#about Christ and TØP

[sunkissedliterarylightofchrist]

There is a difference between using darkness imagery to expose the darkness and get it out of your head to prove how defeatable it can be and romanticizing it to make it desirable and making your problems worse. One will save your life and soul and the other will corrupt you further.

Stop mixing them up.

[abcwordsurge]

wttt moots. anyone a TØP fan? because I am listening to "midwest indigo" on repeat in hope that I will think of a midwest centric fic to write

[rabbit-is-wise]

fellow fans of both tøp and tma—have we talked about how dema is the perfect vessel of the lonely. every time i describe dema i find myself subconsciously basing it on peter lukas’s silence ritual of the lonely. the center of the city is named the towers of silence for christ’s sake. the cold, isolated living meant to drive its residents to “a critical mass of loneliness and despair…and leave them to die, alone” is the literal basis of vialism. the only difference is one is meant to be horror, manifesting everything in another entity that tears its people apart. the bishops, rather, allow that entity to be the very life force of the people until they burn out, one by one. not only that, but the silence is stopped when gertrude tips off the guardian, causing the masses to swarm the residents by reaching out. forgiving some details, that’s how the banditos help clancy and other citizens. they create the idea of a support system, a community, and a life beyond a lonely existence. it all just lines up so well, and i am TIRED of pretending it doesn’t

[the-osborn-way]

WHEN I SAY I'VE BEEN BINGE LISTENING TO THIS SONG SINCE 1 AM I WISH I WAS JOKING

IT'S SO FUCKING GOOD I'M ABSOLUTELY CRYING

Not only is TØP my second favorite band (MCR is my fave), but oh my god.... the song SOUNDS like Viktor. The little hesitations and lilts to the words, it sounds like him talking after the HexCore took over, and just-- UGHHHHHH-

Have I cried at least five times today? Yes.

ALSO THE LYRICS "Stay your pretty eyes on course" ------ *GAY SCREAMING*

FUCKING HELL

I AM NOT OKAY GUYS, (HexTech) JESUS CHRIST

If you had told me back in September that this show I really didn't care too much about would basically become a new part of my life and change me forever, I would say you were insane

BUT HERE WE ARE

I'm not gonna be okay tomorrow. I'm not. I'm scared to hear this song tomorrow too, Em, I'm just terrified what it means

Listening to the new TØP Arcane song and genuinely cryingggg

The fact that they made a song for Arcane would make me so fucking giddy anyways, but a Viktor song????? IM SCREAMING

All of the lyrics are really fucking painful, but I started crying even harder at 'pull the blanket tight now' LIKE THE BLANKET THAT JAYCE GAVE VIKTOR????? OR AM I READING TOO MUCH INTO THIS 😭😭

I just know that when this song actually starts playing in the show I'm gonna start ugly crying and I'm not ready-

[asw4ng]

Watch the "My Blood" music video

THEY FOREST FICED US.

That's all I'm gonna say

I woke up at 6:50 am for this cuz i live in California

AND I ACTUALLY CANT SLEEP RIGHT NOW

So I'm gonna listen to Trench till i have to go to school

Bye frens

[jujifish]

based on this lovely fake you out post by @bunny–draws quote from some reblog response of someone i can’t remember right now :(

[topismyworshipmusic]

Where is Home?

To read an explanation of the song Taxi Cab by Twenty Øne Pil��ts from a Christian perspective click the read more.

Hi fren. I hope you’re having a wonderful day doing whatever you’re doing. Today I wanted to discuss the song Taxi Cab off of Twenty Øne Piløts’ self titled album. Taxi Cab is a beautifully encouraging song, I love how simplistic it is and how the song really focuses on the lyrics and Tyler’s vocals. Today I’m going to be telling you how God spoke to me through this song.

