Realizations

Philosophy in the Middle of the Desert

“Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen: Following The Life of David December 9, 2019

Filed under: Christianity/Theology/Spirituality — milesprowers @ 1:16 am
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If all the known verses of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” were to continue the story of King David as overtly as the first verse, the song could be interpreted as something like the following verses. Compare them with the original lyrics I put at the bottom of this post. Each verse gets closer inside the life of David as it goes from third person to second person to first person narrative.

VERSE 1: King David played his lyre and composed music for the LORD in a way that pleased Him so greatly that, in a mysterious way, his angelic-sounding music moved the supernatural realm and moved God to suppress demons. David tapped into the beautiful, angelic patterns God created within music theory of the fourth, the fifth, and the beauties of major and minor, dark and light, reminiscent of the joyous and sad seasons in life, but God is glorified and can be worshiped in it all (which foreshadows the ups and downs of his life explained in the coming verses). This mysterious, worshipful experience of music transcends David into the spirit realm to connect with God, leaving him in a state of baffled euphoria in His presence.

VERSE 2: But when God gave him rest on all sides, he started to become complacent and the impenetrable faith of his youth developed holes and he became more casual about his relationship with God and keeping His Law and became prideful, which always comes before a fall. In this state of disconnect from God he wasn’t strong enough to withstand the temptation of moonlight lust on his rooftop which resulted in adultery with Bathsheba,  David’s “great sin.” Because of this great evil, God cursed David so that his royal throne was broken, he lost his power and had to flee for his life from his son Absalom, all for a lustful night of euphoric indulgence. He traded the euphoric “Hallelujah” of worshiping God for a euphoric “Hallelujah” of selfish, carnal indulgence.

VERSE 3: When confronted about it by his first wife Michal, David recounts how their childless marriage had been threatened from the beginning and their love quickly turned cold and distant, and certainly wasn’t any warmer now that they were finally back together in safety, albeit through David’s force. This coldness and lack of love incited David’s lustful eyes to look for something more. And whether leading the triumphant troops home in a victory march under the royal banner of Saul’s house on the marble arch or leading the ark of the covenant triumphantly back home under the scathing eyes of Michal, Saul’s daughter, the joy of those victories was always tainted by the lingering curse of the royal family of Saul overlooking and antagonizing all that David did. Instead of David’s home life being as joyous as his victories, it was cold and broken and marked by the pain of obedience to God to do the right thing toward Saul’s family.

VERSE 4: David is broken in repentance and sings to God in Psalm 51 begging Him to not take away His holy spirit from him and restore their relationship to the way it used to be when God’s spirit was moving in him, showing him what to do, and God was with him in everything he did, glorifying Himself through David.

VERSE 5: It’s ironic that the third of the Ten Commandments is to not take the name of the Lord in vain, but it’s a name that isn’t even spoken and modern Jews don’t even know how to pronounce it; perhaps it was so even in David’s time, and they didn’t know exactly what God’s name was that was revealed to Moses.  With David’s pride resulting in his backsliding, he became lax concerning the Law of God (as evidenced in the mishandling of the ark) and perhaps this included the third of the Ten Commandments, to the point that the holiness of God’s name was forgotten, maybe even influenced by the rough-around-the-edges military companions he surrounded himself with (Joab seems to loosely use the LORD’s name in vain in 2 Sam. 19:7), which certainly wasn’t helped by the doubts and disconnect he felt from God in fleeing for his life — unlike his previous fleeing from Saul, this time fleeing because of his great sins. But even in David’s sins, he still had a core, loving relationship and understanding of God’s grace and heart that overshadowed the Law and his sins (as mentioned in Psalm 51). Saul was instantly removed from being king for not following a specific military command of God, while David did far graver sins and God instantly forgave him (notwithstanding consequences) and He continued orchestrating things to establish David’s legacy for centuries, because David was after God’s heart. It’s this understanding of the heart of God and the Law that allowed David to see the bigger picture and get away with breaking other holy laws like lying to eat the holy, consecrated bread. He understood that God wanted more than just specific rules followed, God wants to be in everything we do and are. More than revering specific laws or a specific name for God as holy, God’s blazing light is in every single word, the holy and the broken words, indeed He is not just in the holy sacrifices and rituals, but in everything in life, the happy and sad things. (“For you do not desire sacrifice or I would give it… My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit,” Ps. 51) “I broke a rule, so what? God is bigger than the rules, he wants our hearts.”

