Solid Rock

God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you, put it in the soul of everyone.
- Kiss, “God Gave Rock and Roll to You II”, Revenge (1991)

Some would consider this a blasphemous oxymoron. You may hear sermons or read books that condemn rock and roll, even Christian rock, for its overall “Satanic nature”. While some rock bands do use Hellish lyrics and imagery, while some exemplify and promote immoral lifestyles (as do many musicians of any given genre), while I, unlike some others of my generation, respect the “Traditional Church” and its leaders and get no “kicks” from criticizing them, and while I would not normally accept the philosophies of 1970’s glam rockers over those of seasoned pastors, I have to side with Kiss on this one. Rock and roll does not belong to the Devil any more than sex or food or any other pleasurable thing belongs to him.

To do aught good never will be our task;
But ever to do ill our sole delight:
As being the contrary to His high will
Whom we resist. If then His providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labor must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil:
Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps
Shall grieve Him, if I fail not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from their destin'd aim.
- Satan, John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667)

James tells us that every good thing in this world comes from God. God creates; Satan perverts. God gave us sex; Satan turns us to lust. God gave us food; Satan turns us to gluttony. God gave rock and roll to you; Satan can pervert it just like anything else.

God is omnipresent. His Word is vast and comprehensive. As an example of this, and as an expression of my love of classic rock, I present the Solid Rock project. In 2006, the Muse led me to seek out scripture references to correlate with each line of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” (For example: the line, “I am just a poor boy, nobody loves me” = Proverbs 14:20, "The poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends"). Like a puzzle, this activity proved both fun and beneficial. It tested my Biblical knowledge and exercised my lookin’ up muscles. Whether anyone else found it entertaining or not, I don’t know, but I enjoyed it. A couple of years later, I completed a similar project using Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”. Both of these have been posted elsewhere, but I’ve decided to share them here, as well as a new one I just finished. I recommend biblegateway.com for easy reference. Enjoy.


"Bohemian Rhapsody"
Queen, A Night at the Opera (1975)

Is this the real life (John 18:38a)
Is this just fantasy (Proverbs 12:11)
Caught in a landslide (Numbers 16:31-34)
No escape from reality (Jonah 1:8-10)
Open your eyes (Mark 8:25)
Look up to the skies and see (Genesis 15:5)
I'm just a poor boy (poor boy) (Luke 16:20-21)
I need no sympathy (Job 2:11)
Because I'm easy come, easy go (Ecclesiastes 5:15)
Little high, little low (Luke 19:1-4)
Anyway the wind blows (Ecclesiastes 1:6)
Doesn't really matter to me (Genesis 25:32)
To me (Jeremiah 2:1)

Mama (Genesis 3:20)
Just killed a man (Genesis 4:8)
Put a gun against his head (Judges 4:21)
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead (1 Samuel 17:48-49)
Mama (Proverbs 31:28)
Life had just begun (Genesis 1:27)
But now I've gone and thrown it all away (Genesis 3:6)
Mama oo oo oo oo (Exodus 4:25)
Didn't mean to make you cry (John 11:35)
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow (Matthew 16:21)
Carry on, carry on (Philippians 3:14)
As if nothing really matters (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

Too late (John 11:21)
My time has come (John 12:23)
Sends shivers down my spine (Matthew 24:12)
Body's aching all the time (Job 30:17)
Goodbye, everybody (Genesis 19:24-25)
I've got to go (Exodus 4:18)
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth (Matthew 27:5)
Mama oo oo oo oo (Romans 8:22)
(Any way the wind blows) (Psalm 104:4)
I don't want to die (Mark 14:36)
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all (Job 3:11)

