I find this song to be the exact description in parallel language to the realities the human condition. This song is emblematic of the cognitive dissonance that has overtaken us; and most powerfully so, in song.
Imagine there is no heaven;
The opening line; he openly declares war on God. But, for a moment, let's assume he doesn't mean exactly what he says. Let's imagine there is no heaven for a second. What would this mean to humanity?
- You have no purpose.
- No Reward
- No life after life
- No place of peace and serenity that you'll ever experience other than the fluttering of a day gone by.
Imagining there's no heaven is not looking good so far.
It's easy if you try;
He's got that right.
No hell below us, above us only sky
It is interesting to me that he didn't start by removing the punishment aspect of a deistic view of the world, he chose rather to remove the reward. Of course, this makes sense that if you're too remove loving kindness, mercy and righteousness, you must also remove authority, judgement and penalty.
Imagine all the people, living for today
This is such a pretty song. It's too bad it's pure fecal matter. People do live for today, that's the problem. I choose to live for today when;
- We say there is no God
- We prioritize our own ego over someone else's
- When we murder
- When we steal
- When we covet
- When we lie
- When we prefer pleasure over discipline
- When we don't train our children
- When we have sex without any fear of consequence
- When we don't live up to our obligations
- When we are prideful
Sweet Lord, when he wrote this song, who exactly is he talking about? We all live for today.
Imagine there's no countries
Yes, no countries like Great Britain or America, where you're allowed to express yourself in song, though fecal oriented, expression none-the-less, free of repression from the country that you don't want.
Nothing to kill or die for
Ok, finally we start hitting something that makes sense, but it's connected with something that doesn't, so I can only assume complete and utter confusion.
I agree, I wish we didn't kill. And that killing was so repulsive, but to equate that with the idea that there should be nothing that we would be willing to die for?
You mean your child or your wife, or your beliefs are so unimportant that they are not worth dying for? Imagine...this is the people he wants to see. And it's not that big of a surprise to me...he believes there is no God and no penalty for his belief. Now, don't you want to imagine all of this with him? Ain't it great?
No posessions
No greed or hunger
sharing all of the world;
So it takes him to the end of the song to get to the part he should have started with. A love of mankind that is without warrant. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet John Lennon, crucified Christ in song so that he could have his reality. Imagine all the people, killing as one, Jesus Christ, so they could have what he offers.
This is the condition of the human heart apart from God.
1 comment:
I agree with your post - there is certainly a lot of material to work with. I would say that Lennon is arguing with himself throughout the song.
Imagine there is no purpose or consequence, yet people do what is right.
Ahem, excuse me... um... excuse me...
there is just one thing I don't get.
Without authority, what is right?
Who is right? What makes your world better than my idea of a great world should there be no ultimate authority?
Apart from God, man can not love. Instead he self loathes. When we spoil ourselves, indeed when we indulge ourselves, we are really hating ourselves. Since we are created in the image of God, we must feed that image to truly love ourselves. Man in his sinful condition is unable to do so.
Nice post. I like the direction.
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