Tis the season for video posting of the extremely talented and fun to watch videos of the Piano Guys. If you’ve never heard of the Piano Guys you must still be accessing the internet with dial-up access (is that even still possible to do?).
Out of curiosity, a few years ago, I decided to do a little background research on the Piano Guys. Where there is no mistaking, they are talented and have engineered new ways of playing instruments (they usually don’t play the piano), but the platform of their faith is the reason for this caution.
Most don’t know that the Piano Guys are on public record as stating their faith. They offer full statement of belief on their website, it is as follows…
“We believe the purpose of life is to be happy.
We believe the best way to be happy is to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and to love others more than yourself.
We believe family is most important.
We believe we are all children of a God who loves us dearly.
We believe that good music can be a source of joy, inspiration, and fulfillment.
We believe as Bobby McFerrin once said, listening to only one kind of music is like insisting on living in only one room of
your home your entire life.
We believe in as much laughter in life as possible.
We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as “LDS” or “Mormons”) to learn more about this church please visit mormon.org”
Why is this important for me? Why should you find it a significant thing to think through?
Learning that the Piano Guys are LDS did not change the fact that these [piano] guys are talented. They are. What changed is the origin of their faith. When a Mormon speaks of the birth of Christ, sings of the birth of Christ, or even plays music [without words] of the birth of Christ I’m in a different place of critique. I’m no longer simply enjoying music, I’m in doctrinal conflicted with the musician. When a Mormon sings of the birth of Jesus, he means a god left heaven, came and had sexual relations with a woman, and she gave birth to a child. They are the same words an orthodox Christian may sing but the teaching behind those same words are radically different.
I can still respect the talent of the Piano Guys, but I can’t experience worship as a result of their music. I might feel emotion that their music creates but I can’t trust my emotions to lead me to worship. I must give direction to my emotions. It’s possible that many will disagree with me on this. I welcome the disagreement, I’m only stating my observation from comparing the doctrines of the Book of Mormon and the Bible.
What do followers of Christ (defined by the Bible) have in common with Mormons? There is no place where the two are the same. The two doctrines are at conflict with each other, they have two different masters. The Bible teaches that “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.” (Matthew 6:24)
Can a follower of Christ enjoy the talent of the Piano Guys? I think that’s clearly possible. Can the Piano Guys lead a follower of Christ (defined by the Bible) to worship? The answer, in my observation, gets sticky. Because the Piano Guys state their beliefs on their website as clearly Mormon, and because I believe the Bible to be a sufficient rule for my life, I say no; they can only lead someone to worship their god, and clearly they want listeners to worship their god because they invite visitors of their website to check out Mormonism.
I might listen to music from the Piano Guys but I will direct my spirit to not be carried away with emotion. If I’m not careful, my emotion will deceive me and lure me into idolatry. Giving my emotions to another god must be guarded always. Clearly there is a secular product that is enjoyable by the Piano Guys, but just as clearly there is a spiritual component that must not be ignored. If I’m not careful, I can let the familiarity of the music played by the Piano Guys to eventually weaken my heart as to considering that ‘maybe we do worship the same deity.’ We don’t worship the same, so I’ll guard my heart
Be on guard. Guard your heart Christian.
Offered for consideration
Coco
December 12, 2014 at 5:33 PMI had just heard about them and listened to their recent Christmas song rendition. What great talents! I also will have to agree with you to always guard our hearts with logical truths, not by our emotions. No matter how beautiful and inspiring a song can be, if the glory goes to someone else other than the true God of the Bible, it is best to find inspiration somewhere else.
Paul
December 14, 2014 at 6:56 AMThat really is the matter at hand. It’s not that these guys aren’t talented, it’s what glory is being given to what god?
Maria Hannouche
May 3, 2015 at 3:31 AMThey actually give all their glory to God… please refer to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohM59CYEJng
On a side note, it’s quite well know that they pray before every performance, before they make a video, etc.
