Final Paper: Revelation For All

Revelation For All
The Bible is something people turn to when they encounter a serious complication in their life. Whether it is cancer or breaking away from a person’s addiction to drugs, a person decides to start reading the Bible for guidance in life. The Bible is in a league of its’ own when giving advice and even Dr. Phil cannot explain how to turn your life around as efficiently as the Bible. Music and poetry are other effective forms of expressing your feelings. It is no wonder they are all closely connected, even in a world which values science more and more everyday while rejecting the Bible, music continues to have an influence over the world.
Simone’s, “Sinnerman” is a prime example of how a person is able to connect to their faith through music. Simone grew up in a strict religious household and had a minister for a mother. She said she learned the lyrics during her childhood because her mother used them for call and response during her addresses to the congregation. These words were used as a way to confess your sins.
“Oh Sinnerman, where you gonna run to? Sinnerman where you gonna run to? Where you gonna run to, All on that day?” Is a reference to Jonah or other characters in the Bible who attempt to try and hide from God. My response, if I were God would be, “HA! You think you can run from me? I am all knowing, all seeing, even bigger than Santa, even as you silly Christians build him up to be equal to me! I taught you about false idols and here you go again creating them just as you did with Tom Hanks version of Santa in The Polar Express.” God shows us throughout the Bible how simple it is to abide by his laws yet we are always making excuses for why we stray away. Especially when it comes to, “that day,” it seems “that day” refers to Judgment Day in which we encounter God at the glorious golden gates of Heaven. On this day we will stumble and fumble our words attempting to make excuses for our sins’. God already knows what we have done so why would we attempt to hide something as simple as a sin from the all-loving God? If we could accept the fact he is a loving creator and not a smiting god who will send us straight to hell for making a few mistakes. As Simone attempts to prove in the song it is better to face the consequences for your sins rather then run away from them because in the end they will meet up with you. It comes down to the big picture and if we go to God when we are truly in trouble as Simone and Cash do the human race will be okay.
“Well I run to the rock, Please hide me, But the rock cried out, I can't hide you.” Here we go again, running to a rock of all things to hide from God. As if God would not be able to find us behind a simple rock, I mean he is God, with a bird’s eye view from the sky, and he has no problem finding whoever he wants to at the snap of a finger; Sinnerman and Jonah learn this soon enough. The meaning of this could be seen as the New Testament attempts to prove, our God is not an angry old man like he used to be when he smote the Egyptians or turned Job’s wife into a statue. He has become a forgiving teacher as we see in the book of Jonah where he forgives the citizens of Nineveh because they learn from their mistakes. This is how God has proved his existence in the Bible by punishing certain individuals to burn into their brain he is above always watching and the masses are able to learn from the individual’s mistake instead of killing entire cities as Joshua does in Jericho.
The Sinnerman’s response to the rock is spoken in a pleading voice, “I said rock, what's the matter with you, rock, Don't you see I need you, rock.” Sinnerman is in a last ditch effort for protection and with nowhere to go he has turned to a false god in hope of salvation. This is God’s way of showing Sinnerman he can go anywhere and to anything but if it is not God then he will never find peace. This is shown when the Lord says, “Go to the devil, So I ran to the devil He was waiting.” God knows what he must do to prove his point to the neglectful human race.
“So I run to the river, It was bleedin,’ So I run to the Lord Please help me Lord, Don't you see me prayin'? Don't you see me down here prayin'?” Throughout the Bible we have read about men who want help from God immediately and if he does not listen they soon grow upset. They are soon taught a lesson which carries them through problems for the rest of their life. In The Slave by Isaac Singer we see a man who has been thrown around in times of tragedy since his wife and children were taken from him. Jacob is soon thrown into slavery all the while continuing and even furthering his faith in God, knowing something substantial will soon come his way. This is because he knows God does not punish those who do not deserve it, something Job should have learned much sooner, and Jacob’s prize is Wanda. God chooses when to respond because his response will have much more meaning for a person when it takes longer, it is like slow cooking a turkey the longer you wait, the better it is.
“Lord says ‘Sinnerman, you should've been a praying.’” Is Nina’s way of saying confront your God and do not hide from him as numerous characters (Jonah, Eve, and Job are a few examples) in the Bible do. Jonah as we saw in the group presentation is negligent and instead of doing what God asks and sail to Nineveh, he goes to Tarshish thinking God would not be able to find him again. Just as the Sinnerman runs to a rock, the sea, and to the devil he eventually learns the only “person” who is truly able to comfort him is God. Similar to the sense in The Book of Jonah, where Jonah must learn from his mistakes inside a fish, the Sinnerman must go to the devil to learn how evil the world can be, and in turn he learns how wonderful and lovely the world can be. Sinnerman is a God Fugitive because his belief in God is immensely strong, he fears his punishment will be barbaric, and he will be rejected from the Kingdom. Forcing Sinnerman to go on the run as though he is wearing an orange jumpsuit running from the authorities of Heaven. He is soon found by God but shunned away and forced to run to the devil in hope of his acceptance. Although, as God intended Satan’s exile from heaven, Satan is able to show Sinnerman how loathsome the world can be, and in turn Sinnerman comes crawling back to God.
