Episodes
Tuesday Dec 29, 2020
Tuesday Dec 29, 2020
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 rock and roll. Josh deftly sidesteps Garrick’s many queries about music and remains focused on the ways that seventeenth-century mathematician and apologist Blaise Pascal aimed people toward faith. In the end, your intrepid cohosts discover that the strongest apologetic is an apologetic that aims not only at the intellect but also at the heart. U2, Jackson Brown, and Kenny Rogers show up as Garrick and Timothy do their best to compensate for Josh’s manifold musical deficiencies.
In the second half, it’s the most Stevie Wonder-full time of the year! That's because the dynamic duo delves into a number-one hit from 1973 entitled “Superstition.” According to Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” people should never have faith in anything they don’t understand. When Garrick and Timothy lay the lyrics of “Superstition” alongside Scripture and the works of Augustine of Hippo, they recognize that Stevie wasn’t completely wrong on this point but he also wasn’t completely right. In some sense, it’s faith that opens the door to understanding. Along the way, Timothy reveals his heretofore untold tale of how Stevie Wonder obtained one of his brothers-in-law for him.
The Toybox Hero Tournament descends into utter madness as Garrick attempts to use his oldest daughter’s spa kit to give a pedicure to a marsupial from the underside of the planet. The aftermath cannot be described in human words; it can only be experienced through the sheer shock and horror of listening to this week's Toybox Hero Tournament. Also, if there’s a bush band from Australia that needs a name, “The Kangaroo Paw Spa Band” is the name you’ve been looking for. The new cover art for this season was created by Dani Wallace (daniwallace.myportfolio.com).
This Week’s Guest
Josh Chatraw is the director of New City Fellows at the Center for Public Christianity and resident theologian at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. His writing and speaking focuses on public theology, apologetics, and culture. His latest book is Telling a Better Story: How to Talk About God in a Skeptical Age.
Links to Click
B and H Academic
Truth Matters: book by Andreas Köstenberger, Darrell Bock, and Josh Chatraw
Truth in a Culture of Doubt: book by Andreas Köstenberger, Darrell Bock, and Josh Chatraw
Pensées: book by Blaise Pascal
City of God: book by St. Augustine
Running on Empty: song by Jackson Browne
Superstition: song by Stevie Wonder
Telling a Better Story: book by Josh Chatraw
SBTS Preview Day Urban Ministry Podcast
How to Make Three Chords and the Truth More Amazing than It Already Is
Support the show and spread the word! Here are a few ways to do that:
1. Subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast: Apple / Android / RSS.
2. Leave a rating and review on iTunes to encourage other people to listen to the show.
3. If you purchase any of the books mentioned in Three Chords and the Truth, consider using the Amazon links provided in the show notes. The show will receive a small percentage of each sale.
4. Visit our Patreon site where you can support the podcast, suggest future songs or topics, and order Three Chords and the Truth merchandise.
5. Make contact with us on Twitter: @DrTimothyPJones@GarrickBailey @ApologeticsPod
The Closing Credits
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
Sean McDowell: Getting the Gospel to Generation Z + "Baba O'Riley" (The Who)
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
Tuesday Nov 17, 2020
“Generation Z.” “iGen.” “Centennials.” Whatever you happen to call this generation, the children who drew their first breaths in the years between Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” are the first generation of digital natives in human history. But how secure is the faith of these teenagers and young adults? And how can current church leaders help them to trust the truth of the Christian faith? That’s what apologetics professor and bestselling author Sean McDowell joins Timothy to talk about this week. Sean also acknowledges his little-known affection for keyboard synthesizers and the music of Depeche Mode. And, as always, Sean talks about superheroes, because he’s Sean McDowell and that’s what Sean McDowell does, because he’s amazing that way.
The focus on teenagers persists into the second half of the episode as Garrick and Timothy look at a song that’s known to most people as “Teenage Wasteland,” mostly because most people only hear the song on classic rock radio stations. The real name of this tune from The Who is “Baba O’Riley.” Even though it’s one of the greatest productions in the history of rock and roll, the song is actually a leftover from an unfinished dystopian science fiction rock and roll opera. The opera was supposed to be called “Lifehouse,” and the story line that Pete Townshend of The Who sketched out for it in 1971 sounds suspiciously like a certain film from 1999 known as The Matrix. After listening to “Baba O’Riley,” your intrepid cohosts analyze the song’s eschatology and unearth the twisted history behind Pete Townshend’s penchant for smashing guitars, which can be traced back to a low ceiling in London and an artist named Gustav Metzger whose lectures were attended by members of Queen, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. Along the way, Garrick and Timothy realize that “going Gustav” is the perfect phrase to describe the smashing of a guitar on stage. Also, someone should totally name their guitar-smashing band “Göïng Güstäv.”
