Hillsong has accused its critics of taking their rendition of Silent Night out of context. This is an intriguing accusation considering the fact that Hillsong consistently takes the Bible out of context to teach their heretical beliefs rather than God’s Word every Sunday.
This raises an important question:
Can Hillsong and context coexist peacefully?
Can they really get on? Can they be reconciled?
According to Brian Houston, no critic has ever understood Hillsong and his movement.
With this question in mind, consider Hillsong’s sleazy ‘Silent Night’ video. This performance was uploaded on Hillsong’s Youtube Channel without a description or context. Once Christians began reacting negatively, the video was immediately made private by Hillsong without an explanation, context or an apology.
But apparently Hillsong is always taken out of context. According to Hillsong, they aren’t in the wrong. No, those who dared say anything negative about the performance are considered misled, according to Hillsong staff member Johnny Rays.
Speaker for the Charismatic (NARismatic) camp, Dr. Michael Brown quickly jumped on this particular bandwagon and defended Hillsong, accusing critics for judging by “mere appearance”.
In light of all this we will analyse how this particular Hillsong staff member Johhny Rays justified the disgraceful ‘Silent Night’ performance.
THE LIES OF HILLSONG JUSTIFYING THEIR VERSION OF SILENT NIGHT
Christian leaders like Michael Brown and others who want to defend Hillsong’s disgraceful rendition of ‘Silent Night’, are relying on false information put out by a Hillsong staff member. We will now debunk the explanation put forth by Hillsong staff member Johnny Rays.
We were able to track down this pastor’s claims which you can read below in this screen grab:
LIE 1 – “This video was not released by Hillsong…”
The most obvious lie in his entire defense is this claim:
“This video was not released by Hillsong, nor would this number ever be released on its own.”
Hillsong is notorious for making their critics out to be liars. We realized this when we started the ChurchWatch sites. This is WHY we always carefully source material when we research Hillsong and other similar movements.
When you look at our original article (Hillsong: From Silent Night to Sordid Night), you can see where we sourced our video. We noted that the ‘Silent Night’ video was uploaded straight to the Hillsong Church London YouTube account. If that’s not enough, when Hillsong received the negative attention to this clip, Hillsong removed the video on their account, setting it to private.
That’s what Hillsong does. When they can’t justify their deception, they don’t apologise, they don’t repent. They hide it. Now when you click on the original video it has a ‘Content Warning’ so that people in the general public can no longer see the video Hillsong uploaded:
In light of this, Hillsong provided NO context when this video was originally uploaded. It was there with no explanation. If there had been any information, we would have done a screen grab or copy/paste that information into our article. So clearly this particular Hillsong pastor is being very misleading.
Hillsong clearly had no problem uploading the video without a context. So can you please explain this Hillsong staff members lie, Michael Brown?
LIE 2 – Hillsong lies over the context why Herod wanted to “seek” Jesus
“[The song] is supposed to have all the worldly excess of a Gatsby-style party which exposes that Herod is seeking Jesus for all the wrong reasons.”
This is another lie. Herod was not “seeking Jesus for all the wrong reasons.” The only reason why Herod sought Jesus was to kill him. That was the motive behind Herod asking the wise men to tell him where Jesus was so he could “worship” him.
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Matthew 2:13
Herod’s “motivation” had nothing to do with the licentiousness Hillsong was promoting in their Christmas performance. In other words, Hillsong was looking for any excuse to sexually exploit this story in their Christmas “narrative”, even if it resulted in them completely fabricating the nativity story. This is yet another example of “Hillsong and Context” not getting along.
LIE 3 – Hillsong suddenly considers something traditional “beautiful” and “meaningful”
“There is a beautiful, meaningful (and traditional) version of Silent Night which contrasts with the aforementioned piece…”
We are calling this out based on Hillsong’s ongoing hypocrisy. Hillsong have consistantly scoffed at orthodox Christianity for decades, reinforcing the idea to their consumers (and the rest of the world), that they would rather avoid being called “traditional” and be seen as “relevant”. Apparently what’s worse than the devil? Traditional Christianity. For Hillsong to try and hide behind the mask of “traditional” Christianity to justify their avante-gard train-wreck of what they call “church” only proves their hypocrisy time and again.
Hillsong have not become relevant by being “traditional”. They have become relevant by being immature and worldly. This Silent Night performance only elevates Hillong’s love for relevance not reverence.
LIE 4 – Postmodern phrases
“Beauty is in the eye of beholder.”
Hillsong are using catchy postmodern, subjective one-liners to justify their sins. This in fact encourages lawlessness and the watering down of truth.
LIE 5 – Fallacious dismissal of the real issue at hand
“Whether or not a theatrical experience is your cup of tea…”
This is a trivial accusation and a fallacious argument. Yes, Christians like theatrical experiences – in a THEATRE. This argument sounds like something a 5 year old would say. It’s completely avoiding the real issue at hand, that issue being, this sleazy “Silent Night” was being performed IN A CHURCH and then uploaded on a Hillsong Youtube Account without any context attached to it.