Maria Hannouche
May 3, 2015 at 3:26 AMI think it’s really cool that you’re devout in your faith – I grew up Catholic, and there aren’t quite as many who are as vocal and open about it. Props to you. I’d just like to comment on the Mormon doctrine you presented in your post, though. Like I said, I was raised Catholic, but I am a member of the Mormon church, or more correctly the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. There’s a lot of wrong information out there on the web about the church. I’ve certainly read elsewhere what you had said about us believing God physically impregnated Mary; that’s simply untrue. We believe just the same as any other Christian that Mary became pregnant with Christ via the Holy Spirit as it rightfully says in the scriptures – if we believed that she had to have sex (and with God for that fact… yikes!!) to conceive the Savior, then we would be going against thousands of years worth of prophecy about the Savior being born of a virgin.
This misconception may have arisen because we believe that God and Jesus Christ have literal bodies of flesh and bone (makes sense to us, as we were made in the “image of God” – ergo, He must have a body as well).
The Piano Guys did link mormon.org and lds.org on their website – I’d suggest actually checking it out from those sources, and not from perspectives looking inwardly from the outside. There’s also fairmormon.org for any questions you might have – there is a good number of topics addressed.
I’d just like to leave by saying that I know that Jesus Christ lives, that He is the literal son of Heavenly Father, that He died for each of us individually, and that He lives so that He could be there for us in every moment of our lives – the good, the bad and the in between times. I know that the virgin birth really did occur, and that Jesus Christ is truly the fulfillment of all the prophecies of old without any exception, and I say these things in the sacred name of our resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ, amen. 🙂
Jacqueline
August 10, 2015 at 11:14 AMI don’n thing the Piano guys are trying to convert any one to their religious beliefs, they want to be an influence for good, that’s all….the only way to know is this gospel is the true gospel of Jesus Christ is through prayer there is no other way and if some one still believes that God answers prayers he or she is welcome to ask God about this….no body converts other people to a specific religion….no body makes any one to worship a God or a religion…one has to do his or her own effort through his or her own faith…and through prayer…Just pray with faith and ask God, I know that He loves you and will answer your prayers..
Yann
August 17, 2015 at 1:11 AMWho are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. (Romans 14:4)
Instead of participating to misinformation about the Latter Day Saints, the author of this article should apply the scriptures to himself and shouldn’t be afraid to open his mind and try to see a little bit further than some random information found on some random website.
alanb
September 22, 2015 at 9:39 PMYour misunderstanding of the beliefs of Mormonism about the birth of Christ is because you base your conclusions on what you learn from anti-Mormon videos and teachings. No Mormon that I know invisions Heavenly Father having sex with Mary. In fact that is not an official teaching of the church, but only speculation. All Mormons believe is what is taught in Luke 1:35. All Mormons know is that Jesus had a Heavenly Father and an earthly mother, just as the Bible teaches. Anything else is just speculation. Please don’t look so hard to find differences between Christians. We can do so much more good in the world if we seek out what we have in common and unite against the sinister evils that threaten all Christianity.
PhDAAA
November 10, 2015 at 5:13 PMFinally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.
Phillipians 4: 8
samiamhis
December 20, 2015 at 6:15 PMPaul thank you for voicing your concerns about what we listen to in the form of worship. I know that many Mormons call themselves Christians because that is what is commonly being said about their faith. They would like to appear to be what God has invited us to be through Christ Jesus. Sadly, there is no commonality between born again believers of the gospel of Jesus Christ and Mormons. They are preaching a different gospel and they are adding to what God has revealed in His word. I found a video of the piano guys linked to a Christian blog and when it went to youtube and listed mormon.org under the video I knew just as you did, there was real talent but they were not worshiping the Lord God. The God who became flesh in the form of an infant. He condescended His glorious position, not so we could be happy but to live among us, suffer the crucifixion, death and resurrection to satisfy the penalty of sin which we all deserve, by becoming sin for us. As many as receive Him, on His terms, those will be called the children of God and bring glory to Him. That is why we were created. Not to figure out how we can be happy and live good lives but to bring glory to God and Him alone. Thank you again for your thoughtful post regarding what we entertain as worship and who we worship with.