Was Jesus really raised from the dead? Every aspect of the Christian faith hinges on this single claim. If Jesus was raised from the dead, something divine has intersected human history in the person of Jesus. If Jesus never existed or if he stayed dead, everything about the Christian faith is a lie. On this Holy Week episode of Three Chords and the Truth, New Testament scholar Dr. Thomas Schreiner joins Garrick and Timothy to talk about what Paul says about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15.
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Rob Plummer: Are There Historical Evidences of Supernatural Signs On the Day that Jesus Died? + “American Pie” (Don McLean)
According to the New Testament Gospels, the death of Jesus was accompanied by all sorts of signs and wonders, including supernatural happenings connected with the temple in Jerusalem. But is there any evidence outside the New Testament that any of these events really happened? As it turns out, there could be. That’s what Garrick and Timothy explore in this episode with renowned New Testament scholar Dr. Rob Plummer.
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Todd Miles: Jesus, Superman, Captain America, and Other Resurrected Superheroes + “The Great American Novel” (Larry Norman)
So what do Superman, Captain America, Professor X, and Jesus Christ all have in common? According to the canonical accounts of their lives, each one has been raised from the dead. So why is it that, even in fiction, humans yearn for heroes who die and return to life? That’s one of the questions that Timothy Paul Jones explores in this episode with cohost Garrick Bailey and Western Seminary professor Todd Miles, author of the B&H Academic book Superheroes Can’t Save You. Then, in the second half of the program, Garrick and Timothy go digging for God’s truth in the music of Larry Norman, the father of Christian rock.
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Timothy Paul Jones: Is There Enough Historical Evidence to Believe Jesus Was Really Raised from the Dead? + “Spirit in the Sky” (Norman Greenbaum)
Atheist Richard Dawkins has defined faith as “a state of mind that leads people to believe something—it doesn’t matter what—in the total absence of supporting evidence.” But is the evidence for Christian faith really that weak? On this week’s episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast, bestselling apologist Timothy Paul Jones and theologian Garrick Bailey explore historical evidences for the resurrection of Jesus Christ; then, in the second half of the show, they take a look at the theology of “Spirit in the Sky.”
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Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey: The Cross and the Lynching Tree + “The Star-Spangled Banner” (Jimi Hendrix)
What happened to the body of Jesus after his death on the cross? According to the New Testament Gospels, his body was buried in a tomb and raised on the third day. And yet, according to some scholars, the body of Jesus was abandoned and consumed by wild beasts. So how do we know that Jesus was actually buried? That’s one of the questions that we’ll explore in the first half of the program. In the second half, we’ll search for truth in a song that Jimi Hendrix played at Woodstock and discover a yearning for justice that God has placed in every human heart that leads us to protest injustice. Then, we’ll reach inside the Infinity Gauntlet and pit Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters against Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
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Jonathan Pennington: Truth and Testimony in the New Testament Gospels + “All Along the Watchtower” (Jimi Hendrix)
According to bestselling biblical scholar Bart Ehrman, the New Testament Gospels “were not written … by people who were eyewitnesses, but by people living later.” Ehrman goes on to say that “sometimes Christian apologists say there are only three options to who Jesus was: a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. But there could be a fourth option—legend.” And legend is the possibility for which Ehrman argues. But is it true that the circulation of stories by word of mouth necessarily results in changes that turn testimony into legend? That’s what Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey discuss with New Testament scholar Jonathan Pennington on the Three Chords segment of the show.
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Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey: God, Humanity, and Gender in Captain Marvel + “All Along the Watchtower” (Bob Dylan)
At first, Vers seems like an ordinary alien with an extraordinary power. But, in her dreams, she remembers that she was once something different—and perhaps even something greater. That’s how Captain Marvel, the newest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe begins. In this special episode of Three Chords and the Truth, Garrick and Timothy take a look at Captain Marvel and the larger metanarrative of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Then, in the second half, Garrick reveals his wrong opinions about Bob Dylan as he and Timothy examine the song that inspired this podcast in the first place, “All Along the Watchtower.” This week, the Infinity Gauntlet throws the webslinging wonder Peter Parker into the ring against the mighty Shazam.
