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Soon and Very Soon Meaning, History, and Theology

"Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King"

Written
1976
Category
Hymn
Status
Published

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Story

“Soon and Very Soon” is a 1976 gospel song written and composed by Andraé Crouch and first recorded with the Disciples on “This Is Another Day.” Rooted especially in Revelation 21 and 22, it turns Christian hope in Christ’s coming, resurrection, and the end of death and sorrow into joyful congregational praise.

Overview

“Soon and Very Soon” is a gospel song of expectant Christian hope. Andraé Crouch gives the church a communal, joyful way to look toward the coming of Christ, resurrection life, and the promised end of death and sorrow. Its language is deliberately uncomplicated, allowing the congregation to sing eschatology not as a technical scheme but as confident anticipation of being with Christ the King.

The song’s emotional character is important. Biblical teaching about the end is sometimes heard primarily through warning or fear; Crouch instead emphasizes joy, reunion, comfort, and victory. The repeated corporate voice makes that hope communal: the future belongs not to an isolated believer but to a people moving together toward the fulfillment of God’s promises.

Pastorally, the song is useful in Advent, Christ the King observances, funerals, memorial services, and worship centered on resurrection or the new creation. Its hope should not be reduced to escape from the present world. Revelation 21 directs Christian expectation toward God dwelling with humanity and abolishing death, mourning, crying, and pain.

Historical Background

“Soon and Very Soon” emerged during a particularly productive period in Andraé Crouch’s career. In 1976 Crouch and the Disciples released their sixth album, “This Is Another Day,” on Light Records, catalog LS-5683. The album included the new song, which quickly became one of its most recognized selections. Contemporary documentation gives 1976 as the strongest date for the work: the album copyright was registered on October 4, 1976, and the separate score was registered on October 26. Lexicon Music, the publishing arm connected with the record company, issued sheet music, and Light Records also released the song as a 45-rpm single.

Later hymnals sometimes print 1978 as the composition or copyright date, creating a persistent discrepancy in reference works. The surviving 1976 album, sheet music, and copyright registrations establish that the song was already written, recorded, published, and registered that year. The album songbook followed in 1978, which likely helps explain why that later date appears in some hymnals.

The original published song was more extensive than the condensed form commonly encountered in congregational hymnals. It contained additional stanzas and a bridge, while many later hymnbooks omit the bridge and sometimes abbreviate other material. The earliest located congregational songbook appearance documented by Hymnology Archive is the National Baptist collection “Free Spirit” in 1979, where the piece was printed in full with four-part harmony. “Songs of Zion” followed in 1981, and the Church of God in Christ hymnal “Yes, Lord!” included a congregational setting in 1982.

The song then moved into a widening range of denominational hymnals. William Farley Smith prepared a congregational harmonization for “The United Methodist Hymnal” of 1989; his version altered some harmonic progressions and added transitional bass movement while retaining Crouch’s melody. Other editors produced their own settings, so SOON AND VERY SOON can appear in different keys, meters, and harmonic textures depending on the hymnal.

Hymnologically, the song has clear affinities with the African American spiritual and gospel traditions. Chris Fenner notes its simple repeated text, substitution pattern, inner refrain, and structural resemblance to older communal songs. Some of its imagery also belongs to a wider pool of traditional gospel language. These similarities should not be turned into an unsupported claim that Crouch merely copied an older spiritual; rather, they show how his contemporary composition works within a living African American sacred-song vocabulary while combining it with his own melody and arrangement.

By the early twenty-first century the song had moved well beyond its original recording context. It was sung by the Andraé Crouch Singers at Michael Jackson’s public memorial at the Staples Center on July 7, 2009, and Hymnary now indexes it in more than seventy hymnals. The text and tune remain copyrighted. The original copyright is documented in 1976 under Bud John Songs, Inc. and Crouch Music, while later hymnals list changing publishers or administrators; users should therefore consult current licensing information for reproduction, projection, recording, streaming, or arrangement.

Biblical Foundations

Revelation 22:20 provides the clearest biblical parallel to the song’s sense of imminence. The final pages of Scripture answer Christ’s promise of coming with the church’s prayer for his arrival, giving Christian expectation both confidence and longing.

