¶1[music] Hello and welcome to the Ask Ant Wright Anything podcast. The program where we try to answer your questions about Jesus, the Bible, and the life of faith. I'm Mike Bird from Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia. And I'm joined by >> Tom Wright from Wickliff Hall in Oxford, currently in Scotland. Tom, is there any aspect of your life where you feel like you've got to put more oil on the fire?
¶2Is there some aspect of your life where I I just need more energy or juice or, you know, assistance in this? Is is there anything? >> Oh, all kinds of things. Um I I mean I'm in I'm in my late 70s now and so I have learned not to be surprised by the fact that I run out of energy more quickly now than I did say 20 years ago. >> Um 20 years ago I used to be able to work um 90 or 100 hours a week quite um well not if not comfortably at least perfectly adequately.
¶3I simply couldn't do that now. Um and um my my doctor tells me I have an underactive thyroid. Well, it was news to me that I had something called a thyroid anyway [laughter] news that it was graded in terms of its overall performance. But uh so I've just had to accept that that's that's how it is. Um in terms of my work, um I I have seldom had um proper secretarial support.
¶4Even when I was being a bishop, I I had a secretary, but it was never quite all that it might have been. And I've had some wonderful research assistants, but um at the moment I don't have any research assistance as such. Um and partly because I'm not a very good manager. I I'm I'm a leader, not a manager. So if somebody says, "Can I help you?" It takes me a long time to figure out what can I give them to do.
¶5And so the ideal research assistant for me is one who intuitits what my projects are and says, "Okay, I'll get on and do this bit and can report back on that." But I've sometimes had people like that, but but I don't at the moment. So, um, but that's that's just that's just how it is. Um, and I get on and I do what I can and muddle through. >> Yeah, I guess for me, I probably need to try to be more prayerful. I wish I had more hunger and more eagerness for prayer.
¶6So I try to do my prayers in the morning, in the evening, but there are days I think I just wish I had more enthusiasm, more more more more up and go when it comes to that. But the reason I asked this, Tom, is because we have a question from Louise uh Calclave in Sanz, Norway, who's got a question about, you know, what happens when you desire other things more than you desire God. And she's been reading about the the parable of the 10 virgins and the oil that they've got. This is what Louise writes to us. She writes, "I can't stop thinking of and worrying about the parable of the 10 virgins.
¶7What does it mean in practical terms to have oil in our lamps? And how do we know how much is enough? I'm sure that the oil represents the Holy Spirit. Correct me if I'm wrong, but what does it mean in my day-to-day life?" I have to admit that I'm not as enthusiastic about God and his kingdom as I wish I was. I love reading cozy crime novels.
¶8I get so absorbed in these. While the Bible I read uh more out of a sense that this is good for me, not because I really love it. I really wish I did love it, but how can I make myself love something? It's it's not like I dislike the Bible. It's just not as exciting as some fiction.
¶9And I love my job. I'm a teacher and a lot of the time uh the focus goes into making curriculum fun for my students. So, it's not that I'm living a sinful life directly, but my focus, my passion is directed elsewhere. I really truly want to care more about God and try to read the Bible, worship, pray, listen to podcasts, serve in church, fellowship with other believers, but I still find that I'm more interested in making learning fun for kids than reading fictional crime novels. And so, I have all this condemnation and fear.
¶10Surely I'm not filling my lamp with oil by spending hours reading about a fictional character solving a fictional murder. Surely I'm not filling my lamp with oil by making reading and writing fun things for kids. But these are the things I'm passionate about, the things I'm drawn to. And then I read about the heroes of the faith like Katherine Kman or Smith Wigglesworth who cared about nothing but God's kingdom. And I wish I was like them, but I'm not.
¶11And I know Jesus said so many things about the road and the gate being narrow and few would get in and about selling everything to get that one precious pearl and lots of other things like that. And I'm scared. Will I be one of those who will hear, "Depart from me. I never knew you." I certainly don't feel like I know him. And I'm sure that if I did, I would find him interesting.
