The Eric Metaxas Show - Colin Humphreys

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

The Professor of Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London, Sir Colin Humphreys joins to discuss his book "The Mystery of the Last Supper: Reconstructing the Final Days of Jesus"

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mataxis show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m.investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. We'll get you from point A to point B. But if you're looking for point C, well, buddy, you're on your own. But if you'll wait right here in just about the two minutes, the bus to point C will be coming right by.

And now here's your Ralph Cramden of the Airways, Eric Mat, Texas. Hey, folks, welcome to the program. Chris Himes, welcome. Hello. I want you to feel included, Chris. Thank you. I don't want to freeze you out, man. Well, I'm a plate spinner, so I'm very busy.

In addition to producing your show, I also am your personal shopper. You know, you're my fixer. You make the bad stuff away. Yeah, you're my fixer. Okay, so listen, today, folks, we have two, I've got to say, particularly exciting programs. In Hour 1 today, I'm talking to an English scientist, a British scientist who has written a book about, well, both shows today are about Easter, really, because we got Easter coming up. So in Hour 1, I'm speaking to Sir Colin Humphreys, Sir Colin, he's a commander of the British Empire knighted by the Queen about 20 years ago. And he's a very, very highly respected scientist in England, but also a profound Christian who has reconciled the discrepancy on, you know, was the last supper a Passover meal? If that was a Passover meal, then how come, you know, two days later you have the Passover?

How did that work? I mean, I won't go into it. I'll let him tell a story, but very exciting stuff and focused, obviously, around Easter. In Hour 2, we have our friend Jeremiah Johnson on who's written a book about the resurrection, the proof of the resurrection. It's called Body of Proof, really just tremendous evidence that's been coming out in our lifetime for the historicity of the Bible, reconciling questions or, or, or, discrepancies. So it's very exciting. So Colin Humphreys, in hour one from Mary Old England,

in an hour two, Jeremiah Johnson, who's in Dallas. We should say, Chris, that we are doing a fundraiser for the Alliance Defending Freedom. And I want to throw this out there again. We are creeping forward. Every one of you who has given, thank you very, very, very much. But we are still way behind. And I want to, you know, try to guilt-trip people and say, listen, if you knew what the Alliance Defending Freedom are doing, you'd know, ooh, ooh, I owe them. I owe them. Thank God they are doing what they're doing. How can I help a little bit? You could go to metaxis talk.com at the top of the page. You'll see the banner. Chris, maybe you have the phone number there someplace. But I want to, before we go, I'll give you the phone number. But I just want to say that

they are doing God's work. They are fighting in the courts. I believe this week they're at the Supreme Court fighting for religious liberty, for free speech. These are heroes. And when you have a problem, where do you turn? You turn to the Alliance Defending Freedom and they go to bat. They've won over 80% of their cases. So all it is, is an issue of money. If we can fund them, they can preserve our liberties. They can preserve our liberties in the courts. And it's a real battle. If you are paying any attention, you understand that almost every day some American has his liberties attacked, is trying to be run. People are trying to, you know, put you at a business if you have a biblical worldview. We know the famous,

famous story is Jack Phillips, whom I've met a number of times at Masterpiece Cake Shop. Just think about this. In the United States of America, somebody comes to him and says, listen, we want you to create a masterpiece, because the name of the company is Masterpiece Cake Shop, we want you to create a masterpiece cake for our same-sex wedding. We want you to help us celebrate our same-sex wedding. Now, Jack is a Christian. he doesn't believe same-sex wedding is the thing. He doesn't believe two men can get married, and neither do I, and neither do many Americans. So imagine you don't think that this is a thing. You think this is a bad thing.

