Closer

This song is pretty obviously Christian; I don't see why we're getting a bunch of shallow and unsatisfactory explanations trying to tie it into a messed up relationship. This is Anberlin; Christian allusions are their specialty. And this song mirrors a very common experience amongst Christian who have fallen away and found their way back to the faith, and I think it fits this experience much better than some idea of a relationship with a girl with a past.

The song starts with the narrator straying from God and blaming God for whatever position he finds himself in. In fact, the narrator is even questioning God's existence and blames God for the distance between them.

Then, after the first chorus, we see the revelation. The narrator realizes that the separation is his fault. He recognizes his messed up past and the fact that he's been pushing God away, and he wonders if he'll be taken back. He sees that he's the betrayer, not the other way around, and the song becomes a prayer where the narrator asks for help in finding his way back.

Musically it is classic Anberlin with spontaneous signatures, roaring guitars, and rumbling rhythm

Lyrically a labyrinth.

What this song means is a relationship mostly from the man's perspective actively knowing that his significant other has a checkered past, but he's isn't the one that's perfect because he also has one. And one that clouds the relationship to the point that it's a struggle to even know each other with this in mind. He is saying in the second stanza "Are you keeping safe distance" because you know this won't work? or because i'll do the same thing to you that I did to the last girl and that you can't accept it?

In the second verse, he is saying "Do you expect me to keep from crawling back" which is rhetorically asking Do you want me to go forward with this knowing everything?

In the bridge towards the second chorus, it's him saying, are you the one feeling betrayed because i'm not the one that won't accept the future- it's like a cliche

Well, this whole cd is actually about how he has been lead astray from God. He wants to change back to where his relationship was before he stoped focusing on Him. In this particular song, he wants to know if he can come back, because he feels unworthy. He asks "do you accept me" he knows he isn't in God anymore, and he is afraid. He knows God can hear him, he knows that He is real, but he is so deep into what he wants (selfishness), he is afraid that God doesn't want him anymore, because God doesn't listen to the prayers of those against Him. He realizes that he betrayed God, but he wants to be closer to God.

"I know this is how a lot of us have felt about God, as if He is some cosmic being just staring at us, waiting for us to fail so he can beat us with a Thor like hammer. Instead it ends up that it is us that walk away, its always us.

Our past mistakes cause a great rift, which is easily remedied if only we ask. But we know ourselves and wonder how anyone, including God, could ever love us for who we were. It just takes a asking friends, family, or even God to come closer, and they will." - Stephen Christian anberlinlyrics.tumblr.com June 2014

They're both keeping back (i.e. "Are you keeping safe distance"/"Am I keeping safe distance"), but the POV character has the troubled past ("Do you accept me when we both know my past"). I don't see how you get God's perspective from this song.

ok look. If you want to be all "Go Jesus," go for it. If you want to tie it your own life, do it. The point in music is for you to relate to it in ur own way. To take from it what you want it to mean to you. Don't try to make other people think the way you do.

Sometimes I absolutely hate all the fights that break out between people with different interptations. Honestly Anberlin is a fantastic band and yeah, they may be Christian. But I'm 100 percent sure they don't write songs to have just one meaning. Not everyone is a Christian, so the song will mean different things to each person. Some it's about an intimate relationship with God, some an intimate relationship with a partner and others a relationship between friends. Stop trying to push your views on others because it makes you childish, and yes I did just call you childish. Just use the site to tell what the song means to you and leave it at that. Don't tell people there is only one way to look at it because it's not and I know the band would agree. Grow up and have a good life.