One of the things that absorbed my attention during the 1970s and 1980s was the excitement about the Second Coming of Jesus. Ever since Jesus left earth (see Acts 1:6-11), believers have been anxiously awating the time when He would return to set up His kingdom on earth. Hal Lindsey‘s book, The Late Great Planet Earth fascinated me. The book did not presume to set a specific date, but explained the Bible verses that dealt with the Second Coming, and how those prophecies could very well be coming to pass in this present time.
The timing of Jesus’ return is certainly not something that can be predicted with any accuracy (Mark 13:32-33), but what Lindsey’s book did was to show the accuracy of prophecy in the Bible that was fulfilled in the past. This solidified to me the reliability of the Bible when it came to prophecies that had not been fulfilled.
The whole topic of the return of Christ is a complex one, and no one understands it fully. There are some things we know for certain, and many others on which we have to speculate. One of those is the Antichrist, the great enemy of the Church, who will oppose God’s people during the last seven years before Jesus returns. The Bible implies many things about this person, and popular culture has made him into a character who is fearful and impossible to oppose. Even the popular Left Behind series of books can only take the theories about his nature and what he will do on earth, and put it together into a possible story.
The Second Coming of Jesus was a popular topic of singers and songwriters during the early years of the Jesus Music revolution. One of the songs that I stumbled upon recently on YouTube was by Degarmo & Key, on their 1984 album Communication. This song, Six, Six, Six was made into a music video, and was the first Christian music video the ever played on MTV. However, this video was removed from their playlist for supposedly being “too violent”. After it was edited somewhat (the scene in which the Antichrist is caught on fire was removed), it was again in the MTV playlist.
This music video also caught my eye because of the computer used by the main character in the video (see my other web site here).
Also, since the video and the album version are slightly different, I’ll include the album version here also.
I was feeling kind of restless
So I went out for a walk
And I ran into a stranger
And for hours we just talked
He said “I’ve waited for this moment
All my life. This is it”
And when I asked him to explain
He just smiled and told me
“Six, Six, Six”He said “Things will get much better
For tonight is New Age Eve
I can even change the weather
And do things you won’t believe
I’ve got signs and wonders
In my bag of tricks
And when I asked him to explain
He just smiled and told me
“Six, Six, Six”I said, “Jeus won’t you save me
From this evil man of sin
I have read about his future
I don’t want to go with him”
And when I looked up he had gone
But he had left a note that said
“My number is, my number is, my number is,
My number, my number,
My number is Six, Six, Six”When morning came I laughed
At what I thought was just a dream
And I went to call my neighbor
And to tell him all I’d seen
But when I reached for my address book
I felt sick
‘Cause written ‘cross the pages
Every number there was
Six, Six, SixFlight 666 … departing – WELCOME
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