Goin' Down, Party Time?

The word for "the devil" also has the meaning of " the adversary", that is, "the opposer". The devil is meant to oppose. His name means that. By definition, he's an evil being.

Yet in popular modern culture we're commonly told that what the devil (who is evil) can offer us is going to be somehow more fun and enjoyable than what Christ (who is good) can offer us.

This idea is massively, overwhelmingly, battered into us in popular culture. Including in music movies, games, the news media, even the modern education system, etc., etc...

Livin' easy, Lovin' free.
Season ticket on a one way ride.
Askin' nothin', Leave me be.
Takin' everythin' in my stride.

Don't need reason, Don't need rhyme.
Ain't nothin' that I'd rather do.
Goin' down, Party time.
My friends are gonna be there too...

I'm on the highway to hell,
On the highway to hell.
Highway to hell,
I'm on the highway to hell.

We're told in so many different ways — most of them implied (i.e. not directly mentioned), and some of them said very clearly and directly like in the song above — that sin will bring us pleasure, and that hell is somehow going to be a fun place, a place where we would want to go to.

But what if hell was a real place, and not a place of fun (as depicted in much of the popular media), but a place that's.... like hell?

Even if you don't believe in anything spiritual, and don't believe in "the devil " as an actual being — I think anyone can believe that there exists evil in this world. And that a name (such as the "devil") can be given in a collective sense to at least some of these dark forces of evil. If something is evil by definition — by it's very name — then it's simply not possible for that thing to lead you to happiness. Since that would be a complete and total contradiction of words. We might as well decide to call everything that's red "green", and call everything that's large "small", or pick any other words and use them to mean the complete opposite of what their commonly understood meaning is, and see how much sense that makes in conversations with others. The devil, by definition, being evil, can only lead you to something worse (like problems, pain, and misery). Not to a fun place where you can party with your friends.

The idea that an inherently completely evil being is going to treat you with evil (and therefore will deal out to you the results of their evil being done to you), and isn't going to help you out, nor benefit you, seems obvious when written out like this. Yet it's not that obvious to millions of people. And it wasn't obvious to me either when I was a lot younger. I used to listen to a lot of music like that, including AC/DC — and for a long time it never really occurred to me that there was nowhere it could take me than to a place of misery. And that the more seriously I took and tried to follow its message, the worse my life would get. Which is of course exactly what did happen.

I'm a rolling thunder, pouring rain
I'm comin' on like a hurricane
My lightning's flashing, across the sky
You're only young but you're gonna die.

I won't take no prisoners, won't spare no lives
Nobody's putting up a fight
I got my bell, I'm gonna take you to hell
I'm gonna get you, Satan get you

I'm hell's bells
Yeah, hell's bells
Satan's comin' to you,
Hell's bells.

Fortunately for me, I survived the experience of living that lifestyle. The original singer of AC/DC did not. AC/DC recorded this song a few months after lead singer Bon Scott died of acute alcohol poisoning, after a night of heavy drinking. The album it's on, called "Back in Black", is a tribute to him and features his replacement, Brian Johnson, on vocals. [Source: Songfacts]

God, being a God of love, can lead you to happiness.... And to heaven. And will do so, if you believe in him, and become a disciple of his son, Jesus Christ.

The rest of this website (along with many other places on the internet, and not on the internet) can tell you much more about how to do this.