I started a new discussion thread on Sharper Iron recently: “What Does Romans 14 Teach about Foods, Days, and Worship Music?” If you are interested in learning more about this subject, I encourage you to follow the discussion on Sharper Iron.
Below is my opening post in that thread.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Satan and his demons exist—they are real. They are incorrigibly evil.
Satan and his demons are spirit beings in ways that humans as spirit beings are not and never will be.
Satan and his demons have experienced realities that no humans on their own have ever experienced or will ever experience. They have knowledge that no humans on their own have ever had or will ever have. They have powers, abilities, and capabilities that no humans on their own have ever had or will ever have.
Because of all these truths about Satan and his demons, evil that is the result of direct or indirect demonic activity is of a supernatural character that other forms of evil are not.
Occult activities, therefore, are supernatural evil activities that are of a distinctively different character than other evil activities.
In keeping with all the preceding points, we must not approach music that is of the occult in the same ways that we approach other music. The supernaturally evil aspects of such music require us to categorically reject all music that is distinctively of the occult.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Throughout the world contemporary Christian music has captured countless churches, absorbing them into the domain of semi-charismatic, worldly evangelicalism. Sometimes the preaching has largely remained sound, but for how long now that the worship ethos of such churches has so dramatically changed? Whether its victims realise it or not, the contemporary worship movement is the instrument of the hour to pull down both the conduct and the doctrinal walls of Zion. How the arch-enemy of the churches of Christ and of human souls will be straining to speed on such a catastrophe! . . .
Even the partial adoption of contemporary worship will inevitably constitute a bridge to the total acceptance of ‘Christian’ rock culture. Composers and writers of ‘sounder’ modern genre songs say themselves that their primary aim is to draw conservative churches into the fold of Christian rock, and also to hasten ecumenical advance.
—Peter Masters, “Worship or Entertainment?,” 95-96
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Friends, I’m looking for thoughtful feedback on the possible pros and cons of the following train of thought:
I have been studying the subject of the Bible and music intensely for the past twelve years. I have been working on a book on that subject for several years now.
Because I want to profit as many people as possible and as soon as possible with all my work in this area, I am considering disseminating the material of my book in a lengthy series of blog posts instead of an e-book or a printed book.
Doing it as a series of blog posts allows me to instantly make my work available all over the world and gives me total control of everything about how that material is formatted and does so at no additional cost to me. It also allows me to continually revise anything in my work on an instantaneous, ongoing basis.
It also removes inherent limitations that other formats have with what can be included (for example, printed books cannot provide live links to other articles on my site as well as on other sites; illustrations by necessity have many limitations that would not be true on a blog post).
Thoughts?
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
–Pastor Mark Minnick, Sunday PM message, “Preachers and Missionaries UK 2023,” 8/20/23
I believe that these statements very insightfully express what really is at the heart of so many of the worship music issues in our day.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
For many months now, the focus of my study of what the Bible reveals about music has been on what it says about percussion instruments. To that end, I have been involved in two ongoing discussions on Sharper Iron:
Did the Israelites Use Drum-Like Instruments in the Worship in the Solomonic Temple?
Shamanism, Percussion, and First Corinthians 6:12
As God directs, I invite you to consider what has been discussed in these threads.
See also:
Are All Kinds of Percussion Acceptable to God for Use in Corporate Worship?
A Biblical Response to Robert Bakks on Percussion Instruments in Psalm 150
Image credit: Image was cropped from Image from page 330 of “The pictorial Bible and commentato… | Flickr
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
I am getting closer to finishing the first draft of my book, “The Battle for Kingdom Music: A Call to Worldwide Consecration”!
Here is the current layout of the book:
| Section | Page Numbers | Total Pages |
| Title Page | i | 1 |
| Preliminary | ii-iv | 3 |
| Table of Contents | v-xi | 7 |
| Introduction | 1-3 | 3 |
| Part I | 4-12 | 9 |
| Part II | 13-32 | 20 |
| Part III | 33-60 | 28 |
| Part IV | 61-76 | 16 |
| Conclusion* | 77 | 1 |
| Appendices | 78-104 | 27 |
The page counts are for 8.5×11 pages, font size 12. The total length is 42,527 words on 115 pages.
*I have not done very much with this section yet and plan to work on it a good bit more.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
In his work, “Music Through the Eyes of Faith,” Harold M. Best asserts the following:
When people say that rhythms, chords, or textures cause sexual license, violence, or drug abuse; whenever anybody—missionary or tribal person—says that certain kinds of music or rhythmic types are satanic, they are caught up in the same dilemma that Isaiah speaks of (chapter 44). There is really no difference between someone carving a god out of what otherwise is a piece of firewood and someone else who happens upon or makes a certain kind of music, expecting it to govern the actions of those hearing and using it.
—Harold M. Best, Music Through the Eyes of Faith, 48-49
I believe that Best is profoundly mistaken in what he says about “satanic music” through these statements. As a finite human, he has no capability to legitimately declare what he does concerning satanic music.
See my post Resources That Provide Answers to Key Issues Concerning CCM for much more biblical information about issues concerning what music God accepts in corporate worship.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
God has directed me to study what the Bible teaches about music for more than 12 years now. He has also led me for several years to work on writing my book The Battle for Kingdom Music: A Call to Worldwide Consecration.
I have taken this week off from work so that I can do at least 30 hours of work on my book and read the Psalms through for my sixth time this year.
After doing 16 1/2 hours since May 22, I may now be 95% finished with my first draft! I have also read Psalms 1-50 in the last three days.
Psalm 35:27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Praise God that He directed brethren in the FBFI to speak out in resolve concerning music that is acceptable to God!
97.10 Regarding a Commitment to Godly, Christ-honoring Music:
The FBF rejects the notion that music is not a matter of separation. Clearly, we would separate from a pastor or church that used rock music either to attract a crowd or-God forbid-in worship. Therefore, we recognize that it is a separation issue. The encroachment of “CCM” or Contemporary Christian Music as a musical genre has been ignored too long. It is wrong to judge motives subjectively, but it is essential to discern the implications of methods, particularly in music. Fundamentalists should be able to agree that we must be committed to Godly,
Christ-honoring music. With sufficient prayerful discussion with Fundamentalist musicians, and necessary study of the subject by our preachers we will be able to move toward a consensus of what is meant by ‘Christ-honoring’ music in practice. We call for Fundamentalists to cease defending tastes in music as a matter of “preference” and begin to expound the principles whereby those who need guidance on this issue can be truly helped. We assert that those who boast of their “balance’ and ‘objectivity” while rejecting the teaching of biblical principles concerning music are compromising the means whereby this issue can be resolved. Neither tradition nor taste are the issue. The Bible communicates principles of music that is acceptable to God that can and should be known and taught.
This resolution is from the PDF “Past FBFI Resolutions: 1946—Present” available at the bottom of this page: https://fbfi.org/positions/
Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Rajesh Gandhi holds a Ph.D. in New Testament Interpretation from Bob Jones Seminary; he's a long-time member of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC.
