The Eric Metaxas Show - Eugenia Constantinou (Encore Continued)

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

Eugenia Constantinou is interviewed by Eric at a recent Socrates in the City event which featured her sensational book, "The Crucifixion of the King of Glory."

Noble gold investments is the official gold sponsor of the Eric Mataxis show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments. That's noble gold investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Metaxus show. I shouldn't tell you this, but Eric hired someone who sounds just like him to host today's show. But since I'm the announcer, they told me, so I'm telling you, don't be free. Fold the real Eric's in jail. Hey there, folks. Welcome to a special edition of the Eric Metaxas show, where we're going to be airing starting right now.

My conversation from Socrates in the city, we did it on February 28th, with the extraordinary Eugenia Constantino. Coming up in a couple seconds, don't miss it, share it. Here it is. The Roma saw the Jews as a nation. So whether they lived in Rome or Babylon or Alexandria or Asia Minor or Greece or Palestine, the high priest as the leading person among the Jewish people had authority over all Jews everywhere. And in the synagogues, we see this at Acts.

They would sometimes beat Jews and punish Jews, whom they thought we see them doing this to Paul and to Sosthenes. They beat them in front of the Romans, right? So they were allowed to exercise jurisdiction in religious. matters over their own people. So when they come to Pilot, Pilot realizes that they don't have a charge. Pilots just can't put people to death. He has to follow Roman law.

There has to be a violation of Roman law for him to even hold a trial. So, you know, when we get stopped for a speeding ticket or something by a policeman gives us a ticket, the ticket alleges what statute we violated. That was the same thing in Roman law. Pilate wasn't just there to rubber stamp their decisions, just bring somebody. Now, I'm glad you brought up Pilot because a lot of Bible scholars

have actually said that the presentation of Pilot in the New Testament is not genuine, it's not correct. Because we know... These are theologically very liberal scholars to question the New Testament. That's right. That's not surprising. I don't take them seriously, but you're a scholar.

You have to... I want to show how... how really they're not thinking clearly through the process. They're not following it the way I, you know, presented it. But here's what they're thinking. They're saying, well, either he already knew who Jesus was and decided to put him to death, or that the gospel portrayal is not accurate.

So in the beginning of my book in the introduction, I described to discuss the historicity of the Gospels. I thought that was important to lay that out. But it's because we know that Pilot was very tough and very ruthless. So they say, well, he wouldn't have been so careful about not condemning Jesus. He wouldn't have been trying to release Jesus the way the gospel is described. But if you really think about it, first of all, he cannot put Jesus on trial without a Roman charge.

And the first thing the Jewish leaders say is, he says, okay, why are you here? And they say, well, what do you want with this man? And what do they say, if he were not an evil doer, we would not have brought him to you. so evil doer is not a crime right okay so he realizes immediately and this he says take him away and judge him according to your own law they had the right to whip Jesus

and up to 40 times but not to kill him that's right but they want him dead so that's why they brought him this is the conundrum that I just found it's like like a as I said it's like the plot of a thriller they need him to be dead yes but they do not have the mechanism they themselves cannot put him to death.

Not legally. They could have secretly murdered him. Right. So why don't they? You say it, because they obviously write about it. Because, well, by you ask your audience there, why don't they put him to death? They want him publicly disgraced and humiliated. He's so popular. That's right.

But this is what I'm saying, this is kind of stuff that as I was reading the book, this is coming out to me, like, this makes sense. I didn't get this before. He was so extremely popular that if he had. had just been killed, they would have turned him into a martyr. They would have been celebrated. They wanted to kill him in such a way that he would be forever disgraced and humiliated and categorized as not conceivably the Messiah because he was crucified. They were very successful in that way.

Yes. But they also wanted to distance themselves from the act. So they could say the Romans did it. We didn't have anything to do with it. That was Rome that put him to death. So a lot of people will say, well, Pilot was, you know, killing, putting a lot of people to death, and he was. But not somebody that he believed to be innocent.

And it's clear because he knows these people. He was governor from 26 to 36, and this was the year 33. Pilot has worked with these people. He knows them very well. And he's not going to simply rubber stamp and order the execution of somebody. without a, he has to answer to his own superiors. He has to keep records on what charge do you bring this man here?

