Latest / The Burros of Berea Podcast / Episode 5- Side Study- Did John Write his Gospel? Part 1 of 3

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Episode 5- Side Study- Did John Write his Gospel? Part 1 of 3 · The Burros of Berea Podcast

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  You are listening to the Boroughs of Berea, Side Studies.
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  Rick Welch Welcome back to the Boroughs of Berea and our
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  little side study.
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  I'm Rick Welch.
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  I've got Ralph Hicks here and we've got Andy Bishop.
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  We're recording at Giraffe Studio in Hendersonville.
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  Today's topic, something that's been very near and dear to my heart, is the reason why
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  I wanted to do the podcast, honestly.
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  And that is preconceived notions that come with studying the Bible, preconceived notions
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  that come whenever you become a Christian.
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  There are so many things that you were taught prior to becoming a Christian, just in your
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  everyday life.
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  And even Andy, you've said it yourself, being bathed in the glory of Christianity in America,
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  you pick up a lot of things, right?
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  And so, because of that, whenever we go to read the scriptures, a lot of times we have
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  things already laid out for us.
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  If you pick up a Bible and it says, the gospel according to Matthew or the gospel according
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  to John or whatever, it's automatic in your brain who wrote the book, Matthew or John,
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  right?
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  Also, you look at those little numbers in there, the verses, and there's chapter one,
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  verse three, chapter three, verse 16.
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  So you got the gospel of John, chapter three, verse 16.
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  Well, this was a letter that was written.
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  It's debated how long it was written.
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  We don't know.
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  It's historical.
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  Most people say, if we say the gospel of John, it was written sometime, they believe in the
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  around 100 AD or after that, some people believe it's around 67, 68 AD.
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  There's no real way to tell because all we have are copies of copies of copies.
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  And so, as these letters were accepted by the church fathers, they were put into the
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  canon, anything that wasn't was either apocryphal or pseudepigraphal.
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  And so-
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  I'm sorry, what is pseudepigraphal?
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  False writing.
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  And funny enough, a lot of studies using pseudepigraphal writing is actually, in my opinion, good because
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  it's coming from the same time.
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  And so, because it's coming from the same time that this other letter was written, you
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  can pick up on specific things in culture that you may not have been able to pick up
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  just in the scripture alone, which is awesome.
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  It's a helpful study aid.
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  Pseudepigraphal writing Catholics, they have the apocrypha in their Bible.
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  They know that they say that it's not inspired by God, but it's historical.
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  And because it's there, it helps with the study of the actual Word of God.
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  That's what they say.
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  So, apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writing, but canonized books, the ones that were selected
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  like for us, the ones we have in our modern day Bible, 66 books, there's 39 books in the
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  Old Testament, 27 in the New, those were set in stone.
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  And that became the canon.
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  And it was these early church fathers and all their writings that determined how to
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  set up this canon.
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  There were lots of councils, there was lots of debate.
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  Well, not all the people and not all the writings because the canon is just the ones that they
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  decided to say, this is the Word of God and we're putting it in this book for you because
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  there's plenty of other writings by other people and by people who are in here that
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  not everything was found or put into it.
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  Well, and I guess that's what I'm trying to say is that it was determined prior to us.
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  It was that these were the Holy ones.
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  These were the ones that they believed that the Holy Spirit was directly involved in the
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  writing of.
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  And I have to admit, when I study it, it's amazing.
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  And I see when I read a pseudepigraphal or an apocryphal writing, I can feel a distinct
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  difference in the writing versus what I'm reading in Scripture.
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  And I don't know if it's because I read it so much that I've gotten used to the language
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  and anything that's outside of that language feels foreign to me or if it literally is
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  because the Holy Spirit wrote it and it's saying something to my own personal spirit,
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  my own soul, I'm picking up on things.
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  But I've noticed a distinct difference in those writings.
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  But chapters, verses, all of those things were put in by man.
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  You have specific Bibles that have red letter additions, and those red letters were put
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  in by man.
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  So, if anytime you see a red letter, that happens to be when the Lord is speaking.
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  And so, if you read the context, and I would say 95% of the time, the red letters are in
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  the right place, but there are times that they're actually not in the right place.
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  And you can read it, if you read it yourself and you really pay attention very close to
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  the detail of what's being said, you can see where the author speaks versus whenever the
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  Lord's speaking.
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  You can tell.
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  And there was no punctuation back then.
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  So, having a comma in a specific place can change the whole meaning of a sentence.
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  That's how the Jehovah's Witness will say.
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  Whenever Jesus was on the cross and the thief on the cross looks at you and looks at Jesus
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  and says, remember me when you enter into your kingdom, Jesus says, I tell you the truth,
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  today you will be with me in paradise.
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  But they say, no, no, no, there are no commas in scripture.
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  So, he said, I tell you the truth today, comma, you will be with me in paradise.
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  Right?
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  So, what's the difference in meaning there?
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  Okay.
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  So, if I say, I tell you the truth, comma, today you will be with me in paradise, then
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  that means this very day you'll be with me in paradise.
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  If you move the comma and say, I tell you the truth today, comma, now I'm telling you
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  the truth today, you will be with me in paradise someday.
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  Okay?
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  So, yeah.
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  So, it's like just a little bit of a time.
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  Yeah, it's just a time thing.
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  Yeah.
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  But it also could be one of the most foundational doctrines of a specific sect of Christianity.
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  If they believe that today you would be with me in paradise, then that means that when
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  they die, they immediately go to paradise, right?
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  But they don't believe that.
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  They're talking about paradise much later.
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  They weren't going into paradise.
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  Oh, yeah, that's right.
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  You see what I mean?
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  So, you can change the meaning of, you know, an entire church can believe something just
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  because of punctuation, right?
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  Yeah, that's interesting.
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  Yeah, they do have a little bit of an interesting reading of some things, don't they?
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  They do.
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  I mean, and we all do, honestly, but I think that's where it's at.
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  What I discovered is whenever I started reading, I just decided to read exactly what was the
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  word only.
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  I wasn't paying attention to chapters and verses.
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  It's irritating.
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  Sometimes they split a chapter right in the middle of somebody saying something or doing
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  something, and it's like, why did you split it there?
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  Like, let it at least finish the thought.
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  Because if you're studying, a lot of times you'll say, well, I read chapter seven tonight,
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  I'm going to bed.
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  I'll pick up eight tomorrow.
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  Well, if you don't go back and you follow that line of thinking, you can actually get
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  a totally different interpretation.
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  Cliffhanger.
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  Yeah, that's exactly right.
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  It's so odd.
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  So I asked Ralph if he would do some studying because I'm going to bring up something that's
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  very controversial.
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  I do not believe that the disciple, John, wrote the Gospel of John.
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  And I'd never thought about it since Rick brought it up.
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  Not that I'd never thought about who we are told, I just never gave a second to thought
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  to who it really was.
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  If you read a letter that comes out and it says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ under
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  the church, which is in Ephesus, that's the book of Ephesians, right?
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  Well, when they wrote letters, they said their name at the beginning and they said who it
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  was to and all that, so that you knew who was writing the letter and who it was going
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  to so that you would be prepared to understand where that message is going and who it's for
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  at the time that it was happening.
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  So when you read a letter in the scripture, knowing who wrote it can be helpful.
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  Well, if you were taught that this is the Gospel of John, which was not titled, these
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  letters weren't titled.
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  They were just letters that were circulating among the early Christians.
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  So because there was no title, whenever the church fathers decided to canonize it and
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  they needed to like pretty much wrest this away from the Gnostics of the time or other
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  people they would consider heretics, they were trying to canonize these.
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  They would put the apostle's names or somebody important in the faith as the author of it
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  so that they could legitimize it and make it solid.
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  Well, that makes sense.
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  Sure.
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, it's a smart move, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it translates well for
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  people 2,000 years later who's trying to read this book.
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  If I tell you that it's not John, then it can change a lot of things because it's a
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  common belief in church history or in church tradition that John wrote the Gospel of John
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  as well as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, of course, by the title and then Revelation because the
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  writing is very similar between all five of those books.
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  I always just assumed that the books were not necessarily by the person named with that.
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  They were more the story of and compilations probably from multiple sources is kind of
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  the read I've always had on it.
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  Yeah.
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  And obviously probably been rewritten a hundred thousand times before even Nicaea.
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  Absolutely.
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  And how many languages did you get to before you got to English?
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  Oh, yeah.
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  That was a fun experiment I wanted to do.
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  I wanted to take the, it's that silly book, the book of post-aparianism and translate
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  it to a dead language and then back to English just to see what happened.
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  Of course, I don't have the ability to do that, but theoretically it's hilarious.
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, like you just said, I mean, it was the original language of Hebrew and then during
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  Jesus's time, which was Aramaic and then Greek, then it was translated from those initial
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  languages.
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  Of course, our current Bibles, they use the Latin Vulgate.
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  Vulgate is like vulgar, it's this harsh language.
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  There's a lot to be said about how the Bible came into be, but that's not what this episode
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  is about.
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  This episode is about reading the context of the actual letter that's been given that's
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  believed to be the Bible and trying to determine, almost like a detective, if you can figure
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  out who wrote it.
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  And I can guarantee you it's not John.
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  It's not the son of Zebedee, it's against tradition, but at this stage of my life, I
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  don't care.
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  You know, people are going to think what they want.
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  It's not heresy to say it's not John.
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  It's, in my opinion, it's heresy to just assume everything is okay and never think about it
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  or talk about it.
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  I think you should study.
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  Paul said, study to show thyself approved, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly
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  dividing the word of truth.
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  So I agree with him.
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  I think you should.
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  So I want to start there.
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  And Ralph, do you have a particular belief one way or the other?
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  I mean, did you just always assume it was John or do you think-
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  Well, I was raised as Catholic, so they all say it's John and I even looked it up on the
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  web in a couple of places to check what Catholics say.
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  He just punched the possum.
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  And predominantly, it's John.
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  But one of the cases did say something at the very end of what he was talking about
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  it being Lazarus.
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  And then there's a couple other places, John the Apostle, Lazarus, John the Elder, unknown
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  priest or disciple, James the brother of Jesus.
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  And there've been several other people over the years that have been cited as maybe being
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  it, but it could even Mary Magdalene.
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  Yeah, I've heard that theory too because they took away the feminine.
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  Right.
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  So John was what I grew up with.
