Welcome to the best of the Bible answer Man broadcast with your host, Hank Antigraph. The Bible answer Man is the radio ministry of the Christian Research Institute designed to equip believers to defend their faith and become true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, because life and truth matter. Our phone number is eight eight eight seven thousand, CRII. That's one eight eight eight seven thousand, two seven four. You can find us on the internet at equip dot org. That's equip dot org. The following program was pre recorded and now to begin today's broadcast, here's Hank Canagraph. Thank you much. Randy has always great to be in the studio. We have a special broadcast on tap has to do with the resource available for those who support the ministries called the We That Changed the World. My doctor Paul Meyer. You can find The Week That Changed the World on the web equipped dot org. And do remember, as always are resource consultants. They're standing by triple eight seven thousand and the letters c RI. This week, the Week that Changed the World, is a week in which Jesus Christ suffered fatal torment. It is a week in which he was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. It is a week in which we know that he was going to appear and give many convincing proofs that he had risen from the dead. In fact, it was a week that resulted in an absolutely transformed world. This is the quintessential week in all of human history. To talk about that, Doctor Paul Meyer, he is a professor of ancient history. He has written some of the most exquisite books. I love his two novels in particularly Punches Pilot in the Flames of Rome, as well as of course have to Mention a Skeleton God's Closet, which is a theological thriller. He's written many nonfiction works, including Josephus, The Essential Works, Eusebius The Church History, a book on the first Christian historian. He's also penned a lot of children's books, and he was the author of the Da Vinci Code Factor Fiction. Glad to have you on the broadcast. Coauser with you and my dad shouldn't be back, Hank. Well, let's talk about this DVD. I mean, it is absolutely splendid. I've watched it a number of times and this is not just a week. This is the week, indeed, and it's the most carefully documented week also in the Gospels. I'm glad for that, because Jesus make a move I think during that week that has been touted or designed by some critics somewhere, and so I'm so glad we have such detail, especially in the Gospel of John. As you well know, Paul, I want you to talk about what leads up to Holy Week because for many Christians the thought of Lent is I've heard about that, but I'm not sure exactly what that's all about and why it might be significant. Why is the build up to Holy Week the forty days so critical for Christians? Well, because it's one of the earliest church festivals. Easter, of course was celebrated before Christmas was, and then of course what caused Eastern and what led up to it. The church had to prepare for it, and indeed this was one of the earliest festivals of the early Church. And so it's the pastoral season they call it. And indeed we have here the culbination of Jesus ministry. What happened from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday is very critically important for the Christian faith in everyone else's eternal faith. One of the first things that I want to drive home is the fatal torment of Jesus Christ, because there are many people that deny that Jesus Christ suffered fatal torment. For example, the Muslims will say that Jesus was not crucified. God made someone look like Jesus, and the lookalike was crucified in place of Jesus. How can we be certain from a historical and an archaeological perspective that Jesus did in fact suffer fatal torment. Well, when you find this passionate non Christian secular sources saying the same thing as the New Testament does in terms of Jesus suffering on the cross and dying, well, then, for goodness sake, that pretty well quitches the case for me. Whenever I find people claiming that somebody took his place, I say, wait a minute, this sounds like it comes from the Koran. And this of course comes sixth centuries after the fact. So I always ask which is more reliable source of information I witness testimony or something that happened six hundred plus years later, And then coursianswer is obviously you have a derivative material in the case of Islam, and by the way, we could now trace where that material came from. Unfortunately, the prophet Muhammad was in touch only with heretical Christianity in his formative years and was a gnostic heresy in Egypt under a Nasti teacher facilities. His name was who claims that somebody else told Jesus place and this kind of remained with him. Instead of getting I just put the case that if only we would have had my hamm'd in touch with normal Christianity, and if only there had been a good Arabic translation of the only New Testament available to him, and if only Christian missionaries had dealt more directly or kindly with him and informative years, I cannot tell you how change the world would be today. It's just such an incredible shame that my Habit was who he was and was not again a martyr for Christianity or an Eastern witness of Christianity. That's one of the great might have beens of history. Paul. There's a lot of conjecture on what the cross looked like. I was listening to Bill O'Reilly and he said that of a certainty, the cross that Jesus was crucified on look like a capital T. Jehovah's witnesses say, well, it was a torture stake, a lot of different forms of the cross. Is there any historical or archaeological clues in terms of what the shape of the cross actually was that Jesus was specifically crucified on. Well, I don't know how Bill O'Reilly can say of a certainty the certain but it is pretty clear that the regular looking cross, this so called Crooks and Missa, which is the typical cross that