Remarkable change in We Are The World lyrics

[blue moon]

In Heal the world he writes God turns stone into bread. When I google about that I cannot find anything that that happenend. But when you read the story about Jezus and the temptation, it's said that Jezus was in the desert for forty days and forty nights. And resists the temptation of the devil.  look now at the 3th part of Billy Jean:

For forty days and forty nights
I was on her side
But who can stand
When she's in demand
Her schemes and plans
Cause we danced on the floor, in the round        ------(floor = desert = his life, fooling -
So take my strong advice                                  -----------( around with devil = illuminati)
Just remember to always think twice
(Do think twice)
Do think twice
Hooo

At the time that he writes Heal the world and wrote the part about stone/bread, and you find out that it's not the original story, he wants us to look to Billy Jean (and other lyrics?) To let us know that someone (illuminati) wants to take (keep)  control over him. And now it is changed again. Do think twice!!

[misha86]

ok can anyone please explain what does the change mean?? i'm not getting it...

back at that time mike was under control of the illuminati, they worship the devil so by saying "god changed bread to stone" is saying that the devil is god

that line is gone , meaning that he is not under control of them no more

[eviltwin]

You are missing the point of this original lyric. It's beautiful. I'm shocked it was taken out, just shows you that God ONCE AGAIN is removed. Turning stone to bread means God sending his Son Turning hearts of stone to forgiveness. Jesus is The Bread of Life.

[~Souza~]

You are missing the point of this original lyric. It's beautiful. I'm shocked it was taken out, just shows you that God ONCE AGAIN is removed. Turning stone to bread means God sending his Son Turning hearts of stone to forgiveness. Jesus is The Bread of Life.

The devil turned stone to bread, not God. Even I know that and I am not even religious. I am glad it was removed.

[eviltwin]

You are missing the point of this original lyric. It's beautiful. I'm shocked it was taken out, just shows you that God ONCE AGAIN is removed. Turning stone to bread means God sending his Son Turning hearts of stone to forgiveness. Jesus is The Bread of Life.

The devil turned stone to bread, not God. Even I know that and I am not even religious. I am glad it was removed.

The Devil DID NOT turn stones into bread, he simply tempted. The Devil suggested that If Jesus was the Son of God, Jesus should turn the stones to bread. "If you are really the Son of God, turn these stones into bread."

This verse in WATW titles "GOD". Jesus is the second person in the Trinity. God the Father created Jesus to turn our hearts of stone into the bread of forgiveness. That is only possible by way of The Bread of Life who is Jesus, God's Son. Hence the Temple curtain tore in two from top to bottom upon the crucifixion. It's all relative.

[~Souza~]

You are missing the point of this original lyric. It's beautiful. I'm shocked it was taken out, just shows you that God ONCE AGAIN is removed. Turning stone to bread means God sending his Son Turning hearts of stone to forgiveness. Jesus is The Bread of Life.

The devil turned stone to bread, not God. Even I know that and I am not even religious. I am glad it was removed.

The Devil DID NOT turn stones into bread, he simply tempted. The Devil suggested that If Jesus was the Son of God, Jesus should turn the stones to bread. "If you are really the Son of God, turn these stones into bread."

This verse in WATW titles "GOD". Jesus is the second person in the Trinity. God the Father created Jesus to turn our hearts of stone into the bread of forgiveness. That is only possible by way of The Bread of Life who is Jesus, God's Son. Hence the Temple curtain tore in two from top to bottom upon the crucifixion. It's all relative.

If my bible knowledge has failed me and that's quite possible since I haven't read it in almost 20 years, and what you are saying is true, then the phrase is still disturbing. "As God has shown us after being told by the devil to do so..."

No offence, to me there are (besides some good life lessons as well) a lot of disturbing things in the bible, this is one of them.

Also (and again no offence) the fact that God is cut out again, is not a bad thing at all. If people would love each other half of how they love their god, the world would be a wonderful place again.

[serendipity]

Well, the original was not Biblically accurate. So they had to change it.

