(Friday Church News Notes, August 8, 2025, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – In the 20th century, many voices were raised among Bible-believing churches against rock & roll via sermons, books, and videos, but these voices have become largely silent in the 21st century. 

When I made this observation to a friend recently, he replied, “You’re right. Nobody would even think of having a session or a message geared towards that, like they did in the 70s 80s.” Rock & roll has only gotten more wicked by biblical standards, so what has happened? 

Following are three of the reasons why the preaching against rock & roll has largely ceased. 

(1) The churches have capitulated to worldliness. Look at the majority of the young people and what they truly love and how they live during the week. Examine their video games, their social media, their movies, their music, their dress, their friends, their Bible study habits, and their prayer lives. 

(2) Professing Christians are non-critically immersed in rock & roll (e.g., via movies, social media, college and professional sports, video games) and have become accustomed to it and accepting of it, like the frog in the slowly heated pot.

 (3) Preachers have stopped preaching. Reproof, rebuke, and warning have largely disappeared, except in vague generalities. We are glad for the exceptions, but for the most part, the preaching is soft. Sinners are encouraged; worldlings are comforted; there is no bold call to repentance; the convicting element is dull or non-existent. As a result, the churches are growing ever more lukewarm and worldly as they move toward complete apostasy, even as some of them still hold to the King James Bible and the “old hymns”!