episode 8

Azari Pangelo is hosting the Lost Sheep Podcast alone because his co-host, Cole Bissett, went home for spring break. Azari discusses the importance of questions on the podcast and asks listeners to send in their own. He then goes on to discuss the four questions he will answer in this episode: when were the Gospels written, did Jesus claim to be divine, why did Jesus say "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" on the cross, and why is Jesus bleeding both blood and water when the Roman centurion died after his death important to us. Azari explains that the timing of when the Gospels were written is important for determining their accuracy and reliability. He also discusses the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and how it relates to the dating of the Gospels. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Lost Sheep Podcast. I'm Azari Pangelo, and as you're looking around, there's no Cole Bissett. What in the world is going on? Well, Cole Bissett, you know, we were on spring break, we just started, you know, today. Cole decided to go home and be with his family, but tomorrow, he'll be back, and we're gonna go to Florida for spring break, me, him, my mom, and my grandma. But we never prepared an episode for Sunday, tomorrow. So we didn't have time, and you know we weren't gonna have time to record one together before tomorrow, and I wanted to get an episode out for you guys, so I thought I would do one on my own. So we're gonna see how this goes, but don't worry. Don't worry to the Cole Bissett fanbase out there. He will be back next episode. I know you guys are probably freaking out right now, where in the world is Cole? Where is his beautiful face? I know, I miss it too, desperately. It's been a rough 36 hours, I think, without him. Really rough. I feel like I just lost a part of myself, but you know, he'll be back. You know, we'll be okay, guys. He'll be right back. Anyways, on to this episode. So, actually, I don't have a quote for today, but before I get to a... No, actually, I'll tell you guys what we're gonna do today. So, I had four questions that I found out about... Well, not found out, but I looked up and thought about Christianity. Four questions, and I was like, these would be awesome questions to answer on the podcast. And I think questions are a way that I want to move in the podcast, and you know, quotes are awesome, but moving forward, I would love to have questions from you guys. So what questions would you like to answer that you haven't heard? And they could be anything. You know, they could be about our lives. They could be about the Bible. They could be about, you know, just the Christian message now. Whatever you guys are thinking. We want to relate to you guys, so throw us your questions, and we'd love to do more question episodes like this. But first, I'm gonna talk a little bit about my week. Obviously, I am pumped to go on spring break. I am pumped to be off of school. This week in particular, it's been, you know, a solid week. We had some sports going on. We had some school going on. I can't really think of anything crazy at the moment. And that kind of stinks. That's kind of unfortunate. I probably should have done better about that. It's all me. But this book, The Case for Christ, or The Case for Jesus, has been hitting home to me recently when we were given it by our parish down here for a Lent service. And it's really something that's been hitting home for me. It's really given me this idea for this episode, and really this passion to do this episode. So yeah, I'm gonna tell you guys the four questions right now before I jump into them, just so you guys can get them, you know, thinking in your mind. So the first one... Hold on, that's not even the first one. My apologies. Okay, the first question right here we got is, when were the Gospels written? When were the Gospels written? Secondly, we have, did Jesus claim to be divine? Third question, why did Jesus say when he was on the cross about to die, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why did Jesus say that? And fourth, why is Jesus bleeding both blood and water when the Roman centurion, Spyridon, died after his death important to us? So those are the four questions that we're gonna dive into today. It's gonna be very interesting, you're gonna have to focus a lot, I'm gonna have to focus a lot too. I have a lot of notes here, I have a book to reference. This is gonna be tough to try to put all this together for you guys, because it's a lot, a lot of information, but I think it's really important, really, really good stuff. So, I'm gonna start off with the first one, when were the Gospels written? And so first off, I wanna say why is this important? Why do we care whether the Gospels, when the Gospels were written? Well first off, if you think about it, Jesus died in between 30 to 33 A.D. And some people put the Gospels either right around 70 A.D. or later, well the book of Mark is projected, some people say 65 to 70 A.D., and people will say Matthew and Luke is between 80 to 85, and then after that, John, but after 90 A.D. And so when we think about these time periods, it's like okay, well you've got the first one is 30 plus years after Jesus died, then we've got 50 plus years, and then we've got 60 plus years after