Oh, he's an evildoer. Where is that in the violation of Roman law? So there is actually really good reasons for his hesitancy, not to mention other more serious reasons for his hesitancy. Let's go back. So first they arrest him secretly at night on purpose.

Well, that's where Judas comes in. Judas is helpful. Judas wasn't necessary, but he was helpful. They got lucky with him. They got lucky that Judas approached them. They didn't go looking for a traitor. They didn't know where Jesus was spending his night. They were afraid to arrest him publicly because the people loved him. So when Judas comes forward and says, what will you give me if I betray him to you? Then they, Judas is the one who leaves them to the place on the Mount of Olives where Jesus and the disciples

were spending the night. So they're able to arrest him in the middle of the night, put him on trial the middle of the night, find him guilty, and by Friday morning, he's standing in front of Pilate. Okay, now, let's not rush ahead here. So they arrest him? Yes. They take him away to the house of Annas or Caiaphas? Caiaphas.

Canoebus. Annis was there, too, but it seems to the house of Caius. There's a church there, by the way, you know? I'm not surprised. You can see it. Presbyterian Church? It was an Orthodox Church. Now it's a Catholic Church.

called St. Peter of the Cock Crow. Wow. Because Peter was outside of the courtyard, warming his hands, denying Jesus. You can go there and see the courtyard. It's pretty awesome. Whoa. Yeah, you should really do that. Okay.

So one of the things that you mention, and again, I was, you know, to use the British phrase, gobsmacked when I read this, I said, how have I never seen this before? You write in this book, and it's right there in scripture, and I must have read it many times, saw it, that Peter and John are the only ones that kind of follow Jesus, the other scatter, that he's arrested, they follow to see what's going on, and they follow and follow to the house of Caiaphas. And so Jesus is taken inside, and there's a sham trial. It was, you make it very clear, the trial violated Jewish law. But they didn't care about that. Well, obviously. Any trial that happens in the middle of the night, we can be pretty confident is a sham driving.

But you talk about this again, you're a lawyer. You talk about there's several ways that it violated Jewish law. But what blew my mind, what I couldn't believe that I'd never seen before, is you say that Peter doesn't get in the gate of Caiaphas' courtyard. But John does because John knew the high priest. priest, I thought, what? It's in the scriptures. Yeah, it's no to the high priest. It's in the scriptures, but how, I mean, we think of this, oh, there's just a bunch of bumbling fishermen or something.

You're telling me that John, the beloved disciple, was known to the high priest. The high priest is as big a deal as it gets. Yes. How is it possible that John, humble John, was known to the high priest? Because of that little detail, some scholars. have said John did not write the gospel, because how could this be possible? But we do have a historical fact, again, that's preserved in the early church tradition, that when John died, he was buried in priestly investments.

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3057. But wait, remember that $75 free shipping rule? Well, that ship has sailed because right now for a limited time, every order ship's free. Folks, go to mypillow.com. Use the promo code Eric. Mypillow.com, promo code Eric. Folks, you are listening to a special edition of the Iqman Taxis show. We are airing My Socrates in the city conversation from February 28th of this year with Eugenia Constantino about her book, The Crucifixion of the King of Glory. Here is more of that. So I know the people say, well, John, the beloved disciple could. And how can he be be, that means John was a priest. That means Zebedee was a priest.

And the reason for that is because... His father was a priest. His father, James and John were coming... That's right. So how exactly they knew the high priest? We don't know. But it's not impossible because the ordinary priests, of which there were at least 10,000,

some people say as made as 18,000, ordinary priests who served in the temple, served on a rotation basis, two weeks out of the year, and all the major and the major feast days. And so they couldn't really earn their living from the temple the way the chief priests did. So they were fishermen and they were farmers

and they were potters. They had trades and occupations and then they would come to the temple to serve when it was their turn. So we don't know how it was known, but that is what it says in the gospel by the eyewitness. But that's what's amazing to me.

It's there in the scripture. But you kind of pass over. But you just kind of, you know. And then I think, wait a minute, John knew Caiaphus or was known by Caiapus? It's unbelievable. Well, at least he knows the girl at the gate. She knows him. So I don't know.

