Christian Themes In Music - Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin

Although I am a Christian, I was not raised on Christian music or gospel – and I still have no real ear for either.  I came down through the years on a much edgier path, one littered with loud guitars, booming drums and crying keyboards.  While it is admissible that much of mainstream rock has no Christian elements in it, there is, I believe, a modicum of faith in the Creator evident in the styles of some.  I believe there is a great deal of beautiful and worthy poetry that remains to this day, sadly untapped.  So it is my intention to tap into this and present a continuing series of “lyric” studies for songs that have flown under the radar.  I do believe they hold a deep and meaningful message for us all.  I do not profess to know what the artist’s intentions were in creating their songs, but much like any work of art, it is open to interpretation by the hearer.  I am conveying my take on how they have affected my life.

"There's a lady who's sure, all that glitters is gold, and she's buying the stairway to heaven."

It has been my sad experience in life to find that many church-going Christians are very superstitious. Superstition is defined as "an unreasoning fear of what is unknown or mysterious."

Many look at secular music and assume from the get that there is no spirituality in them, no desire to seek and find truth. They look at musicians for their outrageous sins which are all too often used to promote them for filthy lucre sake. But the greed, the drinking, the drugs, and the sex are not uncommon themes in normal every day life of normal every day people, including Christians. People of all faiths are battling addictions and carnal weaknesses. To believe it is a musicians job to behave as a role model is to believe any of us can successfully be a role model all the time.  None of us are without some misgivings. Hard as we try, we are not perfect either, and our daily walk takes us on many varied paths, some far from our Creator, His Son, and their purpose for us.  Let us not be too proud.

I truly believe 'Stairway to Heaven' speaks to all of us.  Only the proud believe they can get everything they want without bending to the will of the King of kings.

"When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed, with a word she can get what she came for."

On the live version of this particular song, the singer, Robert Plant, begins the song by saying, he believes it is a song of hope.

I started listening to Led Zeppelin when I was about 13 and that is how I saw it then - and still do.

Many Christian ministers, then and now, teach that because of guitarist Jimmy Page's obsession with the occult and Aleistar Crowley, the lyrics and spirit of Zeppelin music is tainted and demonic.

I call that line of thinking - that line of reasoning - superstition.

Mark 7:20 'And He said, That which cometh out of the man, defileth the man.'

In the next two verses, Yahshua lists a great many evils, everything from thoughts, adultery, theft, and pride before packaging the whole message.

Mark 7:23 'All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.'

You cannot be defiled by anything in this world.  You can be surrounded by every evil image and sound, and yet not be influenced by them.

Temptation is merely the option laid out on the table before you. The ability to resist or fail in the face of temptation is already stored up inside you. 

And, in truth, nothing is a temptation unless that weakness is already in you. Nobody can convince you to rob a bank for any reason unless the desire to take from others is already a part of your heart. Nobody can convince you to fornicate unless the desire to be sexually active without a spiritual yoke is already a part of your heart.  You can't blame the devil or anyone else for your sins.

If these weaknesses were not already a part of your heart, you would not know them to be tempting.

In all my years of listening to Led Zeppelin, I never once felt inclined to worship the devil, or seek out the mystery's of the occult. Getting beyond the superstition of it all, I saw the words written and sung by Led Zeppelin as the voice of one "seeking".

We are told in Scripture to seek Him early, while He can yet be found.

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"There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure, cause you know sometimes words have two meanings."

Why do we who are seeking the truth about the Scriptures and the Creator, go to such great lengths to read and study words, phonetics, and definitions; even other languages?  We do this because we know there are idioms, there are words and phrases that mean different things to different people, at different times and places.  Everything is not as straightforward as our own understanding unless we are arrogant and choose to assume that everyone should see things our way.

"In the tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings, Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven."

Pride is such an ugly characteristic in people.  And all too often, Christians bear the standard of pride worse than those they label 'heathen.' 

Repentance is our declaration to have thought, believed and behaved wrongly.  It is our declaration to the world, that at times, our thoughts, despite our Christian beliefs, have been misgiven - in error.

Try telling some Christians they are in error and they will raise a holy jihad against you.  They do not accept chastisement because they believe it is trying to uproot their faith.

