By the Waters of Babylon with Scott Aniol

In this episode, Dr. Scott Aniol explores the profound influence of charismatic theology on modern evangelical worship. From the rise of contemporary worship music to the integration of charismatic worship expectations, this video uncovers how these theological trends have reshaped worship styles in evangelical churches today.

Scott Aniol examines key charismatic theology and practice and their impact on worship music, liturgy, and expectations about worship. Whether you’re a church leader, worship pastor, or simply curious about the evolution of worship in the evangelical world, this video provides essential insights into the ongoing debate about theology and worship.

👉 Key Topics Covered:

 • The origins of charismatic theology in modern worship
 • How charismatic practices have shaped worship music
 • The theological implications for evangelical worship
 • Biblical perspectives on charismatic influence

Join the conversation as we discuss how these charismatic elements align or contrast with traditional biblical doctrine. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to stay updated on more theological discussions from Scott Aniol.

#CharismaticTheology #EvangelicalWorship #ScottAniol #WorshipMusic #TheologyExplained #ChristianDoctrine #CharismaticMovement

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Creators & Guests

Host
Scott Aniol
Executive Vice President and Editor-in-chief, G3 Ministries. Professor, Grace Bible Theological Seminary. Elder, Pray’s Mill Baptist Church.

What is By the Waters of Babylon with Scott Aniol?

Join Scott Aniol on By the Waters of Babylon as he delves into biblical principles, historical insights, and valuable resources to help Christians navigate and live faithfully in a post-Christian culture. Each episode provides thoughtful discussions aimed at equipping believers to stand firm in their faith and engage meaningfully with the world around them. Subscribe now to gain wisdom and encouragement for living a Christ-centered life in today’s society. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottaniol/support

Scott Aniol:

I'm Scott Anuel and welcome to By the Waters of Babylon. If you're a regular listener to this podcast, you'll recognize some differences. I'm planning on doing a little bit more video with this podcast. And also, in the last couple of years, since I began working with G3 Ministries, I've just been posting on this podcast readings of articles that I've been posting on my blog. Just because I've been so busy and not had time to do additional podcast.

Scott Aniol:

But I'm gonna try to do some more free form podcasts like this and so you can be, subscribing on YouTube or in your favorite podcast software and, we'll be posting podcasts more regularly, Lord willing. Well we just finished last week our cessationism conference in Oklahoma went very very well. Lots of positive feedback, very important con conference. Continuationist theology has really plagued the church for a number of years now. Of course, the mainstream of the charismatic movement is largely heretical and and deeply dangerous for, the gospel and for biblical sufficiency in particular.

Scott Aniol:

But even more moderate continuationism, we also addressed in this conference. And, this in this episode and in the next episode, I wanna just overview the primary points of my two sessions from the conference. I was able to do 2 sessions for, at the conference last week, and the first was the influence of the charismatic movement on the modern church's worship, and the second was on the cessation of the gift of tongues. So in this episode I want to talk about the influence of the charismatic movement on evangelical worship today and then in the next episode we will discuss the issue of tongues. My thesis for the presentation that I gave was very straightforward and it is that modern evangelical worship has been pentecostalized in ways that most Christians don't even recognize and for my argument I weighed heavily on 2 historians of contemporary worship Lester Ruth and Sui Hong Lim, who are not critics of contemporary worship, but they are honest historians who have done the work to discern what are the primary historical, theological, and philosophical roots of how most churches in modern evangelicalism worship today.

Scott Aniol:

They've written 2 books that are very helpful that I would definitely recommend. The first is called, Lovin' on Jesus, A Concise History of Contemporary Worship. As a small easily accessible book and then the second is a little bit more in-depth but actually it's the book I recommend even more highly because in a sense it's more it's more research it's a thicker book but in some senses they have actually simplified their explanation of the roots of contemporary worship and that is a history of contemporary praise and worship understanding the ideas that reshaped the protestant church, and it's really the subtitle of that second book that is key to what I argued in my presentation, and that is that evangelical churches today have been reshaped from the previous generations of Christians their worship has and that reshaping has taken place primarily because of the influence of the charismatic movement charismatic theology which has largely infiltrated evangelicalism today through music and I think that thesis surprises a lot of people I think for a lot of people they assume that worship has simply evolved through the ages from the Old Testament to the present and it has simply evolved sort of naturally as culture changes, but that's simply not so.

