John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Revelation 20:12-14, “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
I have been a musician all my life, since age 15 when I started learning to play the guitar. I love music. As a lover of music, I appreciate the musical genius of Rush's music. Songs like Limelight and Xanadu are captivating. I love how Geddy plays his bass in Xanadu. That was very creative. My favorite Rush song is Fly By Night from 1975. Rush is a Canadian rock band. They were inducted into the Canadian Rock n' Roll Hall Of Fame in 1994, and the U.S. Rock n' Roll Hall Of Fame in 2013. They've had 24 gold albums, 14 platinum. The band has sold over 50 million albums worldwide for over the past 50 years. And they're still performing.
The Devil's Music
That being said, as a born again Christian I also know that rock music is the Devil's music. That's not to say that every song is Satanic, or even most of the songs. Albeit, Rush's songs are saturated with atheist lyrics, like Freewill and Faithless. What makes it the Devil's music is that rock music is worldly, not rooted in Christian faith, and the music does influence the listener. Marilyn Manson openly admitted that rock stars are Satan's preachers. Rush's songs actually discourage having faith in God, and that is dangerous.
Unlike a lot of rock musicians, the band members of Rush were better known in the 1970s and 1980s for reading books and watching TV after concerts, while the members of KISS were fornicating and committing debauchery (although Gene Simmons never did drugs or booze). But despite not being as bad as other rock stars, the band members of Rush hobnobbed with such wicked people, partaking of the industry. Birds of a feather flock together. Drummer Neil Peart throughout his musical career displayed a Satanic pentagram on his drum kit, clearly identifying the band with the occult and the coming Antichrist.
“When you're living in sin—you're not living it up, you're dying it up!” —Brother Lester Roloff, “Faith”
Jesus Warned In John 3:3b, “Ye Must Be Born Again”
Something that caught my attention, which makes me really sad, is that all of Rush's band members are not Christians. In fact, bassist Geddy Lee, drummer Neil Peart (1952-2020) and guitarist Alex Lifeson are all avowed atheists. Geddy has called himself a “Jewish atheist.” Neil Peart said publicly that he is agnostic (not sure what he believed), but he also said that he was skeptical if God exists. That is so sad and tragic! The inspired King James Bible says they are all WITHOUT EXCUSE!!!
Romans 1:20-21, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
The band members of Rush are all self-made millionaires. Neil Peart had a net worth of $42 million at the time of his death from brain cancer in 2020. Geddy Lee's net worth is $40 million. Alex Lifeson's net worth is $35 million. They are all rich men who think they have no need of God in this world, but they will regret the day they were born in the afterlife. I say that kindly with love because I care. If the inspired King James Bible be true, and I've staked my eternity that it is, all of Rush's band members will spend eternity suffering in the torments of Hell's fire and brimstone, without rest day nor night, without hope, forever! They made their choice!
Revelation 14:11, “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”
Dear reader, being agnostic is a far cry from being born again! I hate to say it, but Neil Peart is almost assuredly burning in the fires of Hell for all eternity. Unless Neil had some miraculous secret death bed conversion to Christianity, he is now and forever burning in Hell beneath. The man was a brilliant thinker, highly intelligent, but a fool. Neil wrote most of Rush's lyrics, including their most popular song, Tom Sawyer. Tragically, Neil refused to acknowledge His Creator, Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3, 14). So sad and needless. John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The new birth is not optional dear reader, if you want to enter into Heaven someday.
Kindly Said, Atheists Are Fools
There are many atheist celebrities today; namely, Morgan Freeman, Alex Honnold, Seth MacFarlane, George Clooney, Britney Spears, Bill Maher, Linda Ronstadt, Robert De Niro, Elton John and Billy Joel, to name but a few fools. And they're all millionaires!!! No wonder God said that He has chosen the poor of this world rich in faith. That's because poor people suffer here on earth, so they need a Heaven to look forward to in the afterlife. But rich people already enjoy a form of heaven on earth, so they don't think they need God.
In a Classic Rock interview in 2013 for his 60th birthday, Alex Lifeson (Born Aleksandar Zivojinovi to Serbian parents) said these foolish words:
Interviewer Paul Elliot: Do you believe in God?
