Justin Taylor writes, “Calvinism, they say, is making a comeback. But poetry? We rarely hear traditional poems today, apart from rhyming couplets in songs or greeting cards or spoken-word pieces with a beat. So I am thankful to hear and watch this robust, life-giving poem from John Piper—read by Piper with the help of friends Matt Chandler, R. C. Sproul, D. A. Carson, Thabiti Anyabwile, Alistair Begg, and Sinclair Ferguson—showing that Calvinism is not an arcane point of theology but a tough-and-tender approach to all of life before the face of God.”
The Calvinist from Desiring God on Vimeo.
desiringGod.org/calvinist
Sulva Productions
Jeremiah Rounds, Lisa Michelle Rounds, Ophelia Rounds
Poem Written by: John Piper
Directed & Edited by: Tristan Carnahan
Music by: AJ Hochhalter, Tony Anderson
Cinematography by: Tristan Carnahan, Jeremiah Rounds, Gabriel Leake
Sound Design & Mix by: Defacto Sound
Project Managed by: Stefan Green
Produced by: Desiring God
The Book of Life, by John Piper
Before the night he was betrayed,
The Lord of glory died;
Indeed before the world was made,
The Lamb was crucified.
Before the sin, the spear, the lash
(Eternal was the flood!)
God put his inkwell at the gash,
And filled it with his blood;
Then with his crimson ink and quill,
A holy world compiled,
And wrote his kind and costly will:
The name of ev’ry child.
Then, finally, with tears, he took
A blade to foreordain,
And graved the title of the book:
The Life, the Lamb, the Slain.
* * *
And if your name is written there,
Though you may be the least,
You will not fall to any snare,
Nor bow before the Beast.
You will not marvel when it roars,
Nor any feat admire,
Nor drink the poison that it pours,
Nor taste the Lake of Fire.
But you will live forevermore,
Where dusk and dawn are done.
The Lamb will be the moon, and soar
Around an endless Sun.
And if, lamblike, you taste his shame
And finish life abased,
Remember, written one, your name
Will never be erased.
* * *
And so you ask, “How may I know
My name is in the Book?
May I beseech my God to show
The page where I may look?”
No. None may peer within by prayer,
Nor if he wait, or strive.
You know your name is written there,
Because you are alive.
Rejoice, my child, all heaven sings
When you make demons fall.
And yet to be inscribed with kings
In heav’n surpasses all.
* * * * * * *
Revelation 13:7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. 9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear…