Timothy Paul Jones

Free apologetics resources from Timothy Paul Jones

Timothy Paul Jones

  • About
  • Books
  • Leadership
  • Apologetics
  • Ministry
  • Contact

Apologetics: Who Wrote the Gospels?

17th July 2020

Open your Bible to the table of contents and take a look at the list of books in the New Testament. There, you’ll find the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John leading the list. But were Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John really the ones who wrote the Gospels? If so, how do we know?

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, featured, History, Learn Tagged With: authorship, Bart Ehrman, canon, Gospels, John, Luke, Mark, Matthew, New Testament

Study: Read through the Greek New Testament in a Year

17th December 2019

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 […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Blog, In the News, Learn Tagged With: canon, church history, gospel, Gospels, Greek, history, New Testament

Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey: Three Chords and the Truth Live with Five Oaks Church

2nd September 2019

In this special episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast, Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey join the student ministry at Five Oaks Church, a radical band of young believers who gather near the metropolis of Minneapolis in the wild and crazy land of Minnesota. Students from Five Oaks Church ask questions […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Audio, Blog, History, Learn, Podcast, Solve, Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast Tagged With: apologetics, canon, capos, creation, Five Oaks, hallucination, hallucination hypothesis, Kyser, live, Minnesota, New Testament, Old Testament, old-earth creation, problem of evil, resurrection, swoon, swoon theory, theodicy, wrong tomb, young-earth creation

Apologetics: Jesus of Faith, Jesus of History, or Jesus of Eyewitness Testimony?

3rd December 2018

“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 […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, featured, History Tagged With: apologetics, canon, Gospels, New Testament, Reza Aslan, Zealot

Sermon: The Wisdom that Comes from Peace

20th August 2018

“Peace be with you.” Christians all around the world repeat these words every week—but what would our lives look like if peace really was woven into every part of our lives? The book of James provides us with a clue: “The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace,” James writes, “by those who cultivate peace” […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, featured, Lead, Uncategorized Tagged With: Bible, James, James 3, leadership, message, New Testament, pastoral ministry, peace, preaching, sermon, wisdom

Apologetics: How Can the Bible be Inerrant if Copyists Made Mistakes?

7th January 2018

How can the Bible be inerrant if there are variations among the manuscripts and even between different accounts of the same events? That’s the question we’ll explore together in this post. How Can We Have the Word of God If Some of the Words Are Different? I slumped in an unpadded pew, half-listening to the morning […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, featured Tagged With: apologetics, Bart Ehrman, Bible, New Testament, Scripture

History: How We Got the Bible in Six Minutes or Less

21st August 2017

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 […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, featured, History, Video Tagged With: apologetics, canon, canonicity, church history, eyewitness testimony, history, history of the Bible, how we got the Bible, New Testament, Old Testament, oral histories, oral history

Apologetics: Can We Trust the New Testament Gospels?

3rd May 2017

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 […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, featured, History Tagged With: Gospels, historicity, history, Jesus, New Testament, reliability, resurrection

Apologetics: Constantine, the New Testament Canon, and the Conversion of the Roman Empire

1st August 2016

Ariel Sabar has penned a devastating exposé of the forged fragment known as Gospel of Jesus’ Wife. The article is well-researched and well-written—but it also includes a couple of historical errors that seem to have become conventional wisdom in far too many news articles. 

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, featured, History, Learn, Video Tagged With: Ariel Sabar, canon, Constantine, Karen King, New Testament

Apologetics: What If the Copies Were Corrupted?

11th January 2016

Suppose you own a Bible, but it’s translated in a style that’s difficult to understand. Or maybe your Bible has simply worn out from years of usage. If so, you can easily walk into any Christian bookstore and pick up a different version of the Bible. The earliest Christians couldn’t do that. There was no […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, featured, History Tagged With: apologetics, New Testament, Textual criticism

Apologetics: How the New Testament Epistles Were Written

8th January 2016

Have you ever wondered exactly how the New Testament epistles were written? Did Paul sit down with a fountain pen and a piece of papyrus? Did Peter and James sketch out an outline before they wrote their letters? And what caused the apostles to write their letters in the first place? It was in the […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, featured, History Tagged With: apologetics, New Testament