VERSE 6: Even after David’s repentance, God fulfills His prophecy by Nathan the prophet of “the sword never departing from David’s house” when Absalom rises against him. David doubts God’s promises to him and even if God is with him or there at all. He laments that all he’s known from his loved ones (family, friends, in-laws, children) is strife and having to watch his back and literally be prepared to defend his life from someone who suddenly rises up against him. But even in the midst of his life’s tragedies, he was still singing his psalms to the Lord, finding a way to praise Him for His providence and trusting Him to fulfill His promises. Albeit, his Hallelujahs are sung from a sorrowful state of humble, faithful obedience, rather than from joyful exultation, in the midst of external pain and somber repentance.

VERSE 7: Yet at the end of his life, a life of unimaginable conflict, he’s able to say, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress (1 Kings 1:29)” and in his final words he recounts, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; His word was on my tongue (2 Samuel 23:2).” He dies without feeling regrets, thankful to God for forgiving him of his sins in His grace and for the promise He upheld to establish his throne forever. “Is not my house firm before God? He has made an eternal covenant with me, set forth in detail and secured. Will he not bring to fruition all my salvation and my every desire? (2 Sam. 23:5)”  Again, David is seeing the bigger picture: God is the Lord of Song, creator and sustainer of all music, and so David finally finds himself back in the spiritual state of Verse 1 and uses God’s creation to connect with Him, moving in Him, and once again “Hallelujah” being in every breath he draws. 

 

ORIGINAL LYRICS OF “HALLELUJAH” BY LEONARD COHEN:

[Verse 1]
Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing “Hallelujah”
[Chorus]
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 2]
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
[Chorus] Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 3]
Baby I’ve been here beforeI know this room, I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
And I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
[Chorus] Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 4]
There was a time you let me know
What’s really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
[Chorus] Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 5]
You say I took the name in vain
I don’t even know the name
But if I did, well really, what’s it to you?
There’s a blaze of light in every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
[Chorus] Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 6]
Maybe there’s a God above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
And it’s not a cry that you hear at night
It’s not somebody who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
[Chorus] Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 7]
I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
[Chorus] Hallelujah, Hallelujah

 

**Author’s note: I don’t actually think this song is intended to be interpreted as one continuous story about the David narrative (or any other continuous story for that matter), as Leonard Cohen wrote 80 verses for it and whittled it down to the above verses. It’s abstract and he probably just picked the most interesting verses, although I do think that observing the song exclusively from the David context is a very moving perspective and more captivating than the more likely interpretation of a modern relationship struggle that just invokes Biblical metaphors. Regardless of the different interpretations, I’d say this is easily among the top ten most intriguing songs ever written by human beings.

 

These Elaborate Machines November 6, 2012

Filed under: Christianity/Theology/Spirituality,Science/Atheism/Evolution/Creationism,Terremoto — milesprowers @ 5:14 pm
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[as written 81311 – 31712, with additions on 11612]

 
On 81011 during our Bible Study prayer time, when it came time for my prayer requests, my small group leader prayed over me and lifted up my requests from the night, and I just started praying for the requests myself as if I wasn’t me.  As if from my universal, eternal soul that is not confined to a body or circumstances or personality, but the universal spirit that we all have before being shaped by our lives.  As I (the spirit, of God Himself perhaps, which is universally the same but individually molded depending on each person’s nature and nurture) was praying for Miles Prowers, who he is and has become, all that makes Miles Prowers Miles Prowers, that particular character in God’s story of Earth History.

And it produced in me a bizarre sympathy for me, as if I was praying for a dear friend who I knew more intimately than anyone else.  I prayed for his job, knowing just how stressful it was and how it conflicted with his extreme desires to be an artist.  I prayed for his brother, whom he’d always known and loved since youth.  It was a surreal experience that had no reason for happening, it just happened.  Since then I’ve never attempted to recreate that perspective, because it was kind of weird, and I’m not sure it was God-honoring, though I have no reason to believe it isn’t either; it’s just that I’d never thought or heard about something like that, so I don’t know what to think.

