Music Monday– I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

This song is almost thirty years old, but is probably closer to my heart than ever before. I’ve always loved it. Ray Boltz was a gifted songwriter and story teller and I enjoyed many of his songs. Even at a young age, I was interested in history and the story of how there have always been true Christians who were willing to stand up for their faith has always inspired me.

Can you believe that thirty years ago, many people said that Western Christians would never be persecuted for their faith again? They decried this scenario as fear tactics. And yet, we now see a world where you have to be careful what you say or you might be “canceled”, which can have real effects. There are legislations that want to call certain Bible teaching hate speech.

It’s always surprised me that people thought just because it wasn’t happening to them, it never could. At the time this song was first recorded, a friend of mine was a young girl in Romania. Note, this was after the fall of Communism, and her family was persecuted for being Christians. They had to sneak out of the country. I know people that have smuggled Bibles and Christian literature into China. A close friend works with Muslim converts who are ministers in Iran and Arabia and these men have been imprisoned and even given death sentences for their faith. Their families suffer immensely.

There’s a scene in the first video where there is a group of people reading loose leaf pages, probably of a Bible. That is exactly the scenario that happens in many countries in the world today. The laws are against books and tracts, so instead they circulate loose pages amongst their secret believer community. If they are raided, there is less of a legal argument against them. Imagine having to wait to read the next portion of the Bible? To have to read a sermon in snippets? And yet, their faith is often stronger than people who live with more freedom.

Stand firm, Christian friend. Pledge your allegiance to the King of Kings.

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

1 John 4:4

Here are two videos. The first one is the official music video from 1994. The second one is a friend singing at church last Sunday. I was unable to get just a clip of him singing to post on the site so it’s the entire service that’s loaded.

*The first video below, does show a slightly graphic scene. There is dialogue interspersed with a scenario of a father awaiting a death sentence for his faith and explaining Christian history to his son. There are visuals of other persecutions through history, including a scene where a man is thrown off a cliff and stoned. It’s nothing as graphic as you can find in most movies, but I just wanted to give a warning in case anyone is squeamish.