This episode is all about Soul. Garrick and Timothy head to the theaters to watch Soul, a new cinematic feature produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. And by "heading to the theaters," what they mean is that each of them headed downstairs to their respective home theaters, where the screens are far smaller but the seats are much larger and the popcorn is much cheaper. Your intrepid cohosts' goal in watching Soul was to discuss the theological nuances of this fi...
Jan 07, 2021•38 min•Season 2Ep. 16
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 p...
Dec 29, 2020•55 min•Season 2Ep. 15
“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 ...
Nov 17, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 14
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 discussi...
Oct 20, 2020•53 min•Season 2Ep. 13
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 t...
Oct 06, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 12
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. ...
Sep 22, 2020•34 min•Season 2Ep. 11
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 t...
Aug 18, 2020•46 min•Season 2Ep. 10
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 Garric...
Aug 04, 2020•57 min•Season 2Ep. 9
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 profess...
Jul 28, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 8
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 ...
Jun 30, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 7
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 re...
Jun 16, 2020•59 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Reason, resurrection, and the physical world are the focus of the most action-packed episode of Three Chords and the Truth ever produced. The primary reason why it’s so action packed is because the Toybox Hero Tournament includes a special cohost who is far more exciting than either of your intrepid cohosts. Renowned theologian Dr. Matthew Levering kicks off the episode by discussing how nature and philosophy point to the presence of God and why the physical resurrection of Jesus matters. Along ...
May 26, 2020•59 min•Season 2Ep. 5
What does it mean to say that the Bible tells the truth? And what should Christians do when they find a claim in the Bible that looks like a contradiction? New Testament scholar and Daily Dose of Greek mastermind Rob Plummer joins Garrick and Timothy to discuss these questions. In the process, Rob also examines the dilemma that once rocked biblical scholar Bart Ehrman’s belief in the inerrancy of the Bible. In Mark 2:26, Jesus linked an event from the life of David to “the high priest Abiathar,”...
May 19, 2020•53 min•Season 2Ep. 4
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 Perry and Journey. With great difficulty, Timothy manages to restrain his adoration for Steve Perry just long enough to ask J. Warner W...
May 12, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Apologetics scholar Josh Chatraw joins your intrepid cohosts this week to talk about cross-centered apologetics, Augustine of Hippo, and what it takes to hang out with Tim Keller. Josh is the coauthor of several books, including Truth in a Culture of Doubt from B&H Academic. Along the way, Josh makes the mistake of revealing his longstanding affection for pseudo-saxophonist Kenny G, apparently unaware that Kenny G is Timothy’s least favorite musician. The ensuing kerfuffle threatens to elimi...
May 05, 2020•53 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Many apologies for the poor audio quality in some portions of this week's podcast; when this episode was recorded, Timothy and Garrick were still working on different solutions for recording the podcast while socially distanced. It's a new season of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast, and Garrick and Timothy are serious about social distancing. They are, in fact, so serious about being socially distant that they've installed a mile-wide river to separate them. In the first half ...
Apr 28, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Welcome to the final episode of season one of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast ! This week's podcast includes paganism, the Piano Man , and the most daring giveaway ever attempted on any human podcast. Pagan parallels are the theme of the first half. Even in ancient times, pagan philosophers claimed that Christians had “used pagan myths in fabricating the story of a virgin conception.” So is it possible that the miraculous conception of Jesus was plagiarized from pagan paralle...
Dec 30, 2019•54 min•Season 1Ep. 26
On May 25, 1977, a young filmmaker named George Lucas released a space fantasy that he had simply titled Star Wars. Three years later, Lucas expanded the title to Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope and it became clear that this movie was one small segment of a far larger story. Over the past four decades, this story has developed into one of the most influential cultural phenomena of the modern era. Now, with the release of Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, the saga that began In 1977...
Dec 24, 2019•39 min•Season 1Ep. 25
This week’s episode covers the birth of Jesus, death, resurrection, and everything in between! It’s only a few days until Christmas 2019—a celebration which, this year, Timothy has very helpfully renamed “The Star Wars: Episode IX After Party.” At some point between now and Christmas Day, millions of people throughout the world will hear these words from the New Testament: “It came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And thi...
Dec 16, 2019•48 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Welcome to the illegal episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcas t! This episode commemorates two illegal acts, both of which were captured on tape and involved live rock and roll. The first of these two acts happened in 1987 when Paul “Bono” Hewson vandalized a public sculpture with spray-paint during U2 ’s Save the Yuppies concert in San Francisco. The second illegal act took place six years later, in 1993, when Timothy Paul “Definitely Not Bono” Jones rehearsed and recorde...
