FOUNDATIONS BIBLE COLLEGE
BOOKSTORE

From the CD Insert

The founder of the Foundations Ministries, Dr. O. Talmadge Spence, once remarked that while at the center of Protestant Christianity has been the preaching of the mighty Sword of the Word of God, a large amount of its doctrine has also been preserved in that Sword’s beautiful sheath—Protestant hymnody. For several decades this rich and precious heritage has been under constant attack by all forms of Neo-Christianity. The liberals long ago deleted references to the “blood” of Jesus, changing texts such as “there is a fountain filled with blood / drawn from Immanuel’s veins” to “there springs a fountain where for sin / Immanuel was slain.” Following the deletion of the “blood” came the removal of the “battle,” suggesting “Onward, Christian soldiers” be changed to “Onward, Christian people marching on to peace.”

Equally horrific has been the more recent fever in so-called conservative Christianity (including Fundamentalism) of writing weak and effeminate melodies to our traditional Protestant texts believing this will bring a revival to congregational worship. If worldly and carnal forms are needed to make congregational singing “meaningful, alive, varied, inspirational, worshipful, and challenging,” the institutional church has given evidence to the absence of the Holy Spirit.

In quiet protest to this rapid distortion and eventual extinction of historical Protestant hymnody, this collection of sacred music seeks to explore the main traditional facets of Protestant church music. Included are selections from the Psalter (metrical settings of scripture), anthems (scripture placed to music), doctrinal hymnody, devotional hymnody, as well as the testimonial hymnody of the Gospel song (often addressed to the sinner).

Appropriately, this live recording concludes with the congregation’s participation near the end of the final selection, the “Passion Medley.” In a day when church music has been centered upon the slick presentation of professional performers, the burden of the Foundations Ministries’ founder continues: “May the music return to the congregation of God’s saints who stand and sit and pray and sing before the pulpits of the preaching of the inerrant, infallible, and inspired Word of God—the Message.”

Track Listing

Click on to hear an audio clip.