This week’s Toybox Hero Tournament was so brutal that the dynamic duo was almost forced to change the rating of this episode. The contestant from Garrick’s family is a buffalo or a bison or some other sort of furry bovine that’s full of blood and meat and bones and various squishy physiological artifacts. (Garrick and Timothy are theologians not zoologists, folks. When it comes to the nuances that distinguish various mammals, they are basically clueless. They only remember which of their household creatures is a cat and which one is a hamster when the cat eats the hamster. Or the hamster eats the cat, whichever one it was that happened last week. Also, why hasn’t anyone ever named their rock band “Plätÿpüs”?) The other combatant is a lioness which inexplicably has a mane, suggesting that Timothy may need to have a discussion about feline gender roles with one of his children. The result of this sanguinary clash is much bloodletting and general pandemonium related to the toy animals that populate the Jones and Bailey households.
The new cover art for this season was created by Dani Wallace (daniwallace.myportfolio.com).
This Week’s Guest
Sean McDowell earned his PhD in Apologetics and Worldview Studies from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is now professor of Christian Apologetics at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. Sean is the author, co-author, or editor of over twenty books including The Fate of the Apostles, So The Next Generation Will Know, and Evidence that Demands a Verdict. You can find out more about Sean and his ministry at his apologetics blog, seanmcdowell.org.
Links to Click
B and H Academic
Student Ministry by the Book: book by Ed Newton and R. Scott Pace
So That the Next Generation Will Know: book by Sean McDowell and J. Warner Wallace
Gen Z: study by Barna Group
Chasing Love: book by Sean McDowell (Dec. 2020)
Passionate Conviction: book edited by Paul Copan and William Lane Craig
Who's Next: album by The Who
Baba O'Riley: song by The Who
SBTS Preview Day
Urban Ministry Podcast
How to Make Three Chords and the Truth More Amazing than It Already Is
Support the show and spread the word! Here are a few ways to do that:
1. Subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast: Apple / Android / RSS.
2. Leave a rating and review on iTunesto encourage other people to listen to the show.
3. If you purchase any of the books mentioned in Three Chords and the Truth, consider using the Amazon links provided in the show notes. The show will receive a small percentage of each sale.
4. Visit our Patreon site where you can support the podcast, suggest future songs or topics, and order Three Chords and the Truth merchandise.
5. Make contact with us on Twitter: @DrTimothyPJones @GarrickBailey @ApologeticsPod
The Closing Credits
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Josh Chatraw and Stephen Presley: How to Do Apologetics Like the Early Church
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
It’s a two-for-the-price-of-one sale this week at Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast! (Or perhaps “two-for-the-price-of-none,” since you don’t actually have to pay to listen to the podcast anyway.) In any case, the festivities begin with church historian extraordinaire Stephen Presley, who joins us to talk about the greatness of U2 and how Christians did apologetics in the second century A.D. A second-century pastor named Irenaeus of Lyon turns out to be the star of the discussion with Stephen Presley, which gives Timothy an opportunity to recite his favorite lines from Irenaeus’ dismantling of the Gnostic heresy: “Behold, these four powers—the Gourd, the Hollowness, the Cucumber, and the Pumpkin! They have together begotten a crowd of delirious pumpkins.” (No, we’re not joking; Irenaeus actually did include these words in a theological treatise in the second century A.D. Also, “Dëlïrïöüs Pümpkïns” would be an amazing name for a band.) Timothy sees these words as a prophetic foreshadowing of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” the greatest Halloween program ever produced.In the second half, theologian and apologist Josh Chatraw joins us to discuss the apologetics of the fifth-century pastor and theologian Augustine of Hippo. But this is not just the story of Augustine. This is also the heartwarming story—soon to be turned into a Hallmark holiday film—of the musical redemption of Josh Chatraw. Josh is a world-class apologist who produces outstanding books but, when it comes to music, his responses tend to fall a bit short. In his first appearance on this program several months ago, Josh mentioned Kenny G, a recording artist whose saxophone playing sounds like an overly-chill choir of flatulent poltergeists. (Also, “Flätülënt Pöltërgëïsts” would be another excellent name for a band.) This could have prevented Josh from ever returning to Three Chords and the Truth, but your intrepid cohosts are more forgiving and gracious than you might have guessed. As a result, they’ve given Josh a second chance. In this program, Josh Chatraw begins his long journey toward redemption and recovery by appealing to the blues. Much hilarity and deep discussion of Augustine takes place along the way.This week’s Toybox Hero Tournament turns out to be so difficult that Garrick and Timothy are unable to decide who is the winner. The combatants are a weapon from Garrick’s middle child and a superhero from Timothy’s third child. The result is a Toybox Hero Tournament in which the outcome is up to you, the long-suffering listeners who must vote on a winner. Visit Garrick and Timothy on Twitter at Twitter.com/ApologeticsPod to let us know who should win.
