When the Time Has Come Gnostic Lyrics by Huey Lewis and the News

The song When the Time Has Come by Huey Lewis and the News was looked at in two previous posts regarding redemption at the end of the world and Universalism.

In this post, an apparent gnostic idea of the song will be explored.

Image source: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/Jul/10/huey-lewis-and-the-news-interview/

A portion of the song is this:

Everything's gonna clear up
Everybody cheer up
Walls are gonna crumble
All men will be humble

Feeling getting stronger
Won't be down much longer
We will be free
When the time has come

"We will be free" seems to indicate that at the end of the world, people will cast-off their bodies and be only spirits. This action will lead to a kind-of-freedom. This is a gnostic idea.

Gnosticism under the umbrella of Christianity has been around since the beginning of Christianity (even before the Christian Bible was canonized).

Christianity calls Gnosticism a heresy since Jesus is revealed to be resurrected in a glorified body. The body is not seen to be a prison for the spirit, but a temple of our spirit.We were meant to be embodied souls just like incarnated Jesus, the archetype of humanity.

Huey Lewis and the News When the Time Has Come Describes Universalism

Huey Lewis and the News' song When the Time Has Come really says quite a bit about the end times of the world/universe, or eschaton (as I mentioned last time).

Image source: http://espngrantland.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/gl_g_hlts_57611.jpg?w=524

These lyrics will be looked at.

So don't you worry about a thing
Cause you know that train is gonna run
You will be on it
Not just for some
We'll all be on it
From here to kingdom come
When the time has come

The "kingdom" is heaven. "We'll all be on it" says that everyone will go to heaven. This is Universalism.

Jesus didn't teach this. There are quite a lot of places where Jesus mentions hell; I'll just point to Matthew 25: 31 and on.

[Jesus said,] "Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (Matthew 25: 44-46)

"Eternal punishment" is commonly referred to as hell. So, according to what is revealed by Jesus, we won't "all be on" the "train" from "here to kingdom come".

Huey should tell Madonna. (The one in the picture, that is.)

When the Time Has Come by Huey Lewis and the News on Redemption Time

So, Huey Lewis and the News has an entire song about their version of the eschaton, or the end of the world (many songs mention it, but briefly). It's "When the Time Has Come".

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33764571@N00/2798074617/sizes/m/

He mentions in the song that the eschaton is "redemption time". This made me thought of the time when Pope Francis said that everyone including atheists is redeemed by Jesus.

Many people were in an uproar and/or confused about the Pope's pronouncement since most assumed the Church taught that atheists could not enter heaven. Was he supposedly changing another Church teaching? Yet again, the teaching did not change.

All were redeemed by Jesus when he died on the cross. The thing is, for salvation, one has to join with Christ in baptism and carry his or her cross. There has to be a response by the redeemed. Redemption makes salvation possible.

This song by Huey Lewis confuses the matter further by calling the eschaton "redemption time". That time has been completed once and for all.