I remember how my parents viewed the state of our country in the ‘60’s. They thought the end might be near and I felt their concern. The song Eve of Destruction was released in the summer of 1965. The country was divided by the Vietnam war, the draft, civil rights, fear of nuclear war, violence, and general mistrust of the government. Sound slightly familiar? Recorded by Barry McGuire, the song became the official theme of the protest movement. But that was not the intent of nineteen-year-old Jewish songwriter P.F. Sloan. He wrote this on his website.
“I wrote it as a prayer to God for an answer. I have felt it was a love song and written as a prayer because, to cure an ill, you need to know what is sick. In my youthful zeal I hadn’t realized that this would be taken as an attack on The System!
He went on about the division created by the song itself.
“Any positive press on me or Barry was considered unpatriotic. I told the press it was a love song. A love song to and for humanity, that’s all. It ruined Barry’s career as an artist and in a year I would be driven out of the music business too.”
So both P.F. Sloan and Barry McGuire got canceled before it was a thing.
Once again, sound familiar?
The song tapped into the division in the country but McGuire did not consider it to be a protest song either.
“They called it a protest song but I never thought of it as a protest song. The media always has to label everything.”
Uhhhh…sound familiar?
As we reach the 61st anniversary of this song the lyrics feel like it was written yesterday.
When human respect is disintegratin’
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’
I was young then but I remember clearly how unsettled our nation felt and how this chorus felt eerily prophetic.
And tell me over and over and over and over again, my friend
You don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction
The push back to the song and to Barry McGuire by association led to a downward spiral of his career. His life also took a dark turn into severe drug usage and depression. Barry remembered that as a child his grandmother had spoken these words to him.
“Barry, when you grow up, you’re going to know the truth, and the truth is going to set you free.”
He left New York to try and find himself in California. McGuire shared the moment when the truth found him.
“I got hold of a little paperback book called Good News for Modern Man, and I didn’t know what it was, I picked it up and on the first page it says, ‘the New Testament in modern English.’”
He felt tricked.
“Oh man, this is those Jesus Freaks, they’re disguising the Bible! Who wants that? And I threw it on the floor.”
Eventually he picked it back up and focused on the teachings of Jesus instead of the flawed church people he had rejected.
“Just through my own life experiences, everything Jesus said was true. I thought, this is the answer I’ve been looking for all these years. This is the answer to all our political problems, all our racial problems, everything that’s wrong with society. I finally came down to a decision that I had to make. What am I going to do with this piece of truth? Am I really a truth seeker or a self-seeker?”
Barry McGuire trusted Jesus as His savior and was baptized in 1971. The verse his grandmother shared from John 8:32 showed him what he had been seeking for so long.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”
Finding freedom was the goal of the sixties hippie movement and he realized he had found it. “What is the ultimate freedom? The closer I get to the fullness of truth, the freer I’m gonna be.”
Barry became a big part of the revival the movie The Jesus Revolution brought back into the light. He was a pioneer in Contemporary Christian Music. So his life went from singing about the imminent destruction of the culture to a historical revival that shared hope and joy in Jesus. By the way, he also wrote the Bullfrogs and Butterflies album that we played for our boys every night for years.
“I read the words of Jesus in this little modern translation of His story and the thing that caught my attention was when He said to love God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. And I thought, man, if there’s an answer to the ‘Eve of Destruction,’ then that’s it.”
So here we are a half-century plus later. Are we on the eve of destruction? Maybe. But how should we react to the chaotic world around us? Our reaction is often to circle the wagons with those we feel comfortable with and hope that Jesus returns soon. But our command is to not to wait silently until the trumpet sounds.
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. (John 13:34, NLT)
It is possible we are on the eve of destruction. But if we could unite in Christ could we be on the eve of revival? Our role is to follow the words of Jesus and live out His commandments. God’s sovereignty controls the results.
and a young white guy eating together at the “lunch room” counter. I believe they saw in a real life illustration that the best way to break ethnic barriers is not by rhetoric but rather by relationship!“