Iron Maiden – For the Greater Good of God

Classic heavy metal band Iron Maiden is not Christian.  They started their career in 1975, pioneering British Heavy Metal into the 1980s.  Throughout their career, they released sixteen Studio albums, twelve Live albums, four EP’s, and seven compilation albums.  With 80+ million records sold globally, they are widely regarded as among the most successful heavy metal bands of all time.

They received 29 awards from numerous award organizations, including:

• Bandit Rock Awards (3)
• BRIT Awards (1)
• Emma-gaala (2)
• Grammy Awards (1)
• Ivor Novello Awards (1)
• Juno Awards (1)
• Kerrang! Awards (3)
• Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards (10)
• Metal Storm Awards (3)
• Rockbjörnen (1)
• Silver Clef Awards (2)
• SXSW Film Festival (1)

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Iron-maiden-for-the-greater-good-of-god-lyrics.

Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site!  Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review.

1. What message does the song communicate?

This song is an indictment against the religious, especially those of us who follow Jesus.  It speaks out against the wars, violence, and suffering caused in the name of God.  The stark contrast between the act of Jesus and the behavior of His followers is not lost on Iron Maiden, contemplating if we know the difference between life, love, and war.  Our actions show that war is our way of life that shows “love” to others.  They are correct in their accusations and ought to demand an explanation.

While Iron Maiden claims that God might operate from Gehennah, they also claim ignorance and are simply reacting to the atrocities of the religious.  It’s not inconceivable to think that if god’s servants are acting like sons of hell, that perhaps their god is also of the devil.  They send a clear message that helps us think about how we’re representing Christ.  There is much room for improvement!

Side Note: To those who are sensitive to massive repetition, towards the end of the song, Refrain and Chorus repeat after each other twice, with Chorus containing the same line eight times.

Score: 9/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

Most of it agrees with the Bible, except the end of Verse 1.  Though Iron Maiden states the possibility that God might operate from the underworld, they claim that they don’t know if it’s true.  Scripture tells us that it’s impossible; However, since the claim was softened with agnosticism, I’ll let Iron Maiden off easy.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: Iron maiden speaks to our hypocrisy, that we who speak peace act in aggression (Psalm 55:21, Isaiah 29:13-14, Matthew 6:1-6, Matthew 7:1-5, Matthew 7:15-23, Matthew 15:1-14, Romans 2:1-3, Romans 16:17-18, 1 Timothy 3:1-5, Titus 1:10-16, James 2:14-26, 1 Peter 2:1, 1 Peter 2:16, 1 John 2:3-11, and 1 John 4:20).

Line 3: A general statement about mankind, that there’s a time for everything (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).

Line 4: Iron Maiden contemplates if our actions cause needless death.

Lines 5-10: Some of us had a terrible upbringing or bad teaching that caused us to act violent, just like wolves in sheep’s clothing (Deuteronomy 13:1-3, Ezekiel 22:27, Micah 3:5-7, Matthew 7:15, Matthew 24:11, Mark 13:22-23, Acts 20:29-31, Romans 16:17-18, 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Philippians 3:2, Colossians 2:8, 2 Timothy 3:13, 2 Timothy 4:3, 2 Peter 2:1-3, and Jude 1:4).

Lines 11-13: Though blasphemous given that the lake of fire is eternal separation from God (Romans 6:23, Revelation 2:11, Revelation 20:6, Revelation 20:14-15, and Revelation 21:8), I sympathize with Iron Maiden’s statements given that the acts of Christians are often war-like and hypocritical.  This reflects poorly on a God who is benevolent and heavenly.  He saves himself by claiming he doesn’t know.

[Refrain]

Lines 1-4: Iron Maiden rhetorically asks us if war is the way we show love; that we value life.  Once again, I can see why they ask this question.  The Church has committed many atrocities in the name of Jesus, contrary to what Jesus taught, that is, to love God, love our neighbor as ourselves, and love one another (Matthew 22:34-40, Luke 10:25–37, and John 13:34-35).

[Verse 2]

Lines 1-4: More vivid description of the failures of Christians.  See commentary on Verse 1, lines 1 and 2, and Refrain.  The “blind leading the blind” is found in Matthew 15:14.

[Verse 3]

Lines 1-9: Iron Maiden’s indictments keep piling up!  See commentary on Verse 1, lines 1 and 2, and Refrain.  Why is this happening?  Our love went cold (Revelation 2:4-5).  Rather than beautiful instruments that elevate God’s love for us, we’ve become noisy gongs that pollute the air (1 Corinthians 13:1), resulting in Iron Maiden’s foul taste.

[Chorus]

Line 1: And we do it all…for the glory of God?  Iron Maiden is correct when sarcastically using 1 Corinthians 10:31 against us, that we’re claiming our sinful behavior is for God when our actions are contrary to the teachings of Christ.

[Verse 4]

Lines 1-5: Why is it that Christians cause needless suffering while claiming that God loves us, dying on the cross for our sins (John 3:16 and Romans 5:6-8)?  That’s a great question, Iron Maiden.

Score: 9/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Unbelievers will have no problem interpreting this song, coming to the same conclusions as I, perhaps sans padding.  They will see that religious folk start wars and do ungodly things.  The unfortunate part is not that Iron Maiden speaks the truth about our dirty laundry, it is that our actions often act as a stumbling block towards an unbeliever’s journey to Christ.

Let the reader understand that, aside from the possibility that God might be operating from hell, Iron Maiden has stated nothing against the God we worship or that Christianity is bad.  Their point is that the religious have a checkered past.  To that, I must give them much credit.

Score: 9/10

4. What does this song glorify?

This song glorifies God by mostly speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15); However, their ignorant statement about God’s seemingly impure motives slightly takes it away.  Slightly because they claimed that they don’t know for sure.

Score: 9/10

Closing Comments

Iron Maiden’s For the Greater Good of God is a wake-up call for Christians.  They point to the atrocities done in the name of Christ that demands an explanation, bewildered that we ignore the teachings of Jesus.  While they claim ignorance when asserting that God might act from hell, we haven’t given them many good reasons to think otherwise, despite what the Bible might say.

Jesus was also against such hypocritical folk, pleading us to repent of our wickedness.  Iron Maiden’s message is clear to unbelievers and glorifies God because they (mostly) speak the truth in love with nothing against Christianity as a worldview.

We have much work to do.

Given the nature of its message, I cannot recommend this song for corporate worship.

Final Score: 9/10

Artist Info

Track: For the Greater Good of God (listen to the song)

Artist: Iron Maiden

Album: A Matter of Life and Death

Genre: Classic Heavy Metal

Release Year: 2006

Duration: 9:24

Agree?  Disagree?  Don’t be shy or have a cow!  Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.

Updates:

10/18/2022 – The original review did not include a link to the lyrics.

03/24/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.  I moved my commentary to a side note and increased section 1’s score.  This did not affect the overall rating.