¶12But after years and years of trying to get to know him, I don't know if it's possible. So Tom, I see here a question that's filled with a little bit of anxiety about the need for assurance and is trying to figure out uh how her own desires, you know, around from some Bible reading in church, but also finding more enjoyment in shall we call them secular leisures and enjoyments. Is that something that's in indicative of a unhealthy spirituality? Uh Tom, what do you have to say to our dear correspondent here, Louise? >> Well, um there's all sorts of things one could say.
¶13I think at the heart of it, um I I I want to say, as I've said many times on this podcast before, um Mike and I cannot be um counselors at a distance. Um, when somebody comes with this kind of a question to me, if if we were sitting in in my living room with a cup of tea or whatever, uh, I I would start cautiously exploring um what sort of faith this person had, how they'd come to it, where its deep roots were, whether there was anything that was blocking it in their lives. We can't do that on the on this um in this format online. But um I I think that the the heart of it should be to find somebody locally who can be a wise pastor and friend and a spiritual director because a good spiritual director will not suddenly impose on you 99 spiritual exercises that you must do before Sunday or or you or you're no good. will not suddenly say here's 55 chapters of the Bible which you've got to read at once or here's a whole exercise of prayer that you've got to master within the next month but a good spiritual director would hear that sense of unease and be able to respond wisely to say um let's explore where that bit of unease in your life comes from and where it's located and now let's devise a very simple form form of prayer or a form of a way of reading one particular psalm which would enable you just to hold on to that and to lay it in the presence of God and say actually this is where I am right now and and I would always say to people even at a distance on on Zoom or whatever like this um the Psalms are one of the key places to go because there's no human emotion including the emotion of feeling that you've dropped off the map and that you're a failure and it's life's no good.
¶14There's no human emotion that the Psalms don't express. And the more you get to know the Psalms, the more you may be able to spend time with maybe just two or three verses or maybe a whole but shorter psalm and just set aside half an hour or 45 minutes and just let that psalm wash over you and wash over you again. For some people, some of the time this is best done in groups of two or three or four. For other people, it's best done solo or under the guidance of a spiritual guide or director. So, depending on who's available and what sort of personality you have because some people naturally are able to respond to a spiritual director and others um need a little nudge and then they want to go and do it themselves.
¶15Thank you. So finding out more about who you are as well as where where all this has come from that's that's really really important. Having said all that crime novels teaching vocation I would say climbing mountains in Scotland or or going to watch tropical fish off the um Great Barrier Reef or whatever it is. These are all wonderful things. Um um certain people I know who are heavily into crime novels, when I talk about what's going on, it's because they have a passion for justice.
¶16They know that the world is out of joint and they want to be able to believe that it can be put back into joint. And ultimately that's what crime novels are doing. Saying here is this complicated problem. Now here is a wise person who will help us get to the bottom of it. And actually that is telling the story of scripture through the uh the medium of modern fiction.
¶17And so many great plays and great um narratives and great novels are ways of expressing the pain and horror of the world or the puzzle and difficulties of the world and then saying now supposing that was to be resolved like this which is a way of telling the Christian story at one as it were and often by doing that you get a better angle when you then come back The problem is of course that often people are not taught to read the Bible like that at all. They're taught to read 10 verses at a time and hope for some little lesson coming at them rather than saying the whole Bible is a crime novel for goodness sake. Something has gone horribly wrong. Why did it go wrong? Who's going to sort it out?
¶18Well, here is a wise person who comes and does certain things and there is a solution even if it's not the one we were expecting. So that what's not to like about that? And in terms of teaching, well, the vocation to be a teacher is as old as the Bible itself and and and so on. You know, apostles, evangelists, pastors, teachers, one of the lists of ministries in the early church. And anyone who helps other people whether young or old to understand more about the world [clears throat] is giving them a gift which is um irreplaceable really which is um going to help them to become more fully human beings.
