Hallelujah Is Not A Christian Song!
**Title: Unveiling the Blasphemy: The True Meaning Behind Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"**
In the melodic strains of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," many listeners find themselves captivated by its haunting beauty. However, beneath the surface lies a narrative that diverges sharply from Christian doctrine and reverence. Let's dissect the lyrics of this renowned song to uncover the blasphemous themes that echo within its verses.
### The Mockery of Faith and Worship
Cohen's opening lines introduce us to a world where the divine is diminished and faith is scorned. By suggesting that God, the orchestrator of music and worship, is indifferent to such expressions, Cohen undermines the very essence of spiritual connection. The reference to David, the revered Psalmist, is twisted into a mockery of his devout relationship with God.
### A Desecration of Sacred Scriptures
Throughout the song, Cohen takes liberties with biblical narratives, distorting them to fit his narrative of doubt and cynicism. The depiction of David's encounter with Bathsheba, a tale of sin and repentance, is transformed into a celebration of lust and betrayal. By attributing David's "Hallelujah" to his adulterous escapade, Cohen ventures into blasphemous territory, twisting sacred scripture to suit his agenda.
### Denigration of Divine Authority
In one verse, Cohen presents a defiant David, challenging God's authority and dismissing the concept of divine reverence. By portraying David as ignorant and flippant towards God's commandments, Cohen not only misrepresents biblical characters but also undermines the reverence due to the Almighty. Such audacious claims of ignorance and indifference towards God's name reflect a blatant disregard for divine sovereignty.
### A Misguided Portrayal of Worship
The concluding verses of "Hallelujah" depict David as a reluctant worshiper, offering feeble excuses for his transgressions. Cohen's portrayal of David's relationship with God as superficial and insincere stands in stark contrast to the biblical narrative of repentance and redemption. By reducing worship to a mere formality, Cohen trivializes the profound connection between humanity and the divine.
### Conclusion: A Call to Discernment
As Christians, we are called to discernment, to scrutinize the messages we ingest and the songs we sing. While the allure of "Hallelujah" may be undeniable, its underlying themes of doubt, mockery, and defiance should give us pause. Let us not be swayed by the beauty of melody while disregarding the sanctity of scripture and the reverence due to our Creator.
In the end, "Hallelujah" serves as a cautionary tale, reminding us of the dangers of embracing art that strays from the path of truth and reverence. Let us choose our songs wisely, honoring God with lyrics that uplift and glorify His name, rather than ones that denigrate His authority and mock His word.
Let's examine the song Hallelujah in detail...
Hallelujah, means “praise the Lord” but what Lord is being praised, when a song blasphemes the true God Yahweh? The song "Hallelujah" by the late Leonard Cohen, is not a Christian song. It is a song that must grieve the heart of God as it's lyrics make a mockery of King David’s relationship with God...the "Hallelujahs" are used as exclamation points of the verses lyrical conclusions. As such, it is a shameful reproach against all people of the Christian faith, who believe and worship the true God of the Bible.
People need to read the lyrics to get a clear understanding of what it depicts. Why Christians to this day think that this is a song that should be admired and even sung in church baffles me to this day. I can only assume that it stems from pure ignorance, that Christians offer blasphemous strange fire in the pretense of God. Let’s take a look at the song lyrics of “Hallelujah” so we can more fully understand, and perceive the very telling atheistic mind-set of Cohen.
#Hallelujah (By The Late #LeonardCohen) Is Not A #Christian Song! In fact, it's BLASPHEMY!
Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen
Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah…
Cohen is claiming that the very God, who created music for worship, does not care for music or worship.
“The baffled king” is a reference to David in a mocker of his attempt to compose worship music to God.
These “Hallelujahs” in context of what was just written, is a mockery of David singing them to God.
The song continues…
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah…
“Your faith was strong but you needed proof” - Cohen, again mocks David’s faith, by inferring that his faith lacked proof that he needed.
“You saw her bathing on the roof…Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew her…
She tied you to a kitchen chair…She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah”…
This is an obvious direct reference to David’s adulterous relationship with Bathsheba, which resulted in David’s broken throne…leaving him like unto Samson, with his hair cut, weak and helpless like an un-consecrated sinner.
Then the claim is made by Cohen, that it was Bathsheba who drew from David’s lips a true and genuine “Hallelujah” derived from his sexual sin with her.
This is blasphemy to the utmost degree.
Now the word “Hallelujah” used here in this verse, is a reference to David singing it in praise of his sexual experience with Bathsheba.
The song continues…
You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah…
This third verse is Cohen making a false unfounded claim regarding David’s response to God.
David speaking to God -“you claim I took your (God’s) name in vain, but I don’t even know your name.”
Cohen makes David out to be someone ignorant about whom God is, and since he is ignorant of Him, then he cannot be guilty of taking God’s name in vain.
It goes on to say “But if I did, well really, what's it to you?”
This is without a doubt a blasphemous claim, which David would never make against
God, who was a man after God’s own heart.
In other words “Hey God, even if I did take your name in vain, who I don’t even know anyway, what’s it to you if I did.”
Cohen depicts David as a vehement blasphemer, who makes a railing accusation against God, for His reproof of his adulterous sin, and thereby taking his name in vain. Yet nowhere in scripture do we ever find David making any such remarks against his maker, it simply did not happen.
The song continues…
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah…
The final verse depicts David as a whimsical half-hearted worshiper of God. Sounding more like someone making excuses for his adultery, as something he sees as a mere shortcoming in his attempt to obey God’s commandments, so he simply shrugs it off by saying “I did my best, it wasn’t much”…
The next claim is that David “could not feel” God. But scripture tells us that David asked
God not to take his Spirit from him. So obviously David did know the presence of God. Cohen’s claims of David’s experience with God again are unfounded, and contrary to biblical fact.
