FINDING
THE BEATLES HOLLOW

Topics: Bible; Conversion; Emptiness; Repentance; Word of God

References: Matthew 11:28–30; John 6:27–35; 1 John 2:15–17

Ken Mansfield, the United States manager for Apple Records (the Beatles’ label), tells about his wonderful times with the Beatles before they broke up. Things went downhill after that until, in the mid-1980s, he hit bottom.

Through a woman with whom he fell in love, Mansfield found Jesus. Before committing his life to Christ, he says Billboard magazine was his Bible; record charts, his God; and prestigious positions, his purpose. “The Holy Grail was a Grammy, and the best table at the Brown Derby, the Promised Land,” Mansfield says.

After his conversion, he realized how hollow the way of the Beatles had been compared to the way of Christ. “They [the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] are the authors of the map I needed for my journey,” he wrote. “I needed a chart, a journal with clear directions, a log to refer to—a guidebook wherein their commands could speak to my wandering spirit. I needed a book so powerful that its very words could burn a living message into the absolute heart of my heart. I needed the irrefutable, holy Word of God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of the very seas I was lost upon!”

—Ken Mansfield, The Beatles, the Bible, and Bodega Bay (Broadman & Holman, 2000)