2017-03-11

It's Fundamental

A rap song designed to teach the early history of Christian Theology. Originally written in 2010.

It's the fundamental truths of Christian theology
Brought to your ears by audio technology
So just sit back and embrace the knowledge see
That I'm gonna drop in historic chronology 

Back in the day when Jesus lived and preached 
He didn't write nothin down he just reached the least
He was Love in flesh, the Divine embodied
He didn't have time to draft his own philosophy
He lived. He died. He rose again. 
Then he poured out his Spirit upon his friends
The Jesus movement grew and developed and spread
But the Apostles who led them soon wound up dead
With the apostolic generation close to the grave
They decided to write how Jesus taught and behaved
Now we have Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
Acts of the Apostles tells how they moved on
And others like Paul wrote pastoral letters
To help Christians follow the Way of Christ better
To pass on tradition and share the resurrection
To give new believers heresy protection

It's the fundamental truths of Christian theology
Brought to your ears by audio technology
So just sit back and embrace the knowledge see
That I'm gonna drop in historic chronology

The Apostolic writings were copied and shared
And early Christian groups all read and compared
In towns like Rome, Corinth, Ephesus and Phillipi
They read each others letters and kept the archives
Others wrote sermons and tracts to follow the Way
Like Ignatius, Polycarp, Clement and the Didache
Describing the God they knew in Christ
How the Father, Son and Spirit shine forth divine light
They developed a tool called the Rule of Faith
That summarized the Core of what the Apostles say
These Rules all have a simple threefold shape
Around the threefold way that God seems to relate
As the Father who creates, and the Son who saves
And the Spirit who helps us believe and behave 
So they passed down this Faith through the generations
Through teachers ordained in historic succession 

It's the fundamental truths of Christian theology
Brought to your ears by audio technology
So just sit back and embrace the knowledge see
That I'm gonna drop in historic chronology

And so the ancient Church: It grew and grew
But some contradicted Apostolic truth 
Claiming secret teachings and private revelations
They constructed a Christ of their own imagination
But the Church pointed to her Rule of faith
And the public succession of leaders they ordained
From apostle to bishop, from bishop to priest
How from apostolic times they consistently agreed
Secret teachings and new christs were shown to be lacking
And all their forged Scriptures were all sent packing
Because they simply couldn't pass the history test
And they weren't found in what Christians always professed
So the Church made lists of authentic teachings
And compiled a catalog of Apostles preaching
By the fourth century we now know indeed
There was a stable Bible text and the start of a Creed

It's the fundamental truths of Christian theology
Brought to your ears by audio technology
So just sit back and embrace the knowledge see
That I'm gonna drop in historical chronology

Once the Church became legal in year 313
Christians could now gather and discuss publicly 
So the bishops came together from east to west
To decide which teachings would pass the test
To show which beliefs best fit the evidence
In Scripture and tradition and historic precedent
Seven worldwide councils met in four centuries
To examine Christ's life and define boundaries 
One boundary defined the Holy Trinity
God in three persons from all eternity 
Other boundaries defined the person of Christ
Fully God and fully human in one historic life 
Without confusion or division, human yet divine
One with the Father and Spirit from before all time
This Christ we worship in prayer and praise
Through words and icons we see his glory displayed.

It's the fundamental truths of Christian theology
Brought to your ears by audio technology
So just sit back and embrace the knowledge see
That I'm gonna drop in historic chronology 

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This is a bunch of incoherent babble to make us think hard about our incredible love affair with the God of the universe, our astounding infidelities against God, and God's incredible grace to heal and restore us through Christ. Everything on this site is copyright © 1996-2023 by Nathan L. Bostian so if you use it, please cite me. You can contact me at natebostian [at] gmail [dot] com