Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey: Were the Stories of Jesus Borrowed from Pagan Sources? + “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (Billy Joel)

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 parallels? That’s the excellent adventure that Garrick and Timothy undertake in the first half.  In the second half, Garrick and Timothy search for spiritual truth in the song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel. In the process, everyone is shocked to discover that Billy Joel's piano playing makes Garrick a cultured person and---as the truth is revealed about Garrick's first dance with his wife---maybe even slightly romantic. And then, as if things couldn't get any more awkward, the question from the Infinity Gauntlet is mostly about cuteness. Timothy has expertise in family ministry and in history and in movies where lots of things explode; he also knows about guitars and Greek. But Timothy has no expertise whatsoever in cuteness. And thus, because the Infinity Gauntlet has malfunctioned by spawning a question about cuteness, it must be given away. Otherwise, it might attempt at some point in the future to make Timothy answer questions about topics like My Little Pony and Rainbow Brite, which could irreparably rip the space-time continuum. This terrible recognition forces Garrick and Timothy to formulate one of the most daring giveaways ever attempted in the history of podcasting: Your intrepid cohosts are giving away the Infinity Gauntlet, along with at least ten copies of the new edition of Timothy's book Perspectives on Family Ministry. Listen to this week's episode to find out how to win. If you listen to the end, you'll also hear a song written by Timothy Paul Jones and recorded with his band Encomia during the infamous illegal recording sessions in an abandoned house in Manhattan, Kansas in the spring of 1993. The title of the song is “The Lottery.” This particular song was partly inspired by Shirley Jackson’s short story of the same name, and the lyrics were written from the perspective of a dying victim of abortion. 

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In this Episode

Timothy Paul Jones, Ph.D., is C. Edwin Gheens Professor of Christian Family Ministry at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He teaches in the areas of family ministry and applied apologetics. He has authored or edited more than a dozen books, including Why Should I Trust the Bible?;  Pay again

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