Alex Lifeson: No. When I was younger I did. My mother is not super-religious but she has a belief. My father was the total opposite. He thought religion was a crock. In my early teens I started to question it all. I had friends who were Jesus freaks, others were just very spiritual, and we had these great long discussions about these things. But as I get older it just becomes a less and less sensible thing to think about. SOURCE
What a foolish man! That is a rich fella talking who thinks he doesn't need God. Dear reader, the most "sensible" thing anyone could ever talk about is God.
Geddy Lee was raised in a really religious family, but he is not a religious person. He told Heeb magazine in 2009 that he a Jewish atheist. His mother Mary Weinrib, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 95, was Jewish and Holocaust survivor. Geddy Lee said:
“I consider myself a Jew as a race, but not so much as a religion. I’m not down with religion at all. I’m a Jewish atheist, if that’s possible… I celebrate the holidays in the sense that my family gets together for the holidays and I like being a part of that. So I observe the ‘getting together’ aspect. ...Well, I’m not a religious person. I was raised in a very religious family, a very strict religious family. That killed any love for religion that I could possibly have had. ...I think that everything you do as a human being influences everything you come in contact with in some way. So I prefer to take the karmic view of things that the more positive energy you put out into the world, somehow that contributes.” SOURCE
Again, what a foolish man! What saith the Scripture? John 3:36, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee won't see eternal life; but instead, the wrath of God rests upon their heads because they have rejected Jesus Christ.
After the tragic premature death of Neil's teenage daughter Selena in 1997 in a car accident, and then his wife died due to cancer just 10 months later, he took a long solo trip with his motorcycle across the United States. While driving through the southern U.S. Bible belt he saw a lot of church signs, and in a subsequent interview with Jim Ladd on SiriusXM's Deep Tracks (from February 3rd, 2015) Neil had this to say:
And I mentioned before that anger and outrage can sometimes be an inspiration, and it gets me writing about it. And people will say to me: “Why are you a faith-basher?” And I say well, I don’t feel like a faith-basher, and it’s not something I’ve thought about all day.
It’s something that my life has been full without any of that aspect, I don’t really understand it or understand why it’s needed, and it’s a kind of brainwashing in almost all cases where poor children have been brought up and formed into these molds, that you are suddenly this ‘ism’ that is after your name from the time you’re born. They don’t choose it, and for whatever reasons they never do question it, where I did from the beginning.
I went to Sunday school as a little kid and when they’d tell us to sing the song about god watches each sparrow fall and all of that, and I said: "Well no, I don’t really think so." When you look at the world now, I saw the comic and the great writer Stephen Fry the other day talking about that, he said people would say: “What if you went to heaven and met God?” And he said: "Oh, that wouldn’t be a pleasant meeting." I’d say why did you create those parasites that grow behind babies’ eyes and destroy their vision on the way out and all of that. That’s not any kind of a god to be worshiping, is it?
And I always say too, if I’m going to go up to heaven and meet St. Peter and Jesus and God and Allah and Buddha, whichever one you wanna pick, I’m gonna be okay, because I have lived a life based on that and I believe in generosity and charity and kindness and courtesy, those are things that just seem good to me anyway, I don’t need a threat to make me behave that way and I don’t need a reward. SOURCE
Those are some very foolish words of ingratitude from a very intelligent man. It's hard to believe that such a brilliant man as Neil Peart could speak so shamefully about his Creator. Neil ignores the reality of sin which caused a curse upon the human race (Romans 5:12).
Stephen Fry (born 1957) is an outspoken atheist who has publicly criticized the concept of God, particularly in relation to the existence of suffering and evil in the world. He often questions the morality of a deity that allows such pain, exemplified by his remarks about issues like "bone cancer in children." Again, just as Neil blames God for bad eyesight, Stephen does the same thing. Birds of a feather flock together! They are both avowed atheists, and they stick together. I have no doubt that Neil also admired atheist comedian George Carlin.
