, writing or quoting scripture, it is all merely external, visible and unnecessary additions to the true meaning of the Christ: a total reliance of faith in his death and ressurection, his ability to do our work with the forgiveness, mercy and agape love of our fellow man. All of us fall short on this. We don't forgive, we get angry, and then we befriend only people we like, failing to show empathy, understanding and compassion towards people who are different than us. But it's only those who have faith and are constantly trying to adjust their selfish ways to imitate Jesus Christ, by showing the fruitage of the spirit, that are the one's that are living in agreement with him.

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