Faith Lab

Jaksot

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  Craig Keener: Why the gospels hold up as history 13.05.2026 1t 19min

  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.🔓 Members get the full unedited interview: faithlabshow.com/premiumRead the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/craig-keener ★ Support this podcast ★
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  Nijay Gupta: Is the gospel just a ticket to heaven? 29.04.2026 1t 4min

  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 listener-supported. Members get every full unedited interview, early access, and bonus episodes: faithlabshow.com/premiumRead the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/do-christians-go-to-heaven-pauls-gospel ★ Support this podcast ★
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  What the first Christians believed about the cross 01.04.2026 18min

  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 listener-supported. Members get every full unedited interview, early access, and bonus episodes: faithlabshow.com/premiumRead the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/early-church-view-of-the-atonement ★ Support this podcast ★
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  Lydia McGrew: The Gospels are more reliable than you think 25.03.2026 20min

  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.🔓 Members get the full unedited interview, including Lydia's argument that John's long speeches could be real memories and why she thinks Luke's anointing story is a completely different event than the other Gospels describe: faithlabshow.com/premiumRead the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/are-the-gospels-historically-reliable ★ Support this podcast ★
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  After the apostles died, did the faith survive? 18.03.2026 13min

  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 premium members get full unedited interviews with every guest episode, plus early access and bonus content: faithlabshow.com/premiumRead the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/who-was-polycarp ★ Support this podcast ★
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  N.T. Wright: Do Christians go to heaven? (part 2) 11.03.2026 21min

  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.🔓 Members get the full unedited interview, including Wright's unused answer on why Paul carries so much weight in Christianity: faithlabshow.com/premiumRead the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/nt-wright-do-christians-go-to-heaven-when-they-die ★ Support this podcast ★
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  N.T. Wright: Did Jesus rise from the dead? (part 1) 04.03.2026 24min

  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.🔓 Members get the full unedited conversation with N.T. Wright, including his extended breakdown of what the New Testament actually says about the afterlife: faithlabshow.com/premiumRead the full write-up: faithlabshow.com/nt-wright-did-jesus-rise-from-the-dead ★ Support this podcast ★
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  Caleb Friedeman: Why the genealogies don't match 25.02.2026 19min

  Matthew and Luke don't give us the same family tree, and the census in Luke has been called a historical invention. So why would anyone still trust the birth narratives?
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  Caleb Friedeman: Were the Christmas stories history? 18.02.2026 26min

  For decades, scholars have claimed that ancient birth narratives were never meant to be taken as history. Then one scholar went and actually read them.
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  Tim Mackie: The Bible isn't what you think (part 2) 11.02.2026 21min

  Tim Mackie explains how the Bible uses design patterns, narrative riddles, and intentional gaps to communicate, and why that changes everything about how we read it.
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  Tim Mackie: How the Bible actually works (part 1) 04.02.2026 32min

  Tim Mackie explains how the Bible uses design patterns, repeated keywords, and narrative hyperlinking to build meaning across the entire Hebrew Bible.
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  Rebecca McLaughlin: The best arguments against Christianity 21.01.2026 54min

  Rebecca McLaughlin joins Faith Lab to confront Christianity’s hardest objections and ask whether Christian faith can actually stand up to serious scrutiny.
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  Shane Rosenthal: Is faith supposed to be blind? 07.01.2026 1t 11min

  For most people, faith means believing without evidence. A leap. A feeling. Something you are told to accept rather than question. That isn't how the scriptures talk about faith.
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  I hosted a deconstruction podcast. It led me back to Jesus. 29.12.2025 16min

  Nate Hanson reflects on his journey with the podcast Almost Heretical, discussing the process of deconstruction and how it led him to a deeper understanding of Christianity.