The new cover art for this season was created by Dani Wallace (daniwallace.myportfolio.com).
This Week’s Guest
Stephen Presley is associate professor of church history at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He specializes in patristics with an interest in the intersection between the history, theology, and exegesis of the early church. Dr. Presley received his Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he carried out his research in patristics.
Josh Chatraw is the director of New City Fellows at the Center for Public Christianity and resident theologian at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. His writing and speaking focuses on public theology, apologetics, and culture. His latest book is Telling a Better Story: How to Talk About God in a Skeptical Age.
Links to Click
B and H Academic
Truth Matters: book by Andreas Köstenberger, Darrell Bock, and Josh Chatraw
Truth in a Culture of Doubt: book by Andreas Köstenberger, Darrell Bock, and Josh Chatraw
Liberty in the Things of God: book by Robert Louis Wilken
Against Heresies: book by Irenaeus of Lyons
Confessions: book by Augustine
City of God: book by Augustine
A History of Apologetics: book by Avery Dulles
SBTS Preview Day
Urban Ministry Podcast
How to Make Three Chords and the Truth More Amazing than It Already Is
Support the show and spread the word! Here are a few ways to do that:
1. Subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast: Apple / Android / RSS.
2. Leave a rating and review on iTunes to encourage other people to listen to the show.
3. If you purchase any of the books mentioned in Three Chords and the Truth, consider using the Amazon links provided in the show notes. The show will receive a small percentage of each sale.
4. Visit our Patreon site where you can support the podcast, suggest future songs or topics, and order Three Chords and the Truth merchandise.
5. Make contact with us on Twitter: @DrTimothyPJones @GarrickBailey @ApologeticsPod
The Closing Credits
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
Welcome to the first-ever—and probably the only-ever—Three Chords and the Truth episode that’s all about love! So pull up a chair, strap on your headphones, grab your favorite scissors and your red construction paper, and prepare to cut out some romantic paper hearts. (And, by the way, why hasn’t anyone ever named a heavy metal band “Scïssör”?) One dominant trend in the past decade has been to assume that loving someone requires affirming their lifestyle. As a result, when Christians point out that certain lifestyles are incompatible with Scripture, these Christians are declared to be unloving. The assumption that love requires affirmation has been one hallmark of a movement known as “progressive Christianity”—and that’s what Alisa Childers joins us to talk about in the first half of this week’s episode. Alisa Childers is the author of a new book entitled Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity. Alisa is also—Timothy discovers—a fan of one of the many musicians that Garrick has failed to appreciate adequately, Bob Dylan.In the second half, the dynamic duo digs deeper into love by looking at a song from a band that was once known as “Trigger.” The band is Foreigner, and the song is “I Want to Know What Love Is”—a song that was, according to the initial songwriter, “probably written entirely by a higher force.” In the process of determining what love is (as well as trying to decide whether or not a higher force really wrote the song), Garrick and Timothy explore a book from C.S. Lewis that unpacks four different types of love. Along the way, your intrepid cohosts also discover how Foreigner’s lead vocalist finally found real love after looking for love in all the wrong places.Another tune from Foreigner—which was apparently written by a lower force instead of a higher force—inspired the Toybox Hero Tournaments at the midpoint of most episodes this season. The song from Foreigner that inspired the Toybox Hero Tournaments was, of course, “Juke Box Hero.” This week’s Toybox Hero Tournament places a Lego version of Galadriel from Timothy’s second child into mortal combat against a ceramic duck named Walter that Garrick has stolen from his oldest daughter. Despite Garrick’s claims to the contrary, Timothy is quite convinced that Walter the Duck is a distant cousin of Howard the Duck—which might have increased Norman’s chances of survival, if Norman had possessed the same Quack-Fu skills as Howard the Duck. Garrick—in a moment of quick thinking in which he inexplicably remembers the theme of this week’s episode—appeals to Galadriel’s love for the creatures of the woodland. Galadriel, thrilled beyond words that love was the theme of this week’s episode, graciously grants Garrick's request and rescues Walter from being roasted by the woodland elves.
The new cover art for this season was created by Dani Wallace (daniwallace.myportfolio.com).
This Week’s Guest
As a lifelong church-goer, follower of Jesus, and former recording artist with the Dove award-winning group ZOEgirl, Alisa Childers experienced a period of profound doubt about her faith in her mid-thirties. Through this season, Alisa began a journey from unreasoned doubt into vibrant, intellectually informed faith. She now engages culture, apologetics, theology, and worship at her blog, https://www.alisachilders.com. Her new book, Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity, releases October 2020 (Tyndale Momentum).
