Joy to the World?

On a forum for evangelical universalism there is a thread regarding the amount of music lyrics that carry the hopeful theme of ultimate reconciliation of all things in Christ. One post said that if a cataclysmic event obliterated all evidence of our Christian faith except our music the archaeologists would surely assume that we all believed in the universal redemption and restoration through Christ!

One of the most beloved songs of the Christmas season is Joy to the World yet we sing it without noting what we are actually declaring.  Of course its theme flows naturally within a song since music is a language of the heart but take the same words and speak them in church and you might summarily be pronounced a heretic!

Listen and decipher the message of Joy to the World:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found…

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love…

How far is the curse found?  Do you really believe He came to change the effects of the curse into blessings so far as it is found?  Does He rule the whole world with truth and grace and will He make the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and the wonders of His love?  What if we were to sing “Joy to the Church?”  Or “Joy to the Chosen Few?”  That would be a disturbing wake-up call yet it reflects what we say we believe with our minds. Why is it we can sing what we can’t say and aren’t supposed to believe? We instinctively know it is the cosmic scope of the gospel within these songs that merit the worship we feel when we sing the words. Anything less would not be worthy…not worth-ship.

Here are a couple of other examples:

All the earth come alive
Lift your eyes to the morning
Let our hearts beat again
With a lifeblood that never fails
Your love it will never fail

Breaking down the divide in a holy collision
The Divine in disguise
Took the cross for our sin and shame
Our God You will never fail

See the lost in return
Swing the doors ever wider
See the tide as it turns
Love and mercy is on the rise
As the world folds into Your light
All creation will see Your light   (Rise by Hillsong 2011)

______________

Where it comes flowers grow
Lions sleep, gravestones roll
Where death dies all things come alive
Where it comes water’s clean
Children fed
All believe
When death dies all things live
All things live

Where it comes flowers grow
Lions sleep, gravestones roll
Where death dies all things live  (When Death Dies by Gungor 2011)

The following is a comment on the same thread regarding the “subversive” universalism of our worship music:

“A lot of our worship music, from old hymns to contemporary choruses, from the deepest, most contemplative to the fluffiest, carries undertones of Universalism. I find it absolutely fascinating, since most of the artists and composers would deny being Universalists, as would most of those that joyfully sing the songs in worship. The conflict between the heart that longs for God to save the world and the mind that pessimistically declares that He cannot or will not do it is never clearer than in a church that expresses belief in a hopeless, eternal Hell in its statement of faith and then turns right around and sings that the love of God “reaches to the lowest Hell. ” They sing about “streams of mercy, never ceasing,” while warning in their sermons that mercy will one day be cut off. Children’s songs about the God who’s “got the whole world in His hands” belie doctrine that insists that most of the world will be ripped out of His hands…

Deep in the heart of Christians is the hope of the ultimate victory of God, and while bad theology obscures that hope, music has a way of bringing it out.” *

Amen!

Many more examples can be found, with links to listen, here:    http://www.godslovewins.com/songs.htm