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  And then when I was probably my early 20s, there was a guy and I used to talk about the
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  Bible and he and I at one point looked at it and thought it might be James.
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  And that's what I said on the phone to you when you called me last week.
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  You said, who?
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  I said, well, I think it's James.
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  And you're like, close, but no cigar.
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  Well, I can show you that it's not James, but let's start here.
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  Let's go to John chapter 21 and we'll open with verse 20.
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  At the end of this, we've been studying Jesus' life, His resurrections, and then getting
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  Him to the point of burial.
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  So this is after the burial.
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  Okay, and we're going to go back.
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  The next time we have Billy back here, we're going to get back into that original study.
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  But from the side perspective, most of the things that I've been talking about have been
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  coming from the Gospel of John.
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  And so at the end of John, after John 21, after Jesus has been resurrected, they went
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  to the tomb, it's empty, they're running around, they're trying to figure out what are we going
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  to do.
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  And then Peter, who is the leader of this band of disciples that have been scattered
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  since this crucifixion, decides to go back to his old fishing boat, fishing vessel, and
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  to go fishing.
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  They're supposed to be waiting for Jesus.
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  Jesus has shown Himself a couple of times, but they're waiting on Him.
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  And Peter, as we remember, he's denied Christ three times, and so they're all fishing one
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  night.
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  And then this man comes up on the beach and he says, how's the fishing going?
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  And they say, we didn't catch anything.
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  And he says, try to cast it on the right side.
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  So they do.
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  They have this miraculous catch a fish, which is exactly how Peter met Jesus in the first
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  place.
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  It seems a very Jesus-like thing to do.
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  It is.
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  Absolutely.
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  So, I apologize for that phone call.
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  So Peter goes back to the beach, they go run up to see Jesus, and they have this little
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  discourse, and then afterwards they're walking on the beach.
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  And verse 20 says, then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following,
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  which also leaned on his breast at supper and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth
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  thee?
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  Peter seeing him, saith the Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?
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  Jesus saith unto him, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
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  Follow thou me.
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  Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die.
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  Yet Jesus said not unto him, he shall not die.
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  But if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
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  Verse 24, this is the disciple which testifieth of these things and wrote these things.
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  And we know that his testimony is true.
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  Now, so verse 24 is saying this disciple who is the disciple whom Jesus loved is the one
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  that wrote this book.
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  So now, it's always sort of eluded me when I was reading the scripture, I just always
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  assumed it was John.
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  I never thought twice about it.
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  But then when I made the film, Resurrection and the Life, we always want to give credit
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  where credit is due.
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  And so we want to say, written by John.
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  That's what I was doing.
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  I was trying to be clever.
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  Like, okay, I made this movie, I used exactly the words just from the Bible, because that's
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  the way I wanted to do it, exactly to the Bible.
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  And then at the end, I wanted to be clever and say written by John.
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  But after I read it, I was like, wait, it never says it's actually written by John.
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  It's called the Gospel of John, but it never actually says it's John.
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  But it is the disciple whom Jesus loved.
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  So in order to give the credit, I said written by the disciple whom Jesus loved.
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  So it became mysterious to me.
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  This was years ago, you know?
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  Well, it started bugging me because I was like, well, wait, how do I know it's John?
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  We touched on this, the disciple whom Jesus loved thing a couple of times in the prior
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  episodes if anybody's not caught up that it happens to be listening.
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  That's right.
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  And those three people are three audience listeners.
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  Yeah.
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  Very devoted.
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  There were several times when people were called beloved.
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  When?
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  In the Bible.
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  His first meeting with Jesus, John 1.35 to 37, his first appearance at the Last Supper,
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  his appearance at the high priest house, his appearance at the foot of the cross.
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  Was he beloved by Jesus in all those examples or just beloved?
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  Beloved by Jesus.
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  So there's seven examples of saying-
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  Let's hear it.
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  John 1 what?
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  John 1.35 to 37.
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  1.35.
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  I've got one here that is John.
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  It says, and again, the next day after John stood and two of his disciples and looking
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  upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, behold the Lamb of God.
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  And the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus.
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  So where's the beloved part?
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  You're not going to find it, Ralph.
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  Then Peter turned, well, this other one here said, then Peter turning around saw the disciple
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  whom Jesus loved following who also had leaned on his breast.
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  And that is John 21.20.
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  That's what I just read.
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  Yeah, I know.
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  I'm just saying it's not just in that place in the Bible.
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  There's several other places where-
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  Where he says the disciple whom Jesus loved?
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  There's seven times actually where it says the disciple whom Jesus loved.
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  Yeah, I think that is what Ralph said.
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  Yeah.
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  So you're talking about the beloved disciple.
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  Yeah, but it doesn't actually say it's John.
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  No, it doesn't.
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  It doesn't say who it is either time.
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  Yeah.
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  In any of those places, it doesn't mention it.
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  Even though I was raised Catholic, when we would have talkings, they would still say
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  they don't know who the author of this is and they don't know.
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  They're not sure if that he's the author.
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  He just had a lot of things that it sounded like him.
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  Yeah.
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  And the same thing with the Revelation.
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  So that's right.
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  That's why if you read Revelation, the language sounds very familiar to the Gospel of John.
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  That's why they attribute this all to the same writer.
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  But because inside the book of Revelation, he says, I, John, because he uses the name
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  John, everybody automatically thinks it's either John the Elder or John the Apostle.
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  There's no way it could be somebody else.
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  His name is John, so it has to be John.
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  Well, yeah.
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  And there was one article that was talking about two of the chapters that they figured
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  were John the Elder just because it was very similar to his writing.
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  Because he was most likely the person, because at the end of this, it says, if you read the
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  end of John 21, he says, and we know that his witness is true, that automatically shows
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  you there's a second person involved that's writing this.
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  This is the disciple that testifies to these things, and his testimony is true.
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  We know that his testimony is true.
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  Wait, we, there's more than one.
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  Yeah, who's the we?
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  Yeah.
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  That's right.
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  And like you said earlier, it's man that's written all this stuff, because I remember
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  over the years, them talking about who they thought wrote this and who they thought wrote
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  that because they weren't sure, but everybody did their best guess or whatever was written
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  down in the past.
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  So even though it is divine written, like you say, they only highlight certain things
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  that this was what Christ said, or this is what so-and-so said, and all the books that
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  go back say, you know, these were all translated.
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  Nobody's ever tried to debate them because they haven't found any flaws when they go
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  to the original text.
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  Yeah.
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  And you know what?
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  If you'd have looked at me and said, this is a divine book, before my conversion, I
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  would have laughed out loud.
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  Like this, what a joke.
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  Like, are you serious?
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  I didn't feel this way until I was converted, and then I studied it myself.
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  That's when it became divine.
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  That's when I realized, wait, there's some brilliant men in the world, but there's not
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  over a 1500 year period that are this intertwined and so perfectly placed.
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  The only thing I could come up with was, man, the Jewish people, they must be writing these
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  books after the fact and then calling it prophecy because they're killing it.
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  Like these guys are a hundred percent, you know, like this is weird.
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  That's the only thing that made sense to me.
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  Like they had to be writing it after.
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  It had to be.
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  They missed the biggest one.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, they wrote it after.
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  They're still waiting for him.
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  Yeah, exactly.
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  So, I'm going to bring up a really interesting point.
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  Do you know in the scripture how many people that are named to be loved by Jesus?
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  I don't know because I've never looked it up, but I did find four, five or six of them
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  today when I was looking online.
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  I didn't count.
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  There's only one named man in all of scripture.
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  Only one in the entire Bible.
• 20:44
  No, I mean, well, I thought you were talking about who they thought all these people were
• 20:48
  that were supposed to have been that person.
• 20:51
  No, I'm talking about, I'm talking about not the disciple whom Jesus loved.
• 20:54
  I'm talking about how many people in scripture are actually, have a special relationship
• 20:59
  where it says Jesus loved this person.
• 21:01
  We did that two podcasts ago because when Lazarus was dying, she said, Lazarus, whom
• 21:08
  you love.
• 21:09
  Yes.
• 21:10
  That's the only time.
• 21:12
  It says that the sisters in John chapter 11, where we were reading before, it says that
• 21:18
  the sister Martha tells Jesus, right?
• 21:21
  Because he's sick and it-
• 21:23
  If you only would have been here.
• 21:24
  Right.
• 21:25
  But she says, his sisters sent unto him saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
• 21:32
  Now, if I break that down, it was his sisters that said that he loved him, right?
• 21:38
  That doesn't necessarily mean that that's true.
• 21:42
  The sisters believed that he loved him.
• 21:44
  You know, that's fair.
• 21:46
  Yeah, but they chose the words to go on the Bible pretty selectly.
• 21:50
  Well, I think-
• 21:51
  There's a lot of gospels that aren't in the gospels because they said, this doesn't count.
• 21:56
  Sure.
• 21:57
  Like the gospel of Judas, the gospel of James, not James, but-
• 22:00
  Thomas.
• 22:01
  Thomas, the gospel of Philip.
• 22:02
  A couple of women.
• 22:03
  Yeah, Mary Magdalene, gospel of Mary.
• 22:06
  Yeah, there's several.
• 22:07
  There's several.
• 22:09
  So whenever they say, behold, the man whom you love is sick, Jesus doesn't come right
• 22:17
  away, right?
• 22:19
  So then, later on, Jesus says, let us go into Judea again, and the disciples are trying
• 22:27
  to stop him.
• 22:28
  And he says in verse- John 11, verse 11, these things said he, and after that he saith unto
• 22:35
  them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep, our friend
• 22:41
  Lazarus.
• 22:42
  So, our.
• 22:44
  That means that the disciples knew who he was and that they were friends.
• 22:48
  Jesus says at one point in his life, he says, there's no greater love than this than a man
• 22:55
  that lays down his life for his friends.
• 22:59
  So Jesus considered Lazarus a friend, the disciples considered Lazarus a friend.
• 23:03
  This is the very first time, and this is what will blow your mind.
• 23:08
  Did you know that Lazarus is never mentioned in Matthew, Mark, or Luke?
• 23:14
  Don't you think that's kind of interesting?
• 23:16
  For somebody that everybody seems to know and-
• 23:19
  We talked about the rock star status and all of the things that happened.
• 23:23
  You've never heard his name in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
• 23:25
  They never say it.
• 23:28
  But to try to say that, I'm not even saying that it's a problem necessarily.
