So our journey has now concluded. (OK my journey has concluded — I realize the PH has approximately two readers, one of them me.) This has by no means been a thorough or complete breakdown of the entire hymnal, but it is fairly exhaustive (also exhausting, but hopefully in a positive way).

The reason I have “left out” some of the hymns is because we never sang them. As in, we never ever sang them, or if we did, it was a brief experiment by an overly-ambitious song leader that never ended well.

The hymns I have reproduced and examined here are the ones that we sang, week to week, and depending how religious the household was, day to day. When I started this project, it was with a little bit of snarky “Kilroy was here!” and a touch of maybe, yes, that dreaded b-word. Better that it should be presented in the open, then left to fester. Yes? Yes.

So if I’ve left out your “favourite” hymn, or you think I’ve missed out on excoriating a particularly appropriate hymn, let me know, at purplehymnal@gmail.com.

It has been a long, strange, interesting, sometimes exhausting journey. But I would not have traded the past few months, for anything in the world. I may not have cleared every last one of the cobwebs of religion out, but I think I made an admirable effort towards getting most of them.

I hope that the information that I have presented here will be helpful to someone else, somewhere along the way, on their journey out of the church. When it is needed it will be here.

Now if you will excuse me, I am going to get out of the house, and enjoy the remainder of the day. And the rest of my life.

ALPHABETICAL HYMN INDEX

America The Beautiful

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Behold The Day Will Come!

Bless The Lord Eternal O My Soul

Blessed is the Nation God is For

Blest and Happy is He

Blest and Happy is the Man

Blow the Horn Let Zion Hear!

But as For Me, I’ll Call on God

By the Waters of Babylon

Come See the Works of God

Declare His Works to All Nations!

For Even From My Youth O God

Give Ear to My Prayer, O Lord

Give Ear Unto My Words O Lord

Give Thanks and Offer Praise

Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken

Go Ye Therefore Into All The World

God Is My Rock, My Salvation

God Speaks To Us

Hallelujah! Praise God!

Hear My Cry, Eternal One!

He Shall Reign Forevermore!

His Mercy Never Fails

His Name is Great!

Holy, Mighty, Majesty!

How Excellent is Thy Name!

How Long, Eternal, Hide Thou Away?

How Lovely Are Thy Dwellings

I Hate The Thoughts of Vanity

I Will Praise Thee, O Eternal!

I Will Sing To The Eternal

If I Have Not Charity

In Distress I Cried Unto The Lord

In Thy Loving Kindness Lord

Joyfully Sing and Praise God!

Lord, I Will Praise Thee!

Lord, Teach Me That I May Know

Mine Eyes Upon The Lord Continually Are Set

Mt. Zion Stands Most Beautiful!

Not Many Wise Men Now Are Called

O Come And Let Us Worship Him

O Give Thanks and Praise the Eternal!

O Give Thanks Unto Our God

O God Forsake Me Not

O God We Have Heard

O How Love I Thy Law!

O Lord of Hosts, My King My God!

O Lord Thou Art My God and King

O That Men Would Praise Their God!

O Thou The Shepherd of Israel Art

Onward Christian Soldiers

Our God is Good and Upright

Praise God’s Name

Praise the Eternal With a Psalm!

Praise Ye The Lord!

Righteous Judge

Rise and Judge, Eternal One!

Save Me O God, By Thy Great Name

Sing Praises and Rejoice!

Sing to the Lord With Cheerful Voice

Thee Will I Love, O Lord

The Heavens God’s Glory Do Declare

The Lord Eternal Reigns!

They Are Blest Who Are Forgiven

To Thee I Lift My Soul

To The Hills I’ll Lift Mine Eyes

Trust in God And Stand in Awe

Turn Thou From Evil

Turn O God, and Save Me

Unless the Lord Shall Build The House

Unto My Earnest Prayer Give Ear

Wait and Hope And Look For God

When Israel Out of Egypt Went

Where Shall I Go From Your Spirit O God?