LIE 6 – Stupidity at its finest
“[The song] is supposed to make you cringe.”
How can Hillsong be upset at the negative responses from people who watched this “Silent Night” video when it was the intended reaction they wanted people to feel? Hillsong got people to “cringe,” which is what they wanted, yet they’re not satisfied with that response.
Hillsong posted and pulled this video without context or explanation, yet the people who criticized it are the ones who ripped it out of context? Hillsong, you have some explaining to do, and we suggest you stop lying and pointing fingers at others and start repenting of your sins.
LIE 7 – Might is right
“…it’s hard to argue with tens of thousands of people who attend the show (35,000 in Australia alone), thousands of whom are entering a church environment of the first time and most importantly all those who made decisions to follow Jesus.”
Well, there you have it, the greatest revival of all time. Get a bunch of scantily clad dancers on stage and people will be saved. Apparently people don’t need to hear and believe that Christ died for their sins to be saved. Who knew this ‘Silent Night’ video was more powerful than the Gospel?
In all seriousness, this is the typical cult-like lie we are used to hearing being espoused by Hillsong leadership. What is the subliminal message being sent?
- We have the numbers – so shut up. We are right, you are wrong.
- Who cares if we appear to sin greatly in the name of Jesus – people are getting saved. So Jesus will happily endorse immorality for his glory!
LIE 8 – Hypocrisy at its finest
“Friends, please remember that context is of severe importance and we usually lack not only context, but culture and proper insight from headline posts on social media”
This comment is hypocritical. No context or “proper insight” was ever given from Hillsong for their ‘Silent Night’ production. To justify this crass production, they even took the bible out of context as to why King Herod wanted to seek Jesus.
And as we already pointed out, the “proper insight” to why Hillsong performed this raunchy version of ‘Silent Night’ was no insight at all. They simply provided further proof that Hillsong is using illegitimate “context” and calling it biblical.
LIE 9 – Hypocrisy again
“Take time. Research.”
What do they mean by this? We constantly warn people to take the time to research Hillsong. According to Hillsong, to “take time” and “research” is to use Dr Michael Brown’s method of simply taking liars at their word rather than looking at Hillsong objectively with an open bible and careful observation.
So let’s take the time right now to do more research (but not the way Hillsong wants you to research). As for Hillsong’s context for Silent Night, did you know they have been performing this song annually… with a tighter budget (and a smaller wardrobe)?
Here is Hillsong performing Silent Night (Sordid Night) in 2011 with their clothes on:
Source: Uploaded by Ardie MG, Hillsong London – Christmas Special Part 2, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67sNZg8Jq_c, Published 11/12/2011. (Accessed 19/01/2016.)
Everyone applauded the performance. So Hillsong took that as a compliment. Here is Hillsong performing Silent Night (Sordid Night) in 2013 with… less clothes on:
Source: Uploaded by Chariend132, Hillsong Christmas Carol 2013 – Silent Night, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evfkx4rxC2A, Published 21/12/2013. (Accessed 19/01/2016.)
The Hillsong audience really got in to this performance, cheering and clapping. And that lead Hillsong to perform with even less clothes in 2014.
Source: Uploaded by Quebee Ria, Hillsong Christmas Carol 14 – ‘Silent Night, Holy Night’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqkbqfZDmV4, Published 15/01/2015. (Accessed 19/01/2016.)
See the problem?
The greater context of Hillsong’s version of Silent Night appears to be getting more and more “scanty” as more people enjoyed the performance. Herod in the performance was not the issue. The real Herod that needs to be addressed is Brian Houston maligning Christ’s name in his attempt to be “relevant”.
LIE 10
“Be civil.”
More hypocrisy. It’s Christians calling Hillsong to behave like Christians according to God’s Word. That’s civil. That’s biblical. After watching women dance around in scanty clothes, demeaning the much-loved Christmas carol ‘Silent Night’, they are telling people to be civil? Now THIS is what it means to “judge not lest ye be judged.” They cannot see how their lack of civility in the church makes their advice to “be civil” sound as empty as a clanging gong.
Even though Hillsong has no problem taking God”s Word out of context, they cry foul play when people supposedly take them out of context? At the end of the day, how is Hillsong providing any CORRECT context at all?
We knew they would think of a perfectly valid reason to justify the unjustifiable. And sadly, even so-called “Christian” leaders are being duped by their poor excuses of sin.
Let’s be better than Hillsong. Reject them as Christ and His Apostles COMMAND us too. They have no problem bringing disrepute to Christ’s name and to His church.
Categories: Hillsong
A Hillsong supporter tells critics to: “Take time. Research.” before we make comments?
Is that serious? While neither Brian Houston, nor Hillsong Church, nor Hillsong Cult devotees take time to study the Bible? Complete hypocrites.