Through DMX, a path to Jesus

The Gospel of John tells of the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist, describing him as “the voice crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord,’ ” paving the way for Jesus the Nazarene.

Hence, his other title: John the Forerunner. John’s fearlessness and bold announcement of the coming of the Messiah tilled the soil of hardened hearts and planted the seeds Jesus would cultivate into his world-changing kingdom of God movement.

Earl Simmons, better known as DMX, was my John the Forerunner. In the wilderness of my gang-involved teens, DMX was a voice unlike any other, piercing my defenses and opening me up to the work of God.

DMX burst onto the hip-hop scene in 1998 with the utterly unique “It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot.” It was a raw testament to DMX’s story of suffering and survival while also sounding a faith-filled and hopeful note.

It wasn’t as if God was a stranger in hip-hop lyrics: Tupac Shakur, whose posthumous 1996 album “The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory” depicted the rapper on a cross, had often invoked God and heaven, to say nothing of the “Five Percent” theology that pervaded of East Coast rap.

But what “It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot” had that no other could claim was a distinct and overt Christian — maybe even charismatic — spirituality. DMX spoke directly with God in “The Convo,” in a lament worthy of Job (“Why you chose the hood for me?”) and wrestled with satanic temptation in “Damien” as Jesus did in the wilderness. “The Snake, the Rat, the Cat, the Dog / how you gonna see him if you livin’ in a fog?”

DMX wrote hauntingly of death, summoning the anguish of Jesus praying passionately in the Garden of Gethsemane. “You give me the Word / and only ask that I interpret / and give me the eyes / that I may recognize the Serpent.”

The only child of a schizophrenic single mother, I’d experienced abuse and neglect. For a teenager wrestling with his own inner demons, DMX opened up a way out through faith. If he could loft his questions about the problem of evil directly at God and rebuke the devil who tempted him, maybe I could, too. “Somebody’s knocking / should I let him in? / Lord, we’re just starting / but where will it end?”

Later that year, DMX dropped “Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood,” which, like “Hell Is Hot,” topped the charts. When the criminal community to which I’d fled for safety began to unravel and my choices landed me in one too many potentially deadly situations, the lyrics of “Slippin’ ” hit me like prophecy: “See, to live is to suffer. But to survive, well, that’s to find meaning in the suffering.”

About this time, my childhood friend Nate invited me to his baptism at a Pentecostal church. I heard God’s voice through the pastor. It called me like the voice of God in DMX’s music. After I was baptized, I encountered a new version of myself. On repeat on my Sony Discman, DMX was telling the story of a prodigal come home: “My child, I’m here as I’ve always been / it is you who went away and are back again,” he said on “Ready to Meet Him.”

DMX pointed me to Jesus not through a sermon or a Bible study but through his bold faith that didn’t paper over his flaws. His full humanity drew me into the full humanity of Jesus, and his trust in God emboldened me to have faith.

On April 2, Simmons suffered a heart attack, was resuscitated and placed on life support. He died a week later.

Until the resurrection, Earl “DMX” Simmons, rest in Jesus.