The Architect's Library

What I claim

The claims of the whole body of work on one page, each with its mark and the place where it is best argued. The books carry the argument; here stands what the argument yields, and how certain it is.

Marks: well-documented (in the source, or verifiable by calculation), weighed (the best-supported reading, with its price stated), contested (an own reading against a strong counter-reading), speculative (a calculation or window that can fall), framework (a choice within which the rest is read).

Each claim rests on numbered statements from the canon (C for chronology, E for eschatology). Click a number or open the grounds under a claim; the full list is in the canon.

Chronology

  1. 1.The cross falls on Wednesday 25 April 31, 14 Nisan.

    Not proven, but the best-supported date: the only candidate left when Friday is tested rather than assumed. Under the idiom reading of the sign of Jonah the year 30 runs slightly ahead; that is stated plainly.

    Mark:
    weighed
    Best argued in:
    Three Days and Three Nights, The week with two sabbaths →
    C1 · C43 · C83
    Grounds (3)

    C1The crucifixion anchor: Wednesday 25 April AD 31, as a weighed presumption

    The book establishes that Wednesday 25 April AD 31 (14 Nisan) is the best-supported crucifixion date — expressly as a weighed presumption, not as proof. The date wins decisively under the presupposition that the sign of Jonah is a measure (three full days) and that God delivers on the day; under the idiom reading it falls back into a three-way race in which AD 30 is slightly ahead. Every older passage that treats AD 30 or 33, or a Friday crucifixion, as settled is in conflict with this; every passage that treats the Wednesday of 31 as 'proven' violates this book's own measure.

    Mark:
    weighed
    Key texts:
    Matthew 12:40, John 19:31
    Argued in:

    C43Crucifixion anchor: Wednesday 25 April AD 31, 14 Nisan

    The book defends as a weighed presumption (convergence, expressly not proof) that Jesus died on Wednesday 25 April of the year 31, the fourteenth of Nisan, with the burial before sunset and the resurrection at the end of the third day-night unit, at sunset on Saturday, on the seam with the first day (C10), the tomb empty before dawn on Sunday. Every older passage in the oeuvre that relies on AD 30, AD 33 or a Friday crucifixion is in conflict with this.

    Mark:
    weighed
    Key texts:
    Matthew 12:40, John 19:14, John 19:31
    Argued in:

    C83Epistemic status of the anchor: a weighed presumption, not proof

    The book states expressly that Wednesday 25 April AD 31 is NOT a proven date: the word "proven" nowhere occurs affirmatively in the whole book. What stands is a weighed presumption: the only candidate left when one tests the Friday instead of assuming it. The date is recommended, not imposed. Older passages that present the anchor more assertively than "weighed" exceed the source work's own register.

    Mark:
    framework
    Key texts:
    Deuteronomy 18:21-22
    Argued in:
    Three Days and Three Nights: What stands

  2. 2.The resurrection falls at the seam after the weekly sabbath.

    At sunset on Saturday 28 April 31 the three days and three nights are complete (Matthew 12:40), and the first day of the week begins: the day of the sheaf according to the letter of Leviticus 23:11. "On the third day" and Mark 16:9 are the stated price.

    Mark:
    weighed
    Best argued in:
    Three Days and Three Nights, Seven days in Nisan →
    C10 · C66 · C152
    Grounds (3)

    C10The resurrection on the seam after the weekly sabbath; the first day as the day of the sheaf and of the empty tomb

    The resurrection falls at sunset on Saturday 28 April 31, on the seam of 17 and 18 Nisan. There the three days and three nights after the burial (on the seam of 14 and 15 Nisan, C9) are complete (Matthew 12:40), and there begins the first day of the week, the day after the weekly sabbath, on which Leviticus 23:11, by its letter, has the sheaf waved (C66). The sign counts days and nights, not hours (cs-03:67). The seam is not credited to two days at once (cs-13:59-61; Shabbat 34b): the moment is the end of the measure and the beginning of the first day. "After three days" (Matthew 27:63; Mark 8:31) is thereby literally fulfilled. "On the third day", according to the synoptic parallels (Mark 8:31 alongside Matthew 16:21 and Luke 9:22) and Matthew 27:63-64, points to the same endpoint (C6); the price is stated with it: on a literal day count, the third day after a Wednesday is the Saturday. The first day of the week (18 Nisan) is also the day of the empty tomb and of the appearances; before dawn the tomb is empty (John 20:1). Matthew 28:1 is compatible with this and not a load-bearer (ἐπιφώσκω stands in Luke 23:54 for the onset of the sabbath; Mark 16:2 and Luke 24:1 place the walk to the tomb at dawn). The house reads Mark 16:9 with the time phrase attached to "appeared": early on the first day He appeared first to Mary Magdalene. The participle Ἀναστάς is undisputed, its attachment open, and most translations choose "risen": that is the named price. The verse stands in the received text that the house holds to; the critical editions bracket 16:9-20, and that is no way out (C8). The oldest church witnesses (Barnabas 15:9; Ignatius, To the Magnesians 9:1; Justin, 1 Apology 67; SECONDHAND, in translation) name the first day as the day of the resurrection; they weigh as reception, as do the Friday witnesses (C49, C71). A reading, not a compulsion. Depends on: nothing.

    Mark:
    weighed (a reading, not a compulsion; "on the third day" and Mark 16:9 as named price)
    Key texts:
    Matthew 12:40; 16:21; 27:63-64; 28:1, 6; Mark 8:31; 16:9; Luke 9:22; 23:54; John 20:1
    Argued in:
    The Cornerstone: The anchor

    C66The firstfruits sheaf by the letter of Leviticus 23: the day after the weekly sabbath; fulfillment, not proof of date

    Leviticus 23:11 has the sheaf waved "the day after the sabbath", and 23:15-16 counts from that day seven full sabbaths to "the day after the seventh sabbath". The house reads that sabbath by the letter as the weekly sabbath: the sheaf falls on the first day of the week within the feast, in the year 31 on Sunday 29 April. Christ rose at the beginning of that day, on the seam after the weekly sabbath (C10), and is thus "the Firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:20) on the day of the sheaf. Two levels stay separate. The letter of the law is a choice in an old dispute (Sadducees and Boethusians against the Pharisees; Milgrom and Chwolson, cs-04:90-106). First-century temple practice is best attested for 16 Nisan (Septuagint Leviticus 23:11 "the day after the first" and 23:15 "seven full weeks"; Philo, Spec. Leg. 2.162; Josephus, Antiquitates 3.250); for the year 31 no witness says how the temple counted (cs-04:112). The Mishnah has the sheaf cut as soon as the sun is down, and it does so this emphatically because of the Boethusians, who cut after the weekly sabbath (Menachot 10:3, SEEN AT FIRST HAND); on their count the cutting in the year 31 falls on the seam (INTERPRETED). As convergence the sheaf measures nothing: the day after the weekly sabbath falls on a Sunday in every year (cs-04:108, CALCULATED). Therefore it carries no date; the year comes from the day axis, the calendar and the ministry window. Whoever chooses the Sadducean count because it fits makes the error for which the book faults the consensus; the ground is the letter of 23:11 and 23:15-16, not the outcome. The price: with a Friday on 14 Nisan the sheaf falls on a Sunday on both counts; the Wednesday reaches it only on the letter. The barley test of H8 works on both counts: with the March option the sheaf falls on Thursday 29 March (Pharisaic) or Sunday 1 April (Sadducean), both before the threshold of about 5 April (CALCULATED). The presupposition "God delivers on the day" (C102) applies here to the fulfillment, not to the dating. Falsifier: a proof that "sabbath" in Leviticus 23:11 and 23:15-16 cannot be the weekly sabbath. Depends on: nothing.