Maybe he was familiar, but for some, it's interesting to imagine that, right? But somehow they were in these circles. Maybe because, you know, among the priests, they had run into each other. Well, whatever it is. I'm just telling you, when you write about it in your book, I thought, I can't believe I've never even seen this before. People said there's no way he's a priest because he's a fisherman from Galilee. But we do have that evidence from the early church that tells us that he was buried wearing the priestly breastplate that the Jewish priest used to wear. Well, in any event, so the trial happens at the home of Caiaphas.

And that itself, you really do very cinematically and beautifully tell the story. It's fascinating. And they get Jesus to say, in effect, I am he. They get him to say that. To admit divinity. But they don't really trick it.

Maybe they think they tricked him into it, but obviously he's in full control and he decides to do this. So now they have what they need. He says it because the high priest puts him under oath, a specific kind of oath. I abjure you. Abjure you. And that is like the opposite

of our right against self-incrimination. They had the right to force people to incriminate themselves. They put them under us. So this couldn't happen in America. Couldn't happen. Well, who knows these days? But it doesn't look like it. But they had the right. He puts them under the oath and forces him to testify. And in other words, if Jesus doesn't say it, he will be found guilty anyhow.

So he says who he is. Are you the Messiah, the son of the living God? And he says, you said so. So why does he say that, Eric? Why does he say yes? He doesn't say yes. He says, you said so. because it means that, first of all, that the words of his identity came out of the high priest's mouth. The high priest cannot say, I didn't know who Jesus was

because he said the actual words. That's the most important statement of the church. He's the Messiah and the son of God. So those words come out of the high priest's mouth, and Jesus doesn't stop there. He says, and furthermore, you will see the son of man, seated at the right hand of the power coming on the clouds of heaven

and that's Jesus sealed his fate. He knew they were going to find him guilty anyhow so he might as well say the truth to them so nobody could say we didn't know well what's interesting to me you talk also about how the high priests were under these

tremendous requirements they couldn't do this they couldn't do that they couldn't even and one thing they could never do is mourn't publicly, tear your clothes or whatever. And the high priest tears his clothes in total contravention of what he's supposed to be able to do. It's, it's, it's as dramatic

as it gets. Yes, he does that on purpose, of course. Yeah. And St. John Christmas St. John Christmas has said to add force to the accusation. So he says, this is blasphemy and he's never supposed to tear his clothes, even if his own parents died. But he does it because he and the rest of the chief priest and the members of the said, are determined that Jesus should die. So. So this is when they're like, okay, now we're going to take him to pilot. Now they've justified the death penalty.

In their minds, they've justified the death penalty. Did you notice that when they bring him forward, that's not the first question they ask him, right? When he's brought forward, they bring a lot of witnesses, and they finally get two witnesses who say, this man said he would destroy the temple. that's very key to the story. It goes back to the cleansing of the temple and his disruption of the temple cult. That's why they were afraid of him.

Now, Jesus never said he was going to destroy the temple. He said that they would destroy this temple, meaning his body, and in three days he would raise it up. But once they start with this, now they can have a trial. Unless there were two witnesses who agreed on a charge, they couldn't even begin the trial. Then they have the two witnesses,

that they probably got them to agree on their testimony because it took them all night, they couldn't get two witnesses to agree. Right, right. And then now the high priest says, what do you have to say for yourself? Now, why is the question about the temple, why does that lead to the next question,

which is, are you the Messiah? That's something that most people don't know. Because in the Jewish tradition at that time, and among the prophets, they associated with the Messiah with someone who would come and build a new temple. And this is in Zachariah. And there's a term for the Messiah in the Jewish scriptures

or kind of a nickname, branch. A root will arise from the jessi. So as soon as he says he is the Messiah, that's how they can, in other words, otherwise you don't understand why does Caiaphas suddenly ask him if he's the Messiah? Because these witnesses said he claimed to destroy the temple. That's a connection. there. Well, that's what I'm saying. There's so much in here that I have not seen before. And we, again, we can't really do it justice here. But so they take him to Pilot. Pilot says, not interested. And he sends him, he's thrilled to find out, oh, he's a Galilean. And I don't have any jurisdiction over Galilee. We're in Judea. But guess what? Herod, who has jurisdiction over Galilee. He just happens to be in town, so why don't he take him to his house? Yes. And Herod was happy. So they take him to Herod.