we're used to, is the one. Because there's a titulus over Jesus' head which says Jesus of deaths is king of the Jews, and this would be very appropriate in a blackered place over jesus head. Now, I know, when the tau cross, the T shaped cross, they would to have this thrung out along the top of the crossbeam. That's very unlikely and by the way, you find a lot of evidence of mistaken logic has only built O'Reilly's material there. He claims that he was spent all ten months researching the life of Jesus. Well, you know, others have us spent our whole lifetimes and don't come up with pat answers. So there's a lot of picking and choosing in terms of cherry pecking the evidence there in that book. The regular cross were used to best answers all the problems. And this is one of the things you've given your life to. You have given your life to actually doing the first rate primary research. This is very, very significant when it comes to the life of Jesus Christ, and most particularly when it comes to the Week to change the world. Well, this is so terribly important. We call it Holy Week, of course, but what happened from Palms on Ey the following Es or Sunday, our momentous events in the life of Jesus, the culbination of his ministry and really the beginning of the Christian faith as we know it. And if it had gone any differently, and if Jesus had not risen from the dead, we wouldn't be talking about You would have a programmed today and nobody would be listening to me either. It would simply be a different world. But instead of that, we have the most successful single phenomenon in the history of humanity, namely the Christian Church. There's never been any other movement on earth which has the loyalties of over two and a half billion people or three billion people in the present generation alone. And again, this could not have developed from a vacuum that has developed from situations that are well known in history and can be verified from the use of secular materials, which is my particular specialty. I love to compare what is claimed in the news esimon Gospels and epistles, and then see what the outside sources for the ancient world say. Do they contradict whether we had in the gospels or they agree? And they agree magnificently, Again and again and again. Teller doctor Paul Meyer. Again, the resource the Week that changed the world. Every time I watch it, I learned something new, and most of all, I'm fortified in the faith once for all delivered to the Saints. So often we put Christmas at the apex of celebrations, but the Week that change the world is the real apex, because if Christ had not risen from the dead. Paul makes very plain in First Corinthians, chapter fifteen, Well, our preaching is useless, and so is your faith. In fact, those who fall asleep are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ. We are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has risen from the dead. So this is the week that we celebrate the fatal torment of Jesus Christ, the empty tomb, the post resurrection, appearances of Christ, and the transformation not just of people in the past, but our transformation as well. The Week That Change the World available check it out on the web for your support, will send it out to you. You can also write me at box eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina, zip code two eight two seven to one. We'll talk to our wonderful resource consultants as they stand by the number triple eight and in the letters c R. Right back in just a few moments with more of doctor Paul Meyer and The Week That Changed the World. There is one very big problem for agnostics and atheists who dismissed the resurrection of Jesus as sheer scientific impossibility and mythological nonsense. The resurrection actually happened. Professor Paul Myers DVD The Week That Changed the World gives you the hard, verifiable evidence of history and archaeology on the resurrection. Receive the Week That Changed the World on DVD as our thanks for your gift, Simply call eight eight eight seven thousand CRI and make a gift to support CR's life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand CRI or visit equip dot org. Equip dot org. Don't go away, Hank Hanagraph will be right back. Hank Hannagraph has dedicated his life to defending truth because truth matters. However, his life and ministry were radically transformed by another three word phrase, Life matters more. Truth matters because Christianity is rooted in history and evidence. Life matters more because it. Is the experience of union with God. The goal of Christian life is union with God. All attempts to understand Christianity from a solely rational perspective put us in danger of devolving into a transactional, rather than transformational relationship with God. Truth matters, Life matters More. Will equip you to move beyond intellectually knowing about God to experientially knowing Him in christ. To receive your copy of Truth Matters, Life Matters More, called eight eight eight seven thousand CRI and make a gift to support the Christian Research Institute's Life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand CRI or visit us online at equipp dot org. Why did the authorities need judas to identify Jesus? How could the people who cheered Jesus on Palm Sunday call for his death just a few days later? Why was ponscious Pilot trying hard to avoid sending Jesus to his death? Is there evidence outside the Bible that these events actually happened. In the documentary film on DVD, The Week That Changed the World, professor of ancient history Paul Meyer offers compelling answers to questions concerning the events of Holy Week that culminated in Christ's death and resurrection. Doctor Meyer lays out the hard, verifiable facts of history and archaeology. Receive your copy of The Week That Changed the World on DVD as our thanks for your gift. Simply call eight eight eight seven thousand CRI and make a gift to support