    Mark:
    weighed (the letter: a choice in an old dispute, INTERPRETED; first-century practice: 16 Nisan well-documented; the convergence: no evidential force for the year, CALCULATED)
    Key texts:
    Leviticus 23:10-11, 15-16; 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23; Mark 16:2; John 20:1
    Argued in:

    C152The 50 days count from the sheaf; on the letter, resurrection and sheaf day coincide

    Leviticus 23:15-16 counts 50 days from the day of the sheaf. By the letter (C66) the sheaf falls in the year 31 on Sunday 29 April, and the Feast of Weeks on Sunday 17 June, the fiftieth day. Because the resurrection falls at the beginning of the sheaf day (C10), "50 days from the resurrection to the Spirit" holds on this count. On the Pharisaic count (sheaf Friday 27 April) the Feast of Weeks falls on Friday 15 June, 6 Sivan, 48 days after the resurrection; Acts 2:1 does not name the weekday, and Pentecost 31 hangs on the same choice as the sheaf. "From the Passover lamb (14 Nisan) to Sinai (6 Sivan) exactly 50 days" does not hold arithmetically (51 days), and Exodus 19:1 names only the month; 6 Sivan is Jewish tradition (b. Shabbat 86b, SECONDHAND). Depends on: nothing (K2 booked).

    Mark:
    well-documented (CALCULATED)
    Key texts:
    Leviticus 23:15-16; Acts 2:1; Exodus 19:1
    Argued in:

  3. 3.The 70 weeks run from Tishri 457 BC to the baptism in 27 and the cross in the spring of 31.

    The decree of Ezra 7 goes out in 458; the count opens at the boundary of the sabbatical cycle and runs 483 ordinary solar years. The sum stands within the stated framework; the sabbatical boundary is a documented but contested choice.

    Mark:
    framework · contested (the sabbatical boundary)
    Best argued in:
    Three Days and Three Nights, The 70 weeks →
    C29
    Grounds (1)

    C29The 70 weeks: Tishri 457 BC + 483 ordinary solar years = baptism AD 27, cross spring 31

    Within the named framework (year-day principle; decree = Ezra 7): the command goes out documentarily in 458 BC (Nisan; Artaxerxes' seventh year, Ezra 7:7-9; BM 32234 for the murder of Xerxes in August 465), and the count opens at the next boundary of the sabbatical cycle, Tishri 457 (Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1; Deuteronomy 31:10-13), because Daniel 9 reads Jeremiah's 70 years as land sabbaths (2 Chronicles 36:21). That is the load-bearer; the sabbatical boundary is a documented but contested choice (hk-93:150), with a falsifier in hk-93. A second, contested route to 457 runs via a late-reckoned accession of Artaxerxes (Horn and Wood; Shea; Lanser, with the Artabanus interregnum). It requires two things: that the accession was reckoned after 1 Tishri 465, about six weeks after the murder, and that Ezra 7 counts in Tishri years. For the delay: there is no dated text for Artaxerxes from the second half of 465, the first Babylonian dates fall in October 464 (Shea, JATS 12/1, 83-84); papyrus AP 6 still speaks on 2 January 464 of "the beginning of the reign" and stretches Xerxes' year 21; Manetho (via Africanus and Eusebius) gives Artabanus 7 months; Depuydt keeps an interregnum open (JEA 81, 159 n. 27, SECONDHAND). Against: no Babylonian text is dated in the name of Artabanus, 7 months do not fit between August 465 and AP 6, and that Ezra counted in Tishri years has not been shown: Nehemiah 1:1 and 2:1 show that a Tishri year was known in Judah, not that every Judean count of Persian years ran that way (y. Rosh Hashanah 1:1). Whoever writes that the cuneiform recognized Artaxerxes almost immediately says more than the sources: the cuneiform is silent until the autumn of 464. 457 + 483 ordinary solar years (no year zero) = AD 27, the anointing/baptism; the "cutting off after the weeks" three and a half years later, spring 31, comes from the ministry. The route needs no artificial 360-day year. Acknowledged: Lanser arrives along the same chain at AD 30; the convergence concerns the baptism of 27, not the year of the cross. Depends on: nothing.

    Mark:
    framework (the count and the sum) · contested (the sabbatical boundary; the late accession as second route)
    Key texts:
    Daniel 9:24-26; Ezra 7:7-9; 2 Chronicles 36:21; Deuteronomy 31:10-13; Nehemiah 1:1; 2:1
    Argued in:
    Three Days and Three Nights: The 70 weeks
    The Cornerstone: The decree

  4. 4.Daniel 9:26-27 has two princes, and the seventieth week is wholly future.

    The Anointed One is cut off after the 62 weeks; the subject of 9:27 is the prince who is to come. The week from 27 to 34 is the type of the seventieth, with the cross at its middle.

    Mark:
    weighed · interpreted (the week 27-34 as type)
    Best argued in:
    The Pre-Abomination Model, Daniel 9: the two Nagids and the future seventieth week →
    C30 · C146 · C147
    Grounds (3)

    C30Daniel 9:26-27 as chiasm: two princes, the seventieth week future, the cross at the end of the half-week

    Against the prevailing Christian interpretation, this work reads Daniel 9:26-27 as a chiasm with two opposing princes: the Anointed Prince who is cut off ("not for himself"), and the coming prince (nagid haba) who with overwhelming force makes a covenant strong for the many and halfway through his week stops the offerings. The seventieth week is future; the crucifixion falls not in its middle but at the end of the Anointed One's own, mirrored half-week (the ministry 27-31, counted from the anointing in 27), and thereby in the middle of the seven years 27-34, the juridical week, the type of the seventieth (C146). Whoever says "the middle of the half-week" halves it once more and arrives at just over a year and a half (cs-17:37). Both readings land the cross in 31, but the continuous reading (Eusebius) "confuses the coming destroyer and Christ" and is rejected; Eusebius counts only as reception of the dating. Depends on: nothing (K1 booked: A).