Dec 13, 2019•32 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Welcome to the creed episode of Three Chords and the Truth ! But don’t worry: we are not talking about the band Creed . (In case you’ve forgotten, Creed was the 1990s band whose videos were filled with embarrassingly-bad CGI and scenes in which the lead vocalist apparently couldn’t keep himself from flailing his arms wide open for most of the song.) Despite Garrick’s best efforts to focus the entire episode on the band Creed , Timothy manages to maintain sufficient focus to discuss both the Apos...
Dec 10, 2019•59 min•Season 1Ep. 22
How can a good God allow so much evil and suffering in the world? And why do some people seem to suffer so much more than others? According to a recent survey of college students , the problem of evil is the question about Christianity that college students find most difficult to answer. This week, Dr. Eric Johnson joins Garrick and Timothy to discuss the difficult question of how to respond when suffering seems to stand in the way of someone's trust in God. The Eric Johnson who shows up on the ...
Nov 18, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Finally, it’s the long-anticipated Van Halen episode, which manages to feature not only Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen but also another important Dutch-born “Van”: Reformed theologian Cornelius Van Til ! Plus, New Testament textual critics Elijah Hixson and Peter Gurry are back with us to discuss the mistakes that people defending the Christian faith tend to make when talking about the textual reliability of the Bible. Along the way, Timothy discusses a few of the errors he made in his book ...
Nov 04, 2019•54 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Has the Bible been copied accurately? Skeptics such as biblical scholar Dr. Bart Ehrman have suggested that it wasn’t. According to Bart Ehrman 's book Misquoting Jesus , it makes no sense for Christians to refer to the Bible as God's inspired Word "because we no longer possess the words that God supposedly inspired. ... All that we have are error-ridden copies" far removed from the original texts. In the first half of this episode, two scholars in the field of textual criticism join Garrick and...
Oct 25, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 19
According to bestselling religious scholar Reza Aslan , the New Testament Gospels “are not, nor were they ever meant to be, a historical documentation of Jesus’s life." The Gospels are, Aslan claims, fictional compositions from early Christians who re-imagined a Jewish revolutionary named Jesus as an ethereal Christ of faith. But is it really reasonable to read the New Testament Gospels as fiction? And, if the Gospels aren't fiction, what genre are they? In the first half of this week’s program,...
Oct 15, 2019•49 min•Season 1Ep. 18
It's the hotly-anticipated Hoosier Edition of Three Chords and the Truth! In this episode, we celebrate the moderately-great state of Indiana. Timothy Paul Jones , a committed Louisvillian who dusts off his feet each time he returns from Indiana, is joined by Doug Blount and Garrick Bailey —two residents of Indiana who were transplanted into the Midwest after being uprooted from the kingdom of Texas—to discuss why so many New Atheists assume that faith and evidence stand in opposition to each ot...
Oct 04, 2019•55 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Over the past few weeks, hundreds of thousands of Christian students have started their first semester of college. But how strong will these students' Christian faith be when they leave college? Or will they still see themselves as Christians at all? Even if these students' faith remains intact, what beliefs will be the hardest for them to believe and to defend? In this special back-to-school episode, Garrick Bailey and Timothy Paul Jones are joined by Dr. Grady Adkins and Dr. Joshua Swindall , ...
Sep 13, 2019•35 min•Season 1Ep. 16
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 , which gathers near the metropolis of Minneapolis in the wild and crazy land of Minnesota. Students from Five Oaks ask questions about how God created the cosmos, how Moses found out about the creation of the world, whether Jesus was really raised from the dead, how the books of the Bible were selected, and how a good God can allow e...
Aug 02, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 15
One of the strongest evidences for the truth of the resurrection of Jesus is the martyrdom of his apostles in the decades that followed his death---or at least that's what many Christian apologists have claimed. But is this claim sustainable on the basis of historical evidence? Did nearly all of the first followers of Jesus really give their lives rather than turn away from what they professed and proclaimed? The answer to this question is complicated, but it's crucial for every Christian to kno...
Jul 01, 2019•46 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Avengers: Endgame has now passed James Cameron's Avatar and claimed second place on the list of highest-grossing films of all time in North America. In the previous episode of Three Chords and the Truth, Garrick Bailey and Timothy Paul Jones focused on the metanarrative and the ethical foundations of the Marvel Cinematic Universe . In this episode, apologetics professor and superhero super-fan extraordinaire Sean McDowell joins Garrick and Timothy to talk about love, sacrifice, superheroes, and ...
Jun 04, 2019•48 min•Season 1Ep. 13