So you don't want to offend the people, and you say to them, listen, I'm sorry, I can't do that. But here's some phone numbers, here's some friends of mine who'd be happy to celebrate this. with you. Here are some other bakers in the area, the Denver area. Well, in America, normally, people would say he has the right to live out his faith in his business, but in Colorado and in other places they say, you know what, you're a bigot. We don't like you. We're going to crush you. We're going to put you out of business. So in Colorado, they sue him and they put him through hell. It's been 10 years that the Alliance Defending Freedom has been fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting for Jack,

and it's gotten worse and they fight again, they go to bat for the things that, you know, every one of us will be facing. If you're any kind of a person of faith, if you have any kind of values, when you try to live out those values, you're going to bump up against people that hate your guts and want to use our system to crush you.

So the Alliance of Freedom defended him and continues to defend him, and that's one notable story. But it's happening all of the, across America, we've had people on talking about this, we owe them, folks. I want to tell you, if they had not been fighting for Jack Phillips, because these are landmark cases, they affect everything. It's not just the one thing. It affects everything. These laws that whether it goes south or whether they can fight it, it affects each one of us in America. And we are losing

America because of the folks that hate our values. And we are able to fight. And we are able to fight them because of the Alliance defending freedom so that we don't lose America. So I want to be real clear. In my opinion, we owe them. And I want to ask you humbly help them out. You can go to our website. It's metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner. Now, I say to people, you can give monthly. I have a number two. If anyone wants to give the phone number, it's 855-385-0-596, 855-385-0-0-5. 9596 to call. 855-385-0-0-9-6. I'll say it again at the end of the segment.

I mentioned that we've got two kind of Easter shows today. Colin Humphreys coming up in an hour two, a blockbuster with Jeremiah Johnson. You can't miss it. A lot of great stuff coming up this week and next, a lot of great guests. But we are doing this campaign with the Alliance Defending Freedom And I really do want to say that if everybody would kick in something, some of you maybe it's better to give monthly.

You can give $19 a month, for example, that adds up pretty quickly. But I want people who listen to this program know that in my estimation we have a debt to the folks at lines defending freedom. There aren't a lot of people out there doing what they do. They are the best of the best. And they come to this program hoping that we who share their values and believe in American law, liberty would help them to do what they do. They don't get rich doing this, right? They do these things pro bono. So Jack Phillips and others, when they come to them, they don't pay a dime. And by the way, most people can't afford to pay the legal bills it would take to go up against

these behemoths and vicious prosecutors. It's not right. So we need to do what we can. And I ask you, please go to the alliance. Go to go to our website, metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner there. everybody, I think my theme is coming over and over that we all need to do something, not just with the Alliance Defending Freedom, supporting our friend Mike Lindell in his battles, go to Mypillow.com and MyStore.com. Use the code Eric that will support this program, mypillow.com, MyStore.com. You can get all my books there. Use the code Eric at my store.com. but we've all got to do what we can do. And I want to, you know, this month we're highlighting the Alliance Defending Freedom.

But if you know what they do, you'd want to give them more. So give them something. Please go to the website. Our website is metaxis talk.com at the top of the page. You'll see the banner. We really need your help. I don't know how else to say it. Please.

we're just far behind where we need to be. And we just hope that everybody would do a little something. The phone number again, 855-385-0-5-96, 855-385-0-5-9-6. 855-385-0-5-96. God bless you. How do you feel? Well, I feel great. And one of the reasons I believe I feel better is because I take balance of nature's fruits

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But it is my privilege right now to be able to talk to someone whom I can and I think should address as Sir Colin. Sir Colin is Colin Humphreys. He is Director of Research at the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. we are going to be talking with him about a book titled The Mystery of the Last Supper, Reconstructing the Final Days of Jesus. Sir Colin from Cambridge, welcome. Well, welcome. It's great pleasure to be here. Thank you very much, Eric. It's delightful to have discovered you and your book. I'm a little surprised that I didn't know of you and of the book before, rather recently.

what is the subject of the book? In other words, when people hear the title, the mystery of the Last Supper, most people are unaware that there's a mystery. So to what mystery are you in the title referring? So there's been a mystery which people haven't talked about very much, although theologians talk about it, that the Gospel of John,

Let's start with Matthew Mark and Luke's Gospels say the Passover meal, the last supper that Jesus held was a Passover meal, and John said it was before the Passover meal. And this has led to a lot of discussion among scholars, and most of them say John is right or, you know, Matthew Mark and Luke are wrong or the other way around. And I try to approach it with a view that's unlikely that these gospel writers are wrong about this, because a Passover meal is a very well-known Jewish meal, so they wouldn't mistake an ordinary meal for a Passover meal.