The songs starts out with Tyler singing “I wanna fall inside your ghost, and fill up every hole inside my mind”. In this lyric Tyler is saying he wants God to be what’s on his mind, not his depression, his anxiety, his suicidal thoughts or his doubt. Tyler wants God to help transform his mind so he can think about Him. As someone who has been diagnosed with PTSD this lyric resonates with me on a personal level. When you have PTSD your memory becomes like swiss cheese, you get holes in your memory where the trauma was formed just for the holes to be filled again one day with panic attacks and flashbacks. This is a lyric I pray on a lot because I want God to literally fill up the swiss cheese holes that are in my mind. I want Him to replace the trauma with Him, His words, His truth and His love, not the lies and events that satan orcrastated to take me away from God and draw me closer to him. This lyric reminds me of Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--His good, pleasing and perfect will.” To me, this scripture means that if you keep yourself focused on God and doing His will, He will renew your mind. He will transform your thoughts and teach you how to think more like Him instead of dwelling on the depression that satan is attacking you with. Focusing on God’s truth instead of the lies satan screams in our minds everyday is hard, I struggle with it every single day, but I know my God is stronger than the temptations satan has put in front of me. I will not stumble, I will not fall into his traps, but I will fight the lies with the truth and trust that my God will use my mental illness for His glory to help others and bring them to Him.

In the chorus of Taxi Cab, Tyler says “Sometimes we will die and sometimes we will fly away. Either way, you're by my side until my dying days”. In this lyric I think Tyler is saying that even though sometimes he gives in to what his mental illness tells him to do, God is still with him and he still believes in Him. Nobody is perfect, we all give into sin and the voices that are inside of our heads, but even when we sin we have to believe that God is good and that He will forgive us. He is faithful and He loves you more than anything in the world, He made you so He could love you and use you for His will, all we have to do is trust in Him and follow His teachings. This lyric reminds me of Matthew 28:20 where Jesus says “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The next lyric I want to look at is; ”And if I'm not there and I'm far away, I said, don't be afraid. I said, don't be afraid, we're going home” in this lyric Tyler is reassuring himself to not be afraid because he knows at the end of his battle he’s going home to be with Jesus, which is what Jesus said in John 14:2-3 “ My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” Here Jesus is saying that Heaven is our home and He is preparing a place for you when you go and join Him in Heaven. Isn’t that cool? Our God loves you so much that He’s designing a room specifically for you with everything you love in it. He wants you to come live in His house so you can be closer to Him. This lyric of Taxi Cab also reminds me of 2 Corinthians 10:5 “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” In the song Tyler is reassuring himself by saying “don’t be afraid, we’re going home” over and over again. He is telling his anxiety, depression, doubt and all the lies satan planted in his head to not be afraid because he’s going home. He knows the truth and because Tyler knows the truth there is no reason for him to be afraid. This is something I have to do on a daily basis, I have to take the dark parts of my thoughts and turn them into righteous thoughts. One thing that’s helped me do this is to write down all of my negative thoughts on one side of an index card and on the other side I write a scripture that directly battles the thoughts that I’m having. For example I get tempted on a daily basis to hurt myself, but I don’t need to do that because in 1 Peter 2:24 it says “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” He hurt Himself so I don’t have to hurt myself.

The next song lyric I’d like to talk about is from the second verse where Tyler says “I wanna strip myself of breath, a breathless piece of death I've made for you” I think this lyric refers to baptism and how when you’re baptized you literally die to your sin and are resurrected in Christ. Romans 6:3-8 says “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,” When you get baptized you literally participate in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. You die with Him when you’re dunked into the water, when you’re fully submerged the water buries you and when you come out of the water you’re resurrected with Jesus. When you get baptized you die to your old self, you die to your sin so you can live for Him. Getting baptized doesn’t mean that you’re going to be perfect or sinless, it means that you’re going to hold yourself to a higher standard and your purpose in life is to help others find the same joy that you did in Jesus. He died for us, so as His disciples everyday we have to die for Him.