“I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch” this is yet another reference to David making excuses for needing to commit adultery in order to feel something physically tangible with Bathsheba. Again, this unrepentant conversation filled with excuses to God by David, never happened.
“I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah”…
Cohen claims that David’s words are true, but they could not be further from scriptural historical accuracy. The claim is that David is telling God the truth, and that he is not trying to fool God, even though he admits things “went wrong” – not “a sin’…just something that “went wrong” – and regardless of his half-hearted obstinate attitude about owning up to his own sin, and his blasphemous response towards God's reproof - God should be grateful that “David” is going to come before God again, to sing a song of “hallelujah.’
What sinful pride and arrogance lay within the human heart, that one should contend with his maker and shun his reproofs, and blaspheme His holy and reverend name?
Psalm 111:9 He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant forever: holy and reverend is his name.
Mark 3:29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.
Hallelujah is not a Christian song!
Scriptures and historical facts about Cohen to consider, before ignorantly embracing this song as being "Christian"...
The late Leonard Cohen was a Jewish man who lived at a Buddhist monastery for five years, to become a fully ordained monk in 1996. Does this sound like a person who would write a Christian song in honor of the God he never knew? While God loves the Jewish people and sent his Son Jesus (Yeshua) to die for their sins, sadly many like Cohen, did not receive him as their true Messiah (John 1:11), and missed the day of their visitation (Luke 19:44).
Christians have admired the song Hallelujah, even changing the original secular lyrics to make it sound more Christianized, yet in the process of doing so, have failed to recognize that the song remains rooted by virtue (or should I say the lack thereof) in the original blasphemous version. It really doesn’t make a difference how much you try to dress up a frog-like a Prince; it will always be a frog.
A combination of worldly compromise and ignorance of the songs lyrical meaning has caused beguiled Christians to offer up this blasphemous strange fire to God, and treat it like it is their Christian national anthem in their churches.
Hallelujah, means “praise the Lord” but what Lord is being praised, when a song blasphemes the true God Yahweh? The bible tells us that Satan (the Devil) comes (disguised) as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14).
The best a fallen Devil can do is imitate what he once was - as Lucifer, a worship leader who once glorified God, but now only seeks to exalt himself as God. Satan does this by demonically inspiring modern day singers and musicians to cleverly produce pretentious songs about God, cleverly packaged with the trimmings of Christian linguistics, but in reality blasphemous against God.
Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works (influence) in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
2 Cor 4:4 The god (small “g” = Satan) of this age has blinded (like a smoke screen) the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Do You Love The World Or God?
If the love of the Father (God) is in our hearts, as his sons and daughters, then we will not be singing songs which are oriented against God. The more we befriend that which is oriented against God in the world, the more alienated we become from the Love of God our Father.
1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world (oriented against God), the love of the Father is not in him.
James 1:27 Being pure in our religion means we are to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.
Our conversation is to be incorruptible so that it does not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption Eph 4:30.
We must “shun the very appearance of (such) evil” 1Thess 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.
2 Tim 2:16 (We are to) shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. If we are truly leading by a Christ-like example, the world is going to reproach us for the sake of Christ, because we are shining forth as lights, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation – which exposes the sins of the world and their need for a Savior. Our failure to shine as lights will only invite the powers of darkness to prevail in our midst. When the light is dimmed by a testimony of worldly compromise, the darkness will gather.
Php 2:15 (We are to be) blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom we shine as lights in the world.”
John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Don’t walk their walk and talk their talk – walk in the light and have fellowship with Christ –
John 8:12…I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Our Christian duty in singing songs is to - Act 26:18…open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
There Is No Fellowship Between Light And Darkness
We are in a battle of light versus darkness…
Rom 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
2 Cor 4:6 God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Therefore – 2 Cor 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? - what communion hath light with darkness? None! You cannot befriend the things that pertain to darkness, that is alienated from the light of God in Christ in you, and then expect to fight a victorious battle against the powers of darkness. We are to reprove the works (secular songs) of darkness, not fellowship with them.
Eph 5:11 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Eph 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: (therefore) walk as children of light.
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Question - Luke 24:5 Why seek ye the living among the dead? Vs 6 Jesus is not here (in the songs of the dead), but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, vs 7 Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
Col 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.
While it may be true that God can use a secular song to convey a message to us, as a general rule, Christians should not be looking for God’s life among the secular music produced by the spiritually dead. God does not anoint the dead for worship but quickens Christians to be living stones in his temple, a holy priesthood unto God, to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto Him.
In contrast, secular songs speak of the world, because the musicians are of the world, and mind the things of this world; therefore the world hears (listens) to them and admires them because they speak of the worldliness in which they have an accord, fellowship, and communion with.
2 Cor 1:21 Now he which establishes us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God. God has anointed Christ, and we as Christians are “anointed ones” as his consecrated body holding the head – which is Christ - Heb 1:9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Col 2:19 (We are to) hold the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increases with the increase of God. This means exalting Jesus and giving him glory in all we do and say.
Col 3:17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
1 Peter 4:11 If any man speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
The word “Oracle” means the speaking place of God. The holy of holies is the speaking place of God from which he spoke to the great high priest in the temple, and now speaks to us today who boldly enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19-22). Worldly songs do not covey what God has spoken to us in our communion with Him in the holy of holies.
Therefore - Romans 12:2…“Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
1 Cor 2:4 (Paul said) …my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Do we trust in the arm of secular popularity in the flesh to bring in the harvest of souls into the church - or do we trust, as Paul did, in the demonstration of God's power unto salvation?
Here are some video examples of the song “Hallelujah”
Let’s take a look at the song lyrics of “Hallelujah” so we can more fully understand, and perceive the very telling atheistic mindset of Cohen.