I see a little silhouetto of a man (Ezekiel 1:26)
Scaramouche, Scaramouche (Judges 11:3)
Will you do the Fandango? (2 Samuel 6:14-15)
Thunderbolts and lightning (Psalm 18:12)
Very very frightening me! (Luke 2:9)
Galileo (Galileo) (Acts 18:12)
Galileo (Galileo) (Acts 18:16)
Galileo Figaro (Numbers 22:16-17)
Magnifico! (1 Kings 10:23)
I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me (Proverbs 14:20)
He's just a poor boy from a poor family (1 Kings 17:12)
Spare him his life from this monstrosity! (Job 13:21)
Easy come easy go (Ecclesiastes 2:18)
Will you let me go? (Psalm 142:7)
Bismillah! No! We will not let you go! (Jude 6)
Let him go! (Genesis 32:26)
Bismillah! We will not let you go! (Deuteronomy 28:42)
Let him go! (Isaiah 42:7)
Bismillah! We will not let you go! (Matthew 27:21)
Let me go! (Psalm 116:16)
Will not let you go! (Genesis 40:21-22)
Let me go! (Luke 23:39)
Will not let you go! (Psalm 107:10)
Let me go! (Acts 16:26)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no! (Mark 14:67-71)
Oh mama mia, mama mia (Luke 2:6-7)
Mama mia let me go! (Genesis 2:24)
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me (Matthew 12:24)
For me (Romans 5:8)
For meeeeee! (1 Chronicles 4:10)

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye (Acts 7:51-60)
So you think you can love me and leave me to die (Proverbs 7:21-23)
Oh, baby (Song of Solomon 4:1)
Can't do this to me baby (Psalm 22:1)
Just gotta get out (Revelation 20:7)
Just gotta get right outta here (Genesis 39:12)

Nothing really matters (Titus 3:9)
Anyone can see (Luke 24:45)
Nothing really matters (Matthew 16:26)
Nothing really matters to me (Ecclesiastes 2:17)

Any way the wind blows... (John 3:8)


"Stairway to Heaven"
Led Zeppelin, The fourth album (1971)

There's a lady who's sure (Ruth 1:15-16)
All that glitters is gold (Haggai 2:8)
And she's buying a stairway to heaven (Genesis 28:12)
When she gets there she knows (Luke 1:41-44)
If the stores are all closed (Luke 2:7)
With a word she can get what she came for (Judges 16:15-17)
And she's buying a stairway to heaven (Genesis 11:4)

There's a sign on the wall (Daniel 5:5)
But she wants to be sure (Joshua 2:12-13)
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings (Matthew 13:34)
In a tree by the brook (Revelation 22:1-2)
There's a songbird who sings (Psalm 63:7)
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiving (Psalm 94:11)

It makes me wonder (Luke 1:29)
It makes me wonder (Ecclesiastes 6:12)

There's a feeling I get (Job 37:1)
When I look to the west (Joshua 12:7)
And my spirit is crying for leaving (Luke 23:46)
In my thoughts I have seen (Joel 2:28)
Rings of smoke through the trees (James 3:5)
And the voices of those who stand looking (Matthew 27:39-40)

It makes me wonder (Daniel 2:3)
It really makes me wonder (Acts 2:12)

And it's whispered that soon (Job 4:12)
If we all call the tune (1 Samuel 18:6)
Then the piper will lead us to reason (Proverbs 4:11)
And a new day will dawn (Zephaniah 3:5)
For those who stand long (Matthew 20:6)
And the forests will echo with laughter (1 Chronicles 16:33)

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow (Exodus 3:4)
Don't be alarmed now (Mark 16:6)
It's just a spring clean for the May queen (Jeremiah 7:18)
Yes there are two paths you can go by (Matthew 7:13-14)
But in the long run (Job 19:25)
There's still time to change the road you're on (Job 22:15)

And it makes me wonder (Psalm 35:11)

Your head is humming and it won't go (Exodus 19:16)
In case you don't know (1 Corinthians 10:1)
The piper's calling you to join him (Daniel 3:5)
Dear lady can you hear the wind blow (John 3:8)
And did you know (Isaiah 40:21)
Your stairway lies on the whisperin' wind (1 Kings 19:11-13)

