Country star John Rich is pointing people to the biblical book of Revelation, using his musical talents to highlight the themes in Scripture’s most complex eschatological text.
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Rich released the eponymous “Revelation” earlier this year after spending time “watching the way the world’s going, the way our country’s going” and finding himself compelled to speak out.
The singer recently spoke with CBN News about how chaotic events in America and around the globe have prompted him to think more deeply about theological matters.
“I think we’ve all been thinking about that, but I really didn’t set out to write a specific song about it,” Rich said. “It just kind of came out of nowhere. It was kind of downloaded to me.”
Rich said the words started popping into his head, and he quickly wrote them down, finishing the song in about an hour.
“I tell people it’s really not lyrics; it’s really Scripture that I just made rhyme,” he said. “Like, I took what it says, and I figured out how to build that into what would be a song, and then I didn’t really know what to do with it.”
Watch the country star share what happened next:
Rich admitted he wasn’t sure who would be interested in a song called “Revelation,” but, as time progressed, he realized it’s a tune that really hits on the uncertainty and chaos so many feel.
“It became more and more apparent to me that the things that song was talking about — which is spiritual warfare — that there is a much bigger situation going on than Democrat, Republican, left, right,” he said. “Much, much, much bigger, which we’re told in Scripture.”
Rich continued, “That’s actually the truth of it — ‘We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers.'”
The singer reached out to conservative commentator Tucker Carlson to get his read on the tune — and that changed everything, as Carlson had him on his show and the song blew up in popularity.
“So, that’s where this thing got started was with Tucker,” Rich said. “And, since then, it has been viewed millions and millions of times. The [music] video [and] the song has been played millions of times by people and the conversation continues.”
The singer believes the song resonates because of what is “deep down inside of people” — a recognition that there’s a spiritual realm.
“They know that what they see every day is not the full story,” Rich said. “And they know there’s something else at work here, and that’s what the song talks about.”
Rich also spoke about the impetus for his boldness in speaking out on social, theological, and political views, noting he used to be “afraid of what would happen.” Considering the music industry creates artists and owns their image, he worried about his career.
“They want you to look like they want you to look, sing like they want you to sing, how they want you to sing, and present yourself how they see fit,” Rich said. “And, at one point, several years back, I just said, ‘Yeah, that’s just not going to work anymore, because I’m literally sacrificing not only my freedom of speech, but, I felt [my] integrity.”
He continued, “Like, if I know the truth about something, but I refuse to say it because I’m afraid of what these people are going to say or do, pretty sure we’re told not to be that way. We’re told to … ‘Rejoice when you’re persecuted for bearing my name.’ What a commandment — ‘Rejoice,’ like ‘Be really, really happy when people really, really hate you for speaking the truth about Me.'”
Ultimately, Rich said he knew he needed to speak out for and about the Lord. And, while it took some time for him to get to that place, he eventually left his record and publishing deal and now creates his own music. He’s free to say whatever he wants, including singing about Revelation and the spiritual nature of the world around us.
“It’s pretty incredible to see the impact,” he said.
Rich, who spoke with CBN News before the recent election, said some of the chaos in America right now can be attributed to a dearth of wisdom.
“[Proverbs 9:10] says, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,'” Rich said. “If you wonder why there’s so much foolishness and delusional behavior in our country right now … just ask the question, ‘How much fear of the Lord is there in America right now … how much reverence and respect for Him?'”
He believes the lack of respect for God is breeding societal chaos.
“Because of that, you see this wave of confusion, delusion, nonsense, foolishness, wickedness — all of that is just tidal waving over our country right now,” Rich said, explaining how the song connects to this chaos. “So, the point of songs like this is to get people to think, tell them the real truth, and give them an opportunity to turn around.”
Rich wants “Revelation” to inspire people to “pick their Bibles up and start reading it for themselves” and to pay special attention to what Scripture proclaims about culture and the end of days.
“Read what this says and start digging into it, because, what’s interesting about Daniel, and Revelation, 2 Thessalonians, Matthew 24 — when you read those things now in the current state of the world, those words explode off those pages,” he said. “They come straight at you, because we have real-time physical things we can point at that line up with what that’s saying. It’s no longer science fiction. It’s no longer a crazy thought to think that the Mark of the Beast could exist where every human being on the earth is tracked, and monitored, and they can’t buy or sell without the mark of the system.”
He mentioned restrictive places like China, where communist leaders are already putting social monitoring systems in place.
“Pick up the Bible and read it — that’s what I hope they do,” Rich emphasized, before discussing another important point. “[In the Bible, it] says, ‘As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the end.’ You got to think about, so what did Noah go through? Well, Noah was living on a planet that was completely corrupt, had been completely gone, completely wicked to the point where God even said, ‘I’m sorry I made [them] in the first place.'”
Rich noted that Noah was told how to prepare for what would come. He listened, built the boat, and weathered the massive flood.
“Now, Noah still had to experience that flood,” Rich said. “He just had a boat. The same flood that drowned all the wickedness lifted him up to safety, and when it was over with, he lands on Mount Ararat and he walks off the boat. And what does he have? He has a brand new world … to start over here.”
When it comes to the end of days, he said Christians have the same promise. While trials will come, there will be a “whole new world at the end of it,” as Revelation promises.
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