And so I wrote this book, and at the end of the book, I say, they're all telling the truth, they all agree. And the solution to this is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are using a different calendar to describe what the events of the last week of Jesus. What was that word, different what? Calendar, a different calendar. Oh, calendar, yeah, yeah. Yes.

So what I find in the book is that John is using the official calendar that the Jewish priests were using in the first century AD, and Jesus chose not to use that calendar for his last supper. He chose to use the original Passover calendar of Moses that he established. So Jesus held his last supper a couple of days earlier than in the official calendar. So it coincided with the calendar that Moses. set up, you know, recorded in a book of Exodus, which I reconstructed. So I worked with astronomers. I reconstructed the official Jewish calendar in the first century and the Jewish calendar and this

earlier Jewish calendar. All right. Let's, I just want to frame this for my audience. Ladies and gentlemen, in case you're not following, this is a very big deal. This is hugely significant. The reconciliation of what had hitherto appeared to be. contradictions in the Gospels. If you have a high view of Scripture, as any Christian should, you know that there cannot be contradictions. There can only be seeming contradictions, but the seeming contradictions give a lot of fodder to those who have a very low view of scripture and a low view of the Bible in general. And so over the centuries, theologians and others have tried to reconcile these seeming contradictions, often without success. So it seems to me

that you, Sir Colin Humphreys, having done this very recently, I know the book came out in 2011, you've done something that has puzzled innumerable people for literally centuries. F.F. Bruce, the great scholar F.F. Bruce, who wrote a book, a very small, important. important book called the New Testament documents, Are they reliable? Magnificent book, magnificent scholar. F.F. Bruce himself called this the thorniest problem

in the New Testament. So I want to know how is it, Sir Colin Humphreys, that you found yourself looking into this. It's not typical of metallurgists, of which you are one, to be looking into these kinds of

theological conundrums. How is it? What is your story that led you ultimately to look into and then solve this absolutely central mystery of the New Testament? Well, that is a good question. And it all started when my father gave my younger daughter, when she was eight years old, a book called Great Men of History. I guess today you call it Great People of History. This is called Great Men of History. This is called Great Men of History. and each person in the book, it was a child's book, each person in the book had a particular great person it was considering. So he considered, you know, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great.

He may have considered J.F. Kennedy, I'm not sure. Probably not. He wasn't historically enough. But the fronters piece of the book, it gave these people's names and their dates of death and their dates of birth and dates of death. And against everyone, you know, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great and so on, it had their dates of birth and death, and against Jesus, it said, born, 4 BC, question mark, died 3080, question mark. And my daughter said to me, Daddy, why is it? We know when all these other people were born and died, and we don't know when Jesus born and died. And I thought, that's a really good question. And that set me off thinking about this. And I thought, let's see if we can determine the date of the crucifixion.

So that's what got me started. And before you continue, I just have to ask you, were you raised as a person of serious Christian faith? Or was this something that got serious for you later in life? What is your story? Yes, so my story, I was raised in the Christian family. and I was born in a Baptist church, in fact brought up in a Baptist church, I was baptized when I was 14.

But then I did what a number of people did, I think. In the sixth form at school, I wondered whether Christianity was right. And I, let me tell them a story in my conversion, because I wondered if Christianity was right or not. And I went to university, and I thought, at university, I'd have to sort out whether Christianity is right or not. And I read a gospel, and I imagined I was there. And it's amazing when you do this.

If you think of the gospel, and Jesus is there speaking. And I decided what many people decided, that Jesus was either mad or he was bad or it was right. It was right. That gives me an excuse to use one of my favorite words, which I've only read once in my life. C.S. Lewis refers to it as the trilemma. The trilemma.

