Sorry once again, basically my write up is a review of how our world today tries to explain away God and his power,
Also in the bible it refers to truth as light being revealed in dark places which can causes a disruption because we can no longer ignore what has been seen as the truth.

I apologize that I could not get the opportunity to go into more but if there are any questions Ill try my best. Common gbade there is always a point, how would you like it be applicable to you!


drea

Hello to all its been a minute but I have been checking in to see what has been happening, it appears the topic is loosing a little steam, so I’ll just put my little thing and see how that goes.

What I would like to do is call attention to the revelation of truth, truth brings to light what has not been seen before, its hard to push it back under the carpet or close behind the door once it has been seen and that is what’s happening with Sin (the culture of Hip Hop), it’s being revealed.
Just for the sake of sharing, some of the things that I will be writing about came about from a study that I was involved in a few months ago…
There are ongoing challenges towards Christianity, many believe that there is nothing tangible about the gospel, the church has been polluted resulting in worship and belief being abandoned. We are a society that has become desensitized to Hell, often referring to Hell as the current life we are living in (due to our circumstances, living environments, etc) So the rejection of Christianity has been played out in the following beliefs that have been adopted by the humanistic society that exist:
Rationalism: reliance on reason as the basis for establishment of religious truth

Materialism: a doctrine that the only or the highest values or objectives lie in material well-being and in the furtherance of material progress

Secularism: indifference to or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious considerations
Pluralism: state of society in which members of diverse ethnic, racial, religious, or social groups maintain an autonomous participation in and development

So the reactions to a proclaimed truth of the bible is thrown into a humanistic context and rationalized as unbelievable or unreal to the reason/or lack of reasoning.

So being accepting is not a possibility when dealing with the plights of this world, because Jesus said because you come in the name of Jesus they will reject you as they rejected me.
My question how do we see God. See when we limit him and see him as a person up in heaven detached from our realties on earth he cries because that is not how he wants to be seen felt or heard. We are limiting our God by believe that he is detached from our realities; I believe God is much bigger than that but we have to trust him, in all we do.

God wants us to be victorious against Satan, but we cannot do this alone, when we try alone we are prone to fail because Satan is much bigger than the appearance of bad people and dark clothing, he causes us to go against God.

Drea

Wow, lol so we went from the revelation of truth to the justification of monies to Pastors, if you wanna be exact there are many different verses that deal with offering, tithing and gifts to Pastors. The first place you can start is Paul's letters to the different communities (Corinth, Thessalonica, Galatica, and Philipi) that talk about gifts and offerings. Paul refused to be cared for by certain communities over others not because of personal choice but because he didn’t want the community to buff its chest in praise and adoration of themself for their gift to the ministry and to ensure that they didn’t feel that their gift was a means to influence the ministry.

Is this something that is ignored by the ministry of Christ or not address in the bible nope it is all over in scripture of the humility of leaders and the great responsibility that is on them. If it is something you feel spiritual compelled to deal with then you need to have a conversation with God.

Keep in mind that biases is a make up that is a part of anyone, how were your biases communicate through your views on this post? It goes back to show the infallibility of a man, how imperfect we are and in need of Jesus, because where biases are apparent that is where scripture takes over.
• He seems to have forgotten that almost every form of music, those that evolved included, had their roots in seculiarism. And the secular artistes saw it fit to express themselves in the only way their mindset was structured - secularity.
Thank you – their mindset was and is secularism and everything attached to that world***
Our words and what we say is a powerful member of our body because what we say becomes life/ a reality:

Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin…(Ecc 5:6)
James 3:5-18 Even so the tongue is a little member and boast great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth and it continues v.10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and curse…these things ought not to be

So no I am not expecting you to cut off your tongue if you have harsh words, that’s old testament styles, but what I expect you to do is recognize and use the bible as the true measure, what does it say you will know them by their fruits.

Andrea

Oh yes how could I forget which was brought up by Gbade, you are right Jesus did not come to condem when he was on the earth but to save, when he returns, that is when he will be coming as a roaring lion of Judah, casting Satan and his amry into the firey pit of Hell. (Sounds interesting dont it, I remember as a child it use to scare the crap out of me) Not meek and mild humble Jesus, He's coming to claim whats his!

There is no grey area to sin, sin is what it is. (the compromise is Jesus) by his blood!