Jesus' death. And when you think about that, it's like okay, that's a little bit of time, it's not like a crazy long amount, but if we wanna say that when we read the Gospels, that we're reading the true acts and the true teachings of Jesus, then we would like that to be as close as possible so that we can know and have confidence in that this is both coming from eyewitness testimony of Apostles that were alive at the time to give this witness and being recorded, and then also so we know that these stories about Jesus and these teachings weren't passed along like what they say, the telephone game, from people to people before they were finally recorded. Because if that is true, then it could have been construed or changed in different ways. So that is why we want to constrain this time to the shortest period of time so that we can be fully confident in teachings that are being portrayed of Jesus in the Acts that he did. So that is why we want to have that. And so first, let's think about this. We have Matthew and John, we know they were Apostles of Jesus, and then we have Mark and Luke, not Apostles of Jesus. So when we think about the authors, we've got two Apostles who should have eyewitness testimony from themselves and hopefully had close contact with other Apostles as well to put this whole story together. But you think Mark and Luke, where did they get their recordings of Jesus and his teaching and his Acts? Well, we can be fairly confident that the book of Mark comes from the testimony of the Apostle Peter. And then Luke, he comes after both Matthew and Mark, and we can be confident in this because he says in the beginning of the Gospel of Luke that there have been narratives before his that have been put out about Jesus. So he gets some of his information from Matthew and Mark's Gospel as well. And then he also became an Apostle of Paul, so we would hope that he would have interactions with Paul and his disciples and they had all this information about Jesus as well, so that is where they put all these things together. So, back to the original question of when were the Gospels written? So, the first thing we want to talk about is in the Gospels, we have both all, or from the three Synoptic Gospels, are from Mark, Luke, and Matthew, we all have talking about Jesus, talking about the destruction of the Temple. And so this is from Luke, and this is Jesus talking in the Gospel of Luke. And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, The day shall come upon you when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave you one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation. And then he also says this two chapters later, But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. So Jesus says a similar thing in two other Gospels. Now, when we talk about the Gospels, the wording from each Gospel might not be exactly the same. What we care about is the substance being the same. So the substance in the three Synoptic Gospels all say similar things, that Jerusalem is going to be surrounded, there's going to be this desolation of Jerusalem. And so this was prophesied, I believe, when it was destroyed in 550 B.C. They prophesied it later to happen around 70 A.D. So this is what Jesus is talking about. And this destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and Jerusalem comes by the Romans in 70 A.D. in July. So it's in the summertime. And this is confirmed both biblically and historically and outside of biblical texts. And so why we're saying this when it pertains to the Gospels is that not only do these Gospels have Jesus talking about this, but they also have later in the Gospels these different quotes talking about the destruction of the Temple. And so this is all from Mark, Matthew, and Luke. It's Mark chapter 13, Matthew chapter 24, and Luke chapter 21. And this all is talking about this destruction of Jerusalem. So from Mark it says, But when you see the abomination of desolation set up where it ought not to be, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Pray that it may not happen in winter. This is from Matthew. So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on Sabbath. But when you see Jerusalem, this is now from Luke, but when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it. So, let's get to my next page here. So why does this matter for dating the Gospels? Well, we talked about when we thought the Gospels were, right? 65-70 for Mark, and then Matthew and Luke, 80-85. And what this is saying here is, well, the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem happened in the summer of 70 AD. In two of them, Mark and Matthew, it talks about praying for this desolation, praying for it that it does not happen in winter, and then Matthew also adds on Sabbath. And then Luke talks about, you know, flee out of the city, don't go into the city, help people get out of there before it gets destroyed. And so, why am I talking about this? Well, if this had been written after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, after 70 AD, well then why would they be saying pray for it? Why would they be saying, you know, these commands, like get out, flee to the mountains? Why would they say these things? Well, they wouldn't say these things. It's a simple answer. If this had already happened, why in the world would