Skillet frontman John Cooper is calling Lil Nas X to repentance after the rapper released his controversial single and music video, titled “J Christ.”
In the music video, Lil Nas X portrays himself as a messianic figure as he walks around heaven ,wearing women’s clothing, and a gold-plated necklace with the word “sexy”. He is also shown welcoming several celebrity look-alikes including Michael Jackson, Kanye West, and Taylor Swift, into the gates of heaven.
He is also shown defeating Satan, who is wearing a pair of Lil Nas X’s “Satan Shoes, in a basketball game. In other parts of the video, Lil Nas X is cheering in a woman’s cheerleading outfit, hanging on a cross wearing tasseled go-go boots with a crown on thorns on his head, and sheering sheep, Church Leaders reports.
Additionally, the rapper appears as a Noah-like character saving animals from a global flood in an ark with his emblem on it.
“Back-back-back up out the gravesite. B**ch, I’m back like J Christ. I’m finna get the gays hyped. I’m finna take it yay high. Back up out the gravesite B**ch, I’m back like J Christ,” the song’s lyrics read in part.
The video concludes with the screen showing the text from 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
As of Monday, the music video has received over 6 million views since its release on Jan. 12.
In response to the music video, Cooper told Church Leaders the rapper desperately needs to repent and be born again. He also lists some “woes” in light of what he saw in the music video.
“Woe to those who celebrate Satan,” Cooper said, “woe to those who arrogantly compare themselves to Jesus Christ, woe to those who put their own image on a cross as if they are Jesus, and woe to those who confuse the worship of Jesus with sex.”
“Woe to those who try to confuse children, leading them astray. Woe to those who compare a musical comeback that motivates sexual immorality to Jesus rising from the dead,” he added. “Woe to those who do not know the difference between Jesus and Satan, woe to those who mock God by belittling His death and resurrection, and woe to those who invoke Christ’s name as a punch line. Do not be deceived; God is not mocked.”
The Skillet frontman also called the church to repent for not speaking out against evil.
“We must repent for allowing the culture to rot without barely saying a word about it,” said Cooper, “and accepting the public celebration of deathworks in our culture—deathwork is defined as using a sacred symbol to defile and destroy what was deemed sacred.”
We have also permitted “the power of the state to be in charge of school curriculum, sex education, and our moral taboos.”
“Likewise, the church must repent for accepting the culture of death that promotes abortion,” Cooper continued, “hyper-sexuality, gender confusion, and the sexualization of children as a reasonable worldview, a worldview that Christians cannot condemn or we will be deemed judgmental ‘Pharisees’ by other Christians.”
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Just as Cooper calls Lil Nas X to repentance, he urges everyone to “Repent, be saved; be born again by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and be conformed to his image by the renewing of [your] mind.”
He added, “The church must repent for our unwillingness to call the world to repentance, to stand for righteousness, and for our incredible lack of moral clarity.”
“It is as the prophet Jeremiah said in Chapter 6, Verse 15—we have forgotten how to blush because the evil doesn’t even embarrass us anymore,” Cooper concluded.
Lil Nas X has received a number of controversies in recent years, including the creator of the controversial “Satan Shoes” and for his 2021 “Montero” music video, where he slid down a stripper pole from heaven into hell and gave the devil a lap dance.
Image credit: ©Getty Images/ Eugene Gologursky / Stringer
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.