• 23:33
  I know why his name's not in it, and we're going to get to that, but they never mention
• 23:38
  him.
• 23:39
  But they do mention things that are near him, and when that happens, it's unique.
• 23:44
  But Lazarus, this resurrection of Lazarus is never mentioned, except during the Gospel
• 23:50
  of John.
• 23:51
  Okay?
• 23:52
  Well, not every gospel says everything, so there are things missing from one to the other.
• 23:58
  That aren't in another.
• 24:00
  That's fair, but the Gospel of John said that Jesus loved Lazarus, and Jesus had such a
• 24:05
  close relationship, and then he resurrected from the dead.
• 24:09
  And then it also says later on, remember in the last podcast I said at the triumphal entry,
• 24:14
  the reason why they were there was because of Lazarus.
• 24:18
  So the triumphal entry's in every gospel.
• 24:20
  Why didn't the other authors mention that they're there because of the fame of Lazarus?
• 24:25
  I don't know.
• 24:27
  Maybe they're told a different way.
• 24:28
  Maybe they're trying to hide it.
• 24:29
  Why would they try to hide that?
• 24:31
  I'll tell you why they're trying to hide it.
• 24:32
  Especially being that there were so many apostles.
• 24:34
  I mean, just because we know of 12 doesn't mean that there weren't hundreds of people
• 24:38
  following him, many of them apostles.
• 24:40
  And in fact, Peter had apostles.
• 24:43
  Yeah?
• 24:44
  And he introduced them.
• 24:46
  I mean, that's even in Scripture where he introduced this is Jesus to his apostle, which
• 24:52
  was Simon Peter.
• 24:56
  Simon Peter is Simon Peter.
• 24:57
  No, no.
• 24:58
  I'm trying to think if it was.
• 24:59
  I don't know about...
• 25:00
  Are you talking about John the Baptist had disciples?
• 25:04
  I don't know if Peter having apostles.
• 25:06
  Yeah, but I meant disciples.
• 25:07
  Disciples.
• 25:08
  I don't know if Peter didn't have disciples.
• 25:09
  He had a brother named Andrew and he was a fisherman.
• 25:12
  Several of them brought people who kind of followed what they had to say and they brought
• 25:15
  them to the master.
• 25:16
  Yeah.
• 25:17
  So they brought people that became disciples of Jesus, which you're saying.
• 25:20
  Yeah.
• 25:21
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 25:22
  I mean, John the Baptist had disciples himself.
• 25:23
  In fact, I believe that Lazarus is one of the earliest ones.
• 25:27
  And I'll show you here in a sec because in the beginning of John, he uses...
• 25:33
  And there were two disciples, like he had two disciples.
• 25:36
  I believe Lazarus was a disciple of John the Baptist and then began to follow Jesus.
• 25:43
  I guess the biggest point that I want to make in this early phase is why was he hidden from
• 25:49
  the other gospels?
• 25:51
  And to say, well, a lot of things are hidden or whatever, but there's also something unique
• 25:54
  about the Gospel of John, which is there's an author who's trying to hide his identity,
• 26:00
  correct?
• 26:02
  He's hiding his identity.
• 26:03
  Yeah, he never mentions...
• 26:04
  Oh, that's the point.
• 26:05
  At the end of it, he's the disciple in Jesus' love, but he never gives himself a name.
• 26:08
  He's hiding his identity.
• 26:11
  Why do you think that is?
• 26:12
  Don't you find that interesting?
• 26:14
  I'm interested.
• 26:15
  Yes and no.
• 26:17
  Less because back then everyone was hiding that was a Christian.
• 26:22
  So I could see that.
• 26:23
  Exactly.
• 26:24
  Now, if you go back to John 11 and we see that Jesus has raised him from the dead, right
• 26:32
  there at the end, notice what it says.
• 26:36
  After he raises him from the dead, or actually, I think it's right before it.
• 26:41
  It's right before Jesus weeps in John 11, 45.
• 26:44
  What do the Jews say something about it whenever he's upset in his heart?
• 26:51
  Verse 36, John 11, verse 36, where he says, where have you laid him?
• 26:56
  They said unto him, Lord, come and see.
• 26:58
  Jesus wept, verse 36, then said the Jews, behold how he loved him.
• 27:05
  So now you've got the sisters, but then the Jews also said, and if Jesus called him a
• 27:12
  friend, obviously Jesus had a relationship with him before him and Jesus did actually
• 27:16
  love him.
• 27:17
  He was willing to lay his life down for a friend and he called Lazarus a friend.
• 27:21
  So now you've got the sisters agreeing, you've got Jesus agreeing, and now the Jews have
• 27:24
  even said, behold how he loved him.
• 27:27
  That's a lot of people saying love about this one man, Lazarus.
• 27:32
  Don't you agree?
• 27:34
  Yes, but the other side of me just kind of thinks after I left the Catholic Church what
• 27:40
  I thought God and Jesus was, and I think God loves everyone.
• 27:45
  I think God loves sinners.
• 27:47
  And I think there's a show on television that someone was watching in my house the other
• 27:51
  day because I don't really watch a lot.
• 27:52
  I go to sleep to it maybe, but Satan was on the show and I was looking at his character
• 28:02
  and I'm thinking, you know what?
• 28:05
  If Satan said, God, you know what?
• 28:07
  You're right, I'm sorry, I screwed up.
• 28:09
  I got no problem.
• 28:11
  My God says, come on in.
• 28:12
  If you truly feel that way and God would know, then that's perfect.
• 28:17
  So I think he loves everyone.
• 28:19
  Oh, I don't think he loves Satan ever.
• 28:21
  Do you?
• 28:22
  Yeah.
• 28:23
  You think if Satan asked for forgiveness, God would forgive him?
• 28:25
  I do.
• 28:26
  Oh, those days are over.
• 28:27
  I don't think so.
• 28:28
  I think-
• 28:29
  Long time ago.
• 28:30
  You know, Satan went there because he was on his last one and he broke it and he was
• 28:34
  sent, but if God says he'll redeem you no matter who you are, and he was loved.
• 28:43
  We're supposed to be judging the angels.
• 28:46
  You know that, right?
• 28:48
  In the scripture, we judge the angels.
• 28:51
  It's harder for us than it is the angels.
• 28:53
  They've been in his presence.
• 28:55
  We were born in sin.
• 28:57
  He made it.
• 28:58
  Oh, I'll be lucky to get in.
• 29:00
  I'll be that last guy.
• 29:01
  It ain't got nothing to do with you, buddy.
• 29:03
  It's everything Jesus did.
• 29:04
  Well, like I said, I know I'm in.
• 29:05
  Yeah, exactly.
• 29:06
  I'll probably be that last guy squeaking through the fence.
• 29:11
  Yeah.
• 29:12
  I'll be waving.
• 29:13
  Hey, Ralph, over here.
• 29:14
  Remind me to tell you guys a joke later.
• 29:19
  It'll be about getting into heaven.
• 29:22
  So right after John 11, because of this fame that Lazarus had got, it was very clear that
• 29:37
  the Pharisees, or actually the chief priests, wanted to kill Lazarus too.
• 29:42
  And it says it in the scripture.
• 29:46
  And maybe we could find that real quick, exactly where that is.
• 29:51
  Was Lazarus at the cross?
• 29:53
  Yes.
• 29:54
  He's the disciple whom Jesus loved.
• 29:56
  Yeah, but I couldn't find a place to that.
• 29:58
  I was looking to see who was at the cross, because as I was looking at these different
• 30:03
  at the cross, his beloved was at the cross, his beloved here, I tried to cross-reference
• 30:08
  different things, and the only thing I couldn't find was anything that said Lazarus was at
• 30:12
  the cross.
• 30:13
  It says the disciple whom Jesus loved.
• 30:14
  Yeah, but it didn't say Lazarus.
• 30:15
  Not by name, yeah.
• 30:16
  Right.
• 30:17
  I was just looking for it.
• 30:18
  Yeah.
• 30:19
  If you're in John chapter 12, verse 9, this is another place Lazarus is mentioned.
• 30:27
  Oh, the plot?
• 30:29
  Yeah, exactly, the plot.
• 30:31
  Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there.
• 30:33
  Talking about Lazarus, so everywhere Lazarus is going, there's a big crowd, right?
• 30:39
  And they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also whom he had
• 30:44
  raised from the dead.
• 30:46
  But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death.
• 30:49
  That's John chapter 12, verse 9 through 10.
• 30:53
  So it's obvious that the gospel of John has brought out this character whom you've never
• 30:57
  heard of before.
• 30:59
  If you've read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you've never heard of this man, but all of a sudden
• 31:03
  he has this gigantic role and he's around Jesus all the time.
• 31:09
  Anytime they're in Bethany, Lazarus is there, that's for sure.
• 31:12
  Anytime they're at the house of Martha, you've heard of Martha, but you haven't heard of
• 31:15
  Lazarus.
• 31:16
  Oh, I would say Lazarus followed Jesus.
• 31:19
  Absolutely.
• 31:20
  He sure did.
• 31:22
  And he was closer than people think.
• 31:24
  Rick's speaking specifically to the absence of Lazarus in other books.
• 31:29
  That's right.
• 31:30
  Yeah.
• 31:31
  But guys, I find that strange.
• 31:34
  It's strange to me if he is that critical of a character.
• 31:39
  He's the only other person that the chief priests have determined to kill.
• 31:43
  Yeah, but they wanted to kill him because Jesus raised him from the dead and him being
• 31:47
  around and alive still is a threat to them.
• 31:50
  That's right.
• 31:51
  But he is also the only other man that at that time, the chief priests.
• 31:54
  By the way, you said chief priests, right?
• 31:58
  That's right.
• 31:59
  We know who they are, Annas and Caiaphas.
• 32:03
  But you know you never hear of Annas in the other books either.
• 32:06
  You don't hear about Annas until you get to the Gospel of John.
• 32:09
  And here's why.
• 32:11
  Because the disciple whom Jesus loved is part of the inner circle of the priests.
• 32:16
  I can show you that too.
• 32:17
  And I'm going to.
• 32:18
  The next time.
• 32:19
  No, I'm going to show you today.
• 32:20
  I'm not done until we find it.
• 32:22
  Okay?
• 32:23
  So, this person, this disciple whom Jesus loved was known by the priests.
• 32:30
  Okay?
• 32:31
  Lazarus was known by the priests too.
• 32:33
  They wanted to kill him.
