Skillet’s John Cooper Says God Created Rock Music
By Movieguide® Contributor
John Cooper, frontman for Grammy-nominated Christian rock group Skillet, said in a recent interview that rock music doesn’t have to conflict with Christianity and encourages Christians not to give the devil music God created.
“I never understood the roots of rebellion in Rock’ n’ Roll—sex, drugs and Rock’ n’ Roll,” Cooper said. “That didn’t mean anything to me. I just liked the way it sounded. And I understood God created music. The devil doesn’t create stuff; he distorts, right?!”
“The devil comes in to steal and kill and destroy,” the singer added. “But he wants to steal something that God made that was good, and he wants to mess with it and change it to where he tries to get glory.”
In his interview with Pastor Shane Idleman, Cooper shared more thoughts on rock music, citing Titus 1:15, which says, “To the pure, all things are pure.”
“One of the things that that scripture, as I’ve understood it to mean, is that sometimes there’s going to be something, it may be attached to something that’s really negative for someone, but maybe it’s not negative for someone else,” he said.
He explained how this concept resembles the biblical principle of food sacrificed to idols.
“As we see in the scriptures, somebody’s, like, ‘Hey, that’s not me anymore. I gave my life to Jesus. I don’t want nothing to do with that meat.’ Then you may have somebody else that’s a Christian that’s like, ‘I didn’t even know this was sacrificed to idols. I just thought it was meat. I was thankful that God gave it to me. I didn’t know anything.’ Music was a little like that for me,” Cooper explained.
Cooper’s love for rock music began at a young age when he listened to “loud music” to get ready for basketball games.
“I never got ready for that basketball game and was, like, ‘Man, I feel like this is making me love the devil.’ It was just loud music, and it was cool,” he shared. “But I will say, on a deeper level, for me, I absolutely believe music belongs to God. There’s something of eternity with music.”
“The Bible doesn’t talk about music a lot. But there is something eternal. We know that the angels were singing before we were ever created. We know that music is singing and worship. We know that’s going to be for eternity—it’s one of the few things we have here that in some form is going to exist before the throne for always and always and always, when time has ended,” he added.
The musician doesn’t want Christians to let Satan steal the music that God created.
“It’s like that great old Christian song, ‘Why should the devil have all the good music?’ But we’re not going to let the enemy steal something that God created,” Cooper added.
“He may have distorted it, but we’re bringing that back under the lordship of Christ, where music and art belongs because everything is the Lord’s. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof. Everything in it is His. So that’s kind of the way that I view it.”
Cooper realizes that some think rock music belongs to the devil, but he urges Christians to “capture that music and bring it back into subjection under the lordship of Christ.”
Movieguide® previously reported on how Cooper believes music can impact culture.
Skillet lead singer John Cooper sat down with actor Kirk Cameron to talk about the role Christian music has in today’s culture.
“The power of music is kind of quite important,” Cooper told Cameron on TAKEAWAYS. “I think the Christian music has done a good job of saying what we value, which is worship. We worship God.”
“I think the Christian music should have an element of John the Baptist saying to Herod, ‘You are defying God with your sexual immorality. There is an authority above you. You need to repent.’” he continued. “There’s an issue there that I think Christian music has either lost or maybe never had, I’m not sure.”
Cooper said that Christian music needs to find a way to combat the messages people hear in secular songs by addressing various topics and “holding people accountable.”
The singer recently launched a podcast, Cooper Stuff Podcast, where he covers topics like music, faith and marriage.
“I felt the Lord speaking to me,” Cooper said of his new venture. “He was shifting my mission a little bit…and it was time to move from just a ‘proclaiming Jesus’ stage into a little bit more of a ‘defending the faith’ stage.”
Cooper has become quite vocal about his faith and Christian culture in recent months, speaking out especially about the deconstruction movement within evangelicalism.
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Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
