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.

Huey Lewis and the News' If This Is It

So, there's this blog that is about kindness here: Within Reach of Every Hand.

At that blog, I asked what the difference between being kind and being nice was (at this link). The song If This Is It by Huey Lewis and the News was in my mind when I asked the question.



She replied back,

I think There is a big difference but it can be difficult to articulate. It may be a topic for a future post, but for now I would say Kindness stems from love, compassion, and mercy, where as niceness has more to do with not ruffling feathers, being agreeable, and following social norms. Kindness comes from somewhere deeper.

Upon comparing her response to If This Is It, that seems to be right. "You'd say anything to avoid a fight." is nice, but the romantic interest in the song should just let Huey know if they're through or not which would be kind (shows mercy and compassion).

Sometimes as adults, we need to grow up, get a backbone, and tell it like it is, or at least work something out. Otherwise, we never really grew up. If we're kids, we need to learn to ask questions and get to the bottom of things, else they may mow us down.

We shouldn't necessarily look to save people's feelings (we're just looking out for our feelings, really). We'll "be all right, one way or another."

The Big Bang Theory Theme Song Part III

(Parts one and two are here.)

The story behind making The Big Bang Theory theme song relayed an extremely fortunate turn of events for the Bare Naked Ladies.



One of my roommates in college loved the Bare Naked Ladies and Billy Joel while I liked Huey Lewis and The News and classical music (Bruckner was my favorite composer). We quite often remarked that we both had one good and one bad taste in music: Billy Joel and classical music for the good, Bare Naked Ladies and Huey Lewis and The News for the bad.

It's worth noting how the Bare Naked Ladies made it with their TV Big Bang Theory theme song and Huey Lewis and The News with their two Back to the Future movies. Well, I contend that in the final analysis Huey Lewis and The News were better since they were on the big screen while the Bare Naked Ladies were only on TV.

Well, we'll see who is still listened to in about 25 years. (Perhaps neither? That's also possible.)

The thing is, is it important to see what will survive history?

Well, an important analysis by a Jewish official, Gamaliel, after the resurrection of Jesus informs a possible answer.

Upon the Jewish leadership's attempt to squash the Jesus movement, or The Way, or the Church, he said,

So now I tell you, have nothing to do with these men, and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God. Acts 5:38-39

So, after 2000 years, the Church is still here. Perhaps, "it [indeed] comes from God."

Huey Lewis and the News' Workin' For A Livin' Part II

Besides the obvious theme of the song being the ins and outs of working for a living, another part of the song that sticks out for me is from the lyrics (spellings from a Huey Lewis and The News music book I have),

Bus boy, bartender, ladies of the night
Grease monkey, ex-junkie, winner of the fight
Walking on the streets, it's really all the same
Sellin' souls, rock n' roll, any other game

The line that gets me is, "it's really all the same".



Really? Prostitution ("ladies of the night") is along the same line of work as a bus boy, bartender, mechanic, and a rock musician?

I think it all depends for the latter list if they're OK, but prostitution? In Catholic thought, prostitution is an intrinsic evil, in other words, there is no situation where it can be morally upright or licit.

A bartender may be distributing alcohol to non-minors who are not intoxicated. A rock musician can be clean (there are Christian rock bands). Really, anything a relatively moral Christian can do is licit. But no Christian can in good conscience be a prostitute.

This comes from a bunch of places in Catholic writings, but the Bible puts it best in 1 Corinthians 6. 

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take Christ’s members and make them the members of a prostitute? Of course not! [Or] do you not know that anyone who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For “the two,” it says, “will become one flesh.” But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.

It says in the Catholic commentary (at the link above), "Against his own body: expresses the intimacy and depth of sexual disorder, which violates the very orientation of our bodies." The correct orientation of our bodies (physically) is to our spouse (if married) and to the Lord.

Our Lady of Fatima said that there are more people who descend to hell for sexual sins than for any other transgression. May Our Lady of Fatima, Mother Mary, pray for all of us that we do not sell our souls. Amen.

Huey Lewis and the News' Bad is Bad Part I

So, this is my favorite Huey Lewis and the News song, Bad Is Bad.


This song foreshadows where Huey Lewis took the band most recently (the video also foreshadows that the original News have moved on from this band). Blues is their new style.

I like all the fancy 7th cords by The News; and in truth, the songs where The News takes a major role are my favorite.

This song really shows what make things bad, and as a contrapositive, what makes a thing good.

The guitar playing was bad because it didn't sound like a guitar, but a chainsaw; the soul stew was bad because it didn't taste like stew; Huey's relationship with Marie wasn't good since she wasn't faithful like he expected her to be (it seemed to be serious since he had the key to her residence).

It turns out, a thing that isn't the way the thing is supposed to be is bad. Likewise, things that are what they are essentially supposed to be are good; the best things are more perfectly what they are to be.

Huey Lewis and the News' The Power of Love Part I

Huey Lewis and the News' The Power of Love is my second favorite song of this '80's band. It feels electric like the '80's movie for which is was produced, Back to the Future (Michael J. Fox).



It also seems like a Gospel song. Listen to the lyrics. There really is no specific mention of a love interest. The "help from above" line could be help from the Holy Spirit to feel The Power of Love.

One can be rich or poor since anyone can receive the Power of Love sent especially in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. It makes "a bad one" or "a wrong one" or "a hawk" into a new person.

The band has more explicitly religious lines in other songs, but this one may take the cake for the most overall holy song that they produced. McFly's family would be proud.

Huey Lewis and the News Stuck With You

I was walking through the grocery store to get a few things, and my favorite band Huey Lewis and the News came on the PA system. It was "Stuck With You".

There really isn't much content to this song and the guitar riff gets old pretty quickly, but there is one nugget that stuck out for me from this Golden State band's song.

The line from the song was, "All the same friends, and the same address. Yes it's true, (Yes it's true) I am happy to be stuck with you!"

On first glance, the whole idea about staying with someone romantically just because they can't get away from them is pretty pathetic. But then this line reveals something important (closer to the end of the song). Sharing relationships and things outside themselves help people in a relationship maintain their romantic love.

This is something I believe Aristotle wrote about. A transcendent third, or outside influence that brings people together is one of the ways that people stay stuck together. In this song it is friends and a residence. For others it is faith. Probably for most, it's a combination of many things.

The thing is, the better and longer lasting the glue is, the better and longer the relationship will most likely be.