Yes, Herod was happy to see him because Herod wanted to see him. Herod was the Tetrarch of Galilee or King of Galilee, and he happened to be there for the Passover. By the way, that's why Pilate was in Jerusalem for Passover, because he wanted to control the crowds. He normally wasn't there. So, yes, they take him there, and Pilis hoping to just pass off Jesus. He's got a very busy schedule, doesn't want to be bothered with his guys. He realized that the Jewish leaders really despised Jesus. He hadn't committed a crime.

Pilate never heard of Jesus before. We can be confident of that. Actually, that's another big thing in the book when I read that. I thought, Pilate had, and you proved this, Pilate had never heard of Jesus before. Why would he? Where did Jesus go preaching? He didn't preach to Romans.

He's preaching in synagogues and in houses and fields and places where Jews were gathering. And this is the reason for the question about paying tribute to Caesar. They were hoping to get him to say, yes, you shouldn't pay the tax. so that they could report him to Pilate. Because if somebody had gone to Pilate and say, Pilate, there's something you should know.

What is it? Where there's this rabbi who's going around preaching to big crowds. And so, why are you bothering me with this? They had to have a reason to report him to the Romans. Jesus was never political. Right, so if they had been able to say, he said, don't pay the tax to the Romans, they'd be like open and shut, he's guilty.

They would have brought knowledge of that to Pilate, and a pilot at least would have been aware of him. but at this point Pilate knows nothing about Jesus. So he realizes that this is kind of a religious, for the same reason as a religious dispute, you cannot go, if you belong to a certain church, you cannot sue that church in court because they're teaching something that disagrees

or the pastor's teaching something disagrees with the faith. That will be thrown out of the courts. They don't deal with that. So the Romans had the same, they're not going to sit and deal with... Okay, but so they sent them to Herod. Yes, they said him there. And Herod similarly is not really interested. He wants a show. He hears that Jesus said...

That's right. The Jewish leaders are furiously arguing against him. Pilots figuring if this guy deserves to die, Herod would know. You see, that's very important because Jesus never fomented rebellion of any kind. If he was suggesting rebellion, Herod would have put him to death. Herod wouldn't have really hesitated to do that. So when Bible scholars today say that the portrayal of the portrayal of the... pilot is not accurate because he willingly would have put Jesus to death. That's presuming that

Jesus was suggesting some kind of revolution or revolutionary message. And Jesus was never doing that. Jesus was saying, love your enemies, turn the other cheek, these kinds of things. He was never a threat to roll. That's why Herod never did anything about him. So you're putting money away, saving for the future, for retirement, for your family. You're doing what you're supposed to do, right? Well, what if I told you that your 401k, IRA, and other investments are probably paying for gambling, abortion, and LGBT causes. Inspire Advisors can tell you where your profits are really coming from. Do what I did.

Go to inspireadvisors.com and order your free customized impact report and find out. Inspire is a recognized leader in faith-based investing. They can empower you to put your money where your values are. They stand by their biblical values donating 50% of their profits to Christian ministries each year. And they know that investing with Christian values has power. Get your free customized impact report now at InspireAdvisors.com slash Eric. And together, let's show Wall Street what investing with biblical principles can do. Inspire advisors, biblically responsible investing, visit inspireadvisors.com slash Eric.

That's inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. We continue with the special edition of the Airbus Taxes show. This is my conversation with Eugenia Constantinio at Socrates in the City. from a few weeks ago. This is amazing. I hope you're listening and enjoying it. So Herod mocks Jesus. So this is part of the whole thing. He mocks him, puts him in royal robes. Is he the one that put the crown of thorns? No, that was done later after the church. Okay, so now we go back to Pilate. You're right. And Pilots like, oh, you're back. You're back. Why are you back? He was hoping.

So the chief priests are back, and what do they say now? Well, okay, so Pilate sees that they're back, and he was hoping that Herod would take care of it for him, so he wouldn't have to deal with this, be bothered with this. But that causes him to be less likely to want to put Jesus to death, because he figures, and he actually says this, Herod didn't find anything wrong, you didn't find him deserving of death. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to punish him. I'm going to satisfy you. I'm going to chastise him.

