I don't like to see men do battle with straw men. I hate to fight them myself, as it's a pointless fight; and I don't like to see others defeat them as no real victory can be won.
Brandan Kraft is a computer programmer from the Missouri Ozarks who has been writing about the sovereign grace of God since 1997. He started with a website called bornagain.net, built it into PristineGrace.org, and has published over two hundred articles, nearly sixty songs, and a growing catalog of podcasts from his living room in Ashland, Kentucky. All without permission from anyone.
He holds no seminary degree, no denominational endorsement, and no theological credentials. He has been writing software for the same employer since 1998. He thinks in systems and believes that the sharpest doctrine should produce the widest arms.
His systematic theology, A Thought in the Mind of God, derives every position from one sentence and applies it across every domain - from ontology to eschatology, from the nature of the human mind to the nature of heaven and hell. It is available at pristinegrace.org/mind.
Brandan lives in Ashland, Kentucky with his wife Angie and their son Cole. He plays trombone in the Marshall University Tri-State Brass Band and changes a diaper twice a day on a cat named OJ who was once paralyzed and whom nobody else wanted.
Everything that exists is a thought in the mind of God.
Try again.
I spent the majority of my adult life building something I didn't know had a name. It started with the Scriptures and a lot of late nights. It ended with one sentence that generates every theological position I hold, from the nature of God to the nature of heaven and hell, without contradiction. One sentence. Thirty chapters. Sixteen appendices. And if you accept the sentence, everything else follows.
Most systematic theologies start with a list of doctrines and work through them one by one. This book starts with an ontological claim - that everything that exists is a thought in the mind of God - and derives everything from that single proposition. This is not a rearrangement of existing theology. This is a paradigm shift. Since Augustine imported Plato's metaphysics into the church in the fourth century, every major system of Christian theology has been built on a foundation the Scriptures never laid. This book identifies that foundation, names it, traces its influence across sixteen centuries, and replaces it with an ontology derived from Scripture alone. If the claim holds, this is the most significant shift in the theological starting point since Augustine. And I believe it holds.
This is not a devotional. This is not a commentary. This is a systematic theology built from the ground up by a computer programmer with no seminary degree, no denominational backing, and no one's permission. It uses the vocabulary of information theory, computer science, and quantum physics to describe realities that traditional theological language has never been able to reach. If you are a scientist who suspects that information is fundamental to reality but can't bring yourself to call it God, this book speaks your language. If you are a sovereign grace believer looking for a system that follows the logic all the way, this book does that. And if you have been told that the sharpest doctrine produces the coldest heart, this book ends with the widest arms you have ever seen in a Reformed theology.
The digital edition is free. The truth doesn't come with a price tag. - Brandan Kraft
Imports both:
Fuses them with Scripture.
Aquinas · Calvin · Luther · Westminster
Gill · Clark · Berkhof · Grudem · Hoeksema
Every system in the comparison above stands on this foundation.
Stands on a different foundation: Scripture, on its own terms (John 1:1; Heb. 11:3; Col. 1:17; Isa. 45:7).
The architecture is idealism, because Scripture teaches it — mind precedes matter, the invisible is more real than the visible.
Rejects what Augustine inherited:
“Everything that exists is a thought in the mind of God, sustained by His will, authored by His purpose, and held together by personal covenants of love.”Read Now
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Isaiah 53:10, Rom 8:28-30, Psalm 23, grace, love one another
Comments 1
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Excellent point!
Yup!