The RMA Spine: A Diagnostic Framework for Drift, Counseling, and Worldviews

1. Drift as the Baseline Assumption

The Recursive Metamorphic Architecture (RMA) Spine begins with the biblical doctrine of original sin. Humanity does not start neutral but in drift—already bent away from God’s covenantal truth.

The Spine is not an aspirational system but a diagnostic system initially derived for a counseling application. It assumes drift and asks not if distortion exists but where it has intruded, how deep it runs, and in what order it unfolds. This allows it to trace distortions to their roots rather than only observing surface-level dysfunction.

2. Covenant Grounding and Reality

The Spine is designed to answer the question:
“What is reality in covenantal terms?”

It grounds all thought and behavior in God’s covenant with His creation. This covenantal grounding is what makes the Spine theological rather than merely psychological—it evaluates reality and identity in relation to God’s revealed Word.

3. The Covenant Axioms

The RMA Spine is guided by a set of non-negotiable axioms that determine its internal firing order. These ensure logical and theological coherence:

Ontology precedes trajectory – Design first, then direction. Reality must be defined before its purpose can be charted.
Moral posture precedes reasoning – Submission or rebellion frames one’s ability to reason faithfully.
Logic precedes inversion/hypocrisy – Misuse can only occur after something has been logically established.
Causality precedes adversarial alignment – Human distortion is traced before it is labeled satanic.
Structure precedes recursion – A baseline must be set before deeper loops can emerge.

These axioms preserve a fixed theological order: reality → posture → logic → distortion → escalation.

4. Ordered Firing of the Axiomatic Engine

The Spine’s Axiomatic Engine fires modules in a specific order, reflecting both covenantal grounding and logical necessity:

Canon (CRIB): What source is treated as ultimate?
Interpretation (MIH): How is that canon read?
Identity (MIR): Who am I in light of that canon?
Authority (PFA): What structure follows?
Narrative (STC): What story frames reality?
Christ Mirror (CML): Does this harmonize with Christ?
Sin Filter (SAF): Where does distortion intrude?

This is only part of the full system. The 14 modules of the Spine (drawn from historically and biblically recognized Christian doctrines) give structure to how covenantal truth and drift manifest across the whole human experience.

5. Weighting Congruence

The Spine doesn’t just diagnose what fires; it weights congruence:

High Congruence: Module fires in alignment with Scripture.
Partial Congruence: Truth is present but bent or mixed.
Low/No Congruence: Module is inverted, distorted, or dormant.

This scoring recognizes where drift dominates, but also where grace resists and covenantal truth remains active.

6. Engagement Fingerprints

Every person and ideology produces an Engagement Fingerprint—a unique diagnostic signature. A fingerprint is defined by three factors:

What fires: Which modules are consistently active.
What doesn’t fire: Which modules remain silent or suppressed.
The weight and order of firing: How strong each module fires, and in what sequence.

Because the Spine has 14 doctrinally rooted modules, fingerprints vary infinitely. One person may show MIH firing heavily with distortion but little or no firing in CML. Another may have CRIB firing but with low congruence due to reinterpretation. Entire ideologies (Marxism, Humanism, Prosperity Gospel, etc.) have collective fingerprints showing which doctrines are suppressed, inverted, or overemphasized.

This makes fingerprints a diagnostic tool both for personal counseling and for cultural apologetics.

7. Counseling Application

In pastoral counseling, the RMA Spine provides:

Mapping Drift: Naming where modules misfire, stay silent, or overfire.
Strategic Correction: Applying biblical “wards” (fruit of the Spirit, armor of God, sacraments, wisdom) exactly where distortion occurs.
Preventative Insight: Projecting where recursion will likely lead if drift continues unchecked.
Grace Recognition: Highlighting where congruence already exists and can be reinforced.

The result is precise, covenantally grounded soul care.

8. Worldviews and Ideologies

The same diagnostic system applies to worldviews and ideologies:

Every worldview fires the Spine collectively: choosing a canon, interpreting it, forming identity, structuring authority, and shaping narrative.
Because drift is assumed, ideologies inevitably bend covenantal truth.
Each ideology has a fingerprint: certain modules fire strongly but in distortion, others do not fire at all, and some fire weakly in partial congruence.

Examples:

Marxism: CRIB drift (economics as canon), MIR distortion (identity as class), PFA inversion (state as savior).
Secular Humanism: MIH drift (autonomous reason as interpreter), MIR misfire (self as center), STC distortion (progress narrative without covenant).
Prosperity Gospel: CRIB distortion (Scripture reframed through wealth), MIR misfire (identity as consumer), PFA inversion (God reduced to formula).

