Day 9 - "Prophecies of the Coming of The End of The World" by Truth of Truths

         
                                               

 In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Evangelical Christianity in the United States was far from immune from the influence of the wider counter-culture movement. The “Jesus Movement”, which began in California in the late 1960s and continued throughout the 1970s was one of the most interesting manifestations of this merging of cultural interests. While Evangelicalism was generally seen as straight-laced (and therefore a little dull), a number of preachers (most famously Chuck Smith in Costa Mesa) showed a relaxed attitude to Hippies and those seeking enlightenment. With Smith, it really was a case of “no shirt, no shoes, no problem” – he was willing and able to engage the counter-culture not only with conservative Evangelical theology, but a vision that was more accepting of social justice concerns, freedom of expression and especially popular music and theatre.

The Jesus Movement, widely populated by ex-Hippies calling themselves “Jesus Freaks”, caused a quite wonderful explosion of Christian creativity, that as with Larry Norman, resulted in music which was both theologically and musically interesting. Because of this, it tends to compare very well with other music of the era. Indeed, the Jesus Movement had quite wide cultural visibility, with several of its key artists performing at the “Christian Woodstock”, Explo ’72, which welcomed around 80,000 people.

Today’s song is taken from a rock opera of the period, the 1973 Truth of Truths. This was, of course, the great period of the hippy/religious musical – Hair, Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar all also have their genesis in this timeframe. The brainchild of producer and former recording artist Ray Ruff (later to become a country legend as a producer). Working with songwriters including Val Stöecklein (writer of some classic psychedelia) Ruff crafted an epic effort which attempted to go through the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. This is, if I’m being honest, all a bit too much after a while – despite some fantastic music (Doctor Who fans might notice a theme which recurs in Murray Gold’s soundtrack for the 2007 series), the attempt to cram in everything means that the opera as a whole sags a little under the weight of what it’s trying to achieve. Nonetheless, it’s hard to hold a grudge against any song which attempts to sum up the whole book of Revelation in six minutes, using choirs of angels, a clearly agitated narrator and Jim Backus (famous for playing Mr Magoo) as God.  Interestingly, there is no rapture here – fans of fiery judgement are in for a treat though…

Truth of Truths - Prophecies of the Coming of The End of The World (Ruff and Hutchinson, 1973)

Jesus Christ is coming, to save his people from the tribulation

Wrath of God is at hand, but the people who believe will find salvation

He is coming! He is coming, and soon!

After him is coming, the seven seals of Revelation

Seven trumpets of Revelation

Seven vials of Revelation

Jesus is coming! He is coming!

Jesus is coming! He is coming! Soon!

Through the wrath of God by this time

Many people will have died

This time, it’s not the flood

It’s famine, earthquakes and water turned to blood

The sun and moon and stars are partly darkened

The air is filled with the smoke from the bottomless pit

And with this comes a plague to torment mankind

Those looking for the sign of the Lord that is to come will know this is it

The unfaithful are known by the mark of the beast

Three sixes on their foreheads

In the battle of Armageddon

The Lord Jesus Christ will overthrow them and lay them all dead

Including the great dictator

And away to conquer Satan later

And in this time Satan shall be bound for one thousand years

And Christ shall be King upon the earth for all these thousand years

After one thousand years a final judgement will come to pass

All those who don’t believe,

In the end will know God’s wrath

The Lord Jesus Christ will create a new heaven, create a new earth

He will rule his people, those who believe from the place of his birth

He is coming! In salvation!

He is coming! In his glory!

He is coming! Holy, holy, Lord!

Holy…Holy…Lord

“I am Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the End. The first and the last. All things will pass away, but my words will never pass away” [Thunder]

Holy…holy…Amen!

Listen on Spotify: Apopalypse: Apocalyptic Advent Calendar

Buy on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prophecies-Coming-End/dp/B003R7N3V6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1355055601&s=dmusic&sr=1-3