Verse three of this song are some of the best Twenty Øne Piløts lyrics in existence, even Tyler has said that this part of Taxi Cab is some of his favorite lyrics he’s ever written. The verse starts out with Tyler saying “So the hearse ran out of gas, a passenger person grabbed a map and the driver inside it contrived a new route to save the past and checked his watch and grabbed a cab, a beautifully plain taxi cab.” When Tyler refers to a map I think he’s talking about the Bible. If you’re a Christian, the Bible should be your map to life. It should dictate how you live, what you believe in and the rules you follow. The next set of lyrics I want to touch on are “A cab, had a cleared out back and two men started to unpack. Driving once again, but now this time there were three men”. When Tyler refers to the back of the taxi cab being cleared out and two men unpacking it I think he’s talking about how Jesus takes away our sins and cancels our debt after we’re baptized in His name. In Colossians 2:14 it says “having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” Jesus took all of our sin and everything that kept us away from God and nailed it to the cross, He bore it and took it so we wouldn’t have to, so we’d have access to a relationship with Him, with God and with the Holy Spirit. When Tyler says “now this time there were three men” he’s referring to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God in three parts. The next lyric in Taxi Cab is “And then I heard one of them say, "I know the night will turn to gray, I know the stars will start to fade when all the darkness fades away. We had to steal him from his fate so he could see another day.” In this set of lyrics I think Tyler is saying that before you get baptized and believe that Jesus is your Savior you live in darkness, you live in the night, but when you accept his truth that night fades away and we get to experience the wonderful light a relationship with Jesus gives us. In a way Jesus steals each and everyone one of the people He saves from a fate of torture and eternal suffering, he takes us away from that and gives us the greatest gift; life forever with Him and all we have to do is believe and obey Him.

“And then I cracked open my box, someone must have picked the lock. A little light revealed the spot where my fingernails had fought then I pushed it open more, pushing up against the door, then I sat up off the floor and found the breath I was searching for”, this set of lyrics are my favorite in this song and some of my favorite TØP lyrics of all time. I love it because it’s very visual and I can picture everything that’s going on at this point of the song in my head. I think the box that Tyler is referring to is a life without truly knowing God and what he means to you on a personal and individual level. Before a life with God we all can’t breath, our lives are meaningless, purposeness and joyless without Jesus. He picks the lock on our lives in order to help us open our box and take the deep breath of Him that we desperately need. The next set of lyrics says “There they were, three men up front, all I saw were backs of heads and then I asked, ‘am I alive and well, or am I dreaming dead?’ Then one turned around to say, ‘We're driving toward the Morning Son. Where all your blood is washed away and all you did will be undone.’" This lyric clearly refers to baptism and how being washed by Jesus’s blood reverses all the sin we’ve committed and makes us clean in the eyes of God. In Hebrews 1:17 the Bible says “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” God is not going to hold our sins against us, once you’re baptized all He sees is the Jesus in you, not the sin. Colossians 1:13-14 says “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” God sacrificed His one and only Son so each one of us can be called His children too. Because of God’s sacrifice and Jesus’s heart we have all been saved. He wanted us to delight in His joy and His promises so He sent Jesus to do what none of us could do on our own. Revelation 21:3-5 says “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”” God did all of this so we could be with Him for all eternity, so we wouldn’t be consumed by the fire, but instead we are consumed with His love for us. God made each and every one of us new, we were able to drive to the Morning Son where all of our blood was washed away and everything we ever did was undone.

[evaisabear]

If you guys feel sad, come feel sad with me 🖤

A Moment of Silence by The Neighborhood 

Jesus Christ by Brand New 

Sick of Losing Soulmates by Dodie 

Daydreamer by Trophy Eyes 

Remembering Sunday by All Time Low 

I’ve Given Up on You by Real Friends

Oh Ms Believer by tøp

Movies by Tiny Moving Parts

*Sobs Quietly* by Mom Jeans.

6/10 by Dodie

I Don’t Love You by Moose Blood 

Sundress by Tiny Moving Parts 

Spring by Moose Blood

Winter Everywhere by Slaves feat. Tilian

Breathe You In by Trophy Eyes

Andrew’s Song by I the Mighty

Death Cup by Mom Jeans.