Links to Click
B and H Academic
Come Let Us Reason: book edited by Paul Copan and William Lane Craig
Another Gospel?: book by Alisa Childers
America's Changing Religious Landscape: demographic study from Pew Research Center (2015)
Tactics: book by Greg Koukl
Alisa Childers
The Alisa Childers Podcast
Agent Provocateur: album by Foreigner
I Want to Know What Love Is: song by Foreigner
The Four Loves: book by C. S. Lewis
SBTS Preview Day
Urban Ministry Podcast
How to Make Three Chords and the Truth More Amazing than It Already Is
Support the show and spread the word! Here are a few ways to do that:
1. Subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast: Apple / Android / RSS.
2. Leave a rating and review on iTunes to encourage other people to listen to the show.
3. If you purchase any of the books mentioned in Three Chords and the Truth, consider using the Amazon links provided in the show notes. The show will receive a small percentage of each sale.
4. Visit our Patreon site where you can support the podcast, suggest future songs or topics, and order Three Chords and the Truth merchandise.
5. Make contact with us on Twitter: @DrTimothyPJones @GarrickBailey @ApologeticsPod
The Closing Credits
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
Sometimes, the best defense of the gospel isn’t a better argument but a better story. That’s why the previous episode about Josh Chatraw’s book Telling a Better Story and this episode with Russell Moore both focus on narrative apologetics. Also: after an episode in which your intrepid cohosts dredged the depths of some of the worst music ever produced in the history of humanity, this episode marks a return to aural greatness as Timothy looks at music from Paul McCartney, Petra, and Johnny Cash. The focus of the musical discussion this week is “He Went to Paris,” a 1973 tune from everyone’s favorite margarita-marinated beach strummer, the one and only Jimmy Buffett.
The first few moments of the podcast threaten to devolve into total disaster, as Timothy is shocked to learn that the Pixar film Onward was not actually an adaptation of Russell Moore’s book Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel. (Önwärd would, however, have been a great name for a Christian metal band in the 1980s.) After learning in the previous episode that Josh Chatraw’s “inside out apologetics” has nothing to do with the Pixar film Inside Out, this new revelation from Russell Moore is almost too much for Timothy to handle. But Timothy is far more resilient than you might think, and he recovers from his shock just in time to discuss the narrative apologetics of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia that God utilized to guide a teenaged Russell Moore toward books like Mere Christianity. Along the way, Russ and Timothy end up reminiscing about how the Christian rock band Petra shaped their souls in the 1980s. The discussion then goes full circle with Jimmy Buffett’s “He Went to Paris,” back to the infinite yearning of every human heart for a satisfying story and to the apologetic truth that only the gospel can provide the narrative that humanity needs.
The new cover art for this season was created by Dani Wallace (daniwallace.myportfolio.com).
This Week’s Guest
Russell Moore is president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the moral and public policy agency of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Dr. Moore is the author of several books, including Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel and The Storm-Tossed Family: How the Cross Reshapes the Home. You can find out more about Dr. Moore at his personal website, https://www.russellmoore.com.
Links to Click
B and H Academic
A Theology for the Church: book edited by Daniel Akin
Onward: book by Russell Moore
The Chronicles of Narnia: series by C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity: book by C. S. Lewis
He Went to Paris: song by Jimmy Buffett
Reading Buechner: book by Jeffrey Munroe
Surprised by Joy: book by C. S. Lewis
Why Should I Trust the Bible?: book by Timothy Paul Jones
timothypauljones.com
Three Chords and the Truth
SBTS Preview Day
Urban Ministry Podcast
How to Make Three Chords and the Truth More Amazing than It Already Is
Support the show and spread the word! Here are a few ways to do that:
1. Subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast: Apple / Android / RSS.
2. Leave a rating and review on iTunes to encourage other people to listen to the show.
3. If you purchase any of the books mentioned in Three Chords and the Truth, consider using the Amazon links provided in the show notes. The show will receive a small percentage of each sale.
4. Visit our Patreon site where you can support the podcast, suggest future songs or topics, and order Three Chords and the Truth merchandise.
5. Make contact with us on Twitter: @DrTimothyPJones @GarrickBailey @ApologeticsPod
The Closing Credits
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey: How to Do Apologetics in a Skeptical Age
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
Have you ever heard terms like “presuppositionalism,” “evidentialism,” or “classical apologetics”? Have you wondered if there’s an easier way to understand apologetics? Maybe you’ve even wished that people could defend the Christian faith without talking about these terms at all.
If so, this episode is for you.
(Actually, every episode is for you, because you’re just that special to us. But this one is especially for you.)