Apologetics: Why the Lost Gospels Were Lost

6th January 2016

What are the “lost Gospels”? The term “lost Gospels” usually refers to ancient writings that were excluded from the New Testament, even though they included supposed recollections of events and teachings from the life of Jesus. A few of these lost Gospels have lasted throughout the centuries. Others survive only in tiny fragments of papyrus or […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, featured Tagged With: apologetics, Lost Gospels, New Testament

PROOF: PROOF and Union with Christ

18th June 2014

By Garrick Bailey The New Testament provides extensive witness to the oneness between Christ and Christians. According to Paul, this oneness, through the Holy Spirit, is the foundation for the unity of the church (Eph 4:1-6). Historically, this concept of oneness found predominantly in the writings of the apostles John and Paul has been called […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Blog, PROOF Tagged With: New Testament, PROOF, union with Christ

Church History: Who Decided Which Books Belong in My Bible?

28th May 2014

Suppose that you became a Christian in the second century A.D. You’ve heard the story of a divine being who died on a cross and rose from the dead. Through baptism, you’ve openly identified yourself with his followers. Now, you want to learn more about this deity. Yet you quickly realize that some people who […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, Learn, Solve Tagged With: apologetics, Athanasius, canon, Gospels, New Testament, Papias, Polycarp, Serapion, Tertullian

Apologetics: Did Christians Create Their Faith Or Did the Faith Form Christians?

16th April 2014

  What factors actually formed the New Testament and the faith of the early church? Conspiratorial reconstructions suggest that church leaders selected texts that preserved and expanded their own political powers. If so, what shaped the early church were books and theological beliefs that were chosen with the goal of control. The problem is, the […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Blog, Learn, Solve Tagged With: apologetics, Easter, gospel, Gospels, New Testament, resurrection

Family Ministry: How Paul’s Teachings About the Family Apply Today

31st March 2014

Not long ago, I shared with Christianity.com some thoughts about how Christians can apply Paul’s teaching in their homes. Paul established a priority-changing paradigm for marriages and families in Ephesians 5 and 6. He invited parents to view their task not simply as behavioral management but as gospel proclamation, viewing their children not only as […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Blog, Lead, Serve Tagged With: Apostle Paul, Ephesians, family, family ministry, gospel, New Testament

Apologetics: Was the New Testament Miscopied?

22nd January 2014

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, Learn, Solve Tagged With: apologetics, New Testament, The Church at Brook Hills

Apologetics: Was Scripture Modified to Oppose Women and Jews?

6th November 2013

According to Dr. Bart Ehrman, in his book Misquoting Jesus, there exists a category of New Testament alterations which includes changes that occurred because copyists “who were not altogether satisfied with what the New Testament books said modified their words to make them … more vigorously oppose heretics, women, Jews, and pagans.” Yet he fails to come […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, Lead, Learn Tagged With: apologetics, Bart Ehrman, church history, Gospels, history, New Testament

Apologetics: Can We Trust a Copy of a Copy?

25th September 2013

  I slumped in an unpadded pew, half-listening to the morning Bible study. I wasn’t particularly interested in what the Bible teacher in this small Christian high school had to say. But, when the teacher commented that the Gospels always reported word-for-word what Jesus said, I perked up and lifted my hand. This statement brought […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, Learn Tagged With: apologetics, Bart Ehrman, Bible, history, New Testament, Scripture

Proclamation: “Don’t Worry. I Read the Book. He Doesn’t Stay Dead.”

30th March 2013

One rule in our household is that, if a book is turned into a movie, everyone must read the book before watching the movie. Our oldest daughter was eight years old when C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was turned into a feature film. In the weeks leading up to the movie’s […]

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Blog, Lead, Learn, Solve Tagged With: apologetics, C.S. Lewis, Easter, Narnia, New Testament, resurrection

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Amazon
  • Email
  • Podcast
  • Apologetics: Five Reminders to Strengthen Your Defense of the Faith
  • Mary Jo Sharp: A Former Atheist Looks at the Problem of Evil + “One of Us” (Joan Osborne)
  • Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast on Patreon
  • Urban Ministry Podcast: Church Planting in the Inner City
  • Urban Ministry Podcast: Replanting and Revitalizing Urban Congregations

Sign up here for the latest news about books, articles, and speaking engagements

Copyright © 2021 • Website by Megaphone Designs