    Mark:
    framework
    Key texts:
    Daniel 9:26-27
    Argued in:
    Three Days and Three Nights: The 70 weeks
    The Cornerstone: The decree

    C146The week from 27 to 34 is a type of the seventieth week; the cross belongs to 9:26

    Daniel 9:26 names the cutting off of the Anointed One "after" the 62 weeks; 9:27 does not name the Anointed One. The seventieth week, with its covenant, its half and its abomination, is the week of the coming prince and wholly future; the interval lies between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth week and is opened by 9:26 ("to the end"), not forced; the clock stops after the sixty-ninth week. The ministry of the Anointed One (27-31) is His mirrored half-week, closed by the cross; with the preaching to Israel up to the calculated closing in 34 it forms the juridical week (pg: symbolic week; cs: the week of the Anointed One), whose middle, the cross, prefigures the middle of the future week. That week is a type, not a register, form or first fulfillment; it is called "juridical week" or "juridical blueprint", never "juridical seventieth week", and the seventieth week is not cut in two. The three and a half years from 27 to 31 come from the ministry (four Pesachs), not from a midpoint. Depends on: nothing (K1 booked: A).

    Mark:
    weighed (the gap and the future week) · interpreted (the juridical week as type)
    Key texts:
    Daniel 9:24-27
    Argued in:
    Three Days and Three Nights: The 70 weeks

    C147The subject of Daniel 9:27 is the coming prince

    The subject of וְהִגְבִּיר (9:27a) and יַשְׁבִּית (9:27b) is the prince who is to come (nagid habba, 9:26b), not the Anointed One of 9:25-26a. Ground: the nearest person is the nagid, although the grammatical subject of 26b is his people; the Anointed One is passive in 26a (yikkaret); yashbit (hiphil, 40 times) everywhere means actually to bring to a halt, and the temple service continued after the cross until 70. Higbir (hiphil, only Psalm 12:4 and Daniel 9:27) means to make strong with overwhelming force, not to conclude; that the covenant already exists, the verb does not say (Daniel 11:23 is the expectation). 9:27c is a nominal clause: that the prince sets up the abomination comes from 11:31 and 12:11, not from 9:27. Theodotion and the Old Greek text expressly ascribe 9:27a to neither figure. The messianic reading remains the named alternative, with Matthew 26:28 and Isaiah 53:11-12 as a bridge to "for the many"; it wins given a grammatically compelling reading of the pronoun as the Messiah. Depends on: nothing.

    Mark:
    weighed
    Key texts:
    Daniel 9:25-27; 11:22-23, 31; 12:11; Psalm 12:4; Isaiah 53:11-12; Matthew 26:28; Acts 21:26
    Argued in:

  5. 5.Daniel's clock carries no date, neither for the cross nor for the end.

    The year of the cross is weighed first on day, calendar and ministry; the line from 457 joins afterwards as a second witness. From Daniel 9 the final week takes its structure, not its years. The same witness never speaks twice.

    Mark:
    framework
    Best argued in:
    The Pre-Abomination Model, Daniel 9: the two Nagids and the future seventieth week →
    C28 · C148
    Grounds (2)

    C28The firewall: Daniel's clock does not carry the date

    Daniel's 70 weeks carried no weight in the weighing; the 457 line counted only as a premise-dependent convergence line and was left out of the sceptical weighing. Rule of discipline: the prophecy may cite the historical baptism of 27 as convergence, never the reverse — history nowhere leans on prophecy. Whoever rejects the historicist framework leaves the entire measurement standing; whoever accepts it gains a second witness.

    Mark:
    framework
    Key texts:
    Daniel 9:24-27
    Argued in:
    Three Days and Three Nights: The weighing; The 70 weeks

    C148The firewall at Daniel 9 on both sides: no date for the cross, no date for the end

    Daniel 9 does not deliver two things. The year of the cross: 9:26 says "after", and the window is closed by the ministry (at most three and a half years), not by the prophecy; the date of the cross is first weighed on day axis, calendar and ministry window, and the 457 line comes in afterwards as an interpreted second witness (C28, C49, C50, C98). The end-time date: 9:24-27 supplies the structure of the final week (covenant, half, abomination, close; pg-02:32), the years 2027-2034 come from the master clock, and a 2027 calculated back from 2034 does not count as a second pointer alongside the Pentecost clock (mk-app-a:56). The same witness never speaks twice. That the afternoon of 25 April 31 is the cutting off of 9:26 may be said (ga-app-a:24); that it follows from it may not. Depends on: nothing.

    Mark:
    framework
    Key texts:
    Daniel 9:24-27
    Argued in:

  6. 6.The window 2027-2034 is speculative; the breaking points are fixed in advance.

    The framework is defended with a firm hand, the window held with an open hand. If no covenant enters into force in Tishri 2027, or no abomination comes on 14 Adar 2031, the dating is refuted, and nothing more. The protocol is on deposit.

    Mark:
    speculative (the years) · framework (the rule)
    Best argued in:
    The Pre-Abomination Model, Knowability and falsifiability →
    C150
    Grounds (1)

    C150Frame and window: the years speculative, the breaking points fixed in advance, and after a silent terminus a sum refuted, and nothing more

    The frame (the structure) is defended with a firm hand, the window (the master clock, the week 2027-2034, the midpoint 2031) held with an open hand; the calculation belongs to the window, not to the firm hand. The window rests on a chain with the Masoretic epoch as its weakest link (±10-20 years of noise, ga-app-d:359); the years bear the mark speculative (C103; dvdh-app-c:15). The breaking points are fixed in advance in the deposited protocol, which pg-13:30 calls binding above any looser formulation: no covenant in force in Tishri 2027, no abomination at Purim 2031, and a calendar layer that can fell the terminus dating (pg-13:35). If the window falls, the dating is refuted, and nothing more: 457 as a count, the baptism of 27 and the cross of 31 stand on their own grounds, and the frame stands apart from the year. A shifted anchor point does not rescue the fallen dating; a year set later is a new hypothesis with no credit from the old one. The deposited protocol says so itself: "This protocol kills an application, not an arithmetic", and "the surviving mechanism earns the fallen application no credit. Any future dated application would be a new claim [...] starting from zero" (Zenodo 21451908, §6; SEEN AT FIRST HAND). The lines that arrive at 2034 coincide because they are not independent (hk-98:29). Depends on: nothing.

    Mark:
    framework (the rule) · speculative (the years)
    Key texts:
    Matthew 24:32-36; Daniel 12:9-12; 1 Thessalonians 5:4
    Argued in:

Eschatology

  1. 7.At Revelation 6:17 the Day of wrath dawns.

    John tells the signs that Joel places before the great day, has the nations react as Isaiah 2 does within the day of the LORD, and there names the wrath for the first time. The wrath has two phases: first over the world, then undiluted over the kingdom of the beast.

    Mark:
    weighed
    Best argued in:
    The Pre-Abomination Model, The sequence, and the Day of the Lord as a period →
    E20 · E24
    Grounds (2)

    E20The wrath from the sixth seal on: two degrees, two phases

    At 6:17 the Day of wrath dawns. That follows from the content and not from the form: John narrates the signs that Joel places "before the coming of the great day" (6:12; Joel 2:31, LXX 3:4; the pair black sun and blood moon occurs in Revelation only here), has the nations react as Isaiah 2 does within the day of the LORD (6:15-16; Isaiah 2:10, 19, 21; Hosea 10:8), and names the wrath there for the first time (6:16-17). The wrath has two degrees and two phases. In the first phase it falls on the world: the trumpets are the first plagues of the Day (ἐπλήγη in 8:12; πληγή in 9:18-20; 11:6) and the prelude to the kingdom of the antichrist. In the second phase the final wrath falls undiluted on the kingdom of the beast: whoever worships the beast drinks "of the wine of the fury of God, poured out undiluted into the cup of His wrath" (14:10, κεκερασμένου ἀκράτου), and the fifth bowl is poured out on the throne of the beast, "and its kingdom was darkened" (16:10). The bowls are "the last", in which the θυμός is completed (15:1). The seventh trumpet (11:18) is the hinge between the two phases, within the same Day, not its beginning. In the corpus the wrath of the bowls is therefore called "the undiluted wrath", not "the real wrath": the trumpets too are wrath. "Woe" means before the Day, not without judgment: the riders too are judgments of God (Ezekiel 14:19-21), but Revelation calls them neither wrath nor plague. Those who cry out are the kings and the people of the earth, not heaven. "The day of the seal" is the calendar day on which the sixth seal opens; "the Day" is the Day of wrath that dawns at 6:17.

    Mark:
    weighed (the Day dawns at 6:17; the division into two phases) · well-documented (the undiluted of 14:10 and the bowl on the throne of the beast, 16:10) · contested (that the sixth seal falls before the abomination; that rests on the sequence, E21)
    Key texts:
    Revelation 6:12-17; 8:1-6, 12; 9:4, 18-20; 11:6, 15-18; 14:9-11; 15:1; 16:1, 10; Joel 2:31 (LXX 3:4); Isaiah 2:10-21; Hosea 10:8; Psalm 2:1, 5; Zephaniah 1:15; Ezekiel 9:4-8; 14:19-21; Acts 2:20
    Argued in:

    E24Two moments of signs

    The oeuvre knows two moments with the full triad of sun, moon and stars: the sixth seal (Revelation 6:12-13), which opens the Day, and the signs of Matthew 24:29 (Mark 13:24-25), "immediately after the tribulation of those days", just before the visible coming. That second moment falls after the great tribulation, in the time of the seventh trumpet or the bowls, and thus in the second phase of the wrath (E20). In between come partial darkenings (8:12; 9:2); the fifth bowl darkens the kingdom of the beast (16:10). Revelation does not narrate the late moment with the heavenly bodies. The second moment follows from the place of the sixth seal before the beast (E21) and does not confirm that place; Matthew 24:29 is compatible with it. That it is no emergency measure, Joel shows: the blood moon before the Day (Joel 2:31), taken up in Revelation 6:12 and Acts 2:20, and the darkened moon in the Day (Joel 2:10; 3:15), which Matthew and Mark take up with Isaiah 13:10, without blood; the only thing in common is Isaiah 34:4, and the resemblance is not "word for word". Whoever makes both moments coincide must place not "the trumpets and bowls after the second coming" (pg reads the coming itself as a time with trumpets and bowls between beginning and climax) but the sixth seal after the abomination, and that contradicts the sequence. "Decisive", "conclusive" and "confirmed by the signs" become: a consequence of the place of the sixth seal.

    Mark:
    weighed (two moments; the second in the time of the seventh trumpet or the bowls) · framework (it hangs on the place of the sixth seal)
    Key texts:
    Matthew 24:21-30; Mark 13:24-25; Revelation 6:12-17; 8:12; 9:1-2; 11:15-19; 16:10; 17:8; Joel 2:10, 31; 3:15; Isaiah 13:10; 34:4; 50:3; Acts 2:20
    Argued in:

  2. 8.The Bride leaves at the seam of the sixth seal, before the abomination.

    The place follows from the wrath that begins at 6:17: tribulation is not the same as wrath. As Noah entered the ark on that very day, the taking away and the beginning of judgment fall on one day: the day of the sixth seal. That this seal falls before the abomination rests on the sequence: the seals open one by one, the trumpets follow only after that, and the beast has yet to rise from the abyss.

    Mark:
    weighed (the place) · contested (before the abomination)
    Best argued in:
    The Pre-Abomination Model, The sixth-seal position, and "enduring to the end" →
    E21 · E22 · E7
    Grounds (3)

    E21What carries the place of the taking away, and what confirms it

    The taking away falls on the day of the sixth seal, the day on which the wrath dawns (6:17; E20). As Noah entered the ark "on that very day" (Genesis 7:13) and the fire fell "on the day Lot went out from Sodom" (Luke 17:27-30), the taking away and the beginning of judgment fall on one day. The seal opens without a pause: after "when He opened the sixth seal" the great earthquake follows at once (6:12); a silence stands only at the seventh seal (8:1). That day has layers: the snatching up of the Child (12:5), the war in heaven (12:7-9) and the cry of the people that the great day has come (6:15-17); birth and snatching up are one moment (12:4-5). Within the day the text does not decide whether the taking away falls before the signs or at the cry of 6:17. The model places a window of seven days before the seal, after "yet seven days" in Genesis 7:4 and 10; in Jewish interpretation these are days of respite (Rashi on Genesis 7:4, after Sanhedrin 108b). The window has no text in Revelation and no content as a "last chance". That this sixth seal falls before the abomination rests on the sequence: the scroll is opened seal by seal, the trumpets sound only after the seventh seal, and the beast has yet to ascend from the abyss that opens at the fifth trumpet (9:1-2; 11:7 is a name of origin). The key θλῖψις/ὀργή gives the reason why the Bride departs there and not later. The type of Lot and the gathering together of 2 Thessalonians 2:1 give the form (away on the day the judgment begins; at the opening of the Day), not a place in Revelation, and 2:1 carries weight only under the two-phase reading of 2:3 (E27). Confirming, without carrying: the address of 3:10 (E22), the place of Revelation 7:9-17 (E7), the tableau of Revelation 12 (E3) and the Rev 6/16 echo; the cosmic signs of Matthew 24:29 are compatible with it (E24). Within Revelation only E3 decides between a taking away before and after the abomination. ἁρπάζω, εἰς ἀπάντησιν and 1 Thessalonians 5:9 carry nothing for the place (E23, E32, E33).

