Jul
17

No Higher Name Song Story

Featuring Dan Adler Posted on July 17, 2012

One of the great ironies that resulted from the 911 terrorist attacks was how suddenly, Islam was being carefully portrayed in the media in a very positive light and converts to Islam in the United States were actually increasing. I never would have imagined that such a thing would have taken place in this country – since the terrorists were committing these atrocities (and so many before and since) in the name of Islam. But I guess that’s modern day USA… But anyway, after 911, I just noticed more and more people in the media talking about how there are many paths to God and that Allah is just another name for the God of the Bible. And while that was happening, more and more press seemed to be given to denigrating and minimizing the Jesus of the Bible – always with some supposed new revelation as to how He didn’t actually say what the Bible said He did, and how His followers made up the stories about His miracles and His divinity and how He and Mary Magdalene had a thing going on between them. When I hear things like that, something rises up in me that makes me want to really worship (which means “To ascribe worth to, to bow down to, to give homage to”) Jesus and give Him the true glory that is due His name. So I wrote this song (and the song “There is No God but the LORD God” at about the same period of time) for that purpose. It would seem so comfortable in our culture to make Jesus a great teacher and great example like Ghandi, or another prophet like Mohammed or another seeker like the Buddha or one of the thousands of mini-gods that are found in Hinduism. But Jesus is so much more than that. Plus, He made so many exclusive statements about Himself, His Deity and His role in the salvation of humankind that can’t be separated from the rest of His teachings. He wasn’t just another historical mistreated and murdered nice guy. He came for the purpose of dying a substitutionary death on our behalf and to rise again victorious so that we too would rise with Him and be spared from the just wrath of God. He’s the Lamb of God who bore the punishment for our sin. He’s the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. In Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All authority in Heaven and Earth is given to Him. He is the Creator. He is Way, the Truth and the Life…I could go on and on. But I wrote this song to make a strong declaration of worship of Jesus in light of what is being said of Him in the world around us. My hope in writing this song for congregational worship, is to also serve the purpose of teaching and realigning those who sing this song, as they sing it, about the supremacy of Christ as this song is used in worship.

Musically, I was inspired by Carlos Santana’s song “Smooth” and George Parrish did a great job of emulating his electric guitar style in George’s own unique way. It was fun to let Peter Shu, our Chinese keyboard player cut loose along with Alexis Santos on percussion and Brad Anderson on trumpet at the end of this song. Ed Adorno and Eunice Bravo sang the Spanish section and I got to do the AM radio eq’d bridge on this song. This is still one of my favorite songs to play live.

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