CR's life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand CreI or visit equip dot org equip dot org. Anyone who's been paying attention knows there's a war going on, not just on traditional morality, civility and decency, but even more fundamentally on historic notions of truth, and the enemy isn't just the onslaught of fake news, facilitated by a post truth culture and turbocharged by growing legions of ideological spinductors. Note the real enemies of truth range from postmodernist convictions that there is no objective truth to militant scientism that claims that only science can determine truth and religion is little more than primitive superstitions. But CRI Support Team members are not waving a white flag of surrender. They're holding the fort by undergirding everyone of Christian Research Institute's mind shaping and life changing outreaches twenty four to seven. To learn how you can make a difference and enjoy all the benefits of Support Team membership, simply visit equip dot org. Now back to the Bible answer Man Broadcast and your host and canigraph. Randy again the featured resource doctor Paul Myers, The Week That Changed the World. The Week That Changed the World is a riveting cinematic depiction of the passion of the Christ, demonstrating that life and truth really do matter. Get your copy for your support on the web at equipped dot Org, or you can speak to one of our resource consultants Triple eight seven thousand and the letters CRI. You know, one of the questions that I wanted to broach, doctor Meyer, is the extra biblical evidence with respect to the week that changed the world. I mean, you can piece together highlights of the life of Christ totally independent of the word of God. This is true. It's only they don't know that. That's right. Essentially, you have in the outside evidence exactly what the New Testament says in miniature. In other words. Tascit Us, for example, in his famous passage when he talks about the Great Fire of Rome, how do the fire take place? Well, he talks about Nero and whether or not he leaves the question open as to whether or not Nero is responsible for the fire of Rome. But then he talks about his throne tottering because people thought he was responsible, and so his throne is tottering. And Nero at this point indicts the Christians. Now, who are the Christians careful scholared that he is? He explains to their name for a Christ who was crucified by one of our governors, punches Pilot by name, and the superstition was almost eliminated until something that came to vigor and float even as far as Rome, that come inceestful into which things flow from all over the Mediterranean. Obviously we have a hostile sourcer. But when this hospital source nevertheless confirms with the New Testament says, that makes it doubly effective and doubly important. And again we have here the criterion of embarrassment. It's called it strange concept. But when you're trying to find the truth or fakeness of an ancient source, historians at various means. The two most important ones are the criterion of multiple act testation, which means if there are many different historians from the ancient world who are not copying from one another, who nevertheless say the same thing, that is pretty well led pipecation, these things really happen. The other one is this strangely named criterion of embarrassment. I love this one. This is when you have a hostile source doing its thing, wanting to attack Christianity, and yet in the process includes something which defeats the purpose of this attack and indeed gives Christianity the points of authenticity, then this is embarrassing to the goal of the writer of the Asian world. But nevertheless he admits it because it's true. It happened to everybody knew it at the time, and so you have Intastiness himself a marvelous he doesn't like his Christians. Never mind the fact that he doesn't actually strengthens the case that I'm. Making, doctor Paul Meyer, about the Week that changed the world. This is the quintessential week of all of human history, the Week that changed the world. The DVD available for those who support the ministry. Check it out on the web at equip dot org. Doctor Meyer. Oftentimes, the point has been made that the Jewish crowds were fickle with respect to Jesus. On Paum Sunday, they loved him, they wanted to make him their king, and yet on Good Friday they were crying, we have no king but Caesar. Was the crowd really fickle or is something else going on? I'm so glad you asked that hang, because this is one of the great misunderstood sections I think of the Bible, and it's led to anti Semitism and to Musua, useless bloodshed and bad feeling between Christians and Jews. It is absolutely incorrect to say that the same people who was ended to the son of David on Palm Sunday went on to the yell crucify him at the end of the week. I can recall so many sermons I've heard them on Good Friday, all the fickle Jews who can sing, who was ended to David on Palm Sunday? And then only the yeld crucify him on Good Friday? You know, boo hits. Everybody's ready to burn a synagogue. This is terrible. This is a long interpret day. And I can prove that this is wrong by the most overlooked verse in the entire Bible, which is Luke twenty three, twenty seven. Luke carefully tells us that when Jesus is on the way to Goga, a great multitude of Jewish men and women were weeping. There is the pop Sunday crowd. They never had any reason to turn against Jesus. You do a survey of Holy Week, and you have to tell me when did Jesus does lose popularity with the audience, with the crowds. He didn't, He never did. On Sunday. We have the decommercialization of the temple. We have him more popular than ever there at least because he's breaking the awful monopoly which Annison Chaoph has had, this Adducian authorities that ran the temple. And then Tuesday, Wednesday, we have what I like to call the press conferences of Jesus of Nazareth, in