4th century BC
Plato
- Idealism — forms over particulars
- The Republic ethic: “God is not the author of evil”
Notes
This song opens the album, and it opens it by pulling up the floorboards. There is a floor beneath the floor you knelt on every Sunday, and it was never His. The whole record is about what is real underneath what is visible - and What Plato Built starts by exposing a foundation most Christians have never thought to question. A Greek who never wrote a single psalm laid a floor beneath the church, and every steeple sang his song.
The diagnosis is specific, and the chorus names it plainly. Sixteen hundred years of stone - a god you cannot blame for evil, a body you must hate, a matter you must flee, a truth above the Truth. That is Platonism wearing a cross. It is why the marriage bed got called shame, why the church flinched at the God who said I form the dark. The flinch was never in the Bible. It was in the floor.
I gave this one a cold, commanding female voice on purpose - it needed to sound like a verdict being read. But the song does not stop at the verdict. The bridge does the thing the whole album exists to do: it swaps the floor. There is a floor beneath the floor, a thought before the stone, a Mind that authored matter and called the matter home. Keep the idealism, throw the law away. God made bodies and called them good, made light and dark, and signed it with the scar. This is what He built - everything a thought, sustained by living will. And love is what holds on.
Lyrics
[Intro]
There is a floor
Beneath the floor
You knelt on every Sunday
And it was never His
[Verse 1]
You sang the hymns, you bowed the head
You said the creed your fathers said
The pulpit cold, the prayer worn thin
The candle lit, the heart turned in
But underneath the marble stone
A Greek had built another throne
He never wrote a single psalm
But every steeple sang his song
[Pre-Chorus]
He was not the architect
But he laid the floor
And every word your preacher learned
Was tuned to Plato's door
[Chorus]
This is what Plato built
Sixteen hundred years of stone
A god you cannot blame
An evil never owned
A body you must hate
A matter you must flee
A truth above the Truth
The Form they cannot see
This is what Plato built
And you sang along
[Verse 2]
The bed you shared, you called it shame
The widow's tears, the church called blame
The God who said "I form the dark"
You softened to a lower mark
The cause of evil pushed away
To human will, to disarray
But Isaiah wrote a different word
And every steeple turned away
[Pre-Chorus]
He was not the architect
But he laid the floor
And every flinch your pulpit had
Was guarding Plato's door
[Chorus]
This is what Plato built
Sixteen hundred years of stone
A god you cannot blame
An evil never owned
A body you must hate
A matter you must flee
A truth above the Truth
The Form they cannot see
This is what Plato built
And you sang along
[Bridge]
But there is a floor beneath the floor
A thought before the stone
A Mind that authored matter
And called the matter home
He gave us bodies, called them good
He created light AND dark
He set His love on you by name
And signed it with the scar
Keep the idealism
Throw the law away
The Mind that holds the universe
Is personal and knows your face
And every ruined chapel beam
Is held by sovereign grace
[Final Chorus]
This is what He built
Everything a thought
Sustained by living will
Authored by a Word
The body and the soul
Both honored and both held
The evil and the good
By His hand decreed
This is what He built
And love is what holds on
[Outro]
There is a floor
Beneath the floor
You knelt on every Sunday
And He has been there all along
He has been there all along
He has been there
All along
Commentary