BTA: making a "difference for the lord" - how?

[ignostic]

Hi,

So I listened to Celestial Completion at work today and really liked it - it had a sense of striving-beyond-earthly-limits without negativity, an uncompromisingly promethean kind of feeling, and I thought they'd be into ideas like Ray Kurzweil's singularity, technological transhumanism, etc - but lyrics about "father of light" (or something) gave me a suspicion, confirmed by wikipedia: they're a christian band.

I feel the same way about all forms of supernatural belief (UFOs, bigfoot, xtianity, etc), and love death metal, so I'm wondering what message I'm supposed to be getting here.

There's nothing about their religion on their main page, I can't access the radio interview that gave me the title quote - so can someone explain what these guys' faith is all about? Should my appreciation of their music turn me into a Fred Phelps, a Ned Flanders, a mainline liberal xtian, an evangelical, snake handler - what, exactly?

I'm using sarcasm to make the point that I've never been so unclear as to a religious message in my life, but I don't mean to seem like a dick. I'm genuinely not clear as to how the emotions in this music - transcendence over imposed limitations, rebellion against established authority - are supposed to sync up with any form of xtianity.

To be clear, I'm fine with ideas like "life has meaning", "humans should exert control over their environment to rein in life's random nasty shocks and make the universe more amenable to higher values", etc, but I'm wondering which form of xtianity is also okay with those, and where or if their other values might conflict with mine.

These lyrics:

The final chapter has already been written
The story has been told
In another dimension, beyond the reach of time
There is no more, no more to behold
See the artificial light now
It is flickering, fading away
Eternity is right now
It is fusing with today

- make me think of Terence McKenna's essay on Philip K. Dick more than anything else:

www.sirbacon.org/dick.htm

[Ferd Berfel]

Their name, "Becoming the Archetype", is referring to Christ. Christ is the Archetype of how we are to live our lives, so their name literally means "Becoming like Christ".

I'm going off of an assumption that you don't read the Bible very much, so I'll try to explain some of their lyrical concepts.

Realize that as with any sort of lyrics and poetry, a certain amount of creative license has been taken but the message is still there, albeit in a different sort of metaphor.

Take the lyrics from track 3 of Terminate Damnation, "One Man Parade"

Behold the man without strength
The strongest man that ever lived
Behold the end of all things
The end of all things just beginning
The weak are marching on with one objective
Take back the times
These days are evil
No one can stop them
The dead rise up to praise You
Your love goes far beyond the grave
It's life or death
Now make your choice
Whose side are you on?

These lyrics are talking about Christ and His death. "One Man Parade" refers to Christ carrying the cross, hence "the man without strength".
"It's life or death/now make your choice/whose side are you on?", meaning that in life, we are either for Christ or against Him; there is no middle ground in this.
"The weak are marching on/with one objective/take back the times" is referring to spiritual warfare. According to the Bible, the world is under demonic influence; Satan, for a time, has control of the world. "The weak", being Christians (weak in the flesh, being human), are marching against the strongholds of Satan to take back the times from his control and his evil influence.

A lot of the other lyrics in this album remind me of the book of Romans. They talk about how humans are naturally weak beings, and without the strength of God, we wouldn't be able to do anything. They also talk about the end times, how Christ will rise up in the last days (according to the book of Revelation in the Bible) to defeat Satan and take back the Earth, setting up a new Heaven and a new Earth.

The second album, The Physics of Fire, is a poetic telling of the story of man and God's relationship. When Adam and Eve committed the first sin, they plunged the world into darkness, causing all subsequent generations to be born into that sin.
It remained that way, until God sent His Son, Jesus Christ (the "flame" in this album), to die on the cross for us. When Jesus was alive, he gave the "flame" to many people. The Bible refers to Jesus as having an inner circle of 3 (Peter, James, and John), then the Twelve Disciples, and then a group of 50, a group of 500, and a group of 5000 that followed Him. These are the ones that would have carried the flame first. The rest of the story details the spread of the church through evangelism, which causes many more souls to be saved and redeemed.

The third album, "Dichotomy", is mainly based off of the Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis. I'm not too familiar with the series of books, but I do know that C.S. Lewis is a very highly respected Christian author, as well as a theologian.
The songs "Dichotomy" and "Artificial Immortality" talk about people who focus on their rational minds instead of faith. The lyrics "I am not a mechanism/I am part of the resistance/I am an organism/I am a beast" would seem to refer to a Christian taking a stand against this. Essentially, he is saying "I will not be forced into the box that you think I belong in; I know there's more to this world than meets the eye."
Or, another way of saying it, "I will not ignore my soul and the spiritual side of things to give myself the illusion that this is all there is. I know there's something more."

The most recent album, Celestial Completion, is based out of the book of Revelation. Songs like "The Magnetic Sky" talk about the rapture of the church, and "Breathing Light", which you quoted from, is talking both about the internal transformation of the heart when salvation occurs, as well as the transformation of the universe when God sets up the new Heaven and the new Earth.

I hope this answers some of your questions, if there's anything else feel free to ask.

EDIT:

Also, I would encourage you to read the Bible and genuinely study it. Furthermore, don't worry about what this music should "turn you into", just pray and as you read the Bible, God will transform you as He will.

[althrioan]

Ferd Berfel said it. There's nothing more to say. BTA wont turn you into anything just sharing hope that Christ has given us and them.

[ignostic]

Well, thank you for the detailed examples of the lyrics' origins: that does establish a nominally religious basis for the text, but I guess my real question was something more like "to what degree is there a crossover audience between christians and death metal fans"?

I mean, Nile ("Utterances of the Crawling Dead") and Morbid Angel ("Hatework", "Dawn of the Angry") are my two favourite bands, and I found BTA by way of stuff like that. Not to imply anything, but I notice althrioan likes the band Immolation: I do too, "Majesty and Decay" is an awesome song: but those guys routinely have album covers featuring fallen angels, triumphant demons, etc.

Personally, as I said, I'm all in favour of people getting along and improving their standing in the universe: Teilhard de Chardin, Ray Kurzweil, etc: I just don't know if the average C.S. Lewis fan would be in favour of the other songs on most people's playlists, here. It just ... doesn't sound like the soundtrack to the ideas presented, y'know?

Does anyone know of a church that would play BTA at a potluck lunch?

And this ties in to my question about which *kind* of christian they're aiming at: there really are lots of mutually exclusive groups of people who profess enthusiasm for Jesus: Jack Chick, mainstream liberal types, Calvinists, etc - and most/all of them assume that their stance is self-evidently the one in accordance with the bible. So referring to the bible in your death metal doesn't do much to clarify, and playing death metal at all would surely alienate 90+% of self-professed christians.

[Ferd Berfel]

Well, if you'd like to find out what kind of Christian (or fans in general) that BTA attracts, the best way to do that is to hang around some of us for awhile. You'll get a feel for it eventually.

Personally, I don't like fitting people into boxes; it's too impersonal and generic for my tastes.

I can explain a little about myself:
I am a Christian, I am active in the ministry and training to become a pastor.
I am married.
I am not a "liberal" Christian, I am rather conservative in my beliefs.
Despite being conservative, I have problems with Jack Chick, Westboro, and other types of so-called "christian" groups that demonstrate a lack of love for people.

So now you know a little bit about at least one of BTA's fans. Like I said, the best way to get to know us is to stick around and talk to us. As long as you stay respectful, we'll be nice to you.