Distinguished Prairie Bible Institute Music Director Lowell Hart Exposes Satan's Music in the Church
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 3, 2016 /
Christian Newswire/ -- Lowell Hart, distinguished former music director at Prairie Bible Institute, just released a new book exposing Satan's music in the Church.
Contemporary Christian Music Exposed defines the meaning of Contemporary and the roots of Contemporary Christian Music. Lowell Hart's goal is to restore the meaning of worshiping in spirit and in truth.
Photo: Lowell and Elizabeth Hart. Lowell Hart is an award winner, lecturer, and former choir director at Prairie Bible Institute. He has lectured across North America on Church music and the origins and meaning of Contemporary Christian Music. He is available for interviews. Please call today.
James F. Linzey, D.D. writes:
I first met Lowell Hart in 1974 when I was a member of the choir at Prairie High School, a division of Prairie Bible Institute. He was the director and one of pillars of the music department at Prairie Bible Institute. In short, Lowell Hart's expertise, and his high musical, ethical, and Christian standards helped make PBI one of the most highly sought out Bible Institute's in the world. His impeccable leadership worked in tandem with the leadership of L.E. Maxwell, who was the president of PBI. Mr. Maxwell's grandson, Mark Maxwell, is the current president of the institute now called Prairie College.
One of the highlights of my life was competing in the national level competition among universities and high schools hosted by the Canadian Music Educators Association Conference in Edmonton, Alberta. In 1975, the Prairie High School Choir, under Lowell Hart's direction, took first place, winning the Leslie Bell Memorial Trophy.
Lowell Hart's professionalism, expertise in music, knowledge of the Bible, and his love of our Lord Jesus Christ have always been an inspiration to me. I was particularly impressed with his viewpoint regarding the types of music that are acceptable for true worship of a holy God. However, his viewpoint is much more than one man's perspective on acceptable music for worship. He backs up his position with scholarly studies on the roots and history of Contemporary Christian Music and the evolution of that music throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century.
Contemporary Christian Music Exposed is an update of Lowell Hart's earlier work titled Satan's Music Exposed. Lowell Hart, now 88 years of age, presents a thorough study of what the Bible has to say about music as a vehicle of worship. The information he presents in this book is well corroborated by others under whom I have also studied such as Holly Visel, who was a devout Presbyterian and instructor of singing, drama, and speaking. She also directed General Patton's choir and taught voice to Mr. Irvine, founder of Irvine, California. I have also studied under Jimmie Rogers, Jack Coleman, and Eillene Hummel. No one I know is in disagreement with Lowell Hart, not even the Bible.
As a trained classical musician and historian of the development of music, Lowell Hart's approach to this subject is objective, thorough and biblical. Furthermore, he presents the prevailing view of the Church in Western Civilization throughout the past 2,000 years. It is the use of electricity, which is used in the invention of amplified instruments such as guitars and keyboards, as well as the introduction of drums, which originated in voodoo music, in "Christian" worship which created Contemporary Christian Music. Take away the electricity and the drums, and churches would be left with a natural, pleasant form of music, lifting the soul to a higher plane of spirituality, connecting one with God. Music educators call this "pure" music.
What then is Contemporary Christian Music doing to people if it is not doing what "pure" music is doing? Lowell Hart says, "I-Dosing is the use of binaural beats to alter the chemistry of the brain and create a virtual high similar to an illegal drug-induced experience." Apparently, many people who are "into" CCM may be mistaking a chemical imbalance for an encounter with the Holy Spirit. Lowell Hart also says, "… other researchers say the 'high' listeners claim to feel may actually be a placebo effect determined by the individual's desire to feel it."
When L.E. Maxwell passed away, the musical standards at Prairie Bible Institute fell, and the institution ceased to be a world class leading Bible institute. Prairie Bible Institute was once a leading Bible educational establishment, sending out the second to the most missionaries into the mission field each year, Moody Bible Institute having been number one. Lowell Hart's book raises concern about similar effects Contemporary Christian Music may be having on the Church and the character of Christianity in Western Civilization. The culture in which one may walk into any church on a Sunday evening at 7:00 pm and open the hymnals and sing about Christian theology and learn proper doctrine through song, worshiping in spirit and truth, seems non-existent. In many cities, even the church doors are locked.
Lowell Hart is to the Church music establishment what L.E. Maxwell was to the Christian educational establishment. Whether you are a believer who has doubts and questions about some of the music used in what is mistakenly called "worship" today, or one who is "sold out" on it, this book is a 'must read' for you. My conviction is that every church leader, as a guardian of the congregation, should read this book. I highly recommend Contemporary Christian Music Exposed. This outstanding treatise is available in bookstores near you.
Chaplain, Major James F. Linzey, USA (Ret.) is the chief editor of the Modern English Version Bible and managing editor of the New Tyndale Version Bible. He attended Prairie High School, Southern California College, later graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary, and has lectured around the world. He was in the final running for the 1996 Dove Awards, is a recording artist, and remains in close communication with his former instructor Lowell D. Hart.
