Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past. (NIV)
Everything is breaking,
No mistaking,
It’s all changing,
Tear it down,
Watch it all start burningAll that’s done is done just
Let it lieIt’s a revelation,
Celebration,
Graduation,
Times collide,
Watch the world awakenAll the past regrets from days gone by,
Let it go,
Let it die
I used to be a huge Metallica fan. (Doesn’t Kirk have lovely hair? I used to have hair like that.)
Over the summer of 1986/87 I played Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets back-to-back, non-stop.
I wore out the vinyl.
I cried when Metallica’s bass player Cliff Burton died in a bus accident in September 1986.
But Burton’s death was nothing compared to the tragedy that Metallica were to bring upon themselves five years later, in 1991.
Metallica were the Gods of thrash metal. They defined the genre. And they used to sing about wholesome things like mass murder (Kill ‘Em All, 1983), dying in the electric chair (Ride the Lightning, 1984), cocaine addiction (Master of Puppets, 1986) and governmental corruption (… And Justice for All, 1988).
But then … they sold out. Big time.
The second definition of selling out refers to putting aside musical quality or original intentions in favor of commercial success, where a distinction is made for those who achieve success without changing their original sound. The difference between the two is often subjective. Whilst artists may change their musical direction for commercial reasons, such as pressure from major labels who require songs to appeal to mass markets a change in sound may also be part of a natural progression of creative maturity.
An example of an artist being accused of selling out is the band Metallica, whose 1991 eponymous album has been considered as the turning point in the band’s musical direction, and have been called the “poster boys for musical un-integrity” after the band’s attempt to sue fans downloading their music through Napster. The album, known as The Black Album, saw critics and Bob Rock, the album’s producer, acknowledge that there was a move away from the band’s previous sound. Rock claimed that the change stemmed from the band’s desire to “make the leap to the big, big leagues”, whilst some fans blamed Rock himself, going as far to eventually create an internet petition demanding the band cut their ties with him. However, other fans did not consider the change in sound to be significant enough to be considered selling out and others accepted the change as part of a natural evolution of the band’s style. Ultimately The Black Album became the band’s most commercially successful, going 16x platinum, but the differing reaction by fans to the album is an example of the difficulty in labelling an artist as a sellout objectively.
Was the release of the Black Album “part of a natural progression of creative maturity”? No. There is no difficulty whatsoever in labelling Metallica, circa 1991, as a sellout objectively. They sacrificed their musical integrity on the alter of commercial success. And what unparalleled commercial performance! The love of money is the root of all evil.
I used to joke that the members of Metallica had been abducted by aliens and replaced by Bieber-like body snatchers for who-knows-what nefarious alien purposes. One similarly aggrieved fan wrote an entire comic strip premised upon the abduction of the real band members and their replacement by simulacra. (I wish I could now find it.)
True Metallica fans don’t mince words.
I remember driving one morning just after I had received my drivers license. I was 16, it was summer in Minnesota, and the local radio station was about to debut the new Metallica song, Enter Sandman. Life was great. I was so pumped and nervous as I’d been a fan since before Justice was released. The song came on…and so began one of the worst days of my adolescent life, and I’m not sure I’ve ever recovered. Serious life-bummer. I was more let down than the first time I got dumped by a girl. To my credit, I kept it together and didn’t plow my car at high speed into a huge tree to spare myself the pain I was feeling.
The biggest piece of shit ever written by Metallica! I dont know if it is because they enlisted Bob Rock (WANKER) to ptoduce this album or if it is because they got lazy. Real dissappointment. I Know many people like this album and defend it but it is a pice of shit. Sorry all u Metallica die hards out there. I’d rather listen to myself take a shit than have to listen to this garbage.
I was an atheist in those days. It’s only now that I realise that Metallica did far more than sacrifice their musical integrity on the alter of commercial success. They sold their very souls to Satan. This fact is hidden in plain sight. Let’s take a closer look at the Black Album.
The first thing to notice about the Black album is … it’s very black. Metallica’s logo can just about be made out in the darkness of the top-left-hand corner. Black is the devil’s colour. (Sure, it’s also New Zealand’s national colour, but Metallica sure weren’t thinking of the All Blacks when they squeezed this one out.)
