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Frank Viola | Beyond Evangelical
Official Blog of Author & Speaker Frank Viola. Digging below the surface and moving beyond the shallows in today's Christianity.
John Lennon on Jesus: The Untold Story
Don’t Believe Everything You Read or Hear
Larry has personal contacts that report John was intensely reading the bible in the last 3 months of his life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83gdLZRt4Ug
I doubt most Americans understood John Lennon’s sense of humour and sarcastic wit. He was born in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Enough said.
There has always been a demographic divide where dialect and satire are concerned even in a small country like England. Nevertheless – he spoke the TRUTH.
The rioting that went on in America merely proves to me those responsible were not mature christians. The statement John made was as true then as it is today. Many people do not know Christ. Parents are not comfortable with the bible which interferes with their choice of SELF. They worship the false Gods, mammon and materialism.
His song Imagine is also a glimpse into a world where we do live in peace. Yeshua is the Prince of Peace and in His world there will be no killing, no hunger, it will be one world.
So John thank you were inspired to write ‘ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE’ If that isn’t a signpost to God – I don’t know what is because God is love.
Those christians who condemned John to hell might be surprised to find themselves in the very hell they wished on him. They simply knocked God off the Judgement seat. The zealots are very good at doing this. Jesus hated them. DANGEROUS STUFF.
Wow, what a respectful, considered debate. I read an account by someone who claimed to have of a vision of hell and that John Lennon was burning there because of his comment about the Beatles and Jesus. Do you not think that this is more likely to be the wish and judgement of a certain type of narrow minded fundamentalist Christian (as Scott Hahn the Theologian once said – no fun, no mental!). I’ve been reading about Hell a lot recently and I think that we all need to focus on the reality of Hell. Try St Alphonsus Liguori.
I was visiting my family in NY during college break the week of Lennon’s death, and was one of those gathered at the Dakota and at the Central Park memorial the Sunday after his murder. That week, the NY Daily News ran an interview with one of his bodyguards, who was also a Pentecostal pastor (who sadly was not on duty the night Lennon was killed). The pastor said in the article that John highly complimented a recording of pastor’s church choir, and expressed interest in producing their record. So who knows what kind of a positive influence of faith in Jesus this pastor and his church had on John? There’s an old preacher’s saying, “There’s salvation between the stirrup and the ground”–and Lennon’s last moments were more than enough time for him to call out to Jesus and, as Frank says, return in his heart to his Savior. Frank rightly adds that only eternity will ultimately tell–and as Richard Wurmbrand once said, heaven holds many surprises.
Dear Friends,
If there ever was a Beatles Fan it was me, they took precedence over the reigning king, Elvis, in my mind (You were always on my mind…Sorry got lost in my train of thought!!!). Our God is in the business of the Salvation of His creation, He sent His Son to accomplish that! Our job is to preach the gospel…Matt. 28:19,20. It is not our job to second guess our Creator but trust Him to do what is right for all of us, when we second guess Him we make ourselves more merciful than He is, and that is not true at all…Gen. 18:25 Far be it from you to do such a thing–to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
it’s not always ‘us’ that turn people away – it’s the Challenge of the Message..as Jesus found with the Rich Young Ruler, who He looked at and loved..
If even Jesus found that happening…
We hear so much about John and the Beatles..e.g. that they, at least John and Paul, maybe, were of Jewish extraction..
that the Liverpool R.C. influence turned them off Christianity..
Paul and George, and maybe John were influenced by ‘another christ’ weren’t they? i.e. Hare Krishna and the (a) Maherishi (sp?).
Who knows?
I did really like George, and think he came close, but reading deeply some of his words (towards the end), maybe still deceived by the false eastern self philosophies.
Good point, Marion. Sometimes it is the message of Jesus that offends. Thx for your comment.
