Many are deceived by the fact that contemporary praise musicians sing about the Lord in such a seemingly sincere manner. They ask, “Can it be wrong to sing Maher’s ‘Lord, I Need You’?”
I would answer by asking this: Is Matt Maher, who prays to Mary and believes that she aids men in salvation, singing about the same “Lord” as the Bible-believing Christian? When the pope and thousands of Roman Catholics, who hold to a false gospel and worship a piece of bread as Jesus, join their voices to sing this song, who are they singing to in reality, according to God’s Word?
Too many professing Bible-believing Baptists are following their emotions and their vanity and the crowd and their bellies (e.g., build bigger churches, sell more books, don’t offend the popular leaders, etc.) rather than God’s Word and the Spirit of Truth.
The Canadian born Matt Maher (b. 1974), who lives in Tempe, Arizona, is an eight-time GMA Dove Award Nominee. He has a degree in Jazz Piano from Arizona State University.
Like John Michael Talbot, Matt Maher is a Roman Catholic ecumenical bridge builder.
He grew up Catholic but had a “profound awakening” through a charismatic Catholic group. This consisted of an emotional experience that he had while watching a skit “The Broken Heart” about a girl who gets a new heart from God after giving hers away to a young boy. “‘I was standing in the back of the room and I burst into tears,’ Maher remembered. Not long after, he started writing worship songs for the group’s prayer sessions and devoted himself to performing Christian music” (“Catholic Rocker Matt Maher,” Religion News Service, May 17, 2013).
The skit did not present the biblical gospel, and Maher’s conversion was not a biblical conversion. It was a religious conversion that did not include repentance from error and rejection of Rome’s false christ and false gospel.
Maher’s wife is Methodist, but they are raising their son “in the Catholic Church,” while also taking him to Methodist services “so he can experience both traditions” (Religion News Service, May 17, 2013).
This is the perfect recipe for the building of the end-time, one-world “church.”
Maher ministers at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Tempe, which is devoted to Mary as the Queen of Heaven. The sign at the front of the church says, “Mary, Mother of Life, pray for us.”
Maher is on the board of directors for the Catholic youth organization Life Teen.
He calls himself a “musical missionary,” a missionary for Rome, that is. Christianity Today says “Maher is bringing his music--and a dream of unity into the Protestant church” (“Common Bonds,” CT, Oct. 27, 2009). He says, “I’ve had co-writing sessions with Protestants where we had that common denominator, and I’ve seen in a very radical way the real possibility of unity.” He says, “I look at it like the Catholic church is my immediate family, and all my friends from different denominations are extended family.”
David Wang says Maher is “one of the most successful Catholic artists to cross over into mainstream Christian rock and find an audience among evangelicals” (“Catholic Rocker Matt Maher,” Religion News Service, May 17, 2013).
In the following video clip, Maher performs at the 2013 Catholic World Youth Day in front of the pope, a great venerator of Mary as the Queen of Heaven, and a massive crowd of Roman Catholics, singing his popular praise song “Lord I Need You.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky0g_9dyhbU