Thanks
Andrea

(Smile) Gbade, I’m offended don’t you know that the best advocate/testimony towards Anti Hip Hop is a former Hip Hop head!
Your right, you don’t have to watch the movie, what the movie is talking about is holiness, which you can get straight out of the bible.
See I don’t want to deter those who want to seek Christ so let me start there:
1) The scripture does say come as you are, keeping in mind that the spirit of God is always seeking you – your free will either choose to obey or disobey
2) As you grow in Christ there is an eternal manifestation, that begins to take shape, there is a renewing of spirit and mind (you no longer see things as a part of life, you see things through the eyes of God) as good or evil, as light or darkness, righteousness/truth or sin, hence when the reference is made that you are a new creature/man/person in Christ.
3) Then you continue to be obedient in that relationship with Christ (don’t have time this round but the relationship with Christ takes on a very important dynamic within itself)
Now back to the topic at hand:
God’s purpose is to bring light to things that have been in darkness. Darkness when used is a rhetorical device is to communicate unmoral or evil. See when we say that something is bad but has a little good, or where good is evil and evil is good it’s humanities way to reject the truth. It’s a tool use by Satan to try and silence God’s truth. John 3:20 For everyone that doeth evil hate light (truth), neither do they come to the light (truth) lest his deeds be discovered. My truth is not based off my educational teachings or my ability to reason but from God I am able to feel secured with the truth which shall set me free. See I can always go back to scripture for clarity that is my measure of truth, not the movie not who I believe is a good rap compared to as a bad rapper my standard measuring stick is God.
Since so many people have posted I am not going to be able to cover everything but there were a few things that stuck out that I would like to deal with.
How Jesus dealt with the masses, very important
1) the spirit of God draws people, they may have been hookers, of tax collectors, or whatever but they were looking for the spirit of God.

2) Also note that Jesus birth is not a story for story sake, it speaks of his need to be born of our father in heaven not a earthly father hence eliminating the fact that he was born through a sin lineage. The manifestation of the cruse was through Adam’s sin.

3) The terminology that we are perfect in Christ, which means because of our acknowledgement of his death and resurrection we are able to ask forgiveness and that sin is no longer a part of us but cast into the sea of forgiveness.

4) As Christians, we declare a boldness to speak to opposition not for opposition to change. So I am not at liberty to keep truth to my self but be a witness of Christ.

Personally I will say there is a transparency as a person living for Christ, that is necessary to have. If I was to speak and say as a Christian how perfect I am, how great everything is all the time that is not scripture. The transparency is the testimony of my life, not rose pedals and rainbows but the realities of being frustrated, my disgusting inability to be patient yadda, yadda, yadda, the transparency is the honesty of my plight and being able to come clean with God and other believers.

Why I choose not to listen to Hip Hop, R n B, and Reggae. It was a very long process, I had 100’s CD’s of original tracks, many mixed CD’s and began downloading tracks off the internet. There wasn’t a beef I wasn’t aware of or a latest release on a diss or come back that I didn’t know word for word. I was very extreme in the culture of music, dabbling in House, Alternative and other stuff that appealed to me. My sister, who was the Christian at the time, invited me out to watch the Craig Lewis movie. At first naturally I got defensive; because one thing I believe was that our music was the outlet and source for Black people’s oppression. There wasn’t a beat or lyric that you couldn’t relate to your own personal struggle or expression to life. Then I began looking into what he was saying though the internet talking to several people about lyrical content and the origins of it. Then I tested my dependence on Music. There is always a process in the midst which you have the free will of choice to determine, was I going to run to God or ignore him as usual and do my own thing. I test out the theory of self control, what was the big deal anyways, I didn’t immediately throw out my CD’s but I tested to see how long I could go with our personally initiating to listen to music. I would say within the week music was going off like crazy in my head without my consent, word for word, beat and all, what triggered it, I couldn’t tell you I could be standing in a line up, lying down whatever. I was getting back into the church anyways, I felt that it was fitting to give up what I held on as dear and true, isn’t that what following Jesus is all about. Well although it is something that I don’t necessarily battle with but realize the great influence it has on people’s life, e.g. relationship’s, personal appearance, consciousness, the influence even of positive choices, that is too much control for anything other than God to have. I was able to sell my CD’s (disobedience on my part because when God says to destroy he means to get rid of it so nobody else can have access)

See the only thing that stands in man’s way of doing evil is his choice, see I expect to be referred to as a bigot, unbending or intolerant because Sin, evil and darkness has been made a reality, and many do not want that responsibility of the choice between heaven or hell.