I am encouraged because I keep seeing even main line denominations become concerned that they show the Lords Heart for people. I believe that we are currently in a season of love revival in preparation for the next and last HUGE revival. We must be “rooted and grounded in love” because everything in the Kingdom is rooted and grounded in love. Especially the King! I have never been more hopeful for His Church. I anxiously await the unvaling of this beautiful Church. When we honor each other and the world like our Lord did and does even now. Jesus said if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. I remember the day when I realized that I was the prodigal son and Abba was the One running to me, it just wrecked me! It still does and it always should. He wants the people who no church wants in their door. He loves them and doesn’t want to lose them, He created them and they are special to Him. He has a right to show them His love, the question is will we do His bidding? I do find it scary at times till I have jumped in, then Holy Spirit comes and takes over. Be His hand of love, be His tongue, lay your judgements at the feet of the One who is worthy to judge, be faithful. Walk in His love and goodness. Show them why you have hope!
There is no one like this Perfect One. I am so thankful He chose me to be merciful to, so thankful…..
I don’t know the state of John Lennon’s salvation at any point of his life, nor do I know what God’s final word is or will be on him. I hope God is merciful and I will have no cause to be concerned with God over his dealings with others as I believe he’s been merciful with me and the “work” I do now for God isn’t based on the expectation of return, but instead gratitude and love for what He’s done for me and my desire to serve him.
There’s plenty of evidence from Lennon’s life that he had questions, rejected many elements of organized religion and even at times that he wanted little to do with God or many traditional beliefs, including Jesus Christ.
I want to say that it surprises me but it really doesn’t anymore that many read an article with statements like this one and they react in a manner that seems angry that anyone would dare to believe that God is merciful and that someone whose reputation in life doesn’t meet their believed standards may have made peace with God in the final moments of their life. It’s as if they believe that it takes something away from them if God forgives others in greater measure than they themselves have been forgiven.
I believe that Jesus was addressing this point in part here:
Matt 20: “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
For my part, I’m content to leave John Lennon with God. I’m glad he showed evidence at points in his life of questions and a desire to consider other elements than what is commonly associated with him. It warms my heart rather than causing it pain to think that perhaps in the final moments of his life, he may have come to some form of peace with God and that he had the benefit of information and encouragement in that direction at points in his life.
I’m absolutely fine if somebody comes to God differently than me in terms of their timing and relationship and even in some of their understandings given that many of my understandings find their roots in Church traditions that in many ways are different than many others came to Christ in the times before mine were contextualized and developed.
I believe Jesus is the way. Jesus and my understanding about Jesus are not necessarily the whole entire same thing. It’s even possible that I’ve got some things wrong and misunderstand things. I sure hope God will be more merciful with me in that case than I have been at times with others.
Very interesting and nice to see this perspective of John Lennon. I’ve always been a Beatles’ music fan…and each one as individual artists as well. I think people need to be very careful of summing up a person as one-dimensional and judging their spritual status & journey. Each of us must run our own race and our impact on other’s and the world will speak for itself…we need to be less focused on trying to determine other’s relationship with GOD. If we are doing what we are each called to do…then we will be put in the perfect and exact situations to accomplish GOD’s will for us. So much energy trying to judge others, much time at a shallow surface level and at a far distance. Here’s hoping that we see John Lennon in heaven 🙂
Ray Comfort released a movie on Lennon called ‘Genius’ some time ago. I think he should’ve looked at this interview and the positive things Lennon said about Christ.
Thanks Frank. We ditched satellite tv for Roku recently and happened to catch a great program about John Lennon which included part of that interview. It is sad that the church so easily judges those that are still searching or are just discovering a walk with Christ. If you listen to what Lennon actually says, there is nothing that indicates that he was opposed to Christ or that he was being iconoclastic or arrogant. Maybe one of the reasons Jesus is so attractive to so many (while the church ain’t) is because the church seems often ready to judge and criticize. Who wants to hang out with a grump? We accuse others while excusing ourselves. And yet, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them…
Hey would you mind stating which blog platform you’re working with? I’m going to
start my own blog soon but I’m having a hard time selecting between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique.
P.S My apologies for getting off-topic but I had to ask!