Scott Aniol:

What Lim and Ruth described as the contemporary praise and worship movement is fundamentally different from worship of previous generations of a variety of different historic Christian traditions. Of course, in the wake of the Reformation in particular, churches splintered into various denominations, and there are differences, of course, in the worship of different denominations but the core theology of worship I would argue among most of those reformation era traditions was essentially the same what we might describe as covenant renewal worship but in the wake of 1st revivalism which I don't get to in this presentation but then especially the rise of the charismatic movement in the 20th century worship has significantly shifted and in the preface to the second book that Lim and Ruth wrote, history of contemporary praise and worship, Ruth has a very interesting anecdote about teaching a class and having a student he teaches at Duke University having a student come up to him after the class and asking a question or making a comment and it was sort of a eureka moment for Ruth in which he realized how much worship had shifted not just by degree but in kind within evangelicalism, Protestantism generally, and to the degree that those who have grown up now in this changed worship context don't even know how to think about how worship was in the old testament in the new testament and then in most of church history through the reformation period and that's really my concern particularly for cessationist churches who on paper are doctrinally sound and they believe the sign gifts of the Spirit have ceased and yet they have allowed charismatic worship to infiltrate their churches to the degree that their people have been shaped by charismatic theology in ways that they might not even recognize.

Scott Aniol:

Another book I would highly recommend is a little book that we published through G3 press called strange liar the Pentecostalization of evangelical worship by David de Brain who's a pastor in Johannesburg South Africa and David says this in the book he says as cessationist churches post vigilant patrols at the doctrinal boundaries but offer open borders to charismatic songs music forms of prayer and overall sentiment a quiet transformation takes place the result is a church that is cessationist on paper but increasingly charismatic in sentiment and outlook it is not long before this begins quietly reordering the discipline and ultimately the doctrine of the church from within and that is really my concern so in my presentation I outlined basically 3 fundamental assumptions of charismatic praise and worship theology number 1 the goal of worship in charismatic praise and worship theology is tangible experience of God's presence number 2 we are brought into God's presence through music, they believe. And then number 3, worshipers respond to God's presence with intense physical expression. So I wanna work just briefly through each of those. Number 1, the goal of charismatic worship is to experience what they call the manifest felt presence of God.

Scott Aniol:

They really believe that if the presence of God comes into our worship, we will feel something extraordinary. And of course, in more overt forms of this theology, evidence of God's presence includes speaking in tongues and other miraculous experiences. But even in more moderate charismatic churches or in in non charismatic churches that have been what I call pentecostalized, the default expectation today is that the Holy Spirit will manifest God's presence in extraordinary ways such as heightened experience of emotional euphoria. And you may recognize this you may you may think that that all worship only takes place or or worship has only been successful or you've only experienced the presence of God if you feel something intense a high sort of emotional euphoria well that comes directly from the charismatic movement which leads then to the next assumption number 2 is that we are brought into that presence of God that felt manifest presence of God largely through music praise and worship theology really tries to present a blueprint for a worship service that will ensure that worshipers will truly enter the presence of God and fundamental to this is their belief that how we get into the presence of God is through praise an essential verse especially for early charismatic that has influenced the movement is Psalm 2023 which says yet you are holy enthroned on the praises of Israel and so early Pentecostal authors taught that that text teaches that the path into the presence of God is praise and and in their theology then praise and worship are distinct that there's a reason they use that phrase praise and worship they're not the same thing for instance Thurlow Spur explains the distinction when he says praise and worship are not the same praise is thanking God for the blessings the benefits and the good things it is an expression of love gratitude and appreciation worship involves a more intense level of personal communication with God centering on his person in concentrated worship he says there is a sort of detachment from everything else as one enters God's presence and the key to this then is music music which is the way in which we praise God is the means by which we come into the presence of God and they even describe this as a sacrament music in charismatic theology is a sacrament through which we enter into the very presence of God.

Scott Aniol:

Well that theology then fundamentally influenced the development of charismatic praise and worship. Charismatic churches began to plan extended periods periods of singing non stop continuous singing considering the flow of what happens in that singing to be that which brings us into the presence of God. Preaching ends up getting minimized. Scripture reading is minimized. Really music is raised to a significance that had never before been seen, in evangelical Protestant worship.

