Bethel Music, Jonathan David & Melissa Helser
2 songs checked against the passages they lean on. Each one was graded on its own, against what that song does with the text.
How the 2 checks landed
- NOT A QUOTE 2
This is a count, not a verdict. We grade songs, one at a time, against what each one does with the text. A tally of those checks describes a catalogue. It is not a judgment of the people who wrote or sang it, and no number here puts anyone on or off The List. Most drift is craft pressure, not deception. Read the proofs, not the arithmetic.
The songs
NOT A QUOTE
“Raise a Hallelujah”
Bethel Music, Jonathan David & Melissa Helser
Sing it. It quotes nothing and never says it is scripture, and its own chorus rests on a victory already finished. Just don't hear the singing as the thing that wins. In Joshua 6 the city was given before anyone shouted.✓ Never says it is quoting: no reference, no verse framing, nothing offered as scripture
⚠ The song never mentions Jericho or walls, but the idea of a shout that brings them down gets attached to it in devotional writing. That reading is worth checking against the passage rather than assumed from the song
NOT A QUOTE
“No Longer Slaves”
Bethel Music, Jonathan David & Melissa Helser
Sing it. Nothing here is quoting a verse, and nothing it says is false. Just know that Romans 8:15 puts fear one step downstream of the slavery it names, and the song sings the symptom.✓ Never says it is quoting, anywhere: no verse cited, no reference, nothing framed as scripture
⚠ Fear is the passage's result, not its master. Romans 6:16-18 and 8:2 name slavery to sin and to the law of sin and death