Dear reader, it is a very wicked thing to speak evil of God, our Creator. Romans 9:20, “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” We've all had the same negative thoughts as Neil and Stephen, wondering why a God of love would allow so much misery, war, pain , suffering and evil in this world to exist, and I admit that it is tempting to get angry at God at times; but we all know in our heart of hearts that sin is the culprit.
For example: While crime is up in every major Democrat run city across the Unite States, our wicked leaders are gaslighting the American people, downplaying that crime is getting worse. Ecclesiastes 8:11 plainly warns that when crime goes unpunished, things will only get worse.
None of the band members of Rush understand that a man must be born again to enter into God's Kingdom. Clearly those men don't believe the inspired Holy Bible, to their eternal demise. Dear friend, getting saved through faith in Jesus Christ is NOT optional in life. You either trust in Christ, or you burn in Hell forever and ever and ever!
1st John 2:22-23, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.”
1st John 4:14-15, “And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.”
Hugh Hefner, George Carlin and Stephen Hawking discovered the horrifying truth the moment they passed into the afterlife and found themselves in Hell. Psalm 9:17, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”
Organized Religion Is A Bad Thing
Dear reader, I didn't write this blog to be unkind or to hurt anyone's feelings. God knows my heart. I will say that I actually agree with the band members of Rush that organized religion is a bad thing. My father was a born again Christian, who wisely taught me that religion is the worst thing that ever happened to this world. My Dad was absolutely right!
More than any other complaint, I have heard atheists like Elton John, Hugh Hefner, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart and countless others express their contempt for organized religion. But dear friend, God is not religion! Religion is man attempting to reach God through human effort; but Christianity is God trying to reach man through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son on Calvary's cross 2,000 years ago. Religion wants to fit you with glasses, to get you to see through a filter of manmade tradition (Mark 7:9); but Jesus wants to open your eyes with the truth of the Gospel, so that you'll be born again and go to Heaven (John 20:31).
It breaks my heart to see guys like Ozzy Osbourne, who struggled for answers during the last months of his life, answers that I seriously doubt he ever found concerning how to go to Heaven. There are people who spend their entire life in church, playing a game of religion; and yet they never see the simplicity of the Gospel right in front of them, blinded by religion.
And then there was singer Frank Sinatra, who criticized organized religion in a 1963 Playboy magazine interview. Frank didn't believe in a personal deity; but rather, he believed in pantheism (the belief that God and the universe are one, equating reality with divinity and viewing the universe as a self-organizing unity that does not require a Creator). So, effectively, Sinatra was an atheist, because he denied Jesus Christ, who is almighty God (John 10:33)
Salvation is not found in any religion; but rather, in the person and redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on Him and the work is done. John 6:28-29, “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”
Salvation Is Found Only Through Faith In Jesus Christ
If you want to go to Heaven, you simply need to believe that Jesus did it all for you. Just come to God as a needy sinner and by faith (taking God at His written Word) accept Christ's sacrificial death on the cross as full payment for your sins, believing that He was buried, but then physically resurrected from the dead three days later. This is the gospel (1st Corinthians 15:1-6), by which all who believe it are saved (Romans 1:16).
From what I have seen over the past 50 years of following Rush's music and careers, Geddy Lee has a big heart that is a catalyst which has kept the band together. I think all the band members are good guys, as far as sinners go. Neil always kept to himself, more reserved and private, as I am. But he was a good man. Unfortunately, being good guys doesn't get you into Heaven, you have to be born anew from above by the Holy Spirit of God. Apart from faith in Jesus Christ, who is the only begotten Son of God, the Christ, there can be no new birth (Acts 4:10-12). I trusted Jesus as my personal Savior in 1980 at age 13.
The old adage is true: Life is short, Hell is hot, and eternity is a long time. My heart sincerely goes out to the band members of Rush, because they are now in the last stretch of their lives on earth. They're still performing live concerts, clipping coupons and enjoying life to the fullest, cheering their fans. But they have not glorified God. Daniel 5:23b, “...and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.”
When life's temporary journey on earth is over, we all must give account to God, our faithful Creator. Hebrews 9:27, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” I am tired of the world putting God on trial, blaming Him for wars, evil and starvation, when it is humanity who have done this to ourselves. God is good and faithful.
