Morning TV has taken a backseat in my daily routine, but I still catch the occasional morning news story as my husband still likes to watch morning TV shows. One morning in July of 2021 the TV news coverage was on the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. This was the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics that was originally scheduled to be in July of 2020 but was cancelled due to the pandemic, and was rescheduled for July 2021. It wasn’t the Olympic ceremony that caught my attention but it was the song they sang, Imagine; nearly 50 years after it was first released by John Lennon in September of 1971.

Fifty years earlier, I was just entering my senior year of high school. Imagine got a lot of air play and eventually became one of John Lennon’s biggest hits after the breakup of Beatles in 1970. I didn’t think much about the lyrics back then but remember thinking the words seemed a little odd. I wondered what did he mean by saying, Imagine there’s no heaven? Now, 50 years later I realize his lyrics were more than just a little odd.

Imagine there’s no heaven

It’s easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today

Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us

And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us

And the world will live as one.

#JohnLennon

I admit I used to be a big Beatle’s fan. I was 9 years old in February, 1964 when the Beatles first invaded America. Some of my favorite early Beatle songs were, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” I Saw Her Standing There,” She Loves You,” and “Yesterday.” By the time they broke up in 1970 their music had changed quite a bit, as did they, but they were still extremely popular.

Now concerning the lyrics to Imagine, I find them quite troubling.

⁃ Imagine there’s no heaven: Why would we do that? The Bible clearly tells us that, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1

⁃ It’s easy if you try: Really?! “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.” Psalm 19:1-4

⁃ No hell below us: Wishful thinking, at best, for the unsaved. Denying the existence of something does not make it go away, “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” 2 Thessalonians 1:9

⁃ Imagine all the people living life in peace: The Bible warns about those who silence legitimate fears and complaints with soothing words that speak of peace; “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” Jeremiah 8:11

⁃ Imagine no possessions: This is eerily similar to a statement out of the World Economic Forum; a huge proponent of The Great Reset, in which Klaus Schwab states, “You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.”

⁃ Imagine all the people sharing all the world: Sounds great but I fear the methodology in which the world is leaning toward in their execution to obtain this; Open Borders, Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, Marxism, Socialism, Stakeholder Capitalism, etc.

⁃ And the world will live as one: While “the Bible does not use the phrase “one-world government” or “one-world currency” in referring to the end times. It does, however, provide ample evidence to enable us to draw the conclusion that both will exist under the rule of the Antichrist in the last days.” #GotQuestions

So we live in a secular world. Entertainment is secular by nature. The majority of TV shows are secular. Olympic Games and professional sports are secular. Pop music is secular.

To be clear, entertainment and music has its place. My preference is wholesome family entertainment and Christian music. I, like most of us, have some favorite TV shows. I have some favorite movies. I also like to listen to the oldies, 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s music on occasion.

However, there’s a line that is crossed when entertainment ceases to be wholesome. When entertainment becomes heretical. When entertainment becomes apostasy. When entertainment diametrically opposes the word of God. When entertainment ceases to be entertainment. Such as John Lennon’s Imagine.

Imagine there’s no heaven? No way!

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. Ephesians 5:11