Who Shall Dwell on Thy Holy Hill?

SUGGESTED HYMNS FOR HOLY DAYS

I Will Praise Thee, O Eternal!

Declare His Works to All Nations!

Praise the Eternal With a Psalm!

O Lord of Hosts, My King My God!

How Lovely Are Thy Dwellings

When Israel Out of Egypt Went

His Mercy Never Fails

Blow the Horn Let Zion Hear!

Behold The Day Will Come!

Go Ye Therefore Into All The World

God Speaks To Us

The remaining three hymns in the purple hymnal are America the Beautiful (to this day, we are probably still the only Canadians who can sing all four verses of it), Onward Christian Soldiers, and Battle Hymn of the Republic. Standard Christian staples, the first one neatly slotted itself into the British-Israelite beliefs of the WCG, and the latter two fit quite contiguously with the apocalyptic theme the church’s entire theology was based on.

Again, your humble administrator must accede, the clearly superior version of this hymn exists over at the Graveyard Church of God’s Seventh Trumpet site. 

Trumpets before each stanza. 

God speaks to us; by His great power we’re led;
Let not your hearts become disquieted.
You trust in God; believe and trust in Me;
You trust in God; believe and trust in Me.

In God’s vast realm are many offices;
Were it not so, I surely would have said;
For I must go; a place for you prepare.
For I must go; a place for you prepare.

And when this place has been prepared for you;
I will return; with Me you shall be too.
So that where I am you may also be;
So that where I am you may also be. 

This was the hymn, for the Feast of Trumpets, and was almost always accompanied by trumpet blasts, symbolizing the final trumpet that all the world would hear once Armageddon was underway.

Given that the hymn was often sung by a doubled congregation, combined with the trumpets blaring at the beginning of each verse, it was a powerful message that not even the hardiest of psyches could withstand.

The song itself explains what the Feast of Trumpets symbolized, to a Worldwide Church of God member, between 1974 and 1996, even though I am reasonably certain that is not the original intent of the hymn by its writer, George W. Warren.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS HYMN IS INCLUDED HERE FOR PURELY HISTORICAL REFERENCE PURPOSES.

The PurpleHymnal site administrator does NOT endorse any of the sentiments expressed in this hymn, and actively condemns the negative effects, the racism and the prejudice that this hymn fomented amongst and by members of the Worldwide Church of God, between 1974 and 1996.

Ah, yes, the good old Nazi party anthem. Presented here as proof that, yes, we really did sing an albeit ineptly-retitled, and ever-so-slightly reworked version of the Nazi party anthem. I never knew it was the Nazi party anthem until well after I exited the church, however. I ran across a reference to it on the Painful Truth website last year. That was the first time I had ever heard of it, or that I even began to comprehend, just how deeply the roots of Christian Identity and Aryan Brotherhood ran, in the precursor British-Israel movement espoused by the Worldwide Church of God.

Scuttlebutt around the assorted x-CoG watercoolers on the Internet has various tales to tell, about this particular marching song.

The general consensus seems to be that we sang it far too often in North American and British Commonwealth congregations.

Some congregations sang it because there were Germans in the group; others would not sing it, because there were Germans in the group.

Apparently it was a carefully neglected hymn, in most European congregations.

Needless to say, this is further proof that the Worldwide Church of God was the precursor organization, to the various violent and separatist Christian Identity movement churches that exist today.

And yet, you will never find any kind of “apology” for that, on the WCG’s “office of reconciliation ministries” website. They make a big deal about “reconciling” with those against whom racism was practiced by others, but they won’t go so far as to attempt to reconcile the very members they brainwashed into being racist bastards in the first place.

Does the ORM’s Ron Kelly have anything to say about this?

No, I didn’t think so.

This was actually a popular hymn, even given its content, and the context it was drawn from. I suspect that the ministry used this hymn as a means of crowd-control, whenever the gossip started getting out of hand. 