In the first half, your intrepid cohosts provide simple explanations of the most popular apologetics methods. Then, in the second half, they take a look at a book that advocates “inside out apologetics”—a simple, conversational approach to defending the Christian faith in a skeptical age.
So how is it that Garrick and Timothy manage to explain presuppositionalism, evidentialism, and classical apologetics in such a short and simple way? The answer will shake every assumption you’ve ever had about Garrick and Timothy, as the podcast bravely goes where it has never gone before. Instead of discussing the greatest songs in the history of rock and roll, the dynamic duo dares to do something completely different: Garrick and Timothy dredge the depths of musical history and unearth some of the worst music ever produced.
And they do it on purpose.
The musical travesties begin with “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?,” a tune from the first installment of the Frozen franchise that’s been slightly improved by the band Stellar Kart. The music gets worse with a song from the soundtrack of Over the Top, a 1987 film about the sport of semi-professional arm wrestling. (Yes, there actually was such a film, starring Sylvester Stallone. Garrick says you should definitely watch it; Timothy thinks this film is worse than being forced to eat a vegetarian diet while sharing a pup tent with Jar Jar Binks on a month-long camping trip.)
Right when it seems that the tunes can’t get any worse, Garrick and Timothy bravely strain downward to touch the terrible and terrifying nadir of music.
Yes, that’s right: they dredge up a song from those purveyors of aural agony known as the Backstreet Boys, who show up to teach us about Cornelius Van Til and presuppositionalism.
(Also, even though “Over the Top” was an awful movie, it would be a great name for a band.)
In the end, a book from Josh Chatraw shows up to save the day—which makes perfect sense on an episode that’s dedicated to terrible music, since Josh was once nearly kicked off an episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast due to his love for Kenny G, the undisputed most overrated saxophonist on the planet. The title of Josh Chatraw’s book is Telling a Better Story: How Kenny G Saved My Apologetics.
Just kidding!
The title of his book is actually Telling a Better Story: How to Talk about God in a Skeptical Age. In this book, Josh unpacks “inside out” apologetics, a concept that sadly has nothing to do with the Pixar film of the same name. In the end, the book is sufficiently helpful that Garrick and Timothy forgive Josh’s affection for Kenny G and might even invite Josh to come back on the program someday.
The new cover art for this season was created by Dani Wallace (daniwallace.myportfolio.com).
Links to Click
B and H Academic
Truth Matters: book by Andreas Köstenberger, Darrell Bock, and Josh Chatraw
Truth In a Culture of Doubt: book by Andreas Köstenberger, Darrell Bock, and Josh Chatraw
Telling a Better Story: book by Josh Chatraw
Do You Want to Build a Snowman?: song from Disney's Frozen
Thomas Aquinas's Summa Contra Gentiles: a guide and commentary by Brian Davies
Meet Me Halfway: song by Kenny Loggins
The Case for Christ: book by Lee Strobel
Something That I Already Know: song by the Backstreet Boys
Christian Apologetics: book by Cornelius Van Til
A Survey of Christian Epistemology: book by Cornelius Van Til
What's Love Got to Do With It: song by Tina Turner
SBTS Preview Day
Urban Ministry Podcast
How to Make Three Chords and the Truth More Amazing than It Already Is
Support the show and spread the word! Here are a few ways to do that:
1. Subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast: Apple / Android / RSS.
2. Leave a rating and review on iTunes to encourage other people to listen to the show.
3. If you purchase any of the books mentioned in Three Chords and the Truth, consider using the Amazon links provided in the show notes. The show will receive a small percentage of each sale.
4. Visit our Patreon site where you can support the podcast, suggest future songs or topics, and order Three Chords and the Truth merchandise.
5. Make contact with us on Twitter: @DrTimothyPJones @GarrickBailey @ApologeticsPod
The Closing Credits
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&H Academic for their sponsorship. Theme music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson and Kevin MacLeod. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
This episode is packed with answers in Genesis—but, believe it or not, when we say “Genesis” we’re not talking about the band that’s been fronted by Phil Collins since the early 1970s. The focus of this week’s episode is the other Genesis, the one at the top of the table of contents in your Bible. Some Christians feel certain that the cosmos was created only a few thousand years ago while others are adamant that the earth must be billions of years old. Apologist and author Ted Cabal joins Garrick and Timothy in the first half to discuss the question, “How much does the age of the earth really matter? Or does it?” Along the way, Ted describes the history of the young-earth creationist movement, his favorite guitarists, and the greatest guitar he’s ever played.
