Posted on 01/15/2016 7:52:36 PM PST by The Ignorant Fisherman
How tragic it is when a fallen human being gives themselves totally over to the base and lawless practices of this little fallen world and sell their souls seeking to find satisfaction and contentment by living a godless and lawless life. In the end of one's godless vanity there is an ETERNAL price to be paid which has now become a HORRIFIC SOBERING REALITY (Psalm 14:1-3, Mark 8:36-37, Rom. 3; 5:12-21, Gal. 6:7-8, Jude 1:11-13, Rev. 20:11-15).
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Mark 8:36-37
David Bowie's death this week has multitudes around the world reflecting on his existence here in time. Mr. Bowie was one of society's arch godless trendsetters who pushed the limits and boundaries of Almighty God's moral absolutes like none other for his time (Rom. 1:18-32). David was a mighty lawless tool and lewd vanguard in the hands of the god of this world in seeking to transform and destroy the Judeo/Christian culture worldwide (Matt. 7:16-18, Rom. 1:18-32, Jude 1:8-13,18). David Bowie is a trendsetter hero and worshiped by millions throughout the world for his anti - Creator trendsetting ways. What brief things I just shared about David Bowie is well known by all and his opinions and thoughts about Almighty God are his own judge on this matter.
(Excerpt) Read more at theignorantfishermen.com ...
If she is a Muslim then her god isn’t God.
Remember, though, that there is no judging people.
This isn’t a matter of judging him. It’s a matter of judging his works.
And how he acted as a private person, with those actually around him that he knew in some way, are acts we can’t judge for the most part. They’re mostly known only to himself and those people he personally knew.
But his work in entertainment, and what has been publicly revealed about his life, we not only can judge but MUST.
And there is no other way to read the New Testament than to conclude that David Bowie’s works opposed and worked against God’s Word.
As someone in my forties, I also have some familiarity with him and his work in the past. I’ve also heard a little about the music he released just before he died, and with those songs coming up in the discussion here, I decided to watch both “Blackstar” and “Lazarus.”
In both, I noticed of course the allusions to Christianity. But allusions to Christianity in themselves mean nothing, but instead if what is said and portrayed serves to worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4).
I watched the “Blackstar” video a couple of times closely, going back over a few parts of it to catch things, and most certainly its use of Christianity wasn’t to glorify Jesus Christ.
In fact, while I’m sure people will disagree over the meaning of this or that, because many things are left vague, all in all it seems nevertheless that one interpretation created by the video’s lyrics and imagery themselves is that it is a mockery of Christianity - from the mock Crucifixion scene which rewrites it to an apparent point of view of Bowie’s, to the women, who happen to be very conservatively dressed for a music video, apparently crediting a human skull to have spiritual power.
And I’m not going to say much about the many “smaller” details of the video, like the apparent “Blackstar Bible,” this line that says, “On the day of execution, only women kneel and smile,” and another line in which Bowie says, “I’m the great I am.”
You must know the significance of “I am,” right? And I’d think you also know that to say “I’m the great I am” is Satanic.
Then there was this line, which I certainly noted as significant but just didn’t think about at the time:
“Something happened on the day he died
Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside
Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar)”
“Somebody else took his place.” Who would he be talking about here? The Crucifixion scene, such as Bowie wanted it portrayed, is in the video and even being shown at this point.
Something clicked with me today, though, when I looked up his wife’s biography online. She is a Muslim, according to Wikipedia. And what do Muslims say about Jesus and the Crucifixion? That at the last moment, their god, Allah, delivered Jesus from Crucifixion, possibly by putting someone else on the Cross in Jesus’ place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_view_of_Jesus%27_death
Now all that said, let me say something else along something of a different line, but which is very important. What was said above was from the spirit. But on the level of the flesh, both the song “Blackstar” and the video are, I would say, appealing and attractive, to a certain extent. I found them to be so. Even as I’ve been writing this, some of the song has still been in my head.
There are also some other songs from today that I hear out in public, and songs from the past, which were a part of my life when I was younger, that I also hear in public, which also appeal to the flesh.
On this I have to say that I listen to all these songs in the flesh when I hear them, but not in the spirit. That means I allow my flesh to like and enjoy them if it does while they’re playing, while my spirit doesn’t like and enjoy them, knowing them for what they are, and seeing in them all the ways in which they oppose God.
It’s not surprising that the flesh, which is of the world, likes such music. There’s also no changing the likes of the flesh towards what’s godly, and music is perhaps most compelling to us. As long as we’re on the earth and Jesus hasn’t returned, the flesh will be what it is and like what it likes, despite what God says.
Where we can dislike such music, though, so that we stay away from it, is a matter of not, I believe, adopting it spiritually, by letting it get past the flesh to the spirit. To protect the spirit from it is to look at it and examine it in the light of God’s Word - in the light of truth. That really doesn’t take any scrutiny, but just to see it for what it is and accept the plain fact that the music, and in this case also the video, oppose God’s Word.
