What does One Tin Soldier mean?

Coven: One Tin Soldier Meaning

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Album cover for One Tin Soldier album cover

One Tin Soldier Lyrics

Listen, children, to a story
That was written long ago,
'Bout a kingdom on a mountain
And the valley-folk below.

On the mountain was a treasure
Buried deep beneath the stone,
And the valley-people swore
They'd have it for their very...

  1. anonymous
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    Sep 21st 2023 !⃝

    The song is not anti-God.It is about hypocritical Christians. The song says "you can justify it", its not God who justifies it but the Christians who have acted in an un-Godly manner. The Christians, consumed with greed and violence have abandoned God, leading Him to ride off alone.

  2. anonymous
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    Aug 20th 2023 !⃝

    Even though the origin of this song is said to have been inspired in CS Lewis’ essay “Obstinate Toy Soldiers,” the meaning of this song is written in full opposition of the meaning of the essay.

    CS Lewis was a deep-thinking Christian and you can see this in his essay about Christ, who being the Creator, the second person of the Trinity, chose to be made in the likeness of man (flesh), still being fully God, and gave His perfect, sinless life as an atoning sacrifice for all sinners. This is the message of salvation for every human being beginning with Adam and Eve to our present modern age.

    The song is said to be anti-war, I would suggest it is actually anti-God. It is opposed to the Word of God by the proof of its own lyrics. I will quickly go through the most obvious anti-God lyrics.

    “Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend,” the Bible teaches the opposite “Love your neighbor,” and “Do no harm to your neighbor.” There are many verses that speak of being a friend and caring for others.

    “Do it in the name of Heaven, you can justify it in the end.” This is in opposition to the Word of God, which endures forever. We must not do evil in God’s name or Heaven’s name, which means the same. God is love. Also, we cannot justify evil before God. All evil will be judged.

    “There won’t be any trumpets blowing come the Judgment Day,” No one can stop the Word of God being fulfilled. The Bible says the trumpet will blow and it will.

    “On the bloody morning after, One Tin Soldier rides away.” This is not what the Word of God says. In CS Lewis’ essay the Tin Soldier represents the Messiah Jesus, but not in this song. The truth is that Jesus will not be alone on Judgment Day. The Bible says He is accompanied by all His people who love Him who either died loving Him or was still living at the time of being “Taken up,” Greek word is “Harpazo”, Latin word is “Rapturo,” and finally the English word is “Rapture.” Yes, the Rapture is a true teaching in the Bible. Jesus will not be alone walking away after a bloody morning after. He will judge sin, He will bind satan and lock up all opposition against Him and then He will reign for 1,000 years, on this earth in Jerusalem with all who love Him. He knows who are His. Then, after the 1,000 years, satan will be loosed for a moment, then forever bound in the Lake of Fire along with all who chose satan. God’s Kingdom, the New Jerusalem will come to earth, everything made new and we will live with Him forever and ever!

    This song opposes all absolute truth found in the Bible. Please, Dear Reader, Seek God in the Word of God, receive Jesus in your life by repenting of all sin and opening your heart to Jesus, asking Him to come in you snd save you. He will!

  3. anonymous
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    Jul 8th 2019 !⃝

    The title comes from an essay by C.S. Lewis, "Obstinate Toy Soldiers". Here's an excerpt:

    Did you ever think, when you were a child, what fun it would be if your toys could come to life? Well suppose you could really have brought them to life. Imagine turning a tin soldier into a real little man. It would involve turning the tin into flesh. And suppose the tin soldier did not like it. He is not interested in flesh; all he sees is that the tin is being spoilt. He thinks you are killing him. He will do everything he can to prevent you. He will not be made into a man if he can help it.

    What you would have done about that tin soldier I do not know. But what God did about us was this. The Second Person in God, the Son, became human Himself: was born into the world as an actual man—a real man of a particular height, with hair of a particular colour, speaking a particular language, weighing so many stone. The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a foetus inside a Woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.

    The result of this was that you now had one man who really was what all men were intended to be: one man in whom the created life, derived from his Mother, allowed itself to be completely and perfectly turned into the begotten life. The natural human creature in Him was taken up fully into the divine Son. Thus in one instance humanity had, so to speak, arrived: had passed into the life of Christ. And because the whole difficulty for us is that the natural life has to be, in a sense, “killed,” He chose an earthly career which involved the killing of His human desires at every turn—poverty, misunderstanding from His own family, betrayal by one of His intimate friends, being jeered at and manhandled by the Police, and execution by torture. And then, after being thus killed—killed every day in a sense—the human creature in Him, because it was united to the divine Son, came to life again. The Man in Christ rose again: not only the God. That is the whole point. For the first time we saw a real man. One tin soldier—real tin, just like the rest—had come fully and splendidly alive.

  4. anonymous
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    Feb 3rd 2016 !⃝

    Hidden message....beggining to look like oak island.. The arrows are fire and water

  5. wyolaramie
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    May 5th 2014 !⃝

    I came to this site to get the real, full meaning of this song that has been around a long, long time. I have sung it with others for over 30 some years, often as much as ten times annually, but I never understood fully the meaning, though to some it may be obvious. Please, someone reading this, send me the meaning as you see it to me at wyolaramie@yahoo.com, email, please. I cannot access other means other than email. Computers confuse me too much as I am from the typewriter age. I am surprised that I got this far to find this song even. I would love an interpretation or two from any readers. Just don't laugh too much as my computer illiteracy. Hope you can help at my email address. THANKS A BUNCH...Mike Olson....


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