 

Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

 
But what are we really?  I can’t figure out how to distinguish between soul and spirit and mind and heart and body.  All I know is that in the beginning God created Adam from the dust and then breathed life into him, as if breathing in His own Spirit into him.  As if he constructed all these little organic machines and then turned them on by breathing His electricity into them.  So then do animals have spirits?  Do they have the spirit of God in them, keeping them alive?  Or was it just His Spirit that sparked them into motion and got fate in motion to carry itself out?  Obviously there is a stark contrast between the most sophisticated animal and the dumbest human, in that the dumbest human is still a human being.  Is the contrast because man has a spirit and animal does not?  As if when you took away the spirit in man he became an animal?  Or do they both have the breath of God’s Spirit in them both keeping them alive and man’s body is just that much more elaborate than the animal’s to allow for consciousness?  The electricity through these elaborate machines of ours.

 

Or do man and animal still have spirit at all after the initial God breathe?  If man is cloned will it be an animal version of man, with no consciousness?  I used to think so, but I doubt it now.  He’ll still have all the functions for consciousness that the physical brain allows.  He may be mentally retarded, as a copy is never as good as the original, but that doesn’t make him unconscious.  We are truly unique, self-conscious beings, but are we only machines made to resemble the one true Being?

 

[11612- An interesting note, made by an old, pot-smoking hippie I randomly met in The Parthenon while writing “Fade To White”: The Bible doesn’t say God breathed animals into being, only humans.  So there is a spiritual difference between us and animals, whatever that may be exactly.]

 

Humans are in a class of their own, caught between the animals and the angels, but the choice is ours as to which end of the spectrum we fall on.

 

And yet there is something supernatural in us that allows us to transcend nature and have intuition, feelings and other supernatural capabilities.  So do we each have individual spirits of our personalities, and that’s who we are?  Or are we anything at all?  Isn’t our individuality just the unique combination of our two parents’ previously-existing traits, mixed together and shaped through our surroundings in life?  If we do have individual spirits, where do these spirits and personalities come from?  The only logical conclusion is that they must have been directly assigned to us by God Himself who put certain spirits in certain bodies to have certain outcomes to make History go according to His great plan.  So it all comes around to the fact that we have nothing God has not given to us and we are nothing that God has not made us.

 

But there is no evidence of individual spirits that give us our personality aside from our nature/nurture make up.  I think perhaps more logical is that there is only one Spirit, that is, God Himself, who, according to His will, moves in us individually to give us those supernatural capabilities in certain times.  He periodically manifests His spirit in our hearts and minds and the natural realm to intervene and guide us away from the natural path of fate so that by divine inspiration we change our natural course, that we would naturally go down aside from His intervention.  Of course if there is only one Spirit, then what are we when our bodies die physically (the breath of life leaves) and yet we live on separately?

 
Ecclesiastes 12:7: “then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.“

 
In Heaven what are our souls if we no longer have the body that created our personality?  Without our bodies what’s left?  If we do each have souls are they all the same generic soul/spirit that manifests differently given a different body to come out of, a different-shaped outlet?  It’s a mystery no mortal can solve.  So then, when those bodies die, wouldn’t the Spirit of God return to its source (God)?  This is the equivalent of Nirvana, where we exist in the afterlife, conscious, but not as our individual personality.  Rather we all exist as The Personality of God Himself.  And yet, there’s no mention of that concept in the Bible (our only sure-fire source of truth on the subject).

Isn’t it interesting that the Apocalyptic Bible passages all refer to us having bodies in Heaven.  Almost implying at times that we have no consciousness until our bodies are resurrected/glorified.  So, “we” are nothing without our bodies, but in Heaven our bodies are there, therefore our bodily-induced personalities live on through the bodies that make them.  Still, it’s entirely possible that at some point in the future of eternity even our glorified bodies will fade away, leaving behind the One Spirit in all of us, and “we” return to experience the euphoria of existence in oneness with The Spirit.

 

John 17:22: “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me.”

 
Our bodies are simply our parents’ bodies combined.  God breathes spirit into us, giving us life, but it’s just the natural mysterious energy as it naturally flows through that machine of our parent-combination bodies.  However, when we’re born again, God’s Holy Spirit indwells us, which is not just the spirit of life, but actually God’s own personal Spirit living in us, actually Christ Himself.  So it’s not just our natural bodies at work, but Christ living and working with that physical body.

Which is why you actually witness people change to become different people after they’re Christians.  Non-believers can try to change and do self-help formulas and show signs of change, but they’re still the same people they’ve always been with the same tendencies they give into.  Only when another being comes into your body, living through you and changing you (not of your own energy and will-power), then can a person actually change into a real different person.  Because it really isn’t them anymore. It’s the perfect spirit of someone else, His mind living in our bodies, making choices and offering an alternative to our natural bent.  I am now partially Miles Prowers and partially Jesus Christ, but gradually becoming more of Jesus Christ and less of Miles Prowers, to the point where Jesus Christ is me, just with the looks, personality and memories of Miles Prowers.

