Questionable Theology in Our Music: “Enemy’s Camp”
By Roger ~ June 14th, 2009. Filed under: Religion.
There are some songs in my church experiences that I will have nothing to do with. Some of these songs you would want to stay away from, too, if you actually stopped to consider the merit of the lyrics compared with Biblical truth. I want to look at one of these songs now and break down the reasons I don’t think it has any merit.
“I went to the enemy’s camp/And I took back what he stole from me…” –Richard Black
First of all, is there an enemy’s camp? Is there a place where you could walk up to that has fallen angels sitting around campfires cooking hotdogs and marshmallows while telling stories of the humans they stole stuff from? Or, maybe the camp has a large pavilion in the middle where Lucifer has a map of the world laid out on a table, with arrows and Xs signifying his next big attack.
I don’t see any support for a fallen angel “camp” in the Bible.
Secondly (and I did rearrange some points so they don’t follow the same order as the song), the enemy didn’t steal anything from you; you let it slip. Be a mature adult and admit the responsibility that belongs to you. Your walk with God is not something that can be stolen. You are the one, and the only one, who has control of it.
Think about your Bible. Was it stolen? No, it’s right there on your nightstand or on your bookshelf collecting dust. Maybe you think your Bible reading time was stolen. Who has control of what you do with your time?
The same point goes for prayer. Prayer is not even a physical item which can be stolen, like your Bible is. As long as you have lips, as long as you have a tongue, and, barring those, as long as you have a mind capable of thought, you can pray to your God. Take the time to do it. It’s more important than a show you might watch, or another book you might read, or a website you might visit, even if the show and the book and the website are all about God.
Lastly, and most importantly, even if there was a camp, you wouldn’t have to go there to get your spirituality back. If you lost your Bible reading discipline, you start where you are, right now, instead of reading this, you pick up your Bible and you start reading. If you’ve let your life of prayer slip, you can start back up right now. These are just a couple examples of things that parishioners will think about when they sing this song. As I said, though, these are things you do not have to storm a theoretical enemy camp for.
This is an important point. Maybe some people haven’t gotten these disciplines back in their life because they don’t dare to go “to the enemy’s camp.” Usually people that storm enemy camps are brave, or specially trained, or have a secret up their sleeve. Maybe you don’t feel like you have what it takes to face the enemy and retrieve the spiritual things you have lost from your life. You don’t have go anywhere. Retrieving your spiritual life starts right where you are right now. You will find this out when you pick up your Bible and start reading it again.
The world has enough fantasy and fiction to sustain it until the end of days. Don’t bring fiction into your spiritual life. Let your songs, your conversation, and, above all, your relationship with God be based in reality and truth.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:18 am
You have some very good points here. I must admit, I have let my prayer and bible reading slip away.
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:22 am
Well said! It’s about time we started examining more closely the songs we are singing in church. Often they are theolgicaly/doctrinally unsound, speak nothing of Jesus and what He has done or promised to do, give no hope, no substance or sense of God’s presence. They are often based on the rythym of the tune to excite or whatever. Many of these so called Christian artists are frustrated musicians who can’t make it in the secular world and so keep trying to bring out a ‘hit’ in Christian music. They are like pop idol candidates trying to make money and sell records. Many of the songs and hymns of the past were written out of a deep experience of God and salvation and not some flimsy ‘love song’ that could mean anything whether Christian or not. Let’s get soem true worship back into our public worship instead of idol worship.
By the way, I do like both some of the old and new songs! I’m not anti all new songs but we do need to more discerning!
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:26 am
We sing this song in our church often. After reading this, I don’t know if I will look at it the same again. I always wondered why some people didn’t respond well to that song. GREAT points throughout about this song and the importance of looking into a song’s theology.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:28 am
While I agree with your theological abstractions, I think you miss the fact that much of the song is simply a metaphor. I don’t believe the author of the song had a literal camp in mind as he wrote it. I think the real intent for the is for Christians to stand up strong and expect God to bring a real experience of restoration and change in their lives right now. The actual language about the “enemies camp” is drawing from Old Testament metaphors. I understand your disagreement, but I think that you are taking the song way too literally.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:56 am
Ya, listen to J.D. The song is a metaphor. But attacking it literally, you obviously don’t understand literature or lyric. John 10 tells us specifically that our spiritual enemy is a thief. Your little rant simply shows ignorance.
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I’m glad someone is paying attention to the lyrics of some of these songs! Excellent points made … no one is more guilty of stealing or losing the spiritual treasures we’ve been given than ourselves. The sooner we admit it, the closer our walk with the Lord will become. (1 John 1)
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Biblically speaking, I believe this song was based on David at Ziklag in I Samuel 30 when they went into the enemies camp and took back what they sole from them. You say that Satan cannot steal from us, but God’s word says Satan purpose is to kill, steal and destroy in John 10:10. Also Jesus talks about Satan stealing the word in Matthew 13 in the parable of the sower and the seed. Yes we have to take responsiblity for our actions but we also have to beware that is why we watch for the enemies attacks and devices. I am not aware of any man that has the ability to look into someone’s heart to see their relationship with God, so some of the comments you made, maybe you need to seek God and ask Him to show you your heart.
June 24th, 2009 at 7:44 am
I thank you all for your comments. Something about this post has dramatically increased traffic to this website, albeit a week after the post was made.
First of all I would like to address the fallacy that I am unfamiliar with metaphor. I do know very well what metaphor is and how it is used. I have used it often myself. I completely understand the use of metaphor in this song. I think anyone who is caught up on that point has missed the bigger picture that I was attempting to relate. Therefore, I think J D King has made some great points, while Agreeing with JDKing has not.
Secondly, I do not believe that the song was based on king David. The lyrics continue on to say, “He’s under my feet…Satan is under my feet.” I do not correlate that with David’s experience. I can see how you would find that connection if you expressly went looking into the OT for something to possibly correlate it to, but I don’t think that was the author’s intent. On the other hand, I really don’t want to presume too much about the author’s intent. I just want to relate my thoughts on the matter.
In all, I’m happy about the participation of those who left comments. I do think that those who sought to say something about me, personally, are out of line, if well intentioned. I put nothing at all about myself in the post, except the admission that I don’t like the song.