This satire is an expression of a time oft repeated wherein I felt incredulous and scornful of the thinking of so-called “theologians.” They shape and size God, formulate the things they think He does, analyze Him, dissect Him, figure Him all out, put Him back together again according to their desires and tastes and put Him in a neat box, gift-wrapped and stamped, ready to be reproduced and mass-marketed to the ignorant masses the world over who swallow their doctrines as unsuspecting fish swallow bait, hook, line, sinker and rod.
By the way, God hates the term “theology.” How presumptuous is man that he should dare try to study God!
It is commonly believed by small and great
That God dwells in Heaven in royal estate,
That Satan in Hell lives in darkness and hate,
That this will never change.
God IS in Heaven and also in Hell,
The psalmist does declare
And with sons of God in Heaven, says Job,
Satan too is there.
God is in Hell and Satan in Heaven
The Scriptures testify
And only the sincere seeker of truth
Will faulty doctrine defy.
God in Heaven, man on Earth
And Satan in Hell is the creed,
Yet Satan walks to and fro in the earth,
And Emmanuel is “God with us” we read.
The Christian is seated in heavenly places,
The heathen dwell in Hell,
Yet both walk the earth with Satan and God
And where who is who can tell?
To know the truth is to shed the lie
And born full of lies we are;
It therefore takes a shedding of self
And to all we’ve been taught we must die.
The answer lies in the Spirit of God
Who leads us to know all things
And once we’ve discovered the answers we’ve sought,
To our souls peace and freedom He brings.
Dauphin, MB; 1978-79
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While I called this song the above name 20 years ago, I would not do so now. The power of Jesus as the Pentecostal circles like to call it is nothing less than Christ in us, the hope of glory. His Spirit we receive not while seeking power but while seeking to do His will in reality and not as we perceive it.
At a time of uprooting and forsaking all once again, my wife was finding it difficult and this song came then. It held the promise of better things ahead as we had always experienced in similar times before. Encouraged, we plodded on.
The interesting thing about this song was that at the time it came to me, I had no thoughts, feelings, identification, circumstances, reason, or remembrance of the past to inspire the words; I just woke up and wrote them – no music, just words, if I recall correctly. I just laid the words aside, thinking no more of them until 2016, almost 6 years later. The words were a puzzle to me; I didn't know what to think of or do with them. They didn't express at all how I felt when I received them or when I returned to them years later – those days were long gone. But after I just happened to listen to a song or two by the late Amy Winehouse (not my usual custom by far), who impressed me with her unabashedness, freedom from self-consciousness or effort to sing creatively, I considered those words given me and put them to music. The spirit of the music seemed to be inspired by Amy, a troubled lady who was also crying for help but wasn't blessed to find it in this life. I wished I could have helped her. I then suddenly realized the song expressed exactly how I had felt in 1972 before I was converted. The song was a prequel to the time of newfound joy and freedom in Jesus Christ. Wow! I was thrilled at the realization. But for what purpose the song? I knew the song expressed how many, if not all, feel just before they meet the Lord. They're searching, troubled, lost, confounded, disoriented, not knowing up from down, sorrowful, without direction or purpose. It's a painful time -...