Passion (Feat. Sean Curran) – All Praise

Passion is a home-grown worship band associated with their home church, Passion City Church. It spawned from their first Passion conference in 1997 under the banner of Choice Ministries. This was held in Atlanta Georgia. Since then, they released 23 live and studio albums.

Also, check out my other Passion reviews.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Passion-all-praise-live-from-passion-2020-lyrics.

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1. What message does the song communicate?

Passion worships, faithfully follows, and yields to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit because God considers their life precious, provides for them, and is present with them.  He is worthy of their adoration.

Though there are other reasons and points presented, these reasons are vague, confusing, and potentially unbiblical.

Vague

• Heaven bends to come to us – Is this about Jesus becoming a man?  it could be clearer.
• Meaning of table, where every table is a feast.
• In what sense we stop fighting and what specifically Jesus defeated.

Confusing

• God and man together, with us forever – Is man eternal, with us like God, and worthy of praise like God is?
• How the heartbeat is an altar vs. the heart.

Potentially Unbiblical

• God is Passion’s greatest miracle – Potentially places Passion as sovereign over God.

Score: 5/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

While some lyrics are Biblical, others are unclear, doesn’t add up, or potentially blaphemous.  I offer educated guesses in most cases.

[Intro]

Line 1: Expanded in Chorus.

[Chorus]

Lines 1 and 2:  I’m not certain, but I think Passion attempts to communicate that we praise because heaven “bent” to us, sending Jesus to die for us (Philippians 2:5-8).

Line 3: The Trinity.

Line 4: Repeats line 1.

Lines 5 and 6: This wording is confusing.  Is Passion suggesting that man is on equal footing with God?  I think Passion is attempting to communicate eternal life (Mark 10:29-30, John 3:15-16, John 3:36, John 4:14, John 5:24, John 5:39-40, John 6:27, John 6:40, John 10:28, John 17:3, John 20:31, Romans 5:21, Romans 6:22-23, Romans 8:18, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Galatians 6:8, 1 Timothy 1:16, 1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Timothy 2:11, Hebrews 5:9, 1 Peter 5:10, 1 John 2:23-27, 1 John 5:10-13, 1 John 5:20, Jude 1:20-21, Revelation 3:5, Revelation 7:16-17, and Revelation 21:3-4); However, their language could be clearer.

[Turnaround]

Lines 1 and 2: That is, our praise.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: A true-ism that isn’t directly supported in Scripture, but gratitude offered to God because He is the source of life (Genesis 1:1, Isaiah 42:5, and Acts 17:25).

Line 3: Filler.

Lines 4-6: God takes the awful things in our lives and turns them around for good (Genesis 50:20).

Line 7: My initial instinct is to connect this to the Parable of the Great Banquet in Luke 14:15-24; However, Passion isn’t clear on what the table represents.

Line 8: If our body is the temple (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), then the heart is the altar.  What about the heartbeat?  Maybe I’m reading too much into this analogy, but it doesn’t make sense for the heartbeat to be an altar.  A normal, resting heart beats 60 to 100 beats per minute.  That’s a lot of altars for a single temple!

Line 9: Passion surrenders to God (Psalm 43:5, Isaiah 64:8, Matthew 10:38, Matthew 11:28-30, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34-38, Mark 10:28, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27, John 15:1-11, Romans 6:13, Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 2:5-8, Hebrews 11:6, James 4:7-10, and 1 Peter 5:6).

Lines 10 and 11: Passion walks by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).  God will be with them along their journey (Deuteronomy 31:6-8, Joshua 1:5-9, Psalm 23:4, Psalm 46:1, Psalm 139:7-10, Isaiah 41:10, Jeremiah 23:23-24, Zephaniah 3:17, Matthew 6:25-34, Matthew 28:20, John 14:16-17, Hebrews 13:5, Romans 8:38-39, and Revelation 3:20).

Contains a reference to Casper the friendly ghost.

[Pre-Chorus]

Line 1: References Hebrews 12:2.