Of course, C.S. Lewis taught where you are now at Cambridge, as well as at Oxford. But he first underscores this trilemma that Jesus is either Lord, lunatic, or liar. So you face this yourself as an undergraduate. You felt compelled to solve this riddle. That's right, because that's either, you know, who's telling the truth or else it was a hoax.

He knew he wasn't telling the truth. He was hoaxing people and getting publicity or else he was mad. Totally deleted. And so I then decided that he was telling the truth, but I also decided that I was having a great time at university, and I didn't want to become a Christian there, and I put it off to later life.

And so, and I think a number of people do that as well than I did this. But I kept going to church because there was some rather attractive girls there. And so I just went to church, and after church, the minister had us round to his, a home, a federal discussion group. And I was walking back from his home in London, I was a university in London, and a person next to me, he said to me, Colin, you're a Christian, I want to become a Christian, tell me how I become a Christian. And I thought, what do I do? Because I've just decided not to become a Christian. So I thought, I mustn't destroy his faith. So I said, why don't you go to the minister and talk to the minister? But then I went back to where I was living. And I thought, I can't sit on the fence anymore. And I gave myself to Jesus again. So that's my conversion story. What year, if you're willing to share it, did this occur?

Right. So I'm approaching middle age, but from the wrong direction. So this year, I was in my first year at university, which was 1960. So it was a long time ago. 1960, my goodness. You look very young for somebody approaching middle age from any direction. But how wonderful. So you've been a Christian low these 63 years.

That's extraordinary. But of course, you're a metallurgist, you're a scientist. Did you know then at the University of London that you wished to pursue a career in science? I did know then, yes, because science, I was passionate about science then. and I then became passionate about Christianity as well. And of course, there's no conflict between the two. On the contrary, I've interviewed many people, many Oxbridge figures, John Lennox, and so many others, Sir John Polkinghorn.

We will continue our conversation with Sir Colin Humphreys. When we return, don't go away. Our God-given freedoms are facing unrelenting attacks. It's a battle for truth, and the only way we win is if we stand together. Thankfully, Alliance defending freedom has been defending our rights for 30 years and winning. Right now, they're involved in two critical cases before the Supreme Court. They're suing the FDA for endangering the health and safety of women and girls, and in the second case, they're assisting the state of Idaho to defend its law,

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Go to Nutrametics. That's N-U-T-R-A-M-E-D-I-X.com. Neut-M-E-D-I-X.com. Use the code Eric for 15% off. Again, Neut-M-T-R-R-M-D-I-X.com. Nutrametics.com. Use the code Eric for 15% off. Welcome back, folks. I have the privilege of speaking with Sir Colin Humphreys. He comes to us from Cambridge University. He's a scientist there. And he's written a book

which really just does something. There's no other way to put it. It's extraordinary. And it is historic. He reconciles what has been a centuries-long puzzle conundrum which I guess the gospel writers weren't really thinking of this. They were simply putting down what they knew, but when we read it, we say, well, wait a minute. Did the Last Supper happen? Was it a Passover meal or wasn't it? Some of the scriptures seem to say that it was,

some that it wasn't. If you believe the scriptures are the Word of God, you know that any contradiction is only a seeming contradiction. So you, Sir Colin, were pulled. into this mystery quite a long time ago. How did it proceed? How did you yourself figure this out? And when, what year, because I know the book came out in 2011, but when did you figure this out for yourself and know that you had reconciled this gigantic mystery, had solved the problem? So I started thinking about this mystery probably 20 years before that. And so this book has taken

in 20 years, as it were, to write. And so I'll just say what the puzzle really is. So if you look at Matthew, Mark, and Luke's Gospel, the disciples say to Jesus, where shall we go to prepare the Passover for you? And while Jesus is eating the meal, he says to them, I've earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Right. So there's no doubt it's a Passover meal. On the other hand, you go to John's Gospel. And at the trial, of Jesus, that's after this meal, after Jesus has been arrested, the Jews say to, I think they say to Pilot, they cannot enter this trial because they haven't yet eaten the Passover. And so, and John also indicates that in other places that the Passover hasn't been eaten. And then John presents the

crucifixion of Jesus as being at the same time at the part of the Passover. meal. So the last supper didn't proceed it. The cruiser at the same time. And Paul says, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. So the image is in the Bible. Jesus is the Passover lamb. So how can it be? This is the mystery. And so that's the mystery, which I think it took me 20 years to sort out. That's the mystery I believe I solved. And so at the heart of it then, what is the solution? How is it that you can reconcile these? seemingly contradictory pieces of evidence? So what I found out, the first thing I found out, was if you go back to the first century

