MASTER TRIAL OUTLINE

CASE TITLE

Good (defined as the deliberate choice of love and forgiveness in the midst of tragedy)
v.
Evil (despair, hopelessness, and the absence of love)

Judge: Spock (from the television series Star Trek) Chosen because Star Trek first episode was Sept 8, 1966.
Prosecution: The A-Team (conducted by the Plaintiff/Author in real time)
Defense: Satan
Jury: The Reader

Nature of the Proceeding:
This is not a criminal or civil trial and seeks no verdict.
It is a moral inquiry into whether love can still be deliberately chosen when tragedy arrives—and whether that choice meaningfully resists evil.

PRE-TRIAL FOUNDATIONS

Jurisdiction & Scope

  • The court examines human choice, not divine causation.

  • Tragedy itself is never assigned meaning.

  • Coincidences may be discussed only as corroborative, never causal.

  • Symbolic language is interpretive, not predictive.

  • No testimony is presented as supernatural proof.

Stipulations Entered into the Record

  • Entire Bible chapters may be introduced to avoid proof-texting.

  • Numbers function as attention markers, not mechanisms.

  • Confirmation bias is acknowledged and addressed explicitly.

  • No verdict will be rendered.

OPENING STATEMENTS

Opening Statement — The A-Team

This case examines human choice after tragedy, not the cause of suffering.

  • No meaning, justification, or purpose is assigned to tragedy.

  • Good is defined as the deliberate choice of love and forgiveness.

  • Evil is defined as despair, hopelessness, and the absence of love.

  • Symbols and coincidences function only as attention markers, not causes.

  • No verdict is sought—only reflection on what we choose when love feels hardest.

Opening Statement — Satan

  • Argues the universe is indifferent and chaotic.

  • Frames love as fragile sentiment and pattern-making as illusion.

  • Casts despair as rational and inevitable.

FOUNDATIONAL TESTIMONY

The Plaintiff

Role: Plaintiff and narrating witness

Purpose: Chronology, attention, and motive for bringing the case.

Substance of Testimony:

1. Prophecy as Attention, Not Prediction

The Plaintiff testifies that biblical prophecy, as understood in this case, functions primarily to draw human attention—to awaken moral awareness, ethical responsibility, and choice in the present.

Prophecy is presented as:

  • a lens, not a timetable;

  • a warning, not a forecast;

  • an invitation, not a mandate.

The Plaintiff emphasizes that many biblical prophets spoke after catastrophe began, not before it ended—calling people back to justice, mercy, humility, and love. This case adopts that same understanding.

2. The Origin of the Lottery Numbers

The Plaintiff explains that the lottery numbers were selected years before any later tragedy, and were chosen entirely out of love and relationship, not fear, calculation, or prediction.

The numbers correspond to:

  • a shared family birthday 9/8—brother David and sister Mary—both names closely aligned with Jesus

  • a first date 12/14

  • a second date 12/20 (movie Titanic)

  • and a wedding anniversary occurring on Good Friday in 2009.

At the time they were chosen, the Plaintiff believed—mistakenly—that they might result in financial gain, which he intended to give away. When they did not, the ticket was preserved as a personal artifact of love, not discarded.

3. Symbolic Meaning Discovered After the Fact

The Plaintiff testifies that the symbolic resonance of the numbers was not recognized at the time of selection, but only years later, after tragedy forced a period of reflection.

Only then did the Plaintiff begin to notice:

  • repeated symbolic correspondences in Scripture,

  • historical events aligning by date or number,

  • and personal experiences converging around themes of judgment, renewal, peoplehood, waiting, and choice.

The Plaintiff stresses that this was recognition, not construction.

4. Numbers as Attention Markers

The Plaintiff clarifies that the numbers function only as markers of attention, similar to:

  • anniversaries,

  • memorial dates,

  • or symbolic rituals.

They are offered to help the jury notice stories, not to assign meaning to tragedy itself.

The Plaintiff explicitly disclaims:

  • numerology as prediction,

  • mystical causation,

  • or claims of inevitability.

5. Why This Case Was Brought

The Plaintiff concludes that the numbers and dates did not give answers—but they got his attention.

They prompted him to ask:

  • why despair so often follows tragedy,

  • why power so often corrupts,

  • and whether love can still be deliberately chosen afterward.

This case exists because the Plaintiff believes attention can interrupt despair, and that interruption creates space that makes choosing love more likely.

ENCOUNTER WITH THE STORY OF JESUS

  • Mel Gibson — Film director and producer
    Art as encounter; the Passion narrative as lived experience. Inspiration for The Passion of The Christ film.

  • Anne Catherine Emmerich — Catholic mystic (historical record)
    Visionary source for The Passion of The Christ; transmission of the Passion story. Born Sept 8.

  • Flavius Josephus — First-century Jewish historian
    Destruction of Jerusalem; grounding Jesus’ apocalyptic warnings. Jerusalem fell to Roman army on Sept 8, 70AD

  • Mother Ann Lee — Founder of the Shakers
    Followers believed she was Christ returned in the female form. Martyred and died on Sept 8.