Lines 2-5: Essentially repeats line 1.

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-3: God will provide for Passion (Genesis 2:15-16, Genesis 9:3, Genesis 22:8, Exodus 16:1-36, Psalm 18:2, Psalm 34:10, Psalm 81:10, Psalm 84:11, Psalm 107:9, Proverbs 10:3, Malachi 3:10, Matthew 6:25-30, Matthew 7:7-8, Matthew 21:22, John 14:13-14, John 14:26, John 15:1-10, John 15:16, Romans 8:32, Ephesians 3:20, Philippians 4:19, 2 Corinthians 9:8, and 2 Corinthians 12:9).

Lines 4-6: This is unclear.  Fighting what?  Conquered what?  I think Passion references their surrender (see Verse 1, line 9) and that Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), defeated death (Isaiah 25:8, Hosea 13:14, Luke 20:35-36, 1 Corinthians 15:24-26, 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, 2 Timothy 1:10, and Hebrews 2:14).  However, Passion’s lyrics are poorly worded at best and ambiguous at worst.

[Interlude]

Lines 1 and 2: See Verse 1, lines 10 and 11.

Line 3: A prayer offered to God to believe the things written in lines 1 and 2.  Possibly a reference to Mark 9:24.

[Bridge]

Lines 1 and 2: Borrows heavily from Psalm 42:11 and Psalm 43:5, with a subtle reference to Matthew 11:28.

Line 3: God is eternal (Deuteronomy 33:27, 1 Chronicles 16:34, Job 36:26, Psalm 48:14, Psalm 90:2-4, Psalm 102:12, Psalm 102:26-27, Proverbs 8:23, Isaiah 40:28, Isaiah 41:4, Habakkuk 1:12, John 17:5, Romans 1:20, 1 Corinthians 2:7, Ephesians 1:4, Hebrews 1:11-12, 1 Peter 1:20, 2 Peter 3:8, Revelation 1:8, Revelation 11:17, and Revelation 22:13).

Line 4: This doesn’t make any sense.  It reads like God is Passion’s greatest miracle.  Is Passion suggesting that Passion is so miraculous that they produced God?  Though perhaps not what they intended, it sounds blasphemous.

Lines 5-16: Repeats lines 1-4.

[Outro]

Line 1: See commentary on Bridge, line 4.

Lines 2-6: Passion praises God because He is worthy of it (1 Chronicles 16:25, 2 Samuel 22:4, Psalm 96:4-5, Psalm 145:3, and Revelation 4:11).

Score: 5/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Chorus’ Father, Son, and Spirit, alongside Pre-Chorus’ mention of Jesus, is a dead giveaway that Passion speaks of the triune God.  They will easily conclude that God gives, is with Passion, and that Passion devotes themselves to God.  However, as stated in sections 1 and 2, there are several sections where I had to guess or give up.  Those who aren’t privvy to Christian doctrine will likely more confused than I am, not understanding much of what they hear.

Score: 3/10

4. What does this song glorify?

While it glorifies the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that Passion worships Him, considers Him worthy of praise, and proclaims His willingness to be with them and provide for their needs, it does not glorify God that this song contains several ambiguous and unclear lyrics, alongside one that is possibly sacrilege.

Score: 5/10

Closing Comments

Passion’s All Praise leaves much to be desired.  It proclaims the three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as worthy of worship, whose followers receive His Presence and provision, bringing Him glory.  However, it also contains confusing and unclear elements such as bending heaven, God and man together, and to what Jesus conquered.  Worse still, it potentially blasphemes God, possibly declaring that God is Passion’s greatest miracle.  Unbelievers will think it’s Christian, but will likely find such elements more confusing than I did.

I cannot recommend this song for corporate worship.

Final Score: 4.5/10

Artist Info

Track: All Praise (listen to the song)

Artist: Passion (Feat. Sean Curran)

Album: Roar

Genre: Rock

Release Year: 2020

Duration: 6:55

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