WordPress. Click here https://www.frankviola.org/2013/02/15/howtostartablog/
It’s very interesting to hear this after all these years. The Beatles were that popular in those times. They were on top of the world! I think it’s so incredible and believable that he was searching and he was basically unhappy but that he sought out the religious community for help. Then he said he was a believer! God did not turn him away! God does not do that! All we have to do is look back into the Bible as far as Genesis! I do hope that John is in heaven with the Lord!
A few years ago, an article was published in Guidepost magazine that was the story of a young woman who was in Japan either with her own missionary family or doing childcare for a missionary couple. Quite by accident she ran into John Lennon and had a brief conversation with Lennon about his statement. His response was not that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus but as was stated drew bigger crowds and influenced people. She also wrote that he did tell her that he was a Christian and a member of the COE–Church of England.
Think it was a couple yrs now, but Netflix ran a documentary on Lennon. It was pretty personal… what led to a seperation from Yoko… a descent to “hitting bottom” out in L.A. The way it sounded was that this was the time he was searching. Somewhere else I read that one of the Gaithers witnessed to him while in Ca. There was a photo of him in the documentary after he reconciled with Yoko… not that wearing a cross means we are a Christian, but he was wearing one. It seemed like he changed after Ca. More loving, family oriented, stopped drinking. That might seem like “fruit”?
It very well could be. Thx for sharing this. Truth is, unless we were living with him during his last days, it is all speculation on our part. I think the Oral Roberts letter is fascinating.
Hi Frank are you saying that unless someone accepts Christ as their personal lord and Savior they won’t be with God for eternity?
Brian: I’ve never used the language of “accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.” In fact, I have critiqued it in this book, http://www.PaganChristianity.org. This isn’t the place to get into a discussion of soteriology. The post is about John Lennon’s views on Jesus and I wish to keep it focused on that.
If you’re interested in my views on soteriology, read Watchman Nee’s book “The Normal Christian Life.” It explains it better than most places I’ve seen. It’s available on this list: https://www.frankviola.org/top100
I’ve also discussed salvation in many of my blog posts. See the Archives.
Frank,
Thanks for posting, although the last few paragraphs of your post lead me to understand that you can lose your salvation: “abandoning” one’s faith and “returning” to one’s faith. I believe that salvation, by definition, cannot be lost or it is not salvation. it is a “temporary reprieve” , perhaps. Maybe that is not what you intended to communicate. Also, man looks at outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. When you say, Lennon’s “abandoned the faith, one must be careful not to judge. I know that you would agree with me here that church attendance does not define whether one has abandoned the faith either. If Lennon had true faith, it will not be abandoned as God is faithful and would never abandon Him. I guess what I’m saying is our salvation is not dependent on our faithfulness, but on God’s.
That’s not what I’m saying. I’m implying that we don’t know if his faith was real or not when he made a profession, since (as far as we know), there wasn’t fruit meet for repentance. But either way, he knew the Way. So during his last moments, one can never tell what the state of his heart was. That’s all.
I remember when this happened, however as I remember it the quote was “we are more popular than Jesus.” One of the local radio stations WBBR (no longer in business) advertised in the paper as “We Burn Beatle Records.”
There was an article in Guideposts (5 or so years ago) by a missionary serving in Japan. It seems the Lennons were bicycling one day and stopped at the missionaries yard sale. When she had asked him about the 1966 article, he spoke up for Christ, stating that no one was better than Christ. I believe he answered yes to her question if they were believers. He also said that they were “C of E” – Church of England. And John and Yoko went to church that week. That’s the way I remember it anyway…
“In 1977, Lennon became deeply moved by NBC’s broadcast of the movie Jesus of Nazareth, even telling his friends that he had become a Christian . . . “born again.”
Well then, he is in heaven today. Everlasting life, the gift of it, is given once and for all, when one becomes born again.
Great news!!
Years ago I was reading Guidepost magazine. I wish I could remember the issue. I know it has been within the last 10 years but don’t remember if the issue was earlier than that. But in the article a missionary shared that John Lennon had received Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Of course the article was many pages in that wonderful devotional but this woman led him to Jesus. Maybe if you contact Guideposts someone might have that article. Thank you for sharing this, John was my favorite Beatle in the group
Frank, sadly my recollections of those days are foggy and I am surprised to hear that this began in the 60’s because it was still a very hot topic in the 70’s. Even then the outrage for this and many lyrics of his songs (Imagine)as well as burning theaters that showed Jesus Christ superstar was baffling to me.