 

Who am I? What am I? What even is “I”?  I don’t know.  Something between a random combination of atoms and God Himself.

 

[The mysteries expressed in this essay were condensed into a song entitled “Fade To White”.  You can hear it at soundcloud.com/terremotoothers.  Enjoy!]

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Knights of Cydonia: An Atheist Anthem? September 13, 2012

Filed under: Christianity/Theology/Spirituality,Science/Atheism/Evolution/Creationism — milesprowers @ 12:27 am
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[as written on 81512]

 

When asked what my favorite Muse song is, I’d have to say it’s New Born, though Knights of Cydonia rivals it. However, while the song’s music as a whole perhaps is a little better than New Born’s music as a whole song in all it’s parts, for me in rating each song I’m biased against KOC for the lyrics. Matt Bellamy was at least at one point a seeming atheist in real life, though that perspective rarely comes out in his songs (and often you’d get the opposite reaction from his lyrics), but this is one of the few songs where it does come out. Which is unfortunate because it’s possibly their best song musically. The one time he bashes God is in the one song that’s best musically! Why pick that song to offend people?

 

Connecting the Lyrics with the Art:
The more I thought about the lyrics, the more it appears to be not only a random, weird nod to Atheism, but in fact an atheist anthem of sorts. The song itself has no mention or reference to either knights or Cydonia, except for the sound of horse galloping in the beginning referencing the knights riding on horses, and the sound of laser guns indicating that these are science fiction/future/space knights. What is Cydonia? It’s the area on Mars in which the “Face on Mars” was found in old photographs taken of the Martian surface, thus “Knights of Cydonia” apparently refers to Martian knights, or knights from the supposed Martian civilization in Cydonia (by whom the Face on Mars was constructed, perhaps in their humanoid likeness). The cover of the album “Black Holes and Revelations” shows 4 men sitting at a table in the red Cydonian desert (it’s not Earth because planet Earth is seen at a distance in the background) with horses on the table, linking them to the Knights of Cydonia (in which the song opens up with horse sounds). Why four knights? It’s an obvious link to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the biblical Book of Revelation (perhaps why Muse chose “Revelations” in the album name).
So how does this connect with lyrics? The lyrics in the song are minimal for a Muse song, but they suggest alot: “Come ride with me through the veins of history. I’ll show you a god who falls asleep on the job. How can we win when fools can be kings? Don’t waste time or time will waste you.”

 

Paraphrased it says this: “Look at the same history I’m looking at. With all the wars, natural disasters, and plagues in history, there’s no way there could really be a loving God involved with Earth. Therefore we’re on our own, and there’s no fate involved in who becomes a ruler; we’re at the mercy of these tyrants who are elected by chance and happenstance. We must not waste any time, but make things right before it’s too late. It’s only a matter of time before they ruin the Earth.”

 

How in the world does this statement at all relate to 4 Martian Knights? Because there’s no God, so life on Earth must have originated from a superior alien civilization on Mars, aka, “Panspermia”, another interest of Matt Bellamy’s lyrics (as seen in such songs as “Exegenesis: Cross-Pollination”). This is a serious proposition suggested by such leading atheists as Richard Dawkins, so it’s not that radical.
[But this is where it gets radical (maybe too radical for Muse): perhaps the lyrics and cover art are suggesting that these Knights of Cydonia, after planting life on Earth, are now in fact running all the politics of the world, establishing rulers as their puppets, from behind the scenes. So electing rulers is really out of our control and we must rise up and take the power back before it’s too late. Also if there’s no God, then the Book of Revelation isn’t supernatural and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that St. John saw are more realistically 4 aliens (a common theory among skeptics, who say the same thing regarding the 4 angels in wheels in Ezekiel’s prophecy).]

 

Atheist Anthem:
Therefore, after establishing an Atheistic worldview, the songs ends with a chorus of people chanting this anthem:
“No one’s gonna take me alive. The time has come to make things right. You and I must fight for our rights. You and I must fight to survive.”

 

Paraphrased, this is essentially saying: “There’s no God, so it’s all up to us. We must take everything into our own hands. We must resist these authorities, to the point of death. We will take control and make the world the place it’s supposed to be.” And then it closes the song with an evolutionary reference to “Survival of the Fittest”: “You and I must fight to survive.”