Though I speak with tongues of men, Though I speak as angels,
If I have not charity, I am become as nothing.
I become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
With the gift of prophecy, Still I am as nothing.

Though I know all mysteries,
Though I have all knowledge,
If I have not charity, I am become as nothing.
Though I give all I possess, Let my body burn;
If I have not charity,  Then I am as nothing.

Charity will suffer long, Charity is kind,
Envies not nor vaunts itself,
Behaveth not unseemly.
Seeketh not to have her way,
Nor is easily angered;
If I have not charity, Then I am as nothing.

Charity rejoiceth not In iniquity,
But rejoiceth in the truth;
Believes and bears all things;
Hopes all things, endures all things;
Never thinketh evil.
If I have not charity, Then I am as nothing.

Whether there be prophecies,
Whether there be knowledge,
These shall likewise pass away,
But charity remaineth.
Faith and hope and charity;
All of these abide;
But among the three of these,
Charity is greatest!

One thing that must never be forgotten, in the light of this “Christian”-sounding hymn: The charity spoken of in this hymn was ONLY to be extended to other truly converted members of god’s true church. For all others, it was “Let the dead bury the dead.” And we really meant it.

I prefer the version of this hymn over at the Graveyard Church of God, “Not Many Live Men Now Are Called”. 

Not many wise men now are called,
Not many mighty brethren;
Not many mighty, chosen ones,
For you see your calling;
Sons of God, you are called,
Not because of greatness;
Even the wisdom of mankind
Is to God but foolish.

God chose the foolish of the world;
He chose the weak and base things;
He chose the things which are despised,
That no flesh should glory.
Sons of God, you are called,
Not because of greatness;
You who are called and now in Christ,
Shall confound the mighty.

Even the foolishness of God,
Wiser by far than man is;
Even the weakness of our God,
Stronger far than man is;
Sons of God, you are called,
Not because of greatness;
Let them who glory, boast in Christ,
Not in their own greatness.

This hymn was cult control at its most blatant. Yes, we really did believe what we were singing, as we sang how base, weak, and foolish we were — all further incentives, to stay in the church, no matter what ills befell us as a result of our membership in the cult.

The carrot at the end of the big stick the hymn beats you over the head with, is that even though we were weak, base, and foolish, because we knew “the truth” and we lived by “the law”, we would be spared an ignominious fate, after the end of the world. Hell, as far as we were concerned, we were going to be spared the end of the world, holed up in Petra for three and a half years!

There is an interesting story behind this hymn. For twenty years it languished, almost never sang, in the usual congregations. Even now, this is definitely not one of the stronger hymns, whose words and melody come back almost unbidden (and sometimes unwillingly).

This hymn provides a clear demarcation line of the church, pre- and post-changes.

Go ye therefore into all the world;
preach the gospel unto everyone;
Teach all nations to observe all things
I have commanded you.
Baptize them into the Father’s Name,
in the Holy Spirit’s, and the Son’s;
Lo, I shall be with you to the end;
lo, I am with you alway.

Those who have believed and are baptized
shall be saved while others are condemned;
Then as for those who now do believe
these signs shall surely follow:
They shall cast out demons in My Name,
they shall not be hurt by deadly things;
And they shall lay hands upon the sick,
and the sick shall be made well.

Christ was taken up into the heavens
after He had spoken all these words;
There His Father did receive Him and
place Him at His right hand.
His disciples went out as He said;
and they preached the gospel everywhere;
Christ worked with them and confirmed the word,
by those signs which followed them.

This song languished in the back of the hymnal for many years. Around the times of the changes, this became the ONLY hymn that was guaranteed to be sung, week after week, after week, after interminable week. Maybe they were warming us up for the inevitable thought reform of the initial thought reform, that was to be brought down like a hammer onto a crystal goblet, in December ‘94.

Regardless of the reasons, the melody of the hymn is dirge-like and trance-making, as dull and repetitive as it is. Some Christian ex-members bemoan the fact that this is the only song in the purple joy killer that even remotely falls in line with “mainstream” Christian teachings, which was why it became the only hymn to be sung, around and shortly after, the changes hit.

