History Archives - Page 3 of 7 - Timothy Paul Jones

Culture: Why Pay Taxes?

13th July 2020

This week, millions of Americans will once again endure the filing and, in some cases, the payment of taxes—three months late, this time around, due to the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic. Taxation has never been particularly popular among Americans, having once incited several dozen Bostonians to dress up as Mohawk warriors and toss tea […]

Vocab Malone: Speaking Truth to Hebrew Israelites + “One Vision” (Queen)

30th June 2020

Your intrepid cohosts have been watching lots of films with their families during this season of social distancing, so it’s not surprising that so many movies make appearances in this week’s episode. The first film that shows up is the 2016 Netflix film Barry, a fictional look at what Barack Obama’s first year at Columbia […]

Culture: How Scripture Became Part of the Story that Ended Slavery

19th June 2020

For centuries, the Scriptures were twisted and distorted to provide support for racism and race-based slavery. It is no exaggeration to state that the enslavement of African Americans would never have persisted as long as it did without the support of persons who claimed to follow Scripture. At the same time, Christian ethics were also one […]

J.V. Fesko: Reforming Apologetics + “Freewill” (Rush)

16th June 2020

Welcome to the Deeper-Than-Usual Episode! This episode has been named “the Deeper-Than-Usual Episode” mostly because it is a bit deeper than usual. Dr. J.V. Fesko—professor of systematic and historical theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, author of Reforming Apologetics, and all-around very deep person—joins the dynamic duo to discuss many deep things. Dr. Fesko momentarily risks his […]

Matthew Levering: Why Reason and the Physical Resurrection of Jesus Matter + “Stairway to Heaven” (Led Zeppelin)

26th May 2020

Reason, resurrection, and the physical world are the focus of the most action-packed episode of Three Chords and the Truth ever produced. The primary reason why it’s so action packed is because the Toybox Hero Tournament includes a special cohost who is far more exciting than either of your intrepid cohosts. Renowned theologian Dr. Matthew Levering […]

Robert Plummer: Do the Gospels Tell the Truth? + “Truth, Goodness, and Beauty” (The Cure)

19th May 2020

What does it mean to say that the Bible tells the truth? Do the Gospels tell the truth? And what should Christians do when they find a claim in the Bible that looks like a contradiction? Do the Gospels Tell the Truth? New Testament scholar and Daily Dose of Greek mastermind Rob Plummer joins Garrick […]

J. Warner Wallace: A Cold-Case Detective Looks at the Gospels + “Another Brick in the Wall” (Pink Floyd)

12th May 2020

What happens when a cold-case detective applies his investigative skills to the New Testament Gospels? Find out as Timothy meets up with award-winning detective and bestselling apologetics author J. Warner Wallace. In addition to being a detective and apologist, Wallace is also a guitarist, bassist, and—Timothy is thrilled beyond words to discover—a fan of Steve […]

Culture: The Long Shadow of Racism in America

11th May 2020

The institution of American slavery has been called America’s “national birth defect.” “Black Americans were”—in the words of one professor of political science—“a founding population [of the American colonies]. Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together, Europeans by choice and Africans in chains.” These events happened far more recently than many Americans seem […]

Josh Chatraw: Apologetics at the Cross + “Word on a Wing” (David Bowie)

5th May 2020

Apologetics scholar Josh Chatraw joins Garrick and Timothy to talk about cross-centered apologetics, Augustine of Hippo, and what it takes to hang out with Tim Keller. Josh is the coauthor of several books, including Truth in a Culture of Doubt from B&H Academic and Apologetics at the Cross. Along the way, Josh makes the mistake […]

Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey: Is the Coronavirus Evil? + “Sympathy for the Devil” (The Rolling Stones)

28th April 2020

It’s a new season of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast, and Garrick and Timothy are serious about social distancing. They are, in fact, so serious about being socially distant that they’ve installed a mile-wide river to separate them. In the first half of this earthshaking season premiere, your intrepid cohosts discuss a recent […]

Apologetics: Which Canon Contains the Right Books?