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (NIV)
In the bottom-right-hand corner is a stylised, coiled serpent, that bears an intentional likeness to the rattlesnake on the Gadsden flag.
Notwithstanding that “Don’t tread on me” is a libertarian slogan and the Gadsden flag rattlesnake is a libertarian icon (I have no idea what happened to the missing apostrophe in ‘dont’) let’s see what happens when we take the snake, flip it horizontally and tip it on its side.
Now we see the true nature of Metallica’s mascot. It’s a serpent, its coils spelling out 666—the Number of the Beast of Revelation—and shaped into a slide to take you down on a one-way trip to never never land. This is snakes and ladders but with no ladders. Snake, rattle ‘n’ roll!
That’s the album art, it’s pretty clear.
What about the lyrical content?
Well, the very first track is Enter Satan. (Or, rather, Enter Sandman, but we all know who Sandman is.)
Say your prayers little one
Don’t forget, my son
To include everyoneTuck you in, warm within
Keep you free from sin
Till the Sandman, he comesExit light
Enter night
Take my hand
We’re off to never never land
Nek minnit, you belong to Satan.
Sad But True.
Hey
I’m your life
I’m the one who took you there
Hey
I’m your life
And I no longer careI’m your truth, telling lies
I’m your reasoned alibis
I’m inside open your eyes
I’m you
Holier Than Thou
Little whispers circle around your head
Why don’t you worry about yourself instead?Who are you? Where ya been? Where ya from?
Gossip is burning on the tip of your tongue
You lie so much you believe yourself
The Unforgiven
Never free.
Never me.
So I dub thee unforgiven.You labelled me,
I’ll label you.
So I dub thee unforgiven.
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us? Nope. I dub thee unforgiven.
Wherever I May Roam.
And I’ll redefine anywhere
Anywhere I may roam
Where I lay my head is home…and the earth becomes my throne
It’d pretty clear who this song is about.
The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
Don’t Tread On Me
Liberty or death, what we so proudly hail
Once you provoke her, rattling of her tail
Never begins it, never, but once engaged…
Never surrenders, showing the fangs of rageDon’t tread on me!
OK, so I can’t really knock this one. 🙂
The exception that proves the rule? It’s a half-decent song, great lyrics! (But it still plods like no speed metal I ever heard.)
Through The Never is a trip through never never land with your new friend, the Sandman.
Twisting
Turning
Through the never Never
Nothing Else Matters is hardly an improvement on nihilism, the doctrine that nothing matters.
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters
In God we Trust? No, apparently it’s in man we trust and God doesn’t matter.
Of Wolf And Man
I hunt
Therefore I am
Harvest the land
Taking of the fallen lambOff through the new day’s mist I run
Off from the new day’s mist I have come
We shift
Pulsing with the earth
Company we keep
Roaming the land while you sleep.
More roaming the land, going back and forth on it. While you sleep. (Never mind that noise you heard. It’s just the beast under your bed, in your closet, in your head.)
The God That Failed
Pride you took
Pride you feel
Pride that you felt when you’d kneelTrust you gave
A child to save
Left you cold and him in graveI see faith in your eyes
Never you hear the discouraging lies
I hear faith in your cries
Broken is the promise, betrayal
The healing hand held back by deepened nailFollow the god that failed
There are two further tracks but I can’t go on. It’s a desperate, dire, demonic album.
And, quite apart from that, it’s a steaming pile of the proverbial. So watch your step.
Come near, you nations, and listen;
pay attention, you peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,
the world, and all that comes out of it!
The Lord is angry with all nations;
his wrath is on all their armies.
He will totally destroy them,
he will give them over to slaughter.
Their slain will be thrown out,
their dead bodies will stink;
the mountains will be soaked with their blood.
All the stars in the sky will be dissolved
and the heavens rolled up like a scroll;
all the starry host will fall
like withered leaves from the vine,
like shriveled figs from the fig tree.My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
see, it descends in judgment on Edom,
the people I have totally destroyed.
