City Of Evil (2005) "The Wicked End" (Part 1)

[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

Rarely do I listen to a song over and over again, but this opus is magnificent. One hearing was simply not enough, and the real impact of the poet's work is not experienced nor understood until one listens to every layer of this incredible piece.

The poet begins his song with an indictment against all mankind,

Man's becoming more corrupt now, godless, wicked, and cruel

Jesus, Who laid an indictment against His own generation as wicked, predicted the day when judgement would come against a generation even more wicked, when wickedness would reach its fullness

The soulless man stood silenced, Mary's "word" rang so true
Chastisement worse than the flood, spread the word, its all through

Mary's "word" is Jesus, referring to the opening lines of John the apostle's gospel,

In the beginning was the one who is called the Word. The Word was with God and was truly God. From the very beginning the Word was with God.

This was not written about some epic hero, or some ancient legend, but about a thirty year old carpenter out of Nazareth. A regular guy, by all outward appearances, Who sixty years before (in 30ish A.D. John wrote his gospel around 90 A.D. or so) had made headline news.

John was now saying that this man, this carpenter was God. John tied his opening lines in with the opening line of Genesis,the first words of the Bible,

In the beginning God

Now John added more information to that – in the beginning, before Genesis, there was the Word, and the Word was with God and was God.

“Word,” the English word, comes from the Greek word Logos, which was familiar to the Greeks in their philosophy just as it was familiar to the Jews in their philosophy. To the Greeks, Logos meant “First Cause,” the reason or the will behind the universe, an unknowable force. Plato once wrote that he hoped a Logos would come from God some day to make the meaning of life clear.

In Hebrew this word was called “Debar” and it was God’s expression of Himself, “Thus saith the Lord.” Logos, or “Debar,” was the word that proceeded from God’s mouth and accomplished what God intended to do, almost a synonym for God Himself.

So this Logos concept incorporated the idea that this was God. But John was saying that Logos, the Word, was another personality with God. The nuance of the word “with,” in Greek, meant that Logos looked God straight in the eye, did not kneel as a subject, or look down as a superior, but looked on as an equal. John was grappling with one of the deepest mysteries of God: the Trinity. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

How could one God be more than one Person? That’s impossible. Yet here is the mystery, that the Word was so intimately involved with God that their thoughts and purposes were one. The Word and God were one, as Jesus would later say, “I and the Father are one.” But how could both Jesus and the Father be God? How could the Son be His own Father? Yet here in verse one John declared that the eternal Word was a Person separate from God, with God, and yet also was God.

There is no other way to translate these words without violating the laws of Greek grammar, though people have tried. John was taking great pains to make his point clear: There is only one God, and Jesus was one with that God, and Jesus is God.

As John continued to introduce his theme, he explained that Jesus was the light, but the light was rejected,

Everything that was created received its life from him,and his life gave light to everyone. The light keeps shining in the dark, and darkness has never put it out.

Yet sadly

The Word was in the world,but no one knew him, though God had made the world with his Word. He came into his own world, but his own nation did not welcome him.

This is what the poet is referencing when he sings,

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

The poet's next line makes reference both to a famous number found in Revelation and God's supreme justice,

We've grown into the numbers six hundred sixty six

There has been much speculation during the past two millennia over what exactly John the apostle was indicating with this number when he wrote,

Solve a riddle: Put your heads together and figure out the meaning of the number of the Beast. It's a human number: 666

The Beast is a leader who will have paranormal powers, able to mimic and even outdo the miracles Jesus performed. But the Beast will be utterly evil, the tincture and very essence of all that's wicked. Knowing this, one of the early church's first theologians, Irenaeus, suggested that the number indicates that the beast is the sum of all apostasy. This idea is in keeping with what God Himself said about His judgement: He would not bring destruction until "sin had reached its full measure," meaning there would be absolutely no person left who would have any inclination to turn to Him for rescue.

This is what God explained to Abraham when He covenanted with him in Genesis. God promised Abraham that his descendants would have the land of Canaan for their own country. But not until

...the fourth generation will your descendants come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.

Joshua recorded what happened when the Abraham's fourth generation of descendants reached Canaan. These are the famous battles that so many have trouble reading about because of the utter destruction involved, where even women and children were killed, all the flocks and herds, all the buildings and material goods burned to the ground. Why? Why the brutality? How could a loving God command it?

The answer is wrapped up in the holiness of God, the corruption of sin and the destiny of all the universe.

Roll back time to the days of the great flood (which the poet refers to in his song, "Chastisement worse than the flood"), described in the first chapters of Genesis. Chapter 6 opens with the Lord's lament over the complete decomposition of humanity,

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them."

The word “sorry” here is a description of God’s response to humanity’s total and utter depravity. Sin breaks God’s heart. Sin describes the heart condition you and I, and all people, are born with, a tendency to rebel against God’s authority. Sins are the acts that reflect our heart condition. The Bible says that sin defiles, sin damages, and sin grieves and offends the heart of God.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD ... Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

...Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Scripture also describes how the corruption of sin spreads: first the sinner is corrupt, then sin spreads into the family, then to the animals with them, then even to the material goods and finally even to the land inhabited by the sinners -- you and I see that today, vividly illustrated in the effects of disease and pollution. The people of Noah’s day reached a degree of depravity that threatened to irreversibly contaminate the earth.

The Hebrew words used here to describe evil are “shachat:” meaning “morally putrid, totally decayed, spiritually gangrenous, destroyed and wasted.” And “chamas,” which means “seeking to gain through assault, physical attack, cheating and/or oppression.”

Jesus warned that society will return to a similar condition at the time of the end.

Corruption had become so widespread and complete that God pronounced total destruction as the only solution.

• If God did not judge wickedness and corruption, it would mean that God was indifferent to the existence of right and wrong, good and evil. But He is not indifferent, God's wrath, grief, and intense pain over evil is the necessary and only right response.

• Throughout the Bible the limits of defilement also define the limits of God’s judgment. God’s judgment never goes beyond the boundaries of sin’s damage. God is just. So His judgments are just, He gives what is deserved. The penalty for sin, which is death, is the deserved judgment. It is mercy which is totally undeserved. Sin's penalty was, and will be, no greater than sin itself, and not one innocent person was, or will ever be, judged against.

• God rights what has been made wrong when He judges. God’s wrath, or judgment, protects and preserves those who are not the serpent's sycophants. Think of God as a surgeon. He knows when and how to wield His scalpel. He knows how much or how little to remove to protect the healthy tissue. God is an enemy to disease and a friend to health. God moves with the motives of mercy and love.

So God washed the entire earth clean, saving what was salvageable and starting over.

The same pattern reappeared with the people of Canaan. Their sin reached its full measure so that even the earth itself was full of corruption and disease. Severe mercy meant cleansing the entire area and beginning again. Can you save a dying pelican covered in the thick slime of petroleum? No. It is more merciful to bring death quickly and dispose of the body, than to leave the pelican suffering and then allow it to further pollute the ocean. It sickens you and me. And it sickens God profoundly more.

God found no pleasure in this drastic cleansing, not in Noah's day, not in the days of Canaan, and not at the end of time,

"As surely as I live," declares the Sovereign LORD, "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die...?"

Scripture describes God's coming judgment as dreadful to act as a warning to sinners to run to Jesus for rescue.

This epic poem is so rich that I will continue with it tomorrow

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment and join the conversation