This past month we did a series called The Fab Four. With this past February marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles coming to America - performing on the Ed Sullivan Show, we just had to, right? After all, that moment really changed the world. It wasn't just the Beatles' music or popularity that made such an impact on American culture - It was their message. Timothy Leary (a popular physiologist at the time who was similar to today's Dr. Phil, only with a bad-boy twist) called the Beatles the Four Evangelists. Why would he use that term? The same term we would use for someone like Billy Graham? Because the Beatles changed the world with their message.
In our series we began by considering the gospel of John. (Lennon that is.) Think about his post-Beatles song Imagine: Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell beneath us. Above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Sounds innocent, right? Far from it. The gospel of John is Agnosticism. The belief that their is no god. Or, if there is a god, that He is impersonal and aloof: Uninterested and uninvolved in human life.
Next we considered the gospel of Paul. (McCartney that is.) After leaving the Beatles, McCartney established another super-group called wings. One of their most popular songs was the theme song for a James Bond film called Live and Let Die: When you were young and your heart was an open book, you used to say live and let live. But if this ever-changing world in which you're living makes you give up and cry - Live and let die. The gospel of Paul is Humanism, where self is exalted is god.
Thirdly we considered the gospel of George. (You guessed it - George Harrison.) His most popular post-Beatles song was called My Sweet Lord: I really want to know you. I really want to be with you. Oh! It takes so long. My sweet Lord. The song was all over the radio in the seventies and kids were walking around everywhere singing, "My sweet Lord." (Some of them even in church!) The thing many didn't realize was in the background of the song Harrison was singing "Hare Krishna..." The gospel of George was Polytheism. The belief that there are many gods.
Lastly we considered the gospel of Ringo. (That could only be Ringo Starr.) One of his most well known post-Beatle songs was You're Sixteen: You come on like a dream, peaches and cream, lips like strawberry wine. You're sixteen, you're beautiful and your mine. Innocent, cute love song, right? Wrong. Ringo was thirty six when this song hit the charts! (Can someone say creeper?) The gospel of Ringo was Hedonism. The worship of pleasure.
Please don't get the mistaken idea that this was a Beatle-bashing series calling for a record burning session! We didn't spin any records backwards during the series to check for satanic messages! I'm not suggesting the Beatles were the AntiChrist in musical form and if you listen to their music you're going to hell! I'm just simply saying their message changed the world and helped usher in a whole new set of American world views in the 60's and 70's. The four world views we refer to as agnosticism, humanism, polytheism and hedonism became four of the greatest challenges to the gospel in the 20th and now the 21st Centuries!
When I got the idea for this series, I thought it would make a great apologetics discussion we could use to reach the lost and unchurched. However, as I began to develop my outlines for each message, it became clear that this series was intended to challenge the agnosticism, humanism, polytheism and hedonism in the church! What we would never profess to be, we tend to practice daily! Living as if there's no God, as though we ourselves are gods, making gods out of many things and living for pleasure above all else. Sound familiar? It's the Fab Four - Reflected not just in the post-Christian culture around us, but in our churches and in our own lifestyles.
To view the messages check out www.mycrossroads.org.