The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood,
it is covered with fat—
the blood of lambs and goats,
fat from the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah
and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
And the wild oxen will fall with them,
the bull calves and the great bulls.
Their land will be drenched with blood,
and the dust will be soaked with fat.For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.
Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
her dust into burning sulfur;
her land will become blazing pitch!
It will not be quenched night or day;
its smoke will rise forever.
From generation to generation it will lie desolate;
no one will ever pass through it again.
The desert owl and screech owl will possess it;
the great owl and the raven will nest there.
God will stretch out over Edom
the measuring line of chaos
and the plumb line of desolation.
Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom,
all her princes will vanish away.
Thorns will overrun her citadels,
nettles and brambles her strongholds.
She will become a haunt for jackals,
a home for owls.
Desert creatures will meet with hyenas,
and wild goats will bleat to each other;
there the night creatures will also lie down
and find for themselves places of rest.
The owl will nest there and lay eggs,
she will hatch them, and care for her young
under the shadow of her wings;
there also the falcons will gather,
each with its mate.Look in the scroll of the Lord and read:
None of these will be missing,
not one will lack her mate.
For it is his mouth that has given the order,
and his Spirit will gather them together.
He allots their portions;
his hand distributes them by measure.
They will possess it forever
and dwell there from generation to generation. (NIV)
Angie Schuller Wyatt (pictured above) is the author of God and Boobs: Balancing Faith and Sexuality. GODandBoobs.com is Angie Schuller Wyatt’s website and also a Faceboob page.
Angie Schuller Wyatt is the granddaughter of celebrated televangelist Dr. Robert H Schuller.
Did we go from Hour of Power to breasts like towers in just two generations? I think we did.
What does the Bible say about breasts? What does my co-blogger Tim (pictured above) say about breasts? More than the Bible. His cups runneth over. Breasts have long been one of Tim’s good keen manly interests, but Standing up for Justice more important than Personal Ambitions.
AC/DC is not a cup size. They’re ballbreaking Aussie rock legends! AC/DC wrote the song Big Balls which was the musical accompaniment to my other post I’ve got big balls. So I think big boobs should be the musical accompaniment to this one. (This is the breast cover of an AC/DC song I’ve ever seen.)
“Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces
but he will heal us;
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds.
After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will restore us,
that we may live in his presence.
Let us acknowledge the Lord;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth.”“What can I do with you, Ephraim?
What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears.
Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
I killed you with the words of my mouth—
then my judgments go forth like the sun.
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” (NIV)
Putin is cool.
Putin is cool like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. But far be it from me to judge. That’s just the opinion of the deathly cold shiver running down my spine.
Those shades. Look at those shades.
Does Putin wear them to be cool? Or does he wear them to keep out the light of the world so he can continue his uninterrupted walk in darkness? (False dilemma or true? Putin is effortlessly cool, either way.)
How did Putin get to be so cool?
There could be a simple explanation. Russia’s a cold place. Only hell is colder (when it freezes over). Perhaps Putin’s still thawing out after the Cold War. But here’s how I think Putin got to be so cool. The chilling effect of censorship in Russia.
In 2013 Russia ranked 148th out of 179 countries in the Press Freedom Index from Reporters Without Borders.
Putin is cool. The camera doesn’t lie. But the photographic evidence is redundant. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
Put on your God-goggles. Now what do you see? You see the hidden person of the heart. Do you see the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious, or do you see a crooked heart, a heart that devises wicked plans, which is an abomination to God?
Still got the God-goggles on? Good. It’s mirror time.
“Look at Behemoth,
which I made along with you
and which feeds on grass like an ox.
What strength it has in its loins,
what power in the muscles of its belly!
Its tail sways like a cedar;
the sinews of its thighs are close-knit.
Its bones are tubes of bronze,
its limbs like rods of iron.
It ranks first among the works of God,
yet its Maker can approach it with his sword.
The hills bring it their produce,
and all the wild animals play nearby.
Under the lotus plants it lies,
hidden among the reeds in the marsh.
The lotuses conceal it in their shadow;
the poplars by the stream surround it.