22nd April 2020

Believing What Jesus Believed About the Old Testament Canon Different communities of people who call themselves Christians use different Old Testaments. Here’s what I mean: Everyone agrees about thirty-nine of the texts in the Old Testament, but—if you attended Mass in a Roman Catholic congregation this weekend—the Old Testament readings would come from a canon […]

Church History: The True Story of St. Patrick

16th March 2020

This week, in the year AD 461, Patrick of Ireland passed away. Ever since the early seventeenth century, churches have designated March 17 as St. Patrick’s Day. Prohibitions on feasting during the season of Lent were traditionally lifted on this day, and green had been associated with Ireland at least as early as the seventeenth […]

Apologetics: Did Cornelius Van Til Really Teach that Non-Christians Know Nothing?

11th February 2020

I am not a Van Tilian presuppositionalist, though I am sympathetic with certain aspects of Cornelius Van Til’s approach. Over the past few years, I have—to the best of my knowledge—read every book and syllabus that Van Til wrote related to apologetics. Even after reading several thousand pages of Cornelius Van Til’s writings, I do […]

Family Ministry: Leaving Behind the One-Eared Mickey Mouse Model of Youth Ministry

28th January 2020

In the late 1980s, one student minister depicted the relationship between his ministry and the rest of his congregation as a “one-eared Mickey Mouse.” To understand this analogy, imagine with me the most basic depiction of Mickey Mouse in three circles—the two smaller circles represent his ears, while the larger circle is his head. Now, […]

History: Five Points from a Protestant Reformer to Remember on Your Birthday

16th January 2020

I recently ran across these words about birthdays in The Complete Psalter, a commentary penned in the sixteenth century by a little-known German Protestant named Nikolaus Selneccer. In his exposition of Psalm 139, Selneccer saw this song of David as a text that legitimates the celebration of one’s birthday. Along the way, Selneccer also listed […]

Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey: Are the Stories of Jesus Borrowed from Pagan Parallels to Christianity? + “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (Billy Joel)

31st December 2019

This week’s podcast includes pagan parallels to Christianity, the Piano Man, and the most daring giveaway ever attempted on any human podcast. Paganism and plagiarism provide the theme for the first half. Even in ancient times, Roman philosophers claimed that Christians had “used pagan myths in fabricating the story of a virgin conception.” So is […]

Rob Plummer: The Perplexing Problem of When Quirinius Governed Syria + “The Living Years” (Mike + the Mechanics)

16th December 2019

This week’s episode covers the birth of Jesus, death, resurrection, and everything in between! It’s only a few days until Christmas 2019—a celebration which, this year, Timothy has very helpfully renamed “The Star Wars: Episode IX After Party.” At some point between now and Christmas Day, millions of people throughout the world will hear these words […]

Dan DeWitt: Why Do the Apologetics of C.S. Lewis Matter? + “All Along the Watchtower” (U2)

13th December 2019

Welcome to a new episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast, with Dr. Dan DeWitt, a discussion of C.S. Lewis, and a celebration of a duo of flagrant illegalities! This episode commemorates two illegal acts, both of which were captured on tape and involved live rock and roll. The first of these […]

Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey: Why Everyone Needs Creeds + “Where the Streets Have No Name” (U2)

10th December 2019

Welcome to the creed episode of Three Chords and the Truth! But don’t worry: we are not talking about the band Creed. (In case you’ve forgotten, Creed was the 1990s band whose videos were filled with embarrassingly-bad CGI and with way too many scenes in which the lead vocalist apparently couldn’t keep himself from flailing […]

Apologetics: Fragments of Otherwise Unknown Gospels

26th November 2019

Gnostic Gospels and other unorthodox texts receive a lot of attention in popular media. The Gospel of Judas and the forged Gospel of Jesus’ Wife both became major news stories, for example, and a wide array of Gnostic texts are mentioned in novels like The Da Vinci Code that feed on bizarre conspiracy theories. It’s worth remembering, however, that there are […]