Hurt by Emarosa

Into Your Arms by The Maine

Whoever She Is by The Maine

All I Ever Do by Tilian

In Bloom by Neck Deep

19 Seventy Sumthin’ by Neck Deep

Secret for the Mad by Dodie

Laps Around a Picture Frame by Broadside

All I Think About is You by Ansel Elgort

Three Cheers for Five Years by Mayday Parade

Bruised by Jack’s Mannequin

Loser Baby by La Bouquet

Still Remembering by As It Is

Yellow - Torch Songs by Mallory Knox

Van Beers by Tiny Moving Parts 

Whiskey Waters by Tiny Moving Parts

Patchwork Love by As It Is

Something Real by Blackbear

Always Focused by Tiny Moving Parts

John P by Tiny Moving Parts

I Hope Things Go The Way that I Hope by Tiny Moving Parts

Intertwined by Dodie

Spring Fever by Tiny Moving Parts

Good Times by All Time Low

Let It Go by The Plot in You

broken by lovelytheband

1-800-273-8255 by Logic

Supermarket Flowers by Ed Sheeran

Save Myself by Ed Sheeran

Jet Black Heart by 5SOS

Beside You by 5SOS

Raining in Paris by The Maine

[erindotts]

☆

[tae-the-strawberry-boy]

Tag game

I was tagged by @blvrryvxssel c: thank you for tagging me my friend. lol you guys aren’t prepared for this shuffle lol

Rules: you can tell a lot about a person by the music they listen to. Put yours on shuffle and list the first 10 songs and then tag 10 people. 1. Tear in My Screen Heart it’s a tøp mashup 2. All I Have to do is Dream by the Everly Brothers (<3) 3. See her on the Weekend by Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness 4. Just Right by Got7 5. Pork Soda by Glass Animals 6. I NEED U by BTS (my loves) 7. Jesus Christ by Brand New 8. Woke the Fuck Up by Jon Bellion 9. The Tide by the Spill Canvas 10. Speed Trials by Elliott Smith

Thanks again blvrryvxssel!

I tag whoever wants to do this. I know it’s a cheap way to get out of doing it but I want to make new friends, so if you do it, please let me know!! Have fun and stay street!!

[im-literally-so-dun]

I think I can explain this one!

I’ve also got a world with a self insert charrie that I created and channeled a lot of personal issues into. It’s so easy to think, at first, that this is my world, I created it, I control it. You hold the threat of destruction over that story as a way to assure yourself that you own all of these problems in the world, that they don’t really have any power over you

But the issue with a lot of worlds like this is that there’s no God. It’s just an attempt to excise your demons by yourself, prove that you are strong enough. That you are the god of this world

So when the story spirals out of control, when you realize you can’t actually control it, when the world you’ve created haunts you rather than awing you, you want to ruin it. You want to break it apart, prove to yourself you control this world, it is yours

And that, frankly, isn’t the right way to go about creating a story. Instead of attempting to create a world and control it, we should surrender it to God and ask Him to work through us as we create the story. I’d argue that Tyler didn’t necessarily do that with the world of Trench, which is why there are some things about it that don’t seem quite right

Basically, to summarize the rambling: I think it all comes down to the intent with which the world/story was created. Was it created from a place of despair or fear, one where you feel like God’s abandoned you? Or was it created with prayer and a desire to spread the Good News and bring hope to the world?

I cannot fathom why but the line ‘I created this world / to feel some control / destroy it if I want’ still bothers me.

Like- the creative process is normal, right? And it is a good way to process, or ‘control’ your emotions, I do that all the time. But in a healthy way.

But the ‘destroy it if I want’ bit still bothers me and I don’t know why and the fact that I can’t figure out why bothers me even more.

[pretendingboyfriends]

tyler joseph homophobic? dont do this to meee sjsnsnsjjs man, i was a huge tøp fan please pleasesjajjsjs why do man have to suck????? i thought i was safe with tyler jesus christ (if josh does something too i will start to throw some hands)

see that’s why i’m confused cuz i haven’t seen anything where he’s been homophobic and i’ve been a huge fan for years ?? more ppl are concerned with the fact that me made a super insensitive post after fans asked him to speak out about all the shit going on rn 

[lowlife-radish-whore]

music asks based on the first thing that comes to mind.

