Sunday, April 6, 2008

God's Gonna Cut You Down

I first heard this song as sung by Johnny Cash (available on You Tube). It's also known as "Run On", as performed by Elvis (also on You Tube, I find Elvis' version too upbeat for the subject).

Is it good theology? Let's look at the lyrics:
"Sooner or later God will cut you down" - Ezekiel 18:4 "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die."

So every sinner will die. Who are sinners? The song mentions a "long tongued liar", "midnight rider", "rambler", "gambler", "backbiter". I'm not sure what most of those are (or what is wrong with being out after midnight...).

But what about "long tongued liar"? Perhaps a reference to Satan -- but, how many lies must one tell to be a liar? Revelation 21:8 "all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."


This gives us greater insight. 1 Timothy 1:8 "But we know that the law [is] good, if a man use it lawfully;" (The law refers to God's Law given to Moses, the Ten Commandments). And 1 John 3:4 "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law."


A sinner is anyone who has broken God's Law (listed in Exodus 20:1-17).

And not just in actions (this is made clear by the tenth commandment (verse 17):
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour's.")
Coveting is in the heart (mind), this is what Jesus is talking about when He says (Matthew 15:19) "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies".

Hatred is murder in your heart (#6, verse 13).

Lust is adultery in your heart (#7, verse 14).

False witness (lying) is sin (#9, verse 16).

We are all sinners (Romans 3:23), and God will cut us all down.

3 comments:

GCT said...

Very loving of god to set up a system where we will all fall short. Very just too.

nedbrek said...

Nowhere in the Bible does it say life is fair. Only that God will be glorified.

God is loving enough to pay the price of our sins, and die. All to make it possible for us to be saved.

GCT said...

"Nowhere in the Bible does it say life is fair. Only that God will be glorified."

I thought you held that god is omni-just. If so, then life actually should be fair, since god is the author of life. If god is omni-just, yet does not treat us with justice, then you are contradicting yourself.

Also, do you really not see the multiple problems with the whole "god will be glorified" thing? 1. Why does god need to be glorified, isn't he perfect? 2. Would an omni-benevolent being only seek to glorify himself? 3. Isn't that a bit egoistic and selfish? 4. How does sending people to hell give glory to god? 5. Need I go on? I'm sure I could.

"God is loving enough to pay the price of our sins, and die. All to make it possible for us to be saved."

Once again, it is god that put us in that position in the first place! Would you think that god was loving if he held your head underwater until you were almost dead, and then suddenly changed his mind and allowed you to live? Of course not. Besides, why did god have to pay a price at all in order to allow himself to forgive us? Why does god killing himself absolve us of our sins? Why is a blood sacrifice necessary? I know you think blood somehow cleanses sins, but how? Why is shedding blood a good thing, a loving thing, a logical thing, or a necessary thing? Why is god so bloodthirsty? Why is believing that god shed blood for us more important than simply living a good life? This sort of defeats the purpose, does it not? It shows that god wasn't doing it in order to actually absolve us of our sins (which he put on us) but instead in order to gain recognition for his actions, making him nothing more than a glory hound. Do you similarly think Paris Hilton is all that for her attempts at garnering publicity?