“Let There Be Rock”—AC/DC’s hard-rocking twist on the opening chapter of Genesis—provides the soundtrack for the second half of this week’s episode. On the way to a discussion of classical arguments for the existence of God, Garrick and Timothy discover why AC/DC ended up in Australia in the first place, what fuels Angus Young’s crazy on-stage antics (hint: it’s not alcohol or drugs), how a sewing machine provided AC/DC with their name, and how a pastor once inadvertently intruded on an AC/DC video that was being filmed in his church. Garrick learns the shocking truth about how Australians pronounce “AC/DC,” and he reveals how he once cruelly destroyed the joy that had previously filled a support technician’s stomach and soul whenever the technician ate Kentucky Fried Chicken. Before it’s over, the dynamic duo locates three classical arguments for the existence of God in AC/DC’s “Let There Be Rock,” and Timothy retitles the argument from design such that it shall be henceforth and forever known as “the tassological argument.”
Also, Garrick and Timothy learn that “the Ten Pound Plan” isn’t a diet—but it would still make a great name for a band.
This week’s Toybox Hero Tournament turns out to be the strangest one yet—and that’s saying something, since the Toybox Hero Tournament has already pretty much been a never-ending fountain of strangeness. A gluttonous lepidopteran from Garrick’s youngest child goes into battle against a future Jedi on the planet Hoth. This deadly duel reveals a sordid and previously-unknown connection between The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the exogorth that nearly eats the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. You’ll never be able to look at The Very Hungry Caterpillar or The Empire Strikes Back in the same way again after this week’s tournament.
The new cover art for this season was created by Dani Wallace (daniwallace.myportfolio.com).
This Week’s Guest
Ted Cabal has been a street evangelist, church planter, pastor, and educator. He coauthored Controversy of the Ages: Why Christians Should Not Divide over the Age of the Earth (Lexham Press, 2018) and is general editor of The Apologetics Study Bible (B&H, 2nd ed., 2017). His special interest in the intersection of faith and reason stems from his coming to faith in Christ as a professional rock guitarist and atheist while reading the book of Matthew. You can find out more about Dr. Cabal and Christian apologetics at his personal blog, https://tedcabal.com.
Links to Click
B and H Academic
Come Let Us Reason: book edited by William Lane Craig and Paul Copan
Controversy of the Ages: book coauthored by Ted Cabal
Apologetics Study Bible: study Bible edited by Ted Cabal
BioLogos
Let There Be Rock: album by AC/DC
Let There Be Rock: song by AC/DC
SBTS Preview Day
Urban Ministry Podcast
How to Make Three Chords and the Truth More Amazing than It Already Is
Support the show and spread the word! Here are a few ways to do that:
1. Subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast: Apple / Android / RSS.
2. Leave a rating and review on iTunes to encourage other people to listen to the show.
3. If you purchase any of the books mentioned in Three Chords and the Truth, consider using the Amazon links provided in the show notes. The show will receive a small percentage of each sale.
4. Visit our Patreon site where you can support the podcast, suggest future songs or topics, and order Three Chords and the Truth merchandise.
5. Make contact with us on Twitter: @DrTimothyPJones @GarrickBailey @ApologeticsPod
The Closing Credits
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
The devil, the blues, and The Jackson 5 are the stars of this week's episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast. Lisa V. Fields—popular apologetics speaker and founder of the Jude 3 Project—joins Timothy to discuss a recent apologetics curriculum from Jude 3 Project. Along the way, Lisa reveals her longstanding longing to sing Michael's parts with the Jackson 5. More importantly, Lisa provides valuable insights for defending the faith in conversations with young urban professionals and in historically African-American churches and colleges.In the second half of this week's episode, your intrepid cohosts bask in the glow of yet another wonder from the year 1986. This time, it's the movie Crossroads, which was basically Karate Kid except with music instead of martial arts. Not only does this film provide Garrick and Timothy with a chance to explore the history of the blues, but it also opens the door to talking about selling your soul to the devil. This devilish discussion takes the dynamic duo back to the sixth century and then from there to sixteenth century, to talk about a man named Faust who—at least according to one legend—traded his soul to the devil for a poodle and twenty-four years of superpowers. In the end, this quest to comprehend the longstanding legend of selling your soul to the devil lands Garrick and Timothy at a crossroads in Mississippi for a stunning finale that you won't want to miss.Also, "Fäüst" would be the perfect name for a death-metal band. This week's toybox hero tournament—just like Top Gun, Iron Eagle, Crossroads, the Oprah Winfrey Show, Pee-wee's Playhouse, and ALF—has its beginning in the year 1986. That's when a certain toy from Garrick's childhood first made an appearance. The toy was the amazing, transforming Autobot boombox Blaster. This week, Blaster enters into mortal combat with an action figure from Timothy's youngest child. The result is a sonic boom from Wakanda that reduces Blaster to spare parts.