they be saying pray for it? Or why wouldn't they say like, oh, this is actually what happened. Jesus spoke of this. Here is this prophecy coming true. Because it hadn't happened yet. They wrote this, wrote their Gospels before 70 AD. According to this evidence right here, if you go off that right there, that the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. It was for sure. That has historically been proven. And then, if they're talking about this in this way, we would think that their Gospels were written before 70 AD. And we'd love to hear this because, as we talked about earlier, the closer and closer we are to the death of Jesus, then the more we can rely on this as pure evidence and pure eyewitness testimony from this. But this is not the only form of evidence that we can go into. We can also go to the ending of the Acts of the Apostles. So let's go to that now. And now first, we need to go back to Luke. As I talked about, Luke said in the beginning of his Gospel that there were narratives already written about Jesus and the teachings and the acts he had done. So we assume that these are the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. So they come before the Gospel of Luke. And then, in the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke says how he wrote a narrative of this book about Jesus and the teachings and the acts that he did. So we can conclude from that, that both Matthew and Mark's Gospels are before the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles was written after he wrote the Gospel of Luke. So the Acts of the Apostles. It is talking about Peter, talking about Paul, the Acts of the Apostles. Now, once we go to the end of the Acts of the Apostles, we get this quote right here from Acts chapter 28. And this is from Luke, by the way. This is the author. And so he came to Rome, and the brethren there, when they had heard of us, came as far as the forum of Apias and three taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and showed courage. And when he came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldiers that guarded him, and he, Paul, lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all those who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ quite openly and unhindered. Okay, why does this matter? Paul was arrested and held on house arrest in AD 62. We're talking about the whole Acts of the Apostles right here. We know that Paul and Peter are eventually going to be crucified. So why in the world in this Acts of the Apostles book does Luke not continue with their story? And it also mentions that throughout the book of Acts, Luke carefully highlights the parallels between the life of Jesus and the lives of Peter. So then why would he omit describing the most striking parallel of all between the execution of Jesus and the executions of Peter and Paul? Why would he not follow through and finish off on this story? Why would he just stop at, you know, Paul being arrested and held in house arrest? Well, because he wrote it in AD 62 before those events happened. It seems to me logically you can conclude from that, that he did not write these things down because they hadn't happened yet when he wrote this book. And so we know that Paul was held in house arrest in AD 62. Therefore, if the Acts of the Apostles was written in AD 62, and we said earlier how the Gospel of Luke was written before that, how the Gospels of Matthew and Mark were also written before the Gospel of Luke, we can conclude that all these books were written before AD 62. Three synoptic Gospels were written before AD 62, meaning that there was a maximum of 30 years between the death of Jesus and three synoptic Gospels being written. That is great, great evidence to show that it hadn't been that long since the death of Jesus that these things were recorded and written down, and we can rely on them for substantial evidence, correct evidence, of what Jesus actually taught and acted out. I think that's pretty cool, something that I learned from this book, and to show when the Gospels were written. Alright, so let's move on to, did Jesus claim to be divine? Did he claim to be both God and man? Did he? Did he do this? Well, Jesus used riddles and questions that were intended to both reveal and conceal his identity at the same time. Now you might question and think, why did Jesus do this? Why did he make it hard? Why did he make it easy? Well, there's really two ways to think about this. And there's another thing to question as well. Not only why did he do this in this way, but why did he command the disciples when they saw certain things, like the Transfiguration, or when he heals the paralytic? I'm sorry, that might not be the right one. One of the healings when he says, you know, be quiet, don't speak to anybody about this. Why did Jesus do that? Why did he say, keep quiet? And so, the main reason is because Jesus had this three-year ministry. And he knew that if he claimed to be divine, and this was spoken about, that this was going to be, he was going to be charged on blasphemy, and that he was going to be killed pretty soon after he said these things, that he claimed to be divine, and people heard about it. So the first reason is because Jesus was trying to wait until it was time for his crucifixion. You know, we hear, as of when