AD, there were a number of different calendars that people used. So the Romans used the Roman calendar, which we still use today, called the Julian calendar, then became the Gregorian calendar. But then the Jewish people, they had their official calendar. and the Esenes, this tribe of people called the Ascines, they had a different calendar still, and the Samaritans

had a different calendar. There are a lot of calendars around. And so I thought, well, which calendar were the gospel writers using? And John is using the official calendar. And in fact, when he writes, John

refers, he calls it the Jewish Passover. And, you know, why would you do that? I mean, they knew what the Passover was. Matthew Mark and Luke don't do this. He says a Jewish passover. So it's a hint. He is using the official Jewish calendar.

Now, Matthew Mark and Luke, I believe, were using an earlier calendar. And I believe that Jesus deliberately... Okay, right, let's just go back a second. When was the official Jewish calendar introduced? The official Jewish calendar was introduced when way back at the time of the exile, when the Jews were captured, went into Babylon, that's when the official Jewish calendar was introduced.

And we know that because the names of Jewish months, they took over from the Babylonian calendar. So the first month of Jewish year, this is a bit technical. So the first month of Jewish was called Nissan, and in Babylonian calendar it was called Nisano. And so similarly with the other months. So the Jews in captivity in Babylon would have been forced to abuse the Babylonian calendar,

and that's when this official Jewish calendar started. Before that, when they were not in exile, they would have used the calendar that Moses established. I was able to reconstruct that, and that was a different calendar. And when Jesus had his last supper, which he said to them, he had the wine and the bread, if you remember,

he said, this is the new covenant in my blood. She would say, Moses had the old covenant. This is a new covenant. I'm going to, I've chosen, used the Moses calendar so I can celebrate my last supper with you on the date of, on the anniversary of the official Moses calendar. And that in fact was a calendar that the Samaritans used. And I found that out as well. So Jesus, who had great sympathy, I think, with the Samaritans, although he realized they weren't quite worshipping the right, in his parables, for example.

So he used this calendar with his disciples. And that was, I think, deletive. deliberate to make his last supper he chose to have on the official date, on the commemoration date of the Moses' original calendar. So I'm having a little trouble with the audio, so I want to make sure that I'm getting this right. Jesus then, it seems to me, was correcting things in calling this the Passover meal. Yes, that's right. So Jesus was saying that basically when the Jews went into captivity in exile in Babylon, they changed their calendar, and technically they were not celebrating it on the exact... This is huge. I didn't realize.

When we come back, we will clarify all of this. Further, we'll be right back with Sir Colin Humphreys. For more than 10 years, Patriot Mobile has been America's only Christian conservative wireless providers standing behind their values and their exceptional service. They're an example of putting the cause ahead. profits, and it's why I am proud to partner with them. Starting today, Patriot Mobile is extending their Black Friday deal to the Every Friday Matters deal, and you can get a free smartphone when you switch today. Patriot Mobile offers dependable nationwide coverage, giving you access to all three major networks, which means you get the same coverage you've been accustomed to without

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So call 800, 978, 3057. Or go to Mypillow.com, promo code Eric. Folks, go to Mypillow.com and use the promo code Eric. Great Bargans. Mypillow.com promo code Eric. Hey, welcome back, folks. We're talking, it's very exciting. We're talking to Sir Colin Humphreys.