¶19And that that's a wonderful vocation. But I would say there is far more in the Bible and there are far more ways of praying than you've probably ever imagined or been taught. Don't be frightened if a spiritual guide says to you maybe you could try praying like this or maybe you could try reading the Bible like that and then wondering if maybe there are things which will open up and look quite different. I mean one thing which has helped me enormously is what's known as the ignation method of reading the gospels where you can take a story in the gospels an anecdote here is Jesus meeting somebody who's sick or whatever or running into a um a burial procession taking somebody to be buried. Um and now stay with that story.
¶20Imagine the different characters. Go and interview the different characters. What are you feeling right now? um what are you wanting? What are you hoping?
¶21What are you afraid of? And then when you've got thoroughly into the story, say to yourself now at this moment, Jesus turns around and says to you, what where are you in this story? What are you feeling? What are you thinking? And wait, stay with it and allow Jesus to address you out of that story.
¶22And there are many many many stories in the Gospels which you can do this with. And and in my experience and that of many others, this is often a way of kind of breaking the log jam of, oh yes, it's the parable of the good Samaritan. We know this one. But no, get behind that. Why did Jesus tell this story?
¶23What's going on? What's eating this person who asks him the question which triggers that story? Now, do you know anyone who's been bothered by that kind of issue? And so on and so on and so on. So there are ways of reading the Bible.
¶24There are ways of praying which [clears throat] integrate with larger visions of what it means to be human. And anyone who loves crime novels and anyone who loves teaching actually is probably going to be wide open to all that stuff. So this is not a full answer, but it's a pointer towards where a full answer might begin to show itself. Yeah, I I think it's important that for questions like these, you really do need a pastor or a spiritual director to walk with you through the journey. And I mean, the other thing I want to say to Louise is, you know, don't beat yourself up.
¶25I mean, if God has made you a good teacher and you enjoy teaching, then teach children to the glory of God. You know, the the world is redeemed when Christians exercise their vocation >> to, you know, build for the common good and show that Christians can be some of the best citizens in our in the world. You know, my family, we don't really like crime novels, but my family loves television crime shows. So, they love things like The Mentalist and Sherlock and The Blacklist. So, my my family is all into that.
¶26It's never really been my thing. But I I also appreciate the tension where, you know, maybe you're praying or you're reading the Bible and you think you'd rather do anything. I mean, I'll be honest with you, I've had moments where I'm working my way through the book of Job. And I think to myself, gosh, I'd rather I'd rather be watching tennis highlights on my phone right now. I think, you know, after you get to about chapter 38 of Job, you know, we've done 38 consecutive weekly readings, it's like, oh, just go on my phone and watch Yanik crack some forehands.
¶27That'd be so much better. And I think you do need a little bit of discipline. So, what I do is by my bedside table, I'll have a book I'm reading, but I'll place my Bible above that. So, I've got to pick up my Bible before I'm going to get to the other book I want to read, whether that's a history book or or something else. So, I I I think this this struggle is very real, very normal, but you shouldn't beat yourself up about it.
¶28And I think it comes down to I mean, if you really have love for God, if you dare I say, if you love listening to Ask ENT right anything, then maybe you still have some love for God in your heart. And the fact that you feel a little bit anxious about this is actually proof that you really do value your relationship with God and you want to be in his word. So that that would be my own advice. >> And of course, I mean, as with human relationships, things can come and go and people that we thought we were close to, we suddenly realize we haven't actually been in proper touch with them for the last six months. And hey, we need to do something about that.
¶29And the answer to that often is a phone call, making a date, go and have a meal or go for a walk together or whatever it may be. Happens [clears throat] within a within a family within a household where we have we've been, you know, sharing meals but we haven't really communicated. We need to then take some initiatives. Um can we every Tuesday evening for the next six weeks go and do something different together? Um whatever it may be.
