Timothy Paul Jones

Free apologetics resources from Timothy Paul Jones

Timothy Paul Jones

Culture: Katniss and the Minotaur [from 2012 review of The Hunger Games]

The bestselling novel and blockbuster movie The Hunger Games provoked a wide range of reactions among evangelical Christians. A reviewer from Focus on the Family finds in the female protagonist a heroine who determines to value human life, even if that means sacrificing her own. Alvin Reid and Amy Simpson glimpse the gospel throughout the […]

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Apologetics: Was Scripture Modified to Oppose Women and Jews?

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 […]

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Church History: Why Church History Matters

So why is church history so important?  Or is it? For the average Christian, the thought of studying church history most likely seems boring or irrelevant–but church history is vitally important! So what’s so important about church history? Here’s a question-and-answer I did a short while ago on this topic as part of a discussion […]

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Family Ministry: Are You Engaging in the Cosmic Battle for Your Child’s Soul?

Cosmic combat occurs most Friday mornings at a coffee shop a few blocks from my home. If you happen to be ordering your mocha latte during this episode of intergalactic warfare, you might not even notice. Neither arms nor armor can be seen at the epicenter of this celestial struggle. No lightsabers are visible, and […]

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Apologetics: Can We Trust a Copy of a Copy?

  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 […]

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Family Ministry: Teaching Your Children the Big Story of God

I have a long list of books that I recommend on a broad range of subjects—apologetics, family ministry, church history, and so on. But there’s a much briefer list on which it’s far more difficult to gain a spot: books I use with my own children. This new book by Jim Hamilton, The Bible’s Big […]

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Family Ministry: “As it Were a Little Church,” The Puritan Model for Family Discipleship

Even in the latest models of family ministry, there are components that can be traced back centuries before the recent surge of family ministry books and conferences. Among the Puritan heirs of the Reformation, there was a clear model for family discipleship that could be learned and transferred from one context to another. Brief, daily times […]

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

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 […]

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Apologetics: What Are the Chances That Jesus’ Body Was Left On the Cross?

:: The Obscenity of the Cross in the Ancient World :: With few exceptions, even the most skeptical scholars admit that Jesus was crucified—and with good reason. Not only Christian authors but also the Roman historian Tacitus mention the crucifixion of Jesus. It’s highly unlikely that first-century Christians would have fabricated such a shameful fate […]

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Culture: Wendell Berry, “Total Economy,” and the Quest for New Forms of Community

In a Touchstone book review of The Humane Vision of Wendell Berry, A.W. Hunt skillfully summarizes agrarian writer Wendell Berry’s economic critique as well as possible pathways to wholeness: “We now live under what Berry calls a ‘total economy,’ one where everything has a price. The market no longer serves the culture; rather the culture […]

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Apologetics: Why the Acts of Paul and Gospel of Peter Aren’t On Your Schedule for Reading the Bible in a Year

Perhaps you, like many others, are planning to read through the Bible this year. If you do, you’re likely to ask yourself at some point, “Weren’t there other Gospels and letters that didn’t make it into the Bible? Why am I reading these texts instead of those?” So what about those other Gospels? Well, from […]

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Apologetics: Why Some Books Made It Into the New Testament and Others Didn’t

It’s New Year’s Eve! Tomorrow, many of you will begin reading through the Bible in a year. Before you do, I want to plant a question in your mind: Why these books? Why spend the year reading through these ancient texts and not some other documents? What’s so important about these books that owe their […]

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Study: Tom Schreiner on the Uniqueness of Luke’s Gospel

The Gospel According to Luke provides the most comprehensive and most familiar account of the birth of Jesus—and, perhaps most significant of all, it’s the account that appears in A Charlie Brown Christmas. If you’re interested in learning more about Luke’s Gospel than Linus Van Pelt is able to tell you, Matt Smethurst has posted […]

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