I'm going to have him scourged. And that's when he says Jesus to be scourished. And he's hoping to placate their hatred toward Jesus by having Jesus scourged. We have to be clear. That was the hardest part of the book for me to read when he described the scourging. So Pilate is such a practical, cynical, soulless human being. that even though he knows Jesus is innocent, to pacify these furious, powerful people that have come,

he says, I will do what I am able to do, which is to say, I will have him scourged, which is worse than being whipped by the Jews. It's horrifying. We don't need to go into it. But he does that, hoping to end it there. He does that to save Jesus as long. Yes.

Ironically. Yes. Because as bad as it was, it's better than being crucified. He didn't think Jesus, he might have thought this. Well, Jesus must have annoyed them for something. Maybe he deserves to be punished for something. But he hadn't violated Roman law. But so he's effectively saying, I can do this.

Yes. And so I will do this. And maybe I'll make them happy and they'll just leave the law. So the horror of the scourging takes place. Remember also, they accuse Jesus of being a king. When they first say he's an evildoer and Pilate doesn't do anything, he goes out, talks to them, comes back inside the Praetorium and says to Jesus, are you the king of the Jews?

And Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world. So there is that idea of a treasonous charge that they conglucked, they change it from blasphemy to a charge that does carry the death penalty. but Pilate does not think that Jesus is a threat. So he doesn't buy that. He realizes because the first thing out of their minds is he's an evildoer. Out of their mouths is an evildoer. And then they concoct this idea of treason.

So he's not buying it. So he has Jesus scourged. So Jesus is scourged and then he questions Jesus. Okay, so he had questioned Jesus before, but he comes back out and says, I find no crime in him, but, you know, I will go ahead and have him scourged. So he has him scourged, brings him back.

And Jesus is very bloody from the scourging. And this is when Pilate says, behold the man, look at him. Isn't that enough for you? But he, rather than mollifying them, it seems to inflame them, crucify him. This is what really is not enough to see him like that. This is what, he says, why? What is he done?

This is what Pilate does not understand. So this is when they say, we have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he made himself this son of God. So one of the, again, the people don't seem to understand the way Pilate is portrayed in the Gospels is exactly correct. Pilate was reluctant to do anything with Jesus because from the beginning, Jesus did not behave like a guilty person. He wasn't begging for his life. You say that several times in here, and the most dramatic example of it, which again, most of us have heard, but you managed to paint the scene so beautifully that it strikes with fresh power that Jesus has been brutalized in a way that's difficult to read. And Pilate is now questioning him and in a sense saying like, like, hey, your kingdom is not of this world.

What is going on here? Right. Give me, in a sense. That's later. That's after the scourging. Yeah, no, that's what I'm saying. After the scourging. So Pilate was always reluctant, but after the scourging,

when they say he claims to be a God, the son of God, now Pilate is really concerned because Jesus was not afraid of Pilot, and that was obvious. Now he goes back inside the Praetorium and says, where are you from? And Jesus doesn't answer. And now Pilate gets angry, right? Don't you know that I have the power to crucify you or the power to release you?

Because he's not used to people not responding to him. And then Jesus says, you have no power unless it was given to you from above. Now Pilate really doesn't want anything to do with Jesus. Well, but that's what's so. I'm just saying, like, if somebody's an agnostic and they're reading this and they read your book, it's hard to conclude anything other than that there is no one in the universe like Jesus because if you have been brutally scourged so horrific and then you're talking to the man who has power over life or death

and you respond with this level of clarity and truth and fearlessness Yes. That you have no, to tell Pilot. You have no power. You have no power over me unless it has been given you from above. If I was pilot, I would have been scared to death of who am I talking to. I think he absolutely was. We continue with a special edition of the Airbus Texas show.

This is my conversation with Eugenia Constantineau at Socrates in the City from a few weeks ago. This is amazing. I hope you're listening and enjoying it. Every provincial governor came to the province with the Imperium. That means with all the power of the emperor, the power of life and death over everybody in the province, immensely powerful. And Jesus was not afraid of him. That's why I think Pilate was unnerved by Jesus' presence from the beginning. But once they say he claims to be the son of God, then he was really afraid. And then with now Pilate really wants to have nothing to do with So this is when he suggests Barabbas. But see, again, this is what I keep noticing is that the way you do it so masterfully is like,

it's like a movie, like the plot keeps turning and turning and turning. So now Pilot is stuck. Right. And he comes up with one, an idea, there's another way for me to get out of crucifying him. But he never found him guilty of anything. Right. He didn't really have to crucify him. What he was trying to do, and this is the ironic part, he was trying to help the

Jewish leaders save face because they had brought Jesus to him and he knew because he worked with these people these were the highest

on the highest level of Jewish authority in Jerusalem and he knew that if he just released Jesus it would be an embarrassment to them

so he's figuring okay how can I get out of this in a way that they can just say well the Romans released him but really he's guilty

he's trying to help them and that's why he feels stabbed in the back When they don't appreciate that. Okay, so you have to explain. Yes.