¶30So take yourself in hand if there are things that need to be done. Now, it may be that there aren't that that's not the way forward, but don't don't rest content or particularly don't rest uncontent. Um, be prepared to take initiatives and do things differently, including, as I say, different ways of reading the Bible. And by the way, Mike, um, as for working through Job, chapter [clears throat] by chapter, Job is, in my view, one of those books which you need to set aside an hour, an hour and a half, and just read straight through, which is how I would read Leviticus. You know, if you read Leviticus a chapter at a time or half a chapter at a time, most of us will go mad by the time you've been at it for a couple of weeks.
¶31But if you get through the whole of Leviticus, then [clears throat] there's a great sweep of devotion and of the regularity of the sacrifices and so on and you you suddenly realize you're looking at this much larger picture than just that little bit of those 12 verses which was about offering this sacrifice which are very like the next little bit which is about offering that sacrifice and so on. So be sensitive to the different ways that the Bible is doing stuff and particularly go back to the Psalms again and again. >> That's good advice. Well, we're going to move from Norway to Germany. I mean, interesting fact this week, Tom, none of our questions come from America.
¶32This is this is all the rest of the world. So, we're not boycotting America. It just so happens that to uh today our questions are not from uh the North American continent. So we have a question from David Deutsche of Agsburg in Germany and this is about maybe having a conscientious objection to working in the military-industrial complex. And David writes to us, "Dear Tom and Mike, I'm an evangelical Christian who became a believer in the context of the Churches of Christ from the Stone Campbell movement of, you know, restorationist movement.
¶33I'm a mechanical engineer working for a company that sells designs to their customers. Because of the current state of affairs in the world, more money is spent for military products. So, my company gets more orders from customers who build those products. My question now is the following. Can I in good conscience and in accordance with a biblical faith that I'm trying to live by help this new customer design military equipment?
¶34The devices themselves are nonviolent, but they will power equipment which will be used as weapons of war. I know there are various stories in the New Testament where soldiers are involved in a positive way. the Roman soldiers whose servant was healed in Luke 7 or Cornelius in Acts 10. These are people who as far as I know continued being soldiers even after their encounter with Jesus or Peter. Can this be taken as a hint that work in the context of the military is acceptable for Christians at least to a degree or is this an easy way out and I should try to get to work in a different department?
¶35I would appreciate your thoughts on this topic. Now Tom, I think we've had some similar questions in the past about Christians in military service or who who work in an industry that is related to the production of goods for use in the context of warfare and Christians like our dear friend here David feel morally conflicted about it. Uh Tom, what's your advice for David? >> Yeah. Yeah.
¶36I mean like many things in life this is a complicated issue and this one is more obviously complicated than some which may just mean that there are other things we take for granted that we shouldn't take for granted but when I have met this question which I have um several times over the course of my my work and ministry um then the the sort of question which which comes up to to help us get at it um is the larger question of why we have defensive systems in any country in the first place. And um my answer would be my the beginning of my answer would be um that because I have a wife and a family um I have lock a lock on my front door and some places where we've lived which were more at risk than others. We've had burglar alarms because we've lived in an area where um breakins were likely and as we know breakins do sometimes lead to to violence and attacks and children being harmed etc. Therefore, you have locks on your door. You have burglar alarms.
¶37And it seems to me that any country um has a responsibility to protect the weakest among its members. And if that means having appropriate defensive equipment in order to ward off hostile attack, then so be it. So most countries now talk about having a department of defense rather than a department of of war. I know that America has just recently gone in the other direction, but that that's another issue. Um, but it seems to me perfectly appropriate for any country to have the means of defending itself against hostile attack.
¶38Of course, that's when you get into gray areas and like you're a former soldier. You know more about this than I do. Um but but the the gray areas are well you may have this equipment but if you have this equipment supposing you might be tempted to use it um in in aggressive ways and not merely in defensive ways. And supposing your new prime minister or political leaders wanted to say actually that bit of territory over there which those people think they own it's ours really so let's go and take it. Um a and so on and so forth.
