What's Behind Rock Music

by Steve Timmons

In 1975 God filled me with the Holy Ghost and I was baptized in Jesus' name. When this happened, my eyes were opened to the subject of rock and roll music and the thought of what it was doing to the youth of America. Like many of the late 60's early 70's teenagers, I played in rock bands hoping to make it big. I really didn't realize what was behind rock music until God let me see. I was not aware that 1 could not serve two masters. I didn't know what these rockers really thought about God, the Bible, and what it taught.

On the front page of Rock and Soul, Summer of 1983, Rick James is pictured wearing a T-shirt that describes that rock and roll generation: Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll. In an article, dated' May of 1981, in War on Drugs, a former music critic named Mr. Guzzo covered the first tour in America of the Beatles. He went on record as their most devastating critic. He said, "It's really the rock and drug movement, because I'm not sure where one ends and the other begins." That is exactly the direction that rock and roll has taken today. Many would be alarmed to find out exactly what these groups believe -- the message they really preach, their lifestyle, why they put certain pictures on their album covers, and the secret symbolism that is used. Why is it that inside the record jacket there is a message that Mom and Dad never sees?

Rock and roll believes that anything goes! We have become a permissive society. We have allowed it! Not that it is a greater force than any other, it's that we have simply overlooked it. We've said, "Maybe it'll go away," but that's not true. The term that is coined by musicians of the world today is: "Rock and roll is here to stay." That's certainly true. One thing is for sure ...the church is not here to stay!

According to U. S. News & World Report, October 31, 1977, rock and roll music is 61.4% of the entire pop music chart. That includes country & western, middle of the road, classical, jazz and others. Again in the U. S. News & World Report, December 14, 1981, they reported a decline where pop and rock is 51.2%. In the U. S. News & World Report of July 26, 1982 entitled "What Americans Like To Buy", radio and T. V. sets, records, and musical instruments were heading up the chart with 21.6 billion dollars worth of an industry.

Proverbs 4:13-16 says, "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall."

To get their message to you, they must get your mind. In an article dated Tuesday, August 24, 1982, in The Daily Dunkin Democrat, there was a young man who was guilty of murder. The article reads, "After killing the child, Brown said he had some marijuana. He was also listening to music by the group AC/DC entitled 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' when he murdered the young girl as well as her baby:" A doctor was called in on the case. He was quoted as saying this, "This young man could not help himself because of the temporary hypnotic trance that the music had induced." He also said that he had been listening to hard rock records with violent overtones prior to the murders. This is what this doctor says, and he went on record saying, "Rock and roll was the instrument that this young man used. He was beyond his control, and there really was something to the music." The Bible says, "Satan goeth about like a roaring lion." So is it with rock music -- they're out to get you.

David Crosby said, "Music is a mass medium for conditioning the way we think." ,(Hit Parader Yearbook 1967, page 70) Mick Jagger said, "We're moving after their mind and so are most of the new groups." (Hit Parader, January 1968, page 10) The Talking Heads said this, "They use relentless rhythms to drive home their messages to hypnotically pulsate it at you until you even pick it up subliminally." (Buddy Magazine, January, 1981) Jimmy Hendrix said, "Atmospheres are going to come from music because music is a spiritual thing of its own. You could hypnotize people with music. When you get them to their weakest point, you can preach into their subconscience what you want them to say." (Life Magazine, October 3, 1969)

Rock and roll is not just fun and games. .They are out to get your mind. Many of the groups openly admit it. Colossians 2:8 says, "Beware lest any man deceive you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." This is exactly what is happening in the world. Romans 1:32 says, "Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that de them." These people knew God, and you could find that many of them are anti-God, anti-religion. They don't want anything to do with it. Many of the groups even believe that rock and roll is their religion. In that religion, they can preach their philosophy of drugs, sex, and rebellion.