I disagree with this assessment. As is obvious from the hymn itself, the song is talking about events in the fictional biblical “past” — the apostles went out and preached the gospel, and performed the miracles.

There is absolutely no way that a member of Worldwide, past, present, or current, could misinterpret this hymn to mean that we were the ones supposed to be proselytizing and casting out demons (Does the current WCG do exorcisms I wonder? It does everything else “mainstream”.) Rather, this hymn was to be taken as the last time “the truth” had been preached, until 1900 years later, when Armstrong came along, and decided to found his own little empire.

An empire Joseph Tkach Jr., is still profiting very nicely by, with no accountability whatsoever.

Having run out of Psalms, Dwight Armstrong decided to visit Zechariah 14 and provide the purple hymnal with a song inspired by that chapter. It was another Feast favourite, mentioning both the Feast of Tabernacles, and Armageddon.

Behold, the day will come; the day of the Lord our God!
He shall bring all nations in that day against Jerusalem.
They shall take the city and share the spoil in the very midst of them;
Then our God Eternal shall go forth and shall fight against our foes!

In that great day of God our Lord shall stand on earth!
On the Mount of Olives He shall stand and the mount shall cleave in two!
There shall be a valley of mammoth size; by the valley you shall flee;
For our God Eternal shall be King and shall rule over all the earth!

In that great day of God ’twill be neither day nor night;
But at eventime it shall be light; it shall be one day to God.
Out from Zion shall living waters flow, to the east and to the west;
Then our God Eternal shall be King; in that day shall there be one God!

Behold, that day shall come when all nations shall obey!
Those of all the nations that are left to Jerusalem shall go;
They shall even go there from year to year, and shall keep the feast of booths;
There shall be one God, the Eternal, who is King over all the earth!

Another clear picture of Armageddon in this one. All the more sobering when you consider the fact that, as we sang these words, the truly “faithful” of us took the words absolutely 100% literally.

This particular hymn is universally reviled by ex-Worldwiders. Given both the melody and the lyrics, it’s easy to understand why. A clearer picture of the apocalypse and armageddon that we expected in our lifetimes, is nowhere to be found.

Blow the horn, let Zion hear, for God’s day is now at hand;
Let the people tremble in this day of clouds and gloominess;
Troops so great and mighty strong, there has never been the like;
Nothing shall escape as they devour the stubble on their way.

Fire before them shall devour, flames ablaze are left behind;
Such as Eden was shall become a wilderness that’s desolate;
Like the noise of chariots; and as horsemen do they run;
Nothing shall escape as they devour the stubble on their way.

People are faint at their sight, for they run like mighty men,
Moving each on his own way they do not tangle in their paths,
Each does follow his own line, climbing walls like men of war;
Then they charge as warriors and advance like fighters on their way.

They upon the city leap, break through weapons each unharmed
Run up on the walls and climb in houses through the windows leap;
Earth is quaking as they come, heaven shake, stars cease to shine.
Then the Eternal thunders and the sun and moon become both black!

Not only the dark words and terrifying images made this song universally hated. The dirge-like, ponderous melody, combined with the mind-numbing repetition, often set the stage for a complete trance-like mentality.

Any Armstrongists still clinging to the idea that “oh the church wasn’t SO bad you know” needs to sing this hymn in public, and see what kind of a reaction it gets. If they aren’t carted away for hate speech by doing so.

Hard to believe, looking back on it, that we literally did believe in all of the events of the book of Revelation, exactly as pictured, both in this hymn, and in the canonical christian book itself. Ex-Worldwiders could write a Left Behind series that would curl the average evangelical’s ears!

There would be a lot less doomsday cults in this world, if the book of Revelation had never made the cut, by Constantine and the council. Unfortunately for all of us adult survivors of apocalypses that never came, that wasn’t the case.