Knowledge must know propositional truth

"If Ryken's peculiar aesthetics is relatively unimportant, his undefined view of truth is a more serious flaw, and the implications of such a defective view of truth are disastrous for the preaching of the Gospel.
It is undoubtedly true that 'one can experience the truth about God and salvation while listening to Handel's Messiah.' The reason is The Messiah is composed of words from Scripture. Otherwise, one can experience boredom, think about investments, or decide which restaurant to go to after the concert - all while listening to The Messiah. But if one has thoughts of God and salvation while and because of the oratorio, they come by reason of the Scriptural words. The music adds little or nothing. In fact, many people do not have thoughts about God while listening, because the music is distracting.
The use of the word while is a propaganda device: Literally the sentence is true, but the writer means something else. Fortunately, after inducing a favorable response on the part of the reader by the word while, he twice says what he actually means. First, a pastor initially believed Jesus rose from the dead, not during a sermon, which told him so, but with (of course with is ambiguous too) the sound of the concluding fanfare. At any rate, the pastor did not believe in the resurrection with his mind or intellect: He sensed it. One might grant that he sensed the noise of the trumpets; but how can anyone sense Christ's resurrection? This is utter nonsense, and the final line of the quotation shows how Antichristian the whole viewpoint is.
He says, 'Handel's Messiah is as important to us as a Christmas sermon.' Naturally, if the Christmas sermon in a liberal church centers on Santa Claus, and not on the incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity, Handel's music might be as important - the equal importance being about zero. Only the writer means that the music is as important as the words. If this were so, there would be no necessity to preach the Gospel and ask people to believe the good news.
Art is no substitute for Gospel information. A gigantic tapestry, depicting the miraculous draft of fishes, hangs in the Clowes Hall at Butler University in Indianapolis. It is supposed to be a great work of art. On one occasion, I accompanied a group of Japanese professors through the Hall, and one of them asked, 'What is the story?' No amount of art appreciation could give him the information found in the bible. That Christ was God and worked miracles during his incarnation is understood only through the intellectual understanding of words. Not even a blast of trumpets could have conveyed this truth to my Japanese guests.
If Ryken's views were true, the work of missionaries would be conveniently easier. They would not have to learn a difficult language: They could just put on a recording of Handel and conversions would follow. Why didn't Paul think of that? Don't preach the Gospel, don't give information, just play some music! But Paul said that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. No tapestry, no sculpture, no fanfare. It is Paul who defines Christianity. Anything else is something else. Pity those who substitute art for the Gospel; they worship what they know not and care little about knowledge and truth." - Gordon H. Clark, In Defense of Theology