Screenshot from a Hillsong music event dance number that included near-nude women covered by bath towels.
“The Hillsong brand of Christianity is one marked with pursuing earthly treasures, entertainment, celebrity, and sensationalism. I like to call it “pop-Christianity”. Drawing from all the entertainment and commercial successes of the 21st century, pop-Christianity appeals to the temporal at the expense of the eternal.”
(Chris Saenz – Post Christian Era) Many Christians were shocked in August when longtime Hillsong songwriter, Marty Sampson announced that he was “losing his faith”.
In a Twitter post (that has since been removed), Marty claims that he is “not in anymore” and wants “genuine truth. Not the “I Just Believe It” kind of truth”. His list of reasons that Christianity is “not for me”, according to Sampson, read like a laundry list of teenage rebellions to Christianity during youth group:
- Christians are judgmental
- Science disproves Christianity
- Preachers fail morally
- The Bible has contradictions
Many Christians will read this news and wonder how God’s power fits in to a Christian leader walking away from the Faith. Christians may wonder how someone so influential to modern Christianity can reject the faith he led others through. Is God losing His elect to the powerful forces of modernity?
In one of Marty’s most popular songs, Oceans, one lyric reads:
“Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders”
Did God fail to lead Marty into an unfailing trust?
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