Posted: 03/21/07

Elvis Impersonator Leads Sunday Morning Worship

A.W. Tozer once wrote that your worship will never rise higher than your view of God. If this is true, Spring Creek Church in Pewaukee, Wisconsin has a very, very low view of Almighty God. In fact, they apparently serve a god who is entertained by an Elvis impersonator in full regalia, leading the choir in "How Great Thou Art" on a Sunday morning. You can view this abomination on the church website here, 10 minutes into the video. The worship occasion? "Retro Sunday."

As the man who impersonated Elvis slithered all over the church "stage", (yes, churches now have "stages"), it is fair to say that he really represents the purest example of the evangelicalism brought to us by Bill Hybels and Rick Warren. The anthropology that has posed as theology in the "seeker-sensitive" churches of America has produced a generation of evangelicals who worship their own bellies and don't even know it. Just as the Israelites danced around the Golden Calf and believed they could worship Jehovah God that way, today's professing Christians dance around their American idols, in this case a deceased Elvis the Pelvis, and sing their praises to what they call God. Anyone who can read the awesome scene in Revelation 5, however, and still let Elvis lead the worship, knows not the God of Scripture.

The awesome sense of the holiness of God is gone from our churches. The fear of the Lord is likewise departed. God has become a creation of our own jaded and hedonistic minds. Most of all, the power of the Holy Ghost is gone from among us. That is why we must have Elvis impersonators. The Holy Spirit has left the building. Bored, sated, and so drunk with our own importance, we cannot set aside the profane and the unholy, even for an hour in the house of the Lord. While angels and archangels in heaven fall down before the throne of our thrice holy God, American Christians make a mockery of "How Great Thou Art" for cheap laughs on "Retro Sunday." Worship here on earth was intended to be a foretaste of that great and eternal worship service in heaven. As the visible church here on earth joins in with the church triumphant in heaven, we join in that heavenly chorus of praise to the Lamb for sinners slain. What is filthy, what is unholy and what is an abomination to God must depart in His presence. God demands and deserves no less.

Elvis died on a toilet, a gluttonous, obese, drug-addicted rock star who had lived a life in rebellion to God. Further, he led a nation of young people into moral rebellion through the spirit of the music he played. Unless he repented in the last moments of his drug-induced haze of a life, he is in eternal torment in hell. This is who Spring Creek's pastor chose to sing, "How Great Thou Art" in worship. The mockery of that scene will stay with me for a very long time.

The spirit of anti-christ is alive and well in the evangelical church. It comes through the hearts of idolatrous pastors who long ago sold their souls to the gods of church growth. Not content to preach the full counsel of God and let God build their churches, these pastors seek temporal success and popularity and as the video proves, they will do anything to get it. Absolutely anything. And they are shameless. God has given these idolators over to their own way and that's why we have not yet seen the depths to which these churches will go to draw a crowd.

I recently read the text of a powerful hymn that dates back 400 years. The afflicted and persecuted German pastor, Paul Gerhardt faced down the most powerful princes of his day because of his unyielding faith in Christ and his refusal to stop preaching the Scriptures. There was no foolishness and carnality  in his ministry. Men like Gerhardt  were in a spiritual battle for truth and they were soldiers of Christ. These were real men, not enamored of temporary fame and importance or comfort and ease. They knew that following Christ was not a life-enhancement program. They paid a high price to follow in the bleeding footsteps of the Savior, wherever He led. They did this for one reason--because they loved the Lord Jesus Christ. They were willing to die for Him and many did.  As the vision of the church Elvis impersonator recedes from your mind, take a moment and read the powerful text of this hymn and read about real Christianity. Friends, there is a counterfeit on hand that will take millions to hell. You cannot have the world and have Jesus. You cannot laugh at blasphemy and have Jesus. You cannot add Jesus onto your life and subtract nothing. As Paul Gerhardt wrote, "My Jesus is my splendor." When he is that to us, all filthiness, all evil and all carnality become repugnant to us in His holy presence. May God grant us a spiritual awakening as to what it really means to follow Jesus Christ, that on that Last Day we may not be told to depart because He never knew us.