By doing so, the flesh, where the whole appetite really comes from, is fed, while the spirit is protected, and not enslaved to the flesh and its lies.
There’s certainly so much more that could be said about this, but I’ll just add right now that to say any version of “the flesh will listen, but don’t listen with the spirit,” is bound to invite attacks on the charge of “hypocrisy.”
That’s not at all the case. This is Biblical, according to what the New Testament says about the flesh and the spirit. And probably there is nothing that could be said on this matter that Satan hates more, because he attacks, but the spirit is protected, so he’s been rendered powerless.
Mark 16:17-18 is the passage speaking of handling serpents and drinking deadly things, and I don’t believe that we should think that only the physical was ever meant. Satan is identified as the serpent, for one thing (and as an aside, supposedly “ormen,” from the line in “Blackstar” about “the villa of ormen,” means “snake,” though I haven’t been able to confirm that).
17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
As I said, the whole of the New Testament shows that David Bowie’s works opposed God. The passages from Scripture you mention can’t be pulled out of it and given just any interpretation.
That was a great post.
The way he was dressed like an old time circuit riding preacher and holding up the book in his palms that had the black star on, freaky as all get out.
Nice try. Christ also said she is guilty and told her “to go and sin no more.” Interrupt it anyway you like. I know how I do. Have a great evening.
good read.
Dio had the most ridiculous and blasphemous covers on his albums.
and his lyrics would probably turn off a Christian who analyzed them.
i never took any of that seriously. i liked his voice, the tune, and the GREAT drummer and very good lead guitarist.
i guess the occasional loner will REALLY get into it and it gets to his spirit. that is bad.
it never got past my flesh :)
but i dont think God was thrilled with the album covers laying around my room.
You point to exactly what I find bizarre in Fisherman’s responses: he addresses us as ‘friend’ and in the same sentences implies that we are simpletons, foolish, and hateful and ignorant in our attitudes.
As Catherine said earlier, this is the kind of stuff that turns people away from Christianity who might otherwise be interested in the promises of Jesus. In fact, I know people who won’t step inside a church, because they know that they, like all of us, have failed to ‘meet the mark’, and fear condemnation from other mere humans.
-JT
The people who won’t set foot in a church are certainly stupid then. Funny how the same people who won’t set foot in a church usually have both feet in a bar every chance they get.
Maybe they don’t find the same condemnation, in a bar.
-JT
Thank you. The post was a witness. The world, including the entertainment of our time, is in darkness, but God always provides us light.
I’ve watched that video a number of times now, and the more times I see it, the more I see the different ways in which it attacks Christianity. I didn’t expressly get that Bowie was dressed like an old-time circuit riding preacher, but did vaguely get that impression.
These are also a couple things on the video. The second is a secular review from when it was released:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstar_(David_Bowie_song)
http://flavorwire.com/548737/deconstructing-the-imagery-in-david-bowies-blackstar-video
The Wikipedia article says that Aleister Crowley was part of the discussion between Bowie and the video director during its making. (I also discovered that Bowie made a video against Christianity and the Catholic Church a few years back, called “The Next Day.”)
As I mentioned, to the flesh “Blackstar” is something good, superficially at least, while to the spirit, ruled by Christ, it’s evil.
And that’s actually something the music and video play upon, which adds to its attractiveness to the flesh.
It invokes the meaning of existence, as well as the supernatural. In a word, the profound.
It includes the demonic and Satanic, including some of their sounds, but also Heavenly-sounding music and choirs of angels sounds, and a Heavenly echo of Bowie’s singing voice. Some of it also sounds poignant and nostalgic at times.
Then it also includes the scenery and images of actual dreams, but also dreams of the imagination, and especially the imagination of children and the viewpoints, I believe, of childhood. The world seems a little strange, and not at all mundane, when you’re a child. The dark sky, the fields, the scarecrows, the volcano like candle, and the space-travel view of outer space, all of that evokes, I believe, the memories of childhood.
Then of course it goes into religions, and especially Christianity.
And it seems to be an attack on Christianity that utilizes to beliefs of the Christian faith in the attack.
The woman finding the astronaut’s remains: She’s like another Eve, but also Mary Magdalene at Jesus’ tomb.
She is like Eve, the video says, because she succumbed to “temptation,” and but in this case the temptation was to create a religion. And how she did, according to the video’s symbolism, is that from the death of man, she attached to it a beauty and value it didn’t truly have (the jewels).
She should have seen that the jewels had no place on the skull, but she was blinded by a deception that the two went together. And in accepting the jewels for their beauty and preciousness, she was deceived into accepting death.
The same thing goes for the woman as she represents Mary Magdalene and the female followers of Jesus (and that allusion is extended by the skeleton ascending to the Black Star once the skull has been accepted as some sort of idol.