    Mark:
    weighed (the day of the sixth seal: Genesis 7:13; Luke 17:27-30; close to well-documented) · well-documented (no pause at the opening: 6:12 against 8:1) · contested (within the day before the signs or at 6:17; before the abomination: the sequence; 2:1 as ground) · framework (the window of seven days before the seal)
    Key texts:
    Revelation 5:1; 6:12-17; 8:1-6; 9:1-2; 11:7; 3:10; 7:9-17; 12:4-17; 16:2-11; Genesis 7:4-16; Luke 17:26-32; Matthew 24:37-39; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3; 2 Peter 2:5-9
    Argued in:

    E22What ἐκ carries in Revelation 3:10 and 7:14, and which hour 3:10 names

    Τηρέω ἐκ occurs in the New Testament only in Revelation 3:10 and John 17:15. There the disciples remain in the world and are kept out of the grip of the evil one: the preposition separates from the object and says nothing about place (so also Proverbs 21:23 LXX and Acts 15:29). In the model the preposition bears no burden of proof, not for the taking away, not for the point, not for the mode; the contrast "not dia, not en, but ek" and the argument "out of a power, yes; out of an hour, only by absence" have been withdrawn (pg-06:24). Ek says: out of, separated from. In 7:14 it stands with a verb of motion: οἱ ἐρχόμενοι ἐκ is a title of origin (E6). That the Bride goes through the θλῖψις rests on John 16:33, Acts 14:22 and Philippians 3:10, and Revelation 7:14 names those who come out of it; the preposition does not "demand" it. 3:10 and 7:14 are therefore not an ek pair. What 3:10 says lies in the address (the earth-dwellers, in exactly seven verses ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς). The hour of trial "that will come upon the whole world" is the time of the trumpets and the bowls: it dawns at the sixth seal and runs to the last bowl, with Satan's hour, the 42 months after the abomination, as its peak. An "hour" in Scripture is not always 60 minutes: at His arrest Jesus spoke of "your hour and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53, ἡ ὥρα), a span of time in which the Son of Man was in the hands of men and of Satan, and the kings receive authority "for one hour" with the beast (Revelation 17:12). The Bride is kept from the hour and taken away at the moment it dawns, as Lot went out of Sodom on the day the fire fell (Luke 17:29). The mode comes from Luke 17:26-32 with 2 Peter 2:5-9, the place from E21.

    Mark:
    well-documented (count and lexical facts) · weighed (the mode from the types; the hour from the sixth seal to the last bowl)
    Key texts:
    Revelation 3:10; 7:14; 13:7; 17:12; John 16:33; 17:15; Acts 14:22; Philippians 3:10; Luke 22:53; 2 Peter 2:5-9; Luke 17:26-32; Proverbs 21:23 (LXX); Acts 15:29; Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 12:1
    Argued in:

    E7Revelation 7:9 confirms the seam, but does not carry the dating of the taking away

    The place of the scene between the sixth and the seventh seal confirms that the Bride belongs at the seam, but does not date the taking away. "After this I saw" opens a new vision (also in 7:1) and gives no simultaneity; the question "where have they come from?" (7:13) asks about origin; and the scene speaks from the end. The simultaneity with the sealing rests on proximity in the scroll, not on a time marker in the text. The taking away at the sixth seal rests on the grounds the model lays for it elsewhere (the wrath that dawns at 6:17, the type of Lot in Luke 17:29-30, the gathering together of 2 Thessalonians 2:1; that last carries weight only under the two-phase reading of 2:3, E27, contested), confirmed by the address of 3:10, the tableau of Revelation 12 and this scene. Against the posttribulational identification with Matthew 24:31 weighs 19:7-14: the wife of the Lamb is ready before the rider rides out (weighed; E14, E16). Against pre-wrath, it is not Matthew 24:31 that decides but the place of the sixth seal (E21).

    Mark:
    weighed (as confirmation; as load-bearer it cannot carry)
    Key texts:
    Revelation 7:1, 9, 13-15; 4:1; 6:17; 9:4; 19:7-14; Luke 17:29-30; 2 Thessalonians 2:1
    Argued in:

  3. 9."Bride" is the name of the olive tree as it is gathered at the taking away.

    The faithful of the old and new covenants, Jew and Gentile, with the believing remnant of Israel from all ages within it. Whoever believes after that stands on the same tree and is called a guest. Being saved does not make one the Bride.

    Mark:
    weighed · framework (the boundary at the taking away)
    Best argued in:
    The Pre-Abomination Model, The Bride and the wedding guests, and the order of the resurrection →
    E1 · E2
    Grounds (2)

    E1The name Bride: who bears it

    "Bride" is, throughout the oeuvre, the name of one company: the olive tree as it is gathered at the taking away — the faithful of old and new covenant, Jew and Gentile, with the believing remnant of Israel from all ages within it (Hebrews 11:40). End-time national Israel (the woman), the 144,000 and the guests stand on the same tree but are not called Bride: "all Israel" (Romans 11:26) is one number that is partly already in the Bride and partly comes in later, and being saved does not make one Bride. The Bride is not "out of the nations" but out of all nations, Israel included. The lowercase "bride" for Israel stays with the Old Testament marriage image (Jeremiah 2:2; Ezekiel 16; Isaiah 62:5) and does not become a title for end-time Israel alongside the Bride; Hosea 2 promises a new betrothal (אָרַשׂ) and "my Husband".

    Mark:
    weighed
    Key texts:
    Romans 11:16-26; Hebrews 11:39-40; Ephesians 2:15; 3:6; Romans 4:11, 16; Romans 9:24-26 (Hosea 1:10; 2:23; Heb. 2:1, 25); Revelation 19:7-9; Jeremiah 2:2; Hosea 2:15-20 (Heb. 2:17-22)
    Argued in:

    E2The Bride/guests boundary

    Revelation 19:7-9 distinguishes, in one image, the wife of the Lamb and those invited to the supper. The model places that boundary at the taking-away door: the Bride is the one olive tree as it is then gathered, with the believers of the old covenant within it (Hebrews 11:40); whoever believes afterwards and is raised or gathered to the supper (Revelation 20:4; Matthew 24:31) is grafted onto the same tree and is called a guest. "Guest" is a word of sequence and not of rank; the millennium people and the sheep nations are not called so, and whether the 144,000, who receive Him on Zion (14:1), fall under that name, pg does not say. The place of the threshold is a model choice: the shut door of Matthew 25:10 and Genesis 7:16 separates, in its source, saved and lost, and the words (κλητοί, κεκλημένοι) do not separate Bride and guests. In the Gospels the same believers appear as invited guests and companions (Matthew 22; 25; Mark 2:19) and the Baptist as friend of the Bridegroom (John 3:29); that image does not exclude him from the Bride. The sequence between Bride and guests rests on the construction of the model and not on the taxis of 1 Corinthians 15.

    Mark:
    well-documented (the distinction in the image of 19:7-9) · framework (the boundary at the taking-away door)
    Key texts:
    Revelation 19:7-9; 17:14; Romans 11:16-25; Hebrews 11:40; Matthew 25:10; Genesis 7:16; John 3:29; 1 Corinthians 15:23; Matthew 24:31
    Argued in:

  4. 10.The 144,000 are Israel's God-fearing Remnant, outside the Bride.

    Sealed against the wrath, not against the beast: they follow the Lamb even to death and stand with Him on the heavenly Zion. With them, firstfruits is a pledge for all Israel, not a rank.