• 32:34
  There was something unique about Lazarus because he was raised from the dead.
• 32:38
  But the chief priests have heard of this man and this fame that he's getting.
• 32:42
  They want to kill him.
• 32:43
  All right?
• 32:44
  So now, after chapter 12, guess how many more times you hear of the name Lazarus?
• 32:52
  I don't know, Rick.
• 32:53
  How many more times do you hear?
• 32:54
  Thank you.
• 32:55
  You have to say it on a podcast.
• 32:56
  Zero.
• 32:57
  You'll never hear the name Lazarus again.
• 33:02
  But when you go to chapter 13.
• 33:04
  Lazarus.
• 33:05
  When you go to chapter 13, you're going to discover a whole new character that you've
• 33:11
  never heard before.
• 33:13
  The disciple whom Jesus loved.
• 33:15
  This is where it happens.
• 33:17
  It's so definite to me that the Holy Spirit or whoever was writing this book or whatever
• 33:23
  is really trying to hone in on something.
• 33:26
  There was a man that Jesus loved, a man that Jesus loved, a man that Jesus loved.
• 33:29
  He was always there reclining with them.
• 33:31
  He's reclining with them at the table.
• 33:33
  And then later, the chief priests want to kill him.
• 33:35
  This is the one that Jesus loved.
• 33:37
  There's all kinds of fame.
• 33:38
  There's all kinds of people there.
• 33:39
  It's huge.
• 33:40
  Then suddenly, this man disappears.
• 33:42
  Boop.
• 33:43
  Gone.
• 33:44
  He's not in any of the other gospels.
• 33:46
  He's only mentioned in two chapters in the book of John.
• 33:50
  And after that, it's done.
• 33:53
  You never hear from him again.
• 33:55
  Sorry, Charlie.
• 33:57
  It's not John the apostle.
• 33:59
  The disciple whom Jesus loved, this author is concealing his identity for a reason because
• 34:06
  his fame is not what he's there for.
• 34:09
  This book is being written so that those who read it will believe that Jesus is the Christ,
• 34:15
  the Son of God, the only begotten Son.
• 34:19
  That's the whole purpose of this book.
• 34:21
  He's made it clear.
• 34:22
  I've only written this so that you will believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
• 34:28
  So it's just too much popularity.
• 34:31
  It's like Lazarus was getting too much hate.
• 34:35
  Uh-huh.
• 34:36
  But you guys, no.
• 34:37
  And that's not the point.
• 34:38
  That's not why we're here.
• 34:39
  Actually, it's funny you say that about heat.
• 34:40
  Yes and no.
• 34:42
  The disciple whom Jesus loved is given something very unique by Jesus, his own mother.
• 34:50
  Well, life, yes.
• 34:52
  100%.
• 34:53
  Oh yeah, from the cross.
• 34:54
  He said, this is your mother.
• 34:57
  Yes.
• 34:58
  He says, woman, behold thy son, son, behold thy mother.
• 35:03
  And he took her to his own household.
• 35:07
  It can't be James, the brother of Jesus, because he's part of Jesus' household.
• 35:11
  He's part of that household.
• 35:13
  This man has his own household, his own.
• 35:17
  Okay?
• 35:18
  Now, so he's very unique.
• 35:22
  Mary is going to go live with this disciple whom Jesus loved.
• 35:25
  He's going to take care of it because Jesus was the oldest of all of his siblings.
• 35:29
  It would make sense that she would stay with the family.
• 35:34
  It would make sense.
• 35:37
  Now, you said something earlier, Andy, that's really cool.
• 35:41
  You said life.
• 35:44
  Think about this for a second.
• 35:46
  Yes.
• 35:47
  You've been dead for four days, but yet prior to your death, you were really close to this
• 35:53
  man.
• 35:54
  So much so that you loved one another.
• 35:57
  I don't know if you've ever had a love for a man, like a friend man or a man where you
• 36:00
  really feel love towards somebody and it's a kinship that's unbreakable.
• 36:04
  It's amazing.
• 36:06
  And you die.
• 36:07
  And then four days later, he brings you back from the dead.
• 36:10
  He's the only man this has ever happened to in this fashion ever.
• 36:14
  If he was close to him before, do you think that he would be close to him after?
• 36:18
  Yeah, it seems like he'd keep that person around.
• 36:20
  Don't you think?
• 36:21
  Your dude, I owe you one.
• 36:22
  Yeah.
• 36:23
  Do I now?
• 36:24
  It's like, hey, dude, I owe you one.
• 36:26
  Yeah, yeah.
• 36:27
  You know, they're so close to the room.
• 36:28
  Now listen, when he tells you he's got you back, he's got you back.
• 36:33
  So suddenly when you get to chapter 13, you hear, let's see what it says, and supper being
• 36:46
  ended the devil having now put, this is John chapter 13 verse 2, and supper being ended
• 36:51
  the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,
• 36:56
  Jesus knowing that the father, pardon me, had given all things into his hands and that
• 37:01
  he was come from God and went to God.
• 37:04
  He rises from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself.
• 37:10
  After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet.
• 37:15
  So now he's washing the disciples' feet.
• 37:18
  Later on, he's telling them about being a servant.
• 37:22
  And then he says in verse 21, when Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit and testified
• 37:27
  and said, verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
• 37:32
  Then the disciples looked upon one another, doubting of whom he spake.
• 37:37
  Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved.
• 37:45
  Simon therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.
• 37:50
  He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it?
• 37:54
  Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it.
• 37:59
  And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
• 38:02
  And after the sop, Satan entered into him and said, Jesus, unto him, that thou doest
• 38:07
  do quickly.
• 38:08
  So boom, the disciple whom Jesus loved suddenly appears out of nowhere.
• 38:12
  Who is this guy?
• 38:16
  To be fair, I mean, that could just be, you could imagine a world in which Jesus loves
• 38:23
  all his disciples and that's just placeholder for random person that Jesus loves because
• 38:31
  he's Jesus.
• 38:32
  You know?
• 38:33
  Like I said earlier, Jesus loves everyone.
• 38:36
  I would like to say-
• 38:37
  A couple of things too is-
• 38:39
  Go ahead, go ahead.
• 38:40
  You have to remember this was translated a couple of different times before it got to
• 38:45
  our language, so we're taking a look at that based on history.
• 38:49
  There used to be a lady on TV when I was in California that she used to talk about the
• 38:54
  original language.
• 38:55
  And she'd talk about Latin, she'd talk about Greek, and she'd talk about how words mean
• 38:59
  when you say them this way or when you say them that way or when you spell them this
• 39:02
  way or you spell them that way and how the translation sometimes in trying to get to
• 39:06
  the root of exactly what it is.
• 39:09
  But to what you were just saying about what you were talking about where you thought there
• 39:14
  was some proof, there was one of the studies I found which was the most interesting.
• 39:17
  And by the way, I don't know that I believe or don't believe it was Lazarus or anyone
• 39:22
  else, but you've made a compelling case, especially after I read this.
• 39:27
  There's a guy named Wutherington who refers to John 20 when Peter and the other disciple,
• 39:31
  when they ran to see the empty tomb, Peter's trying to stand there and trying to figure
• 39:34
  out what's happened and the other one saw and believed.
• 39:38
  Just he saw and he's like, I believed.
• 39:40
  And his supposition is that the other disciple understood what happened because the tomb
• 39:45
  because he had had the same experience.
• 39:47
  He had been driven from the dead.
• 39:49
  Yeah, which would be one person that we can think of.
• 39:52
  That's one of my points.
• 39:53
  I'm glad you brought it up.
• 39:54
  And the other thing is that the evidence he was giving is no one else lived two miles
• 39:59
  away.
• 40:01
  He was two miles from where that happened and he was a Judean, so he wasn't worried
• 40:04
  about being arrested because just like being a Roman, certain things they can't do to
• 40:11
  you.
• 40:12
  So, those were two things that had pointed to Lazarus.
• 40:17
  Before Lazarus was in the tomb, right before he was unwrapped, it said that his head was
• 40:21
  wrapped about with a napkin.
• 40:23
  The word napkin is sudarion.
• 40:26
  It's only used four times in all of scripture and it's only used on two people, Jesus and
• 40:33
  Lazarus.
• 40:34
  And it says later that whenever the disciple whom Jesus loved ran, by the way, the other
• 40:40
  gospels don't mention a second disciple going to the tomb.
• 40:45
  They only mention one.
• 40:46
  Oh, that's interesting.
• 40:47
  Peter.
• 40:48
  Mary goes early, she comes back, she warns them.
• 40:51
  The other gospels say that Peter goes to the tomb.
• 40:54
  John, the gospel of John is the only one that says that another disciple was with him.
• 41:00
  It was the disciple whom Jesus loved.
• 41:04
  Another disciple.
• 41:05
  He runs, another disciple runs up with him.
• 41:08
  He beats Peter to the tomb.
• 41:09
  He runs past him.
• 41:11
  Why?
• 41:13
  Just because he was athletically better?
• 41:15
  Do you think that the author is trying to prove that he is more athletic than Peter?
• 41:19
  He's not.
• 41:20
  That's not what he's saying.
• 41:22
  That would be an odd detail.
• 41:23
  Yeah.
• 41:24
  It's like, and by the way, the disciple whom Jesus loved did a hundred pushups.
• 41:27
  That would be athletic.
• 41:29
  He beats him to the tomb and he stops and doesn't go in.
• 41:33
  He stops and he looks inside and he sees the sudarion.
• 41:39
  He stops.
• 41:40
  Peter jumps in, runs inside.
• 41:42
  Get in here.
• 41:43
  Come in here.
• 41:45
  And so, whenever the disciple whom Jesus loved, inner end or this other disciple, the other
• 41:48
  disciple is also the same disciple whom Jesus loved.
• 41:51
  It's all the same person.
• 41:52
  He's hiding his identity.
• 41:54
  When he gets inside the tomb, he sees the napkin and believes.
• 41:59
  He sees the sudarion.
• 42:01
  That's exactly why, because he's had that experience.
• 42:06
  It does make sense.
• 42:08
  What he said here, going to your other point about the book of the gospel not being written
• 42:14
  by John but being written by Lazarus, is that from his studies, he's claimed that John edited
• 42:20
  Lazarus' book after Lazarus passed away, saying we don't have any proof of it, but everything
• 42:27
  that he read points to who the real beloved disciple is, meaning Lazarus.