The new cover art for this season was created by Dani Wallace (daniwallace.myportfolio.com).
This Week’s Guest
Lisa V. Fields is a graduate of Liberty University with a Master of Divinity with a focus in Theology. As founder and president of the Jude 3 Project, Lisa's primary mission is to help the Black Christian community know what they believe and why they believe. Lisa has received several honors, including being recognized by Christianity Today for her work as an apologist in the African American community. She speaks regularly at evangelism, apologetic, and biblical literacy events for various universities and churches across the country.
Links to Click
B and H Academic
For God So Loved the World: book by Dayton Hartman and Walter Strickland
Jude 3 Project
Through Eyes of Color: participant's guide by Lisa Fields and Yana Conner
Through Eyes of Color: leader's guide by Lisa Fields and Yana Conner
The Basics on Blaster: video by Chris McFeely
Crossroads (1986): movie
Cross Road Blues: song by Robert Johnson
Crossroads: song by Cream
SBTS Preview Day
Urban Ministry Podcast
How to Make Three Chords and the Truth More Amazing than It Already Is
Support the show and spread the word! Here are a few ways to do that:
1. Subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast: Apple / Android / RSS.
2. Leave a rating and review on iTunesto encourage other people to listen to the show.
3. If you purchase any of the books mentioned in Three Chords and the Truth, consider using the Amazon links provided in the show notes. The show will receive a small percentage of each sale.
4. Visit our Patreon site where you can support the podcast, suggest future songs or topics, and order Three Chords and the Truth merchandise.
5. Make contact with us on Twitter: @DrTimothyPJones @GarrickBailey @ApologeticsPod
The Closing Credits
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).
Tuesday Jun 30, 2020
Vocab Malone: Barry versus the Black Hebrew Israelites + "One Vision" (Queen)
Tuesday Jun 30, 2020
Tuesday Jun 30, 2020
Your intrepid cohosts have been watching a lot 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 University might have been like. At one point in this film, a young Barack Obama confronts a band of Black Hebrew Israelites in Harlem. Urban apologist Vocab Malone—author of the book Barack Obama versus the Black Hebrew Israelites—uses this scene as a starting-point to help listeners to understand the rapidly-growing Black Hebrew Israelite movement. Along the way, Vocab Malone reveals his longstanding affection for an early doo-wop group that almost no one else remembers, and he describes how he once danced with the Transformers at Comic-Con.The second film to make an appearance is the 2018 animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. This film shows up because Timothy’s thirteen-year-old sends Spider-Gwen into battle against a fireball-breathing platypus that's the property of Garrick’s thirteen-year-old in this week's Toybox Hero Tournament. The result is a spider-person and platypus supergroup that will one day rule the world.The next film is Iron Eagle, which happens to be one of Garrick’s favorite childhood film. This film also represents the low point of intelligent dialogue in the year 1986 (not including that one time in the autumn of 1986 when thirteen-year-old Timothy attempted to express his feelings for a member of the opposite sex, which consisted mostly of indecipherable grunts punctuated by several hundred repetitions of "um, I really, um"). The reason Iron Eagle shows up is because the movie's soundtrack included the song “One Vision” by Queen, which is the focus of the second half of the episode.
In the process of analyzing “One Vision,” Garrick and Timothy trace the religious journey of Queen’s lead vocalist Freddie Mercury from Zoroastrianism to an apparent fascination with certain aspects of Christianity. What Freddie Mercury's journey reveals is humanity’s inescapable yearning for oneness and harmony—a yearning that can't be fulfilled apart from an embrace of the gospel.
It may also reveal that all humanity can unite around fried chicken.
Also, even though Iron Eagle was a terrible movie, it would make an amazing name for a band.The high point of this week’s episode takes place while Garrick and Timothy are adulating the four-octave wonder of Freddie Mercury’s voice. That’s when Garrick poses the most mind-blowing question ever uttered on this podcast: What if Steve Perry and Freddie Mercury had formed a supergroup and sang together? Besides ripping the space-time continuum, this combination would have—the dynamic duo realizes—produced the world-saving song that Bill and Ted were tasked with writing in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
The new cover art for this season was created by Dani Wallace (daniwallace.myportfolio.com).
This Week’s Guest
Vocab Malone was born and raised on the south side of Columbus, Ohio. He holds a master’s degree from Phoenix Seminary and is a doctoral student at Talbot School of Theology. Vocab’s ministry focus is urban apologetics and cultural worldview analysis. Vocab is a member of First Arabic Baptist Church in Arizona, and he's the author of Barack Obama vs the Black Hebrew Israelites: An Introduction to the History and Beliefs of 1West Hebrew Israelism.