Note the pure and clear doctrine in this hymn and weep that so few of our churches will sing these hymns anymore. That is because it describes a different Christianity. Note also the Christian life described in stanzas 11 and 12. This is not "Your Best Life Now". The Christians best life comes later, in the presence of our Savior.

    1. If God Himself be for me,

        I may a host defy;

        For when I pray, before me

        My foes, confounded, fly.

        If Christ, my Head and Master,

        Befriend me from above,

        What foe or what disaster

        Can drive me from His love?

        2. This I believe, yea, rather,

        Of this I make my boast,

        That God is my dear Father,

        The Friend who loves me most,

        And that, whate'er betide me,

        My Savior is at hand

        Through stormy seas to guide me

        And bring me safe to land.

        3. I build on this foundation,

        That Jesus and His blood

        Alone are my salvation,

        The true, eternal good.

        Without Him all that pleases

        Is valueless on earth;

        The gifts I owe to Jesus

        Alone my love are worth.

        4. My Jesus is my Splendor,

        My Sun, my Light, alone;

        Were He not my Defender

        Before God's awe-full throne,

        I never should find favor

        And mercy in His sight,

        But be destroyed forever

        As darkness by the light.

        5. He canceled my offenses,

        Delivered me from death;

        He is the Lord who cleanses

        My soul from sin through faith.

        In Him I can be cheerful,

        Bold, and undaunted aye;

        In Him I am not fearful

        Of God's great Judgment Day.

        6. Naught, naught, can now condemn me

        Nor set my hope aside;

        Now hell no more can claim me,

        Its fury I deride.

        No sentence e'er reproves me,

        No ill destroys my peace;

        For Christ, my Savior, loves me

        And shields me with His grace.

        7. His Spirit in me dwelleth,

        And o'er my mind He reigns.

        All sorrow He dispelleth

        And soothes away all pains.

        He crowns His work with blessing

        And helpeth me to cry,

        "My Father!" without ceasing,

        To Him who dwells on high.

        8. And when my soul is lying

        Weak, trembling, and opprest,

        He pleads with groans and sighing

        That cannot be exprest;

        But God's quick eye discerns them,

        Although they give no sound,

        And into language turns them

        E'en in the heart's deep ground.

        9. To mine His Spirit speaketh

        Sweet word of holy cheer,

        How God to him that seeketh

        For rest is always near

        And how He hath erected

        A city fair and new,

        Where what our faith expected

        We evermore shall view.

        10. In yonder home doth flourish

        My heritage, my lot;

        Though here I die and perish,

        My heaven shall fail me not.

        Though care my life oft saddens

        And causeth tears to flow,

        The light of Jesus gladdens

        And sweetens every woe.

        11. Who clings with resolution

        To Him whom Satan hates

        Must look for persecution;

        For him the burden waits

        Of mockery, shame, and losses,

        Heaped on his blameless head;

        A thousand plagues and crosses

        Will be his daily bread.

        12. From me this is not hidden,

        Yet I am not afraid;

        I leave my cares, as bidden,

        To whom my vows were paid.

        Though life and limb it cost me

        And everything I won,

        Unshaken shall I trust Thee

        And cleave to Thee alone.

        13. Though earth be rent asunder,

        Thou'rt mine eternally;

        Not fire nor sword nor thunder

        Shall sever me from Thee;

        Not hunger, thirst, nor danger,

        Not pain nor poverty

        Nor mighty princes' anger

        Shall ever hinder me.

        14. No angel and no gladness,

        No throne, no pomp, no show,

        No love, no hate, no sadness,

        No pain, no depth of woe,

        No scheme of man's contrivance,

        However small or great,

        Shall draw me from Thy guidance

        Nor from Thee separate.

        15. My heart for joy is springing

        And can no more be sad,

        'Tis full of mirth and singing,

        Sees naught but sunshine glad.

        The Sun that cheers my spirit

        Is Jesus Christ, my King;

        That which I shall inherit

        Makes me rejoice and sing.

        ________________________

By Ingrid Schlueter Email: vcyproducer@aol.com Click here for bio and archived articles