• 42:33
  I've never even heard that.
• 42:35
  That's actually okay with me, because we know that at the end of it, it was edited by somebody,
• 42:40
  so that's very possible.
• 42:41
  A lot of that stuff was passed down.
• 42:43
  A lot of the stuff was written by other people who...
• 42:47
  I think the same thing about the bard.
• 42:50
  I think that he was just smart enough to take all those stories and put it into something
• 42:54
  that was edible on the stage.
• 42:57
  You're talking about Shakespeare.
• 42:59
  I am.
• 43:00
  Yeah.
• 43:01
  I'm sure he stole a lot.
• 43:02
  Yeah, sure.
• 43:03
  And so, the same thing with these, not all these guys were great at writing.
• 43:07
  They could take their letters and write things, but they may not have put everything that
• 43:11
  they wrote in the letters in this, because he might have been saying hello to so-and-so.
• 43:14
  Well, you don't need to have that in there, just like you're going to edit this and some
• 43:17
  of the pops and whatchamajiggers aren't going to be in there.
• 43:21
  Yeah.
• 43:23
  Well, so let's look at something else.
• 43:25
  This is a unique thing.
• 43:27
  I talked about when Jesus went into the garden right before he was betrayed.
• 43:35
  As he is...
• 43:36
  I don't know, I keep coughing.
• 43:39
  Do you need water?
• 43:41
  No.
• 43:42
  Good, because I wasn't going to give you any.
• 43:46
  Can I have some of those really cheap granola bars though?
• 43:48
  Yes.
• 43:49
  As many as you want.
• 43:50
  No water, many dry granola bars.
• 43:54
  No soup for you, one year!
• 43:59
  Yeah, exactly.
• 44:00
  So, after Jesus has this prayer in the garden and Jesus is betrayed by Judas, it says that
• 44:09
  Peter pulls out a sword and he strikes the servant.
• 44:15
  In chapter 18, verse number 10,
• 44:18
  Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and smote the high priest's servant and cut
• 44:24
  off his right ear.
• 44:26
  The servant's name was Malchus.
• 44:29
  So it's kind of unique, Ralph, because the servant had a name.
• 44:36
  He's never named any of the other gospels, but this guy knew the name.
• 44:42
  It says, and we've always heard that all the disciples run away.
• 44:45
  Well, Simon Peter is still following it, it says this,
• 44:48
  And Simon Peter followed Jesus, this is verse 15 in chapter 18,
• 44:52
  And so did another disciple.
• 44:54
  That disciple was known unto the high priest, and went in with Jesus into the palace of
• 45:00
  the high priest.
• 45:01
  But Peter stood at the door without, then went out that other disciple, which was known
• 45:05
  unto the high priest, and spake unto her that kept the door and brought in Peter.
• 45:11
  Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou also one of this man's
• 45:16
  disciples?
• 45:17
  He saith, I am not.
• 45:19
  And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals.
• 45:24
  For it was cold, and they warned themselves, and Peter stood with them and warned himself.
• 45:28
  Now, so this disciple was known of the high priest and had immediate entrance into this
• 45:35
  inner sanctum.
• 45:36
  That's a man of import.
• 45:39
  Exactly.
• 45:40
  So, but how did he know?
• 45:42
  How did he know what?
• 45:43
  How was he part of the circle?
• 45:44
  Huh?
• 45:45
  How was he part of the circle?
• 45:46
  Lazarus, the inner circle of the priest.
• 45:50
  You said that earlier.
• 45:51
  What I'm saying is that this disciple whom Jesus loved, this other disciple, we're finding
• 45:59
  out something about him, whether it's Lazarus or not, we're learning about this disciple.
• 46:04
  This disciple was known by the high priest, was part of the inner crowd, he could get
• 46:07
  in.
• 46:08
  We're learning how he was known by the high priest and part of the inner crowd.
• 46:12
  Being known by them, I understand that he was famous, but-
• 46:14
  No one else could go into the inner sanctum.
• 46:16
  How did he get entrenched into that?
• 46:18
  Because he was known.
• 46:19
  But I was just wondering how he was known.
• 46:21
  Why was he known?
• 46:22
  For what?
• 46:23
  How was he in that group?
• 46:25
  I think the shortcut answer to a lot of these questions for better or for worse is just
• 46:29
  he was a rich man.
• 46:31
  Probably.
• 46:32
  I would say absolutely, but in my opinion, he was a priest.
• 46:37
  Now, there's the answer I was looking for.
• 46:40
  He was a priest.
• 46:41
  I'll go with the one that has to do with money, but both are true.
• 46:44
  Well, priests had money too.
• 46:46
  Yeah, there you go.
• 46:47
  But he was a priest.
• 46:48
  So did popes and wives, well, not wives, but kids.
• 46:52
  He was known as a priest.
• 46:53
  He could get into the inner sanctum because he was known.
• 46:56
  Okay, he was known.
• 46:58
  He was a priest.
• 46:59
  So he gets in.
• 47:01
  Now let's go to the end of the story and then I'm going to show you how John wasn't known
• 47:07
  of the priest.
• 47:08
  Okay?
• 47:09
  All right?
• 47:10
  So let's go to the very end of John.
• 47:13
  And if this doesn't blow your mind, Ralph, it's only because you're not listening to
• 47:17
  me.
• 47:18
  All right.
• 47:19
  There's the difference between listening and hearing.
• 47:29
  He's exactly right.
• 47:31
  So in order to hear, I must care.
• 47:34
  Yes.
• 47:35
  So if you remember the part at the end, whenever Peter is asked by Jesus, he says, Peter, do
• 47:43
  you love me?
• 47:44
  Remember that?
• 47:45
  And he says, yes, Lord, I love you.
• 47:46
  And then he says, Peter, do you love me?
• 47:47
  But you will deny me three times.
• 47:49
  Yeah, but so, well, he says at the end, he asked him if he loves him three times and
• 47:53
  Peter says, yes.
• 47:54
  And then he tells them to feed my lambs, feed my sheep, right?
• 47:57
  Well then they go walking on the beach.
• 48:00
  So it says right here, at the end of it, he says, feed my sheep.
• 48:03
  He saith unto him the third time, John chapter 21 verse 17, he saith unto him the third time,
• 48:08
  Simon, son of Jonah's, lovest thou me?
• 48:10
  Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me?
• 48:15
  And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.
• 48:20
  Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep.
• 48:22
  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself and walk's
• 48:30
  whither thou wouldest.
• 48:31
  But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee
• 48:37
  and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.
• 48:40
  Now notice what it says in verse 19, this spake he signifying by what death he should
• 48:47
  glorify God.
• 48:49
  So right after he says, yes, I love you, Jesus tells him how he's going to die.
• 48:55
  You're going to follow me.
• 48:57
  You're going to die by following me.
• 49:00
  This is what he says to Peter, right?
• 49:03
  And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, follow me.
• 49:08
  Verse 20, listen to this, then Peter turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved
• 49:15
  following, which also leaned on his breast at supper and said, Lord, which is he that
• 49:21
  betrayeth thee?
• 49:22
  Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?
• 49:30
  Jesus saith unto him, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
• 49:37
  Follow thou me.
• 49:39
  So what's Peter asking?
• 49:41
  What's going to happen to this guy?
• 49:44
  So you're telling me if I follow you, I'm going to die.
• 49:45
  What's going to happen to him?
• 49:47
  He says, if I'm going to allow him to live until I come again, that's up to me.
• 49:53
  You follow me.
• 49:55
  That's what he tells Peter.
• 49:56
  Why would he ask what's going to happen to John?
• 50:01
  Why would he even ask the question?
• 50:03
  So well, if I'm going to die, then what's going to happen to John?
• 50:06
  Is that what he's asking?
• 50:07
  He's just being shown his humanity there.
• 50:09
  I mean, you know, how many times have we heard people do that?
• 50:11
  How am I have to do that?
• 50:12
  If he's got to do it, what do I got to do?
• 50:14
  My kids do that.
• 50:15
  That's a nice thought.
• 50:16
  And you're right.
• 50:17
  That's a nice thought.
• 50:18
  But listen, Ralph, listen to the next thing that's said right after it.
• 50:21
  It says, then went this saying abroad among the brethren that that disciple should not
• 50:26
  die.
• 50:27
  Yet Jesus said not unto him, he shall not die.
• 50:31
  But if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
• 50:37
  This is the disciple which testifies of these things and wrote these things.
• 50:42
  And we know that his testimony is true.
• 50:44
  Well, to me, that's just got Jesus saying, look, it doesn't matter what I do with him.
• 50:48
  I've told you follow me.
• 50:50
  So keep your eye on me.
• 50:52
  Definitely.
• 50:53
  But I think that's-
• 50:54
  Not on this.
• 50:55
  What if he'd already died before?
• 50:58
  Wouldn't there be a question, you think?
• 51:01
  This isn't a stretch.
• 51:03
  He's the only man that's ever been spoken of as being loved by Jesus.
• 51:07
  He's the only man that had all this fame and brought people to Jesus.
• 51:10
  And then he's also the only man that doesn't get named in all of scripture.
• 51:13
  Yeah, but he wasn't named by-
• 51:14
  That suddenly disappears?
• 51:15
  Jesus, he was named by Martha.
• 51:18
  So she said it.
• 51:19
  Martha, Martha, Martha.
• 51:20
  Oh, sorry.
• 51:21
  What are you talking about?
• 51:22
  What do you mean?
• 51:23
  Well, you said it where he was named.
• 51:26
  The beloved was named, but as far as Lazarus and being-
• 51:30
  The only time it's mentioned is 11 and 12 in the book of John.
• 51:34
  It's the only time Lazarus is ever mentioned.
• 51:36
  Right.
• 51:37
  But when his sister says, Lazarus, whom you love, that's the only time that the name was
• 51:43
  put next to the beloved or the one you loved or anything.
• 51:47
  It was only Lazarus and it was only by her.
• 51:48
  It wasn't by anyone else.
• 51:49
  No, it was by the Jews.
• 51:50
  Behold how he loved him.
• 51:52
  And Jesus called him his friend.
• 51:53
  Well, yeah, but he just raised him from the dead.
• 51:56
  So that's just saying, that's just a writer embellishing and saying, wow, he must have
• 51:59
  really loved him in order to bring him back.
• 52:00
  He hadn't raised him from the dead yet.
• 52:01
  He hadn't raised him from the dead.
