Songs with Christian Themes by Secular Artists

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Ok, I’ll post it. While not exactly applicable to the thread, this is still one of the greatest live performances ever. Just a minute or two in, and she’s no longer aware of the things around her. And Vince Gill’s guitar work is unmatched.
 
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I’ve always thought Helloween’s “Revelation” was one of their most Christian songs.

“Whatever we awaited / Charity or hatred / Whatever we awaited will arise”

That sounds to me very much like how we are the ones who choose our eternal destiny. As in, God does not so much send people to hell as he allows them to send themselves.

One song I always though that had an unexpected Christian theme was the song “Cancer of the Heart” by a band called Skyclad. The band is thoroughly pagan (that’s their word to describe themselves, not mine), and the main lyricist is angry about pretty much everything. But this song really captures the concept of Original Sin to me. “It seems we made our greatest error / When we named it at the start / For though we called it ‘human nature’ / it was ‘cancer of the heart’”
 
People saying “Jesus” or “angels” in songs may just mean they want to sell their music to a Christian audience as well and nothing much. The Christian pop songs are within faith with biblical themes and all that but usually they don’t get a lot of audience outside of the neo-protestant context they are written in because they aren’t cool. Cool doesn’t mean faithful.
God bless
 
Unanswered Prayers by Garth Brooks. This was quite helpful once I realized that a major thing I prayed for would have been an utter disaster if it was fulfilled.
 
He definitely is Christian contemporary – that’s his core audience.
 
Mary888 said:
People saying “Jesus” or “angels” in songs may just mean they want to sell their music to a Christian audience as well and nothing much. The Christian pop songs are within faith with biblical themes and all that but usually they don’t get a lot of audience outside of the neo-protestant context they are written in because they aren’t cool. Cool doesn’t mean faithful.
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First of all, this is a thread to post songs, not to have a debate about the sincerity of some musical artist. If you want to talk about that, please start another thread.

Second, no one is saying “cool” means “faithful”. However, I think it’s presumptuous to assume that the only reason someone would put “Jesus” in a song is because it sells. I know of many musicians, and personally know some as well, who have had severe struggles with mental illness, addiction, or faith/ doubt/ belief issues and they write about it in songs which have religious overtones. They are sincere. It doesn’t mean they suddenly became saints, but Lou Reed certainly didn’t write “Jesus” in order to sell more Velvet Underground records to Christians.

I personally am a lot more distrustful of all the so-called “Christian rock” artists as they are very definitely trying to market themselves to Christians and also present themselves as faithful Christians so their audience will continue to support them, than I am of your average secular rock artist who isn’t trying to present themselves as “faithful”. But that’s just me, and like I said, that’s outside the scope of the thread. Which is supposed to be about sharing songs.
 
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Joe_5859 said:
I’ve always thought Helloween’s “Revelation” was one of their most Christian songs.

“Whatever we awaited / Charity or hatred / Whatever we awaited will arise”

That sounds to me very much like how we are the ones who choose our eternal destiny. As in, God does not so much send people to hell as he allows them to send themselves.
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I was also thinking of their song “If God Loves Rock 'n Roll”. Once you get past the goofiness of the song, it certainly has some ideas that Christians can apply to living out the Christian faith.

Another song from a different band that was a bit surprising was “Elysium” by Stratovarius. After their Elements albums, I sort of viewed the band as unashamedly atheistic, so it was a bit odd to get a song that was a bit more “theistic”, for lack of a better term.
Tis_Bearself said:
I personally am a lot more distrustful of all the so-called “Christian rock” artists as they are very definitely trying to market themselves to Christians and also present themselves as faithful Christians so their audience will continue to support them
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I’ve had those doubts too, and Tim Lambesis basically confirmed it in an interview after his arrest:
I was trying to put out a fire. I was afraid it would affect As I Lay Dying sales, which would affect my overall income. I was trying to put out the fire by saying the easiest thing, ‘I’m not a satanist!’…We toured with more ‘Christian bands’ who actually aren’t Christians than bands that are. In 12 years of touring with As I Lay Dying, I would say maybe one in 10 Christian bands we toured with were actually Christian bands
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Granted, it sounds like he started out with good intentions. You can read more about that here. To provide some balance, though, one of his former bandmates called a lot of what he said “slanderous”.

Edit: Just want to add that I’m not saying all Christian bands are just afraid of losing album sales if they stop claiming to be Christian. It’s just that some probably are.
 
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I used to be an Underoath fan. I didn’t pick them out so much because they were “Christian” as I just heard them at some secular show, liked the music and hey if they were singing holy-ish stuff, so much the better.

I read later that they had a lot of groupies and basically acted like rock bands on the road act. It didn’t bother me at the time because like I said I hadn’t specifically bought into the big “Christian” aspect, plus I myself was sinning right and left at that point, so I wasn’t going to be finger-pointing at others. But I can see it being a bummer for some kid who thought these bands were really Holy Joes.
 
I have always thought of Bridge Over Troubled Waters as a Christian song even though it was not meant that way.

Funny story. When my daughter was in 3rd grade, the teacher asked for their favorite song. All the other kids chose pop songs of the day. The teacher was impressed with her choice since the song was at least 20 or 25 years old at the time.
 
George Strait’s “I saw God today”
Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take the Wheel”
Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill’s live duet of “How Great thou Art” is awe-inspiring
 
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