The Ambassador on what inspired his song ‘Deserter’

An eerie track on The Ambassador’s last project, Hor d’oeuvres, should make you pay extra attention to his new album When Sacred Meets Secular.

On Hor d’oeuvres, which dropped in Aug. 2013, The Ambassador recorded a song called “Deserter”, which warned professing Christians about deserting the faith.

The track featured an emcee who, by 2015, had deserted Christianity — Jahaziel.

Other recording artists took the same path last year, forcing us to ask whether the timing of The Ambassador’s warning was just a coincidence or if the song was prophetic.

At Legacy Conference 2016, Rapzilla interviewed The Ambassador about the song, which he said was inspired by Christian hip hop’s “inability to see, to perceive, a shift not just in style and labels, but in heart, in affection, in missional aim.”

“I think any shift from specific to general is always an interesting shift,” he added. “I think from rich Christ or robust Christ to less Christ or more obscure, more undertoned Christ is always an interesting one. But I know that those migrations don’t take you deeper into Him. I think they begin to take you away from Him. When a person defects … they usually rattle off how disenchanted they’ve become with the former.

“And so I am not shocked, and I think we’re on a slippery slope because put us in a room, and we’ll argue about it. We won’t agree what is a shift away, or what is a shift toward, or what is not shift at all. We won’t agree, and I think that lack of agreement is signs that we’ve shifted from having a fellowship, a like-mindedness, and I think that always breeds a weak infrastructure, rather than a stronger one.”

The Ambassador compared “Deserter” to the book of Hebrews, which was written to persuade persecuted Jewish Christians, as their passion for Christ waned, to not return to Judaism. The founding Cross Movement member wrote “Deserter” after perceiving a similar waning.

Buy When Sacred Meets Secular on iTunes.

David Daniels
David Daniels
David Daniels is a columnist at Rapzilla.com and the managing editor of LegacyDisciple.org. He has been published at Desiring God, The Gospel Coalition, Christianity Today, CCM Magazine, Bleacher Report, The Washington Times and HipHopDX.
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