Oh yes how could I forget, reference to God referring to us as gods, go back to the scripture, Ill make it easy, Ex 22:9, John 10:34 and Psalms 8:2-6.
1) common g in terms of big G (that refelcts in terms of importance)
2) when he refers to Moses he was saying to Moses I will make you greater than Pharaoh so that he will need to believe that Moses God is the one true God
3) God has given us the power and dominion to rule over the earth

Drea

Sorry I had to touch on one thing, Why do we have preachers and deacons and members is based off the fellowship of Christ. Our body being a temple holy onto him, he uses our body to get his message out to people. So you will hear many times people refer to their ministries as a calling from God, or a word from God. You want to test the truth of it,
1) Hold what s/he is saying to the word of God (the bible)
2) Is his or her life filled and reflective of Christ
3) Prayer

So I dont need to take things hook line and sinker, before I even respond, type or listen, I pray and ask for God's will

Im not sure so Im asking have either of you watched the movie?

See this comes down to acknowledging God and his son Jesus, if there is a God he represents a pure Good, and the opposite is Evil. Sorry if you say there is no existence of either good or evil then where does Jesus come in since that was the point of his death. Please let me know because most of your responses leave him out of the equation and it is very important for me to know where you stand on that? Sorry don’t mean to offend anyone but never in the bible does it makes reference to the Ying and Yang doctrine, that in pure evil there is a little good and in pure good there is a little evil.

I am discussion a spiritual warfare, and the power of Christ, I believe that the Bible is the inspired truth and living word of God, Due to the fall of man ref. Genesis Chpt 1 -3 we are born into sin/ a sinful world, hence the importance of Jesus being our saving grace. The only way to make that transition is through Christ, not by your own will of choosing to be good, so that statement is false about people not being able to be evil.

See its hard for me to even try to fathom the argument from your perspective because you would like to have me believe that humanity is the answer, we are the answer, which if you would like to believe in the faith of humanity that is fine, but I hope that you are aware of the conscious decision that you have made.

I choose to believe in Christ – does the bible go into the technicalities about music and playing it backwards and lyrics and beats…NOPE, not one versus.
Why is Hip Hop being discussed at all, after all Hip Hop is a form of expression, does that form of expression hinder your relationship with Christ? (and that’s where your truth can begin) I don’t have to be paranoia of the technicalities of music, all  have to do is be aware of the realities that exist, see for me to acknowledge a reality is not called a paranoia its called growing in Christ

See what I am encouraging is a relationship with Christ. Everything else will come naturally after that, then I will no longer need to communicate to you the existence of the principalities at work, because he will be communicating it directly to you.  

Please view this site, for those who haven’t see the movie, it is an article based off this particular topic ‘The Sad truth about Hip Hop’

http://www.exministries.com/charisma.html

Hey Kaydee
I m glad you have received God's truth,

I would hope that anyone that takes the time to comment, would invest the same time to watch the movie, it is very easy to take something out of context if you are missing main pieces to uderstanding the topic,

I cannot convince you of the faith I have in Jesus Christ, there is no scientifical equation, it is what it is FAITH

I am sorry for those who feel that this topic is too racey, judgemental and intolerable because I choose to acknowledge sin and righteousness, heaven and hell, life or death. Our society has decided to ignored the moral decay of our world and when we as Christians say why we as a society have fallen, we are told that we are judgemental and harsh.

I am not judgemental or intolerable, I chose to communicate to you the word of God, in truth and in love. It may hurt but you have the free will to listen or not, but telling me I am judgemental and intolerable because of a truth I have revealled to you seems a bit

Example: If you eat foods that are high in salt and sugar intake, you are prone to be overweight, develop a type of diabietes, or have serious medical/health compications

Example: It is necessary in order to maintain our relationship with Christ, to have a relationship with him, practicing holyness, self control, love, etc

Is there intolerance in one statement over the other or neither because none of those statements hits close to home, but anything that may bring to light or hold me or you accountable becomes intolerable and judgemental?


