City Of Evil (2005) "The Wicked End" (Part 3)

Continued from July 2, 2010
[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
As performed by A7X

Man's becoming more corrupt now, godless, wicked, and cruel
The soulless man stood silenced, Mary's "word" rang so true
Chastisement worse than the flood, spread the word, its all through
Don't kill the messenger girl
As if we haven't swam enough in this life of misery

Voice your prophecy, shed us some light
Feel sorrow for mankind's chance to survive
Swallowed lies and swam in our own tears
A stab in the dark but it wounded our will
We won't be here tomorrow, hold on to me for one last time

We've grown into the numbers six hundred sixty six
War breaks, a sign of the end, eternally expelled
Look to the sky for knowledge, the stars align tonight
Eclipse and heaven shall fall
Now I know I've seen it all in my life of misery

Voice your prophecy, shed us some light
Feel sorrow for mankind's chance to survive
Swallowed lies and swam in our own tears
A stab in the dark but it wounded our will
Dust the apple off, savor each bite
And deep inside you know Adam was right
lust and power, indulgence, no fear
Left with his sins, how does this end?
We won't be here tomorrow, hold on to me for one last time

As the prophets shed the light on what's to come the crowds did gather
Your time is precious, they explained, no time to worry, messiah's coming
Don't go to sleep tonight, darling, hold me in your arms
These will be our final days and I can't let go

Walls are falling, churches burning, women ravaged, children crying
Flesh is tearing, some still fighting
In this world of misery

Voice your prophecy, shed us some light
Feel sorrow for mankind's chance to survive
Swallowed lies and swam in our own tears
A stab in the dark but it wounded our will
Dust the apple off, savor each bite
And deep inside you know Adam was right
lust and power, indulgence, no fear
Left with his sins, how does this end?
We won't be here tomorrow, hold on to me for one last time

The poet describes the end of the world, brought on by the sin of humankind coming to its full measure. Like an avalanche in slow motion, the soft crunch of Adam's teeth in the apple of old created the invisible force of sin that disrupted the matrix of creation. Now at the end of time, all blasts apart in utter devastation.

With mounting despair the poet cries his refrain,

We won't be here tomorrow, hold on to me for one last time

Not revealed in the lines of his poem is the music that now emerges, hauntingly beautiful, yet awful in its mourning. One pictures the silent destruction rolling in waves of fire across the heaving globe as a heavenly choir sings what sounds like "Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus."*

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts:
Heaven and earth are full of thy glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

This ancient mass, sung for millennia, finds its source in John's Revelation where all heaven sings of the majesty and holiness of God. These two images - the judgment of God on earth, and the holiness of God in heaven - sit in juxtaposition to each other because they are two faces of the same glory. It is God's very purity and holiness that makes it impossible for evil to exist in His presence. Like matter and antimatter, the one will destroy the other.

So it is that all who will be with God for eternity must be made of the same stuff of heaven. For those who are born again God pours Himself, His life, the essence of His being into that person and they are profoundly, unalterably transformed into the stuff of heaven. Jesus' disciple John said it this way,

My dear friends, we are already God's children, though what we will be hasn't yet been seen. But we do know that when Christ returns, we will be like him, because we will see him as he truly is. This hope makes us keep ourselves holy, just as Christ is holy.

Paul, also an apostle, spent a large portion of one of his letters talking about this same concept,

The First Adam received life, the Last Adam is a life-giving Spirit. Physical life comes first, then spiritual—a firm base shaped from the earth, a final completion coming out of heaven. The First Man was made out of earth, and people since then are earthy; the Second Man was made out of heaven, and people now can be heavenly. In the same way that we've worked from our earthy origins, let's embrace our heavenly ends.

In the music the heavenly voices and the earthly voices now join together as the poet depicts the last days coming to their climax,

As the prophets shed the light on what's to come the crowds did gather
Your time is precious, they explained, no time to worry, messiah's coming

This is a reference to two prophets who will be explaining all that's happening in that last hour, a final rescue prepared for those who are willing to embrace Jesus and all that's holy, to be lifted up out of the roiling cauldron of sin's penalty, as John described in his Revelation,

And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth

Once the two witnesses' days of prophesying come to an end, the angel will sound the seventh trumpet,

Walls are falling, churches burning, women ravaged, children crying
Flesh is tearing, some still fighting
In this world of misery

Then the poet brings in his reprise, sorrowing over the end of mankind, having swallowed the lies of the Serpent from the beginning to the end of time, immersed in tears, wounded pride, lust, power, indulgence, no reverence nor awe of God....all found in the sweet corruption of forbidden fruit. As Paul, the apostle, wrote,

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images...

Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.

*(It isn't. But it would have been brilliant if it was!)

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