Scott Aniol:

I think it's best illustrated by Ruth Ann Ashton's book God's presence through music she called the book really charismatic theology teaches that we are brought into the presence of God through music and so as Limon Ruth say in their books by the end of the 1980s the sacrament of musical praise had become fully established well not only is music considered a sacrament in this theology but musicians are considered priests this is where we get the the word the term a worship leader that comes out of charismatic theology Musicians are worship leaders who usher people into God's presence, and they do it through the emotional flow of the music. There is intentionality in charismatic praise and worship in starting with high emotionally intense songs of praise, and then carefully and gradually through very carefully planned and scripted, music, but but the musicians have to be watching the congregation to to be seeing where they are, and they might end up having to repeat things because the congregation's not quite ready with the music. But then finally they're trying to usher them into this sort of, intimate holy of holies experience of the presence of God to bring people into this manifest awareness of God's presence well of course this again raised music to a level of significance it shifted musical style as lemon Ruth pointed out the music the instruments the way music was sung in historic Christian traditions did not create the same sort of euphoria that they were seeking after that they interpreted to be the presence of God And so they began to bring in pop music which was far more exciting, more visceral, easily affecting people's emotions, and they brought this into, to worship because they believed that is what helped worshipers experience the presence of God there was a recent documentary about Hillsong a couple of years ago you may have seen that made this point and in the documentary Kelsey McKinney said these swells of emotion and huge momentous chord progressions, it's made to make you feel something.

Scott Aniol:

They want you to feel the presence of God within you, but it's easy to mistake emotional manipulation for a movement of God. Right? Are you crying because the Lord is staging some kind of intervention in your life, or are you crying because the chord structure is built to make you cry? Unquote. And she's exactly right.

Scott Aniol:

It is an undeniable fact of history that contemporary praise and worship music, which is so ubiquitous in modern evangelical churches, was birthed in the charismatic movement as an embodiment of that theology's goals and values. That's an undeniable fact of history. So we come to worship to experience God's felt presence that is largely achieved through music and then third Lim and Ruth point out that charismatic praise and worship theology individualized and intensified the desire to be physically expressive in worship now I want to be clear here because sometimes I'm caricatured as believing that the body is bad and that we shouldn't be physically expressive in worship nothing could be further from the truth as physical worshipers much of what we do in worship is of course embodied the Bible teaches that the human body is good and the corporate worship of God's people has always been physical However physical expressiveness in corporate worship both biblically and historically was always corporate and intentionally ordered. For example lifting hands and worship which of course is a biblical thing but rather rather than how it's done today in scripture and in church history lifting hands was done corporately by the whole congregation usually during prayers of confession or lament or by a minister during the giving of the benediction bowing kneeling and of course physical singing were all physical worship expressions but that were done intentionally and corporately, the whole body together.

Scott Aniol:

I'm all for that. Charismatic praise and worship changed the focus of physical expression to be individual and spontaneous. Worshipers are encouraged to sort of be uninhibited in their physical expressiveness, closing their eyes as they enjoy a personal encounter with God, lifting their hands as they feel his presence, and sort of the high emotional point of the music. Lim and Ruth note that in charismatic theology, worshipers' bodies were to be the outlets to express the inward spiritual experience of interaction with God. And so as a result of charismatic theology, intensity of feeling and extemporeity extempore nativity of expression became the marks of truly authentic worship rather than worship that was corporate and intentionally conformed to God's standards and so this affected everything and again music a certain kind of music that creates the right emotions that get the right punch that then cause us to be physically uninhibited is the key Bob Godfrey I think well describes what happens when he says if there is a dramatic shift that took place in music leading to contemporary Christian music that shift took place with the rise of Pentecostalism the pentecostal movement in its drive for religious experience and religious energy and religious excitement did indeed think in new ways about music and sought to take the revivalist tradition of hymnody which had already changed worship and music and evangelicalism according to Godfrey it took the revivalist tradition of hymnody and made it even more exciting even more engaging but as Godfrey rightly notes what originated as a natural expression of the life theology and piety of the pentecostal movement in the 1920s has become generalized far beyond pentecostal churches and again that's my concern it makes sense for charismatic to worship like charismatic even though I disagree with their theology my concern is when non charismatic worship like charismatic and that has happened in most of evangelicalism today pentecostal praise and worship theology and practice has spread to other non charismatic churches largely through the popularity of the of the music produced in these movements if you think about it all of the major publishers of contemporary praise and worship music today are charismatic.