Anyone who actually beleive this is pathetic (that sounds pretty judgemental to me)
If you're going to sit around all day, you either need to get a life or a complete idiot (judgemental and intolerable, beause the author shoud know that this movie was based off a documentary that was trying to prove the hidden message and the spiritual downfall of listening to music i.e. reference to the hidden/not so hidden msgs communicated in song lyrics, titles, etc)

Again being compelled to comment is one thing, understanding is another

drea

Wow, I m loving dis because the spirit of God motivates me to keep checking back at this site and I m glad because I’m just sharing as the holy spirit leads me,

All those that have decided to completely not listen to music or break I pods, Bless you, cause as you can see, the majority wont see any sense or purpose in that, let God continue to lead you,

When we say God can use hip hop, can he use pornography, prostitutes or pimps:
1) No because these were all manifested from sin- sin of self worship and self praise
2) You cannot separate Hip Hop from the culture it has inhabited - Hip Hop and the culture that has been generated are intertwined and became one
So God will not use Hip Hop because Hip Hop is a culture that thrives off of a lifestyle that is defiant and rebellious (rebellion is a form of witchcraft in the bible) to society and speaks of oppression and poverty as something only the culture can remedy (through upliftment, empowerment, etc

In the process of acknowledging that Jesus Christ is your personal saviour,
The bible says come as you are, but as the holy spirit is within you, and your learning and growing in the word, any man in Christ will be a new creature, there will be a renewing of your mind, think of it as the process of you being educated at school, the more you learn and become involved in your learning, your understanding becomes evolved, your writing and grammar expands, depth of knowledge will increase , there is a renewing of mind, you have learned what you did not know before, and that will be reflected in your speech, your conversations, your tone, depending on what was learned

Again I don’t know how you decipher which Hip Hop songs are good or bad, but if you are basing it off your own judgment/understanding I can guarantee that the Holy Spirit can do a better job at that, (on a side note) How hard is it to trust in Jesus, you have never seen him or talked to him, he’s a stranger, , that is the faith that us Christians proclaim, and it provides great salvation and peace, that is why we are able to break I pod's and throw away hundreds of dollars worth of CDS in the garbage.

Magneto, I like how you think really I do, you look into reason and basis your analysis off what you read pulling out the truth where it makes sense and touching on things that doesn’t make sense.
I will see if I can touch on some things to clarify:
Satan will use anything as a means to gain your worship and take it away from God. Think of Satan as a dirty fighter, a person that will take sand and throw it in your eyes, or hide a rock in his pocket so he can use it as a weapon later. Satan doesn’t play fair, in the bible it says that he walks as a roaring lion walking about, seeking whom he may devour.  (watch the animal channel, and watch how lions catch their prey, very sneak, but always calculated)
Your intentions can be influence by God or the devil, it’s that easy, there is no such thing as in-between, profer solutions and still not propagate evil, how do you really do that,  (if the solution aint Christ then there is a huge problem)

Last Thing then I’m out till next time, what is being discussed in Hip Hop can be said about any genre of music, will I defend any particular artist, NO, why because what I pray and ask for is a divine plan for my life, that will look much different for you with your conversation with the father. So I encourage you to start from there, Always keep in mind that this is a spiritual battle. God will not over ride your will, so if your will is to make your own decision on what you want and what your going to do then that is going to be the case. You can always ask that his will, be yours, and that's where I can guide you,

Thanks all, your beautiful
drea

Hip Hop is not just the beat – it is an aspect of Hip Hop – just to clarify Hip hop is not just one thing but depends on many different aspect to form the culture of Hip Hop – dress, speech, etc.
About the beat: When somebody writes a letter/music or creates a beat the heart of the author travels with what they have created. What goes into creating these lyrics and beats? Watch interviews of singers, actors or other creationist, they will use words/phrases such as I put my all into it, you have to have a lot of heart, or I had to tap into that spirit to get into character… Do an internet search or watch BET interviews and listen to what they say when the interview ask how do they write these lyrics, where do the get them from etc.
(General question to anyone that reads this post… What do you think they mean when they say that they have to get in tune with a spirit (or tap into a source other than God) to create music or to play a part?)
Why this was brought up as an issue is some of these artists heart (there purpose of creating these beats or writing these lyrics) compromise our spirit – without our consent –

