4th century BC
Plato
- Idealism — forms over particulars
- The Republic ethic: “God is not the author of evil”
Notes
Track 3 of Hand It Down -- direct authorship without Adam's ledger, the framework's rejection of federal headship as compact hymnody.
Source: Ezekiel 18:1-4, 18:20 (the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father), and the doctrine of direct authorship from Chapter 11 of the book.
Doctrine: each soul is a thought of God directly, sin nature included, no forensic transfer of guilt from Adam -- the crook is mine because God authored me, not because a man in a garden mailed it forward. The convergence with the Orthodox / Ezekiel tradition stated plainly.
Form: Common Meter (8.6.8.6), six short verses, no chorus, male lead -- this is the doctrinal confession B carries personally and the hymn is in his voice.
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
I came in crooked, born askew,
A nature bent and worn,
But that crook never came from him,
The first man in the morn.
[Verse 2]
The prophet wrote it plain enough,
A long time back, you'll find:
The son shall not bear up the load,
The father left behind.
[Verse 3]
The Author thought me as I am,
He thought my bent and bone,
And every sin I ever sinned,
Was mine and mine alone.
[Verse 4]
He did not need a federal head,
No stand-in for my plea,
He spoke me as a thought direct,
And thinks me into me.
[Verse 5]
And if my sin is mine and mine,
Then so is His own grace,
Not borrowed from a borrowed Lord,
But poured upon my face.
[Verse 6]
So sing it plain, the saints of God,
We carry our own load,
But Christ has borne it on the tree,
And walks us up the road.
Commentary