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Our best source on Alexander the Great was written 450 years after he died, and historians trust it. Mark was written about 40 years after Jesus. So why are the gospels the only ancient texts we're told to doubt? Craig Keener, author of Christobiography and one of the most cited New Testament scholars alive, walks through the historical case: why the gospels are ancient biography, what living memory does for reliability, his documented miracle research, and how faith survives real doubt. He also tells the story of how he left atheism. Find more of his work at craigkeener.com. Faith Lab is free and listener-supported. Help keep it going for five dollars a month: faithlabshow.com/support Read the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/craig-keener ★ Support this podcast ★

Most of us were handed a gospel that works like a ticket to heaven: believe, die, fly away. New Testament scholar Nijay Gupta says that was never the headline of what Paul preached. Gupta is the Julius R. Mantey Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary and the author of Paul for the World. He joins Shane Rosenthal and Nate to work through what Paul's gospel actually was, where "I'll fly away" theology came from, and why he thinks C.S. Lewis got heaven wrong. The short version: Paul preached newness of life and a renewed creation, because we were made for heaven on earth. Faith Lab is free and listener-supported. Help keep it going for five dollars a month: faithlabshow.com/support Read the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/do-christians-go-to-heaven-pauls-gospel ★ Support this podcast ★

The hardest critiques of the cross, like "he was only dead for a day and a half" and "anyone would take that deal," all target one version of the gospel. The earliest Christians were teaching something bigger. In this solo episode, Nate traces the first thousand years of Christian thinking about the cross: Irenaeus on Christ reliving the human story to get right what Adam got wrong, Athanasius on why a deathless God dying is the real scandal rather than how long it lasted, and Gregory of Nyssa's fish hook image of death swallowing divinity and choking on it. Together they form the Christus Victor vision, a framework that answers the questions the guilt-and-payment model struggles with. Faith Lab is free and listener-supported. Help keep it going for five dollars a month: faithlabshow.com/support Read the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/early-church-view-of-the-atonement ★ Support this podcast ★

Lydia McGrew spent years building a cumulative case for the historical reliability of the Gospels and Acts. The public episode covers the reportage model and undesigned coincidences. The full conversation goes further. In the unedited interview, Lydia makes her case that John's long speeches can be understood as real memories rather than later theological inventions. She also walks through why she believes the anointing story in Luke describes a different event than the one in Matthew, Mark, and John, what that says about how carefully the Gospel authors worked, and why a well-crafted narrative does not mean a fictionalized one. Start with the public episode: The Gospels are more reliable than you think ( https://faithlabshow.com/are-the-gospels-historically-reliable/ )

Most Christians were taught to trust the Gospels without ever being shown why they should. The historical evidence is stronger than you think. New Testament scholar Lydia McGrew lays out what she calls the "reportage model," the case that the Gospel authors were close to the facts, always trying to get them right, and highly successful. She walks through the two big categories of evidence, from name statistics that later fiction writers could not fake to undesigned coincidences, the subtle puzzle-like fits between Gospels that are hard to explain any other way. Faith Lab is free and listener-supported. Help keep it going for five dollars a month: faithlabshow.com/support Read the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/are-the-gospels-historically-reliable ★ Support this podcast ★

After the apostles died, did the faith survive? One man nearly answers that question by himself. Polycarp was born around 69 AD, just 35 years after Jesus, personally knew people who had personally known Christ, and his own words still survive on paper. This episode traces the chain link by link: Irenaeus remembering the old bishop who taught him in Smyrna, Polycarp's letter to the Philippians written around 110 to 115 AD, his friend Ignatius writing the same faith from a different city, and the day an 86-year-old man chose death in a Roman stadium over cursing Christ. If Christianity was invented later, Polycarp is the problem with the timeline. Faith Lab is free and listener-supported. Help keep it going for five dollars a month: faithlabshow.com/support Read the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/who-was-polycarp ★ Support this podcast ★

Most Christians assume the story ends with leaving earth for heaven. N.T. Wright says the New Testament tells a different one: resurrection, new creation, and God coming to dwell with his people. In part 2 of our conversation, Wright walks through what actually happens between death and resurrection, why the ascension means Jesus reigns rather than departs, and how salvation stretches to the rescue of the whole creation. If he is right, death, grief, and the church's mission all start to look different. New here? You can start with part 1. Faith Lab is free and listener-supported. Help keep it going for five dollars a month: faithlabshow.com/support Read the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/nt-wright-do-christians-go-to-heaven-when-they-die ★ Support this podcast ★

Did Jesus actually rise from the dead? The resurrection is a historical claim, and most people have never heard the evidence historians evaluate. N.T. Wright walks through the case and explains why the standard skeptical alternatives keep falling apart. Wright, one of the world's leading scholars on early Christianity, covers why women as the first witnesses is a detail nobody would invent, what resurrection actually meant to first-century Jews, and why the differences between the gospel accounts strengthen their reliability instead of undermining it. Get Surprised by Hope and God's Homecoming. This is part 1 of the conversation. When you finish, listen to part 2. Faith Lab is free and listener-supported. Help keep it going for five dollars a month: faithlabshow.com/support Read the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/nt-wright-did-jesus-rise-from-the-dead ★ Support this podcast ★

The complete, unedited conversation with N.T. Wright, one of the most influential New Testament scholars alive. Everything from our interview in one extended sitting, including material cut for time from the published episodes. Wright walks through the historical evidence for the resurrection, how we know the gospels give us the real Jesus, why the Bible's story is about God coming down to us rather than us going up to heaven, what Jesus believed about himself, what happens after we die (and after that), and why Paul matters more than you might think. He also discusses his new book God's Homecoming and explains how a single line from Revelation 21 turns the whole "go to heaven when you die" framework on its head. Start with the public episodes: part 1 ( https://faithlabshow.com/nt-wright-did-jesus-rise-from-the-dead/ ) and part 2 ( https://faithlabshow.com/nt-wright-do-christians-go-to-heaven-when-they-die/ ).