Links to Click
B and H Academic
For God So Loved the World: book edited by Dayton Hartman and Walter Strickland
Barack Obama vs the Black Hebrew Israelites: book by Vocab Malone
Black Christians You Should Know: YouTube series by Vocab Malone
I Wonder Why: song by Dion and the Belmonts
What's Up Danger?: song by Blackway and Black Caviar
Fabulous: song by Phineas and Bobby Fabulous
Some Kind of Magic: album by Queen
One Vision: song by Queen
Iron Eagle: movie trailer
Bill and Ted Face the Music: movie trailer
The Major Political Writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: book edited and translated by John T. Scott
Essays on Religion, Science, and Society: book by Herman Bavinck
Jesus: song by Queen
The Show Must Go On: song by Queen
SBTS Preview Day
Urban Ministry Podcast
How to Make Three Chords and the Truth More Amazing than It Already Is
Support the show and spread the word! Here are a few ways to do that:
1. Subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast: Apple / Android / RSS.
2. Leave a rating and review on iTunes to encourage other people to listen to the show.
3. If you purchase any of the books mentioned in Three Chords and the Truth, consider using the Amazon links provided in the show notes. The show will receive a small percentage of each sale.
4. Visit our Patreon site where you can support the podcast, suggest future songs or topics, and order Three Chords and the Truth merchandise.
5. Make contact with us on Twitter: @DrTimothyPJones @GarrickBailey @ApologeticsPod
The Closing Credits
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).
Tuesday Jun 16, 2020
J.V. Fesko: Reforming Apologetics + "Freewill" (Rush)
Tuesday Jun 16, 2020
Tuesday Jun 16, 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 and all-around very deep person—joins Garrick and Timothy to discuss many deep things. Fesko momentarily risks his deep reputation by admitting his longstanding longing to sing like David Lee Roth, who is not a deep person according to certain anonymous reports and to anyone who’s ever seen him in concert. However, Fesko quickly recovers his much-coveted mantle of deepness by deeply discussing presuppositionalism, the Reformation, and historic worldview theory, all of which are very deep topics. Also, "Mantle of Deepness" would be a terrible name for a band. In the second half, your intrepid cohosts discuss a song that forces the dynamic duo to wade even deeper than Dr. Fesko’s much-coveted mantle of deepness. The song is “Freewill” by Rush, and the deep topics include determinism, libertarianism, compatibilism, Molinism, and whether or not a fish can become a helicopter. According to Garrick, fish cannot become helicopters; Scott Stapp, lead singer and chief arm-spreader in the band Creed, deeply disagrees and even sings a song entitled “Marlins Will Soar.” This song is apparently about how marlins can turn into helicopters while playing baseball and even fly to the World Series if they are sufficiently optimistic. This week’s Toybox Hero Tournament pits a pig against a magical object from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The pig-versus-Potter conflict is so intense that confusion reigns until a song from Cher shows up on the deck of a ship in the deep ocean to render a verdict. The result is bacon.
The new cover art for this season was created by Dani Wallace (daniwallace.myportfolio.com).
This Week’s Guest
J. V. Fesko presently serves at Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson) as Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology. He is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and has served in church planting, pastoral ministry, and teaching for more than twenty years. Fesko has authored or edited more than twenty books and written fifty published essays for various journals and books. You can find out more about Fesko at his personal blog, Reformed Theology.
Links to Click
B and H Academic
Theology of the Reformers: book by Timothy George
Reforming Apologetics: book by J. V. Fesko
Nature and Scripture: essay by Cornelius Van Til
Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: 4-volume work by Richard Muller
Lectures on Calvinism: lectures by Abraham Kuyper
Reformed Theology
The Long Shadow of Racism in America: article by Timothy Paul Jones
The Gospel and the Pursuit of Justice in Your City: article by Jamaal Williams, Timothy Paul Jones, and Jarvis Williams
Permanent Waves: album by Rush
Freewill: song by Rush
Does God Know the Future?: interview with Thomas Flint
True Spirituality: book by Francis Schaeffer
SBTS Preview Day
Urban Ministry Podcast
How to Make Three Chords and the Truth More Amazing than It Already Is
Support the show and spread the word! Here are a few ways to do that:
1. Subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast: Apple / Android / RSS.
2. Leave a rating and review on iTunes to encourage other people to listen to the show.
3. If you purchase any of the books mentioned in Three Chords and the Truth, consider using the Amazon links provided in the show notes. The show will receive a small percentage of each sale.
4. Visit our Patreon site where you can support the podcast, suggest future songs or topics, and order Three Chords and the Truth merchandise.
5. Make contact with us on Twitter: @DrTimothyPJones @GarrickBailey @ApologeticsPod
The Closing Credits
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).