Ariana Grande Performs at Aretha Franklin’s Funeral, With Bill Clinton
"Impressed"
The stars have come out to say goodbye to the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, at her funeral in Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple. Among the moving tributes were songs performed by Smokey Robinson, Faith Hill and “American Idol” winner Fantasia Barrino, while Ariana Grande belted out the Franklin classic, “A Natural Woman.” Franklin, who passed away from pancreatic cancer at age 76, was laid to rest in a sparkling gold gown with matching shoes.
ARETHA FRANKLIN'S "CHRISTIANITY"
(Friday Church News Notes, September 7, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:Aretha Franklin’s death and funeral have been the focus of news reports worldwide over the past three weeks. In my teen years I was captivated by her incredibly sensual hit songs, such as “Respect,” which took the airwaves by storm in 1967, the year I graduated from high school. Known as the “Queen of Soul,” she was eulogized as “a musical titan, an American icon, a legend.” The tributes at her funeral in the Greater Grace Temple of Detroit stretched on for eight hours. In attendance were former presidents, prominent pastors, civil rights leaders, entertainment stars, and sports heroes.
It was a fitting celebration for a singer who so perfectly represented the spiritual character of America and its churches. She stood for syncretism and ecumenism: the merging of Christ and the world, the blending of spirituality and sensuality, the amalgamation of holy and sexy, the yoking of sacred and secular, the integration of the church with the filthy pop culture, the friendship of truth with error. Her funeral exuded this spirit even in the choice of songs, from the sacred “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” to the worldly “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman.” In reality, this mixture philosophy is confusion and wickedness and heresy. It is the Christianity that America loves (whether it goes by the name of Baptist or evangelical or charismatic or emerging or whatever), but it is no kind of true Christianity. It is the Christianity of end-time apostasy, of the one-world “church.”
The Lord Jesus Christ taught that “no man can serve two masters” and “ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). It is impossible. It is a lie. Any “christ” who commends such a thing is a false christ. Any preacher who preaches such a thing is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The Bible commands separation from the world, the flesh, and the devil (Galatians 5:17; Ephesians 5:11; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17). It forbids the yoking together of believers with unbelievers, the fellowship of righteousness with unrighteousness, the communion of light with darkness, the concord of Christ with Belial (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). Aretha was the daughter of a Baptist pastor who used his God-given talent (known as the man with “the million dollar voice”) to serve mammon and destroyed his marriage by infidelities. She was at the forefront of breaking down biblical barriers between Christ and the world, and the entire field of Contemporary Christian Music has exactly the same philosophy. Her producer, Jerry Wexler, said Aretha’s song “Spirit in the Dark” was a “perfect R&B blend of the sacred and the secular. It’s Aretha conducting church right in the middle of a smoky nightclub. It’s everything to everyone.” But this is impossible. There is no “church” in the middle of a nightclub unless that “church” calls the nightclub to repentance, but Aretha and her music called no one to repentance. Christ is a friend of sinners, but Christ called men to repentance from sin in the sharpest language. He said, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish,” and He repeated it for emphasis (Luke 13:3, 5). He warned men of eternal hellfire, and He repeated that, too, for emphasis (Mark 9:43-48). That kind of preaching would put a quick end to any worldly party, but that is the true Christ of Scripture. He is the Friend of Sinners, but He is also “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26). He is the Saviour, but He is also the Judge. He is the Lamb of God who came to atone for man’s sin (John 1:29), but He is also the Lamb who will pour out “the wine of the wrath of God upon the impenitent (Revelation 6:16; 14:10). This is not the message that America hears from the vast majority of its “reverends” today, but they are no reverends at all. Reverend means holy, and they know nothing of holiness. They are the blind leading the blind, and all will fall into the ditch of eternal destruction. God says to the Aretha Franklin crowd, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).
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