“What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!”
“Would you be free from your burden of sin? There’s power in the blood! Power in the blood!”
“There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s veins …”
“When I See the Blood, I will pass, I will pass over you.”
“O, the blood of Jesus … it washes white as snow!”
Remember those songs? We used to have a lot of hymns about the blood of Jesus. The songs told how the blood of Jesus was the only thing that could make a sinful heart clean, could protect the believer from the snares of the enemy, and was an absolute necessity in the life of every Christian. They were powerful songs with a powerful message. But what happened to them?
It was ‘way back in the nineteenth century when the assault on the blood of Jesus first became obvious. Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the cult of Christian Science, wrote: “The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious [effective, powerful] to cleanse from sin when it was shed upon “the accursed tree” than when it was flowing in his veins.” There it was. The opening salvo in a war that has been raging now for more than 125 years!
Jesus Himself declared, “…For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Matt. 26:28.
So who do you think is telling the truth, here?
The blood of Jesus is not simply a clichéd phrase used to invoke the concept of the authority of Christ or the idea of God’s saving grace. The blood of Jesus is central to the doctrines of the Church. We could never survive as Christians without the blood of Jesus to wash us, strengthen us, heal us, and sustain us! Without the blood there can be no salvation. Is it any wonder that the enemy of Jesus has fought so hard to remove all mention of the blood from the Church in general? Hebrews 9:22 says clearly, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.”
Look in many popular hymnals and you will find not a single mention of the blood of Christ! If a beloved hymn could be salvaged, the references to blood were removed and the hymn was preserved but just as the blood of Christ cannot be ignored if salvation is your goal, songs that sing of the blood lose all meaning when the blood is removed!
I remember when the removal of these songs was first suggested in the 1970’s and 80’s. There was an uproar of protest from the laity and some churches that suggested such a thing backed down, but some didn’t.
It soon became obvious to the enemy that the tactic of labeling the Church as “a bloody religion” just wasn’t going to fly. So, he began a more subtle tack. He began taking all hymns out of the church. Pleading the need to appeal to the youth and the “unchurched,” music within the church began to move progressively further away from hymnology and closer to the rock, rap, and soul music of the world.
Instead of a piano and/or organ, the platform was redesigned to accommodate a guitar, drums, and an electronic keyboard. Instead of a music minister or “song leader” and a choir, the pulpit was moved to one side or removed to make room for anywhere from one or two to eight or ten people standing behind microphones. Instead of a hymnal, words now are flashed on the wall or a screen … and none of those words are, “The blood of Jesus.” And, in many churches, people insert earplugs in their ears when the music starts and sit or stand in silence because they honestly can’t learn the melody because of the pounding beat of the snares, traps, and bass drums as well as the rhythm, lead, and bass guitars.
Nowadays it’s almost impossible to find a church that sings, “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” as Paul said. Instead, we sing “worship songs” or “worship choruses”, and, believe it or not, I have no problem with singing about God’s love and how great He is, and how He walks with us through trials, and how He never lets go of us when we fail Him. But I do have a problem that we never sing about the core of our faith. Name a contemporary song that talks about the saving power of the blood of Jesus, I challenge you!