Many rock and roll concerts today are violent. In Cincinnati, Ohio, when The Who came to town, eleven people were killed and crushed under the feet of a raging crowd. Nobody stood up and questioned that something was wrong there. While the Rolling Stones played in California at a concert, the Hell's Angels were hired to police the event for $500 worth of beer. People were murdered in front of the

Rolling Stones while they were playing the song "Sympathy For The Devil". Mick Jagger sings in that song that he is Lucifer. America needs to wake up and realize that rock and roll is not just fun and games. It is actually a religion. These groups preach their philosophy. The auditoriums of the United States are their churches, and they actually convert people there. They take their minds, souls, and they've even persuaded young people to get on their knees and lift their hands to the Devil, and dedicate their lives to Lucifer. In Pine Bluff, Arkansas, KISS came to town. Gene Simmons had the young people put their hands over their hearts as they gave a pledge of allegiance to Lucifer. I think that it's time that we realize that something is about to happen. Craig Chaquico of Jefferson Starship said, "Rock concerts are the churches of today. Music puts them in a spiritual plain. All music is God." (The Bay Area Magazine, February 1, 1977)

An article from the Times Picayune in New Orleans, Louisiana quoted a man named Ozzy Ozborne as saying, "Rock music is as much a religion as Christianity." If that's true, then they must be the preachers of the youth revolution of drugs, sex, and violence. To have religion, you have to admit that there must be a message. If you have a message, you must have a target. The youth of America are the targeted converts to the religion of rock and roll. Gene Simmons of the group KISS said in Contemporary Christian Music, February of 1983, "Rock and Roll is our religion. You keep your religion."

The Bible says, "Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; and put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter" (Isaiah 5.:20). These are the people. who have the youngsters of America and the world bowing at their feet. They do not have good values and exhibit lifestyles that are nowhere near Christian -- this is rock and roll.

At a Bob Marley concert, where some 80,000 people attended, the janitors were mortified as they began to clean the audi-torium. They found that the stadium was heaped with piles of hypodermic needles. (War on Drugs Magazine, May, 1981) A man named Prince, (that's the name that he uses in his rock and roll field) according to December 21, 1981 Newsweek Magazine is called "a New Wave Cult because of his X-rated act." They call him a prophet of the sexual anarchy who claims that the second coming is here. Anything goes. His apparent religious belief is salvation through sex. (News- week, December 21, 1981)

Debbie Harry of the group Blondie says that rock and roll is sex 100%. "I've always thought that the main ingredients in rock are sex, really good stage shows "and sassy music. Sex and sass." (Circus, July 7,1977, and Nit Parade, September 1979) Glenn Fry of The Eagles says, "I'm in the music business for the sex and for the drugs." (People Magazine, June 30, 1975) Rebellion has always been a part of rock and roll music.

Even the recent rock and roll concert in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where Blue Oyster Cult and Black Sabbath played showed this to be true. They called it the black and blue concert for good reasons. Two hundred young people were arrested and the city was put on a round the clock alert for the first time in twenty years. A man named John Cougar in People Magazine said, "I have a hard time with the establishment. That's why I hate schools, governments, and churches." In his song, "Frank and Diane", there is a phrase that says, "let the Bible belt come and save my soul." Rock and roll and rebellion seem to go hand in hand. Isaiah 14:12 rays, "How art thou fatten from heaven 0 Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didn't weaken the nations!"

Certainly sin is a reproach to any nation, and drugs have permeated the rock and roll industry. Sex is just an ordinary thing. It apparently is a lifestyle that has gone beyond the Bible. They're not interested in God. The Bible says that in the last days the seducing spirits would grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. It's time that we wake up and realize that there is a subculture that is out to get the youth of America. We need to ask ourselves what is behind rock music? Is it something that I should be involved with? If it is, then we should go after it wholeheartedly, but if not, we should deny it the same way.