    Mark:
    weighed · well-documented (the seal against the plagues)
    Best argued in:
    The Pre-Abomination Model, The three categories, the harvest, and the Goel →
    E8 · E9
    Grounds (2)

    E8The 144,000: Israel's God-fearing Remnant, outside the Bride, on the tree

    The 144,000 of Revelation 7:4-8 and 14:1-5 are one company: Israel's God-fearing Remnant, counted from the tribes and sealed according to Ezekiel 9. Before the seam they are partly hardened with regard to Jesus; their confession falls after the taking away, "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in" (Romans 11:25). That is why they are not part of the Bride — the olive tree as it is gathered at the taking away — but the first natural branches grafted afterwards onto the same tree, in the sealed mode. Firstfruits (14:4) is, with them, a pledge for all Israel (Romans 11:16, 26), not a rank. They are from the woman, not the woman: two forms of the one hardened part. Their fate is in E9; their place in the eternal state Scripture leaves underdetermined, and "Bride" remains the name of the gathering at the taking away.

    Mark:
    weighed
    Key texts:
    Revelation 7:3-8; 14:1-5; Romans 11:16, 24-26; Ezekiel 9:4-6; Matthew 25:10
    Argued in:

    E9The fate of the 144,000: sealed against the wrath, following the Lamb into death, on the heavenly Zion

    The seal protects the 144,000 against the judgments of God, not against persecution: the winds are held back until they are sealed (7:3), the locusts may strike only those who do not bear the seal (9:4), as in Ezekiel 9:6. They therefore share the tribulation and escape the wrath: the distinction between θλῖψις and ὀργή that the model calls its deepest key (pg-05), applied here to sealed Israel. Whoever does not worship the image stands under the death sentence of 13:15, and the 144,000 are pre-eminently those who do not worship it; in the model that sentence does not strike everyone (the woman in the wilderness, the sheep of Matthew 25), and their death therefore rests on what follows; they "follow the Lamb wherever He goes" (14:4), and directly after that comes "blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on" (14:13). In the image of the wise: they shine, but are oppressed and given into the hand of the antichrist (Daniel 7:25; 11:33-35). In 14:1-5 they stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion, read as the heavenly Zion (Hebrews 12:22): in Revelation 5 through 13 the Lamb stands at the throne, the new song sounds "before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders" (14:3), they are "bought from the earth" (ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς), and in this period the earthly city is spiritually called "Sodom and Egypt" (11:8). Mount Zion does not return elsewhere in Revelation; the final image is the Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven (3:12; 21:2). The full number in 14:1 is then the full company after death, and the escape on Zion (Joel 2:32; Romans 10:13) is escape in the final destination, not on the way there. Their resurrection falls in 20:4 (E12, E13). Whoever has them pass through the beast alive reads 14:1 as earthly and at the coming; that keeps the mark at weighed.

    Mark:
    well-documented (the seal protects against the plagues) · weighed (killed by the beast; the heavenly Zion)
    Key texts:
    Revelation 7:3; 9:4-5; 11:8; 13:7, 15; 14:1-5, 13; 20:4; Hebrews 12:22; Ezekiel 9:6; Daniel 7:25; 11:33-35; Joel 2:32; Romans 10:13
    Argued in:

  5. 11.The countless multitude of Revelation 7 is the Bride of all ages, with those who come out of the tribulation later.

    "Those who come out of the great tribulation" is a class name. At the taking away the graves open first, and the dead go before the living. The scene confirms the seam, but does not date the taking away.

    Mark:
    weighed
    Best argued in:
    The Pre-Abomination Model, The sixth-seal position, and "enduring to the end" →
    E6 · E7
    Grounds (2)

    E6The multitude of Revelation 7:9-17: the Bride of all ages, and those who later come out of the tribulation

    "Those who come out of the great tribulation" (7:14, οἱ ἐρχόμενοι) is in Revelation a class name, not a time indication; the scene stands on the seam, before the trumpets, as the answer to "who is able to stand?" (6:17), and speaks from the end: 7:15b-17 is in the future tense and returns word for word in 21:3-4. At the seam the Bride of all ages stands there: at the taking away the graves open first and the dead go before the living (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17), and that one moment falls within the great tribulation, which spans the whole week (pg-05). That is why the raised dead of earlier ages bear the same name of origin as the living: they come out of it at the same moment, together. A countless multitude would otherwise also be hard to explain. That the multitude is exclusively the Bride, the text does not say: whoever later comes out of that tribulation, including whoever comes to faith in the Day and gives his life, bears the same name (6:11; 15:2; 22:14). It is therefore not a martyrs' multitude, but it does not exclude martyrs. The multitude is distinct from the 144,000 and from the fleeing remnant. The making white (ἐλεύκαναν) echoes Daniel 12:10 in Theodotion, alongside Psalm 51:7 and Genesis 49:11; the echo stands, the identification with Daniel's many does not, and the many belong with those who come later.

    Mark:
    weighed (class name and final scene; the Bride of all ages at the seam: model-bound; distinction from the 144,000) · contested (identification with the many of Daniel 12:10)
    Key texts:
    Revelation 7:9-17; 6:9-11; 6:17; 15:2; 21:3-4; 22:14; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; Daniel 12:1, 10; Psalm 51:7; Genesis 49:11; Isaiah 49:10
    Argued in:

    E7Revelation 7:9 confirms the seam, but does not carry the dating of the taking away

    The place of the scene between the sixth and the seventh seal confirms that the Bride belongs at the seam, but does not date the taking away. "After this I saw" opens a new vision (also in 7:1) and gives no simultaneity; the question "where have they come from?" (7:13) asks about origin; and the scene speaks from the end. The simultaneity with the sealing rests on proximity in the scroll, not on a time marker in the text. The taking away at the sixth seal rests on the grounds the model lays for it elsewhere (the wrath that dawns at 6:17, the type of Lot in Luke 17:29-30, the gathering together of 2 Thessalonians 2:1; that last carries weight only under the two-phase reading of 2:3, E27, contested), confirmed by the address of 3:10, the tableau of Revelation 12 and this scene. Against the posttribulational identification with Matthew 24:31 weighs 19:7-14: the wife of the Lamb is ready before the rider rides out (weighed; E14, E16). Against pre-wrath, it is not Matthew 24:31 that decides but the place of the sixth seal (E21).

    Mark:
    weighed (as confirmation; as load-bearer it cannot carry)
    Key texts:
    Revelation 7:1, 9, 13-15; 4:1; 6:17; 9:4; 19:7-14; Luke 17:29-30; 2 Thessalonians 2:1
    Argued in:

  6. 12.The Child of Revelation 12:5 is Christ in His body.

    Born in the end-time birth that the prophets place at the time of distress, and caught up before the pain. In 12:5 the Head is not caught up but presupposed. A load-bearing element with a booked price.

