When I came across this particular passage last month in finishing up Noah Hutchings’ 1990 book, Daniel the Prophet, I about gasped. I thought, “Man, this is it!”

In talking about how the building and worshipping of the image of King Nebuchadnezzar gave a picture-type for the future reign of the Antichrist, Hutchings writes, “We notice that this mass idolatrous worship of the image by all the rulers of the nations, the judges, law enforcement officers, and petty politicians was to be accompanied by loud music of every type of musical instrument known at the time. It was a regular ‘rock festival.’

“Now, why would Nebuchadnezzar accompany this anti-God mass with loud music? Satan knows the power of music to stir the emotions of man and to deaden his natural senses. Loud and discordant music brings out the worst beastlike qualities in man and drives him on to godless pursuits and inhuman behavior.”

If you know anything about all the wealthy evangelical mega-churches today that are styled after the Ted Haggards and Rick Warrens, they emphasize “song worship” more than anything else, and the music they use to entice the “unchurched” into visiting on Sunday mornings almost always includes loud rock music.

Just look at this first-person account given on Haggard’s New Life Church in Colorado Springs, previously recognized as the most powerful megachurch in America, that appeared in a 2005 issue of Harper’s Magazine:

The worship band, dressed in black, goateed or soul-patched or shag-headed, lay flat on their backs, staring straight up. To my right sat a middle-aged woman in a floor-length flower-print dress with shades of orange and brown. Her hair was thick, chestnut, wavy, her face big-boned in a raw, middle-aged party-girl way. She tilted her head back to watch the tributes roll past. Her mouth hung open.

The band stood. A skinny, chinless man with a big, tenor voice, Ross Parsley, directed the musicians and the crowd, leading us and them and the choir as the guitarists kicked on the fuzz and the drummer pounded the music toward arena-rock frenzy. Two fog machines on each side of the stage filled the sanctuary with white clouds. Pod-shaped projectors cast a light show across the ceiling, giant spinning white snowflakes and cartwheeling yellow flowers and a shimmering blue water-effect. “Prepare the way!” shouted Worship Pastor Ross.

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kAn article appearing several years ago in USA Today reported about the Rev. Rick Warren, “(His) emphasis on approachable Christianity is reflected at Saddleback, where worshippers can choose from nearly two dozen services that feature different styles of live music, from heavy metal to reggae to hula.”

In a speech Warren gave in 2003 at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, he stated, “I believe that one of the major church issues (of the future) will be how we’re going to reach the next generation with our music.”

He writes in his mega-bestseller, The Purpose-Driven Life, “God loves all kind of music because he invented it all—fast and slow, loud and soft, old and new. You probably don’t like it all, but God does!”

In a piece of advice directed specifically at pastors, of whom “Pastor Rick” has trafficked his satanic marketing scheme to tens of thousands worldwide, Warren says, “You must match your music to the kind of people God wants your church to reach. . . The music you use ‘positions’ your church in your community. It defines who you are. . . It will determine the kind of people you attract, the kind of people you keep and the kind of people you lose.”

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As Hutchings continues, “Music can be used to create any type of specific mental attitude that is desired. For example, in Germany before World War II radio stations played continually the harsh German military marches, and this type of music even invaded the churches. The young were caught up in the spirit of the music and were prepared to go out and fight the world if necessary. In 1936 Herr Baldur von Schirach, director of the youth program in Germany said:

One cannot be a good German and at the same time deny God, but an avowal of faith in the eternal Germany is at the same time an avowal of faith in an eternal God. If we act as true Germans we act according to the laws of God. Whoever serves Adolph Hitler, the Fuhrer, serves Germany, and whoever serves Germany serves God.

“Music had a role in creating this kind of blasphemy in the minds of German youth, and today music is being used to help destroy our country. It does make a difference what kind of music you have in your church. Music that is uplifting and soul building is a gift of God and leads man to seek the One who will put a new song in his life.

“We read of the heavenly congregation in Rev. 5:8-9:

‘. . . four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.’ ”