John Lennon said in Time Magazine, September 22, 1967, "We're more popular than Jesus." Just before his death, in an article on December 22, 1980, he and Yoko Ono were interviewed. They said that once they had séances to communicate with departed tenants. The Bible calls that witchcraft and idolatry. In Circus Magazine, June 30, 1982, David Lee Roth of Van Halen says, "If rock and roll stops being fun, I'll try my hand at selling Bibles from door to door." In Time Magazine, August 17, 1981, David Lee Roth again was quoted as saying his sexually suggestive antics whip pubescent fans into a frenzy and sometimes put naughty ideas into young girls' heads. Says Roth, "I get letters all the time saying I got a kid and it looks tike you. It needs a bicycle now, and some pencils and a notebook by next year.' *His defense ,and a unique form of paternity insurance with Lloyd's of London for a premium of $10,000 a year.

In the Fall of 1982 Hit Parade Magazine, Angus Young of AC/DC was quoted as saying, "People take it seriously because they're paying money for it. I do to a paint. To us it's a living. We depend on it so you got to take it pretty serious." These groups believe wholeheartedly in what they're doing. They're not out there just making money. They're not out there just making a big name. After you have reached those, there's only one thing in 1ife to do-- that is to preach your philosophy or your religion. Steve Smith of Journey was quoted in Circus Magazine, July of 1980, where he said, "Rock stars are known for how many women that they can take home, or how many drugs they can consume. All rock stars are afraid of not seeming bigger than life. That's why they lie, and that's why they are exploited."

In Time, August 18, 1975, an article about the Eagles said, "The Mohave Desert was their classroom and they named themselves after one of the major spirits in the Indian's cosmos, the eagle. During long sleepless nights on raw tequila and peyote, the young musicians studied." In Newsweek, December 22, 1980, John Lennon reminisces where he says, "A Hard Day's Night" was made on pills. "Help" was made through a haze of pot. "I was a drop down drunk in art school, and I used to eat LSD all the time. I've always needed a drug." David Bowie was quoted in Crawdaddy Magazine, February 1978, where he said he is really bisexual. "Oh yes. I am!", he now admits unequivocally. "I would never deny that!" Jacques Morelli said, "I am trying to produce music to make gay people more acceptable." (Newsweek, April 2, 1979) Grace Slick said in People Magazine, August 28, 1978, "I use marijuana when I'm doing music. Edison and Freud snorted cocaine, so I'm following in a great tradition. If most people could take one pill, I could take two or three."

Disco from New Times Magazine, January 8, 1979, said, "These were the first entertainment institutions of the gay life. Disco was high energy, emotional, physical. Liberation made gays much more loose that way. Now there's gay music, so it's hard to tell what part of disco is essentially gay and what part of it has been stolen from the straights." Disco's passage into the mass audience has taken it through an unlikely scene--the urban gay male community. Disco began in gay clubs. (Disco Music, November 8, 1976, Newsweek Magazine) The group most responsible for keeping discos alive was the homosexual community. Gays wanted places they could lose themselves dancing, and at the same time, make the scene.

Rock and roll apparently covers everything the Bible tells us to beware of. It covers the drug culture, revolution, homosexuality, perversions of every sort, witchcraft, even the occult. Many groups today are claiming that the occult is as real as God. They openly admit it on their album covers. They portray it with occult symbols that they use in their concerts. Many groups, which include Stevie Nix of Fleetwood Mac, Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin, The Eagles, Nazareth, Iron Maiden, and many other groups are openly portraying what the Bible said would come to pass in the last days. In Circus Magazine, August 26, 1980, a member of the group Black Sabbath was using a sign which is made by thrusting a fist into the air with only the index and pinky finger extended. The sign is used among black magic practitioners to ward off the evil eye.

