I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the old hymns.
Today’s song is Soldiers of Christ Arise from 1749.
1 Soldiers of Christ, arise,
and put your armor on,
strong in the strength which God supplies
thro' His eternal Son;
strong in the Lord of hosts
and in His mighty pow'r,
who in the strength of Jesus trusts
is more than conqueror.
2 Stand then in His great might,
with all His strength endued,
and take, to aid you in the fight,
the panoply of God.
From strength to strength go on,
wrestle and fight and pray;
tread all the pow'rs of darkness down
and win the well-fought day.
3 Leave no unguarded place,
no weakness of the soul;
take every virtue, every grace,
and fortify the whole.
That, having all things done
and all your conflicts past,
ye may o'ercome thro' Christ alone
and stand complete at last.
The Old Testament had many battles, but in the New Testament, Christianity wasn’t about one nation fighting others. The intention was to spread the message around the world, and not through military means. Some Christians were pacifist. Others joined the army of whatever nation they were in. In the early centuries, that would have been the Roman empire.
But Christian hymns that speak of soldiers or wars are simply using military metaphors. And various New Testament passages use such metaphors. Perhaps the most well known is Ephesians 6:10-17. But there are others, including this one.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
I enjoy all hymns that use military metaphors. Life is a battle and it can be quite exhilarating when you are inspired to fight. Here’s a list of other hymns that use military metaphors:
And here are some other versions of today’s hymn:
Hibernia Gospel 