he was in Nazareth, that they were getting ready to throw him off a cliff, and then he passed through them because it was not his time. It says clearly in the Gospel, it was not his time, because he was waiting until the proper time to be crucified, in the way that had been planned out. And so, he doesn't go around just, he keeps these people quiet, and he doesn't go around just claiming this, so that he's not killed immediately. He needs his time to do what he's called to do before he is crucified, and does, you know, goes to his passion for his crucifixion. So that's one reason. And another reason is he wants people to pursue deeper, and to think deeper about it. Like, who is this man? Who is he claiming to be? You know, and to really like, pour into it, and accept his invite of like, going further into it, instead of just being like, hmm, you know? So those are two of the reasons that the book really shows us why Jesus does it in this way. So now let's go into it. Does Jesus claim to be divine? There are multiple stories that we could go into. Whether it's the stilling of the storm, the transfiguration, or the healing of the paralytic. You could go into all three of those, or even more. The one that I liked from the book, that I wanted to go into, was Jesus walking on water. So, let's read that passage real quick. And we are going to go, let me get to it real quick. We are going to go from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, verses 45-52. When they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost, and cried out. For they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, Take heart, I am, do not be afraid. He got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased, and they were utterly astounded. So, there are multiple reasons Jesus claims, or that we can see his divinity in this passage. Let's go with the first one. Why does Jesus say, I am, to the disciples? He says, Take heart, I am, do not be afraid. There are multiple different notes I'm going to go through right here. I'm going to try to explain this to you guys. Hopefully, it makes sense. Okay, so, in the original Greek, Jesus does not say, it is I. He is not referring to, I am, to say, it's me, it's me. And so, he literally says, I am. And in Greek, it's egoimi. I think that's how you say it. And this is different from other occasions, when Jesus simply wants to identify himself. For example, after the resurrection, when the disciples don't recognize him, Jesus says, it is I myself. And in Greek for this, it's egoimi autos. Meaning, it's really me. So, he's trying to identify himself in this part of it. Okay, and so, we know from the Old Testament, that I am is often used for the divine name of God. And it's used, most notably, in the burning bush scene. You know, this burning of the bush is happening. And Moses doesn't exactly know what's happening. And then God says, I am who I am. I am. I sent me to you. So, he says to him. So, now we go back from this, okay? And also, the I am that is used in Exodus with Moses is egoimi. Like the Greek that is used when Jesus' passage of the walking on the water. So, we have this incredible miracle of the burning of the bush. And then, we have Jesus' miraculous display over the wind and the sea that was happening on the sea at the time. And he walks on the water. And then he says, I am. He is not just saying, you know, this is me. He is revealing to that divine identity. Okay, next part of it. I think it's really cool. This is like my favorite part of it and the reason why I wanted to do this one. So, it says that Jesus meant to pass by them. Meant to pass by them? Was he just going to walk by them, you know? What does that mean? No. This actually has a very important Jewish, I think that's how you do it, in the context of Jewish scripture and tradition, in context, Jewish context, that this makes a lot of sense. So, it says he meant to pass by them. In the Old Testament, the expression passing by is repeatedly used to describe what God does when he appears to human beings. I think that's pretty cool. So, I'm actually going to a couple of biblical accounts to show this being referred to in the Old Testament. So, the Lord said to Moses, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will claim before you my name, the Lord. And while my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abiding in steadfast love and faithfulness. In another passage, God said to Elijah, go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord, and behold, the Lord passed by. I think that is just so cool that it says pass by in the Old Testament. That's how they refer to God revealing himself to human beings. And then, it says that Jesus meant to pass by, meant to reveal himself. And what does he do after that? He says, I am. That is just so cool how Jesus reveals his divine identity in that way, in that riddle-like way. I think that is so exciting and so cool to read about. That's what I love about this book is how it shows us the Jewish context of it so that we can not sit there and be like, what the heck does that even mean? Instead, we can be like, okay, this is how it was spoken in that way and that's how they were able to see, okay, this is Jesus revealing himself in his Jewish way. So, that is the story that I'm going to go with for you