Bait and Switch.

"Do you love your guns?" Yeah

"god?" Yeah

"The government?"

"Do you love your guns?" Yeah

"god?" Yeah

"The government?"- Marylyn Manson, "The Love Song." 2000

The love of money, fame, fortune, notoriety, the love of other men regarding what we produce in this world, the worst drug out there. A drug, as I am using here, deviates people from truth. Drugs cover what the mind naturally does, therefore drugs are found in various forms, with the addition of chemicals being just a few. 

"You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
And You say I am held when I am falling short
When I don’t belong, oh You say that I am Yours
And I believe (I), oh I believe (I)
What You say of me (I)
Oh, I believe" - Lauren Daigle, "You Say" 2018

Two choruses, one God. Two supposedly opposite ends of the spectrum. Two people, Marylyn Manson, and Lauren Daigle. Two different groups of listeners, one sin. Marylyn Manson, a "Shock rocker" from my own days in high school has been in the business of condemning God, actively putting him down. I can recall how controversial he was, even in my public high school conversations. I remember that he was just, "controversial" but the specifics weren't understood. I was simply told to stay away, and therefore never really listened to his music. 

Lauren Daigle, a different story. This southern belle from Louisiana has a different approach to music. She appears to love God, praise His name. The last album in 2015, "How Can It Be," was less popular than her most recent 2018, "Look Up Child." In fact, I personally was surprised when I heard the mainstream mention this artist whom had such strong Christian songs on her last album, like Salt and Light, or Once and For All. Songs on her 2015 album discussed, Christian scripture, not just society's acceptable view of Christianity. Her last album could have been more controversial because she claimed Christ as all, and His crucifixion and love for our wretched and sinful selves. 

Oh let this be where I die

My lord with thee crucified

Be lifted high as my Kingdom's fall

Once and for all, once and for all.- Lauren Daigle, "Once and for all," 2015

Marylyn Manson, again, an obvious figure to despise as a Christian, so much so that he probably isn't even known by many who attend church. If known, he is probably scoffed at, looked down on, even prayed for by more sympathetic Christians. His lyrics however, have stayed consistent, and his adamant proclamation against God and Christ seems to be in line more with truth than a wavering musician touted as an authentic Christian singer. 

Think about it. Marlyn Manson has claims against God, consistent throughout his career. I think almost every song mentions Him. Lauren Daigle, in her most-popular Billboard hit, "You Say," mentions God once. Otherwise, she just eludes to Christ, when the lyrics can be more accepted because they could also just be a relationship, "You say I am strong.." I hear similar lyrics on other, more-secular music which depicts love as this cheap sentiment. 

Marylyn Manson as opposed to God as his gimmick is, actually presents as much doctrine as many Christian sings, if not a more accurate picture. One who is of the world can paint a more accurate picture of the world, thus the problems that arise because of it, 

"There's lots of pretty, pretty ones

That want to get you high

But all the pretty, pretty ones

Will leave you low

And blow your mind."- Marylyn Manson, "The Dope Show." 

And, if you have ever watched a Marylyn Manson music video, it is horrid. They are shocking displays of grotesque human behaviors, many of which are the images I am filled with when I read the Book of Revelations. Revelation 14:20 says, "And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs." This is the coming prophecy, New Testament truth. 

Lauren Daigle's lyrics are presenting niceties, a watered-down truth of Christ. To top it off, the word she is claiming is a wavering truth, a "lukewarm" Christianity that God also claims will be spit from His mouth (Revelation 3:16), due to one who claims God, claiming that certain sins are unknown if they are in fact sins. According to the Bible, homosexuality is a sin, (1 Corinthians 6:9), however, so also is sex before marriage, also is coveting other people's things. So also is stealing, lying, denying Christ. For it is a sin, a behavior, not the person we must condemn as Christ-followers. Also, I am not the judge on this,  the Bible claims and Christians live it. For a Christian who judges another based on their sin is as bad as the sinner themselves. Worse actually, like a dog that returns to their vomit (Proverbs 26:11). So both parties can be guilty, however the wavering Christian knows better.  

Scripture such as in Mark 9:40, "for whoever is not against us is for us." gets overused I feel and then allows for the Christians to stop and reside in a "safe zone," when we were called to "deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him." (Matthew 16:24) Jesus himself did not come to make nice to the world, "but to save it" (John 3:17). Truth has a way of unwavering and being opposed. 

What I am saying here, take away if you want, is that "Shock Rocker," Marlyn Manson has presented consistent since his first day, though I do not have the whole intricate history of his spiritual Journey. However, what I have seen and heard from the Christian Artist, Lauren Daigle is wavered. Christ-followers are not nice to the world, for the world is sin, people sin, and we are called to be opposed to sin. Love the neighbor, our brothers, the homeless fellow on the corner, our enemy, those who also claim Jesus is a lie. Mankind is a wretched display of God's creation, and to cover this up with self-confidence, or some psychology-based ideology, lacking any truth from the Bible, is where Satan lives. 

Satan knows religion, and knows how to capture souls. C.S. Lewis wrote in, "The Screwtape Letters," about two demons talking back and forth to try and capture a soul. At one point the demons almost become distraught because the soul they are trying to capture is going through World War II bombings, and the demons found that those hard times tend to bring men to their knees. The more broken a man was, the less potential for another soul for their boss the Devil to feast on. 

Satan knows what man wants and uses this against us. Only Satan could take the gift of talent, the gift of love, and turn it into a close-enough doctrine, having millions of people stop short of true conviction. Satan has the knowledge of man, for mankind in the flesh is his, we are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1-3). He gives us just enough of what feels safe, only to further the deviation along the way. 

Even when Jesus was in the flesh, demons He encountered knew the Doctrine of Christ, knew what was to come, knew that they had a, "time" they were to be banished. When Jesus sends demons into the pigs in the Jewish territory over the cliff from the, "crazed" man, those demons begged Him to be merciful (Mark 5:1-20). Is man any more powerful than Demons, or Angels? 

You see, that a watered-down message claiming to be Christ can be more of a problem for Christians than the opposition. You see that a man opposed to God, but knows the doctrine and has to constantly fight against it with grotesque displays of human sin, may actually turn people toward God in the long run. A, "Shock rocker" as a youth seems cool, but then you get older and see the pain behind the message of anti-Christ, thus turning to the alternative. 

You say Christian music is "safe" music, but the Bible is not safe, Christianity is not safe. There is a war going on. There is an obvious opposition to truth. Man is accepting sinful acts as though they are acceptable by Christ all too often. This I know because of my own failings, my own wretchedness, every day. I know the difficulties, every single day that this fleshly body brings, thus I know what I need for encouragement, true, sound doctrine, not a "safe" song that depicts self-love and encouragement. Not a song that tells me its all going to be alright. Not a song that is going to cover the hard truth of death, sin, pain, wretched human beings that are nothing without Christ. 

Let us not be a prostitute going along with the lowest bidder. Instead, let us be broken, poor, wretched men who can then submit to the all-powerful creator of the world, God. In His promise of grace and love can we stand firm. Anything away from God, a sin. Therefore one can see that sin is a sin is a sin, and "close-enough" mentality will destroy people in the long run. 

I'm not saying to go out and buy a Marlyn Manson album or burn your Lauren Daigle one, but what I am saying is don't stop short of truth and reside on what seems nice and safe and then wonder why you are not growing in your faith. 

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth."- 2  Timothy 2:15