Next up is guitarist-band leader Jack’s mission, which was given to him during singer Erik’s final singing note to end the performance of a prophetic song at a local music festival, given to him by God’s angels, the Tooters. The message to him, stated in the snippet below, was given to him for two reasons. One, he was the leader of the band, having also been the leader of the street gang four of the band members originally hailed from. Two, he was the only band member who had ever actually read God’s Word, the Holy Bible. Never mind that his father, who followed an evil fake “Christian” cult, beat him over the head with it! So that, while he had read parts of the Bible, having been abused with it, Jack was still reluctant to lead band members into studying it, as stated below. Thus, this mission wasn’t exactly an easy one! Yet while abuse from his father using the Bible caused Jack to hate Christianity, he never thought Christ Himself favored this abuse, which is why the Tooter giving him the mission message could count on Jack doing the mission, stated in the angel’s final sentence about ‘guidance.’
Below is the Tooter message to Jack as he listened, having stopped playing his instrument. From Chapter Ten of The Prophesied Band, © 1998 Deborah Lagarde:
“Your first mission, band leader,” Tooter One spoke to Jack, “is to lead the band away from all sin and into the arms of righteousness.”
Jack stood there, not scared, but certainly not thrilled. Smirk. “I can’t believe,” he thought, “that you insist on using Sound Unltd. We’re not—”
“You’re not religious. Yes, we know that. But you are the ones The Creator has chosen, and, despite your wicked lifestyles, He insists upon using you. So, listen up, band leader. If you want to know what you have to do to lead the youth of this world to salvation through His Son, the Messiah, before he saves the faithful and crushes the wicked, you must lead your band mates in studying His Word.”
“You mean, the Bible?” Jack began to hyperventilate. “But my dad—”
“Yes, we know what your dad did. But he’s not around anymore to hurt you. That’s in the past. Now it’s time to grow up, Jack Lubin. It is you and your band mates that have caused the youth to follow the Evil with your demonic crystals, your licentious music and lyrics and depraved stage antics. Now it is time for you to give up those ways and lead the youth back to the Ways of the Creator.”
In a quandary, Jack thought, “But I don’t understand what the Bible says!”
“Then you ask His Son for guidance.”
That is, ask Jesus Christ for guidance…which of course meant Jack, as well as the other band members, had to repent of their sins and accept Christ as Lord, Savior, and Redeemer, and ‘be born again’ as is stated in the Gospel of John, Chapter Three (verses three through seven), whereby Christ tells the Pharisee Nicodemus that he must be born again, that is, having been born of the water (at birth), he must now be born again but of the Spirit (that is, accept the in-dwelling Holy Spirit).
Below is an example of how Christ ‘guided’ him during a Bible study, in a pub no less. Note: The snippet mentions pub owner Kelly, bassist Keith’s father, Sean, and grandfather, Angus, as well as Billy, who adopted Jack and drummer Tom. From Chapter Sixteen of The Prodigal Band, © 2018 Deborah Lagarde.
“Why us?” Late July, 2003, Bible Study at the White Horse Pub, around 8 p.m.
“So, it sounds to me like the Bible says we can’t cuss anymore.”
Keith waxed regretful. He was designated by the others in the band as the ‘king of cussing.’ The Bible passage he referred to was Ephesians 4:29—‘Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.’
Pub owner Kelly, who had once told Erik and Bry to ‘keep on cussing’ the night of Mick and Julie’s engagement two years before, butted in with this pronouncement. “That’s not what that passage means, Keith. And I knew since we were studying Ephesians you’d bring that up!”
Still miffed. “You did, eh?”
“Yeh, Keith. Whenever I read that passage, I think of you!” Chortle.
Cut short by Sean Mullock. “Yeh and whenever I read that passage, I think of you, Kelly!”
Murmurs of “Oooooooo! Burn!” all around from the six and other pub goers in this weekly Bible Study session at the pub, including the women. And Morwenna. The Bible expert who could settle all arguments over what a passage really meant.
“I mean, Kelly, you the one who got me to cuss, and Billy, too.”
“Only Billy called it ‘swearing’,” Jack cut in.
“‘Cos ol’ Angus—God rest his soul—sure as hell wouldn’t let me cuss when I was a wee lad!”
“Yeh, yeh, yeh,” Kelly intoned. “But I am right. Ephesians 4:29 does not say you can’t cuss, okay? It means you should not use—the Bible defines it as profanities in many places—what we would call ‘foul language.’ Anyway, if you are trying to get someone to accept Christ as Savior, eh, you shouldn’t use cuss words or any kind of foul language.”
“By whose definition?” If Keith was the ‘king’ of cussing, Erik was the ‘prince.’ At least. “Like who gets to decide what constitutes ‘foul language’? You know who I mean.”
“Well it’s not Her Majesty, eh? And I’m sure she cusses every now and then,” Kelly answered. “But you have a point. Who gets to decide what constitutes foul language is likely the folks we might consider ‘polite society.’ Still, when the Apostle Paul spoke the words of this passage, he was saying no foul language should be used when you are trying to get someone to accept Christ. Or in any other usage in trying to speak to someone you suspect wants to ‘get saved’ if you know what I mean.”
