Appendix I: Glossary of Terms

This glossary defines the key terms used throughout this book, including both traditional theological vocabulary and the framework-specific language developed in these pages. Terms are listed alphabetically.

Antilegomena. The “disputed” books of the Bible, those that self-authenticate less clearly than others. In this book: James, Esther, and Ecclesiastes. Held as Scripture but interpreted in light of the homologoumena. See Chapter 26.

Application layer. The fourth and highest layer of the human mind in the framework’s four-layer model. The capacity to think about thinking. The conscious mind. In the framework, the application layer is what separates humans from animals and is identified with the image of God in the elect. See Chapter 17.

Boot parameters. The deepest presuppositions installed in a person’s subconscious, beneath conscious awareness. They determine how all incoming information is processed. In the unregenerate, the boot parameters are corrupt. In regeneration, the Spirit flashes the firmware and overwrites the boot parameters. See Chapters 16 and 25.

Campless. The author’s term for his theological identity. Belonging to no camp, signing no confession, following no tradition uncritically. Truth-based, never group-based. See Preface.

Collapse / Collapsed thought. The process by which God’s eternal, timeless thought is expressed in temporal, sequential experience. The invisible becoming visible. The eternal becoming temporal. The substance becoming the ceremony. See Chapter 2.

Common grace. The doctrine (rejected in this book) that God loves all people in some general sense, sending rain and sunshine as expressions of His love even for the reprobate. The framework holds that rain on the wicked is the increase of wrath, not grace. See Chapter 19 and Appendix A.

Condemnation of the gospel. One of two consequences in the framework, distinct from the curse of the law. The gospel that is the savour of life to the elect is the savour of death to the reprobate. This condemnation is eternal, not measured, and was not borne by Christ. See Chapter 12 and Chapter 28.

Curse of the law. The measured, proportional penalty for transgression under God’s law. For the elect, Christ bore this curse fully (Galatians 3:13). For the reprobate, it falls on them directly and runs its course. Distinguished from the condemnation of the gospel. See Chapter 12 and Chapter 28.

Equal ultimacy. The doctrine that God actively decreed both the election of the elect and the reprobation of the reprobate. Neither is passive. Both are authored. See Chapter 5.

Federal headship. The doctrine (rejected in this book) that Adam served as the legal representative of all humanity, so that his sin is imputed to all his descendants. The framework holds that God creates each person sinful directly, without intermediary. See Chapters 7 and 11.

Filmstrip. An analogy for the relationship between eternity and time. God is the Filmmaker who sees every frame simultaneously. The characters experience the story one frame at a time. Time is the filmstrip. Eternity is the Director’s perspective. See Chapter 2.

Firmware. The second layer of the human mind in the four-layer model. The subconscious processing layer that sits between the hardware (brain) and the operating system (feelings). In the framework, regeneration is a “firmware flash,” the Spirit overwriting the corrupt boot parameters. See Chapter 16.

Firmware flash. The framework’s term for regeneration. The Holy Spirit overwrites the boot parameters of the subconscious, changing the person’s deepest presuppositions beneath conscious awareness. Faith follows as the application layer becomes aware of the change. See Chapters 15 and 16.

Four-layer model. The framework’s model of the human mind: (1) hardware (brain), (2) firmware (subconscious/boot parameters), (3) operating system (feelings/pre-propositional information), (4) application layer (conscious mind/thinking about thinking). See Chapter 17.

Framework. The complete theological system derived from the sentence. The sentence is the seed; the framework is the tree. See Chapter 1.

Glass, the. A metaphor for the barrier between the conscious mind and unmediated reality, including God’s presence. In this life, even the elect see “through a glass, darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12). In the higher resolution rendering, the glass comes down permanently for the elect. For the reprobate, it never comes down. See Chapter 28.

Hardware interrupt. A moment when the Holy Spirit bypasses the normal firmware/OS pathway and communicates directly to the conscious mind. The “tug on the leash.” One of three channels to the conscious mind. See Chapter 17.

Higher resolution rendering. The framework’s term for the resurrection body and the new creation. Not escape from the physical, but an upgrade. More real, not less. Christ’s resurrection body is the prototype. See Chapter 29.

Homologoumena. The “undisputed” books of the Bible, those that self-authenticate clearly. Romans, Genesis, John, Isaiah, Psalms. The homologoumena interpret the antilegomena, not the other way around. See Chapter 26.

Idealism. The philosophical position that mind precedes matter. The invisible is more real than the visible. In the framework, this is not abstract philosophy but “operational idealism,” the operating system for daily life. See Chapter 1.

Image of God. In the framework, this belongs to the elect only, not to all humanity universally. The image of God is the spiritual reality (the application layer) that makes the elect actual reflections of the Author. The reprobate bear the image of the serpent. See Chapter 12.

Justification from eternity. The doctrine that God never viewed His people as condemned. Justification is not a moment in time but an eternal thought, collapsed into history at the cross, into experience at conversion, and into public declaration at the judgment. See Chapters 2 and 15.

Law of Plato. The philosophical assumption, originating with Plato’s Republic, that God must never be proposed as the author of evil. This assumption has infected all major systems of Christian theology since the Patristic era. The framework rejects it. See Chapters 1, 5, 7, 10, 13, and 18.

MCT (Modified Covenant Theology). The theological system named by the author, built on the framework of this book. Distinct from Covenant Theology, Dispensationalism, and New Covenant Theology. See Appendix B.

Operational idealism. The principle that the invisible is more real than the visible, applied as the operating system for daily life. The covenant precedes the ceremony. The regeneration precedes the faith. The substance precedes the formality. See Chapter 1.

Pre-propositional information. Feelings. Information that arrives at the conscious mind before words can form. The amygdala fires in 12 milliseconds; the prefrontal cortex takes 500 milliseconds. Feelings arrive before thoughts. Always. See Chapter 17.

Quarantined. The framework’s term for the final state of demons and Satan. Not destroyed, not annihilated, but isolated, still existing in a contained environment, unable to affect the clean system. See Chapter 12 and Appendix A.

Rendering. The process by which God’s thought becomes physical reality. The physical world is a rendering of God’s thought, the way a video game renders a virtual world from code. Real, but derived. See Chapters 1, 3, and 9.

Rendering constraints. The limitations of physical existence. Gravity, hunger, fatigue, mortality, time, locality. The Author subjected Himself to these constraints in the incarnation. They are removed in the higher resolution rendering. See Chapters 6 and 29.

Root access. The framework’s term for the Spirit’s exclusive ability to operate at the firmware level. No argument, no preacher, no therapist has root access. Only the Spirit can flash the firmware. See Chapter 16.

Seed of the serpent / Seed of the woman. The two ontologically different categories of human beings, established in Genesis 3:15. The elect are the seed of the woman. The reprobate are the seed of the serpent. They are different thoughts in the mind of God, authored for different purposes. See Chapter 12.

The sentence. The foundational proposition of the entire framework: “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.” Every chapter is a derivation of this sentence. See Chapter 1.

Supralapsarianism. The doctrine that God’s decrees proceed from the end to the beginning. God started with the final destination (the glory of Christ) and authored everything to serve that end, including the fall. MCT is, in the author’s view, the only true supralapsarian system. See Chapter 5.

Two seeds. See Seed of the serpent / Seed of the woman.