Not since Elvis Presley has the world mourned the death of a celebrity as much as it is mourning the death of Michael.jpg)
Jackson.
Tuesday, inside Staples Center in Los Angeles 20,000 people paid tribute to the King of Pop who lay in a gold casket with a shaft of light in the form of a cross cast upon it. Millions more from around the world watched via television or the Internet.
Several members of the media commented that Jackson’s memorial service contained a spiritual tone– the gospel choir, the golden casket, the cross of light. At the height of the Beatle’s popularity in 1966 John Lennon commented that the group was “more popular than Jesus.” Today one could easily have inferred that Michael Jackson was more popular than both the Beatles and Jesus combined.
While the theme of Michael Jackson’s memorial service was indeed spiritual, it certainly could in no way be mistaken for a Christian funeral. During the performance of We are the World which was sung by a Who’s Who of musical icons, symbols of every major religion were displayed on a giant screen behind the stage including a larger than life picture of Jesus. The message could not have been clearer.
From Raleigh, North Carolina to Los Angeles, California, London, England to Tokyo, Japan, we are one world. However, we are not the children of one God as the song We are the World clearly implies: “We are all a part of God's great big family. And the truth, you know love is all we need.” I beg to differ.
Yes, God has indeed called upon all people to bear the burden of meeting the needs of his fellow man; truly, we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper. The world however is not one “great big family.” If anything the world is the personification of spiritualism wrapped in an ecumenical blanket.
The BBC estimates 2.5 billion people watched the Michael Jackson memorial service. If just half of those people buy into the message of “We are the World” that means that 16% of the world’s population sees no need for a distinction within spirituality. By comparison, worldwide in 2008 33 % of the world’s population claimed to be Christian. A little more that 17% of those Christians were Catholic, while Muslims accounted for just over 19% of the world's religious population.
Clearly it is time for the Protestant Church to wake up and realize that the world is finding faith apart from the fulfillment of the Great Commission. While I am no fan of the Southern Baptist Convention, I applaud Danny Akin, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, for his call for a Great Commission Resurgence that recognizes “the lordship of Christ and the centrality of the Gospel in Christian ministry.”
I admire the work of Michael Jackson and mourn his passing. Truly the legacy he leaves behind is immeasurable. But holding hands and singing to the glory of a dead pop star will never replace the spiritual needs of the human condition. The world needs to hear the truth of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ for only under the blood of Jesus will we be part of God’s great big family.
Comments
There isn't any doubt that Michael Jackson is legendary and has changed the music world forever. I watched the memorial with tears in my eyes. Let us learn from his life and death and tell everyone we know about Jesus - - He is the only way to salvation and peace.
The scripture that reverberates in my ears is "What does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul?" Let's keep his family in prayer and continue to spread the Good News about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Maybe through Michael's death people will begin to seek a relationship with God.
God Bless
God is love, and I think Michel Jackson understood that and therefor loved all people. I don't think that we as Christians should come out and say that what other people believe is wrong, for that would only close them off to Jesus' message. Who are we to judge where God is or isn't? As if we know how he thinks...that is ridiculous. To say that the memorial service was in no way Christian is what MJ would call, ignorant.
The biggest deception today is that everyone believes that all god's lead to one god. Jesus clearly tell us in John 14:6 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except htrough me" and then in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have enteral life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son" God clearly states that you can not enter into the kingdom of heaven by any other way but through Jesus. Whether or not Michael excepted this truth, I don't know, but God does!
I stand to correct myself not everyone believes that all God's lead to one god - followers of Jesus believe He is the only way to eternity.
If I repeat the words of Jesus, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the Father unless it is through me," then I don't judge what others believe nor do I tell them they are wrong. One of the problems with the term "Christian" is so many use it who want to lessen Christ's call to give our lives totally to Him. We don't want to be unloving or offensive. I remember some of MJ's songs, I unfortunately never remember his confession of Christ as Lord and Savior.
what did each of the world relious symbols mean at the jackson fineral
The symbols were the icons of all the major religions: Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, ect. about six or seven in all. They were displayed on a screen behind the singers appearing in sync with the words of the song We are the World. A hand was displayed with the words "it's time to lend a hand.". It was quite clear the message being conveyed was both spiritually universal and ecumenical.
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