which they post these puzzling questions the g Jesus, which are unanswerable. They defy logic, for example, the old grade school what we all heard of? Because God make it a rock so big he can't look to himself. You know, they're impossible to answer. So these are the kind of questions that we're tossed at Jesus, hoping he would misspeak himself. And Jesus gives beautiful responses. It's just beautiful. And people just shake their heads and walk away at that point. And indeed, therefore Jesus is more popular than ever before as of Wednesday evening, I maintain. So this gives him only on twenty four hours to blow it. Thursday, Monday, Thursday, not going to work, Jesus he goes down to town that day. He spends a only in the evening where he institutes the Last Supper, and therefore where pray tell does Jesus lose his popularity, and why or is he does not lose it? It's your hostana people who have not even heard that Jesus was arrested at ten. They're sleeping at this point. They went to bed at sundown in the ancient world, most of them did, and caught up and is on and then early next morning then they find out what's happened. They try to go to the pilot's courtyard, and that's already occupied with the people yelling crucify. Who are Jews? I'll rock with that in the moment, But the point is they can do nothing but try to receive. They can't do anything really for the weeps. Jesus is tragging across the cavalry. Now let me speak on the other side of my mouth. Yes, there were some Jews on Good Friday yelling crucify. All four gospels tell us that who might these be? Well, I would call to with this Josephus, who tells us that the largest single industry in the Holy Land was running the temple. Josepha said there were ten thousand that simple police alone. Well, that may be an exaggeration. Nevertheless, one tenth of that number, one thousand would be three times as many people as they would need as a hired claque in terms of doing what the priest told me. It's a guided choir here. They're always asking what do we say? And then they get the answer from the high priest, say who shall I release you, says pilot Jesus or Barabbas? And they asked the priests, and they said, ask for Barabbas to be released, barbits, bar rabbits. They all yell, you know, you can just sell HER's a speech choir going on there. And then what shall I do with Jesus it was called the christ say let him be crucified altogether, let him be crucified. They're guided by their own leaders. In other words, today, if I want a job in the morning, they're going to be there one good Friday and do with the priest bidding. That's the group of Saducees who control the temple. The Saducees of the two great political parties there, Sadacees and Pharisees, had far more the influence of the temple than the Pharisees did, and Jesus certainly had much more in common with the Pharisees than the sad dicese sadreses didn't believe in angels of spirits or the resurrection itself, and so obviously they were Jesus' alterent enemies. And yes there were other Jews who did this, So please, I would beg anyone listening. Never tar all people with the same brush. We have good bad and are different gentiles. We have good bad are in different Jews. And so you're gonna find about five or sixts of the political parties and meetings on Good Friday. You're going to have some Jews who went along with the government Roman sympathizers. They were called the Herodians. You had other Jews who hated the government and we're ready to do violently overthrow it. They were called the zealous. Well, we're out of time for this edition of the Bible answer Man Broadcast. If you don't have The Week That Changed the World, pick it up on the web, equip dot org, or simply write me at box eighty five hundred, Shearlotte, North Carolina, zip code two eight two seven one. You can also talk to our resource consultants at triple eight seven thousand and the letters see it right. If you're not familiar with doctor Paul Myer's books. Find them on the web at equipped dot org. One of the best authors you'll ever read. My two favorites I mentioned Haunches Pilot, The Flames of Rome, and of course many other fantastic, intriguing historical novels. And those novels again you can find on the web at equipp dot org, along with other writings by doctor Paul Meyer. Look forward to seeing your right back here next time with more of the show. Thank you for joining us today. Our mission at the Christian Research Institute is to equip Christians to think and to live christianly, to make a gift that can transform lives, and as our thanks, receive the DVD The Week That Changed the World. Simply call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII eight eight eight seven thousand CRI. You can also write to CRI at Post Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina two eight two seven one, or simply visit us online at equip dot org. The Bible answer Man Broadcast is funded by listeners like you. We're on the air because life and truth matter. The Resurrection is without question, the most important event in human history. Why the Resurrection astonishingly did more than miraculously reverse the order of sin and death that plagues humanity. It inaugurated a whole new order of being for us and for the universe. Unfortunately, far too many people, believers and unbelievers alike, failed to grasp the enormous implications of this event. To strengthen your faith and equip you to provide credible answers to questions concerning the death and Resurrection of Christ, the Christian Research Institute is offering the documentary film on DVD, The Week That Changed the World, featuring historian Paul Meyer. Receive The Week That Changed the World on DVD as our thanks for your gift. Simply call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII and make a gift to support CRI's life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand CRII or visit equip dot org equip dot org.