    Mark:
    contested
    Best argued in:
    The Pre-Abomination Model, "Coming out", and the twofold tableau of Revelation 12 →
    E3 · E4
    Grounds (2)

    E3The Child of Revelation 12:5: Christ in his body

    The Child whom the woman Israel bears and who is snatched up to God and to his throne is Christ in his body: the completed stature (Ephesians 4:13; Romans 11:25), born in the end-time birth that the prophets place at the distress, and snatched away before the pain. The Head is not snatched away in 12:5 but presupposed (12:10-11; 1 Corinthians 15:23); the Child is not a type of the rapture but the rapture itself. What decides are the rare words from the birth oracles (ἔτεκεν ἄρσεν, with ἐξέφυγεν in Isaiah 66:7 LXX; Isaiah 26:17; Jeremiah 30:6 LXX), the narrative chain 12:5-17, with 12:14 as end-time date and Daniel 12:1 as an echo without a date (E31), and Paul's name idiom; rod (2:26-28; 19:15), throne (3:21), Daniel 7, 12:4 and 12:10 fit Head and members but do not decide. Bethlehem is not narrated; the strongest counter-reading is not Bethlehem but the exaltation of the Head (Psalm 2:7 via Acts 13:33). For the place of the taking away it is a confirmation, alongside the address of 3:10 and the place of Revelation 7, and the only one that shows the mechanism; the grounds are the wrath of 6:17, the type of Lot and 2 Thessalonians 2:1 (E7, E21).

    Mark:
    contested (function in the model: load-bearer with a booked price for the mechanism; for the place a confirmation, E21)
    Key texts:
    Revelation 12:1-17; Isaiah 66:7-8 (LXX); Isaiah 26:17-20; Jeremiah 30:6-7 (LXX 37:6-7); Daniel 12:1; 1 Corinthians 12:12; 15:23; Galatians 3:16, 29; Ephesians 4:13; Revelation 2:18, 26-28; 3:21; 19:15; Psalm 2:7-9; Acts 13:33
    Argued in:
    The Woman in the Wilderness: The Birth Pangs of the Prophets

    E4The church in Revelation 12: not the mother, but in the Child

    In Revelation 12 the church is not the woman but what is born: the woman Israel bears the Messiah, and in Him the body (vw-26:18). That the church comes forth from Christ, "from His own opened side" (vw-01:38), is true, but it is not the image of this chapter; the argument against "the woman is the Church" therefore rests on the division of roles mother/Child, not on "the Messiah gave birth to the Church". Both lines come together in the sentence that the church came forth from Israel, through Him (vw-01:59): no replacement, no second mother. Nor is the church "the rest of her offspring" (12:17); they come after the birth. Galatians 4:26-27 is used as support, with the price alongside: in Paul the present Jerusalem belongs to Hagar (4:25), and the mother is Zion according to the promise (Isaiah 54:1). So too the woman of Revelation 12 is Israel as bearer of the promise, with the 12 stars, not Israel in its present unbelief. The clash lies in the image (a mother), not in the content.

    Mark:
    weighed (the mother/Child division of roles as a textual distinction: well-documented; the Child as the church-in-Christ: contested, see E3)
    Key texts:
    Revelation 12:1-5, 17; Romans 9:5; 11:17-24; Genesis 37:9-10; Isaiah 66:7-8; Isaiah 54:1; Galatians 4:25-27
    Argued in:

  7. 13.The restrainer: function and order fixed, name open.

    He gives way after the taking away of the Bride and before the abomination, and then the lawless one is revealed. He is not the Spirit and not the church; who he is, the model leaves open.

    Mark:
    weighed (function and order) · open (the name)
    Best argued in:
    The Mystery of Lawlessness and Babylon, The Restrainer →
    E27 · E29
    Grounds (2)

    E272 Thessalonians 2:1-8: the sequence before and in the Day

    Paul binds the coming and "our gathering together to Him" (2:1, under one article) to the Day that people thought had already dawned (2:2), and says that this Day does not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed (2:3). The model reads that revealing as the appearance of the covenant prince at the start of the week (Daniel 9:27a) and the temple seat of 2:4 as its climax at the abomination (9:27b); the taking away falls in between, at the opening of the Day at 6:17, and 2:8 is the climax of the same coming. Because 2:6-8 places the revealing after the restrainer withdraws (ἕως, καὶ τότε), the model has the restrainer take a first step at the start (6:2) and depart from the midst before the abomination (E29); "fully" is not in the text, and 2:4 does not fix the moment of the revealing. This is a minority reading: the same verb occurs three times with the same subject, and the syntax rather supports a single revealing; 1 Maccabees 1:11-15 (an apostasy via a covenant, years before the abomination) and 1 Thessalonians 5:3 ("peace and safety") support the model, 1 Maccabees 2:15 and Daniel 11:30-32 the majority. 2 Thessalonians 2 permits the sequence of the model and does not confirm it. Therefore 2:1 carries the place of the taking away (E7, E21) only under this reading; if it falls, the place rests on 6:17 and Luke 17:29-30. In pg-12, 2:3 is one of the five risk points.

    Mark:
    contested (the two-phase reading) · well-documented (the connection in 2:1-2 between coming, gathering together and Day)
    Key texts:
    2 Thessalonians 2:1-8; Daniel 9:27; 11:30-36; 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3; John 6:70; 13:27; 17:12; 1 Maccabees 1:11-15, 54; 2:15; Revelation 6:2, 17
    Argued in:
    The Mystery of Lawlessness and Babylon: The Profile of the Man of Lawlessness

    E29The restrainer: function and sequence fixed, name open

    Paul names a restraining something (τὸ κατέχον, 2:6) and someone (ὁ κατέχων, 2:7), without a name and without an acting remover: the restraining lasts "until he is out of the midst" (ἐκ μέσου γένηται, middle voice), and then the lawless one is revealed (2:8). In the model the restrainer withdraws after the taking away of the Bride and before the abomination; his withdrawal is not the taking away, and the restrainer is not the Spirit and not the church, for the Spirit remains with the believers in the tribulation (dv-10). Who he is, the model leaves open. Revelation Unsealed and The Mystery of Lawlessness and Babylon read him as Michael (Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1) and let his withdrawal coincide with the casting down of the dragon (Revelation 12:7-10); under that reading the withdrawal falls in the window of E31, between the taking away and the fifth trumpet (9:1), and the full revealing of 2:8 follows at the abomination. Καὶ τότε then gives the sequence, not immediacy. That is a weighed model reading, not an identity; sentences such as "the removal is the casting down" become "coincides in this reading with". Michael fights in Revelation 12:7 and stands up in Daniel 12:1; Revelation 12:7 has no verb of standing up, so he does not stand up twice. One word throughout the oeuvre: restrainer, lowercase; not "keeper" (κατέχω is to hold back; "keep" is the word for the remnant and for 3:10), not "withholder", not "Restrainer".

    Mark:
    weighed (function and sequence); identity open; the Michael reading with the link to the casting down: weighed model reading
    Key texts:
    2 Thessalonians 2:6-8; Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1; Revelation 6:2; 9:1; 12:7-13; John 14:16; Mark 13:11
    Argued in:
    The Wise — the vanguard in the crucible: The Source of Fire
    Who Is a God Like You?: Michael, the Question That Stands Up
    The Mystery of Lawlessness and Babylon: The Restrainer

  8. 14.The kingdom restores this earth; after that God creates a new heaven and a new earth.

    At His coming the Son of Man separates persons from all nations, and whoever enters life enters the kingdom of peace as a mortal. There people still die (Isaiah 65:20). After the great white throne the first creation passes away, and God makes all things new.