A raging river does not alarm it;
it is secure, though the Jordan should surge against its mouth.
Can anyone capture it by the eyes,
or trap it and pierce its nose?” (NIV)
Behemoth is coming.
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.” (NIV)
Dr. Laura Keynes grew up in Cambridge, arguably the intellectual center of the United Kingdom. She studied at the University College of Oxford on a full-ride scholarship and ended up earning a Doctor of Philosophy degree. Her doctoral thesis was on epistemology, the study of knowledge and justified belief. As her last name indicates, she is the great-grandniece of the famous economist John Maynard Keynes. She is also the great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin.
Why am I telling you about this young lady? Because she recently wrote an article entitled, “I’m a Direct Descendant of Darwin…and a Catholic.” Now the title didn’t surprise me at all. I know a lot of Catholics (and even more Protestants) who believe in evolution. Indeed, one of the leaders of the Intelligent Design movement, Dr. Michael Behe, says:1
You can be a good Catholic and believe in Darwinism. Biochemistry has made it increasingly difficult, however, to be a thoughtful scientist and believe in it.
However, as I read the article, I couldn’t help but smile. You see, Laura was raised Catholic but drifted away from the faith after her mother became a Buddhist and her brother rejected all organized religion. By the time she was studying for her Doctor of Philosophy degree, she was an agnostic. During that time, however, Richard Dawkins had opened up an international dialogue on the existence of God with his thoroughly awful book, The God Delusion. Well, Laura decided to read Dawkins and his fellow New Atheists, and she says:
I expected to be moved from agnosticism to atheism by their arguments, but after reading on both sides of the debate, I couldn’t dismiss a compelling intellectual case for faith. As for being good without God, I’d tried and didn’t get very far. At some point, life will bring you to your knees, and no act of will is enough in that situation. Surrendering and asking for grace is the logical human response.
I don’t think that’s the response Dawkins and his colleagues were hoping for. The entire article is worth a read, because it really shows how an intellectual person should respond to what the New Atheists have produced:
I read central texts on both sides of the debate and found more to convince me in the thoughtful and measured responses of Alister McGrath and John Cornwell, among others, than in the impassioned prose of Hitchens et al. New Atheism seemed to harbor a germ of intolerance and contempt for people of faith that could only undermine secular Humanist claims to liberalism.
Notice what she did. She read the central texts on both sides of the debate. Most people don’t do that, but it is the most important thing a real intellectual can do. I suspect that working on her dissertation made her realize that there is no such thing as an unbiased argument. All authors start with their preconceived notions, which color the way they view and present the evidence. As a result, the only way to come close to getting an unbiased view of the debate is to read from both sides. By doing that, you will hopefully be able to start seeing how the various authors are “coloring” the evidence, and that will allow you to remove some of the “coloring” and look at the evidence a bit more clearly.
When Laura did that, she saw something that should be immediately obvious to those who read both sides of this debate: the New Atheists are full of bluster and bravado, but their arguments are incredibly weak. Those who have responded to the New Atheists (at least the ones she read) provide a start contrast. They are calm, measured, and rational in their response. According to her, this contrast helped to demonstrate that the majority of the evidence clearly goes against the atheist position, and the bluster of the New Atheists is an attempt to cover up this inconvenient fact. As a result, she returned to the faith of her childhood.
Read more >>here<<
I noticed something interesting about the Great Commandment.
The first and great commandment is stated in the Gospel of Matthew
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy MIND.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (KJV)
and stated again in the Gospel of Luke
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy MIND (KJV)
and again in the Gospel of Mark
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy MIND, and with all thy strength (KJV)
(emphasis mine).
Notice how in each Gospel account you are commanded to love God with all your MIND? That’s odd, because Jesus is supposedly quoting a verse from the Book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament. But there’s no mention of MIND.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. (KJV)
So where did MIND come from? I think it’s a Christian innovation. I think Jesus is commanding us to THINK. What do you THINK?
Do you believe that the Bible (in particular, the KJV) is the inerrant Word of God? Then please explain why Jesus misquotes himself. (But first go away and have a THINK.)