Tim Naab Goes Poetic-Rapsta' on TULIP

Tim Naab, a friend with a long story in Pentecostalism, its gross misfortunes, its misleadings, its ignorances, its deceptions, its manifold abuses in American religious history and its long shadows over his own generations personally (not to mention America), has turned Calvinistic on TULIP with a rap beat.  RA is not inclined to poetry.  Even Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, Canterbury, told Henry VIII, that he was not a poet, but a liturgist.  Never mind Petrarch, Shakespearean sonnets, John Donne, or John Milton.  Here's Tim Naab on TULIP...and we hear a rapsta' beat behind it.  Watch some salesman, marketeer, musician and enthusiast pick up on it and sell it.

Tim Naab

I’ve heard it told in the testimony of men
how they struggled to climb from the pit they were in
and battled with God and wrested with sin,
yet always slid back, unable to win.


... They spoke of the horrible acts they had done
and knowing God sought them, the harder they run
to break all the laws and keep not a one
till life unraveled, to their end they had come.

Someone spoke and they heard them say,
"You've tried everything. Let me show you the way.
Jesus loves you, and your debt He did pay.
Just bow your head and pray what I pray."

Proclaimed as redeemed, and forever secured.
Heaven's your home of that you’re assured,
for the act of your faith, new life was procured.
Just do good work and your future’s insured.

This lie has been told time after time.
“precept upon precept; line upon line;”
The more it is told the greater the crime.
Deceptive and deadly, far from benign.

Darkness is more than just "not as bright."
It condemns not itself for its lack of all light.
As the lost do not see the state of their plight,
they see no pit, and all appears right.

The dead never struggle to climb from their grave;
The lost are as dead and Totally Depraved,
contrite and content yet simply a slave.
The road to hell with good intention is paved.

Unconditional Election? Yes it must be!
Did God roll the dice and now waits to see
who will come on their own, since the will is so free?
So God makes no promise and there's no guarantee?

Election is true and God paid the price
for those that are His, not just to entice.
Limited Atonement, to be more precise,
for the Church it's efficient and will fully suffice.

His call is effective, an irresistible grace
to raise us from death and a faith to embrace.
Only then will we see our state of disgrace.
for we’re slain by the law, our sin to erase.

God has worked in us to both will and to do.
(Our will to work outward will definitely ensue.)
Perseverance of the saints will carry us through!
It is all about God, not about you.

Tim Naab
April 10, 2012