God's Radiophone

DESCRIPTION: "One day Nebuchadnezzar constructed an image of gold" and ordered all to worship it, but the Hebrew Children refused, "For they had a connection with heaven on God's wonderful radiophone." The examples of Daniel, Elijah, and Jonah are also cited
AUTHOR: Charles C. Mourer ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1); there was apparently a copyright claim for a song of this name in 1924
KEYWORDS: technology religious rescue
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 13-14, "God's Radiophone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7118
RECORDINGS:
Wade Mainer, "God's Radio Phone" (King 975)
NOTES [293 words]: The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace is told in chapter 3 of the book of Daniel. Interestingly, there is no hint whatsoever that they received any vision or prophetic knowledge before their ordeal; Daniel was a prophet, but the three young men were not.
The story of Daniel in the Lion's Den is in Daniel 6, with the mention of him praying three times a day being in 6:10. Fascinatingly, although Daniel was a prophet, he didn't have any notice about his fate, either. In the Book of Daniel, apparently, you only hear a voice from God when you don't actually need to hear it!
The story of Jonah and the Fish (not in the version recorded by Norman and Nancy Blake) is the subject of the whole book of Jonah. And the Hebrew Bible says explicitly fish, *not* "whale"; "whale" is the interpretation of the Greek Bible. Nor does God speak to Jonah while Jonah is inside the sea creature; in Jonah 1:17, God "provides" a fish to swallow Jonah, but doesn't comment on it; Jonah, Chapter 2, consists of Jonah talking to God; in 2:10, God spoke *to the fish*, not to Jonah, and told it to spit the prophet out.
The story of Elijah and the Contest on Mount Carmel (not in the Burton/Manning version) is told in 1 Kings 18, and his opponents were not "professors and fakers"; they were priests of Baal. (A word which happens to mean "Lord," so if properly translated, the contest is between Elijah, a prophet of the LORD, and 400 priests of the Lord. Hm). Elijah didn't get any explicit messages from God at that precise moment, but I'll grant that he had been told to go to King Ahab of Israel, who ended up sponsoring the miracle described in the song. Still, I can't say I'm much impressed with the thinking in this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BuMa013

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