Hillsong Worship
10 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 10 checks landed
- NOT A QUOTE 10
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
“O Praise the Name (Anástasis)”
Hillsong Worship
Sing it. It is quoting nothing and tells the resurrection story truly. Acts 2:24 adds two things the song does not: that God raised Him, and that death could never have held Him.✓ Gives the burial a full verse. Acts 2:31 says the point at issue was that His body did not see decay, and a song that stays in the tomb keeps that in view
⚠ Verse 24's reason, that death could not have kept Him, is not in the song. Repetition will plant the resurrection as a victory won, not as an outcome that was never in doubt
NOT A QUOTE
“Man of Sorrows”
Hillsong Worship
Sing it. Nothing here is quoting. Know that it carries the second half of Isaiah 53:6, where sin is laid on him, and not the first half, where we admit we strayed.✓ Carries the verse's actual construction, not just its subject: the sin is laid on him, which is what Isaiah 53:6 says the LORD did, rather than something the servant merely suffered
⚠ The first verse puts two things on Jesus. Isaiah 53:6 puts one. The wrath language comes from a reading of the chapter and of the New Testament, not from this verse, so sing it knowing which of the two words is Isaiah's
NOT A QUOTE
“What A Beautiful Name”
Hillsong Worship
Sing it. Nothing here is quoting scripture. The first section tracks what John 1 says at its opening about the Word, and the line people argue over is ambiguous rather than provably wrong.✓ The first section carries the two hardest things John 1:1 says, in the right order, that the Word was with God and that the Word was God, and it does so before any mention of what He did for us
⚠ The second section contains a line that has been publicly disputed for years. Read John 1:1-3 and John 17:24 before you decide how you are singing it, rather than deciding from the tune
NOT A QUOTE
“Still”
Hillsong Worship
Sing it as a vow of trust, not as a quotation. It names no verse and misstates none. Its stillness is the kind Moses asked of Israel at the sea: stop panicking, God does the delivering.✓ The resolve the chorus plants is a posture scripture actually commands: stillness in danger while the LORD does the delivering, which is Israel's whole assignment in Exodus 14:13-14
⚠ Nothing is cited, so the be-still line will settle into memory as the singer's sentence. In Psalm 46:10 it is God's, and He finishes it with His exaltation among the nations. Read the verse so the vow keeps the command behind it
NOT A QUOTE
“O Praise the Name (Anástasis)”
Hillsong Worship
Sing it. Nothing is quoting, and the story runs in the creed's order: died for our sins, buried, raised on the third day. What it does not carry is Paul's twice-repeated according to the Scriptures.✓ Walks the creed's own sequence, death for sins, burial, rising on the third day, each event in its place
⚠ Paul says according to the Scriptures twice in two verses. The song sings the events without singing that they were foretold, and repetition will plant the story without the promise
NOT A QUOTE
“King of Kings”
Hillsong Worship
Sing it. Nothing here is quoting, and the story it tells runs in the right order: incarnation, cross, resurrection, then the church. It stops before the ascension, which the confession keeps.✓ Narrates in order: incarnation, cross, resurrection, Pentecost, the church. Each event sits where the New Testament puts it
⚠ No reference is cited anywhere, so the song offers nothing to check itself against. The sequence has to be tested against the Gospels and Acts rather than against the song
NOT A QUOTE
“Cornerstone”
Hillsong Worship
Sing it. Nothing here is offered as scripture. Just know that what the song quotes is a hymn, and that Ephesians' cornerstone holds up a building made of people rather than one person's house.✓ Never says it is quoting, anywhere: no verse cited, no scripture framing, nothing presented as the Bible's words
⚠ The title word is Ephesians' word, but the rock imagery underneath it descends from Matthew 7's parable, where the picture is one man's house. Two different buildings share one song
NOT A QUOTE
“Mighty to Save”
Hillsong Worship
Sing it. Nothing here is quoting scripture. Just know the title phrase is one translation's wording of Zephaniah 3:17, and that a King James reader will find those words in Isaiah 63:1 instead.✓ Never says it is quoting, anywhere: no reference, no verse framing, no translation named, nothing presented as scripture
⚠ The title phrase reads like a fixed biblical title and is not one. It is one clause of Zephaniah 3:17 as some translations render it, and the phrase's stable home is Isaiah 63:1
NOT A QUOTE
“Who You Say I Am”
Hillsong Worship
Sing it. It quotes nothing, and what it says at its centre is what John 8:36 says. Read the whole exchange, though, because the passage says what we were freed from, and the song mostly does not.✓ What the song says at its centre matches John 8:36: the believer's freedom is the Son's doing, not the singer's
⚠ John 8's freedom is freedom from slavery to sin, established over five verses against people who denied being slaves. The song states the freedom without the diagnosis
NOT A QUOTE
“What A Beautiful Name”
Hillsong Worship
Sing it. Nothing here is quoting, and its shape follows Philippians 2 in the right order: down to the cross first, then the name above every name.✓ Follows Philippians 2's own sequence: pre-existence, cross, resurrection, then the name above every name
⚠ Philippians 2's hymn is quoted by Paul as an argument for humility among Christians who were quarrelling. The song keeps the Christology and leaves the purpose