[teensy]

I noticed the line change immediately!

As God has shown us by turning stone to bread

I think it was no accident or misunderstanding that this line was in the song originally.

[MJonmind]

If I'm not mistaken, MJ said that he and Lionel had worked and worked on WATW and it wasn't satisfactory, and MJ did some more work on it and finally it was good at the last "minute"! Does someone know if that was in Moonwalker? About the lyric change. Art is not necessarily supposed to be theologically, grammatically, politically, etc. correct. It's about emotion, story, message, passion. I believe the context of this controversial line is that we need to show caring for the people, planet around us. I don't think MJ cared so much for the letter of the law but the spirit of the law. This message is about God our creator, sustainer, provider providing food for the hungry out of the most unlikely sources, even hardened hearts or selfish greed. He might have lifted it out of the temptation of Christ but he's using it for his own thoughts.

The story in the Bible was all about Jesus resisting temptation to sin and listen to the devil--it was test of His character. Jesus in effect says to the devil, bread is good but you also need to listen to God's voice.  Well maybe in the world today God is showing us and the devil His ways of doing things better. MJ's an artist not a theologian, thankfully. If you study the New Testament you'll notice Jesus did his own thing too, quoting Old Testament and other literature of his day, not sitting too well with the proper thinkers of his day. Also there is much use of the word 'stone' in the Bible. Another good study. Just a few verses back from the Matthew 4:3 in question, to 3:9 where Jesus is lashing at the religious leaders and says, "Do not suppose that you can say to yourselves,'We have Abraham for our father'; for I say to you, that God is able from these STONES to raise up children to Abraham." Heck God can make anything out of anything He wants to.  Another thought on 4:3 the devil is directing his question to Jesus not God. In the song it is God making the bread and for what purpose--showing us something--what--to love, care and lend a hand.

Send them your heart so they know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by turning stones to bread
So we all must lend a helping hand

[tipareth]

I see nothing disturbing with that verse.  

The only thing I see is a lyricist that made a mistake, or was too into lyrics and forgot the 'historical' part. Many poets are doing mistakes like those - unintentionally or intentionally - because their truth is the poetical truth not the historical truth.





From a religious point of view it's not even a mistake, because Jesus already turned water into wine, so stones turned into bread would not make a crime either.

What the crime would have been is for Jesus to fail unto temptation into desert and just FEED himself, by making stones into bread. The act of feeding himself while he was fasting. That was the temptation, that would be the crime, not the act of turning something into other thing. Jesus already did that, and we can guess he did it many times, not only the times mentioned in the Bible, just to feed the men and women around, he multiplied the fish. For a wedding he turned water into wine.

So not big deal for Jesus to do those kind of transformations... So not the act of transformation of stones into bread, is bad. But the temptation to feed yourself in the middle of the fasting and give up on your lusts and instincts. And the devil tempted Jesus by telling him, to do another transformation. The devil knew Jesus is expert in those kind of transformations, and wanted  Jesus to use that in his own benefit. With one little step, giving up to your own instincts, the devil can have you. he even can have Jesus into his evil power.... This is the meaning of the story, the selfish acts can draw us to the devil, enslaves us.





So the verse from the We Are the World is just mistake done by a lyricist, Lionel, or Mike doesn't matter. They did just an historical mistake. Not even a religious one, as I've explained above... Jesus was perfect capable of turning everything into everything. Those who do not understand the CORE of this biblical story, are grasping fanatically at the surface of things.



Open you eyes and stop being afraid and look at Jesus with innocent eyes, look at the core not surface.  

[MJonmind]

I still totally believe Michael intended to say what he did--he knew his Bible well. In one story (can't remember the guy's name)- he verified that Michael did the 40 day fast possibly on more than one occasion. If he wants to draw our attention to the line for a certain reason, then we just haven't understood it properly yet. Theologians don't agree on almost every verse in the Bible and so how can we say with certainty what a verse totally means, can be literally, figuratively and then in layers. We should keep on looking. I think calling it an error is a mistake. :lol: IMHO

[tipareth]

So? That means that Mike did it on purpose, meaning he was siding with the devil... or Illuminati Or just wanting to poke our heads, and that in the middle of an inspirational song?

