freedom – Protestia

Justin Bieber dropped a gospel album on Easter, surprising fans with the 6-song EP that is rife with prayers and, scriptural references, sermon clips, and themed around freedom because of the cross.

Bieber is active on social media making consistent professions of faith, inviting a variety of pastors on to give the gospel. He will frequently talk about Jesus and his relationship with him, what parts of the bible he and his wife Hailey are reading, what he learned from a sermon, and will pray with his tens of millions of followers. He is a member of Hillsong Choir and has led worship at pal Judah’s Smith Churchome, as well as has preached from the pulpit.

While he has been consistent in his earnestness for years, his understanding of biblical truth is unfortunately underdeveloped and is reminiscent of a newly converted 14-year-old trying to explain the Christian faith and gospel to his parents after just one weekend at bible camp, leaving one praying that the Master’s seminary gives him a scholarship, or that he starts listening to better preachers than his current squishy pastor.

He has one song that could easily pass for a worship song in most churches nowadays, in the “Where you go I follow“, albeit with a slightly different musical arrangement. In fact, it will likely be a bonafide worship hit, and will be played in churches all across America.

Verse 1:
Where you go, I follow (Where you go, I follow)
You’re with me every step of the way
Here in the struggle (Here in the struggle)
Your love’s enough to wash it all away

Pre-Chorus:
On the third day, yeah, you rose up
And you beat death once and for all (Once and for all)
Once and for all (Once and for all)
Chorus:
There’s nobody like you (Like you, like you)
There’s nobody like you, Jesus (Jesus, Jesus)
There’ll nеver be nobody like You (Likе you, like you)
There’ll never be nobody like you, Jesus (Jesus, Jesus)

Here are a few more snippets from his album, including one song that has a few s-bombs thrown in.

From the song Freedom.

Big up to my brother
Blessed sons and daughters
We all lookin’ for the answers
We in search of living water
Too blind to see the Messiah
Are you weary? Are you tired?
Runnin’ on empty, feelin’ the fire
Mm, the Devil is a liar
The story’s already written
Children, you are forgiven (Yeah)
Ain’t nothin’ you could do for you to change that
And everythin’ you did, He erased that
Yeah, He took it all and threw it in the wasteland
The dead resurrected, the Devil tried test it, him lost
Him lose again (Mm)
Head bruise again (Mm, mm-mm)
Sweat, blood, tears ‘pon the cross
Did you know He paid the cost for you?

From All she wrote:

I got the keys to the kingdom, I’m ’bout my father business
I came up straight from the bottom, I started from the finish
You can’t undermine a mastermind
I may be out of your mind, but I ain’t out of mine
I’m co-crucified, bury, resurrected
And perfected in the Son of God
Just like water turn to wine, I’m a prophetic sign
Ask your barber, I’ma headliner in New York Times
My life verses, I am His, yeah, and He is mine
The great “I Am’s”, the greatest Lamb of all time

We’re in this Together

I was livin’ in a mansion doin’ big things
FBI raided my house and sh– was gettin’ dicey
I was doin’ stupid sh– to get people to like me
All that to say, I’m thankful that’s not who I am
And I’m thankful God was with me when sh–hit the fan
‘Cause He’s the reason that I’m still standin’
And even in a pandemic, God is still plannin’
Plannin’ peace, plannin’ joy, plan another day
Gave His life upon the cross to wash our sins away

As for pastor Judah Smith, he has an outro on two songs, both containing sermon samples where he talks about who Jesus is and the promises found in him.

Smith is the pastor Churchome, a hip-to-be-cool, celebrity-endorsed 10,000 member megachurch that recently brought on Trinity-denying Modalist TD Jakes to be a board member of their church, along with having some very heterodox beliefs.

In a move done with a completely straight face and nary a smirk or an eye roll to be seen, the Religious Freedom Institute (RFI) presented the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Russell Moore, with their “2020 Defender of Religious Freedom Award.” The award is given to “a person who defends religious freedom for everyone, everywhere from within his or her faith tradition.”

Thomas Farr, President of RFI, said in a press release about their newly minted winner:

Dr. Moore is a brilliant, winsome, and tireless advocate for religious liberty. Whether making his case from the pulpit, or in the pages of The New York Times, Dr. Moore finds a way to speak so others can listen…

Dr. Moore defends the religious liberty of all people. He challenges believers to be better public witnesses to their faith, and he challenges secularists to have greater appreciation for the importance of religion in American public life. Dr. Moore stresses: ‘One thing we need to be very clear about is that religious liberty is not a government “benefit,” but a natural and inalienable right granted by God.’

Oh Really?

How interesting.

I suppose from their clearly warped perspective, it makes sense to give the award for “defending religious freedom” to the man who has been on the record multiple times saying that the government has a right to shut down the churches and that churches must comply with restrictions on if they can gather, when they can gather, how many they can gather, and what they can do or can’t do when they gather.

In fact, he’s on record as saying that God gave the government the right and authority to shut churches down, and when we obey the government and not have services, or not have services in a way that the government forbids, we are in fact “rending what is due both to God and to Caesar.“

Prohibiting singing? Moore’s ok with that. Required to put up signage in the Church? That too. Forced to write down the names and contact information of every person attending Church, or requiring pre-registration? Straight into his veins, man.

Thoughts on John MacArthur’s months-long struggle to stay open amid national and international scrutiny? We have no idea because Moore has been utterly silent about that one.

But hey – according to the RFI he writes winsome articles in the New York Times.

That’s got to count for something, right?