¶39And at the points like that, the person who made the equipment in the first place, who may have done so in good faith, might well feel then compromised because their handiwork was being used in ways that they didn't approve of. Now, as I say, it's perfectly possible that there are many many walks of life, many things which people manufacture which can be used in ways which ultimately do not serve the glory of God. Um CS Lewis talks about somebody who makes an advertising hoarding on which there is going to be a poster encouraging other people to advertise in this space. Um and he said that's about three removes from reality. Um and and really what are we doing when somebody spends time and money putting up that kind of thing?
¶40Now we might say well Lewis was an an old-fashioned chap didn't understand the modern world. But um I I I want to say I really respect the tender conscience of somebody who says the stuff that my firm is manufacturing may well be now being used in ways that I disapprove of. And I think at that point sooner or later um and it's up to the individual perhaps in consultation with with with clergy or spiritual adviserss to be able to say at a certain point I can no longer go ahead with this. um I need to find an alternative calling, an alternative job. I have known people who um in days gone by were working in the tobacco industry and were perfectly happy to work in the tobacco industry and were themselves regular smokers who were completely ignorant whether willfully or not of the fact that cigarettes kill people.
¶41Um, and I know there are many people now who say, "I would not work in the cigarette manufacturer industry because these horrible little things do kill people and I don't want to be part of that." But you see that there's gray areas. It isn't only people who manufacture bombs and nuclear missiles and drones and so on. It is also people who do all sorts of other things in the world >> work in the gambling industry like the gambling apps which are now rampant and everywhere. >> Absolutely. gambling and and you know some people would say the same about alcohol.
¶42Um and sitting as I do here in the West Highlands of Scotland where of course the GIC word for water is whiskey. So go figure what that what that means in terms of the the social social context. Um [clears throat] but but I mean it is a serious question. Um, at what point is what I'm doing here uh not revealing the glory of God and not conducive to the upbuilding of his kingdom? Those are important questions.
¶43Obviously, it comes particularly when we're dealing with military equipment. But I think actually we need to see that they're part of a larger continuum of questions which in a measure we all have to face. I mean simply having a motor car which you drive down the street in a 100 years time people will look back and say do you know those Christians in the 2020s they knew [clears throat] perfectly well that cars polluted the atmosphere and killed people and destroyed the ecosystems etc but they went on driving them why did they do that >> and uh that's a very good question so um you know we need to think wisely and creatively about the whole of life. And that's not to say we just collapse back and say, "Well, there's nothing we can do. The whole world's a mess." No, we need to be wise and and careful about it.
¶44But, um, my heart goes out to somebody who then faces the possibility of unemployment, maybe of losing a job or having to resign a job. That's that's a very tough call. So, I think that's as far as I can go at the moment. >> Yeah. I I think whatever you do, you have to follow your conscience.
¶45I mean, Paul talks about in Romans 14, going against conscience is a type of sin. So, you know, follow your your moral intuition. Now, I should say I've I've been a soldier. I was an infantry soldier and worked in military intelligence. I had to wrestle with the implications of that, what it meant for my faith, and what I may one day be called upon uh to do in in the likely event that I was sent into war.
¶46But for uh David, you know, I would simply uh maybe maybe find an area in the company where you can work on where you won't be associated with the production of any military materials if that's something that really is bothering you. Otherwise, as Tom has explained, you know, as long as these are being created for a Department of Defense or for a a warfighting power that is legitimate, that obeys the laws of armed conflict, that engages in military action in a way that is Christian or honorable, we might say, then I I I I personally believe you can do that with a with a good conscience. But everyone's consciences are different. >> Yeah. Well, we're going to take a break and when we come back, we're going to have a look about where was the precise location, if we can find it, where Jesus was judged by Ponteus Pilot.
¶47All that and more after the break. [music] I >> I recently saw Richard Dawkins sort of embarrassingly. I sort of said I I was actually at Even Song last night and he said, "Me, too." It's not as if I ever looked at a supermarket shelf of religions and said, "I think I'll have that one." I [music] found this continued to unfold and make the best sense [music] I could imagine. >> The person of Jesus compels me. Is life all suffering?