guys. There's many others that you can dive into in this book about how Jesus claimed to be divine, but that's the one that I'm going to go with. Okay, on to our next question. Why did Jesus say, my God, my God, why did you forsake me? And in this book, Dr. Brant Petrie describes how this is really gave trouble to a lot of these Christian students, this question, like what does Jesus mean when he says this? And why does this matter? Why does this matter? Well, quick second. I need to go plug my computer in. Okay. Okay. And we are back. Okay. And we are back. And we are back. So, why did Jesus say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Well, did you know that this is actually Jesus referring to Scripture? Because I had no clue. So, how in the world is Jesus referring to Scripture through this thing? Well, back in, once again, we go back to Jewish context. In Jewish tradition, they would refer to an entire psalm of Scripture by just using one line, using the first line. So, this is actually referring to Psalm 22. Now, bear with me here. There it is. Psalm 22 is pretty long. There's a multitude of things in there. But we're going to try to explain this for you guys so that you can understand all of what Jesus is trying to say here. It's really cool. Give me a few moments to explain it all. Okay. So, it says in Psalm of David. This is the beginning. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus' reference right there. Then it goes on to say, why are you so far from helping me? From the words of my yearning. Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. And by night, but find no rest. So, this is the cry that Jesus cries out right here, referring to the beginning of Scripture. Okay. Now, let's go look at what the entire psalm is about. Psalm 22 is actually a psalm of trust that God will save his suffering servant despite the appearance that God has abandoned him. The psalm explicitly affirms that God does not turn his back or hide his face from the one who is suffering. So, here are some more lines from the psalm. You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you sons of Jacob, glorify him. And stand in awe of him, all you sons of Israel. For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hid his face from him, but has heard when he cried to him. Okay. Here we go. Some more. If Jesus breathed his last with this psalm in mind, then these verses alone prove that he did not die thinking that God the Father had hid his face from him. Instead, Psalm 22 shows that Jesus sees his suffering and death as a fulfillment of Scripture. Another part of the psalm that's pretty cool as well. Psalm 22 is attributed to King David, but there are aspects of the psalm that never actually happened to David during his lifetime. There are actually a lot of prophecies of the Messiah from the psalms. Now here's another part of the psalm that describes the experience of being executed and what appears to be persecution. Yeah, dogs are round about me. A company of evildoers encircle me. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and for my remnant they cast lots. But you, O Lord, be not far off. O my help, hasten to my aid. So, Jesus is identifying the sufferings described in the psalm with his own passion and death on the cross. Okay, now about all that, there's even more. Finally, perhaps most significant of all, although Psalm 22 begins with David's experience of feeling abandoned by God, it ends with the conversion of the non-Jewish peoples and the coming of the kingdom of God. This is how the psalm ends. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. And all the families of the nations shall worship before him. For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. So, even in his dying breath, Jesus poses one last riddle to us, the riddle of Psalm 22. On the one hand, it looks and sounds as if he has been abandoned by the very God whose son he had claimed to be. On the other hand, if you know the Jewish scriptures, you will also know the end of the story. For though Jesus appears to be forsaken by God, he is revealing that not only is his death a part of the divine plan, this is also the event that would trigger the conversion of all families of the nations to the worship of the one God of Israel. Far from being evidence that Jesus died a failure, the cry of dereliction is evidence that he saw his death as the fulfillment of the prophecy that would bring about the conversion of the pagan peoples of the world to the worship of the God of the Jews. Wow. I mean, I have never heard this before, ever, before reading this book, and I thought it was so cool. Because I remember my mom, after Mass one day, I think it was their Holy Thursday or Good Friday, whenever we read this gospel in Mass, she was saying, why did Jesus say this? Why would he cry out to God like this? Did God really forsake him? And it's so interesting to learn exactly what Jesus was doing here. He was referring to a whole scripture to show us the divine plan, to show us how it may seem like God has forsaken us. And it sure would have seemed that basically any other human being who did not know what was going on, dying on the cross, that it would have seemed that God had forsaken them. But there's always another end to this story. There's always God's divine plan. So