This equation with the woman as Eve and Mary Magdalene absolutely exchanges the places of God and Satan, with God being presented as the deceiver who slips destruction into what’s good.
I will also point out the scene towards the middle, where Bowie’s voice becomes distorted and evil-sounding, and he acts evil and deceptive as well. The review I linked to notes that at this point the dilapidated attic he appears to be in resembles a church, and he is acting as a preacher. Notice what he says, too:
“I can’t answer why (I’m a blackstar)
Just go with me (I’m not a filmstar)
I’m-a take you home (I’m a blackstar)
Take your passport and shoes (I’m not a popstar)
And your sedatives, boo (I’m a blackstar)
You’re a flash in the pan (I’m not a marvel star)
I’m the great I am (I’m a blackstar)”
This sounds to me like what those who reject Christ and identify as atheist often say. Christians don’t have any real answers, but tell you just follow what the Bible says. Then what he says sounds not only like that preacher, but also resembles words Jesus said, but what both an abductor and customs and airport security might say.
Jesus promises to those who believe on Him is to get them home to Heaven, for one thing.
Then where it says (take) “your sedatives too,” that could mean both the heavy-handed government official, but also Christians opposing drug use.
And “You’re a flash in the pan/I’m the great I am,” is clear. It’s Bowie’s distorted representation of how God and man appear in Christianity.
You also have the scarecrows up on crosses that can’t bear human weight. That creates the suggestion that the Crucifixion didn’t happen, but was meant to scare.
The Wikipedia article, I believe, also says that Bowie wanted the animal tail on the Eve/MM woman. It says he wanted that for “sexiness,” which I imagine is true. The whole video also uses sexual themes, including it appears, homosexual ones. But the tail on the woman also sends a clear message to me that Bowie believed that the truth was that we were descended from apes.
There’s a lot more that could be said, but all in all, the song and video are very anti-Christian.
Twenty years ago, with the interests I had in English, photography, music, the visual arts, as well as all religions and philosophies, and the surreal, symbolic, mystical and gnostic, I would have been very attracted to this video, I believe. It might have almost become like a major part of my “religion.”
Yet as I said, despite its attractiveness to the flesh, the spirit can accept the truth of the evil of this music, as God’s Word reveals it to be, and so not be overcome and deceived by it.
Wow, judge much??????? A nag, a scold, & holier than thou.....the holy Trinity of awfulness. Let me refill my cocktail. Cheers!
P.s. we are still waiting breathlessly for Iman’s reply to your query. DO let us know ASAP!
You have not said anything on the whole New Testament, and what it altogether says about David Bowie’s music.
Why would you watch something like that ‘a number of times’?
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
-JT
.
The Father, the Son, and the liquid spirits.
Um...as far as I’m aware, the NT doesn’t say anything about ‘David Bowie’s music’.
But it does speak a lot about love, charity, ‘casting the first stone’, and forgiveness - including something about Judgement, and ‘with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you’.
-JT
You are basically a wonderful human being!
I’ll drink to that :-)
-JT
But recall what I also said that what the flesh likes and accepts, the spirit, when led by God, hates and rejects. And what one hates and rejects, one will fight against, especially if it opposes the will of God.
As the Bible says, the flesh and the spirit don’t agree, and one or the other will have the better of the other. I wasn’t in any way approving of this music. It opposes God’s Word.
The whole New Testament is clear on that, and the spirit leads one to oppose it, and expose it, as God’s Word instructs us to.
Yet, God will not lay on us more than we can bear, He knows all of our needs, and when we do things His way, it will actually bring about our true happiness and contentment.
I find that I either don’t need or miss popular entertainment, for one thing, but if there is a godly reason for running across it, either incidentally or to examine it in light of the Bible, that I get more satisfaction out of experiencing it as God’s Word reveals it to be than I ever did when I was lost as to the truth, and didn’t know the Bible.
This is some of what the New Testament says on the spirit and the flesh:
From Romans 7 & 8:
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
From Galatians 5:
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.”
I also said that ever listening to any of this music, for whatever the reason, including just being out in public when music is being played, such as in a store, will certainly invite attacks which charge hypocrisy. And I said that’s false.
I’ve watched this video now many times for godly reasons. If my saying that doesn’t satisfy you, that doesn’t concern me. I wouldn’t expect it to. While you accuse me of something, God is witness to that I’ve almost never played any music the past couple of years, and haven’t listened to any popular music, by my own actions of putting on the music or buying it, in almost fifteen years. In all that time I’ve probably put on a few dozen songs total, off the internet or CDs I no longer even have, which I listened to for particular Christian purposes. I don’t at this time have a very good music player, but have just gotten a couple of Christian CDs anyway to start listening to some music again.
And did you take notice that while I was listening to and watching the “Blackstar” video, I was making observations on the messages it is sending?
Most of those observations didn’t come in one or even several watchings.
When people love the world’s entertainment and want to protect it, they don’t seek to expose all the ways in which it attacks the Christian faith.
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