Imagine

The word “imagine” conjures up all kinds of images. For a refresher course on “imagine” just watch children play. It’s amazing what they can do with their “imagination!” Billboards are sprouting up all over America saying: “Imagine No Religion!” Freedom From Religion Foundation is behind the ad campaign. Municipalities all over the U.S. have received letters from this Wisconsin based organization, objecting to nativity scenes or other forms of Christian display on public property. They routinely threatened local governments with legal action if they don’t comply with their inane “separation of church and state” demands. These demonstrations pop up like clockwork every Christmas and Easter.

Many people who advocate the “separation of church and state” also say the world would be a better place to live if there was no religion. They cite the old Marxist line that religion is the opiate of the masses. Religion keeps the masses sedated and ignorant. Once freed from the superstitious constraints of religion, true enlightenment will follow.

Their billboard campaign begins with the word: IMAGINE. The word “imagine” is synonymous with words such as, envision, dream, think of, picture, and see in your mind’s eye. Innumerable Songs, movies, and books are written about dreams becoming reality. George Bernard Shaw said: “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’” Again, where would our world be, or any of us, if it wasn’t for human imagination?

Perhaps no other song captures the word ‘Imagine’ better than John Lennon’s song, Imagine, released in 1971. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked “Imagine” at number 3 in its list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time! Former president Jimmy Carter remarked, “in many countries around the world—my wife and I have visited about 125 countries—you hear John Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’ used almost equally with national anthems.” Many motivational seminars and even some large religious venues use the word “Imagine,” as a central theme.

On the surface Lennon’s “Imagine” seems innocuous and commendable: Imagine all the people, Living for today…Imagine there’s no countries…Nothing to kill or die for…Imagine all the people, Living life in peace…Imagine no possessions…No need for greed or hunger…A brotherhood of man…Imagine all the people Sharing all the world…You may say I’m a dreamer, But I’m not the only one, I hope someday you’ll join us, And the world will live as one.”

Sounds utopian, doesn’t it? almost Christ sounding? A preacher could use this “Imagine” as an excellent base for a message.

The people who were with Lennon when he wrote and recorded “Imagine” remarked it was his wife’s song. When you heard John, you heard Yoko. Yoko’s religious beliefs blend astrology, eastern philosophies, and mysticism into a meta-religious approach.

The word “imagine” is used twelve times in the Bible. All twelve associate “imagine” with evil! The other variations of the word “imagine” are all associated with evil! From the scripture, it appears God is sending us a message about our imagination. We use our imagination to do more evil than good.

What were the consequences of an imagination gone wild? “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” (Ge 6:5; 8:20-21). God destroyed the wicked and their imaginations starting over with Noah. King David captured the imagination of evil when he composed the song, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing” (Ps 2:1)? Has anything changed since David wrote this psalm? Humans have become so enlightened they now sing Imagine…no religion too!

Likewise, the song “Imagine” is built on a sandy foundation. The opening line frames the writer’s state of mind: Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try. No hell below us, above us, only sky. Lennon uses heaven as a metaphor for God. Imagine no God or the devil.

To deny heaven is to deny the existence of the Divine Creator of All Things (John 1:1-3). To deny the existence of God is to deny oneself: “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Ge 1:27). To deny the devil and hell is to repudiate responsibility and accountability (Ro 14:12). King David, a more prolific songwriter than Lennon ever hoped to be, composed a song: “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The fool has said in his heart, There is no God” (Ps 14:1).

Imagine no God is the crux of the problem and the reason for all the ills of the world. God’s creation has forgotten and forsaken their creator and has made themselves God.

There is a steady drumbeat of celebrities and influential people who opine religion is archaic or, as Karl Marx said, “religion is the opiate of the masses.” Putting this quote in its proper context, Marx said: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.”

To “give up their illusions”—and Marx was specifically speaking about Christianity—means for people to abandon hope in the Divine. In this paradigm of living, there is no rationale to love your neighbor as yourself, or peace on earth, and good will toward all. A continual state of anarchy would rule the world. Lennon once commented that “Imagine” was an “anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic song. In short, it was an anti-everything song (the communists loved it). Did Lennon forget that another Lenin had already embraced his “imagine” and achieve it by an armed-bloody-merciless-revolution that murdered millions?

The Bolshevik revolution of 1917 banned religion (Christianity) and forced the Russian people into a brotherhood of man. After discarding all divine structures, what was left? About 70 years of death, destruction, and misery! Isn’t it ironic that when given the chance to throw off the shackles of an “imagine” religious-free society, the Russian people were quick to embrace religion again?

Christmas and Easter renew us in a blessed hope. The Spirit refreshes our imagination in the knowledge of something greater than ourselves! But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”— (1Co 2:9).

I resolve not to “imagine” a vain thing. We find our hope in Peter’s epistle: “But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish” (2Pe. 3:13-14). Can you “Imagine” this with me?