A Closer Look at Christian Music.    by Joshua Law  June 1991

Music is a language.

Some people, unwittingly, believe that music is a universal language mainly because music generally has a pleasant appeal. To me, music is an enhanced encoded language. Music needs to be learnt in order to be understood. And to be understood, music needs to be decoded. (Music can be very uncertain: I Cor. 14:8) However, since pure music is abstract, the message it gives is ambiguous, The listener is free to interpret it the way he feels at the moment. Therefore, music often arouses a variety of emotional responses. However, not all music appeal to all people. The same piece of music can arouse contrasting emotional responses. Continue reading →