Karen & I are going to see Bob Dylan here in San Diego tonight.

A friend from church who is worried about my soul said that Bob Dylan sold his soul to the Devil to become so talented, rich, and famous because Dylan told Ed Bradley on 60 minutes that he was just holding up his end of the bargain with the “Chief Commander” of this world when Bradley asked Dylan why he keeps on keeping on with concerts after more than 60 years doing them.

I told my friend who is sincere that I love him, but that I disagreed.

I said that I thought the 60 minutes quote is just Dylan being Dylan in my opinion. Dylan even said earlier in the interview that he’d always lied to the press because they always presumed to judge him and only God gets to do that.

I understood what Dylan said to Bradley about his ”bargain” with the ”Chief Commander” as Dylan just trying to stir things up like he has aways liked to do dramatically and poetically, and also as a metaphor for a life that Dylan chose a long time ago which kept him on the road away from the wife and family he once had that he loved and lost long ago to his sadly hellacious and also debilitatingly famous career.

I could be wrong, of course, maybe Dylan DID “sell his soul to the devil” . . . but while that myth is great drama, it’s also bad theology.

Satan can’t buy souls, nor does he need to do so. Satan already owns ALL the souls of the damned.

Satan DID once try to buy Jesus’ Soul because Jesus of Nazareth was the only human soul that Satan didn’t own.

The Only One who purchases the souls of men and women and boys and girls is Jesus Christ . . . and He does that for each one He purchases at the cost His Own Blood.

Here’s the full 60 Minutes quote: that caused my friend so much concern

EB: Well, it’s lasted a long time for you. I mean you’re still out here doing these songs, you know. You’re still on tour.
BD: I do, but I don’t take it for granted.
EB: Why do you still do it? Why are you still out here?
BD: Well, it goes back to that destiny thing. I made a bargain with it, you know, long time ago. And I’m holding up my end…
EB: What was your bargain?
BD: …to get where I am now.
EB: Should I ask who you made that bargain with?
BD: [laughs] With the chief commander.
EB: On this earth?
BD: [laughs] In this earth and in the world we can’t see.

Literally, Dylan was referring in the interview to the damnable “destiny” he said he alway knew was guiding his life toward greatness.

Or maybe Dylan meant Jesus Christ as the “Chief Commander” of “this world and the world we can’t see” because while the Bible does call Satan the present ruler of this age, the Bible also reveals that someday soon the “gentle Jesus, meek and mild,” like the little child’s quaint bedtime prayer addresses Him, will return as “King of kings and Lord of lords!”

Anyway, how’s THAT for good Biblical exposition . . . or sinful human rationalization . . . whichever it is?