Putting beats/music to the test:
For two (if you can make it three) weeks completely isolating yourself from listening to any kind of music… and after those two/three weeks tell me what happens…I could tell you but that would defeat the whole point this is something that your going to have to test yourself. IF YOU ARE CURIOUS TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS AND DONT WANT TO TEST JUST ASK?
Remember when discussing this topic you have to think about the spiritual aspects of what is being said or done in music. I will go into the lyrics a next time and the background of these artist

Drea

i view this whole thread as funny because for some pages, a lotta people have been saying a lotta crap about hiphop
Give me an example that is valid, I promise not to be overly critically and try my best to explain what is trying to be said.
Yes I will agree that some people choose to focus on one aspect of the topic than other parts which I may feel is more important (but that is only my point of view)

I have a great sense of humor so take that back, I laughed when I saw ur response!!

In all and all, I apologize If I came on a bit harsh that is not my intention, but I like when I am seeing or taking part in a conversation, I see where you are coming from, If I come off a bit raw, just let me know, which you did and Ill make a mental note to self

Without going on a rambling tangent, I find that the last comment should not only be disregarded, but if there is a way for it to be possible deleted. Sorry your pun or spin how you view this topic is funny. As stupid or wasteful as it seems you made enough time to comment,
The author offered no sense of direction and just generated doubt which the enemy uses as a mean to confuse …
If i can recall, the Bible tells to discern right from wrong, discernment is a gift from God, you don’t just pick up and say I have a gift of discernment (there is a process and steps for this gift) because if you are not lead by God you can bet your bottom dollar that the devil (let me say it so there is no confusion) is blinding you to feel that you are making the right decisions because you are relying on yourself to (discern)


and even tells we shouldn't just take what a pastor says hook, line and sinker. That we should do research individually, check the scriptures. . .so we'll be sure what the pastor says aligns with the Bible.
(I hate when people refer to this and don’t quote from the bible…I know what that tells me what does that tell you…you should be careful of the author and where there are coming from because many will come to mislead. The text that I italicized disturbs me so much spiritually…I will leave this to the author to figure out why?

This is what I know, your understanding is always limited by your self perception, instead of reducing your self to zero, your try to figure out
Why I think, Why I believe, This is not for me because… Very important concept to understand will be found in James 1:17-26 this will clarify what I said above,

Something to take away from this:
Hip Hop cannot be used as a means to bring in people or give a basis of understanding of what our reality is as black people:
Hip hop when defined is seen as a culture: a means of using rhymes, rap, break dancing, etc…
The word culture generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance.
When a culture violates the standards that are revealed in Gods word the results can be disastrous…

Just to comfort those who feel that I am only picking on a type or genre of music I am not! Any music that promotes self worship or is out rightly claim to be God or a type of God or refers to idols are included, I mostly talk about Hip Hop because it is within the context of what I know, I dont know rock and roll but I can assure you that they can be held just as liable.

and what has happen is there has been a desensitization to what is wrong and due to oh well time has past and now has been accepted - we want to believe it is okay

Soon we will be saying that it is okay to kill because of self defense or other things such as homosexuality - yeah the movie touches on that too!!!

God doesnt like disobedience and cannot look on Sin, who are we too say that we think God doesnt think about this or think about that, I would nt take him to be as simple minded as we are after all he is the creator.

What I think about gospel hip hop, If that is what lead you to salvation that is fine but you must grow in God not in the music that may of been a tool that lead you.

The spiritual anwser is the gift of discernment - the spirit that gives you the ability to feel what is not right with God. That can only be given by God, so that is something that you would have to ask for.

and I am sorry to nit pick but I will not defend these artist, Nas beleives the black man is God - type in the search engine five percenters, he is one of the beleivers of this please dont beleive the hype just because I say hey god whats up god and all that nonesense that doesnt mean a thing ,

The devil is a deceiver and a liar , what makes u think he's not lying to you now, I am an ex hip hop head/ reggae/ old skool/ dont need to continue avid ex music listener, I am very aware of What Nas and Jay rap about , VERY aware , and sorry to say it aint good , there is a spiritual consequence to disobedience


Cant rememer the verse , but it says go ye therefor and teach, if you are blessed with a voice to sing , that is fine but that shouldnt be your means to spread the word.