I think people are looking too much into things, too many conspiratorial theories, for real. Just for the sake of it.

[~Souza~]

So? That means that Mike did it on purpose, meaning he was siding with the devil... or Illuminati Or just wanting to poke our heads, and that in the middle of an inspirational song?

I think people are looking too much into things, too many conspiratorial theories, for real. Just for the sake of it.

Maybe, but how do you explain that that phrase is replaced?

[simalves]

Some reviews about that line

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Well, the big thrill for me in resurrecting this tacky dinosaur is that I get to hear the one lyric that should go down in history as Exhibit A in how Hollywood celebrities are magnificently and almost charmingly out-of-touch with the most basic religious facts.  What is that lyric, you ask?  Remember when Willie Nelson gets his moment in the sun and comes in with his signature warble?  He says:  “As God has shown us…  by turning stone to bread…”  I’ll never forget hearing that for the first time.  For me it was like hearing someone referring to President Richard M. Dixon.  I couldn’t believe it.  Had Willie Nelson just said that God had at one time “turned stone to bread”?  Had I really heard that?  Who’d written this lyric — and why had Willie sung it?  I could only guess that the lyricist was Lionel Ritchie or the King of Pop himself. In any case, they had flubbed up rather majorly here.  It was obvious that they mistakenly thought Jesus had at some point in his ministry performed this miracle…   But as any non-Grammy-winning Fifth-grader knows from Sunday School, Jesus didn’t turn stone to bread — he refused to turn stone to bread.  That’s an important difference.

But hadn’t someone suggested turning stone to bread?  Whose idea was that? (Cue 80’s-era Churchlady voice): Satan’s?? That’s right, Churchlady:  it was Satan’s idea.  Most average Americans remember the famous scene from Scripture where Jesus is tempted in the wilderness. He is hungry, having fasted for forty days, and Satan suggests that he use his miraculous powers to turn “these stones into bread.”  And Jesus refuses, saying:  “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  Whoops!

Anyway, Lionel and Michael and Quincy and Willie and everyone else on the risers seems to have missed this.  Did Cyndi Lauper notice and not say anything?  Or Dan Ackroyd?  Or Ed Bradley?  I doubt it.  Certainly no one in the news media picked up on this whopping gaffe at the time, and as far as I know it’s never been mentioned since.  Why?  Well, mainly because the tiny group of Americans who are part of the much-vaunted media elites simply don’t know this sort of thing.  And here’s the kicker — they don’t know anyone who knows it.  It’s as if they are quarantined behind impenetrable pallisades of secularism — utterly protected from any molecules of Biblical knowledge or ideas.  As if they are all Bubble People.

And that night in the cab home I thought of Willie and Quincy and Michael and Lionel and my friend.  All living in their bubble, not knowing there is a world outside them, actually thinking they are  the world, when they are just inside a bubble inside it.  Behold the Bubble People!  Shall we tell them and burst it?  Or is the wind shifting, and are they already beginning to gain altitude and float away, away, away?

Also
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In several spots, the Bible alludes to the seemingly spontaneous generation of food. While stone is not turned to bread, Psalm 104 does give God the credit for bringing "bread from the earth". In Numbers 19 God brings forth water from seemingly otherwise barren rock. In Exodus, the manner in which the mannah is formed is described as it's being formed from lifeless dewdrops.

And this facebook hate page about the lyrics
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LOL

I just think people need to chill and not look so deeply into the lyrics...

[Believe 777]

To me, the new line is what is important. It is clear that there are different biblical interpretations, depending personal beliefs and knowledge. Maybe the new line means more, no-one could argue with the meaning of this:-

'We cant let them suffer, no we cannot turn away'

Religion appears to cause anger, people become divided in their opinions. This could be why it was removed. The new line brings unity in a simple message that everyone will understand as having the same meaning.

Maybe this is the message.