interesting how it was literally prophesied before in another psalm that God inspired and used it right here. And the way that Jesus refers to it in that way, in most people, it goes back to us talking about the riddles and how you have to really think about it instead of being like, oh my gosh, why would Jesus say that he forsakes him? No, you have to go more into it. You have to see if he's referring to a whole piece of scripture, what does this whole piece of scripture say? And we look into it, and it's just so cool. It just shows us all that. I think it's so interesting. So, one more to go. And I think this one is also really, really awesome. So, the question is, why is Jesus' bleeding blood and water important? Now this one has a lot to do with Jewish tradition as well. And so, during this time, Passover was being celebrated. And Passover was celebrated by sacrifice in the Temple of Jerusalem. They believed that the temple was really the dwelling place of God. It's where God was like the most present. We know that God is. This was his place of full presence. It's hard to describe, hard to fathom, but that is the way it was. That's what the temple was. And then we know that Jesus had said before in previous verses of the gospel that he was the living temple, and he referred to it as the living temple in the way that, let's see, I believe it puts it right here. It's, yeah, Jesus says, or the Jews say to him first, This is the sign you have to show us for doing this. Jesus Anderson destroyed the temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And then they say, you know, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of his body. They will destroy the temple of his body. He will raise his temple of his body up in three days. So he's referring to himself as the temple. Now how does this go back to the blood and water, you might be asking yourself? Well, let me get to it for you guys. During the time that they would sacrifice these lambs for Passover, the number of sacrifices was 256,000 lambs. That is, they lost. Now what in the world would they have done with all this blood that was being sacrificed by these lambs? Where did all the blood from the lambs go? And it goes on to describe how in the temple there was a certain, on the altar they had these, like, nostril-like holes that, like, took the blood and had, like, pipes running out, okay? So what happened with this blood? It wound up flowing through and eventually ended up being mixed with water, and then there was eventually, like, an outlet, so you could see the blood and the water and the outlet coming out together, the blood and the water coming out of the edges of the temple, like corners of the temple. I think it said the west and the south corners of the temple, there was this blood and water coming out. And so now we go back to Jesus. Why does this matter? Well, he has blood and water coming out of the sides, the two sides of his body, blood and water, showing that Jesus is the temple himself. He is the temple. He is the dwelling place of God on earth. It said it was the temple. They believed it was the temple. Now Jesus is the temple. Jesus is the true dwelling place of God on earth, which goes back to the part about Jesus being divine, and then this goes into how he's the temple, divine temple of God, full dwelling place of God. And, wow, that's a pretty cool thing about this. Like, how does that parallel goes with that just blows my mind. I mean, seriously, this book is so awesome to relate all this Jewish context for us so that we can fully understand the whole graph of who Jesus was, what he did while he was here, and what he showed us during his only three-year ministry. That was just so awesome. So, yeah, wow. I mean, that's just so much to fathom. I don't even know how to conclude this at the moment because that was so good, so, so good. I hope you guys enjoyed, you know, these questions being answered. I know it wasn't fully, like, you know, just myself speaking and having these answers for you guys and really, you know, at times just having to read from the book, but, I mean, that's what's necessary when you have such an incredible, such an incredible resource right here for this that you don't even, I don't even need to use my knowledge. I mean, I can just use this book because it's got all the great resources for me to explain this to you guys and hopefully a way that you can understand completely. So, yeah, I think that's going to conclude it for today. I hope that you guys enjoyed answering these four questions, and if you guys have more questions, please, please, please, please, please text me, text Cole, comment on the YouTube channel, reach us out on Instagram or TikTok, whatever it may be that you can to reach us. Send in your questions. I know this is more deeper, full-in questions, but if you have, you know, lighter questions, more upbeat questions, whatever type of questions you want to ask us, please, please, please ask. We love to answer questions. We love interacting with you guys, so please, please do that, and, you know, it's Lent. We're getting close to Easter, so that's awesome. So keep pushing through. Keep making it through, and I hope this helps you guys, you know, just learn a little bit more about the true, you know, message of Jesus. So, thank you. God bless.