John The Revelator

I find this song to be a condemnation of anyone who A) claims that they are the only one's with the right idea of God, and B) anyone who uses that God to achieve his own ends. The song seems to specifically target Christianity (although I think it was intended for any religion that claims to be the only truth), probably due to it's dominance in society.

John the Revelator was the author of the Book of Revelations in the New Testament. It was added to the canon of the New Testament, but lacks any real moral teaching, resorting to scare tactics and dogma.

It is quite commonly disregarded in many Christian sects, however, is not openly dismissed.

Whenever you see a movie about Satan or something, much of the reference material comes from this work that has no real relation to Jesus' time.

I think that the meaning of this song, at least generally, is quite clear. It is talking about the Book of Revelations of John in the Bible; my evidence for this is the use of the phrase 'John the Revelator', revelator being some sort of derivation from revelations, and the reference to "seven angels with seven trumpets", which are an important feature of the end of the world as we know it foretold in the Book of Revelations. There is also the fact that it is referred to as a "BOOK of lies" and the fact that the song seems to encompass all the Abrahammic religions ("Israelites" and "Muslim"). This is consistent with the fact that a belief in some related form of Armageddon runs through all three of these religions.

As for Depeche Mode's take on the Book of Revelations, it seems to be quite negative. They refer to the Book as lies, they think its writer should be ashamed and they think that we need to really examine John and his teachings (probably a representation of the Christian acceptance of the Book of Revelation's teachings). I take this to mean that they think that the Book of Revelations and its teachings (which include the destruction of almost all of humanity by God) are not worthy of belief, that these teachings are inconsistent with the image of a loving god that most Christians, Muslims and Jews hold dear, and that those who believe should consider whether they really believe that God is going to destroy us all.

John was the disciple who apparently saw a vision of the end of the world, when Jesus comes back to judge everyone etc etc. This was published in the book of Revelations, hence the title.

Exactly Ad_Nauseam, John the apostle wrote 'The Revelation of Jesus Christ unto his servant John', a book with 7 chapters. He had two visions, he saw 7 angels, each one played a trumpet (calling massive destruction to the world), anyway, there's a lot of 7s. These revelations has to be with the end of the world.

So I suppose this song has no intend of condemn a religion.

More like the author is calling John, the revelator, a lier, this song is a reclaim to the apostle, because he the autor wishes the end of the world soon but nothing of John's prophecy has hapenned yet.

I agree with Razormac. I think DM is taking the opportunity to bash those (not just Bush) who use the Bible, epecially revelations to support aggression. "All he ever gives us is pain" is a great line to implicate the poetry of revelations and the influence it has had on wars in the course of human history.

I've been a Depeche Mode fan for a long time. I love this song. Can't get it out of my head. I don't think they are anti-Christian. They have many religious references to their music. Maybe they were brought up by staunch fundamentalist catholic parents & forced to go to fundamentalist catholic schools taught by old nuns in habits with slapping rulers. I think they just want people to think about it, that's all, and understand it can be interpreted many ways. No harm, no foul.

At first I thought John to be science, trying to replace religions, but I now see that it is those who use religious standings to deman, and destroy others...

~you know who are skilled with showing you what the Bible teaches are those Jehovah's witnesses....they really have researched a lot....I might join them one day...or not....watever~

I was brought up as one and can honestly say that they are not skilled researchers at all; most of their doctrine is unsound and their references to other scholars are intellectually and academically dishonest.

On a much more broader level they destroy families through their shunning of ex members and have siginificant issues with people obtaining a higher education; furthermore and more sinister than the above, their policies have allowed child abuse within their organisation to reach a pandemic proportion.

jehovahs-witness.com

Personally the song is about losing faith and religious intolerance.

Every one's so eager to jump onto the political band wagon(too often obvious in todays media) and assume it is about Bush, no thanks to the fan made video. I think it is much simpler than that this album seems to be about living in this modern world, I think this song is about losing faith in Religion and blaming it with the state of the world.Or an atheists view of religion. Not to far off one might think look at Ayn Rands conception of the "mystic of the spirit".The Character in the song seems to be frustrated with organized religion specifically Christianity and struggling with faith. I don't believe it is specifically political or a condemnation of Christianity not only because of what i have already stated but also because the rest of the album seemingly discusses a struggling with one's faith in an insane, highly political, and hell bent world where mystics of the spirit are the spark that is igniting the powder keg of our world.