  • Michelangelo Buonarroti — Renaissance artist and sculptor
    King David as theological and cultural symbol. Statue of David unveiled in Florence, Italy on Sept 8.

HISTORICAL JESUS & APOCALYPTIC EXPECTATION

  • E. P. Sanders — New Testament scholar and historian of early Judaism
    Jesus as a first-century Jewish apocalyptic prophet.

  • Bart D. Ehrman — Textual critic and historian of early Christianity
    Vagueness and diversity of Second Coming expectations.

SCRIPTURE, SYMBOL & INTERPRETATION

  • John H. Walton — Old Testament scholar
    Symbolic language; interpretive guardrails against superstition. Importance of David in the Story of Jesus.

STATISTICS, COINCIDENCE & NON-RANDOMNESS

  • David Spiegelhalter — Statistician and expert in risk & probability
    Confirmation bias, coincidence, statistical meaning.

POWER, AUTHORITY & MORAL CHOICE

  • George Washington — Founding leader; first U.S. president
    Voluntary relinquishment of power. Died on Dec 14.

  • Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain — Union general and educator
    Saved the Union army at the Battle of Gettysburg. Mercy after war; reconciliation over vengeance. Born Sept 8.

  • Abraham Lincoln — U.S. president during the Civil War
    Slavery, moral authority, reconciliation after assassination. Numbers aligned with start and end of Civil war as well as Lincoln’s assassination.

  • Napoleon Bonaparte — French military and political leader
    Hubris, overreach, collapse of inevitability. Retreat from Russia — Dec 14, 1812.

  • Richard Nixon — U.S. president
    Power, downfall, pardon Sept 8, 1974; national healing

  • Ian Kershaw — Historian of Nazi Germany
    Mechanisms of mass despair, grievance, and authoritarian rise. Numbers are all over his rise and downfall.

  • Evel Knievel — American stunt performer and cultural figure
    Fame, spectacle, risk. Snake River Canyon jump and failure Sept 8, 1974. Redemption at the end of his life.

  • Donald Trump — U.S. president and political figure
    Modern power, polarization, temptation (behavior examined, not ideology). Key events on Dec 14 in 2020 and 2024.

CATASTROPHE & TECHNOLOGY IDOLATRY

  • Isaac Cline — Meteorologist and U.S. Weather Bureau official
    Ignored warnings; certainty and catastrophe. Galveston hurricane - Sept 8, 1900.

  • James Cameron — Film director and explorer
    Titanic; technological hubris. Numbers all over the tragedy and the movie. Plaintiff took his wife to see Titanic on Dec 20, 1997. Was second date and event that created the number 20 on the prophetic lottery ticket.

REDEMPTION OUT OF WAR

  • John F. Kennedy — U.S. president
    Cuban Missile Crisis restraint. Russian R12 and R14 missiles delivered to Cuba on Sept 8, 1962. moonshot vision.

  • Wernher von Braun — Rocket engineer (contextual record)
    V-2 rockets → Saturn V. First V-2 on civilian population Sept 8, 1944.

  • Apollo 11 Crew & Mission — Collective scientific and human achievement
    Redirection of power toward exploration. Apollo 8 Christmas Eve broadcast. Last moon mission left the moon on Dec 14, 1972.

MUSIC AS REDEMPTIVE FORCE

  • Ken Burns — Documentary historian and filmmaker
    History of country music; music as cultural memory and healing. First male and female artists inducted to Country Music Hall of Fame were both born on Sept 8 - Jimmy Rodgers and Patsy Cline.

  • Sam Phillips — Record producer and cultural innovator
    Music as moral disruption and integration. Rock N Roll as a call and response to God on the issue of Slavery. Story of the first Rock n Roll Song - Rocket 88.

  • Elvis Presley — Musician and cultural icon
    Sacred and secular tension; redemption through voice. Brought African American music into the mainstream that became Rock N Roll. Born Jan 8. First hit song “That’s All Right” played on radio first time on July 8. Ed Sullivan first appearance Sept 9.

  • John Lennon — Songwriter, peace activist, and cultural figure
    Imagination, conscience, and nonviolent resistance;
    music as a moral rehearsal for peace.     Born Oct 9 died Dec 8. Used 8 and 9 in songs. Was obsessed with the number 9.

  • Taylor Swift — Songwriter and cultural storyteller
    Narrative, memory, and generational resonance. Brought music and sports together in 2023-24. Era’s concert tour and audience participation around the song called “22.” Our numbers in Taylor’s story.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & HUMAN VALUE

  • Stuart Russell — Computer scientist and AI alignment researcher
    Steering humanity away from despair; valuing humans as ends.

CLOSING HUMAN WITNESS

  • Scarlett Lewis — Founder of the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement
    Lived choice of love after tragedy. Testify to writings and a picture Jesse left just before he died in the Sandy Hook shooting that inspired Scarlett to start the Choose Love Movement.

CLOSING STATEMENTS

  • The A-Team: Invitation without coercion

  • Satan: Despair framed as rational

EPILOGUE

No verdict.
Only reflection.