Revelation 21:3-4 supplies the strongest foundation for the song’s picture of the future. The biblical hope is not merely departure from earthly trouble but God dwelling with his people in a renewed order where death, mourning, crying, and pain no longer rule. This passage gives theological depth to the song’s repeated contrast between present suffering and future joy.

First Thessalonians 4:16-17 links the return of Christ with resurrection and the gathered people of God being with the Lord forever. John 14:3 likewise centers Christian hope on communion with Christ: the promise matters because believers will be where he is.

Philippians 3:20-21 adds the expectation of Christ as Savior and the transformation of mortal human existence. Together these passages show that the song’s hope involves Christ’s return, resurrection, transformed life, and everlasting fellowship with the Lord.

Verse Explanation

Because the song remains under copyright, this section does not reproduce or closely paraphrase its stanzas. In broad terms, the piece begins with joyful expectation of encounter with Christ, then develops that hope by contrasting the promised future with present experiences of grief and mortality. The original form also includes a bridge that acknowledges obstacles on the journey and dependence on God’s sustaining help.

The song’s repeated design is part of its theological effect. Rather than building a complex argument, it allows a few central convictions about Christ, hope, and the end of suffering to become a shared congregational confession.

Theological Reflection

The song’s central doctrine is Christian eschatological hope. Its future orientation is explicitly Christ-centered: the decisive good of the promised future is encounter and communion with the King. This keeps the song from reducing heaven to scenery, reward, or relief alone.

Its treatment of suffering is equally important. The song acknowledges realities such as grief and death but sings them in the light of Revelation 21, where those powers are temporary rather than ultimate. Christian hope does not claim that suffering is unreal; it claims that suffering will not have the final word in God’s renewed creation.

The repeated plural voice also gives the song an ecclesial character. The hope being confessed belongs to the gathered people of God. This communal language is especially fitting in funeral and memorial worship, where those who mourn can sing hope together even when individual emotion is fragile.

The song does not attempt to define a detailed chronology of end-times events. Its language can be heard in relation to Christ’s return, heaven, resurrection, and eternal life, but its theological center is simpler: God will fulfill his promises, Christ will reign, death and sorrow will end, and the people of God will be with the Lord.

Church Impact

The first documented congregational publication, the National Baptist collection “Free Spirit” of 1979, placed the song directly within Black church hymnody only a few years after its recording. It soon appeared in “Songs of Zion” in 1981 and the Church of God in Christ’s “Yes, Lord!” in 1982 before entering broader evangelical and mainline collections.

Hymnary now indexes the song in more than seventy hymnals. These include Baptist, Church of God in Christ, United Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Catholic, Reformed, Mennonite, and ecumenical collections. Its classifications commonly include Advent, Christ the King, second coming, heaven, new creation, hope, grief, and funerals.

The song also traveled through translations and adaptations; Hymnary records, among others, Polish and Spanish forms. Its performance at Michael Jackson’s 2009 public memorial illustrates another dimension of its reception: the song can function as Christian testimony in a large public setting while retaining the vocabulary of gospel worship.

Its historical significance is best stated without exaggeration. “Soon and Very Soon” is a well-documented example of a contemporary Black gospel song that moved from commercial recording into denominational hymnals and became durable congregational repertoire across a range of Christian traditions.

Musical Notes

Crouch wrote both the text and tune. Hymnary indexes the melody as SOON AND VERY SOON, while some hymnals use the shortened title VERY SOON. The original song is rhythmically flexible enough that meters vary among hymnals: the Hymnary text authority gives 10.10.10.10.10.10, while many congregational books classify it as 12.12.12.14, 12.12.12 with refrain, or simply irregular.

F major is a common key in hymnals, although William Farley Smith’s United Methodist setting and other arrangements may appear in G major. The repetitive melodic material, gospel syncopation, and compact phrases make the song readily singable from memory and naturally suited to responsorial or call-and-response performance.

The 1976 sheet music was essentially a melody score with relatively basic keyboard notation; Hymnology Archive cautions that it should not be treated as a complete transcription of Crouch’s performance style. Congregational editors therefore had to make choices about harmony, rhythm, accompaniment, and whether to include the original bridge.