Faith is more about uprooting knowledge in order to find solace in the unknown, then it is in knowing.

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"There's a feeling I get when I look to the west, and my spirit is crying for leaving. In my thoughts I have seen, rings of smoke through the trees, and the voices of those who stand looking."

How many of us have never felt the urge to run away from our problems? How many of us have never felt like just turning our back on everything we know would solve all our problems?

When I hear those lines, that crying to leave and run west, run away from the sunrise, I hear a desire to flee in fear.

Hebrews 12:1 'Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.'

But once we see the cloud of witnesses to the truth, the voices that stand looking, the whole history of personalities listed in Hebrews Chapter 11 who "By Faith" endured and ran with patience the life set before them, we know what we have to do.

We have to "look unto Yahshua, the author and finisher of our faith." (Hebrews 12:2)

"And it's whispered that soon, if we all call the tune, then the piper will lead us to reason. And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forest will echo in laughter."

I don't know about you but I hear that and all I can see is my Savior returning for me. I don't care if their was some ulterior motive behind the writer writing those words - what I hear is - Yahshua coming back and making a new day, a new heaven and a new earth. I look forward to that day of laughter.

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"If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now, it's just a spring clean for the May queen. Yes, there are two paths you can go by but in the long run, there's still time to change the road you're on."

Sometimes we get caught up in our thoughts. We alarm ourselves and fret over everything we think and do. But making mistakes is part of our human walk. Christ has empathy for this weakness in us. He has given us time and opportunity to find the correct path and stay on it.

I think this verse probably bothers many Christians because far too many have been seduced by the "Once Saved, Always Saved" theory of salvation. I think Led Zeppelin got it right. I think there is always time to change the road you are on - for good - and for bad.

Mark 13:13 '. . . but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.'

In Ezekiel Chapter 18, Yahweh asks, how it is not fair that a man who repents is better than a man who was righteous and later resigns himself to evil? To mankind, the old deeds of the righteous man should speak for him despite his latest sins, and the sinner man's sins should speak for him despite his conversion.  That is an unforgiving world.

There is still time for Christians to fall away, just like there is still time for sinners to be saved.

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"Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know, the piper's calling you to join him."

He knew you before you were born and He is calling you to join Him. This "conscience" will not go away unless you become completely reprobate and allow your heart to have no voice at all.

"Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know, your stairway lies on the whispering wind."

You cannot buy the stairway to heaven for the stairway is spiritual. Those that are of the flesh-thinking, believe there has to be a way to make worldly success become spiritual success.

John 3:6 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.'

The ONLY WAY to heaven is to be born again and follow the way of the wind.

John 3:8 'The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.'

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"And as we wind on down the road, our shadows taller than our souls, there walks a lady we all know, who shines white light and wants to show, how everything still turns to gold."

Our carnal life casts a big shadow and often times it darkens the truth we want to be.

Romans 7:19 'For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil, which I would not, that I do.'

This is humility, a humility far too many Christians believe they must disguise in order to appear powerful before the world.  We are only powerful in Christ - not in our own right.  Our shadows and sins are taller than our souls. 

And while we wrestle with these many weaknesses and flaws, there is always this shining temptation to embrace our sins as necessary and acceptable - even justified - everything is still golden.

Until we come to repentance, nothing is golden and nothing is light.  There is a false light trying to convince us that we can sin and be saved, that we can go down the wrong path and still arrive at the right destination.

2Corinthians 11:14 'And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.'

Don't let temptation convince you to obey your weaknesses continuously.

"And if listen very hard, the truth will come to you at last, when all is one and one is all, to be a rock and not to roll."

When will the ultimate truth come?  It will come when all is made ONE.

John 10:30 'I and My Father are One.'

John 14:20 'At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.'

And once we realize He is in us, then we too are One with the Father.  And anyone that is One with the Father becomes a rock, a stable, reliable, trustworthy, loyal soul.  We no longer roll.  We no longer flee.  We no longer grow scared and weary at well doing.

How this song is "transformed" to sound evil and demonic is a mystery to me.  But I have no superstitions about it.  I hear it and it brings me closer to Christ.  I'm not trying to buy my way to heaven.

I'm trying to stay on the right path like a rock that will not be moved.

Colossians 1:23 'If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel . . .'

Amen