¶48Is it all love? Both. It's both. It's both. And this in this story, they are held in this.
¶49I find it beautiful. The way I think of Christianity is that in the person of Jesus, God and us and the universe came together in a unique [music] and unparalleled way. >> We're supposed to be atheists [laughter] Christians. >> This is This has all happened since you invited me. Sorry.
¶50[laughter] Sorry. >> Don't worry. I haven't become an atheist. >> One atheist. [laughter] >> I've got some bad news.
¶51Welcome back. Our next question is from Tokyo in Japan and it's about where exactly was Jesus judged or condemned by Pontius Pilate and this is what our inquirer asks. Hello, I appreciate your podcast so much. Today was Palm Sunday here and in the message given it was mentioned how the crowds had welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem on Sunday and then turned on Jesus and shouted crucify him on early Friday morning. Now I have a problem with this because the trials Jesus went through first with the Sanhedrin maybe done illegally and then before Pilate were done in such a way there could not have been a huge crowd of people shouting this.
¶52I would appreciate some clarification. Thank you. Uh now Tom, this is a a question about geography, chronology, who did what, where, and why. So what do we know about where Jesus was crucified? Because we actually aren't given a lot of the precise details.
¶53So if we go to John 19:13, uh we're told that Jesus was at a place called the pavement uh in Hebrew, which is called Gabbatha. So do we know precisely where this happened? And importantly, was it a public or private place? Because I suspect that this was a public place. >> Yeah.
¶54Um I I think uh the question of how much of ordinary life went on in public in the ancient world is one that surprises people because the answer is a great deal of ordinary life went on in public. You had to work quite hard to get any privacy. Um, in the ancient world, the only people who had real privacy were the very rich or the very royal. And they maintained their privacy sometimes by having deaf mute slaves who might have been able to see what was going on but could never um could never hear what was being said or tell other people about it. I mean then if you think the ancient world was a brutal place, you'd be quite right.
¶55But um uh most of life went on in public. So that for instance when Paul is on trial um in in uh Corinth when he's brought before the the Roman governor then I have been to well you and I have been to the place where where that um where that took place and there we are right in the middle of town. You can imagine a crowd surging around and people looking from the back of the crowd and pointing and shouting and laughing and so on. That's that's how so much of life went on. Now, when it comes to the trial of Jesus, um it seems to me the crucial bits with Pilate come towards the end of the hearing with Pilot.
¶56I'm looking at John 18 and 19. And it is it is perfectly possible that Jesus um when he was standing before the chief priest that they were in a relatively small room um with probably hangers on as well, servants around etc. >> entourage here and there um but it may have been a comparatively private place especially if it was by night. Most people simply wouldn't be around at that time. But um uh that's that's the time when of course Peter is denying Jesus and and but then again those accounts of what's happening they ring true in terms of different people knowing different things and telling the story differently afterwards.
¶57Um but then when uh Pilate goes into his headquarters and summons Jesus is John 18:33. the conversation he and Jesus then have. It's it's interesting because one of the great Roman historians of a former generation, a guy called Sherwin White, when he wrote his book on Roman society and Roman law in the New Testament, he said that John 18 and 19 was as accurate a picture of a Roman provincial trial as you could get anywhere in his experience of literature from that period. In other words, this is basically how they did it. That doesn't mean that every last move um is automatically validated.
¶58It's just that it looks as though somebody really did know what was going on. And certainly there will be people around who would tell other people what they'd seen and heard. And then Pilate goes into his headquarters in John 19:8 because he's got Jesus um there with the the um crown of thorns and the robe and so on. and and then he he interrogates Jesus and then when he's interrogated him and then the Judeans are shouting out so clearly this is in public as well if you let this man go you're no friend of Caesars then eventually he comes out and brings them to this place of judgment this stone pavement um and then it's even more public but I think basically the whole thing was pretty public now there's a story in my mind which I I heard a long time ago, but which I'm I'm pretty sure is right. Um, in the 1980s, there was an archbishop in Uganda called Festo Century, who was the Anglican Archbishop of Kazi in in Uganda.
