Man, when I first started getting into Christian Rock (which was only in 95') I was over Gary " Metalmissionary" Denning's house and he was playing me all this awsome stuff that I never even saw in most Christian Book Stores.. Trytan, Messiah Prophet, X Sinner, Bride, Sacred Warrior, Bloodgood and one name that I'll NEVER forget, FORCE 3!!! Man the first time I heard "Warrior of Light" it just hit home to me!!! I was a product of 80's Metal (NOT the poser stuff), bands like Iron Maiden, Ozzy, Dio, Savatage, Venom, Overkill, then later Metallica, Megadeath, Anthrax and Slayer. Very spiritually destructive music to say the least.. Then when I got saved in 93' I went to a Church that deemed anything but Southern Gospel, NOT OF GOD.. I went there for a couple of years and even got religious with a few people, rebuking them for Christian Rock. Well, Paul the Apostle was guilty of stoning Christians, so I guess I shouldn't feel too bad about it. Ironically I kept finding myself sneaking a listen to "The Buzzard" WMMS 100.7fm, Cleveland to get a little dose of ROCK! I tried to stop it, but every day at work the radio blasted the secular tunes.. Over and over again.. " Hay hay Mama, say the way you move," it was silly, I struggled to remember Bible verses from discipleship class, but I could remember every word to Zeppelin songs that I hadn't listen to for years.. Then one day at a Christian bookstore, I bought Detritis "Perpetual Defiance", Mortification "Best Of 10 yrs.", Tourniquet "Pathogenic Occular" and Beliver "Dimensions" ... It was all over. I couldn't believe how awsome this was. It was just as good as the big boys... Better! Because it had the Word! Not that it coppied Satans music, but that it spoke the Word in the musical language that had been programed into me all those years.
Shortly after that is when I met Gary and when I first heard "Warrior of Light" it became like a theme song for my life at that time. I was able to find a RARE cassette this classic and it did not leave the tape deck of my Ol' Monte for like, that whole Summer! It was perfect timing! It was a time in my walk with christ when I was just really starting to understand the power of spiritual warfare and how strong that we really are in the Power of Christ. The song came to represent this principal in my life. Shortly after that I made my first demo recording of an idea that I had for "The Full Armor Of God Broadcast" and FORCE 3 "Warrior of Light" was on it. To me this song will always be one of the anthems of the Christian Heavy Metal movment, along with Bride "Hell No", Messiah Prophet's "Master of the Metal", Stryper "To Hell with the Devil" and the list goes on.....
Really, God used these songs to DE-program me to many of the destructive values, ideas and impulses that spawned within me from years of negative devil Rock. Now, I am not saying (as Phil Chalmers would say) "Not saying that all secular music is bad, nor all Christian music good", it is just knowing the Spirit of God, which is inside of us and not letting anything contrary to God's Word to come in to the house that Christ swept clean and made new. I think that anyone who has come from the Rock/Metal life knows what I am saying. If not,,, that's cool too! But don't knock Christian Rock just because you don't get it.. However, that is another book... Thank you Force3!! Charlie Wilson, Andy Jackson, Steve Doxey and Rob Rochford, you may not get your due praise this side of heaven, but you will one day perform "Warrior of Light" in the throne room of God the Father in heaven!!!
by Bro. Kuba