1:A song you like with a color in the title: welcome to the black parade- MCR 2:A song you like with a number in the title: deep six- Marilyn Manson 3:A song that reminds you of summertime: bedless- ptv 4:A song that reminds you of someone you would rather forget about: clairvoyant- tssf 5:A song that needs to be played LOUD: Abigail- miw 6:A song that makes you want to dance: Te extraño- Xtreme 7:A song to drive to: COMA- issues 8:A song about drugs or alcohol: reckless and relentless- asking Alexandria 9:A song that makes you happy: we don't believe what's on tv- tøp 10:A song that makes you sad: deathbeds- bmth 11:A song that you never get tired of: the beast and the harlot- A7X 12:A song from your preteen years: summer love- one direction 13:One of your favorite 80’s songs: battery- Metallica 14:A song that you would love played at your wedding: kissing in cars- ptv 15:A song that is a cover by another artist: hurt- johnny cash 16:One of your favorite classical songs: ride- Samuel Hazo 17:A song that would sing a duet with on karaoke: bring me to life- evanescence 18:A song from the year that you were born: aerials- SOAD 19:A song that makes you think about life: Jesus Christ- brand new 20:A song that has many meanings to you: the nameless- slipknot 21:A favorite song with a person’s name in the title: song for Isabelle- ptv 22:A song that moves you forward: I spoke to the devil in Miami...-xxxtentacion 23:A song that you think everybody should listen to: Jesus of suburbia- Green Day 24:A song by a band you wish were still together: the ghost of you- mcr 25:A song by an artist no longer living: Valerie- Amy winehouse 26:A song that makes you want to fall in love: a part of me- neck deep 27:A song that breaks your heart: king park- la dispute 28:A song by an artist with a voice that you love: ultraviolence- lana del rey 29:A song that you remember from your childhood: animal I have become- three days grace 30:A song that reminds you of yourself: sick and disgusting- beartooth

[topismyworshipmusic]

Time to Say Goodbye

To read a Christian’s perspective on what the song Time to Say Goodbye by my favorite band in the whole wide world Twenty Øne Piløts click the read more. <3

I’m sorry I haven’t been posting at all, my goal was to write one of these a week, but life gets in my way. Hopefully things will calm down soon and I can maintain a steady schedule so I can post more. Today I’m going to be dissecting Time To Say Goodbye by Twenty Øne Piløts. This is my third favorite TØP song of all time, it comes off of the Johnny Boy EP that came out in 2009 and this song samples Andrea Bocelli’s Con te Partirò which means Time To Say Goodbye. This song is definitely an underrated TØP song, but it’s amazing and has helped me during my lows, like Be Concerned this song feels like an ugly prayer, a song that you can just scream up to God when you don’t understand what you’re feeling or why you’re feeling it. If you’ve never heard of this TØP song before I sincerely hope you add it to your playlist, this song deserves more attention because it’s a masterpiece. Warning; this explanation is a little shorter and choppier than my previous ones. There are not as many Bible references as other TØP songs, but it was on my heart to write about this one.

I don’t think that this song is as Biblically based as it is a song to pray to because it is so real, raw and honest. The song starts out with the lyric “You split, and take in every time you see a fake and counterfeit. In the mirror you appear to see fear and whisper 'this is it', at the mirror you appear to see nothing else, but yourself as a face, a hollowed-out space.” In quite a few of Twenty Øne Piløts songs Tyler talks about how he feels split. I think as Christians we all feel this way, we know what’s right and honorable, we know what we should do, but the sinful side of us doesn’t want to do what is good. It wants to do what is easy, what feels safe. Even Jesus knew we were going to struggle with feeling this way, in Matthew 26 Jesus asked his closest friends to keep watch for Him while He prayed, of course his friends wanted to, but they just couldn’t stay awake. In verse 41 Jesus says “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”. The way I look at this lyric from Time To Say Goodbye and this verse from Matthew is Tyler doesn’t want to feel the way that he does. He doesn’t want to let the depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation to take over, but it does. He fights, but the darkness still takes over, they key is to find the light even in the darkness, to find the hope in the pain and the joy in the trial. During His life Jesus faced trials, temptation and pain of all kinds, but He never let anything satan threw His way cause Him to stumble. Instead, Jesus kept Himself focused on God, His promises, His truth, His love and the plan that God had for all of us to be saved.