¶59And Festo Cavveni was a very brave man. He was an evangelist. I heard him preach in Nairobi in 1975. Great preacher, great teacher, great evangelist. Some people called him the Billy Graham of East Africa.
¶60And I think he was actually more than that. Um, and a great Christian leader. And he had said, [clears throat] somebody had said to him, "Supposing you had a gun and there was Idi Armen who then was the dictator of Uganda um, sitting opposite you, what would you do?" And Kanderie said, "I would hand him the gun and say, this is your weapon, not mine." In other words, he was absolutely rock solid on the Christian commitment to being peaceful, to not taking revenge and so on. And Armen was already a brutal dictator who was oppressing the church and so on. But then in 1988, they closed in.
¶61Armen mean thugs closed in and they arrested Cavvenury and [clears throat] there was a quick sequence of events where he was um tried in inverted commas, questioned, quizzed, probably beaten up a bit. He's bundled into a car and taken off somewhere else and there was more questioning and shouting and beating up and then eventually he was killed. Some people say he was killed by Idiamin himself and then the body was taken off and dumped somewhere. Now, here's the thing. That whole narrative took place overnight.
¶62There was no one person who saw the whole thing. And yet, by the middle of the next day, the whole narrative was being told as a whole on the streets of Campala. Everyone was telling everybody else what had just happened to their beloved archbishop. In other words, the the the the I don't know what word you want to use in the Middle East Middle East, they'd say the Arabic telephone. Everyone talking to everybody else about it puts it together and you get a narrative.
¶63So, on the one hand, when I read John 18 and 19, I say, "Yeah, most of this stuff is in public. There may have been some little bits which are more intimate, but most of it, it's perfectly easy to imagine crowds around. But then when we move from place to place to place, don't think that that makes it awkward to imagine that people could then put the story together. That is what um pre-print pre- electronic media societies did and do all the time. They hear stories, they gossip among themselves, they put it all together, they tell the story.
¶64So, as far as I'm concerned, that story in John 18 and 19 has the ring of truth. Um, that doesn't automatically mean that everything happens exactly as if you'd had a tape recorder there. It means we're pretty close up against the sequence of events on that terrible night. >> I should point as well, I believe you co-authored a volume with Craig Evans on the last days of Jesus many years ago, >> which is we did. Yes.
¶65Yeah, which I think as close as our listeners may get to reading a kind of blowby-blow account about what happened from the triumphal entry all the way through to the crucifixion and the empty tomb. So, that may be a a good place our >> correspondent may want to go to. >> But that's all we have time for this week, but uh we're keen to get your questions. So, do send them to askantight.com. Tom and I are very happy to answer them.
¶66And in our next episode, we're going to answer some pretty cool questions. Are people basically good? Who's the beloved disciple in the fourth gospel? And is the sermon on the mount simply an instance of legalism? That's what we got coming up.
¶67But if you can't wait until then, you know, Tom, people there isn't there is an option for people, isn't isn't there? If people can't wait, >> go online. go online to ask anti right anything and find your way into where you can put your question and uh we're always delighted when when I get the questions then sent on to me and I think oh that's interesting I'm glad so and so's asked that the questions never seem to dry up so keep them coming >> and in fact we get so many of them is that we sometimes have to do the bonus episodes so we can do deep dives into these topics that have been raised and in some cases we're going through God's Homecoming or whatever Tom's latest book is looking at the odyssey habits of highly effective Christians uh all that kind of a thing. So if you don't want to miss out on that then go to ask entright.com and become a subscriber to our premium episodes for merely the price of a very cheap coffee. Otherwise that's it from us.
¶68It's goodbye from me Mike Bird. Goodbye from me, Tom Wright, >> and we look forward to you joining us for the next episode of Ask ENT [music] Wright Anything.