Drop D Tuning and a Little Face Paint. . .

on the surface appears to be the only difference between Gospel Music and Death Metal. When Slayer writes lyrics like "They say your life can change/If you take God's hand/Embrace rebirth/Your cleansing's so divine/To be reborn in God's eyes," you might think that they drew their inspiration from Chris Rice. Too bad this particular song is from the album Christ Illusion.

Cannibal Corpse bassist Alex Webster says that "if church leaders do not want parishioners to literally bathe in Jesus's blood ('Are you washed in the blood?') or march on to Holy War ('Onward Christian Soldiers') then maybe death metal should not be taken just as figuratively." Alex goes on to say that "his material has the same intentions as a hymn like 'Power in the Blood.' They're both just trying to be over the top. With lyrics so violent and brutal it is difficult to take them seriously. For us, we are just trying to make good horror...."

Unfortunately for Mr. Webster, neither is over the top, and both are symbolic as means to a certain end. To which end though is the crucial question. For both worldviews have implications and thus, when carried out to their logical conclusions, bring about a result. One celebrates a culture of life, the other, a culture of death. So, when it comes down to it, the difference is really quite large, and some things are really not what they seem.


~All excerpts taken from "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath" a well written article in Paste

On Paedobaptism

"From the beginning, consistent paedobaptists treat their children as Christians so that the social and cultural nurture of the child is simultaneously his or her nurture in Christian character and faith."

From the Westminster Confession of Faith- "Secondary means (baptism) are real and have efficacy."

"The idea is to raise your child so that he reaches the same level of psycho-social and religious maturity. The two should be indistinguishable."

Paedobaptism implies that the Gospel's solution to the gap (in culture/nature) is not to lay an entirely new set of tracks, but to close the gap by redeeming the original created means from sin."

-All thoughts courtesy of Peter Leithart