He's the one who thinks of photographs. He remembers the prisoner release. That you, you Jews have a custom to release a prisoner at Passover. That's right. And not necessarily that that happened every year, but he knows. He's been there long enough. But he's come up with a novel way of getting out of this horrible mess. Shall I release for you the king of the Jews?

No, no, no, no. him, but Barabbas. Meanwhile, Barabbas really is a danger to Rome. That's the last person he would want released. But now he suggested the prisoner release and they've put him into a bind. And when they insist upon

Barabbas, he says, well, what am I going to do about Jesus? But just because he asked to release Barabbas because a riot was beginning, doesn't mean Jesus has to die. Right. It doesn't mean that Jesus has to. What about Jesus? What about Jesus? Well, crucify him. But why? what wrong has he done? What evil has he done? He actually asked that they insist, right?

And this is when, and again, this is where it ends, but oh my goodness, the idea that it keeps taking these twists and turns and twists and turns. It is like a gripping legal drama. You're just on the edge of your seat, and I've never seen it presented that way, which is one of the reasons this book is so amazing, but only one. So he's then in this situation where, he's thinking, look, I do not want to crucify him. He may be a god. He's starting to pilot. It's conceivable that he's thinking like, I'm playing with fire. I don't know who this man is. I'm a little

frightened. And then the chief priests play the Trump card. That's right. That's right. Because, well, what happened, of course, we have to, you know, explain that the reason why he thought he might be a god is because the Greeks and the Romans had these ideas, they had these mythologies, these stories, plays. It was very much a part of their culture that sometimes the gods came down from Olympus and looked like people. And if you offended them, even just insulted them, let alone scourge them, they could come back and take revenge. You'd be sorry.

So Pilate is very afraid. He thinks it's very possible that Jesus is a God. So he says they're insisting, the Jewish leaders are insisting that Jesus be crucified. They concoct this little crowd that's outside the praetorium because the temple is just yards away. And they're in charge of the temple. This is one reason why this group is not the average ordinary group because ordinary Jews are down in the city below. They're getting ready from Passover.

They have a million things to do. They're not just hanging around outside the Antonia fortress, you know, just because. So the group there has been instructed. and one of the scriptures, one of the gospel says that, has been instructed to shout for Barabbas and to shout for the crucifixion of Jesus. So they create the mob that shouts for his crucifixion. But the Trump card that they now play,

and this is just amazing to me. But he says first, take him away and crucify him yourselves. I find no fault in him. And then they say, they say what? You could take it. I think he wrote the book. The only reason I... The only reason I know the answer is because I read your book last night.

You say it because it's so amazing. Well, they say, he's disgusted with them because he knows Jesus is not guilty of a Roman crime, but they keep pushing and pushing. He says, take him away and judge him, take him away and crucify myself. He wasn't giving them permission to crucify him. He's just saying, I don't want anything to do with this. And they say, if you don't crucify him, you are no friend of Caesar. and amazing yes i mean like the levels of hypocrisy are astonishing that as if they gave a dam about

caesar he's their enemy but they're using this when they say we have no king but caesar that's blasphemy they have committed blasphemy on their terms on their terms yeah that's what's so i mean i'm saying there's so much drama here that it's it's hard to take in that they would say to him then you are no further. They're threatening him. They're threatening him, but he knows this is, you see, when the Gospels were written, the people who wrote them, they weren't thinking, well, 2,000 years from now somebody's going to be reading this book, they were, the people who were alive in the church at the time knew all the back story of the things I'm telling you about. That they knew. So what did they

