Published September 15th, 2006 by hrabbach
Skillet - Earth Invasion
Does it sometimes happen to you that you hear a song and it gives you that slightly uneasy feeling that there is something dangerous in it? Sometimes it may be that it’s about all the things you would do for Jesus and you realize that you wouldn’t. Sometimes it’s something else. I love Skillet’s “Earth Invasion”, but at the same time I am acutely aware that it can easily be misunderstood by those who are not Christians and quite possibly some who are, too.
If you look at the lyrics without knowing that the christian war is fought in the spiritual realm and not in the physical, I guess you would have to be forgiven for thinking that Christians are all about spreading their beliefs with the sword, in the way the crusades did many centuries ago in a mix of misguided understanding of the Bible and a hunger for power misusing scripture to justify a worldly war. We need to be very careful about the words we use when we talk about our faith. In a world that is increasingly suspicious of Christians and their motives, words like “crusade”, “army of believers” or “christian soldiers” will let us appear in the wrong light, even though we mean all the right things when we say them. But if we use the same words that are being used in military rhetoric by those who are often perceived in the non-western world as “christian” countries (and the concept of a separation between religion and state is much more difficult to grasp for those from a non-western background), then we are making it very difficult for ourselves to reach these people with the Gospel.
That said, “Earth Invasion” is still a great song - we just need to be aware that it talks about a spiritual war. “The army that’s arising” is an army of believers fighting for the souls of those who don’t know Jesus yet. And the Kingdom that is advancing every day is not a country of this world, but the Kingdom of God that goes beyond borders and as Christians allows us to be citizens of “a nation living without sin”, even though we still live in worldly nations full of sin. Yes, we are a part of this army and isn’t it encouraging to know that we can be a part of something bigger? And all that thanks to what one man did on a cross almost two thousand years ago on His mission to save the world.
Song: Earth Invasion
Artist: Skillet
Album: Alien Youth
Author: John L. Cooper