Matthew and Luke don't give us the same family tree for Jesus, and the census in Luke has been called a historical invention. So why would anyone still trust the birth narratives? New Testament scholar Caleb Friedeman compared them against 95 other ancient biographies, and the pattern he found runs the opposite direction from the legend theory. In this conversation he lays out the four marks of historical intent ancient biographers left in their birth stories, why two differing genealogies don't add up to fabrication, and the detail in Luke 2 that quietly points to Mary as his source. Faith Lab is free and listener-supported. Help keep it going for five dollars a month: faithlabshow.com/support Read the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/do-the-gospel-genealogies-contradict-each-other ★ Support this podcast ★

The full, unedited conversation with New Testament scholar Caleb Friedeman. Caleb spent years going back to the ancient sources scholars kept citing as proof the Christmas stories aren't history, and what he found flipped the argument. We get into whether the birth narratives were meant as history, what ancient biographers actually did when writing about someone's birth, why the genealogies differ and what that tells us, the case that Mary is Luke's source, how Matthew's Old Testament quotes point to real sources rather than legend, and where the census problem actually stands. The public episodes cover the highlights in two parts. This is everything, and some of the best moments only live here. Start with the public episodes: the Christmas stories ( https://faithlabshow.com/do-the-gospel-birth-narratives-contradict/ ) and the genealogies ( https://faithlabshow.com/do-the-gospel-genealogies-contradict-each-other/ ).

For decades, scholars have claimed that ancient birth narratives were never meant to be taken as history. Then one scholar went and actually read the ancient biographers, and what he found in their own writing doesn't fit the story we've been told. New Testament scholar Caleb Friedeman compared Matthew and Luke to 95 other ancient biographies and found the average biographer wrote 360 years after his subject's birth, while the gospel writers worked within decades, close enough to talk with people who knew eyewitnesses. He also walks through the two genealogies, the census in Luke, and why two accounts with different details are not the same thing as a contradiction. Faith Lab is free and listener-supported. Help keep it going for five dollars a month: faithlabshow.com/support Read the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/do-the-gospel-birth-narratives-contradict ★ Support this podcast ★

There's a story in Genesis where Noah gets drunk and something terrible happens with his son Ham, and the Bible never tells you what it was. That gap is not a mistake. Tim Mackie says it's a design choice, and learning to read it changes the whole book. In part two of our conversation, Bible Project co-founder Tim Mackie walks through how the biblical authors crafted narratives with intentional gaps, layered patterns, and riddles that unfold across entire books. We get into why "inerrancy" might be the wrong word, what Jesus actually did when asked about marriage and divorce, and why Tim says the Bible is an epic narrative pointing to a person rather than a rule book. New here? You can start with part 1. Faith Lab is free and listener-supported. Help keep it going for five dollars a month: faithlabshow.com/support Read the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/tim-mackie-the-bible-isnt-what-you-think ★ Support this podcast ★

The full, uncut conversation with Tim Mackie, co-founder of BibleProject. Both public episodes came from this interview; this is everything, with nothing trimmed. Tim walks through how the Hebrew Bible was composed, how its authors built meaning through repetition, hyperlinking, and narrative riddles, and why most modern readers miss it. The uncut version includes his thoughts on the LGBTQ conversation and the church, why "inerrancy" might be the wrong word and "faithfulness" the more biblical one, how he personally encounters God through Scripture, and why reading multiple translations beats hunting for the best one. Start with the public episodes: part 1 ( https://faithlabshow.com/tim-mackie-how-to-read-the-bible/ ) and part 2 ( https://faithlabshow.com/tim-mackie-the-bible-isnt-what-you-think/ ).

Most of us were taught to believe the Bible, but almost nobody was taught how it actually works. Why does Genesis repeat the same words over and over? Why do later stories echo earlier ones in ways that feel too precise to be accidental? Tim Mackie, co-founder of The Bible Project, walks through how the biblical authors used design patterns, repeated keywords, and narrative "hyperlinking" to build meaning across the entire Hebrew Bible. From the word "good" threading through Genesis to the way sin crouches at Cain's door like the serpent in the garden, Tim shows why treating the Bible like a rule book or a textbook misses what these ancient literary artists were actually doing. This is part 1 of our conversation with Tim. When you finish, listen to part 2. Faith Lab is free and listener-supported. Help keep it going for five dollars a month: faithlabshow.com/support Read the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/tim-mackie-how-to-read-the-bible ★ Support this podcast ★