• 52:03
  Yeah, but this wasn't written before or during it happened.
• 52:06
  It was written afterward by somebody else.
• 52:07
  Are you talking about when the book was written?
• 52:08
  Yeah.
• 52:09
  Oh, I still don't follow what you mean, but I'm trying.
• 52:12
  He's saying that, yeah, that might be editorial flourish.
• 52:15
  Sure.
• 52:16
  That's true.
• 52:17
  All right.
• 52:18
  So let's go to Acts chapter four and then I'm going to stop right there.
• 52:23
  So in Acts chapter four, there is Peter and John are out and about and they've done these
• 52:30
  miracles and the scribes and the Pharisees are up in arms and they grab these guys and
• 52:36
  bring them before the high priests.
• 52:38
  Okay.
• 52:39
  Now it says in chapter four verse five, and it came to pass on the morrow that their rulers
• 52:44
  and elders and scribes and Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander
• 52:48
  and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest were gathered together at Jerusalem.
• 52:53
  And when they had set them in the midst, this is Peter and John, okay, Peter and John, and
• 52:59
  they had set them in the midst, they asked, by what power or by what name have you done
• 53:04
  this?
• 53:05
  Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost said unto them, you rulers of the people and elders
• 53:08
  of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man by what
• 53:12
  means he is made whole, be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by
• 53:17
  the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
• 53:21
  even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
• 53:25
  This is the stone which was set at not of you builders, which has become the head of
• 53:28
  the corner.
• 53:29
  Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
• 53:33
  among men whereby we must be saved.
• 53:35
  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned
• 53:41
  and ignorant men, they marveled.
• 53:47
  Just because they weren't priests.
• 53:50
  They were unlearned and ignorant men.
• 53:52
  They didn't even know who they were.
• 53:53
  Yeah, but back then most of the learned and ignorant men were priests.
• 53:57
  There were some rich people, but not mostly.
• 53:59
  It was mostly the scribes and the scholars and the priests that had studies.
• 54:06
  Yes, I agree with you 100%.
• 54:10
  So John and Peter being fishermen would have been considered unlearned and ignorant.
• 54:14
  Okay, that's true.
• 54:17
  So if he's unlearned and ignorant and isn't known because he's of the priest line, but
• 54:23
  he's not known, then how did John get to the inner sanctum of the chief priest because
• 54:27
  he was known by him?
• 54:29
  Because Lazarus?
• 54:31
  Thank you.
• 54:33
  Well, that of course is all speculative.
• 54:37
  It's like getting into a bar and you go in with somebody who knows the bouncer.
• 54:41
  That's right.
• 54:42
  Or somebody, yeah, somebody.
• 54:43
  Or you were with a hot girl.
• 54:44
  Yeah, influence in religious.
• 54:45
  That never happened to me, by the way.
• 54:46
  I mean, I knew the bouncer sometimes, but.
• 54:47
  Never with a hot girl?
• 54:48
  No, no, no.
• 54:49
  I was the one that she looked at.
• 54:50
  That's the other way to look at it.
• 54:51
  Come on, man.
• 54:52
  I was the one that she looked at.
• 54:53
  Come on, man.
• 54:54
  I was the one that she looked at.
• 54:55
  I was the one that she looked at.
• 54:56
  Come on, man.
• 54:57
  I was the one that she looked at.
• 54:58
  That's the other way to get in is to bring hot girls.
• 55:02
  Jennifer's pretty hot.
• 55:03
  Well, I think so.
• 55:04
  Well, she ought to.
• 55:05
  It's his wife.
• 55:06
  I knew her in school.
• 55:07
  I knew her a long time ago, back in the day.
• 55:12
  Yeah, and if you guys want stories.
• 55:14
  I don't have any to share that Jennifer wouldn't cut my face off if I said it.
• 55:18
  Oh, no, no, no.
• 55:19
  I'm saying if you want stories about Rick.
• 55:20
  No, no, no.
• 55:21
  She's got them.
• 55:22
  Good to know.
• 55:23
  Oh, geez.
• 55:24
  No, Jennifer.
• 55:25
  No.
• 55:26
  Anyway, that's all I've got for this.
• 55:28
  I mean, I actually have a whole lot more, but the time is up.
• 55:31
  We've been doing this side study for quite some time.
• 55:34
  Yeah, we're at an hour.
• 55:35
  But I appreciate you talking with me about it.
• 55:39
  Giving you very little time to study and all that stuff is probably not fair.
• 55:42
  I want to be able to-
• 55:43
  Well, no, I'm actually glad it came up because it made me go in and look at things because
• 55:46
  it was one of those.
• 55:47
  When you called, we talked about earlier, you said you had an age where you don't care.
• 55:51
  When you called me, I was like, okay, yeah, this would be interesting to think about because
• 55:55
  I have heard in the past that they didn't really know who it was that wrote it and that
• 56:02
  makes sense being that that was the beloved.
• 56:05
  But I'd never really thought of it, so I was like, you said, I didn't really care.
• 56:11
  It didn't change my faith whatsoever, but it was interesting to look at because what
• 56:16
  it did for me in that moment is I'm always looking for reasons to study.
• 56:22
  Because reading the Bible sometimes can be a bit boring.
• 56:27
  And so, I love to find something that I can dig into and then come back to it.
• 56:32
  And one of the things that you said that made me think, oh, gosh, when I'm studying, I'd
• 56:37
  like to do something like that is going on and taking a look at something and looking
• 56:41
  at it a different way.
• 56:42
  You said you were reading the Gospels not by what's in red, by what the dialogue was
• 56:49
  and saying that was written by Christ, that was written by Christ, that was because you
• 56:53
  could pick it out.
• 56:55
  And then reading this another way and trying to figure out about Lazarus and who was the
• 56:59
  beloved makes me look at scripture in a different way.
• 57:03
  And it made it exciting while I was doing it because I'm a nerd and I love to look stuff
• 57:07
  up.
• 57:08
  Yeah, it's a new way to slice the same bread.
• 57:10
  Right, exactly.
• 57:12
  Yeah.
• 57:14
  Which is what we're all supposed to do anyway is supposed to study.
• 57:18
  It's hard to believe a lot of things.
• 57:20
  It's hard to believe, you know, Moses part of the Red Sea.
• 57:26
  He says all of this looking directly at me.
• 57:28
  Yeah, well, the other thing is, you know, you have a kid.
• 57:32
  Now, if you don't believe that's miraculous, then I'm sorry you've...
• 57:37
  It's miraculous, but there are reasons for it.
• 57:41
  And none of them require magic.
• 57:43
  Sure.
• 57:44
  I mean, there was a... The magic of an egg splitting and splitting and splitting and
• 57:52
  splitting.
• 57:53
  It's no less miraculous for not requiring magic though.
• 57:56
  That's all.
• 57:58
  Yeah.
• 57:59
  Well, I definitely have, you know, I've toyed around with a lot of different things throughout
• 58:06
  the course of my life.
• 58:08
  And this is the one that I landed on that I've had the most actual experiences with.
• 58:14
  And I've put the Lord, not to the test, like tempting the Lord, but on the things that
• 58:20
  He said that we should do as believers, I've put Him to that test and He's come through,
• 58:27
  which is unique to me because it's no longer just a thought, it's no longer just knowledge,
• 58:33
  it's no longer just talking about something.
• 58:34
  I've actually experienced something that before I've never experienced.
• 58:40
  Well, I think it's a wonderful feeling.
• 58:42
  I've experienced that many, many, many times through my life where I say, okay, this one
• 58:47
  I've just got to trust.
• 58:48
  And it always comes through.
• 58:49
  I mean, it's never ever... I've never been failed when I was led and I followed and it's
• 58:56
  always just happened.
• 58:58
  And so for me, it's... Yeah, I know it's going to be that way because I know it and I see
• 59:02
  it and I trust it.
• 59:05
  Did I ever share the story about me fasting in here?
• 59:12
  Not to me?
• 59:15
  I'll share this and then I'll close with that.
• 59:17
  But before I get into that, I'll share that testimony real quick.
• 59:21
  Just so you guys know, there was a letter written by Clement of Alexandria to a guy
• 59:28
  to someone named Theodore and he had talked about a secret gospel of Mark.
• 59:33
  He was around in like 150 to 200 AD and he said that there was a letter and that there
• 59:39
  was supposedly a young man that had traveled around with Jesus and in the gospel, the original
• 59:46
  gospel of Mark, that there's this one man that says when they're capturing Jesus when
• 59:50
  he's being betrayed, that he was wearing a linen cloth but was naked underneath and they
• 59:55
  tore off that garment and he ran away naked.
• 59:59
  Have you ever read that in the gospel of Mark?
• 1:00:01
  It's a unique thing.
• 1:00:03
  And that...
• 1:00:04
  I don't know what I remember.
• 1:00:05
  And that that man was Lazarus.
• 1:00:06
  It's in the letter.
• 1:00:07
  I always wondered who that man was.
• 1:00:09
  I just thought that was interesting.
• 1:00:10
  But that man's name was John Eliezer and Eliezer translated into English is Lazarus.
• 1:00:20
  Eliezer, Lazarus' actual name was John Eliezer and John Eliezer, Eliezer is a name from the
• 1:00:28
  priest line.
• 1:00:29
  What was the most common name in the time of Jesus?
• 1:00:33
  John?
• 1:00:35
  John.
• 1:00:36
  Yeah.
• 1:00:37
  It was...
• 1:00:38
  Every article I read said John.
• 1:00:39
  John was by far the most common name.
• 1:00:42
  For men, I was gonna say Mary was for women because there's like four of them at the tomb.
• 1:00:47
  Mary the mother of Andy, Mary the mother of Ralph, and Mary the mother of Rick.
• 1:00:51
  Yeah.
• 1:00:52
  Lots of them.
• 1:00:53
  So I had read in the scripture a long time ago that there was this young...
• 1:00:57
  There was a young man that was demon possessed and Jesus had just done the transfiguration
• 1:01:03
  on top of the mountain.
• 1:01:04
  It was coming down and there was this big kerfuffle of people that are going around
• 1:01:07
  and some disciples were with this child.
• 1:01:09
  By the time he gets there, he realizes that the disciples can't exercise the demon out
• 1:01:14
  of this child and all of the people are like, it's a problem.
• 1:01:18
  There's a lot of stuff going on.