In Ontario, Canada Black Sabbath gave this symbol to a number of young people in the auditorium. It was picked up by the entire concert. It wasn't long until everybody had this symbol raised up in the air which is used by black magic practitioners. Freddy Mercury said that "on stage I am a devil." (Circus Magazine, June 30, 1982) In the song, "Bohemian Rhapsody" there is a phrase that says "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me." Some of this group's music, "Another One Bites The Dust", when played backwards says, "Try to smoke marijuana." [Freddy - dies of aids (?)] In a phrase of the song a "Don't Try Suicide", when played backwards, it says, "Do a snort, do a snort, I agree, step in my shoes, hey try sui-cide, Suicide Sue. "The music that is being played today is as spiritual to the world as gospel music is to the church. Why is it that we can't see what is happening? The cult of rock and roll music is doing all that it can to pave the way for the antichrist.

The Bible tells us that in the last days perilous times would come, for men would be lovers of their own selves, covetous, proud, boasters, blasphemers, disobedient to parents. We're living in just that day and time. There's a group called Black Sabbath that has the number 666 on their album cover.

Another one by the group Iron Maiden is called "The Number of the Beast." Iron Maiden says, "We're not into the occult that much." They may not be into it as deep as some other groups, but nevertheless, they're into the occult. Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones has an album entitled, "Their

Satanic Majesty's Request." In an article entitled "Anton Levay; Disciple of the Devil", this man was quoted as saying his particular brand of Satanism inspired books and music.

This includes song compositions such as the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" as well as pro-devil music by Led Zepplin, Santana, and King Crimson. Anton Levay is the high priest of the satanic church of San Francisco, California.

In the album, by The Eagles, called "Hotel California", as you open the album up at the top left hand corner where the window is, is a man in the center with a bald head and a goatee. This is Anton Levay. He has inspired many groups to write music. The Rolling Stones, according to Newsweek Maga-

zine, January 4, 1971, admits they have taken off to Brazil to study black magic. Also, Mick Jagger has claimed to have special demonic powers. He is called the pied piper of rock and roll and the unholy roller. He is considered among black musicians to be the devil. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones said "There are black musicians who think that we're acting as unknown agents of Lucifer, and others who think we are Lucifer." (Rolling Stone Magazine, August 19, 1971)

AC/DC was voted the number one group of 1981. (Hit Parader, January 1982, page 4) The album that really took them to the top was entitled "Highway to Hell." It declares Hell to be a place to party with all your friends. It says, "Hey Satan pay my dues, playing in a rock and roll band. Hey, Mama look at me, I'm on my way to the promised land. I'm on the highway to hell! Don't stop me, I'm on the highway to hell!"

II Corinthians 6:17 says, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." 11 Timothy 3:1-7 says, "This know also, that in 'the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."

The Word of the Lord tells us in Romans 3:23 that the wages of sin is death. There's no doubt in my mind what rock and roll is really trying to do: The Bible said that in the last days there would come a man called the antichrist. Revelation 13:18 said that he would give this world a mark

either in their right hand or in their forehead. It's no coincidence that these songs are talking about this. They're talking about the spirit that the antichrist would live by.

Everybody in America must wake up! We are now facing the most crucial time that our young people have ever faced. There is a world out there. that would like you to lose God, and would like for you to lose out with the reality that Jesus Christ is God Almighty. It wants you to believe that the Holy Ghost is not real for today.

He certainly is! No demon in hell could ever take away your experience if you do not want to lose it. No young person in this world would ever go to hell if they didn't want to go. The Bible says in John 10:28, "And I gave them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."

The Bible says to denounce the hidden things of darkness. There is nothing that God wants more for us than for us to draw close to Him. The best way we can begin to do this is to recognize what is not godly.

Acts 19:18-20 tells us what they did with occult material. "And many that believed came, and confessed, and showed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed".

Postcript: If food and drugs and smokes don't contaminate the inner man then its only music right? Wrong! Both do and still do. Rockers smoke and their not Christian's, actually professed anti christian in their entire lifestyle, does that make smoking, drugging and so forth more of the world and its abominations than of the Christian life?