As we continue looking at this “call out” season I want us to see some really destructive trends and realities that will come about if we do not nip this in the bud now. For greater clarity please read the previous two articles.

5. We do not need an overseer for Christian Hip Hop artists.

Should there be public shepherding from Christian Hip Hop (CHH)? No. To take on that title means you have to take on the full responsibilities of a pastor. Who will pastor the CHH community and be a moral authority? There is no artist, blogger, writer, or (insert job title here) in that role. Even if a mob said they wanted me as the CHH pastor I would turn it down. Why? Because we are subject to our local bodies – not the Internet collective. Not to mention the doctrinal schisms that would happen instantly. We are facing uncertainty on the “hows” of reaching the secular masses. In his “#1 Spot” interview on The Wade-O Radio Show, Flame points us to limited view led by a small group of people.

In that discussion Flame indicated he wanted to have “a path” of navigating culture with the arts in the form of Christian hip hop. I know that Flame made it clear that he felt that this was doable through the scriptures. Does anyone not think that this is concerning? Who is going to exegesis this path? I don’t think a good number of brothers, let alone any sisters, will be present at that biblical project. The voices in Christianity are dynamic. Within CHH we have either ignored this or fought over wording so that certain parties can keep a theological consistency. So I ask you – honestly, do we need a CHH Pope? To put it simply, the church itself has not found a single path for art to be expressed through the scriptures. So why are we trying to find one?

6. shai linne’s “Fal$e Teacher$” sets a dangerous precedent.

Let me set the stage. I was never really a shai linne fan. I went to seminary and had a diverse theological spectrum to study from. That is the main reason why. The only moments in the past in which I went looking for shai linne on the Internet before the controversy was when he commented on Canton Jones and Ambassador‘s collaboration and the round table discussion videos with his record label partners. When I heard he was putting out Lyrical Theology, I really didn’t care. It was just another CHH album to me.

On April 1 he dropped the single “Fal$e Teacher$” a little more than a week before his album was to be released April 9. Really think about that. Why wait so close to the for-sale date unless it was to stir up hype to profit off of? If this was his first album preview or if he didn’t put it out early I would have given this a pass. But he puts out the song out in the same fashion as Flame’s “#1 Spot.” That is part of the reason why I’m focusing on him today.

Please note that I don’t agree with a lot of prosperity gospel message just like I don’t agree with a lot of poverty gospel some folks have been pushing as of late. What shai does is a quick drive-by on some general points – most of which I could apply to any number of big pastors. (The moment a pastor promotes a book you can say it is a pyramid scheme and sometimes it actually is.) shai comes in and pretty much gives us a lot “Just trust me and run” reasoning. The song outlines simply that TBN is bad. It’s “Ignore what the teachers say. They are just pretending to be angels of light. Hey, the secular people think these guys are hustlers. You know these are false teachers because they tell you to love self.” He goes on to list some televangelists and then ends with a scripture.

So in the end, anyone who tells me money is good is a false teacher right? Note why is this so tongue-in-cheek. Well first off, the target audience is non-Americans. But you expect them to know all the elements and doctrines of prosperity gospel. Next, you list off people from America but it does no good in helping deal with the people locally. In short, too much time was wasted on the teacher list and not enough time was spent on the teaching about the concern. You also have to understand that selfism is a poor summation of a theological concept. But hey, listing doctrines and details is not as catchy of an ending as just listing out names followed by the phrase “false teacher.” Now I will ask you this. After listening to the song “Fal$e Teacher$”, what is a biblical perspective of money to live by? Oh yeah, the song doesn’t answer that.

The silliness doesn’t end there. When WadeORadio.com reporter David Daniels followed up on the story like a real news journalist by getting a comment on the track by the other side, guess what? One party answered. Now let me note something very key. Paula White Ministries didn’t go to any other news outlet with this letter response. No one else seemed to want to do real journalism. Brad Knight, Paul White’s son and the person who wrote the letter to WadeORadio.com, responded in a very mature manner. Please read what Knight wrote.

We have never received a phone call or an email from you here at Paula White Ministries. You have never reached out to us and asked us to talk to you. Instead you simply called my mother a “Fal$e Teacher” with money signs in the name to emphasize a point you cannot justify. Instead you imply that she is a wolf, sent to devour the sheep. You imply that my mother, the very mother that prayed and wept unto God that He would extend His mercy and grace to her lost son, is damned as a heretic.

For all the respect of for the Bible, heck for any sign of intellectual honesty, shai linne could have asked for a point of clarification directly from the ministries he named just to cover himself. But he didn’t. Knight understands the real end game. If every teacher shai mentioned is a false teacher then by definition they are not saved and are leading people to hell. Those that follow their teachings and believe them are not saved. You can dance all around it as much as you like and deny it, but it is the truth.

