The Battle of Calvary

Great Apollyon, grim and awful

Author: Neil Barham (2005)
Tune: BLAENHAFREN
Published in 1 hymnal

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1. Great Apollyon, grim and awful,
steeped in gore and stained in blood—
Death, with all his fearsome forces,
has besieged the Son of God.
Satan, clothed with evil armor,
darkly gleaming, proud and cold—
Merciless, he joins the battle,
armed and clad with pow’r untold.

2. Bowed beneath demonic onslaughts,
Jesus fights His awesome duel!
Pain devours its Holy Victim,
searing, savage, raging, cruel!
Eager waits the Mouth of Sheol,
huge, insatiable, and strong!
Maw agape, the Grave yearns after
Holy Flesh—but not for long.

3. Writhing under Law’s most fearsome curse,
ruined, lost, polluted, wrecked;
Languishing in Satan’s prison
lie the souls of God’s elect.
At the Cross—desire of Hell!
—Christ gives up that final Breath:
Now, at last, the choicest Captive
tastes the mortal sting of Death!

4. Darkness falls; the seething smoke of Hell
cloaks the battlefield from view.
Down the head of God has fallen:
Law and Wrath receive their due!
Satan smiles in seeming triumph,
reaching out, his Prize to take.
Three brief days all Hell rejoices—
then the stone begins to shake!

5. Now the night of wrong is ended;
now the Grave has lost its Prize!
Now the Ris’n One breaks the back of Sin:
There! Behold! See how Death dies!
Resurrection Light now scatters
Satan’s armies from the field.
Christ has drawn the fearful sting of Death:
Sheol and Abaddon yield!

6. At His Glance the mighty prison
built by Law and Sin falls down!
Countless in their thousand thousands,
all His Ransomed praise His Crown!
Heav’n and Hell’s astonished spirits
in their joy and rage all stare
At the Victor of the Cross
who won His greatest Battle there.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #373

Author: Neil Barham

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Text Information

First Line: Great Apollyon, grim and awful
Title: The Battle of Calvary
Author: Neil Barham (2005)
Meter: 8.7.8.7 D
Language: English
Copyright: © 2005 Neil Barham. These lyrics may be freely reproduced or published for Christian worship, provided they are not altered, and this notice is on each copy. All other rights reserved.

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #373
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The Cyber Hymnal #373

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