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Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey: What Is Apologetics? + “The Age of Aquarius” (The 5th Dimension)
Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. Three Chords and the Truth is a new podcast that brings together apologetics, theology, and the history of rock and roll. In the Three Chords segment of this week’s program, Garrick Bailey and I talk about what apologetics is and why Christians should care about it; […]
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Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey: Why Apologetics? + “God Gave Rock and Roll to You” (KISS)
Click here to download this episode from iTunes and learn why apologetics matters. Welcome to a new episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast! Three Chords and the Truth is a new podcast that brings together apologetics, theology, and the history of rock and roll. In the Three Chords segment of this week’s program, Garrick Bailey […]
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Apologetics: Introducing a New Apologetics Podcast
Click here to listen to the podcast trailer. Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. A New Podcast for People Who Enjoy Apologetics and Classic Rock Apologetics and classic rock. If either of those two topics interest you, I want to invite you to subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics […]
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Apologetics: Jesus of Faith, Jesus of History, or Jesus of Eyewitness Testimony?
“The more I probed the Bible,” Reza Aslan declares in the introduction to his bestseller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, “the more distance I discovered between the Jesus of the gospels and the Jesus of history” (xix). The result of this discovery—at least in Aslan’s estimation—is that the New Testament Gospels should be […]
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Apologetics: Evaluate a New Podcast, Earn a Chance to Win Books
I’m excited to announce that I’ll be launching two new podcasts in 2019! The first one, Urban Ministry Podcast, is being produced in coordination with the Dehoney Center for Urban Ministry at Southern Seminary—I’ll post more later about the Urban Ministry Podcast. The second podcast is a 24-episode personal project entitled Three Chords and the Truth: […]
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Church History: The Centrality of Scripture in the Ministry of Macrina
Two years after the Council of Nicaea in the year 325, Macrina the Younger was born. She—as Coleman Michael Ford has pointed out— lived between two worlds. One world was the age of Christian persecution by the likes of emperor Diocletian and others. For many Christians in the three centuries before Macrina’s birth, persecution leading […]
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Advent: The Difficult Discipline of Celebrating the Waiting
Once upon a time, there was a season in the church year known as “Advent.” The word comes to us from the Latin for “coming.” The purpose of the season was to anticipate; the coming of Christ to earth; it was a season that focused on waiting.
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Family Ministry: When and Why Did Weekly Children’s Classes Begin in Churches? (Part Three)
This research into the history of age-organized catechetical classes in the church is based on an academic paper that I presented to the practical theology section of the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 16, 2017. This post is the third in a three-part series. Click here for […]
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Family Ministry: When and Why Did Weekly Children’s Classes Begin in Churches? (Part Two)
This research into the history of age-organized ministries in the church is based on an academic paper that I presented to the practical theology section of the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 16, 2017. This post is the second in a three-part series. Click here for Part […]
[Read More...]Family Ministry: When and Why Did Weekly Children’s Classes Begin in Churches? (Part One)
When did age-organized ministries for children begin? If you thought children’s classes didn’t begin until the introduction of Sunday School, you have a lot to learn!
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Apologetics: New Heresies Are Rarely New
At least once or twice every year—usually around Christmas and Easter—popular magazines and blogs seem to go out of their way to locate some shocking fact that supposedly debunks what Christians believe about Jesus. In most cases, these supposedly-shocking data are recycled from one of the many failed quests for the historical Jesus that have ebbed and […]
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Church History: Martin Luther and the Ninety-Five Theses
On October 31, 1517, a monk and professor named Martin Luther sent a document entitled Disputatio Pro Declaratione Virtutis Indulgentiarum to the archbishop of Mainz. This Disputatio consisted of ninety-five theses for theological debate. Perhaps on October 31 or more probably a week or two later, Luther hammered the theses to the door of All Saints’ Church […]
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History: How We Got the Bible in Six Minutes or Less
I need your help! Here’s the challenge: I’m working on a video that summarizes the history of the Bible in six minutes. Below, I’ve posted the script so far—and I’d be interested to know what you think needs to be included and what might be left out. The narration for the video is already six […]
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