Slow Train Coming

Post on 23 February, 2020 by Dallin Malmgren

I want to tell you about a mir­a­cle that hap­pened to me. Well, it didn’t real­ly hap­pen to me, but boy was it a mir­a­cle! When I first believed in Jesus in 1975, I was full of zeal and enthu­si­asm. So I began to pray for Bob Dylan—I loved him in my hip­pie days, and he was one of the first to give me a glimpse of spir­i­tu­al things. I want­ed him to find what I found. Lo and behold. In August of 1979, Bob put out Slow Train Com­ing, an album so drenched in his new-found Chris­t­ian faith that no one could mis­take it.

I’ll grant you, his con­ver­sion only seemed to last for the next two or three albums. Then he became omi­nous­ly qui­et about reli­gion (although I would argue that his songs con­tin­ue to reflect rich spir­i­tu­al imagery). I have a the­o­ry about what hap­pened: like me, he was won over by a gen­uine encounter with the liv­ing Sav­ior. Then he was seized upon by the Savior’s church. He soon went scut­tling for cov­er. He dis­cov­ered there wasn’t much dif­fer­ence between the church he encoun­tered and the one his Sav­ior had to deal with.

I’m not point­ing to Dylan as a messiah—I am supreme­ly con­fi­dent he was as lost as I was—but the man has always had a gift for prophe­cy. I redis­cov­ered that when I lis­tened to the title song on his first Chris­t­ian album.

“Some­times I feel so low-down and dis­gust­ed, can’t help but won­der what’s hap­pen­ing to my companions/ Are they lost or are they found, have they count­ed the cost it will take to bring down/ All their earth­ly prin­ci­ples they’re gonna have to aban­don?” Earth­ly principles—that got me. Like mon­ey is more impor­tant than people…one coun­try is more favored by God than another…that you mat­ter more than me…that I mat­ter more than God. Huh? I got­ta aban­don those principles?

“I had a woman down in Alabama/ She was a back­woods girl but she sure was realistic/ She said, Boy, with­out a doubt, have to quit your mess and straight­en out/ You could die down here, be just anoth­er acci­dent sta­tis­tic…” The prophet warns: Straight­en out! Live like you’re sup­posed to…your time is limited…you could start by aban­don­ing those earth­ly principles—people, not money…there is only one coun­try and we are all citizens…you mat­ter as much as me…God is the pot­ter, I am the clay.

The prophet address­es the econ­o­my: “All that for­eign oil con­trol­ling Amer­i­can soil/ Look around you, it’s just bound to make you embarrassed/ Sheiks walk­ing around like kings, wear­ing fan­cy jew­els and nose rings/ Decid­ing America’s future from Ams­ter­dam to Paris…” The cir­cum­stances may have changed, but the gov­ern­ing dynam­ic hasn’t—we are moti­vat­ed (as a cul­ture) by greed, and we will fol­low those who promise to improve our circumstances.

Now he zeroes in: “Man’s ego is inflat­ed, his laws are outdated/ They don’t apply no more, you can’t rely no more to be stand­ing around waiting/ In the home of the brave, Jef­fer­son turn­ing over in his grave/ Fools glo­ri­fy them­selves, try­ing to manip­u­late Satan…” A diag­no­sis? Our demo­c­ra­t­ic ideals have been trashed…it is okay to put your­self first—in fact, you should…outdated laws, like sex­u­al and racial dis­crim­i­na­tion, and the empow­er­ment of the wealthy, and I’m not even going to address “Fools glo­ri­fy­ing themselves…”

And then he points a fin­ger at those who per­pet­u­ate this state of affairs: “Big-time nego­tia­tors, false heal­ers and women haters/ Mas­ters of the bluff and mas­ters of the proposition/ But the ene­my I see wears a cloak of decency/ All non-believ­ers and men steal­ers talk­ing in the name of reli­gion…” We are all account­able, and we are all being led astray—woe to us for allow­ing it, and woe to those who do the leading.

Then he points us to a solu­tion: “Peo­ple starv­ing and thirst­ing, grain ele­va­tors are bursting/ You know it costs more to store the food than it does to give it/ They say lose your inhi­bi­tions, fol­low your own ambitions/ We talk about a life of broth­er­ly love, show me some­one who knows how to live it…” Self-explana­to­ry, isn’t it? Just in case it’s not: WE ARE SUPPOSED TO TAKE CARE OF ONE ANOTHER.

Like every good prophet, he clos­es with a sor­row­ful obser­va­tion: “Well, my baby went to Illi­nois with some bad-talk­ing boy she could destroy/ A real sui­cide case, but there was noth­ing I could do to stop it/ I don’t care about econ­o­my, I don’t care about astronomy/ but it sure does both­er me to see my loved ones turn­ing into pup­pets…” What do we do when we see a tol­er­ance for self-destruc­tion? If I call my Chris­t­ian broth­er a pup­pet, I am judg­ing. But Dylan is a prophet, and I believe him. 

If this song is not an address to our church in these times, I don’t know what is. I wish I could feel more optimistic—I want to. I sup­pose it is all about how you inter­pret the image of a slow train com­ing. As long as the Lord is steering…

To hear this prophet­ic song, cut and paste the fol­low­ing link (I pre­fer the album ver­sion, but this was all I could find on YouTube): https://youtu.be/ebFUFUgKb0M

Comments

  • Reply

    I care­ful­ly lis­tened to the YouTube of “Slow Train Com­ing” and am embar­rassed to say it is prob­a­bly the only Bob Dylan song I’ve ever so care­ful­ly lis­tened to. I now under­stand why Eng­lish teach­ers often refer to him as a poet. I felt he cap­tured the very issue our country/world is grap­pling with. I have friends and fam­i­ly who for rea­sons I can­not under­stand, blind­ly fol­low and adore Trump. My sis­ter often says Trump is the anti-Christ and I have to agree. I’ve nev­er seen an Amer­i­can Pres­i­dent so dri­ven by greed. “…you have to serve some­body..” and I total­ly believe Trump is not serv­ing Jesus Christ in his bla­tant dis­re­gard for the poor­est among us. I pray for those who seem to not see what a tru­ly evil being they follow.

    Gina Bennett24 February, 2020
  • Reply

    Per­haps Mr. Dylan just noticed and vocal­ized what has been going on for thou­sands of years. I feel that this spir­i­tu­al war­fare has always been with us. And it even gets worse, accord­ing to the Bible! We must keep the faith and do our best to help our broth­ers and sis­ters in Christ do the same while hope­ful­ly bring­ing oth­ers into the fold.

    Laura24 February, 2020

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