Keith & Kristyn Getty
6 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 6 checks landed
- ~ FAITHFUL 1
- NOT A QUOTE 5
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
“Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”
Keith & Kristyn Getty
Sing it. It quotes no verse and never says it is scripture. Just know that its best-known title for Christ follows the King James at Haggai 2:7, and that most modern Bibles render that verse about treasures, not a person.✓ One sustained prayer from the first word to the last, addressed to Christ by name and asking for release, rest, His kingdom and His rule; Hawn counts six imperatives across the two stanzas
⚠ The title the hymn gives Christ follows the King James at Haggai 2:7. Move the translation toggle above to WEB or BSB and no person appears in the verse
NOT A QUOTE
“He Will Hold Me Fast”
Keith & Kristyn Getty
Sing it. It quotes nothing and never says it is scripture. It says what John 10:28 says, that the grip is His and not yours. Read verse 29 alongside it for the reason that grip holds.✓ Never says it is quoting. No verse is cited in the sung text, and nothing is presented as the words of scripture
⚠ The Father is not named in the song. John 10:29 supplies the reason the promise holds, that the Father who gave them is greater than all, and that clause has no counterpart in either version of the hymn
NOT A QUOTE
“Go Tell It On The Mountain”
Keith & Kristyn Getty
Sing it. Nothing here is offered as a quotation, and the nativity it narrates is the one Luke reports. Just know that the refrain is older than the verses and came from somewhere else.✓ Never says it is quoting, anywhere: no chapter and verse, no translation named, nothing framed as scripture
⚠ The refrain and the stanzas have separate origins, and hymnal credit lines that read only "traditional" or only "John W. Work Jr." collapse the two
~ FAITHFUL
“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”
Keith & Kristyn Getty
Sing it. The second stanza is Galatians 6:14 turned into a prayer, and the page said so in 1707. The label never survived into modern singing, so bring the reference with you.✓ The verse's boast-reversal survives intact: the sung text allows the singer no boast except the death of Christ, which is exactly the ground Galatians 6:14 stakes out
⚠ Nothing at the point of singing carries the label. The Galatians reference lives in a 1707 book, not in the recording, the lyric video or any hymnal page a singer is likely to hold
NOT A QUOTE
“By Faith”
Keith & Kristyn Getty
Sing it. The song is not quoting. It walks Hebrews 11's roll call, opening every verse the way the chapter opens its entries, and its extension to the church and the singer is a move the chapter itself makes.✓ Opens all five verses with the chapter's own repeated formula, so the form of Hebrews 11, not just its stories, is the engine of the song
⚠ No reference is cited anywhere, so the song never sends a singer to the chapter whose shape it borrows
NOT A QUOTE
“The Lord Is My Salvation”
Keith & Kristyn Getty
Sing it. Nothing in it is offered as scripture. Its title sentence is one the Bible sings in four of its own songs, and the hymn's fear-and-refuge verses stay close to what Psalm 27 actually says.✓ The song repeats Psalm 27's actual argument: a remembered rescue first, then refusal to fear what is coming. The order is the psalm's own, memory before courage
⚠ No verse is cited and no translation named; the links to Psalm 27 and the rest sit in the writers' materials and hymnal catalogs, not in the lyric a singer sees