“In other words, when I’m singing or talking to whoever about Christ or the Bible or God or uplifting type stuff, no cussing, eh?”
“Right.”
“But—when I’m with you guys? I can say, well, you know.”
“Um—well, Erik, just don’t be all—just say it as if you trying not to say it, but out of habit it comes out of your mouth anyway! ‘Cos when you’ve been saying certain words your whole life, you know, habits are hard to break, right?”
“So,” Keith chimed in, “if I say a certain word or two without intending to? Like it just comes out by force of habit—and guys, I really am trying to not cuss anymore, eh—then it’s not a sin?”
“Yeh, that’s pretty much what I’m saying.”
“Exactly,” Morwenna spoke. “As I am always reminding everyone here—every sin you make comes from a sinful heart spoken out of your mouth. If you cuss without intending to—and when do most folks cuss anyway? When they are angry, right? And anger can be sinful. If you cuss without intending to and you truly are trying to break that habit—and Keith and Erik, you both are truly trying to break that habit, eh? Then it is not sinful. Again, intent is the key.”
And, as usual, Morwenna’s pronouncements ended another discussion on what the Bible really is saying. Further, she only butted in when an argument could only be clarified if she did butt in.
“So, that’s it, eh?” Sean asked if the Bible Study over Ephesians was concluded.
Though Kelly owned the pub, Jack, on the orders of The Tooters, was the leader of Bible Studies.
“Well, that’s it if you need to go, but I fully intend on addressing an issue we in the band really need to address because this issue has only been around since The Tooters gave us ‘Let the Night Down.’ And that issue is this—why us? Why our band? Why were we chosen for this?”
“Our talent, eh? And the fact that we the ‘prophesied band’ and—”
Rolled his eyes. “Uh, Keith,” Jack smirked, “yeh we talented and all, but why? Like where did that talent come from? I don’t mean God, eh, and that’s the truth, it did come from God. But still, do you really think God just randomly picks six guys for great talent? God doesn’t do random. If He did, then some random Jew and not Paul—who was a leader of the Pharisees, right? He knew ‘the Law’ backwards and forwards. But God chose him since only a guy like that could repent, then be the Apostle to the non-Jews after he realized he was wrong when Christ actually spoke to him. Then he gets to say to the Gentiles that they are God’s children if they are inwardly—you know, Galatians 3?—chosen, if not outwardly chosen.”
Took a breath after that screed. “So, the six of us were chosen for a reason, and we need to know why. Because that’s been the burning question, eh?”
“So, God chose the six of us for a specific reason not related to some prophesy? Like how we supposed to find that out?”
“Because it goes deeper than that. Now like we know God gave us the talent. We know that. But what I’m trying to say is God gave us the means and the roots—”
“Genealogy!” Keith yelled. “Our ancestors, eh? And I know damned well where—”
Tom broke in, almost exasperated. “Well I sure as hell don’t know! I only know one thing about my ancestors—they were indentured. That’s it! I have no”—nearly cussing—“idea how it got into me to be a great drummer! None! Like I dreamed it? Bloody hell it’s got to be more than that! Erik sang in his dream, eh, but he knows bloody well where his talent came from.”
Because by 2003, the whole world knew that Erik’s grandfather was a world famous ‘crooner.’ and his great-great grandfather was a London-born opera singer in the 1880s who died very young, 26.
“So I’m saying that ancestors can be a reason, but all I know is, it’s not logical as far as I’m concerned for me.”
“But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t, Tom. For one thing, indentured folks don’t have birth certificates, right? So like how do you even know what’s in your genealogy?”
“Yeh, okay. But I don’t think that’s the only factor.”
“I agree, but we need to explore the issue anyway. Now it could be for Erik and Keith and maybe others that ancestry plays a big role, but for me and you, not so much, eh Tom? But we need to do it anyway. Because as for roots, I truly believe there is one defining root here. Could it be all six of us are related somehow?”
All Erik—with a London-born father and Norwegian mother—could say was, “Wow!”
“Which is why we need to look at two Bible passages. The first one is Titus 3:9.”
So they opened their Bibles to that passage.
“Notice the mention of the word ‘genealogy,’ and what it says is, basically, don’t get into it. But look at the context.”
Titus, a follower of Paul, was told that as a believer from Crete, he should not listen to Jews who refused to accept Christ while calling Cretans evil people.
“Like it no longer matters, Jew or Gentile, eh? Except like Galatians says, if you are inward as a believer in Christ, or outward. Now to get a better idea, go to First Timothy 1:4.”
Which they did.
“Now here it talks about ‘endless’ genealogy. Meaning, going back and going back until basically you are back to Adam and Eve, eh? Because as Paul told Titus, it doesn’t matter anymore. But that concerns if you follow Christ, or not. That doesn’t mean we can’t try to find out somehow—and I have no idea how, but I suspect God will find a way if we are supposed to know this, eh? And I suspect God just might have this in mind. Like I said, He doesn’t do random. There is a hidden reason we were chosen.”
It turns out that indeed, all six are somehow related to each other, dating back to the time of England’s conquest by William of Normandy in the late 1000s.
The next post, Part Three, will be posted later in September.
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