Scott Aniol:

All of them. And this happened largely through the church growth movement in 1980s. Church growth gurus found that one of the most successful tactics for attracting new people to services was to adopt praise and worship methodology particularly its music and its concept of flow without necessarily affirming its theology of the miraculous gifts church growth leaders taught that by using the music of charismatic churches we can get people moving get them excited get their defenses down that's what Ed Dobson taught and that way we can bring seekers into our church and and get them integrated into the church. Rick Warren's music leader Rick Muachow deliberately brought the flow theology of pentecostal worship to church seeker services and so church growth advocates really were combining marketing techniques from the business world which is what church growth methodology is known for with the new theology and practices of pentecostal worship which is what created contemporary praise and worship. That's essentially the argument of Linn and Ruth in their books.

Scott Aniol:

They they point out that the explicit language of sacramentality of music has waned, but what has not waned according to them, quote, are the root sentiments behind this theology of sacramental praise, a desire to encounter the divine through music and a sense that when God is present, God is present in active power. And so today, the worship in a majority of evangelical churches is more characterized by praise and worship theology and contemporary music then by traditional practices rooted in the reformation or even earlier in the early church what what Lim and Ruth described as the core convictions the stable convictions of the charismatic worship theology really have come to characterize most assumptions of most people within evangelical churches today number 1 God's people can encounter and experience the divine presence through praise Number 2, praise and the subsequent liturgical activity worship are primarily musical activities. And number 3, when and where God's presence is manifest, God is active among the people lot of In most of biblical history, what we have taught and modeled for us in scripture and then what characterized the early church and then the reformation era, I'll mention a moment what happened in the middle ages, but what is characterized most of biblical and church history is what is sometimes referred to as covenant renewal worship the the the goal of covenant renewal worship is not so to somehow experience the felt presence of God but rather it views the Lord's Day and the services on the Lord's Day as those in which God renews his covenant with his people and his people renew their covenant with him through adoration and confession and thanks giving and dedication this theology of worship highlights what God has done and what God continues to do to sanctify his people to mature and how they live out the implications of that gospel covenant and this is really key according to scripture corporate worship is not worshipers doing thing to doing things to experience God's presence rather in corporate worship God renews his covenant promises to us and then disciples us to live as worshipers to his glory covenant renewal worship is what we find in scripture in both the old and new testaments in the new testament where it is perhaps most clearly taught is ironically in 1st Corinthians where Paul chastises the Corinthian church for worship practices that very much resemble that of charismatic praise and worship today.

Scott Aniol:

And in instructing the church for what they ought to do when they gather together Paul articulates clear principles of covenant renewal worship first Paul describes gathered worship as a memorial Do this in remembrance of me. Literally do this as my memorial. That describes the worship service, and this is what God described Old Testament worship as. It continues in the New Testament, and when God uses this this description of corporate worship as a memorial that means more than just a passive remembrance of something but actually a reenactment of what God has done through his covenant relationship with us through the gospel and so in corporate worship we're simply reenacting God's covenant work through the gospel corporate worship begins with God's revealing himself and calling his people to worship through his word we respond with adoration and praise he calls us to confession of sin, we respond with thanksgiving, he or with confession, he declares us pardon through the atonement of Christ, then we respond with thanksgiving, he speaks his word to us, we respond with commitment, the whole service then climaxes with a celebratory feast where we eat and drink with the Lord and with one another and then God commissions us and blesses us and we depart to serve him that's covenant renewal worship if you want a brief simple explanation of that, my book a biblical, biblical foundations of corporate worship published by Free Grace Press articulates that biblical theology.

Scott Aniol:

This is a gospel shaped covenant renewal worship that permeates worship both in the old and new testaments it describes the worship of heaven in Isaiah chapter 6 and the book of Revelation this is worship that is not somehow mystically experiencing God's presence corporate worship is about reenacting our covenant relationship with God through Christ and as Paul also makes clear in 1st Corinthians the purpose of this is to build up the body is to edify in corporate worship we are not the primary actors in corporate worship God is the primary actor God is working upon us God is molding and shaping us through his word through our reenactment of the gospel this is the Lord's service and he is shaping and and forming and maturing us to be the kind of acceptable mature disciple worshipers that the Bible commands. This is the the goal of covenant renewal corporate worship is disciplined formation. We come to be formed by God's word, to be formed in the image of Christ by God's word, to have our affections sanctified by God's word so that our lives of worship will be acceptable unto God. Music within covenant renewal worship is either God speaking to us in Psalms and hymns or us responding back to him.