• 1:01:19
  This kid's like writhing in pain and the disciples say, we can't get this demon.
• 1:01:25
  And Jesus says, how long must I live with this faithless generation?
• 1:01:31
  You've got the power.
• 1:01:32
  Why don't you use it?
• 1:01:33
  So he goes and he looks at the father and he says, how long has this child been suffering
• 1:01:40
  from this?
• 1:01:41
  And he said, since birth.
• 1:01:42
  And he says, please Lord, help me.
• 1:01:45
  And he says, I can help him if you believe.
• 1:01:48
  And he says, Lord, I believe.
• 1:01:51
  Help my non-belief.
• 1:01:53
  I felt like that before.
• 1:01:54
  Have you ever been there?
• 1:01:55
  Yeah, it's a doubt.
• 1:01:56
  It's that doubt that comes in.
• 1:01:57
  It's that doubt.
• 1:01:58
  You want to believe because of what's going on, but there's this doubt that's happening
• 1:02:01
  simultaneously.
• 1:02:02
  So Jesus wrenches this demon out of this boy and the boy is healed, right?
• 1:02:08
  And so later on, the disciples are asking him, why is it that we couldn't get this demon
• 1:02:11
  out of him?
• 1:02:12
  And Jesus says, there are some things that you can only do through fasting and prayer.
• 1:02:18
  Now Jesus has very specific rules about fasting.
• 1:02:20
  He says, don't let anybody know that you're doing it.
• 1:02:23
  Comb your hair, clean your face, present yourself because what you're doing is something between
• 1:02:27
  you and God.
• 1:02:28
  It's secret.
• 1:02:29
  No one is to know it.
• 1:02:30
  And then your father will reward you.
• 1:02:32
  Okay, so there's the secretness to this relationship with the father that has to happen in order
• 1:02:39
  for it to work.
• 1:02:41
  And I don't mean like, let's play this little game.
• 1:02:43
  I mean, this is a sincere effort on your part to do something because you feel burdened
• 1:02:48
  towards something or need to help someone.
• 1:02:51
  And I knew this person and this person was terribly, terribly addicted to methamphetamines.
• 1:02:58
  I mean terribly to the point where his life was ruined.
• 1:03:03
  And I just remember feeling so much compassion for him and he was married and their family
• 1:03:07
  was always in disarray.
• 1:03:09
  And I just, man, I just felt for this guy because I always saw him try like he would
• 1:03:14
  try, but he could never get that far because that monkey would never get off of his back.
• 1:03:22
  And guys, I'm not, I don't know about demons and stuff.
• 1:03:25
  Okay, I don't, I'm not going to get into all that.
• 1:03:27
  And I believe that what happened and what Jesus did, I believe that it's true.
• 1:03:31
  Are there demons now that I can cast out and I can do all these things?
• 1:03:33
  Look, I don't run around casting out demons, okay?
• 1:03:36
  But what I am going to say is that I had a burden for this man that was struggling with
• 1:03:40
  something that was controlling his life.
• 1:03:44
  And so I can say it now because it's been years, this has been years now.
• 1:03:47
  And so, and this is not bragging.
• 1:03:49
  So anyone hearing this, I'm not bragging.
• 1:03:50
  Just listen to me.
• 1:03:53
  I decided that I was going to fast because I felt that if there was something that could
• 1:03:58
  possibly reach him, that it was God.
• 1:04:00
  And if I did this because of the burden that I'm feeling for this man, that God would be
• 1:04:04
  able to do it.
• 1:04:07
  So I told my wife that, listen, I'm keeping this secret and only you know because we're
• 1:04:13
  one, and you need to know that.
• 1:04:14
  So I don't want you to worry about me, but I'm going to stop eating.
• 1:04:17
  And I determined that I was going to stop eating until I saw something happen.
• 1:04:20
  It's kind of a weird thing.
• 1:04:21
  I've never done it before and I haven't done it since.
• 1:04:24
  So I did.
• 1:04:26
  Okay.
• 1:04:27
  Here's the odd part.
• 1:04:29
  I stopped eating and I never got hungry.
• 1:04:34
  During the time of my fast, I was praying for him.
• 1:04:37
  I was thinking about him and his family.
• 1:04:39
  I was thinking, I was praying, praying, praying, feeling that burden.
• 1:04:42
  I would get up, I would go to work.
• 1:04:43
  I'd wash my face.
• 1:04:44
  No one would know.
• 1:04:45
  And I'd get home that night and I'd look at my wife and I'm not going to eat.
• 1:04:48
  I wouldn't really say much.
• 1:04:49
  I'd just go on about my business.
• 1:04:51
  And then that was on the, I started on a Friday.
• 1:04:58
  Sunday we went to church.
• 1:04:59
  I was praying.
• 1:05:01
  They had been invited to church a couple of times, but they didn't show up.
• 1:05:05
  But we didn't go out of our way to talk to them either.
• 1:05:07
  This was just in prayer.
• 1:05:08
  This was quiet between me and God.
• 1:05:11
  Then we started our vacation Bible school at our church.
• 1:05:16
  And one of my jobs was I would keep the kids before they would go into the church.
• 1:05:21
  So they would go in, they would have a meal, then they would come outside and they would
• 1:05:24
  play and sort of, I would try to run them to death and get all those wiggles out before
• 1:05:28
  they go into the church.
• 1:05:29
  And so I was outside with them, with the kids or whatever.
• 1:05:33
  Monday came, I didn't eat the meal.
• 1:05:35
  Tuesday I stayed in prayer.
• 1:05:37
  I'm at Gaza, I didn't eat anything.
• 1:05:39
  And then Wednesday came, still hadn't heard anything.
• 1:05:44
  Got to be pretty miserable at this point.
• 1:05:46
  Not, I'm not feeling anything.
• 1:05:49
  My mind is getting clearer, I guess from not eating and not all the things, like I'm beginning
• 1:05:54
  to get clearer.
• 1:05:55
  My prayers are becoming more and more in tune.
• 1:05:58
  Like I'm, I almost feel like I'm, I'm not lying.
• 1:06:02
  I feel like I'm able to move the universe.
• 1:06:04
  It's what it feels like mentally.
• 1:06:06
  It's unbelievable.
• 1:06:07
  It's very, it's, it's such a higher plane.
• 1:06:09
  I haven't done it since guys.
• 1:06:11
  I've never done it since.
• 1:06:13
  So Thursday comes and I go in and I remember they were serving Subway at that.
• 1:06:18
  Like they brought a big platter of Subway, you know, but I wasn't, I wasn't even thinking
• 1:06:22
  about the food.
• 1:06:23
  I just remember it.
• 1:06:24
  And so I'm out there and I'm with the kids and I hear this man from behind me say, Hey
• 1:06:29
  brother.
• 1:06:30
  And I turn around and it's him.
• 1:06:32
  I asked my wife, did you ask them to come?
• 1:06:34
  She was like, no, I didn't.
• 1:06:37
  This is a Thursday night at a vacation Bible school, Thursday night.
• 1:06:42
  I could understand a Wednesday if you're going to come to a Wednesday church, but this is,
• 1:06:46
  it's odd.
• 1:06:47
  It's an off day.
• 1:06:48
  It's off.
• 1:06:49
  Yeah.
• 1:06:50
  The minute I saw him, I began to starve to death.
• 1:06:54
  Just like that.
• 1:06:55
  This is a true experience guys, before the Lord and everyone, this has happened to me.
• 1:06:59
  This really happened.
• 1:07:00
  So I'm sitting there and I suddenly get hungry and I'm like, Hey, what's going on man?
• 1:07:06
  He's like, man, we heard that you guys were having vacation Bible school up here.
• 1:07:10
  I don't know when we heard it, but we were just talking tonight and we thought, you know,
• 1:07:14
  we ought to go up there.
• 1:07:15
  That's cool.
• 1:07:16
  Yeah.
• 1:07:17
  And I was like, well, there's a class up there called how to read the Bible.
• 1:07:20
  And I was like, that's your age group.
• 1:07:22
  So you know, go up there.
• 1:07:24
  So they went up there and then my wife looked at me and she was like, I can't believe it.
• 1:07:29
  I can't believe it.
• 1:07:30
  I can't believe it.
• 1:07:31
  I was like, they're here.
• 1:07:32
  And I was like, I'm starving.
• 1:07:33
  So I went into the, after the kids like, I went in there and I was like, can I have something?
• 1:07:36
  And they're like, here, sure.
• 1:07:37
  You can take the whole, they gave me the whole like spread, you know?
• 1:07:40
  And so I took it home.
• 1:07:41
  I ate the whole thing.
• 1:07:43
  And then that Sunday came and they didn't come to church and that Sunday night came
• 1:07:46
  and they didn't come to church.
• 1:07:48
  And I thought, oh Lord, that was odd.
• 1:07:50
  But I felt like you would release me that fast.
• 1:07:52
  Like you were answering my prayer, but I appreciate you, you know, bringing them Wednesday night.
• 1:07:57
  They show up at church.
• 1:08:00
  And so suddenly like I'm feeling something inside my spirit and I'm like, you're getting
• 1:08:04
  ready to do something and I'm going to watch it.
• 1:08:08
  He's going to reward me openly.
• 1:08:10
  The preacher preached on being slothful and misusing your money.
• 1:08:16
  That's the last sermon that you want for a salvation sermon.
• 1:08:19
  Trust me.
• 1:08:20
  The woman, the wife of the man is gripping the pew so hard that her hands are pure white,
• 1:08:29
  just gripping them.
• 1:08:30
  And I went over to her and I was like, are you okay?
• 1:08:32
  And she was like, I need to speak to your pastor now.
• 1:08:35
  And I said, okay.
• 1:08:37
  So I went and got the pastor and brought him back and he sat down with her.
• 1:08:41
  And then I went out into the vestibule and while I was there, I was just kind of like
• 1:08:43
  looking in and watching or whatever.
• 1:08:45
  The husband, the one that I'd had the burden for, that I prayed for, looked inside and
• 1:08:49
  he was like, what's she doing?
• 1:08:51
  Wait.
• 1:08:52
  And he started to go in there to get her and he was literally trying to reach over to grab
• 1:08:56
  her when she turned around and she'd burst into tears that she had been saved.
• 1:09:01
  She had this salvation experience right there in that pew.
• 1:09:05
  And he talks about it to this day because it was two weeks later that he went down to
• 1:09:11
  the altar and asked for salvation, forgiveness of sin and salvation.
