4th century BC
Plato
- Idealism — forms over particulars
- The Republic ethic: “God is not the author of evil”
Lyrics
[Intro]
There's a story they tell about a man and a tree
And the line they drew from him to me
I've been holding it so long it felt like skin
But I'm setting it down
[Verse 1]
I'm a sinner but I'm mine
I'm fallen but I'm personal
I came in crooked but my crooked is my own
Not a forwarding address
I'm guilty of every thing I've done
I'm not guilty of his
I was thought of in the Mind before the garden
He just rendered first
[Pre-Chorus]
And the Author has my name
The Author has my page
He didn't borrow a representative
He didn't need a stand-in
I was authored before the foundation
By a Mind that doesn't outsource
And the garden was a window
Not a door to my account
[Chorus]
'Cause Adam didn't sign my name
He couldn't have, he wasn't asked to
There's no ledger with a signature
There's no contract on my soul
The Author wrote me by Himself
The Author wrote me by Himself
And the trouble I was born with
Was the trouble He authored too
[Verse 2]
I was made fallen but I was made
I was made fallen but I was made specific
There's a thumbprint on this nature
And it isn't his, it's the Mind's
I don't carry a federal seal
I carry my own crooked hand
And the Author has been holding it
Since before there were hands to hold
[Pre-Chorus]
Ezekiel said it plain
The son shall not bear
The iniquity of the father
And the father shall not bear
The iniquity of the son
I think the prophet knew
What the lawyers later forgot
The soul that sinneth, it shall die
[Chorus]
'Cause Adam didn't sign my name
He couldn't have, he wasn't asked to
There's no ledger with a signature
There's no contract on my soul
The Author wrote me by Himself
The Author wrote me by Himself
And the trouble I was born with
Was the trouble He authored too
[Verse 3]
And I carried the inheritance
For thirty-something years
Like a debt I didn't run up
Like a verdict I didn't earn
The framework didn't break me
The framework set me down
And the One who knew my name from the beginning
Was the One who walked into the room
[Bridge]
I'm not bigger than the tradition
I'm just smaller than the Mind
And the Mind already had me
Before the council had a name
The old church arrived at the same place
The directly-authored nature
We just took different roads to it
Because the road was always one Road
And the Road was always Him
And the Road was always Him
[Final Chorus]
And Adam didn't sign my name
He didn't have a pen for it
The pen was in the Author's hand
The page was in the Author's hand
And what He wrote, He owns
And what He wrote, He carries
And the trouble I was born with
Walks me back to where it started
[Outro]
There's a story they tell about a man and a tree
There's a deeper story than that
The deeper story has my name
The deeper story has His name
And He signed it once for both of us
And the ink hasn't dried
And the ink hasn't dried
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