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Living Word — Presence-Arc Scene Program (4 new scenes + Pentecost beat)

Status: APPROVED (program) — founder ruled spine + scope + Nations-slot 2026-06-05. Built scene-by-scene; each scene is its own PR with founder theology review (rule #1) before merge. Source: expert-panel research knowledge/drafts/2026-06-05-living-word-new-scenes-research.md. Rule #17: this master spec + per-scene acceptance criteria satisfy the gate; the Cross's contested-theology wording gets a dedicated founder review at its PR.

Founder rulings (2026-06-05)​

  • Spine = God's PRESENCE / dwelling with his people (trunk). KINGDOM + NATIONS = the two named supporting branches (already act-themes in five-acts.ts). Course may still be titled/marketed by Kingdom or Nations.
  • Scope = all four new scenes + the Pentecost beat.
  • Nations slot = Ruth.

The four new scenes + beat (build order = payoff-per-effort)​

  1. The Cross & the Empty Tomb (flagship) — Luke 23-24 / John 19-20; keyVerse John 19:30 "It is finished" + Luke 24:6 "He is risen." Keystone: closes 5 dangling seed→bloom chains, fires the unused cross+forgive verbs, supplies Pentecost's resurrection/ascension on-ramp.
  2. Exile & the Valley of Dry Bones (flagship) — Ezek 37 (+ Jer 31); keyVerse Ezek 37:27 (+ 37:14). Completes Pentecost's wired-but-unplanted bloom; adds the missing exile/lament movement.
  3. Solomon's Temple — Glory Fills the House (flagship) — 1 Kings 8 (+ 2 Sam 7 Davidic covenant); keyVerse 1 Kings 8:27. Fills the biggest Presence-spine gap (tent→permanent house) + the Kingdom covenant hole. Lens table largely NET-NEW authoring.
  4. Ruth — A Foreigner Brought Home (stub) — Ruth 1:16. Keeps the Nations strand alive across its silent mid-canon stretch; Moabite grafted into the messianic line. Partly net-new lens authoring.
  5. Ascension / "You Are the Temple Now" (enhance existing Pentecost) — Acts 1:8 + 1 Cor 3:16. Closes the ascension/session + church-age gap; lands the spine on the player. No new SceneId.

Proposed final SCENE_SEQUENCE (canonical/biblical order — founder to confirm insert points)​

creation-eden · cain-abel · flood-noah · tower-babel · call-abraham · joseph-egypt · burning-bush · passover · red-sea · sinai · tabernacle · ruth · david-goliath · solomon-temple · exile-dry-bones · birth-of-jesus · sermon-on-mount · the-cross · pentecost (+ascension beat) · new-creation. (Ruth set "in the days the judges ruled" → before David; Solomon = David's son → after david-goliath; Exile/Dry-Bones → after the monarchy, before the manger; the Cross → after the Sermon, before Pentecost. 16 → 20 scenes.)

Theology framing (founder-ruled patterns; exact wording reviewed per-scene at PR)​

  • The Cross / atonement (contested): the gated falsehood/truth Knowledge Encounter stays at what ALL traditions affirm — "Christ died for us and rose" — and the theory-level distinctives (penal substitution / Christus Victor / liberation / sacramental) live in the per-lens traditionQuestion table. The game PRESENTS, never adjudicates (AI-bridge principle). Founder personally reviews the falsehood/truth wording before merge.
  • Ezekiel 37: present as the layered/escalating promise (national restoration per v.11 → resurrection template → church/Spirit) without the narration adjudicating Israel-and-the-church.
  • All per-lens 17-tradition tables authored fair (frozen-fair neutral fields), grounded in theological-lenses.ts, same recipe as the shipped lens curriculum.

Per-scene build contract (each scene)​

A flagship scene = a scenes-<id>-rebuilt.ts SceneDefinition: tile map, NPC cast with roles + dialogue, the Knowledge Encounter (falseClaim/truth + 4 difficulty tiers + 17-lens table), keyVerse, the 7-beat explorer/verb path (Cross fires cross+forgive; Solomon fires build), relics with memories, ONE hard gate, Legacy seed/bloom wiring (Cross = the bloom node closing 5 chains; Dry Bones = plants Pentecost's expected seed), recurring NPCs (Mary Birth→Cross; centurion; Ruth→Birth genealogy). A "stub" (Ruth) is the lighter build.

Each new SceneId threads through 6 coupled structures (verified in code): SceneId union + SceneMapTheme (scenes.ts) · SCENE_REGISTRY · SCENE_SEQUENCE (+ re-point adjacent exitNextSceneId/unlock chain) · SCENE_TO_ACT (five-acts.ts) · scope-and-sequence weeks array (renumbers downstream weeks + memory verses) · scene-seo.ts display order + a SEO entry.

Seed→bloom edges to close (the structural payoff — verified in code)​

  • Cross fires cross+forgive (types.ts:791-792, currently unused).
  • Cross blooms: cain-abel (mark→Luke 23:43; Abel's blood→Heb 12:24), passover (lamb→1 Cor 5:7), david-goliath (smitten rock→John 19:34), birth-of-jesus (myrrh vial→tomb; the 3 "FULL BLOOM: Resurrection" notes), tabernacle (veil torn → presence-access).
  • Dry Bones PLANTS the Ezekiel-37 seed pentecost-rebuilt.ts bloom #6 already expects.

Acceptance criteria (per scene)​

  1. Scene is reachable + completable in sequence; encounter winnable across all 4 difficulty tiers.
  2. Its verb beat(s) fire and resolve (Cross: cross+forgive; Solomon: build).
  3. Legacy seed/bloom wiring resolves (Cross closes its 5 chains on a real playthrough; Dry-Bones seed → Pentecost bloom).
  4. 17-lens table present + frozen-fair; theology founder-approved at PR.
  5. Recurring NPCs appear where specified.
  6. All 6 coupled structures updated; build/tsc green; no regression to existing scenes/sequence.
  7. Deployed-preview Playwright (explorer seeding pattern) verifies reach + encounter + verb + seed/bloom; screenshots for founder.

Verification (rules 10, 12, 20)​

Per-scene: unit (any pure helpers/lens-table assert) + deployed-preview Playwright (seed living-word-progress-v1 with activeSceneId + ?lwExplorerPreview=<id>), screenshots, DECISION_LOG line, knowledge-sync. Theology content founder-approved at each PR (rule #1). Built in isolated worktrees off origin/main (heavy-concurrency repo).

Deferred / open​

  • Founder confirms the insert points / final sequence above before mid-sequence authoring.
  • Solomon + Ruth lens tables need net-new authoring + founder review (Cross + Dry Bones are RAG-sourceable).
  • Any brand-new mechanic a scene wants (beyond existing verbs) would touch the engine — none planned.