The next lyric I want to talk about is “I never felt closer to you, just crying as you torture me”, there’s not particular scripture that reminds me of this lyric, but it makes me think about how God allows us to go through difficult situations so that we can lean on Him and get our comfort from Him and Him alone. Lately I’ve been going through a major trial at work and learning that working for the comany that I work for isn’t as nice as I thought it was. God has really used this time to help me realize that working for my company is not my dream job and I’m called to something totally different. It sucks that for me to learn this lesson God had to rip the rose colored glasses off of me and show me reality in a painful way, but it’s all part of His plan and all of my suffering has a purpose. Some of my favorite scriptures for remembering to draw my comfort from God are; Psalm 18:2 - “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”, Psalm 23:4 -  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”, 2 Corinthians 12:9 - “But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.”, Philippians 4:13 - “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” and Psalm 27:1 - “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”. God never causes the negative situations we are in, James 1:17 says “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”, but He does use them for His glory and His good.

In verse two Tyler says “And I'm standing on a tower trying my hardest to make it to You, but I built this tower out of mortal bricks they're breaking” this lyric reminds me of what Jesus said in Luke 14:28-30 when He was talking about the cost of being a disciple; “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.”  in this verse Jesus is saying that if you want to be His disciple you need to have a foundation in Him, His words and His teachings before you can truly be His disciple. In order to have faith in Jesus and give our life to Him we need to know what that entails, we need to have a foundation in His love so we can follow His example and carry our cross daily (Luke 9:23). In John 8:31-32 Jesus says; “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”. As followers of Christ we need to make it a point to be in His word daily. Reading our Bibles helps to strengthen our faith, keep our convictions and connect with God on a personal level. The Bible is the living word of God (Hebrews 4:12) and the word is God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16-17), it is the only book in the world that can cut you like a double edged sword, but make you feel so much love that it’s overwhelming. God gave us the word so we could see Him through it, reading the Bible teaches us about Him, His character and most importantly how much He loves us. The word is how we stay grounded as disciples of Christ, it’s how we combat all of the anxiety, depression, anger, hopelessness and doubt that we feel every day and the Bible is applicable in every situation. Take a deep breath in and make all of your thoughts captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5), He’s got this, He’s in control.

[sunkissedliterarylightofchrist]

#Tyler being more legalistic actually makes SO much sense#and the lore & related struggles tie into that#I don't know enough half alive lore to figure out exactly how romans 8 fits tho#please feel free to explain it!

EXACTLY

See, I feel like Tyler (and Josh too maybe, idk) have started to get more.... icky(?) in their music because they are thinking too much about the issues they talk about. They're giving them SO much screen time that it's suffocating them. Because while being specific with the Word is good, as soon as that crosses over into legalism it gets bad.

Whereas half•alive does indeed acknowledge all of that death and decay and darkness(in a different manner than TØP but it is certainly still there), but instead actively chooses to look beyond that and utterly trust God through it all and see the beauty in the struggle and creation. Almost all of their songs- even the ones that do have darker themes- seem lighter A) because of the backing instrumentals drawing you closer to the feeling of hope and goodness and B) almost all of their darker songs do indeed have some sort of resolution or calling back to what the point is.

