God Owns Music

It is imperative that all philosophical basis of music begins with God’s creation, which includes music, and God’s ownership which includes music.  To the Christian, all forms of music come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Colossians 1:16 states:

       For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him 

St. John 1:3 further explains that “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.”  Once there was no music.  God was before music.  God wanted music so He made music.  No one else made music.  Therefore, no one but God has true ownership of music.  The Christian musician should get rid of the sense of ownership of music.  No spirit filled musician, or any musician for that matter, has the right to say this is my music. Remember, as we considered in another blog, no musician ever has taken 'nothing' and made 'something'. He merely arranges God's musical building blocks. He 'constructs' but he can not create.

Why all this fuss over ownership? God is autonomous.  God made music.  As Christian musicians, we must give Him preeminence--that includes music.  Any other philosophical belief will lead down the long slippery slope of humanism. We, as Christian musicians, are not autonomous!

As a Bible College music teacher for over forty years, I have seen very talented music students that headed down that philosophical path.  They found out early on that they were talented enough to proceed with out God's help. They would deny that they were "religious humanists"but deep down in their heart they were not sold out to God.  They either secretly or sometimes openly held ownership to music especially when it came to matters of musical style.  Like Thomas Aquinas, they followed a philosophical path  in their musical pursuit that was independent from the Lordship of Christ.  (Remember that Aquinas believed that man was fallen in matters of grace but that he was not depraved when it came to matters of nature--which included music ipso facto. )