Sounds a little to me like, “I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:14). It’s an Atheist Anthem.

 

It’s Influence on my Song-writing:
Even though this song seems to have an evil message (if you believe Christianity is the truth, and songs like this steer people away from God’s truth and towards Atheism), it’s so tempting to listen to because the music is absolutely incredible. So people like me end up listening to it and enjoying it, even though we know it is displeasing to God and it advances Atheism (aka, one of Satan’s most successful attacks on Christianity). And what better way for Satan to keep people from going to Heaven, than softening the heart of the average person to the ridiculous, impossible worldview of Atheism, indeed making it look cool and suddenly popular. And softening the Christian’s disgust towards atheism. All through the vehicle of the most amazing, catchy music the world has to offer today. “Though I don’t agree with an atheist, I’ll listen to him speak over and over again because his speech is so attractive and amazing.”

 

It just goes to show once again how powerful music is, even to the supernatural level. And what Satan uses for evil, God can use for good. I don’t know if Muse is actively trying to make people into atheists, agnostics, or deists, but they are. Even if their motives aren’t mission-minded, Satan’s sure are. And so Muse inspires me to likewise make the best music the world has to offer, but to include in the vehicle of irresistible songs a God-glorifying message of truth that wages war against Satan’s army of songs. For if I, as a devout Christian who’s aware of how the supernatural works, am even willing to keep listening to this Atheist Anthem (which I can acknowledge firsthand has caused me for a moment to question God’s existence in a world of pain and suffering), how much more will the average person (with no conviction) be likely to listen to it and be persuaded away from God (being undeducated in apologetics)?

 

And on the opposite side of the spectrum, if I, as a devout Christian following a universal moral standard, go against my convictions of pleasing God to listen to a song for the sake of the flesh’s entertainment, than how much more would an audience with no moral standard, numbed to convictions, be willing to listen to an incredible song, even though it throws in a random, weird nod to Christianity, or even a Christian anthem?

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The Kingdom of Terremoto February 20, 2012

Filed under: Terremoto — milesprowers @ 12:46 pm
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[written on 011612]

I toil everyday, tirelessly, building this masterpiece Kingdom in hopes of it standing out in history, like a lighthouse, bringing in people to see it for themselves. Yet it is not for me.

And I will bring people alongside me to toil towards its completion also, and on that day when the final brick is set in the highest tower I will engrave on its capstone this inscription: “The Kingdom of Terremoto: A Gift for my King.”

On that day we will celebrate by preparing a great feast. Once everything is ready a great trumpet will sound and the doors will open to all who wish to come in from the streets. I’ll cut the red ribbon (the greatest honor of my life) that hangs over the bright, red carpet which leads into the King’s hall where the pennants drape down over the checkered court as the guests waltz to the Flowers. It will be a celebration open to all for all generations to come. But the most overjoyed of all on that day will be the ones who were celebrating all the while with me during those first years of building.

The smell of coffee and bakery waft through the wooden rafters high above as the young men laugh and the maidens flirt below. And many guests stay there all their lives, never getting too full from the great feast. And all the while in the midst of this great banquet, beyond the stone pillars at the end of the marble palace stands a great throne, yet it is empty.

The people look expectantly to me, awaiting me to sit on the throne, but I tell them plainly, “It isn’t my kingdom.”

But the people don’t care because of the great banquet they feast on, for they know not the King. But some notice the throne and inquire of it. I tell them, “All of this is simply one big offering that I present to my King, to show him thanks for the gift he first gave me, which is the greatest gift that can be given, an unrecompensable gift. Yet it was his gift to me that inspired and enabled me to build this gift for him, and indeed he himself supervised its completion. For except the King build his own Kingdom, I labored in vain. For he won’t be as happy as he could be unless it turns out just the way he wants.

“As for the throne, it is a lasting testament to him, that he is the King of this Kingdom, and no other will ever take his place on the throne, so that those who enjoy the fruit of this Kingdom may praise him for it. For he is a King which cannot even be confined to a throne. In fact he is already here with us, right now, in spirit.”

“And what was it that the King gave you?”

“He saved my life. Now all I have I owe to him. All my time, all my talent, all my treasure. For I would not have any of it to begin with had he not saved me. And this Kingdom is the best use of all of them, the greatest gift I can possibly offer him.”

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