The Company, the Comfort, the Grave

this song is obviously about people who claim to be of god, but aren't. plus, the fact that when i've seen them play this live they added a sample of a woman screaming "you're not a man of god!" makes it pretty clear.

the line "tell God I will return in the morning" is so sadly fitting for so many people. they know what is right and wrong, and they do wrong, consciously, against God's word, knowing (or at least thinking they know) God will forgive them when they are done. the Bible says "thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God" and that is exactly what some people do with their very way of life...heartbreaking...

I definitely agree that this song is aimed at hypocritical Christians; people who claim Christ as their Lord, but don't live it out at all. "your hands are tied to blind men..." is a way of saying it's the blind leading the blind.

Good point on all of those, but what do you make of "This pistol is my ministry" ;)

i think this song takes a progressive stance on christianity.

"Walk backwards and say goodbye to what is right. Understanding what makes this, what makes it, what makes us right."

--I think this has to do with "walking backwards," or subjecting oneself to fundamentalist religion, or perhaps merely walking backwards in your faith. give up on god for something or someone else. we have everything set in stone, yet we don't seek for what is REALLY right, we just assume that we're doing fine at "religion" because that's what we're comfortable with.

"God save this gunslinging generation."

I think Josh is expressing his sadness toward individuals (christians) who feel the need to revert to aggressive ways of trying to "convert" people, though it is through the way we live our lives that is the ultimate witness. A lot of times these people can be self-righteous and uncompassionate toward those who do not share the same beliefs. The "gun" is the bible-thumping, sometimes even hypocritical ways christians force-feed what they believe on other people, when faith should be displayed through daily actions.

"Tell God I will return in the morning."

Again with the hypocritical Christian thing. Let's do whatever we want tonight, then tomorrow we can go sit in the front row at church like the good little christians we are.

"This Christ you preach I know, but who are you? Your hands are tied to blind men, whose hands are tied to blind men."

You cannot find this person's identity in Christ. Josh is commenting on how he knows about this person you speak of, but how can YOU claim to know him? Again like someone above mentioned, "the blind leading the blind" comes from the bible.

"Figure Eights."

not totally sure, but i guess it just goes back to the "walk backwards" thing. Going in circles. Never breaking out in real faith. making figure eights constantly.

"This pistol is my ministry"

going back to the "gun-slinging" thing. too many people's ministry consists of condemnation. "if you're gay you're going to hell." "if you cheated you're going to hell." the phrase is coming from the perspective of the "hypocrite" josh is talking about. when the ministry should be LOVE, and living one's life after the model of jesus.

great great GREAT song. Incredible live. that was only my opinion, it could mean something totally different. it's fun to dissect josh scogin's lyrics though :)

"This Christ you preach I know, but who are you?"

Acts 19:11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. 13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 (One day) the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

Obviously this song is about faux Christians, but that's been established. Also, Scogin referenced one of my favorite stories. Double points.

Thanks for that passage WaketoLife. And here is the blind leading the blind reference, Matthew 15:1-20 (NASB), specifically verse 14, which further cements the meaning of the song:

Tradition and Commandment 1Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,

2"Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread."

3And He answered and said to them, "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

4"For God said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,' and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.'

5"But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother, "Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,"

6he is not to honor his father or his mother[a].' And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

7"You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: 8'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. 9'BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'"

10After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, "Hear and understand.

11"It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man."

12Then the disciples came and said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?"

13But He answered and said, "Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted.

14"Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

The Heart of Man 15Peter said to Him, "Explain the parable to us."

16Jesus said, "Are you still lacking in understanding also?

17"Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?

18"But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.

19"For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.

20"These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man."

I gotta say, I think the recording of this on "Everything is Alive..." is much better than the recording on Unsung. They lost the low end completely, and the high feedback in the "This pistol is my ministry" part; plus the original distorted bass intro is way cool.

"walking backwards saying goodbye to whats right. Understanding what makes this, what makes it, what makes us right."

okay, this in all means that we christians think most of the time that we know whats right, whats makes it right, and we are right. that all non-believers dot know anything. when truely, thats just us being hypocrites, we are all even in this world and no-one is better than neone else.

"God, save this gun-slinging generation."

this basically means that we try to rush everything, that we try to do everything ourseleves and try to get non-believers to be christians without letting God reel them in. we are God's disciples, not God. We are here on his world to witness to people about GOd but not to try to become him and do it all ourseleves, we try to rush into things and put pressure on others to become us. God chose us before we were born and not ALL of us are chosen, and thats just a fact of life that we have to learn, not everyone goes to heaven but we were put on this earth to try and find the chosen people for GOD, not for us.

"'Tell God I will return in the morning.'"

the first thing i noticed about this part of the song was that it was in quotes. so the first thing that came to mind was a christian talking because this whole song is about what christians are trying to be and what we think we are and what we really are. so this verse took me a long time to figure out what it means but then it clicked. A lot of christians are hypocrites. and they tell everyone what they are doing wrong, but dont examine themseleves. this is basically saying that we sin to, but we think that when others sin, they will go to hell, and that what we tell them. its true....but we would go to hell too if we hadent excepted Jesus christ as our savior and we would go to hell if he hadent of shed is blood for all of our sins. we cant do that for anyone, we cant be a savior, but we can help peopple get to know the savior, so they dont have to go to hell and be in the most pain possible.

"This Christ you preach I know, but who are you?"

I still havent figured out what this means. its hard to disifer but others had commented it on about the blind leading the blind

(your hands are tied to blind men, whose hands are tied to blind men")

"figure eights"

this probably means that we just keep going in circles, we keep taking the same path and we are lost, our faith is somehow becoming smaller and smaller and we dont know how we are losing it.

'This pistol is my ministry'"

again the quotes. i think this is about a christian who is finally realizing that the pistol, the pressure he puts on people, is how he ministers to people and is ready to change, because christ wasnt about making people being pressured into becoming a christian that he my friends is the prince of peace and i think we are sinning when we put pressure on people and tell them that they are always wrong and we are always right. I don't think thats right and this song in all is awesome and I LOVE THE CHARIOT and i would reccomend this song for people who are CHristians that think THEY are God in a sense.

Thanx.

In HIM,

Adrienne R.

proverbs 16:3

this song is so long it wouldn't go on my itunes...i mean there should be a limit for how long a song is...15 hours!?