Email me if anymore questions:

anderson_drea@yahoo.ca
or
shyannef4@hotmail.com

Just to go over some points a talent is a gift from God and can be a blessing to some one elese but your gift is not a way to teach,

Another point I would like to raise is that God can and will use anyone to get his msg out, but he calls for your life to be holy, Examples are when God called Saul who changes his name to Paul, he had to bury the old man and live anew in God,

Also to beleive in something is exactly what it is a belief which takes faith from the individual. The difference is that eahc individual puts there faith in may different things in may different forms. My faith is in Jesus Christ yours is in cars, money or whatever you hold dear. Silly is the fact that we cannot rap our head behind the fact that music has power to give you a message that although yu beleive you can reject you cannot, Example is given in the movie, watch part one and you will understand.

My stand point is I will not promote any kind of music, research and listen to your soucres and see where there are coming from and what they beleive , some of theses cristian artist are in the same boat , God calls you to live your life holy

Drea

Sorry it took me so long to get back but without further adue,
I dont want this to turn out to be a power struggle , This posting has to do with the spiritual downfall of listening to music - so if you didnt recognize that then you are in the wrong discussion. The truth about hip hop is a movie based off a pastor talking about the culture of hip hop in a christan context.

I am not sure why You have choosen to defend all these artist, becasue I am sure, no no I'm positive that there is no gain for you to defend these artist - why does Jay Z give you a portion of his millions to say Jay Z forever,
Now other than the usually , oh the information posted is untrue- I am hip hop till I die, I am a pretty logical person - so why do you say it is untrue and where do you get your source because I'm all into looking up this information which is an unfortunate choice that many of us opt out of. Now if it is a personal choice fine - but please dont try to offend my belief system due to your ignorance especally when you have nothing to back it up with other than smack (lip)
I am but a tool for those seeking to find there purpose before God, even to those who are complete unbeleivers. Instead of looking at what is wrong/ what doesnt suit your personally life style watch the movie and look at what is right such as the effects of not having a father in the home. How the enemy will try and blind you to get in and confuse you.
I guess I cant get too fustrated because beleive you me I was in your shoes not to long ago - but my God never fails - because he called me by name , hey you dont like this Jesus talk too bad I do

Ps here is some additional info on what hip hop is read this then you can call my name out and we can talk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop
http://www.daveyd.com/daveyhistorylinks2002.html
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hip-Hop
http://www.jam2dis.com/j2dhiphopdef.htm
drea

Which man is without sin can cast the first stone, our job is not to sit and criticize men and women of God but through prayer make sure that the message they receive to deliver is holy and righteous before God.
But as children of God yes in Acts, Paul talks about confront those who sin in the name of God, who are rebellious in nature, who come as wolf in sheep clothing, false prophets who declare to come in the name of the Lord but preach a message that does not recognize Jesus Christ, We are to call them out so that they do not spew words of confusion and deceit, because God cannot lead where there is confusion. As Christians when we are ministering to non Christians or those seeking to renew there faith in God our job is to not condemn them but show mercy as God has shown mercy to us, Born into sin it has almost become a natural part of our character to try and recognize what did not work for instance what Craig Lewis said in his message that didn't appear to be right, I would encourage you all to go before God in prayer, he has given us the ability to discern - the holy spirit guides and protects us- but we are not to leave it to our own understanding of what discernment means, again this is a gift from God.
So regardless of where you fall within the category of your quest/seeking for knowledge, I encourage you to go deeper, by praying, something has lead you to this website, whether by curiosity or by chance, its not an accident, I know me write her is not, because God has a plan, he knows the ending before he starts the beginning.


PS: I ask while writing your comment/opinion about where you stand in regards to Hip hop or the topic - what spirit do you feel is leading you and why?

shyannef4@hotmail.com

Just keeping in line with where I am coming from a spiritual end ,
God is not a compromise, as a ex-music lover myself, it was easy for me to reason within myself to say I will listen to what is good and take away what is bad, but the problem with that is you can only eliminate the obvious - swearing, talking about killing etc. Is there a standard way to differentiate good and evil, and why wouldn't that work?

