Just imagine! “Imagine there's no heaven…no hell below us…no countries…no religion…and no possessions. A brotherhood of man…Imagine all the people sharing all the world.”You might recognize these lyrics from one of the songs played at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. The song is called, you got it- “Imagine,” by John Lennon. It was released in 1971.
The old ideas behind the song were borrowed from a secular-liberal worldview; the likes of which ended up inspiring the Sexual Revolution and political movements such as socialism and communism. Incidentally, this one world dream- that is, a world without God, without a heaven or hell and without division –is the foundation upon which the United Nations has based its policies. Also noteworthy is that the world of John Lennon’s imagination has been realized in many of America’s public institutions; most notably public education.
In a nutshell, Lennon's world is a world devoid of differences; a world of equal results.
This begs the question: Why is that godless, atheistic and secular people have an aversion to human differences? Why is it that they feverishly try to erase the differences between religions, moral codes, countries, races, genders, economic classes, age, and sexual preferences? Indeed, nothing offends adherents to secular-liberalism more than drawing attention to human differences; especially when the results of those differences are categorized as right or wrong, guilty or innocent, superior or inferior, and success or failure.
If John Lennon lived long enough to see a world conformed to his “Imagine” song, would he really be happy without having any possessions? Would he want his native country, Great Britain, to lose all of its peculiar English traits? There is a lot he wouldn’t like about the world he imagines. To live as one in brotherhood without religion, without possessions and without a country sounds nice...but only in theory! Given the reality of human nature, the world he imagines would undoubtedly be bland and gray. This dreary existence is but the result of a human spirit that no longer sees anything worth dying for. It is a kind of hell; a world without Christ.
If there is no heaven above us, there is ultimately nothing that is good enough to die for. But it can be also said that if there is nothing good enough to die for, there is nothing good enough to live for either. On the flipside, if there is no hell below us- that is, if the denial of hell is pressed to its logical conclusion -then there is no evil worth avoiding. You see, when the two destinations of eternity are erased from our imaginations, then all we have is a series of severed moments without rhyme and without reason. “Imagine all the people living for today,” Lennon sings. Yesterday is but a memory, perhaps a memory of the wrong choices we made, and tomorrow is where consequences are realized. So why not focus on today? Just today!!
The bottom line is that a protest against human differences is a protest against God. Differences are the most dramatic when we compare God and creature, heaven and hell, and good and evil. In fact, when God created the world, he separated the things he created (i.e. land & sea, earth and sky, day and night etc). But he started off separating the light from darkness (a symbolic gesture of the fallen angels being separated from the angles of Light) which is but an anticipation of the Last Day when the children of darkness are separated from the children of Light. And when Adam and Eve sinned, they were separated from the Garden of Eden. Then again, when Cain murdered Abel, his punishment was such that he was separated from God’s presence. This act of divine separation continues to this day as it plays out between the City of Man and the City of God.
Through these separations and tensions, the most important differences in life are pronounced. Yet, these differences find no place in Lennon's imaginary world or in the world of secular-liberalism. To imagine there's no heaven…no hell below us…no countries…no religion…no possessions and nothing to die for, is a refusal to believe that we live in a spiritual and moral universe. It is also a refusal to believe in the final result of having to give an account for our thoughts, words and deeds before God.
Curiously, the denial of spiritual and moral differences has led to the denial of so many other differences too. But as Pope Pius XII said in his 1944 Christmas message, Democracy and Lasting Peace, a world without differences is a mechanical and colorless world. He said, "Equality degenerates to a mechanical level, a colorless uniformity the sense of true honor, of personal activity, or respect for tradition, of dignity -- in a word all that gives life its worth-gradually fades away and disappears."
John Lennon’s song is more than just a song. It really is a worldview that has become mainstream. It is a refutation of ultimate winners and losers in life. It is curious, then, that after having witnessed many winners and losers at the Olympic Games, that this song was used to bid farewell to the world in the closing ceremony.
As for us, the world of John Lennon's imagination is a world worth resisting. And for sure, it couldn't be more at odds with the world that Christ will inherit.“I will proclaim the decree of the LORD, he said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you. Ask it of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and, as your possession, the ends of the earth.” (Psalm 2:7-8)
Imagine: The world of John Lennon
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace
You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world
You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one