    Mark:
    weighed · framework
    Best argued in:
    Revelation Unsealed, The 1,000-year reign and the great white throne →
    E34 · E36 · E45 · E46
    Grounds (4)

    E34The new creation: after the kingdom, through the fire, in place of the first

    After the kingdom of peace and the great white throne the first creation passes away: "the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed by burning" (2 Peter 3:10-12), the first heaven and the first earth flee from the face of Him who sits on the throne (Revelation 20:11; 21:1), and what can be shaken is removed, as things made (Hebrews 12:27). Then God creates a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1-5; 2 Peter 3:13; Isaiah 65:17; 66:22), without sea, death, mourning, weeping, pain, curse and night (21:1, 4; 22:3, 5). The model reads that as replacement: the first creation is not purified, it perishes, and God makes all things new. The liberation of creation in Romans 8:19-21 belongs not to this transition but to the kingdom (E36). The word καινός does not decide it, and the model rests nothing on it (E35). The day of the Lord, the time in which God intervenes and which culminates in His Kingship from Zion, encompasses the kingdom and ends in this passing away ("in which", 2 Peter 3:10); the "day of God" (3:12) is its final stretch. The resurrection remains the model for persons: the same body raised (1 Corinthians 15:42-44), not for the matter of the first creation. The strongest counter-texts are Romans 8:21, which the model places in the kingdom, and the use of the same verbs in Revelation 16:20 for an earth that enters the kingdom; Psalm 102:25-27 (perish, changed like a garment) allows both readings.

    Mark:
    well-documented (the sequence in Revelation, the passing away and the new order) · weighed (replacement; the Day reaching beyond the kingdom)
    Key texts:
    2 Peter 3:6-13; Revelation 16:20; 20:11; 21:1-5; 22:3-5; Hebrews 1:10-12; 12:26-28; Psalm 102:25-27; Isaiah 34:4; 51:6; 65:17-19; 66:22; Matthew 24:35; Daniel 2:35 (θ′)
    Argued in:
    The Master Clock of Revelation: Coming Home

    E36The kingdom: restoration of this earth, not yet the eternal state

    The kingdom of peace is restoration of this earth and not yet the eternal state: people still die (Isaiah 65:20), there is still punishment (Zechariah 14:17-19) and at the end a final rebellion (20:7-9). The New Testament words for regeneration and restoration stand with the throne of the Son of Man and with the return of Christ (Matthew 19:28; Acts 3:21, E37); in the model they begin in that kingdom and are completed in the new creation. Isaiah 65:17-25 sees the kingdom and the new creation together; John takes the beginning and the end of weeping (65:17, 19) for the new creation (21:1, 4) and not the dying of 65:20, and beyond that the split rests on the content. In that kingdom falls the liberation of creation (Romans 8:19-21): it is set free at the revealing of the sons of God (8:19), at the coming, and the curse gives way (Isaiah 11:6-9; 35:1-2; 65:25). The price of that placement: in the kingdom people still die (Isaiah 65:20), so the liberation from "corruption" has begun there and is not completed, or 8:21 refers to creation apart from humanity (κτίσις) and not to mortal human beings. After the kingdom the first heaven and earth pass away in fire (2 Peter 3:10-12; Revelation 20:11; 21:1); then death and the last enemy are done away (1 Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 21:4) and God creates all things new (E34). The day of the Lord encompasses the kingdom (2 Peter 3:10).

    Mark:
    weighed (rests on the premillennial reading of Revelation 20; Romans 8:21 in the kingdom) · well-documented (that Isaiah 65:20 and Zechariah 14:17-19 exclude the eternal state, and John's selection from Isaiah 65:17-19) · framework (the restoration in the kingdom, the new creation after it)
    Key texts:
    Isaiah 65:16-25; 11:6-9; 35:1-2; Zechariah 14:16-19; Revelation 20:1-15; 21:1-4; Matthew 19:28; Acts 3:19-21; Romans 8:19-23; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28; 2 Peter 3:10
    Argued in:

    E45Matthew 25:31-46: a judgment of persons from all nations, at the coming

    The judgment of Matthew 25:31-46 falls at the coming of the Son of Man in glory ("when [...] then", 25:31) and opens the kingdom: θρόνος δόξης αὐτοῦ occurs in the New Testament only once more, in 19:28, at the regeneration of all things. Joel 3:2, 12 resounds in it (LXX 4:2, 12: all nations gathered, the LORD who sits to judge); the model reads Joel 3 as the valley of Armageddon, and Matthew 25 as the sifting of those who remain. The judgment falls on persons from all nations, not on nations as wholes: the neuter-masculine ἔθνη/αὐτούς does not decide that (so also Joel 4:2 LXX and Matthew 28:19), the deeds and the destinies do. It is distinct from the great white throne (Revelation 20:11-15), which has the dead, books and a resurrection; Matthew 25 has none of these, and John 5:28-29 remains the strongest counterpoint (dvdh-30:30). "Eternal punishment" and "eternal life" (25:46) are definitive destinies; the pericope names the verdict, not the moment at which it is carried out (19:20-21; 20:13-15), and the fire is "prepared for the devil and his angels", not "for you".

    Mark:
    weighed (the moment at the coming: text well-documented; the distinction from 20:11-15: weighed) · well-documented (persons, not nations)
    Key texts:
    Matthew 25:31-46; 19:28-29; 13:40-43; 24:9, 14; 28:19; Joel 3:2, 12 (LXX 4:2, 12); Revelation 19:20-21; 20:11-15; John 5:24-29
    Argued in:
    Revelation Unsealed: The trumpets

    E46Who enters the kingdom: the sheep nations, mortal, with recognition at the coming

    The sheep nations are those from the nations who enter life at the judgment of the coming: they have not worshiped the beast and therefore stand, in the model's reading, in the Lamb's book of life (Revelation 13:8). They inherit the Kingdom prepared for them "from the foundation of the world" (25:34); that kingdom opens at the coming and continues into the eternal state, and the text does not divide it into phases. Like the woman (E13), they recognize Him only when He comes; therefore they are not gathered and glorified with the guests (Matthew 24:31), but enter the kingdom of peace mortal and inhabit it with restored Israel (Zechariah 14:16-19; Isaiah 65:20). Whoever believes in Jesus after the taking away and lives to see the coming is gathered and does not enter mortal (E18); so two groups enter the kingdom mortal, and a third is born into it. The eternal life they receive (25:46) they possess in a mortal body (John 5:24); how they come into the eternal state, Scripture leaves underdetermined (E17). Matthew 13:43, 19:29 and 1 Corinthians 15:50 remain the counter-texts. "Sheep nations" is a label for persons from the nations, not a statement about nations as wholes.

    Mark:
    weighed (a redeemed category, 13:8) · framework (mortal entry with recognition at the coming)
    Key texts:
    Matthew 25:31-46; 13:43; 19:28-29; 24:31; Revelation 13:8; 13:15; 20:4-6; Zechariah 12:10; 14:16-19; Isaiah 65:20; John 5:24; 1 Corinthians 15:50; Romans 11:20
    Argued in:
    The Master Clock of Revelation: The Marriage Feast on Earth