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
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.
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.