Now shai linne goes to the intellectual disarming playbook when he responded to Brad Knight. After publication of the Paula White Ministries letter, shai Tweeted the following …

See what he did there? It implies that any words that are written are backed up by the product of prayer and counsel and therefore they come from a good, unquestionable place. In his own rebuttal, shai starts off briefly stating what he liked about what Brad Knight said. And I do mean brief in proportion to the rest of the content given. Then shai writes this:

Speaking of public teaching, you mentioned Matthew 18:15-17 to support the idea that I should have contacted you privately first. The irony, of course, is that you made this claim in a letter that is open for the public to read without contacting me privately first. Why did you choose to go about things in this way? Is it because I came out and said something about Paula White publicly and therefore you felt it deserved a public response? If that’s how you thought about it, you would be right. And that’s exactly why I addressed Paula White’s public teachings publicly. Here is a helpful article by noted New Testament scholar D.A. Carson on why Matthew 18 doesn’t apply in situations like this.

There are two big things to note here. The first is that Wade-O Radio’s team asked for a response. The response was in a letter format. The content in question had nothing to address Wade-O Radio so the only person to direct the communication to was shai.

Now the second big thing is that shai gives this link on why he is immune to Matthew 18. The article is from The Gospel Coalition. Guess who is one of their speakers? Just take a wild guess. D.A. Carson’s article’s first point about scale and scope doesn’t apply. Paul wrote to influence every place he went to on his missionary journeys through letters. We see the finalization of lots of private conversations in scripture passage. The example 1 Timothy 1:20 lets you know that Paul had a history with the offenders in question because their offenses were implied.

The next point of pointing out a false teacher is to excommunicate the person. Carson says that is not logistically possible. Logistics is not the only implication of the Matthew 18. If we read verses 18-20 we see the spiritual implications that a person can be spiritually removed from the body. When we look at the whole chapter of Matthew 18 the implication of 18-20 become more clear. We still have a running conversation on the interaction of God’s exercise of grace and view on correction within the body. I’m going to stop there because I could go on for another page or so.

In the end shai gets the last word. He states that he has Brad Knight’s email. So why not just continue the conversation offline? The reason is now he gets more exposure to expand a platform and make a major point he is passionate about. Don’t forget he gets big ups from his main man John Piper!

You might finally ask “Did I go to shai linne with my own concerns?” No, I did not because I measuring him by his own theology. If he feels he theologically justified due to the magnitude of the argument to avoid private conversation why not do the same to him? (Matthew 7:2)

7. The worst is yet to come.

What happens the next time? Let’s be honest, this is not going to stop any time soon. So what really happens next time someone mimics Flame or shai in this manner. What happens when someone who feels righteous indignation at something going on in the church world or CHH goes off and calls out some names when it coincides with an album drop? More so, what happens if some no name just starts lots of beef with a very recognizable artist before their album dropped? What would happen if someone did a song similar to “Fal$e Teacher$” and listed Reformed pastors and authors?

The real war will happen when another intellectual camp comes in and wants the lion share of the theological conversation. Right now the Calvinists/Reformed have most of the dialogue when it comes to theological views in Christian rap. No one really questions it. Heck, more people try to mimic it without knowing what they mimicking. What will happen when they are on the decline and another camp sees blood in the water and goes after them in the same manner I’ve talked about in this series? What happens when there is a cultural reaction against Cavlinism/Reformed theology? Schism is the only thing that is left. What is being sown now is the foundation of that schism. Acts done now will be referenced as justification for ungodly action. I am not saying we cannot have tough conversations, but at the same time, there has to be more grace given than what is being shown when it comes to doctrinal conversations.

Trust me, a person can go to war with another brother or sister in Christ on the simple question of is the Son submissive to the Father? Most people are scratching their heads wondering how something small could mean something so big. In the land of theologians there are very few elements that are minor. Most things are major. Because if I get the right theologians lined up, I can make shai linne, Flame, Propaganda, Braille, and J’son all look like heretics just on their doctrine of Trinity alone. I hope you can now see that all of this drama for profit will lead to much wickedness that will have the guise of holiness.

In the pursuit to be intellectual and seen as valid we have brought in a deadly serpent into our guardian. It speaks the same questions as the snake of old but with a twist the question “Did God say…” is not pointed at fruit but at the meaning of God’s word. The venom from the asp in academic theology is slowly moving through the system with the one goal of paralysis.

Thank you for reading. There will be one more article looking at what we can do actually make some positive head way into this situation. It has been a tough series of articles to write. If you have any questions or statements comment below or hit me up on Twitter @speakredwords.