Holiness? In song?

As my wife and I were getting ready for Church this morning, we heard a song titled “Holiness Is Right” by Desmond Pringle on a nationally syndicated Gospel radio program. You can read the lyrics here and you can listen to the song by clicking on the music tab. The song begins with the following verse:

There’s a difference between wrong and right
There’s a difference between darkness and light
There’s no compromise we must draw the line
Sin is still a reproach but holiness is right

For those who are new to Christianity, let me share a little secret: all the fire-and-brimstone preaching popular — or at least prevalent — in most churches a generation ago has vanished and has been replaced with prosperity, blessings and fuzzy bunnies. Also gone are sermons on the promise of heaven. The emphasis seems to be on prosperity and blessings in the here and now.

For those who don’t know me personally, let me say the blog medium doesn’t allow to display the full breadth of my personality, or anyone else’s. Having said that, I’m a totally laid back guy. My natural inclination is to hang out with friends over a good meal or a cup of coffee and have a good laugh. One of my many flaws is that I often spend too much time trying to be the consummate nice guy. I have cringed at the mere idea of conflict. So imagine how I feel about sharing the reality of heaven and hell with my friends.

But it’s there. I can’t do a disservice to the text and gloss over Christ’s teachings on it. I can’t ignore other biblical teachings either. Holiness itself has been misrepresented as solely a list of “thou shalt not”s instead of separation for the express purpose of being joined to God for the express purpose of worship or service.

Desmond Pringle seems to be one of the few in Christian music circles who believe holiness is important enough to make the cut on his album. Kudos to him for rescuing this eternal truth from Christendom’s “dustbin of history.”