Tyler and Josh have kept people from commiting suicide, that is a 100% fact. They've helped remind me of the Truth so many times and helped me wrestle my brain out of dark places by using the imagery of darkness to show how defeatable it can be, to quote @artist-issues. But like you put into this excellent post, you can't cling onto that feeling forever, even if the darkness feels comfortable because it is scary. Because self-focus blinds you to what is greater, which is God. So while Blurryface is an incredible concept and I adore how they've personified it in order to defeat it, at this point they've more so let it take over. I have loved the Clancy saga so so much, its very well written and just told with incredible mediums, but to some extent I still feel like its cozying up to the darkness so much that its forgetting that the light is there. (Which I am SORRY to say, and I don't even agree with my own statement that strongly, but I don't know how else to say it) I feel like (and this is total speculation, I don't have as firm of a basis for this as I would like) they've let their artistry 'eat them' for a lack of a better term. They've let it become their brand and now don't know how to break out of it(?)

Romans 7 is an incredible text. One of the best things Paul ever wrote. BUT- that's not the end of the story. Romans 8 is. That's where all of the hope and promise of a future of light and joy is, even in the midst of the pain and struggle.

And as for half•alive lore-- well, haha, once I figure it out you will be the first to know. I know that Conditions of a Punk especially has some with the story of reflection and regret over the relationship in it (because its a break up album), but its not as 'allegorically Christian' as their other stuff is. Just basing it on their music itself right now, especially on Now, Not Yet my beloved.

Romans 8 is the continuation of Romans 7, right? And so it is in direct conversation to and referencing the previous chapter. But Romans 7 is more focused on the dark part of the 'my flesh causes me to sin' cycle, whereas Romans 8 offers the hope to break out of that cycle, something I just wish that TØP would COME OUT AND SAY, just like half•alive has. 'Jesus Christ sits on the throne' Boom. Done. State the thesis of their music. The entire Now, Not Yet album is indeed depicting the Christian struggle, but wraps it up pointing to not just hope, but the source of hope. And their other music does too just as much, Persona utterly slaps and so do their EPs and singles btw, I just love the way they did it there the most. Seriously, there are many direct quotes from their music direct from Romans 7, you'll see. Crack open the Word and put on the tunes and its going to pop right out at you.

I’ve figured it out.

Twenty One Pilots and half•alive are both built on the book of Romans specifically with the theology they talk about, but TØP is zeroed in on Romans 7 while half•alive leans on Romans 8 instead.

[sunkissedliterarylightofchrist]

Yayayayayayay! This makes me VERY happy whheeeeee.

I honestly think its a little silly that everyone is saying that they're ripping off twenty one pilots because they talk about similar things- first of all, outside of a handful of their most expressive songs, they have VERY different music styles lol. And last time I checked, they both make music about the human condition, which is a pretty big subject, and why most of TØP boils down to Romans 7, and half•alive boiled that down even further into what I refer to as their 'thesis' which is the line 'i am creation both haunted and holy'. And then Tyler and Josh hone in specifically on the darkness of flesh, and like you've said, using imagery of darkness to prove how defeatable it can be, while Josh, Brett, and J. Tyler specifically weave that narrative into what being a Christian is and that Jesus Christ is the answer and we need to give ourselves up to Him as an intentional choice every day. Which I guess Tyler and Josh have said technically, but not as clearly as they have yet.

I love them both and I'm very excited that you're getting into the lyrics!! It's the absolute best.

Did you realize that half•alive opened for twenty one pilots during the Takeover Tour??

why was I not informed of this

that’s the one tour I haven’t been on (since they started headlining I guess). We almost missed this entirely

I DID! I've seen some clips of it, it was so cool!! Especially Tip Toes, which is where they first really showed off their live performance style of dance (and which happens to be the half•alive song I predict you will like the most) That was back when they just had their first EP 3, and some singles out I believe, and right during/after that time is when they released their first full length album Now, Not Yet (my beloved, the best allegorical album of all time I think) then went on their own first official tour right after!!

i made a post about it once and just assumed that you saw it lol. silly me

THANKS FOR THE ASK FRIEND it made me VERY happy and made another hard exam day better. Now please please please tell me you've started to listen to them and that you see what I see with how they're talking about having Faith because I cannot shut up about them.