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

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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).