Lecrae & Reformed Rappers - "Rehab" & "Divine Intervention"

["William The Baptist"]

So today I couldn't find my ipod before work... and had no good sermons/songs to listen to in the car. On the way home I wanted to put something on and grabbed an old cd from my glove box... I haven't listened to it since when I BOUGHT my car in January.

It was Lecrae's latest album "Rehab".

Reformed rap was the first solid theology I ever was exposed to in my youth at church. It was "cool" to like rap and my arminian megachurch often had Lecrae come and perform on a Wednesday night. He's really nice, I met him multiple times and he even told me he wanted to home school his kids after finding out I was homeschooled. So I am not saying this to bash him at all.

Since I wasn't really into Christian rap, I never gave it much thought. But as I listened to the songs I was struck but how bad this particular cd was! It's called "Rehab" and the whole premise is needing Divine intervention...

Here is the lyrics to "Divine Intervention"

You know in intervention they tell you that you're hurting somebody who loves you, and divine intervention's no different, yea, the moment is now

Hook:
Here is my moment, here is my lifetime
All that I have I will give to You
In this moment, 'cause nothing really matters at all

Verse 1:
God created days, weeks, summer, spring, winter, fall
Yup, became weak so You could free us from the fall
You hold the earth in Your palm with Your great power
You always have the time the way You transcend hours
Wind and the waves tsunami is 'round
But You walk on top of them both
They humbly bow
Before I work I need a couple tools
You spoke the earth into existence, no auto tune
More than auto tune, more than minor key
'Cause I've been missing all the notes
In the minor keys and the major ones
And the key to life is coming to the end of it
And embracing Christ

Hook:
Here is my moment, here is my lifetime
All that I have I will give to You
In this moment, 'cause nothing really matters at all
Everything that this heart longs for other than You I will let die
Take all that I am 'cause nothing really matters right now
This is my moment

Verse 2:
I holla empty me
So hollow be my name
You're so immense
But condescend and dwell inside my frame
You restrain the waves
And tame fierce lions
I mean fierce liars, crush empires
We all hanging by a thread cutting at the wires
Ignorant that all the sin lead to hellfire
And when I yell fire, they tell me false alarm
'Cause they don't smell the smoke and they don't sense the harm
Something worse than the black plague's coming
And nothing under the sun can save us from it
There's no hope but divine intervention
And Christ saves victims who are dying from addiction

Hook:
Here is my moment, here is my lifetime
All that I have I will give to You
In this moment, 'cause nothing really matters at all
Everything that this heart longs for other than You I will let die
Take all that I am 'cause nothing really matters right now
This is my moment

Verse 3:
They say in God we trust
But what's the bigger sin
That we don't trust in Him
But trust the stuff on which its written (that's money)
'Cause we all dying and we all trying
To stay alive but the truth we ain't all buying
Those of us who buy it, We're never bought from
We gon' live free forever
We are gonna live forever in the Savior's arms
It's all needles in arms full of life's drugs
Lust, pride, hate, death running through our blood
Need a blood donor, need a transfusion
He's over hanging on the cross for your substitution
So in conclusion, only one solution
Trust divine intervention as your resolution

Hook:
Here is my moment, here is my lifetime
All that I have I will give to You
In this moment, 'cause nothing really matters at all
Everything that this heart longs for other than You I will let die
Take all that I am 'cause nothing really matters right now
This is my moment

Not that everything is terrible, but it struck me at the fact that he is saying we need "divine intervention" from our "addiction" and we're "dying"... which I am not sure theologically if "divine intervention" is accurate. Isn't He sovereign and already chose us before we were even born? So He isn't really intervening, because He has already ordained it. Also, the whole we're dying bit is really bad, we're already spiritually dead. Not to mention we don't need to be rehabilitated, but regenerated.


I was so disappointed by this cd as I skipped through the songs. I don't remember his other album, Rebel, being so bad... or even his older ones.

I don't listen to Christian rap anymore, and my musical tastes have changed a lot since then.

Just /

 

[Rufus]

You'll find a few (younger folks) on the PB like Lecrae. Rap has never been my thing though.

 

[GulfCoast Presbyterian]

Try Shai Linne if you are into that genre. I am not at all into rap, but I really liked his Spurgeon one.

 

[raekwon]

Lecrae is good. Shai Linne is better (or at least more up my alley). Tedashii, Trip Lee, and a few others are worth a listen as well.

 

["William The Baptist"]

I've listened to all of them.

I'm not really into that genre anymore... I listened to it for a while because it was the only music with solid Christian lyrics I had at the time. Then I discovered the Psalms being sung.

It just seems that Lecrae's last album is not as good as his previous ones.

 

[sdesocio]

Crrossss moveeeemmmennnt!!!!

 

[Weston Stoler]

Lecrae is pretty solid Doctrinally. He has his short commings but don't we all? My favorite is trip lee and doctrinaly I like shai linne.

 

[AThornquist]

The vast majority of the music on my iPod is Reformed rap. I enjoy the sound and the messages. It's purely preferential, so I don't care if others don't like the genre, just as they shouldn't care if I don't like their preferences. However, with that said, I fear there might be some nit-pickyness while not giving Lecrae some charity as to what he is intending to say. Granted, Rehab is generally more musically oriented and less theologically dense than his other albums, but so what? This wasn't made for corporate worship, and there is no standard other than a personal one that says he has to maintain a certain level of doctrinal density. Even in the Psalms there are songs of praise that are not deep in their theological content, which shows that not everything needs to be dense; however, even those things that are theologically light ought to have deep theological presuppositions, and I would say that is true in both the Psalms and in what Lecrae is aiming for in his music.