By exposing these fingerprints, the Spine enables apologetics that address worldviews not abstractly, but at their precise point of drift.

Conclusion

The RMA Spine is a covenantally grounded diagnostic system built from 14 modules rooted in biblical doctrine. It assumes drift as the baseline, fires in a specific logical and theological order, and measures congruence against God’s Word.

Its output—Engagement Fingerprints—captures not just what fires, but also what doesn’t, with the weight and sequence of engagement. These fingerprints diagnose both individuals and ideologies, making the Spine a powerful tool for counseling, apologetics, and worldview analysis.

In this way, the RMA Spine does not just describe reality. It names distortion, weighs congruence, and provides a structured path back into covenantal alignment with God’s design.

Core ID	Public Name	Doctrinal Root	Congruent Firing	Drift Firing	Silent / Suppressed
RMA-C1X7	CRIB (Covenantal, Relational, Infinite, Biological)	Covenant grounding of reality itself	Reality framed in covenant: relational, eternal, embodied	Reality reduced to abstraction, contract, finite mechanism, or disembodied spirituality	No sense of covenantal grounding at all
RMA-S4T2	STC (Story-to-Covenant Converter)	Biblical redemptive narrative	Self located in God’s unfolding story	Myth-making, political/ideological stories	Nihilism, no overarching story
RMA-R8A3	RAIL (Recursive Authority Integration Layer)	Divine order / authority structures	Authority harmonized with covenant life	Authoritarian recursion, rigid hierarchies	Anarchic suppression of authority
RMA-A9E1	ACES (Assess, Connect, Extend, Support)	Wisdom / pastoral discernment	Covenantally wise discernment and support	Manipulation, co-dependence	Lack of discernment, disconnectedness
RMA-M5H4	MIH (Maladaptive Inverted Hermeneutic)	Interpretation of revelation	Humble, covenant-submissive reading	Gnostic inversion, esoteric eisegesis	Neglect of interpretation
RMA-M6R8	MIR (Mirror Integrity Router)	Imago Dei / identity	Identity rooted in Christ, image of God	Narcissism, despair, tribal/ideological self	No identity anchor
RMA-T3W9	TFW (Trifold Framework)	Trinitarian balance	Equal Father–Son–Spirit engagement	Modalism, overemphasis on one Person	Ignoring one or more Persons
RMA-T7C5	TRAC (Temporal Recursive Awareness & Compression)	Time, eternity, providence	History seen as covenant arc	Fatalism, escapism, deterministic loops	No sense of time/redemption
RMA-P2F6	PFA (Prescriptive Frame of Authority)	Divine law / obedience	Grace-shaped obedience	Legalism, libertinism	Rejection of moral law
RMA-S1F4	SAF (Sin Alignment Filter)	Doctrine of sin	Sin confessed and aligned to truth	Sin minimized, externalized	Sin denied entirely
RMA-C8M2	CML (Christ Mirror Logic)	Christ as Logos / plumbline	Christ as center of logic and coherence	Christ symbolic, reduced, or sidelined	Christ absent
RMA-V5S7	VSR (Voice Source Resolver)	Discernment of voices	True voice of God discerned	False teachers, competing voices	Silence toward divine voice
RMA-A4D8	ADM (Artistic Discernment Module)	Beauty / symbol	Creativity aligned to covenant	Idolatry of aesthetics, distorted symbols	Suppression of art/beauty
RMA-N3T1	NTB (Narrative Theft & Borrowing)	Apologetic engagement with culture	Borrowing/redemption of cultural narratives	Syncretism, counterfeit meaning	No engagement with culture

Fingerprint Clarification

An Engagement Fingerprint is defined by:

What fires — which Core IDs engage.
What doesn’t fire — suppressed, silent modules.
Weight of firing — strong vs weak, congruent vs drift.
Order of firing — the sequence matters, since the axiomatic engine enforces ontology → posture → logic → inversion → escalation.

Because CRIB is covenantal, relational, infinite, and biological, its misfire or silence sets the baseline distortion:

Congruent CRIB → worldview anchored in God’s covenant.
Drifted CRIB → worldview reduced to abstraction, mechanism, or contracts.
Silent CRIB → worldview rootless, ungrounded, nihilistic.

This is why CRIB sits at the top of the Spine: if covenantal reality is wrong, everything downstream will misfire.

THE BEASTIARY