And as we wind on down the road (Luke 9:57)
Our shadows taller than our souls (Ecclesiastes 8:13)
There walks a lady we all know (Ruth 3:11)
Who shines white light and wants to show (Matthew 17:2)
How everything still turns to gold (2 Samuel 22:29)
And if you listen very hard (Exodus 23:22)
The tune will come to you at last (Psalm 40:3)
When all are one and one is all (Genesis 2:24)
To be a rock and not to roll (Matthew 7:24-25)

And she's buying a stairway to heaven (Isaiah 14:13)


"Hotel California"
The Eagles, Hotel California (1976)

On a dark desert highway (Isaiah 40:3)
Cool wind in my hair (John 3:8)
Warm smell of colitas (Song of Solomon 4:16)
Rising up through the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
Up ahead in the distance (Genesis 22:4)
I saw shimmering light (2 Peter 1:19)
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim (Genesis 27:1)
I had to stop for the night (Genesis 28:11)
There she stood in the doorway (Proverbs 7:10)
I heard the mission bell (Exodus 28:35)
And I was thinking to myself (Ecclesiastes 1:16)
"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell" (Matthew 8:11-12)
Then she lit up a candle (Proverbs 31:18)
And she showed me the way (Psalm 25:4)
There were voices down the corridor (Isaiah 6:4)
I thought I heard them say (Genesis 37:17)

"Welcome to the Hotel California (Luke 2:7)
Such a lovely place (Psalm 84:1)
Such a lovely face (Esther 2:7)
Plenty of room at the Hotel California (Genesis 24:25)
Any time of year (Galatians 4:10)
You can find it here" (Jeremiah 29:13)

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted (1 Peter 3:3)
She got the Mercedes Benz (Song of Solomon 6:12)
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys (Romans 1:27)
She calls friends (Lamentations 1:2)
How they dance in the courtyard (2 Samuel 6:14)
Sweet summer sweat (Jonah 4:8)
Some dance to remember (Luke 22:19)
Some dance to forget (Isaiah 65:17)
So I called up the Captain (Judges 5:14)
"Please bring me my wine" (Numbers 15:10)
He said, "We haven't had that spirit here (John 7:39)
Since 1969" (1 Peter 4:3)
And still those voices are calling from far away (Isaiah 15:4)
Wake you up in the middle of the night (Zechariah 4:7)
Just to hear them say (1 Samuel 3:10)

"Welcome to the Hotel California (Luke 10:34)
Such a lovely place (Genesis 2:8)
Such a lovely face (Song of Solomon 2:14)
They livin' it up at the Hotel California (Nehemiah 8:12)
What a nice surprise (Joshua 10:9)
Bring your alibis (Acts 7:27)

Mirrors on the ceiling (Song of Solomon 1:4)
The pink champagne on ice (Isaiah 5:22)
And she said, "We are all just prisoners here (Psalm 107:10)
Of our own device" (Psalm 107:11)
And in the master's chambers (Ezra 8:29)
They gathered for the feast (Luke 14:15)
They stab it with their steely knives (2 Samuel 4:6)
But they just can't kill the beast (Revelation 13:3)
Last thing I remember (2 Peter 1:13)
I was running for the door (Genesis 39:12)
I had to find the passage back (Ezekiel 42:4)
To the place I was before (Isaiah 35:10)
"Relax," said the night man (Ezekiel 3:17)
"We are programmed to receive (John 1:16)
You can check out any time you like (Numbers 10:30)
But you can never leave" (1 Thessalonians 5:3)


"Bohemian Rhapsody" written by Freddie Mercury (Leviticus 18:22)

"Stairway to Heaven" written by Jimmy Page (Amos 6:5) and Robert Plant (1 Chronicles 15:22)

"Hotel California" written by Don Felder, Don Henley and Glenn Frey (Psalm 103:5)


Solid Rock was developed by Seth L. (Genesis 4:25)