To be specific with what you cited, regeneration is a "divine intervention." When the Lord foreordains something, it is as good as done and must be done, but that doesn't mean it was done at that time (or, more accurately, in that pre-temporal existence). For the elect who have not yet been called, they still need to be regenerated--the divine needs to intervene into their darkness and bring them life. Regarding "dying," yes, man in Adam is spiritually dead, but while the natural man walks this earth he is still a creature that is physically alive, though dying, until the day he collapses into eternal death. There is nothing inaccurate about telling an unbeliever that they are dying and need to be made new, just as there is nothing inaccurate about telling them that they are dead and need new life. It's all a matter of what you mean in those words. So, given Lecrae's Calvinistic theology, it's fairly reasonable to assume that he is not going to publish lyrics that contradict his own beliefs.

 

[Reformed Roman]

The majority of the album is actually about sanctification actually, as far as I'm concerned.

Without Christ and salvation, we are all dead in our sins, indeed. Yet (as unsaved individuals) also we are dying without Christ. Just like in Sanctification, we WILL BE sanctified, yet we are sanctified. Just like we are dead to sin, yet we still sin sometimes. And we have to put to death the deeds of the flesh (Romans 8:13)

Lecrae is saying there are people dying and going to hell and they need divine intervention. Now divine intervention clearly isn't just a decision, it's something divine that intervenes. God's grace comes in and changes a man through regeneration. He realizes his problem and addiction (by addiction, He means living for the world, seeking our pleasure in all other things besides Christ) and we check into Rehab. Aka. Sanctification. Where we are changed day by day.

It's really just a great metaphor. But just like the parables in the Bible, you can't look too far into them and nitpick them. There is so much truth right there, marvelous truth. The gospel is there time and time again. It's a wonderful album.

 

[JS116]

Check out Voice aka Curtis Allen..he is heavily reformed and is a pastor at Solid Rock associated with CJ Mahaney's church Sovereign Grace.I also enjoy Evangel of Christcentric (very solid reformed rappers) and also Shai Linne and Flame.

 

[AThornquist]

Hey Leah, I randomly thought of two passages this morning that have some relevance to what you wrote about. Regarding the lyrics that speak of those who are "dying," the Apostle Paul does the same in 1 Cor. 1:18 and 2 Cor. 4:3, and there are probably similar passages.

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing..." (1 Cor. 1:18)
"And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing" (2 Cor. 4:3).

One of the things that I think is neat about you, Leah, is the fact that you are clearly not complacent in matters of Scripture and truth. It's encouraging to see your desire to believe and defend orthodoxy and orthopraxy. May the Lord continue to develop you in that.

 

["William The Baptist"]

Andrew, thanks!! For your double input. I hadn't thought about it that way, about divine intervention. And the verses you put in. I think that has helped balance me a bit regarding my OP.

One of the things that I think is neat about you, Leah, is the fact that you are clearly not complacent in matters of Scripture and truth. It's encouraging to see your desire to believe and defend orthodoxy and orthopraxy. May the Lord continue to develop you in that.

Thank you I tend think I am being "hyper SENSITIVE" (definitely not hyper calvinistic!! ) sometimes... but I appreciate your kind sentiments, encouragement, and nice way of putting it. I cringe at so much, and dismayed at more, and am brought to tears by such ignorance. For such was the case with me, I just was never told any differently. God is so worthy and holy, it only makes sense that I should never be complacent!!

Zach, thanks for the thoughts about it being about sanctification. Hadn't really thought about it from that angle. Perhaps I am just too narrow in my thoughts on it, ha.


BTW, since I don't listened to CD's ever I am giving that particular cd to my sister. She LOVES Lecrae and I am more than happy to give her some music with reformed theology in it

 

[Reformed Roman]

Honestly it's been one of the more challenging albums in my life, it's great to listen to and help get through. The beginning in general talks about justification of course. And like Andrew said we were dead, and also dying. They are a dying people who need Christ. And they need divine intervention. and salvation. And the gospel is given through much of the album, but the main emphasis of the album is getting into "Rehab" and then being changed. So it's more on sanctification.

Glad to hear your giving it to your sister. She should love it! I know that CD has been a great friend of mine.

 

[awretchsavedbygrace]

I'll just echo what the others have said: Listen to Shai Linne or Timothy Brindle.

 

[O'GodHowGreatThouArt]

I got into extreme metal (exclusively satanic in 05...transferred to exclusively christian in 08) back in 2005, and swore on my life that I would not be caught dead listening to rap.

Some of the friends I still know would tell you that actually was my mindset back in 07 and going into 08. I was still all over the place with the metal scene.

In the last six months, I actually started listening to reformed rap, and it quickly unseated metal. In fact, the only presence of it in my life is some 200 CDs and a vinyl that are collecting dust.

I still thank God for people like Lecrae and Shai Linne...you could not imagine how much junk there is in the lyrics of other musicians that claim to be Christian. It's a blessing to know that there are men and women out there who are serious about the Gospel, serious about God, and serious about spreading sound doctrine.

 

[Joseph Scibbe]

I would definitely call Paul's conversion an "intervention". Reformed theology absolutely does teach that unless God steps in and changes us in a dramatic way then we continue to be those that are "perishing" as quoted in the response above. I actually thought this album was probably his best. The whole theme of the album is total depravity and that outside of the grace of God we are slaves to our addiction to sin. Maybe I am missing something but I don't see and real doctrinal errors in the music.