The next line in the song is one which seems as though it is taken from a “Parenting for Dummies.” “So I ran to the lord, I said lord hide me, Please hide me, Please help me, All on that day.” If God were to do this favor for Sinnerman, what lesson would he truly learn? Sin is an action Simone took as an extremely serious crime so repentance is something Simone believed in strongly. To express remorse is much more than going go the Lord in a prayer where you may just tell him what you have done wrong or going to the local Priest and confessing your sins and saying ten Hail Mary’s. Simone sees repentance as a physical state; through her descriptions we see a mean, rejecting God, “Go to the Devil.” This mission by God is his way of ensuring we run back to God with our tail between our legs. The reason he rescinded Satan’s invitation in heaven was because to have the knowledge of a hero you must have an anti-hero. Sadly, Satan must fall and be a castaway but it allows humanity to be saved by Jesus.
The song concludes with, “Sinner man you oughta be prayin', Oughta be prayin' sinner man, Oughta be prayin', All on that day.” As a final touch Simone shows us the only way to talk with God is through prayer. Through Simone’s strict religious beliefs she wants to spread the love of God and if we attempt to talk to him on a regular basis for the sins we have committed he will be happy with us and we will not have to worry about “the fall” or God coming down and punishing us but only have to worry about how to greet God at the gates.
Johnny Cash went through numerous revelations in his life, which led to
many geneses. In “The Man Comes Around” we see a man going through a stage in life where he is debating his beliefs and does it through his music. Cash begins the song by using lines from Revelation 6: 1-2 in which we hear a voice of thunder instead of God’s voice which sounds like trumpets (Matthew 24:31; Revelation 1:10; 4:1; and 8:13) . “There's a man going around taking names, And he decides who to free and who to blame” (taken from a popular song by Lead Belly). This has a possibility of being a reference to either Jesus in his second coming who will travel around the world just as Santa does, taking names because he knows who has been naughty or nice. But as the song ends we are introduced to a man named Death (the antichrist) who is given the right to kill whom he likes which gives me the belief he is the reference to which a man is going around taking names. “His voice rang out like thunder” gives me this belief because it is not the beautiful, harmonious sound a trumpet makes but the sound of thunder. Something which scares a person and makes them fear they have done something wrong.
As Cash sings, “Some are born and some are dying, It’s Alpha and Omega’s kingdom come.” Alpha is the beginning of the Greek alphabet and Omega is the last letter. A Greek philosopher, Epicurean, was quoted, “Pleasure is the Alpha and Omega of a blessed life.” The beginning of a person’s life is blessed especially during the times when Epicureanism was alive because of the mortality rate. While the end of life is when you have come to peace with all your problems and can sit back and wait to be taken to a better place. These are two blessings which every person experiences whether they die at birth or when they are 100 years old.
Further into the song Cash brings us to Armageddon, “Till Armageddon no shalam, no shalom.” Meaning until the day of judgment there will be no peace (shalom is peace in Hebrew and shalam is believed to be a reference to salaam which means peace in Arabic) on earth because of all the questions which were left unanswered with Jesus departure. Cash continues on to a reference to Luke 13:34-35, “Then the father hen will call his chickens home, The wise man will bow down before the throne, And at His feet they’ll cast their golden crowns, When the Man comes around.” Claiming all the children of God will enter into the gates of Heaven and no matter a person’s class is they will rid themselves of their “crowns” because everyone is equal in the eyes of our creator. In the next stanza Cash says, “Whoever is unjust let him be unjust still, Whoever is righteous let him be righteous still…Listen to the words long written down.” Meaning, there is no reason to attempt to cover up who you have been during your days on earth because God is all knowing. As we were shown in Simone’s Sinnerman, a rock, the sea, or the devil cannot hide you because God has 20/20 vision.
Cash ends the song with a reference to Revelation 6:8 and the infamous pale horse with a rider named Death, and Hades followed with him who is introduced by the four beasts, a lion, an ox, a creature with a face like a human, and fourthly a creature which flew like an eagle. The leader, Death was given permission to kill using his sword, famine, and pestilence.
Simone’s “Sinnerman” brings us on a journey, which few artists have been able to do. She makes us feel we are in the presence of a greater being, which cannot be explained by anything other than the Bible. Both “Sinnerman” and “The Man Comes Around” are deeply religious, moving songs about a second coming in which the character of the song is going through a religious revival. The characters come into a new world, with a pair of newborn eyes. It is through revelation, which a person is born into a world and is able to accept past sins and move on to an enjoyable life once again. “The Man Comes Around” was written close to Cash’s death and may have been written right after the death of his love, June Carter. Her death brought out countless emotions Cash had not felt since the passing of his brother brought out the best of Cash. When he refers to, “Will you partake of that last offered cup” we see him accepting Jesus into his life, officially completing his revelation into God’s kingdom.