Serpent Crusher

As a lad, I grew up with Rock Music. It had rhythm and you could rattle the windows before mum came up the hall with her fingers in her ears and put an end to it. I liked the drums, bass, keyboards and ripping guitar riffs and solos. Unfortunately, some of the lyrics were not the kind that they played at Sunday School picnics.

On Sunday mornings, we four boys all stacked into the family car and went off to Sunday School. My little brother sat on the front seat between mum and dad and the three remaining siblings fought over who would not sit in the middle at the back. Inevitably, the shortest of us ended up there so dad could “see through the back window” whilst driving. Dad liked two kinds of music: Country and Western. He used to sing Johnny Cash and Slim Dusty songs on the way to church. Now it was time for three boys to plug their ears.

The songs in Sunday School were different again. They were my least favourite of all. The words were
certainly ones that could be used at Sunday School (obviously!); but the music was completely devoid of grunt. No electric guitars, bass guitars, keyboards or drums. Lots of “Beholds” and “Kumbayas”.

Now self-preservation demands that I pause at this point and laud the qualities of strings, woodwind and timpani (I particularly enjoy the Peer Gynt Suite in fact) but there are times, particularly after a hard day, when the 86 points North along the freeway and bounces around with the sound of pulsing guitars.

So what to listen to? Lyrics that tell a wonderful story but devoid of grunt or rock sounds with the puerile missives of a wannabe Gangsta.

Then I found them. Christian Rock Bands, one after another: Stryper; Petra; Whitecross; X-Sinner;
Bloodgood. In the 90s they were joined by Creed. These were lyrics with a punch and lyrics to remember.

Bloodgood: Heaven on Earth
I know you see me when I’m standing in the dark: You can’t help cryin’ out for every broken heart/Cause you’re heaven, heaven on earth.

XSinner: No Way In 
Man has got to try not to live a lie: You have the only key to control your destiny: The wicked ways in which we live are sickening: Your selfishness, all things material, will be history in the end.

Stryper: To Hell with the Devil
We speak of the devil: He’s no friend of mine: To turn from him is what we have in mind/Just a liar and a thief: The word tells us so/We like to let him know/Where he can go: To hell with the devil

And now, in 2019, all the way from Harrington Park, the latest in a long line of Christian Rockers and
appearing tonight at Family Chapel:

Ben Pakula: Serpent Crusher
Then Jesus Christ defeated death when he came back to life again
So now we know that ….

…. Jesus is the Serpent Crusher