know? And what they knew was that Tiberius Caesar was notoriously parented. like most of the Caesar's were. They were always afraid of getting murdered. And he had put to death one of his closest advisors of man named Sejanus on the charge of treason. So by saying to Pilate, you are no friend of Caesar, they were saying, if you don't kill Jesus, we will tell Tiberius that we brought a man to you who we told you claimed to be a king, that's treason, and you didn't do anything about it. Final quick question. Are you writing a sequel? The resurrection of the King of Glory? I haven't started it, but I started to do the research for it. So I hope to do the same with this. And then there will be a third book, but I will leave that for the future. Well, can you give us a hint of what that

third book might include? The Nativity of the King of Glory. The Nativity. Yes. You know that happened before all this other stuff. Okay. You're going to do like the prequel third. Yeah. Jeannie, I'm sorry we're out of time, but we have a patron's dinner following this. I think it's all that is left is to ask this crowd to give a warm a round of thanks to my guest. Hey, the folks.

Welcome back. Some of you know that one of our friends on the program is the Herzog. Foundation. And we have Chris Stagal with Herzog on right now. Chris, I just wanted to get a few minutes from you to give us an update on what Herzog is up to because a lot of people aren't aware of what it is that the Herzog Foundation does. I thought since you're here, let's tell them. Yeah, I think it's twofold, Eric, and I'm so grateful for your friendship, your partnership, and amplifying what our late great founder, Stan Herzog was all about. And that was expanding and growing, becoming a catalyst for Christian education. He believes.

believed in it. And so the Herzlund Foundation was ostensibly created to help existing Christian schools gird themselves. You know, it's one thing to start a Christian school, but to keep it going, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, that's tough. That means you've got to have standards, you've got to have boards, you've got to have administrative things in place, curriculums in place that keep that biblical standard intact. And the Herzlund Foundation trainings that we offer, across the country are free of charge to people who are interested in taking various trainings along those lines lots of different subjects we offer over a hundred a year all over the country and if you're able to get to them the only ask that we make of you is that you apply

for the trainings and then if you are accepted by the application you travel to the trainings we put you up we feed you we cover the trainings and the whole thing all you got to do is pay to get there and the rest of it's on us so that's part of it The other half of it, of course, is if you'd like to start your own Christian school, or maybe it's just on your heart to homeschool or start a microschool or a pod school, we plug you in with mentors and resources, eight steps right there on our website at HerzogFoundation.com where you can learn to do those things on your own. If you wonder, where do I start, we tell you where to start.

HerzogFoundation.com. And I know I've said this many times, but I've traveled around the country for years, and everywhere I go, I bump into homeschoolers and their parents. And I think without exception, they are some of the most socially mature, generally mature, well-informed, well-educated young people that I've ever met. And I find this fascinating because it's to a point where I keep saying homeschoolers are going to take over the world. Like the world is not prepared for what has been happening, what has been brewing silently, because the mainstream media doesn't ever discuss homeschool.

That doesn't exist in their secular leftist world. Home schoolers are just magnificently prepared to do all kinds of things, to run stuff. I mean, in a meritocracy, it's game over. And so I think that anybody who isn't familiar with homeschool, I can't tell you how many people come up to me and say, oh, in my homeschool class, I read your book seven men, I read your book seven women, I read your book, If You Can Keep It, I read your Bonhofer book. In homeschool, I thought, these kids are way ahead of your average kid in America. And so it's really important for people to understand that this is a phenomenon. Now, some people are well aware of this, but there are a lot of people. people, they have no clue. It is, it is amazing, folks. And that's why I keep saying the Herzog Foundation is a place to kind of acquaint yourself. HertzogFoundation.com is the website. And read lion, is it dot com or dot org? Dot com. Yeah. I'm sorry. Read Lion, R-A-D-L-I-O-N, readlion.com. There are all

kinds of resources. This is a world. If you're a parent, this is just, it's a, it's a wonderful thing. We will be an amazing country if we get education right. And homeschooling to me, it's the best of the best. And there's all kinds of options available that weren't available 10 and 20 years ago to make it easy, convenient, to make it possible for people for whom it wouldn't have been possible because they're too busy. So there's all kinds of stuff. So folks, go to Pritzag Foundation.com. We're not blowing smoke here. It's a great thing.

Pritzagfoundation.com. Chris DeGal, thank you. Eric, thanks for your friendship. Appreciate you, as always.