• 1:09:17
  Guys, they've been in church for seven years now.
• 1:09:21
  All their children go to church.
• 1:09:24
  They're a Christian family.
• 1:09:26
  I never said a word, not one word.
• 1:09:29
  I didn't even tell them about it until last year.
• 1:09:32
  Yeah, yeah.
• 1:09:33
  There you go.
• 1:09:34
  Yeah.
• 1:09:35
  Anyway, that-
• 1:09:36
  I believe in prayer.
• 1:09:37
  But I'll always have that.
• 1:09:39
  I believe in faith.
• 1:09:40
  Yeah.
• 1:09:41
  I believe in that feeling.
• 1:09:42
  Yeah.
• 1:09:43
  I'll always have that.
• 1:09:45
  He let me have that experience and because of that experience and seeing things happen
• 1:09:49
  outside of my control and all that happened, I even bugged my wife about it a million times.
• 1:09:52
  I was like, did you go behind my back because you were worried that I was starving to death
• 1:09:55
  and tell them to better come to church?
• 1:09:57
  Your husband's never going to eat.
• 1:09:58
  Like, did you do that?
• 1:09:59
  Because it sounds like something you would do.
• 1:10:00
  And she was like, I never said a word.
• 1:10:04
  It would have been quite a strange conversation to be fair.
• 1:10:07
  Yeah.
• 1:10:08
  Did you at least come to church so my husband doesn't die?
• 1:10:12
  Exactly.
• 1:10:13
  Okay.
• 1:10:14
  I guess we got to go to church, man.
• 1:10:20
  Something's wrong with her husband.
• 1:10:21
  He ain't eating or something.
• 1:10:22
  Thinks he's Gandhi or Gandhi.
• 1:10:24
  Gandhi.
• 1:10:25
  Thinks he's Gandhi.
• 1:10:26
  Thinks he's Gandhi.
• 1:10:27
  Well-
• 1:10:28
  Main story.
• 1:10:29
  Thanks for being here, Ralph.
• 1:10:30
  Yeah, thanks for having me.
• 1:10:32
  So next week, we won't be here, but we'll be here in June.
• 1:10:37
  That's right.
• 1:10:38
  Then we'll be back with Billy and get back on topic.
• 1:10:41
  So thanks, Andy and everybody.
• 1:10:43
  Thank you.
• 1:10:44
  Yep.
• 1:10:45
  Good to see you both.
• 1:10:46
  Yep.
• 1:10:47
  Thanks for joining us on Side Study, Side Study, Side Study.
• 1:10:48
  I can put some echo and just do it once.
• 1:10:51
  Side study.
• 1:10:52
  Side study.
• 1:10:53
  You guys talked over each other.
• 1:10:55
  I can't use either of those.
• 1:10:56
  Side study, side study.
• 1:10:59
  Well, we're back without Billy.
• 1:11:04
  This is a special edition, as you heard, Ralph.
• 1:11:08
  So macho-ly, macho-ly a word.
• 1:11:15
  Say, we've got Ralph Hicks here.
• 1:11:18
  He's back after taking the Mark of the Beast.
• 1:11:23
  Somebody's getting ready to take the lifetime Mark himself.
• 1:11:26
  Hey now, marriage is not Mark of the Beast.
• 1:11:30
  I'm two shots in now.
• 1:11:31
  Was I last time?
• 1:11:32
  No, I haven't had my second one yet.
• 1:11:33
  Yeah.
• 1:11:34
  How'd that go?
• 1:11:35
  Oh, it wasn't bad.
• 1:11:36
  It's about like what a lot of people reported.
• 1:11:38
  I got out at 10.45 AM and by about 10 PM or 11, it was like cold sweats and hot and cold
• 1:11:46
  and hot and super hot.
• 1:11:48
  But then you just, if I got out of bed, you know, went to the kitchen and back, I was
• 1:11:52
  freezing.
• 1:11:54
  So it was miserable.
• 1:11:57
  But by the next day, I wasn't 100%, but I worked the next day and I wasn't that bad
• 1:12:01
  off.
• 1:12:02
  It was great.
• 1:12:03
  It was fine.
• 1:12:04
  I went through it, I feel like I went through it a little bit faster than some other people
• 1:12:07
  did.
• 1:12:08
  So, yeah.
• 1:12:09
  What about you?
• 1:12:10
  I had my second shot two weeks ago today or yesterday and I was eh, at night, that night
• 1:12:17
  and then the next day I just was achy.
• 1:12:20
  Just my joints ached, but that was it.
• 1:12:22
  Yeah.
• 1:12:23
  Well, I haven't taken it yet.
• 1:12:26
  A lot of people think it's for religious reasons.
• 1:12:28
  It's not.
• 1:12:29
  It's because I don't care and maybe I'm one of those people that should care, but I don't.
• 1:12:35
  And Donna told me the other day, she goes, I heard you're not taking it because you think
• 1:12:39
  it's the mark of the beast.
• 1:12:40
  And I was like, no, I was joking saying that it was the mark of the beast.
• 1:12:43
  You've heard of jokes, right?
• 1:12:45
  You know what a joke is.
• 1:12:47
  And then she said, well, you obviously don't care about other people's little babies.
• 1:12:52
  I was like, okay, I'm still not getting it.
• 1:12:55
  You're right.
• 1:12:56
  I don't care about other people's little babies.
• 1:12:57
  It's not like you're standing out in front of the clinic.
• 1:12:59
  Yeah.
• 1:13:00
  It's so strange today what everybody expects of you.
• 1:13:02
  You have to do it.
• 1:13:03
  But I mean, I wear a mask.
• 1:13:04
  I think that's the right thing to do if you go into a public place.
• 1:13:07
  I mean, obviously it's expected, but there's still a lot of people that don't even do that.
• 1:13:11
  Oh, I'm not quitting with the mask.
• 1:13:14
  I'm into masks.
• 1:13:15
  Sure.
• 1:13:16
  I know a lot of people that usually get sick.
• 1:13:18
  As a matter of fact, Holly even mentioned that she's usually sick twice a year.
• 1:13:22
  She hasn't gotten sick.
• 1:13:23
  It's probably because she's wearing masks.
• 1:13:25
  She was so into the like, so what's up?
• 1:13:28
  There's no flu.
• 1:13:29
  Yeah.
• 1:13:30
  Everybody stands six feet apart and wearing a mask everywhere humanly possible.
• 1:13:33
  What do the math?
• 1:13:34
  I think everybody's going to start.
• 1:13:36
  I mean, that's what it's like in Japan.
• 1:13:37
  I visited Japan twice and both times I've been, most people were wearing masks, especially
• 1:13:42
  on the subway.
• 1:13:43
  Yeah.
• 1:13:44
  Yeah.
• 1:13:45
  It's just culturally different there.
• 1:13:47
  If you got a cold or you just don't feel good, you just wear a mask sort of as a courtesy.
• 1:13:52
  Everybody else just may be out of fear.
• 1:13:54
  Yeah, they're about as courteous as you get.
• 1:13:56
  Are you comfortable in there with that AC running?
• 1:13:59
  Yes.
• 1:14:00
  So if you hear that extra sound guys, it's Andy and I told him he could keep that AC
• 1:14:05
  on.
• 1:14:06
  So it's not a bad mic.
• 1:14:07
  It doesn't come through.
• 1:14:08
  It's only on his mic and he solos that out so you don't hear it.
• 1:14:11
  Yeah.
• 1:14:12
  But he'll hear it.
• 1:14:13
  Yeah.
• 1:14:14
  When I talk probably, but I'm a creature of comfort.
• 1:14:17
  There's an AC in that back room.
• 1:14:18
  It's just quiet.
• 1:14:19
  Yeah.
• 1:14:20
  I want to get one of those put in this room.
• 1:14:22
  I just got to get that done.
• 1:14:23
  I don't want to put the money into it, but that's right.
• 1:14:25
  It would be nice to have whatever.
• 1:14:27
  Nobody cares.
• 1:14:28
  Yeah.
• 1:14:29
  Going into summer with that one.
• 1:14:31
  Well, so Billy Kimsey has slaughtered an animal and is currently gutting it.
• 1:14:38
  That's why he is not here.
• 1:14:40
  I think it's hilarious.
• 1:14:41
  Like he's like, sorry, buddy.
• 1:14:42
  I had to, we killed a cow, killed her beef and I'm, I'm deep into that thing.
• 1:14:47
  I won't be done, but I can, I can come back and do this Friday.
• 1:14:50
  I was like, yeah, that's not how it works like the scheduling.
• 1:14:54
  Studio time.
• 1:14:55
  But I'm so glad that you slaughtered an animal.
• 1:14:57
  You know, that's good.
• 1:14:58
  I'm glad if he brings us some hamburger meat.
• 1:15:01
  Yeah.
• 1:15:02
  That would be a fair trade.
• 1:15:03
  You make it sound like he's armed deep in it though.
• 1:15:05
  He is.
• 1:15:06
  Yeah, literally.
• 1:15:07
  Oh, he's pretty man.
• 1:15:08
  He punched it to death and then, you know.
• 1:15:10
  That's what I always tell all my friends that go deer hunting.
• 1:15:13
  I'm like, you want to impress me, jump out of a tree with a knife and kill that thing.
• 1:15:16
  Like that would be doing it from behind a blind with a gun that you, you know, yeah,
• 1:15:21
  you can shoot a half mile with.
• 1:15:23
  That'd be fair.
• 1:15:24
  That's not fair at all for that little guy.
• 1:15:26
  I have friends that use a bow and arrow.
• 1:15:27
  I'm okay with that.
• 1:15:28
  Not, not across bow.
• 1:15:30
  Oh yeah.
• 1:15:31
  That's, that's, that's work.
• 1:15:32
  That's yeah.
• 1:15:33
  I mean, even hunting, like hunting with a gun is more about patience than skill, but,
• 1:15:40
  but it does take a lot of patience, but man, bow hunting is yeah, that takes some skill.
• 1:15:44
  You have to get close.
• 1:15:45
  You have to get close and yeah, aim a bow.
• 1:15:48
  Yeah.
• 1:15:49
  Yeah.
• 1:15:50
  My uncle killed a bear, like a black bear with a bow.
• 1:15:53
  And I thought that was pretty intense really.
• 1:15:56
  I mean, a bear, no thanks.
• 1:16:01
  It depends on what you're shooting.