Someone asked a wise older pastor his view of the “end times.”
He smiled and said, “The Lord put me on the preparation committee, not the planning committee.”
We cannot control how God chooses to end history. Our theories about the future are just that. The Bible is too practical to focus extensively on an issue that possesses no pragmatic value for our lives.
If a particular theory can be proven of the end times, would such knowledge change our life today?
Nonetheless, sincere Christians passionately debate those issues which relate to “eschatology” (the doctrine of “last things” or the “end times”).
One thing I think we can safely say, though; it is later than we think, time seems to be racing by. It seems like just yesterday that I was sitting in a bar in Philadelphia with Joe Cocker talking about the issues of life and how the music business and our lives were constantly changing. This December Joe will have been gone for five years.
Joe’s version of “You are so Beautiful,” was raw, his voice strained, etc. but his version of Billy Preston’s song is legendary and we cannot imagine it being produced with today’s standard of slick production.
It is ironic how we spend so much time, especially as music producers, in perfecting a song before it is released only to end up with a project that is overproduced, usually over budget, etc. that just ends up flat.
I could point to many other songs that ended up becoming standards and a little magical that were released before “professionals” had time to “perfect” them. Songs like Barry McGuire’s Eve of destruction. The vocal track was thrown on as a rough mix on the B side of the song “What Exactly is the Matter With Me” and was not intended to be the final version, but a copy of the recording “leaked” out to a disc jockey, who began playing it. The song was an instant hit and as a result the more polished vocal track that was at first envisioned was never recorded. McGuire’s single hit #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the UK Singles Chart in September 1965.