Because of where I was at spiritually then these thing brought me closer to Jesus and my denominational experiences greatly delayed my eventual life with Him.
PS: Frank I don’t read many blogs but I even read the responses to your blogs.
Great group of subscribers !
Sadly, I think Lennons statement could just as easily be applied to Stryper in their day or TobyMac, Chris Tomlin, Franics Chan, Rob Bell or Kirk Cameron. Bearing in mind I’m not criticizing these folks and I think, in large part, they have no control over how they are made the focus of worship, but many Christians today are far more interested in them and what they are doing, thinking, saying than in Jesus. Which is really sad.
Great Post Frank! We will probably never know the vast number of people that “organized Christianity” has turned away. So sad.
PS Love the Beatles!
Thanks for the story –
I was a true Beatle fan, and actually still am. When this happened I was very much into it and even then I was amazed at how John’s words got twisted. In my mind it seemed to me that John was not saying he thought ‘they’ were bigger than Jesus, but that the fans were treating them (the Beatles) s if they were.
As a Christian it hurts me when I see those who seem to be ready to jump and judge, and seem ready for a ‘fight’, or to find fault, and ready to make a controversy.
It certainly is more productive and more Christ-like to listen with ears and heart of love.
Obviously John was searching and I’m so happy to know that he did find Jesus. That is something I have not heard before.
Thanks for the story – I’m glad to know my teenage heart really understood that at the time. Blessings
Thank you, Frank. This helps me a lot. Because of John Lennon’s assertion that drugs helped him be more creative as an artist, and because the Beatles were enormously influential in the day to day live of kids my age back in the 60s, I saw a lot of kids get into drugs, and some died. I felt antipathy toward him about it. And yet life without Christ, without God is empty. Lennon experienced it. We can accept Christ in a moment, and become His. But to grow up and understand the life He’s saved us for can take a very long time, indeed. And to actually live in the kingdom, and experience the abundant life = a life where experiencing the fruit of the Spirit = we may never get there. And the problem is not that we don’t work hard enough at it. It’s a Romans 12:1 problem. We don’t really offer ourselves up to God as living sacrifices – something we need to do as often as we need to do it – staying close to DADDY – saying “yes” to Him as well.
I am so glad to know this about Lennon. I went to the shay stadium and almost blew my lungs out when they introduced Murray the K. Then when THEY were introduced, I remember being afraid I actually WOULD blow my lungs out. SO MUCH FUN>
I have a 32 yr old son that is not a believer (the saddest part of my life) and was excited that I might be able to share Lennon’s being born again. … but then I read here that wife talked him out of it. My son would just look at that as further proof of non existing power of God. Oh well, I was happy to read it til that part. I think John was allowed to live those last few minutes for the chance to give himself back.
Thank you for this. I had often heard that “God” intended the Beatles and their music to worship Him,and it made sense to me -albeit without much thought behind it making sense. This article is very insightful.
Wow, those are revealing excerpts from the book about John Lennon. I was also glad to read of Oral Roberts reply to him. This article does show there is a need for prayer for people in the public eye, as well as, some mature Godly people to come along side for mentoring and befriending, especially during the the first weeks and months after a meaningful experience or conversion.
Ouch! We have failed miserably in so many instances as the true Body of Christ. We hear of someone saying something and then we, without getting our facts correct, become the “accuser of the bretheren”. Lord, show us the true revelation of your LOVE. Remove the dross of religion from us. Let us tend and feed your sheep.
Fascinating to put that quote into an actual context. It reminds me of Nietzsche famously saying that “God is dead.” He wasn’t making a statement about his faith or lack of it (though it’s easy for Christians to pull that quote out of context.) He was indicting his German countrymen whose lifestyles contradicted the faith they professed. “God is dead, and you have killed him,” is the full sentence.
nice example 🙂