Episodes

What Did the Early Church Believe About the Cross? The Atonement Before Penal Substitution

The early church view of the atonement was bigger than guilt and legal payment. The first Christians proclaimed rescue, not a courtroom.

Are the Gospels Historically Reliable? What the Evidence Shows

Lydia McGrew on the evidence for Gospel reliability that most Christians have never been shown.

What Happened After the Apostles Died? How Polycarp Bridges the Gap

Polycarp bridges the gap between the apostles and the rest of church history. The chain is shorter than you think.

N.T. Wright: Do Christians Go to Heaven When They Die?

Do Christians go to heaven when they die? NT Wright says Christian hope is resurrection and new creation.

N.T. Wright: Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?

NT Wright on the historical evidence for the resurrection. Not theology, history. We discuss women witnesses, the empty tomb, and why skeptics struggle.

Do the Gospel Birth Narratives Contradict?

New Testament scholar Caleb Friedeman tested a longstanding scholarly claim that ancient birth narratives were never meant to be historical. What he found in the ancient biographers reframes how we should read Matthew and Luke's opening chapters.

Are the Gospel Birth Narratives Historical?

New Testament scholar Caleb Friedeman tested a longstanding scholarly claim that ancient birth narratives were never meant to be historical. What he found in the ancient biographers reframes how we should read Matthew and Luke's opening chapters.

Tim Mackie: The Bible Isn’t What You Think

Tim Mackie walks through one of Genesis's most disturbing stories to show how biblical authors built narrative riddles that unlock across the entire Bible and why that changes everything about how we read it.

Tim Mackie: How to Read the Bible

The Bible wasn’t written like a rulebook. Tim Mackie joins Faith Lab to explain how Scripture actually communicates meaning.

Christianity’s hardest objections have surprising answers

Rebecca McLaughlin joins Faith Lab to talk about Confronting Christianity, the historical credibility of the Gospels, suffering, gender, and why the Christian story continues to provoke both skepticism and belief in 2026.

Is Faith Supposed to Be Blind? with Shane Rosenthal

Is faith meant to be a blind leap, or was it originally grounded in evidence? In this episode, Nate and Shelby talk with Shane Rosenthal about what faith meant to the first Christians, why evidence mattered, and how blind faith became the modern assumption.

Deconstruction Led Me Back to Jesus

After spending nearly a decade deconstructing Christianity, questioning faith, Scripture, and the resurrection, I didn’t expect where the journey would lead. This is the story of how doubt, evidence, and honest investigation led me back to taking Christianity seriously again.