Clockwork Angels and Religion

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Belchen, Germany (trekearth)

Macleans: Peart: Clockwork Angels

Quotes:

'Rush’s 20th studio release, Clockwork Angels, hit No. 1 in Canada in June...'

'Its story, about a young man who flees a land designed to function in perfect mechanical order, reflects the philosophy of drummer and lyricist Neil Peart.'

'I help panhandlers, but other people are, “Oh look at that—why doesn’t he get a job?” While I believe in all that freedom, I also believe that no one should suffer needlessly. A realization I had lately: it is impossible to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and be a Republican. It’s philosophically absolutely opposed—if they could only think about what they were saying for a minute. That’s when you get caught up in the webs of what people call themselves and how they behave.'

'Because I know at the end of it, if I’m going to meet Jesus or Allah or Buddha, I’m going to be all right.'

End of quotes

A fairly short article on Neil Peart and his Macleans interview.

I will preface by stating I have listened to Rush since 1989 and have a large collection of their CDs and a few DVDs. I think Mr. Peart is an exceptional drummer and percussionist and basically a moral human being from what I can observe as an outsider.

The newest 2012 album Clockwork Angels is a concept album that revisits older Rush music stylistically of the 1970s and early 1980s but with modern technology and has a higher level of compositional and technical complexity than most recent material and therefore I find it more musically interesting.

This is apart from any philosophical considerations of the lyrics which are not and have never been a primary musical concern for me.

Philosophically assisting the poor is a worthy cause, whether one assists panhandlers or not. There are many ways to assist the poor with both time and money.

When Mr. Peart states that one cannot follow the teachings of Jesus and be a Republican, I will state I am Canadian (British) do not live in the United States and therefore am not Republican or Democrat and so I think I have a fairly high level of objectivity of the matter. I am however, a moderate conservative. I am reasoning that Mr. Peart may think that a conservative of a certain type cannot be a consistent follower of Jesus Christ.

But would Mr. Peart understand the teachings of Christ sufficiently to support the assertion?

This is not primarily a political blog but a theological and philosophical one, so I will deal with this according to blog themes.

'Because I know at the end of it, if I’m going to meet Jesus or Allah or Buddha, I’m going to be all right.'

One can try and separate the teachings of Christ from Biblical Christianity but it just does not philosophical work because Christ's words, work and ministry are Biblically recorded. In John 14: 6 from the English Standard Version it states 5-7:

⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

David J. Ellis in his John commentary states here that Jesus reasons that he is not showing the way, instead Christ is the vital link between the heavenly realm and the earthly realm. Apart from the gospel teaching of Christ in the truth, there is no salvation. Who Jesus is cannot be separated from what he does. Ellis (1986: 1254).

Leon Morris in 'Jesus Is The Christ' explains that God makes the initiative in calling people to Christ (John 6: 44). The sinner is only saved via the Father through Christ and not through any other process. Morris (1989: 136). As noted on this blog many times Ephesians 1 and Romans 8 also note that persons are chosen (elected in Christ) and persons are born again as in John 3 and clearly this a divine work and not a human one. Ephesians 2, also has been cited many times on this blog explains that believers are saved by through faith unto good works. As in Romans 1, the believer shall live by faith as the righteousness of God is revealed. The believer lives legally justified in the righteousness of Christ and his atoning work.

Philosophically unless Islam and Buddhism would teach the same exclusivity of Christ for salvation, which they do not, as by definition they are different religious philosophies, then they would have different religious modes of salvation.

The deity of Christ is Biblically based John 1 (eternal word), John 8: 58 (eternal), Philippians 2 (a form of God), Colossians 2 (fullness of God in bodily form), Hebrews 1 (same substance and nature of the Father), is essential to the atonement and the idea that the infinite, eternal holy God outlasted finite sin as also a perfect finite man in the incarnation.

Islam denies this as it teaches a oneness and rejects the Trinity as polytheism. The prophet Mohammed was dogmatic on this point. Nigosian (1994: 442).

Concerning Buddhism, to quote my source: 'If deities, sacrifices, rituals, and prayers were all unnecessary, what need was there for Hindu priests? Nigosian (1994: 127). Philosophically and religiously the word Christian could replace Hindu although I realize historically Buddhism has very close roots in origin to Hinduism, but the point is that Buddhism would have no need for the salvific system within Christianity and Christ's atoning and resurrection work either.

This fusing of religions by Mr. Peart in the context of salvation and eschatology demonstrates at least some key misunderstandings of Christianity and therefore what a follower of Jesus Christ should be like and act like.

This is not  to state that Mr. Peart may not half a point and that sometimes Republicans may not be consistent in Christ-like behaviour, but philosophically most assuredly the same thing could be demonstrated for those that call themselves Democrats and Christians. This could be done in other countries where there are political parties of the left and right of varying degrees. Persons have sinful natures (Romans 1-3) and are in need of sanctification (1 Corinthians 1: 30).

ELLIS, DAVID J. (1986) 'John' in F.F. Bruce (gen.ed.), The International Bible Commentary, Grand Rapids, Marshall Pickering/ Zondervan.

MORRIS, LEON (1989) Jesus Is The Christ, Eerdmans/IVP, Grand Rapids.

NIGOSIAN, S.A (1994) World Faiths, St. Martins Press, New York.