A reader's guide to Cruickshank's Corner
Robert E. Cruickshank Jr. has written more than 120 articles on fulfilled prophecy at The Burros of Berea, and he does the slow work: every verse, every Old Testament echo, every Josephus section number. Nobody should have to read them in the order they were posted. Here they are sorted by the question you came with.
Where he stands, so you know what you're reading: he has written that Christ "made good on that promise" of His coming, that Hades was emptied and judgment is now immediate at death, and that Revelation 20 was fulfilled in AD 70. He does not use the label "full preterist," and he does not write about the nature of the resurrection body. I lean on him for the texts below; where he and I read something differently, I say so.
Start here
Here's Hoping a Future Generation Will Get "This Generation" Right: the clearest short piece on Matthew 24:34. The Texts of Time and Quickly! Quickly!: every modern way of making "near," "soon," and "quickly" mean "not yet," named and answered. The One Condition That Makes Jesus' Prophecy Unconditional: the "truly I say to you" that closes the door on a conditional reading.
Matthew 24
Transing "This Generation" answers the "kind of people" reading of genea with Deuteronomy 32 fulfilled in Judges. The Greatest Tribulation (Mike Rogers) shows "never before, never after" is an idiom Scripture and Josephus both use of events that cannot both be literal. The Abomination of Speculation puts the abomination of desolation in the Zealot occupation of the Temple, winter 67 to 68, with Josephus calling it exactly that. Sending Forth the Angels (Daniel Harden, with Cruickshank) on the gathering of 24:31, and the one piece in the corpus that works through what happens to believers who die after AD 70. Four Signs That a Bible Teacher Doesn't Understand the Signs and There's a Blood Moon on the Rise on the signs.
Zechariah 14
The ten-part series, verse by verse, beginning with Part 1. The parts I use most: Part 2 on the siege and the captives sold into Egypt (Deuteronomy 28:68); Part 5 on the flight through the split mountain and Pella; Part 6 on the living waters and John 7:38; Part 7 on "king over all the earth" and why "no more curse" is the devoted-to-destruction word, not Genesis 3; Part 10 on the traders driven from the house. His earlier Thoughts on Zechariah 14:1-4 reads "his feet shall stand" as the prophets' judgment idiom, which is the reading on my Zechariah 14 card. My card: here.
Gog and Magog, Ezekiel 38 and 39
Ten parts, starting with Part 1: From Saul and Agag to Mordecai and Haman. The thesis: Ezekiel's Gog is answered in the book of Esther, and John's "Gog and Magog" in Revelation 20 is the same reversal reused for Rome turning on Jerusalem. Part 5 on "the latter days" as a horizon-relative phrase, and Part 10 on Revelation 20:7-9. The short version for the Russia headlines: Gog, Magog... Russia and the Rapture?
The resurrection and the dead
Identifying Christ's Enemies in 1 Corinthians 15:24-26: the enemies are the powers over the nations, and "death" in 15:26 is Isaiah 25:8's swallower. The General Judgment and the Gospel: the dead in Hades were judged in AD 70 and judgment is now immediate at death. Resurrection Life Now on Romans 6:5. The Body of Humility and the Body of Glory (Harden) on Philippians 3:21 and the distributive singular. My cards: What about Grandma? and Christ's body.
2 Peter 3 and the new heavens
Playing the 2 Peter 3 Card: both halves of "a thousand years as one day," Jeremiah 27:16, and why an indefinite delay is no answer to scoffers. His ten-part series on Isaiah 65 and 66 begins with Part 1 and the Prequel; he reads Isaiah's new heavens as the return from Babylon with John and Peter taking up the theme, which is not how I read it, and you should hear his case. A Walk Through Psalm 102 and Missing the Metaphor on the prophets' de-creation language.
2 Thessalonians 2 and "the Antichrist"
Will the Real Antichrist Please Stand Up?: "antichrist" is John's word and John never uses it of the beast or the man of sin. Unraveling the Mystery of the Lawless One, two parts: the restrainer as the legitimate priesthood and the lawless one as the Zealots who seized the Temple. He is committed to that identification; my card keeps the field open. Missing the Mark of the Beast, Capturing the Image of the Beast, and 666 in 2026.
Romans 11 and 1948
Romans 11:25-27, three parts: "the fullness of the Gentiles" as Paul's mission to the ends of the earth, and "in this way all Israel will be saved." Why 1948 Isn't the Fulfillment of Amos 9:15. My card: the fig tree and 1948.
Revelation, chapter by chapter
Babylon as Jerusalem in Revelation, the five-minute version of the identification. The Fourth Horse on 6:8. The walk through Revelation 8: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, with The Sea Battles of Revelation 8:8-9 and Falling Stars and Flaming Torches. Identifying the Sea Beast on Nero.
When the prophecy teachers set a date
The Adventures of Doctor Date Setter, 2028 Is the New 1988, "Here's Your Sign" of a Signless Event, Abduction Day, and Breaking the Cycle of Pop-Prophecy. Send these to the friend who just shared the latest countdown.
The critics, answered
Travis Drum's responses to Sam Waldron (Part 1, Part 2), where a Reformed Baptist critic concedes that Matthew 24:34 is the then-living generation and that giving the end of the age to AD 70 "leads directly" to where we are. The Day of the Lord in Zephaniah 1:14 for the prophets' own pattern.