Scott Aniol:

But in both cases, choices of songs are not based on mood or creating some sort of aura or emotional euphoria. Choosing songs depends upon how the lyrical content fits within this gospel shape, this covenant renewal, shape of the service, and then how the music is modestly supporting that truth and giving us language for the expression of our hearts as our hearts have been shaped by God's Word. Music really is not all that prominent in covenant renewal worship. It's important, but charismatic theology really raised music to a sort of sacramental prominence that was never true in scripture or in most of church history contrary to caricatures this kind of covenant renewal worship is deeply emotional but the music is not intended to artificially stimulate or arouse emotion rather deep affections of the soul are stirred by the Holy Spirit through his word, and then music simply gives us the language to appropriately respond to the word. Emotion in covenant renewal worship is not often immediate or visceral or flashy rather it is deeply felt in the soul as the spirit changes our hearts with his word and in particular because of commands in scripture that Christians are supposed to be dignified and self controlled that's biblical maturity and covenant renewal worship and you see this all throughout church history church leaders cautioning against using music that is emotionally emotionally manipulative and visceral, and rather advocating for music that modestly calms the passions and cultivates deep affections of the soul.

Scott Aniol:

Things like dignity self control compassion kindness humility meekness patience colossians 312 the fruit of the spirit as expressed in scripture love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self control the theologians in church history that advocated for this dominant theology of worship and particularly talking about music recognized that qualities like intensity, passion, enthusiasm, exhilaration, euphoria, those are never described in scripture as qualities to pursue or stimulate. That's not biblical maturity. Biblical maturity is is self control. What Jonathan Edwards calls the lamb like dove like spirit or temper of Jesus Christ truly spirit formed religious affections according to Edwards naturally beget and promote such a spirit of love meekness quietness forgiveness and mercy as appeared in Christ worship is not worship without response of the affections but response of the affections responses of the of the religious affections the affections of the soul are different from manipulated surface level feelings which is what really charismatic worship has come to define the presence of God and then finally again as I noted earlier covenant renewal worship does emphasize embodied expression, but embodied expression that is corporate and intentional such as whole congregations lifting their hands in unison perhaps during a prayer of confession or during the singing of doxology.

Scott Aniol:

Whole congregations kneeling for worship. Covenant renewal worship emphasizes corporate vocalized responses and and and pastors lifting their hands in a benediction like scripture models for us. This is what historic biblical worship was characterized by. Biblical worship of the Old and New Testaments, the early church. In the Middle Ages, worship broke from that theology and devolved into a sacramentalism rooted in mystical experience not unlike the experience driven worship of contemporary evangelicalism there are a lot of similarities between Roman Catholic mysticism and contemporary praise and worship But one of the most significant reformation recoveries of the 16th 17th centuries was a return to biblical covenant renewal worship.

Scott Aniol:

Though differences again as I mentioned earlier existed between the various denominations when they worshiped, their core covenant renewal theology of worship was fairly consistent. That all changed with the powerful influence of charismatic worship in the 20th century. And that is what I think most people don't recognize today. And my burden is that we recover biblical covenant renewal worship particularly cessationist churches that worship like charismatic my question to you would be what is shaping your people more your cessationist doctrinal statement on your website or the charismatic worship that is that your people are engaging in week after week after week of course it is the latter we need to do the careful work to recognize where our worship theology and practice has come from we need to do the careful work of teaching our people you don't change these things overnight be pastoral if you're a pastor but then we do need to slowly and carefully change our worship recover what the Bible teaches about worship and how Christians have been worshiping for ages before the influence of the charismatic worship that worship movement that is my concern that is my my encouragement, and I've written on this quite a bit.

Scott Aniol:

You can see on g3min.org at my blog I've written on this. In my book, Change from Glory Into Glory, the liturgical story of the Christian faith, I sort of trace how this happened. And then again, in my little book, biblical foundations of corporate worship, I articulate the biblical principles that characterize covenant renewal worship. So I encourage you to avail yourself of those resources. Take a look at Lim and Ruth, there are 2 books, there are 2 histories which are very enlightening.

Scott Aniol:

And then, keep your eyes out for when the cessationist conference sessions are released. And I encourage you to watch the full message that I gave on the influence of charismatic theology on evangelical worship, which gets into these issues even more. Well, thank you for listening, and I hope you will join me next time for by the waters of Babylon.