Subscribe to the Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast on PodBean or iTunes. One week from today, I’ll launch the first episodes of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast. Until then, here’s a quick overview of why this podcast exists and what you’ll hear each week. Think of this post as the superhero origin story […]
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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: How Aristides Spoke Truth to Power in the Second Century
Imagine yourself as a follower of Jesus in the opening decades of the second century. Nearly a century has passed since the first followers of Jesus claimed they saw their leader alive three days after they watched him die. Now, the Christian faith has reached nearly every urban center in the Roman Empire. And yet, […]
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Apologetics: How Can the Bible be Inerrant if Copyists Made Mistakes?
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 […]
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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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Apologetics: How the Obscenity of the Crucifixion Supports the Truth of the Gospel
With few exceptions, even the most skeptical scholars admit that Jesus was crucified—and with good reason. Not only the authors of the New Testament but also later Christian writers, the Roman historian Tacitus, and quite likely the Jewish historian Josephus mention the crucifixion of Jesus. And it’s highly unlikely that first-century Christians would have fabricated […]
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Family Ministry: DiscipleGuide Church Leaders Cruise
Interested in apologetics and family ministry? If so, then you’re likely to be interested in this upcoming conference. God willing, I will be part of an experience in January 2018 that will bring together apologetics and family ministry in a way that will equip you and your church’s staff for far more effective future ministry.
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Blog: Most-Read Posts of 2016 and Plans for 2017
Around twenty-seven thousand people racked up nearly one hundred thousand views of this blog in 2016. If you were one of them, thank you! Since there are no advertisements on my site, I don’t profit from any of the content. And so, if you’ve profited from what I’ve written, please consider purchasing a book (or two […]
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Apologetics: How the Meaning of “Canon” Changed from a River Reed to a Book We Read
Recently, I had a conversation with Jonathan Petersen at Bible Gateway about the origin and meaning of the word “canon.” Here’s an excerpt from our discussion: Jonathan: What is the definition of “canon”? TPJ: The meaning of the word canon as we know it today can be traced back to how the Greeks used a […]
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Apologetics: What If the Copies Were Corrupted?
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 […]
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Apologetics: How the New Testament Epistles Were Written
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 […]
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Apologetics: Why the Lost Gospels Were Lost
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 […]
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Apologetics: A New Teaching Series on How We Got the Bible
A few weeks from now, Rose Publishing will release a new book and video series entitled How We Got the Bible. The topic of the book and video series is—you guessed it!—how we got the Bible. (Click here for a quick peek at the video production process.) Here are a few of the topics I cover in […]
[Read More...]Apologetics: Why the “Lost Gospels” Were Lost
In 1945, a farmer named Muhammad ‘Ali al-Samman found a trove of ancient codices while searching for fertilizer. He and his brothers returned home with the thirteen papyrus books. That’s when his mother apparently used a few of the papyri as kindling in their stone oven.[i] Most of the texts, however, survived the kindling pile and […]
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Apologetics: Two Reasons Not to Use When Sharing Your Faith
In my years as a pastor and professor, I’ve spoken with thousands of people—most of them firm believers in the biblical perspective on Jesus—about Christian apologetics and the historical foundations of their faith. In the process, I’ve heard multitudes of well-meaning Christians provide two particular reasons for their faith. The first reason runs something like this: “I just know Jesus […]
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Family Ministry: How a Biblical Worldview Shapes the Way We Teach Our Children
To have a biblical worldview is to interpret every aspect of our lives—including our relationships with children—within the framework of God’s story. At the center of God’s story stands this singular act: In Jesus Christ, God personally intersected human history and redeemed humanity at a particular time in a particular place. Yet this central act […]
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Church History: Who Decided Which Books Belong in My Bible?
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 […]
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Apologetics: Did Christians Create Their Faith Or Did the Faith Form Christians?
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 […]
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