How do we know if the testimonies preserved about Jesus in the New Testament Gospels were intended to be taken as historical testimony in the first place? It is possible, after all, that the Gospels that came to be included in the New Testament were never meant to describe actual occurrences. Perhaps they were written […]
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Josh Chatraw: The Apologetics of Blaise Pascal + “Superstition” (Stevie Wonder)
Faith happens, and this week’s episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast is all about how faith happens. In the first half, Garrick and Timothy are joined by Josh Chatraw, the apologist extraordinaire who has been freshly forgiven for his many missteps when it comes to being conversant in the art of […]
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Ted Cabal: Creation and the Age of the Earth + “Let There Be Rock” (AC/DC)
This episode is packed with answers in Genesis—but, believe it or not, when we say “Genesis” we’re not talking about the group that’s been fronted by Phil Collins since the early 1970s from which Mike + the Mechanics was a spinoff. The focus of this week’s episode is the other Genesis, the one at the […]
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Robert Plummer: Do the Gospels Tell the Truth? + “Truth, Goodness, and Beauty” (The Cure)
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 […]
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J. Warner Wallace: A Cold-Case Detective Looks at the Gospels + “Another Brick in the Wall” (Pink Floyd)
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 […]
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Apologetics: Which Canon Contains the Right Books?
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 […]
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Church History: The True Story of St. Patrick
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 […]
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Apologetics: Natural Theology, Evidential Apologetics, and Thomas Aquinas in Stanley Hauerwas’s Gifford Lectures
I recently finished reading With the Grain of the Universe: The Church’s Witness and Natural Theology, the published text of Stanley Hauerwas’s 2001 Gifford Lectures at the University of St. Andrews. In one sense, this particular iteration of the Gifford Lectures was a failure—but it can hardly be regarded as an authentic failure, because the […]
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Study: Read through the Greek New Testament in a Year
After a few years of using other Bible reading plans, I’m returning in 2020 to a plan that I’ve used in the past to read through the New Testament in Greek each year. The plan that I’ve found most useful for that is one from Denny Burk, which is based on a plan prepared by […]
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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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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 […]
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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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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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Church History: Rome Burned But Nero Never Fiddled
This week, in the year AD 64, a fire began in the city of Rome that changed the course of history. The fire raged six days before being brought under control. When the smoke cleared on July 23, seven of Rome’s fourteen districts had been partly destroyed and three districts were completely obliterated. Then came […]
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Church History: The True Story of Joan of Arc
On May 30, 1431, Jeanne D’Arc—more commonly known to us as “Joan of Arc”—was tied to a pillar in the village of Rouen and burned to death. Nearly everyone has heard of Joan’s unjust execution—but who was this young woman, really? According to a recent survey, one out of every eight Americans thought that Joan […]
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Family Ministry: Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, and Where We Might Go
The first family ministry book I ever read was Family-Based Youth Ministry by Mark DeVries. My first response was to reject family ministry as a preposterous idea in my particular context. It took two years for the struggles of ministry and the work of the Holy Spirit to change my mind.
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Family Ministry: A New Definition for Family Ministry (Part 2)
I delivered this paper proposing a revised definition for family ministry in May 2017 at the HOUSE Conference in Australia, a gathering sponsored by YouthWorks and themed around the intersection between family ministry and ecclesiology. This post is the second part of a three-part series articulating the need for a revised definition for family ministry. Part […]
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Apologetics: Can We Trust the New Testament Gospels?
The witch’s knife plunged deep into the lion’s heart, and the majestic creature quivered and died. For a few seconds, complete silence descended on the movie theater. A slight sniffling beside me broke the stillness, and that’s when I heard my 9-year-old daughter whisper a rather profound word of wisdom to her friend—wisdom that reminds […]
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