When Christ Spoke Through a War Game Without Meaning To

Introduction: Eternity Invades the Unexpected

Imagine launching a World War II submarine simulator, expecting explosions and naval tactics, only to be greeted by a Christian poem about eternity. That’s exactly what happens in Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific, a 2007 combat game. Before you fire a single torpedo, the intro rolls out the full text of Fly, Envious Time by John Milton, a 17th-century Puritan poet who wrote not of war, but of Christ’s eternal victory over time and death.

I first saw this intro in my early 20s, before I was a Christian. I assumed the game developers wrote the poem—nowhere in the opening scene is Milton credited. Only recently did I learn it was penned by a brother in Christ over 300 years ago. Credit where credit’s due: the developers nailed the delivery. The voice acting, music, and pacing make Milton’s words feel like a solemn hymn. It stuck with me for years, even if they ghosted on giving Milton his props—like dropping a Puritan poetry bomb and walking away.

My name’s Tim, just a nobody lifting up Christ’s name at Old Time Preaching. This blog isn’t about the game—it’s about why a Christ-centered poem ended up in a godless war simulator and why that still matters. For more on unexpected places where God’s truth shines, check out my post: Unexpected Places God’s Truth Shines.

The Poem: Fly, Envious Time

Here’s the full text of Milton’s poem as it appears in the Silent Hunter 4 intro, with music swelling and warships fading into view:

Fly envious time till thou run out thy race.
Call on the lazy leaden stepping hours whose speed is but the heavy plummets pace.
And glut thyself with what thy womb devours, which is no more than what is false and vain and merely mortal dross.
So little is our loss, so little is thy gain.
For when as each thing bad thou hast intombed, and last of all thy greedy self consumed,
then long eternity shall greet our bliss with an individual kiss.
And joy shall overtake us as a flood.
When everything that is sincerely good and perfectly divine with truth and peace and love shall ever shine about the supreme throne of him to happy making sight alone when once our heavenly guided soul shall climb.
[Music]
Then all this earthly grossness quit.
Attired with stars, we shall forever sit, triumphant over death and chance and thee, oh time.
[Music]

This isn’t a poem about war or empire—it’s a rebuke of time itself. Milton commands time to “fly” and finish its race, exposing the vanity of this world and proclaiming Christ’s eternal triumph. It’s not sentimentality; it’s theology. It’s a declaration that time, death, and chance will be crushed under Christ’s feet.

The Author: Who Was John Milton?

John Milton (1608–1674) was a heavyweight. A devout Puritan and political exile, he wrote Paradise Lost, a towering epic poem in English literature—while blind. Milton believed all history pointed to Christ’s final victory. For him, poetry wasn’t entertainment; it was a weapon to lift eyes from the dust of this world to God’s glory. Learn more in my post: John Milton’s Enduring Legacy.

Why Was It in the Game?

That’s the mystery. Silent Hunter 4 immerses players in World War II—a theater of nationalism and bloodshed. There’s no Gospel in the gameplay; you’re a naval officer sinking ships, not a missionary. Yet the intro delivers a soul-piercing warning that time is dying and Christ reigns. Whoever included the poem—believer or not—planted a seed. The poem matters more than the medium. It demands attention, no matter how it got there.

The Disconnect That Preaches

There’s a jarring contrast watching Milton’s Christ-centered words scroll across a backdrop of steel warships and explosions. The game celebrates mechanical force; the poem worships divine sovereignty. The game traps you in a temporal battle; the poem prepares you for eternal war. And that’s the point. The game ends. The war fades. The player logs off. But Milton’s words linger. He doesn’t write for empires—he writes for eternity. He doesn’t exalt man—he glorifies Christ.

Breaking Down the Poem: A Line-by-Line Look

Let’s unpack key lines from Fly, Envious Time to see how Milton preaches Christ’s victory:

“Fly envious time till thou run out thy race”: Milton opens with a bold command. He doesn’t plead with time but challenges it to run its course. Time is a created thing with limits—it can’t rule forever. Christ is eternal; time is not.

“Call on the lazy leaden stepping hours”: Time rules with its hours, slow and burdensome, like chains. Milton mocks their heaviness. Christians often feel time’s weight while awaiting Christ’s return, but these hours are marching to their end.

“Whose speed is but the heavy plummets pace”: Time is like a plummet, a weight that sinks, not flies. This mirrors the descent of a dying world, but Milton knows Christ will raise the dead in glory when time breaks.

“And glut thyself with what thy womb devours”: Milton personifies time as a grotesque mother devouring her children. She creates only to destroy—a picture of a fallen world under sin. Yet Milton mocks her greed, knowing she gains nothing eternal.

“Which is no more than what is false and vain and merely mortal dross”: Time takes only what’s worthless—pride, pleasure, earthly glory. It can’t touch the eternal. Milton calls it “dross,” waste that God deems unworthy.

“So little is our loss, so little is thy gain”: Time’s conquests are pathetic. It takes what Christians don’t need and gains nothing. What matters remains in Christ—a war cry of victory.

“For when as each thing bad thou hast intombed, and last of all thy greedy self consumed”: Time buries evil—tyrants, wars, corruption—clearing the stage for eternity. Then it dies, as Revelation 10:6 declares, “time shall be no more.”

“Then long eternity shall greet our bliss with an individual kiss”: After time’s death, eternity greets each redeemed soul with a personal kiss from Christ. It’s intimate, not generic—a tender promise of divine love.

“And joy shall overtake us as a flood”: Heaven isn’t stoic—it’s a flood of joy, overwhelming every sorrow, as promised in Psalm 16:11: “In thy presence is fullness of joy.”

“Attired with stars, we shall forever sit, triumphant over death and chance and thee, oh time”: The redeemed aren’t just saved—they’re enthroned, shining like stars (Daniel 12:3), triumphing over death, chance, and time itself. Christ wins.

Final Thoughts: A Divine Invasion

You may never play Silent Hunter 4, and that’s fine—it’s not the game that matters. It’s that a poem by a blind Puritan from four centuries ago found its way into a war simulator, and it still preaches. “Then long eternity shall greet our bliss with an individual kiss.” That’s not nostalgia or culture—it’s eternity breaking through the noise. God does this sometimes, slipping His truth into unexpected places to remind us the world is fading, but Christ is forever.

Join the Conversation
Has God’s truth ever surprised you in an unexpected place? Share this post on X with your story using #EternitySpeaks, and let’s talk about how Christ breaks through the noise. Want more Christian poetry? Explore my collection: Christian Poetry. Subscribe to our newsletter at OldTimePreaching.com for weekly sermons that lift up Christ’s name.

Lord, come quickly.
@MySinHisBlood
Posted on May 29, 2025, at 12:56 PM EDT