4th century BC
Plato
- Idealism — forms over particulars
- The Republic ethic: “God is not the author of evil”
Select a song to see lyrics.
Here is one of the most important claims in this entire book, and I want to state it as clearly as I can.
The covenant of grace IS the New Covenant. And it has been present in every age of human history, including the time of Adam. It is not a new arrangement that started at the cross, or at Pentecost, or with the apostle Paul. It is an eternal, overarching covenant that spans all of time and extends to every one of God’s elect in every era. Abraham was in it. David was in it. Isaiah was in it. The Teacher of Righteousness who wrote predestinarian theology in the caves near the Dead Sea two centuries before Christ was in it.
And the Old Covenant at Sinai was NOT a dispensation of it.
This is where I part company with standard Covenant Theology, and I want to explain why carefully, because the distinction matters enormously.
Covenant Theology teaches that the covenant of grace was administered differently in different eras. In the Old Testament, it was administered through the law, the sacrifices, the ceremonies, the priesthood. In the New Testament, it’s administered through the gospel, through faith, through the Spirit. Same covenant. Different administration. The Old Covenant IS the covenant of grace, just wearing different clothes.
I don’t believe that. And here’s why.
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” (Galatians 3:13)
The law is a curse. Paul doesn’t call it a different administration of grace. He calls it a curse. And you can’t be under a curse and in a covenant of grace through the same covenant. They’re not the same thing. The grace was there. But the law was a separate overlay.
“Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.” (Galatians 3:19)
The law was added. Added to what? Added to the covenant of grace that was already running. The law didn’t replace the covenant of grace. It didn’t absorb it. It didn’t become it. It was added on top of it. A separate thing. A covenant of works. A curse meant to increase transgressions and shut the elect up in Christ.
“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24)
The law was a schoolmaster. Not a covenant of grace. A tutor. A temporary institution with a specific purpose: to drive the elect to Christ by showing them they couldn’t keep it.
So in the Old Testament, two covenants ran simultaneously:
The covenant of grace — eternal, overarching, present in all ages. Every elect person partook of it. They had the Spirit. They were regenerated. They were justified. They had new firmware, to use the language we’ll develop later in this book. Abraham “believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:3). David wrote, “Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity” (Psalm 32:2). These men were in the covenant of grace centuries before Sinai. And they remained in it during and after Sinai.
The covenant of works at Sinai — a separate overlay. A curse. Temporary. Added because of transgressions. Designed to reveal sin, increase guilt, and drive the elect to Christ. The ceremonies, the sacrifices, the priesthood, the dietary laws, the Sabbath regulations, all of it. Real. Valid. Served its purpose. But it was not the covenant of grace. It was the visible rendering constraint layered on top of the invisible substance.
And when Christ fulfilled the law, the overlay was removed. What was left was what was always there: the covenant of grace, now visible at higher resolution, no longer veiled behind the ceremonies of Sinai.
Let me show you how the individual covenants of the Old Testament relate to the overarching covenant of grace:
The Adamic covenant (Genesis 3:15) — the first visible rendering of the covenant of grace in time. God promises enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The two seeds announced. Redemption promised. The covenant of grace begins its temporal expression.
The Noahic covenant (Genesis 9) — God’s promise to preserve the stage on which redemption unfolds. The rainbow is a sign of continuity, not of salvation. God won’t destroy the world by flood again because the story isn’t finished yet. The rendering needs to continue.
The Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 17) — the covenant of grace rendered in promise to a specific man. “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee” (Genesis 17:7). Circumcision as the visible sign. But the real sign was always the circumcision of the heart. The visible sign pointed at the invisible reality.
The Mosaic covenant at Sinai — NOT a dispensation of the covenant of grace. A covenant of WORKS. The exception. The one covenant in the Old Testament that is not a rendering of the covenant of grace but a separate overlay for a specific purpose: to curse, to increase transgressions, to drive the elect to Christ. Every other covenant in the Bible is a rendering of grace. This one is law.
The Davidic covenant (2 Samuel 7) — the covenant of grace rendered in kingship. An eternal throne promised to David’s line. Fulfilled in Christ. The visible king pointed to the invisible reign. “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end” (Isaiah 9:7).
The New Covenant as revealed in the New Testament — the covenant of grace at its highest temporal resolution. The Sinai overlay removed. The veil lifted. Faith alone. Law finished. The Spirit poured out. Not a new covenant in substance, because the substance was always there. New in resolution. The same thought, rendered at higher fidelity.
| Covenant | Reference | What is rendered | Visible sign | Relation to the covenant of grace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adamic | Gen 3:15 | The two seeds, redemption promised | The promise itself | First rendering of grace in time |
| Noahic | Gen 9 | Preservation of the stage | The rainbow | Sustains the rendering, not the grace itself |
| Abrahamic | Gen 17 | Grace promised to a specific seed | Circumcision (pointing at heart-circumcision) | Direct rendering of grace |
| Mosaic / Sinai | Ex 19-24 | Law, curse, transgression increased | Tablets and ceremonies | A separate covenant of WORKS, not grace |
| Davidic | 2 Sam 7 | An eternal throne | The visible king | Grace rendered in kingship |
| New | Jer 31, Heb 8 | Faith, Spirit poured out, law finished | The Lord’s Supper | Same grace at higher resolution |
The Mosaic row is the one that breaks the pattern. Every other covenant is a rendering of grace at some resolution. Sinai is an overlay of law on top of the same elect. That single asymmetry is the whole chapter.
The progressive rendering of this covenant across history, and the remarkable evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls, are explored in the next chapter.
The following passages speak to the themes of this chapter and are commended to the reader for independent study.
Copyright © 2026 by Brandan Kraft. All rights reserved.
Published by Pristine Grace Publishing · pristinegrace.org
ISBN: 979-8-234-05049-6 · First Edition, 2026
Read A Thought in the Mind of God offline in your preferred format.
Use the floating arrows on the sides or the arrows in the top bar to move between chapters.
Tap the 🧠 mind button in the lower right to browse all chapters, search the book, view your bookmarks, and access the Bible.
Search the entire book for any word or phrase. Results link directly to the matching text.
Click the "Bookmark" pill next to any section heading to save your place. Find your bookmarks in the mind menu or in the sidebar.
Tap the clock icon in the top bar to jump back to chapters you've recently visited.
On desktop, the sidebar shows all chapters and sections. Use the filter at the bottom to quickly find a topic.
Everything that exists is a thought in the mind of God.
J/K to scroll, N/P for next/previous chapter, S to search, B to bookmark. Tap to see them all.
Password:
Try again.
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
Choose from multiple reading plans, track your daily progress, and receive reminders to stay on track — all with a free account.
Select a plan to begin your Bible reading journey. Your progress will be tracked automatically.
You've completed your reading plan!
Isaiah 53:10, Rom 8:28-30, Psalm 23, grace, love one another
Commentary