[Intro - rolling mid-tempo shuffle, wry, a swung boom-chicka with bounce]

[Verse 1 - the setup]
Now I went looking for a car a long time back, a good one, a whole one
I wanted a theology that ran true from the front end to the back
So I went lot to lot, I went to every camp that had a sign out
And every car on every lot
Had a good part and a part that would not run

[Chorus]
So I built it one doctrine at a time
One doctrine at a time
I carried the good parts home and I left the bad ones on the lot
And I built the whole thing in my garage
It does not match a model that a dealer ever sold
But it runs, brother, it runs
One doctrine at a time

[Verse 2 - the parts catalog]
I got the imputation off of old John Gill, he had it sitting in the yard
I got free grace from Toplady, and I got a little more of it from Gadsby
A friend of mine who showed up one Sunday handed me the personal covenants and the two seeds
Gordon Clark, he gave me the foundation, said all of your reasoning runs in a circle anyhow
And I hauled the sovereignty of God over evil clean out of the desert, off a two-thousand-year-old scroll

[Chorus]
So I built it one doctrine at a time
One doctrine at a time
I carried the good parts home and I left the bad ones on the lot
And I built the whole thing in my garage
It does not match a model that a dealer ever sold
But it runs, brother, it runs
One doctrine at a time

[Verse 3 - the finished car]
And when I had it all together I stepped back and I gave it a name
Operational Idealism and MCT, and I will grant you that is a mouthful
Now every camp that drives on by, they slow down and they stare
Because it has got a part from everybody
And it does not belong to anyone but me

[Bridge - the comic-but-true turn]
They tell me a car like that cannot be a real car at all
No dealership ever made it, there is no model and no plate
No confession parked behind it with a warranty and a name
But I will tell you what a real car is
A real car is a car that runs

[Final Verse and Outro]
No lot was ever going to sell me the whole and honest truth
So I carried it home in pieces and I bolted it together myself
One doctrine at a time
One doctrine at a time
And the strange thing in my garage, the one that matches nothing on the lot
It started up this morning, and it is taking me home