Smith’s harmonization for “The United Methodist Hymnal” became particularly influential in later congregational books, but it is an adaptation of Crouch’s original song rather than the original composition itself. Worship leaders should preserve the rhythmic vitality of the gospel idiom without forcing every performance into one hymnal’s notated realization.

Application

  • Use the song in Advent to emphasize that Christian expectation includes Christ’s promised return as well as remembrance of his first coming.
  • Pair it with Revelation 21:3-4 at funerals or memorial services so its joy is grounded in the biblical promise of God’s final victory over death and sorrow.
  • Teach the congregation that Christian hope is communal; believers bear one another’s grief and confess the promised future together.
  • Avoid using the song as a reason to withdraw from present suffering or injustice. Future hope should strengthen faithful witness, compassion, and perseverance in the present.
  • Verify the rights for the particular edition or arrangement being used because the song remains copyrighted and several later hymnal harmonizations carry additional rights.

Discussion Questions

  1. How does Revelation 21:3-4 deepen the song’s promise beyond a general idea of “going to heaven”?
  2. Why does the song portray Christ’s coming with joy rather than fear, and how does that compare with other Christian treatments of the last things?
  3. What does the repeated communal voice teach about the church’s responsibility to carry hope together in seasons of grief?
  4. How can hope for Christ’s return strengthen faithful engagement with present suffering rather than encourage escape from it?
  5. What can the song’s movement from a 1976 gospel recording into many denominational hymnals teach us about changes in twentieth-century congregational music?

Teaching Tips

  • Build a timeline beginning with the 1976 “This Is Another Day” album and copyright registrations, then trace the song through “Free Spirit” in 1979, “Songs of Zion” in 1981, “Yes, Lord!” in 1982, and “The United Methodist Hymnal” in 1989.
  • Explain the 1976 versus 1978 dating discrepancy: surviving copyright and recording evidence supports 1976, while the album songbook appeared in 1978 and some later hymnals adopted that date.
  • Read Revelation 21:3-4 and Revelation 22:20 before singing so the congregation hears the song within the Bible’s vision of Christ’s coming and God’s renewed creation.
  • Teach the difference between Crouch’s original song and later congregational harmonizations, especially William Farley Smith’s setting.
  • When leading the music, preserve its gospel rhythmic energy and communal character rather than treating it as a square, purely chordal hymn.

Sources

  1. Andraé Crouch and the Disciples, “This Is Another Day,” Light Records LS-5683, 1976, original album containing “Soon and Very Soon.”

  2. Andraé Crouch, “Soon and Very Soon,” Lexicon Music sheet music, 1976; score copyright registered October 26, 1976.

  3. Hymnology Archive, Chris Fenner, “Soon and Very Soon,” 2022, documenting the 1976 recording and copyright registrations, original song structure, early congregational publications, arrangements, and musical analysis.

  4. “Free Spirit,” National Baptist Publishing Board, 1979, earliest located congregational songbook appearance documented by Hymnology Archive.

  5. “Songs of Zion,” Abingdon Press, 1981, early United Methodist African American congregational setting.

  6. “Yes, Lord! Church of God in Christ Hymnal,” 1982, early COGIC congregational setting.

  7. “The United Methodist Hymnal,” 1989, hymn 706, with congregational harmonization by William Farley Smith.

  8. Hymnary.org, text authority page for “Soon and Very Soon,” identifying Andraé Crouch, 1976, copyright information, translations, and hymnal circulation.

  9. Hymnary.org, tune authority page for SOON AND VERY SOON, identifying Andraé Crouch as composer and documenting meter, keys, and later arrangements.

  10. C. Michael Hawn, Discipleship Ministries, “History of Hymns: Soon and Very Soon,” 2015, on Crouch’s biography, biblical themes, hymnal reception, and public memorial use.

  11. Gwendolyn Sims Warren, “Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit,” Henry Holt, 1997, discussion of the song within African American sacred-song tradition.

  12. Carl P. Daw Jr., “Glory to God: A Companion,” Westminster John Knox Press, 2016, interpretation of the song’s joyful eschatological character.

  13. The Recording Academy, Andraé Crouch artist profile and obituary, documenting seven Grammy Awards, twenty nominations, and his wider recording career.

  14. World English Bible, public domain Scripture text.

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