He's in Cambridge, England. And we're talking about his. his book, which solves what F.F. Bruce called the thorniest problem in the New Testament. It's rather a big deal to reconcile the seeming contradiction. And it happens over and over. People find something that looks like a contradiction, and then eventually somebody discovers why it isn't. It's fascinating. So, Sir Colin, I have to ask you, when you realized what you had done, Did it strike you as a little bit amazing that you should be able to solve this great mystery of the ages? Yes, it does strike me as amazing, but not that amazing in a sense that what I had to do to solve the problem was to reconstruct these early calendars.

And most theologians are not really able to do that. And you can reconstruct the early calendars because they were observational calendars where, you know, of the Jews, the first ever month, was the first time they saw the new lunar crescent in the sky. And we can now, we know enough about astronomy. We can calculate way back, you know, 2,000 years ago when they would have seen the first lunar crescent in the sky. So I work with an astronomer on this. And so theologians, they're not used to doing this.

Well, listen, isn't this the case that we see this over and over and over and over, that people who are working in one discipline are typically blinkered, They do not have the ability to see past their own noses or their own fields. And they oftentimes sneer at anyone who is working in what we can call an interdisciplinary fashion. They sneered at C.S. Lewis. They sneer at anyone who seems to go outside of the hidebound orthodoxy, which we find in the academy. And it's a scandal, really, that how specialists are so specialized. that they can't see past their own noses, as I've said.

So you dared, really, to look past your own field, or you dared to work outside your own field of expertise, which is metallurgy and science. What gave you the confidence, in a sense, to do that, to be willing to work with astronomers, to be willing to look into things that weren't in your field of expertise? What gave you that courage? I think I got that courage from the belief that the Bible was right

and also that it would be astonishing if the gospel writers got this wrong. I mean, you know, the Passover meal was such a special meal for, I mean, there were witnesses there. All 12 disciples were there at the Passover meal. There were probably women and so on there as well. there were a lot of witnesses to what the meal was. And so the early church, they would have thrown out to gospel if there had been some crazy mistake. And the early Christians, they knew there were these various, you know, the early Jews as well of the Christians, they knew there was different calendars in existence.

It didn't bother them. And it's only us who failed to understand the situation in the first century AD. And so I thought, you know, I have this scientific ability. and it's good to use science to help, you know, look at some biblical problems. Well, I have to ask, it seems to me, if I'm tracking with what you're saying, that Jesus was in celebrating that Passover meal before the Passover that was about to be celebrated, he was making a bold and revolutionary statement in doing that. were the

apostles around him have been aware of what he was doing, of the revolutionary statement he was making, of linking back to Moses? Was there a consciousness at that time that there were two calendars and that most people were working

with one calendar, but that the other one nonetheless existed? I think they were, the disciples would be well aware of this. I think Jesus would have explained to them what was happening. I mean, you know, Gospels and an abridged version of events, and John tells us if we wrote everything, which Jesus said there wouldn't be space in all the books in the universe. So I think they would have been well aware of this. And I also think

that, you know, God had this great salvation plan before the earth was created, before the universe was created. And in this plan, Jesus was the Passover lamb. And to emphasize that, you know, Jesus had to be sacrificed when the Passover lambs were being sacrificed for the Passover meal later that, you know, the same Jewish day. And so everything fits together in a most remarkable way in what Jesus managed to maneuver, as it were, an engineer. Well, so it seems even more amazing to me that it's not just that you have, you've solved a mystery or you've reconciled a seeming contradiction, but that in doing that, you've pointed to something, even greater than a mere reconciliation. The idea that Jesus was prophetically doing something, that he was doing something as a prophetic act,

that he was saying, I am the new Moses, this is the new Passover, that he was saying all of that. But of course, it's really extraordinary that it would take us nearly two millennia to see this again. It is extraordinary. I agree.

but I think maybe we're living in special times as well. And, you know, and God is reverting these things to us, you know, by scientific means. So, and things like, you know, what the Star of Bethlehem may have been, I think we can only really say in these more recent times when we've got the scientific knowledge to do calculations, which will get you back 2,000 years ago. Well, I think that's what's so extraordinary to me is that it is only being revealed to us now, and this is not lost on God. This is not just something that's happening, but that God has, in all of these millennia and centuries, been planning for these things to be revealed now. So, of course, the question becomes why now, what is it now?

