Mick Jagger, founder and frontman for the Rolling Stones rock band, turned 78 on July 26. He’s still prancing around the rock stage. The band is planning a USA tour to begin in September. The Rolling Stones have had a vast influence on society, and it has been an evil one. From their inception they have preached the false gospel of “I’m free to do what I want any old time.” A Stones’ concert has been described as “an orgy of sexual celebration, with Jagger as head cheerleader. Strutting and prancing across the stage, his androgynous performances delight both men and women” (Larson’s Book of Rock, p. 181). As he has aged, Jagger has even sung about seeing Jesus Christ, “finding a state of grace,” and “joy” making his heart sing (the song “Joy” in the album Goddess in the Doorway), but it is a false christ and a false grace when tested by God’s Word. Rock & rollers have sung about spirituality since the 1950s, but the rock & roll christ is a new age christ who does not claim to be the only God and Saviour, who is not holy, does not warn about judgment and hell, does not demand repentance, and does not require the new birth. The rock & roll spirituality is a syncretistic one that is all-encompassing and all-accepting. Mick Jagger has never renounced thumbing his nose at God’s holy laws and his anti-christ past. In the 1970s, Newsweek magazine called Jagger “the Lucifer of rock” and “the unholy roller.” In 1968, the cover to Their Satanic Majesty’s Request depicted the Stones posed as warlocks. The 1969 Rock ’n’ Roll Circus tour ended with the song “Sympathy for the Devil” and Jagger ripping off his shirt to reveal a tattoo of the devil on his chest. In 2010, Keith Richards, another member of the Rolling Stones, said, “I’m not putting death on the agenda. I don’t want to see my old friend Lucifer just yet” (“Richards: Mick Jagger Was “Unbearable,” Reuters, Oct. 15, 2010). At the end of the day, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, et al, are just sinners in need of the salvation that God offers. They could be saved through repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21), but time is fast running out.
(Friday Church News Notes, July 30, 2021, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)