A few months ago I purchased and download several albums and songs to compile into a playlist of hymns and other worship music. As I was looking up different songs and albums on Itunes, I came across a beautiful rendition of “nearer my God to thee” by an acapella men’s group. As I proceeded to listen to the clips off of their album, I saw other familiar songs such as “I need Thee every hour” “Be still my soul” and Come thou fount”. After listening to the preview clips, it didn’t take long for me to decide to download their whole album for the playlist.
Over the next few weeks, as I listened to the playlist of over 200 songs, I heard a song by the same men’s acapella group that I had never heard before. The song was to the tune of “Scotland the Brave” and had lyrics that seemed to very much elevate Christ. The song contained lines such as “Great is His glory and endless His Priesthood” and “Blessed to open the last dispensation, Kings will extol him and nations revere” and “his blood pleads unto heaven while earth lauds his name”.
Upon hearing this beautiful seemingly Christ-centered song, I began to enjoy it more and more as it would rotate onto the playlist. However, after a while I noticed a line of the song which made me say “hmmmmm…” The line sounded like it said “mingling with gods He can plan for His brethren” My though was “maybe I’m hearing it wrong, it probably says God (singular) and I just sounds like they are putting an S on the end, and I’m hearing them wrong.” And so I shrugged it off.
Not long after however, another line stood out to me “Earth must atone for the blood of that man” upon hearing this line, I said to myself “now wait a minute! According to God’s Word, the blood of that man (the God-man) atoned for the sins earth…the earth need not atone for his blood.” It was at this point that I decided that I needed to look up the lyrics.
After confirming that I was indeed hearing these lines correctly, I decided to research the history of the song. I was NOT prepared for what I found.
The following was discovered on several websites (including Mormon websites). In the early 1800s the writer of the song entitled “Praise to the man”, William W. Phelps was one of the early followers of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion. At one point there was a rift between Smith and Phelps, at which point Phelps left the Mormon church. Phelps ended up having a hand in bringing Smith to trial in Illinois. As the years went on, Phelps experienced a change of heart, which prompted him to seek forgiveness from Smith. The reaction of Smith to this “repentance” by Phelps was to welcome him back into the Mormon church with open arms.
Phelps was so grateful for this grace shown him by Smith that when Smith died, Phelps wanted to write a song in honor of him. Therefore he wrote the song “Praise to the man”.
Wait a minute?!?!? You mean that song wasn’t written about Christ…but about Smith?!?!?….yep! It is amazing that this song which at face value seems to be elevating Christ, is actually talking about Joseph Smith! The fact that Phelps attributes so many noncommunicable roles and attributes of Christ to Joseph Smith moves well beyond the realm of heresy, into straight up blasphemy!
But at a glance it sounded pretty good! Yes, and that’s the danger. 2 Cor 11:14 says: “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”
Satan doesn’t always parade himself around in a way which we believers will immediately recognize him. No, rather as the verse indicates, desires to do his very best to deceive each and every one of us!
So this leads me to ask a question: is discernment important? I believe the answer to that question is quite obvious. Therefore in the next post I would like to take a look at what scripture says about discernment: why it is important, and how we can develop it. Stay tuned!
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