Why is God revealing these things now? I wonder if you have any thoughts on that. Well, it is a good question. I mean, I just think, I mean, I remember reading this prophecy, there will be wars of rumors of wars. And I remember reading this maybe 40 years ago. And I thought, this is very unlikely. You go about sort of 40 years. There weren't that many wars around.

I thought, you know, the world was going to get a more and more peaceful place. And people aren't going to, that's like savages, you know, killing each other. And now look at the situation now, major war in Ukraine, major war in Israel and Palestine. I want to follow this line of thought. We're going to a break. We'll be right back, folks, talking to Sir Colin Humphreys. Welcome back, folks. I'm talking to the author of a book I recommend very highly.

It's called The Mystery of the Last Supper Reconstructing the Final Days of Jesus. So you were just saying a number of things how to cut you off, Sir Colin. Please continue. Yes, sir. saying, you know, it's remarkable that we're solving some of these problems after 2,000 years and why now? And I think that is a good question. And I think maybe we are entering the last times. I mean, you have to be very careful, of course, when discussing this. And but it seems to be that now there are wars and rumors of wars like never really before

across the world. And, you know, you have to go back to the Second World War, but there there's this one big war, but now, you know, there are these wars in different parts of the globe. And people are really turning away from Christianity in big numbers. And, you know, churches in England are closing. I'm not sure what's happening in America, church in England are closing. And people are very, very against Christianity, increasingly so. And it wouldn't surprise me if this really was the last times. Well, it seems to me, I wrote a book which is called Is Atheism Dead, in which I, and it's written in English so you can read it, but it's, it's, the, the, the, the scientific evidence for God has become utterly overwhelming. I mean, absolutely overwhelming. It's not sort of pointing toward God. It is open and shut, the fine-tuned universe and all kinds of other things. Most people are simply unaware of it. And I, I came to the.

same conclusion in writing my book is atheism dead, that there has to be a reason that God has revealed these things to us now, that science has made it possible now for us to see that there is no daylight between science and the scriptures. And it's as though he's giving us more and more evidence as things get darker and more confusing, God is revealing more and more light about himself. It seems undeniable to me. Well, well, I find that. And I found in my life when, you know, Christians have doubts and that's not a bad thing to have doubts because you can then strengthen your face. But I, you know, in my life, I think, you know, I believe there's a lunar eclipse on the evening of crucifixion. I believe there's a special star,

the star of Bethlehem. And these things, I think the long day of Joshua is another thing I've worked on. And I think that there's a known astronomical phenomenon for that. And I think these things are not just pointers for God. It's almost proof of God that when God set up the created, the universe, he had these special events like eclipses and comets and so on, which he made to coincide with certain important biblical events. And we're just seeing that now as scientists. And it is really a proof of God.

You mentioned sort of astronomical things that happened around the crucifixion. Can you say again what those are? So on the, so we can tell, one thing I've done was to calculate the date of the crucifixion. And this is the third, it's April the 3rd, AD 33. And there's a lot of evidence for this. And then in Peter's Pentecost speech, he talks about, he's saying to the people, this is what's predicted by the Prophet Joel, the spirit we poured out it, It was on the Erepoenaeus.

And then he says, and the sun will return to darkness and the moon to blood before that great and glorious day of the Lord. And the moon being turned to blood is a phrase that's used for lunar eclipses because the moon does go blood red for a lunar eclipse for a scientific reason.

And so I then calculated, was there a lunar eclipse visible from Jerusalem in AD 26 to 36? And there was just one. And it was on the evening of the day. crucifixion. And that's just more than remarkable coincidence. And is that in this book? That's in this book. Okay, we're going to have to leave it there. Folks, the book is the mystery of the Last Supper, reconstructing the final days of Jesus. Astonishing stuff, Sir Colin Humphreys.

Thank you so much. It's been a great pleasure talking to, Eric. Thank you very much.