American Idol and the Hope of the World

Last night on American Idol, the theme of the show was “American Idol Gives Back.” As part of the theme, the contestants sang songs of hope and compassion. Towards the end of the show, Melinda Doolittle sang the Faith Hill song, There Will Come A Day. The next contestant, Blake Lewis sang John Lennon’s classic, Imagine. The two songs present two radically different views of hope for this world. In fact, they are diametrically opposed to one another. If you like the lyrics to one, you could not like the lyrics to the other.

There Will Come A Day is sort of a gospel song. Without directly mentioning Jesus, it contains some strong allusions to the biblical view of the coming kingdom. Here is the final verse:

There will come a day, there will come a day
The song will ring out, down those golden streets
The voices of earth with the angels will sing
Every knee will bow, sin will have no trace
In the glory of His amazing grace
Every knee will bow, sin will have no trace
In the glory of His amazing grace
There will come a day, there will come a day
Oooh there will come a day
I know there's coming a day, coming a day.

This song celebrates the fact that one day, the world will be made right when Jesus consummates His kingdom, when every knee bows to His rule.

Contrast that to John Lennon’s Imagine. In Imagine¸ the hope of the world is that we will put aside all of our religious views and just get along. According to Lennon (and Lewis, I suppose), Christianity is part of the problem with this world. If we could just get rid of Christianity and all other religions, the world would be a wonderful place.

As Melinda Doolittle sang, and Christians believe, the only hope for this world is Jesus. That is why we pray “Thy kingdom come”. We long for Jesus to come and bring His peace. However, Satan’s lie is that Jesus is part of the problem. If we want peace, we must throw off the reign of God and Imagine that religion is part of the problem. That is the same lie Satan told to Adam and Eve in the Garden and it is the same lie people are celebrating in song today.