1) When I say that you are not dealing with the man/woman but with the spirit, I am saying that a person can approach you that appears to be well natured but they are evil - because something lives within them that fosters evil. For example Erykah Badu. I considered her to be a conscious sister, that is beautiful and had deep music. But all she sings about is her religion - which is the belief that black men and women are gods and goddess - How dangerous is that when she is singing this music and you as a fan is singing her beliefs right into your very soul,

2) What I constitute as evil is anything that is anti God, if this is not how you feel we already have 2 standards of what is good and evil (bad)

3) How do we say that a rapper such as 50 cent is worse than NAS, On NAS' album he may have 5 mind thinking tracks, but he has 2 tracks about mo money mo murder and 3 tracks about booty shaking,

I agree with the previous writer, which I am very glad that he mentioned that Hip Hop is affiliated with a culture, rap however is defined as slangs and rhymes, But once again I would have to correct something that was mentioned:

There cannot be an association with Gospel and Hip Hop, God doesn't need to use what the devil has to make his own
now if a gospel artist would like to rap that is fine, rap is not associated with a culture. See what people do is they associate them selves with the music but music does not identify you or me or what I am about, black came before Hip Hop, my culture far extends past the lyrics of NAS, Common, Ja Rule whomever!
We believe that we must use Hip Hop in particular as a means to identify with our culture because we make a linkage of the culture of hip hop to what the artist is talking about and we believe it to be a means of upliftment, which it is not.

Why do we want to believe that Hip Hop is our cultlure when really it is copyright of the corporate machine

I just wanted to touch on a few points.
I hope that we are not just focusing or dwelling on bad/evil lyrics - because while that is one aspect of the movie there is much more lessons to be learned - regardless of the different opinions - good and bad about the accuracy/truth of the information that is conveyed in the movie - you have to remember that this msg is of God. You can knit pick all you want about the messanger but he is merely a tool/body that was used by God to communicate his msg to his people.

If you are to watch this movie based off your own understanding - you will miss many things - keep in mind it is the holy spirit that convicts and convinces you - it allows you to feel affected by the spirit. Lets take out the elements of the artist/the lyrics and the history of Hip Hop because that can be debated until your are black and blue and to me facts such as those should not be the underlying cause for experiencing or not experiencing the grace of GOD. Whether it was factual or not the part that affected me the most was understanding the gift/natural ability that was given to the devil whose name was Lucifer when he was in heaven:

1) The power music has over your emotions - regardless of the genre
2) That I believe that these are the end times - so the devil is using his natural ability to cause destruction
3) How Lucifer is anti - God (again this movie allowed me to refocus - and get back to GOD)
4) The information on atmospheres, climates and strongholds
Again this is just information that was in the movie and needs to be critically understood and to be honest the rest will come naturally - not listening to music, being aware of environments you put yourself in, people that you hang with and on and on. Remember we are not dealing with the physical man but with the spirit.

Now for the arguments that I have heard on a frequent basis:
He is judging people - that's not his place - In the bible it says Judge not that ye may not be judged
correction it is: Jesus continually had to deal and exposes the Pharisees and High Priest (theses were holy men of God) because of their disobedience and ignorance. They didn't accept Jesus, nobody is accepted to the father but through the son. and Jesus needed to call these people out, he didn't lie, but held them responsible for the inactions.

Also if you read carefully in Acts: Peter and Paul had to call people out continually due to their disobedience and there attempt to lure away God's children. Because to be quiet is a sign of acceptance.

Remember you cannot look at this movie in any other way that a holy frame of mind. If you prayed to God earnestly and sincerely and you get a feeling that this move is not right please email me and I would like to go from there!

That God can use Hip Hop to speak to his children:
God sent his son to die for our sins and to serve as an example onto his children on a righteous way to live - he was perfect in all his ways - is there any example during his time on earth that he used any form of music, gimmicks, or something that the people can connect with - just in case you don't know the answer it is no
The spirit is not meant to be compromised, if any man is in Christ he is a new creature, old things have pasted away, old habits, lifestyles, choices.


This movie is only to be seen with a humble heart - that doesn't mean that when you hear a man of God say this or that you are going to run and buy his tape, and do what he says, but God has given us a way to communicate with him - and what he has promise us he will not forsake. God wants you to reason with him - it doesn't say anything about being cynical, doubtful and hard headed

GOD Bless and I pray to GOD that he may open the eyes and ears of those who earnestly seek him. In spirit and in truth