For all the desolation and ruin in this hymn, it certainly has a cheerful tune. Presumably because it speaks of our wonderful future, safe from Armageddon. As long as we truly believed, and kept ourselves free from sin.
O God our strength and refuge proves,
In all distress a present aid;
Though the trembling earth remove,
We will never be dismayed.
Kingdoms moved the heathen raged,
And the earth melted at his word;
The Lord of Hosts for us engaged,
Our refuge high is Jacob’s God.
A river flows, whose living streams
Gladden the city of our God,
Tents where heavenly glory beams;
Where the Lord has his abode.
God has Zion His dwelling made;
She shall never more be moved;
Her God shall early give His aid;
He her help has ever proved.
Come, see the works of God displayed,
Wonders of His mighty hand;
Desolations He has made,
Ruins spread through all the land.
Be still, know I am God Most High,
Over the heathen I will reign.
The Lord of Hosts to us is nigh,
Jacob’s God our help remains.
This is intended to be a prophetic hymn, the first verse speaking of the end-times that will come upon us. (Or were supposed to have come upon us, about thirty years ago.) The reference to “Jacob’s God” indicates the WCG belief in, and worship of, a Judaic god.
The Fundies didn’t like this (they still don’t) because they thought the WCG should worship the New Testament, not the Old Testament. On the other side, true Judaic traditions didn’t like the WCG, because for all our Old Testament law-keeping, we were still an anti-Semitic organization that basically told the Jews they weren’t “real” Israelites (six thousand years of recorded history notwithstanding), white people were. So, no matter which way we turned, every religion around us was (conveniently) “heathen”.
The second verse again tells of what our life in Petra (the prime candidate for “the Place of Safety”) would be like. As I’ve stated elsewhere, any misgivings that might have come up, with regards to a hundred and forty-four thousand predominantly white people, descending on a six-thousand-year-old ruined city, somewhere in the war-torn Middle East, was met with either a guilt complex for one’s lack of faith, or straight disfellowshipment, if the reason had infiltrated too far to be controlled.
Another reference to Zion, being the city of our god, is included in this hymn. Making the hymn sadly not inappropriate for a present-day christian identity movement church.
Given the temperament and inclinations of the Old Testament god pictured in the third verse, is it any wonder Worldwider children were so prone to nightmares and night terrors? Especially given that “He over the heathen will reign”. One thing you did not want to be thought of, in the WCG, was heathen.
Let us review the picture this hymn presents, shall we? Trembling earth, kingdoms moved (earthquakes), melting earth, desolations (nuclear destruction/winter), and ruins spread through all the land (hydrogen bombs). Yeah. That`s definitely a god you want to keep on the good side of.
Combined with the cheerful melody, the cognitive dissonance of this hymn was designed to both terrify and mollify the Worldwider, into accepting this future view of apocalyptic ruin, offset by the utopian refuge we were being promised, as long as we buckled under, and obeyed. And kept the tithe money rolling in.
“The Lord of Hosts to us is nigh”, is another reference to the fact that we lived under the constant limbo of always being in “the final years”.
Tags: cult control, end-times, fear-mongering, isolationism, judaic god, racism, xenophobia, zionism
