Elevation Worship's 'See a Victory' Reminds Us Why Theology is Important
In recent years, millennial Christians have become well acquainted with the worship band Elevation Worship because of their contemporary style of music and cultural appeal. Known for popular songs such as O Come to The Altar and Do It Again, which have received a combined 90 million views on YouTube, the band has helped redefine how the public perceives Christian music. With this much influence, it's essential that Christians pay attention to what is now considered worthwhile worship music.
Recently, the band released one of it’s newest songs, "See a Victory," which seeks to focus on the sovereignty of God in all aspects of life. The six-minute song starts by first alluding to the constant battles waged by the enemy against God's people, then quickly turns to remind us that our God "knows only how to triumph" and that He will never fail to bring about a victory.
Surely, no truer words were ever spoken.
But despite this orthodox nugget of truth, the song then proceeds to fall into a monotonous cycle of theological platitudes that not only irresponsibly portray biblical victory but also misrepresent the decretive will of God (a doctrine we will define later).
When one examines the song’s lyrics, one will find that it lacks any theological profundity as it opts to appeal to emotion and the oversimplification of biblical truths rather than sound doctrine. Apart from the two unique stanzas at the beginning of the song, we see the phrase "I'm gonna see a victory" repeated a total of 20 times, but not once are we given an accurate definition of victory. Instead, listeners are given the liberty to define the term for themselves, and rarely ever does this result in a biblical interpretation.
If we consider the popularity of the Word of Faith movement and Prosperity Gospel in many churches today, it is easy to see how messages on victory and blessing have been manipulated to preach a man-centered gospel. Countless pastors, including Elevation Church's very own Steven Furtick (who has preached alongside famous prosperity preachers such as T.D. Jakes and Joel Osteen) have been known to preach messages where it is God's will that believers emerge victorious in all facets of life (financial, material, occupational, etc.).
Referring to every trial in our lives as a David vs. Goliath conflict, where we are David and all of life’s problems are Goliath, Furtick states,
“How many of you have never heard a good Bible sermon about David and Goliath? Spoiler alert—Goliath goes down. By the way, for every Goliath in your life, spoiler alert, he goes down. He might be bigger, he might be loud, he might be defiant, you might have never seen a battle like this before, but Goliath goes down.”
In another sermon, he explained,
“Goliath has got your sword, Goliath has got your grace, and if you want to see the victory, your going to have to defeat what is standing in front of you, but you don’t have to do it on your own. I want every single worshipper to declare, ‘I know how this story ends.’ ”
We certainly know how the biblical narrative ends, with David’s victory. But we are not David and our personal problems are not Goliath. In fact, as Matt Chandler has pointed out in a sermon at Elevation Church of all places, we are the fearful Israelites, unwilling and unable to defeat the enemy.
Throughout Scripture, rarely ever do we see the Davidic motif become the prototype for the Christian life. Victory for the early Christians was seen many times as persecution and death for Christ’s sake. This is demonstrated in the stoning of Stephen in Acts 8, the beheading of John the Baptist in the Gospels, Paul’s beheading and Peter’s crucifixion at the hands of Nero, and even the martyrdom of Ignatius of Antioch at the mouth of lions, where he stated,
"May nothing visible or invisible envy me, so that I may reach Jesus Christ. Fire and cross and battles with wild beasts, mutilation, mangling, wrenching of bones, the hacking of limbs, the crushing of my whole body, cruel tortures of the devil—let these come upon me, only let me reach Jesus Christ,"
Would these examples fall under the category of victory described by Elevation Worship? Not if we follow their church's theology. Read the apostle Paul’s words as to what he would consider Christian victory,
"8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death," (Philippians 3:8-10).
For Paul, true victory is being found in Christ and sharing in his sufferings; all other personal achievements are considered rubbish.
Apart from failing to define terms, See a Victory is also careless in its representation of God's decretive will or will of decree. As Ligonier Ministries puts it, the decretive will of God is that which "establishes every event in history, every thought and intention of every person, everything that ever happens. This will extends even to the ordination of evil, for the Lord works out everything according to the counsel of His will." We see God's will of decree most succinctly explained in the third chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith, where the divines (theologians) write,
"God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established."
This is portrayed differently by Elevation Worship when we hear the bridge sung,
"You take what the enemy meant for evil
And you turn it for good
You turn it for good."
Undoubtedly, the Scriptural reference used for these lyrics comes from the end of Genesis, where Joseph, now the Vizier of Egypt (the highest official to serve under Pharaoh), explains to his brothers who had sold him into slavery,
"What you meant for evil, God meant for good."
Though short, this verse demonstrates for us, with one word, God's will of decree. The use of the verb "meant" in both clauses, signifies a unified and simultaneous act taking place between the brothers and God. The brothers freely chose to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites, while simultaneously working in accordance with the eternal decree of God.
How can this be? How can the free will of man fall in accordance with the eternal ordination of events by God?
Divine concurrence (two events happening at the same exact time).
What we see take place in Genesis 50:20, is Joseph’s brothers freely and willingly working out the eternal plans of the Lord. Although God had predestined all that the brothers would do to Joseph, they acted in total accordance with their free will. God did not force or coerce them to carry out his plans. Their hatred for their brother was fully their own, leading them to freely fulfill God’s plan. As the confession states, though God has decreed that this event take place from eternity past, no violence is offered to the will of man in fulfilling the Lord's plan; man executes it freely.
We should understand that there is no changing in God; He is not reactionary to the deeds of the devil, seeking to reverse all his works and changing the outcome to fit our good purposes. Rather, God proactively ordains evil to take place while simultaneously using it for our good and His glory.
There is not a single event that happens in our lives or in history, that has not first been allowed by God to take place. Even the devil himself must receive permission by God to work out his wicked ways (see Job 1). Everything goes according to God’s foreordained plan.
Do we see the doctrine of concurrence or God’s sovereignty correctly theologized in Elevation's See a Victory, or is God being presented as merely reactionary? Does God truly ordain the suffering of his children for His glory and their benefit? Scripture certainly bears that, and so should our worship.
What we see today in the Western church is the elevation of feelings over facts — emotions over sound theology. If the body of Christ is genuinely interested in “contending for the faith once for all delivered to the saints,” it must be cautious of the words it sings. In the words of R.C. Sproul, "We should be careful about the words of the music we sing and ensure that those words communicate truth."