Timothy Paul Jones (born January 16, 1973) is an American

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

scholar of apologetics and family ministry. He serves as the C. Edwin Gheens Professor of Christian Family Ministry at the

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) is a Baptist theological institute in Louisville, Kentucky. The seminary was founded in 1859 in Greenville, South Carolina, where it was at first housed on the campus of Furman University. The s ...

. He has advocated for the contemporary retrieval of ancient models of

Christian apologetics Christian apologetics (, "verbal defense, speech in defense") is a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity. Christian apologetics have taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in the early church and Pa ...

.Hearn, Travis. (2023). We’re all apologists now, Jones says in annual faculty address at Southern Seminary. ''The Christian Index.'' https://christianindex.org/stories/were-all-apologists-now-jones-says-in-annual-faculty-address-at-southern-seminary,44366

Charles Colson Charles Wendell Colson (October 16, 1931 – April 21, 2012), generally referred to as Chuck Colson, was an American attorney and political advisor who served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1970. Once known as ...

identified Jones as one of the “names you need to know” when confronting the

New Atheists New Atheism is a perspective shared by some atheist academics, writers, scientists, and philosophers of the 20th and 21st centuries, intolerant of superstition, religion, and irrationalism. New Atheists advocate the antitheist view that the v ...

.Colson, Charles. (2008). Challenging the New Atheists. ''The Christian Post.'' https://www.christianpost.com/article/20081013/challenging-the-new-atheists.htm R. Albert Mohler described Jones as a model “of what it means to be a Christian scholar.”Southern Seminary. (2012). SBTS trustees adopt comprehensive master plan, add faculty. https://www.sbts.edu/news/sbts-trustees-adopt-comprehensive-master-plan-add-faculty/

Early life and education

Born in

Mansfield, Missouri Mansfield is a city in Wright County, Missouri, United States. The population was 1,296 at the 2010 census. History Mansfield was platted in 1882 by F. M. Mansfield, and named for him. A post office called Mansfield has been in operation sinc ...

, to the family of a rural pastor, Jones graduated from

Manhattan Christian College Manhattan Christian College (MCC) is a private Christian college in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was founded in 1927 as Christian Workers University. The institution's name was changed to Manhattan Bible College in 1930 and Manhattan Ch ...

(B.A., Biblical Studies) in 1993.Jones, Timothy Paul. (2003). An analysis of the relationship between Fowlerian stage-development and self-assessed maturity in Christian faithfulness among evangelical Christians. Dissertation. https://repository.sbts.edu/bitstream/handle/10392/243/3120603.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y He continued his studies at

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS) is a private Baptist seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary also houses an undergraduate college, Spurgeon C ...

, earning the M.Div. in 1996. He completed his doctoral studies at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received the Ph.D. Jones served churches in

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

and

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

as pastor, associate pastor, and student minister. He was appointed as a faculty member at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2007. While a faculty member at Southern Seminary, Jones became a preaching pastor at Sojourn Church Midtown, the home of Sojourn Music.Sojourn Church. (n.d.). Sojourn Church Midtown staff. https://sojournchurch.com/about

Theological and social positions

Family ministry

Jones has criticized the practice of family-integrated church in which congregations eliminate all age-organized ministries. His academic paper “Catechism Classes and Other Surprising Precedents for Age-Organized Ministry” examined sixteenth-century practices of age-organized discipleship and pointed out errors in the historical claims made by proponents of family-integrated ministry.Jones, Timothy Paul. (2022). Catechism classes and other surprising precedents for age-organized ministry. In ''Navigating Student Ministry,'' edited by Tim McKnight. Nashville: B&H. ISBN 978-1462773367 Jones pioneered a model of family ministry known as “family-equipping ministry,” which prioritizes family discipleship while maintaining age-organized programs. This model is described in detail in his books ''Perspectives on Family Ministry'' and ''Family Ministry Field Guide''.Jones, Timothy Paul, ed. (2009). ''Perspectives on Family Ministry.'' Nashville: B&H. ISBN 978-1535933360Jones, Timothy Paul. (2011). ''Family Ministry Field Guide.'' Indianapolis: Wesleyan. ISBN 978-0898274578 In an article in ''

Christianity Today ''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 by Billy Graham. It is published by Christianity Today International based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ''The Washington Post'' calls ''Christianity Today'' "eva ...

'', Jones emphasized the church's responsibility to function as a family for single-parent households, commenting that, “in the New Testament, the people of God are formed into a new, covenant family, adopted from every tribe and language and people group. This doesn’t do away with the family formed in the covenant between a man and woman, but it re-situates it in the context of a greater family, where we’re called to become a family for one another."Mari, Ruth Moon. (2019). Why the church needs single parents, and single parents need the church. ''Christianity Today.'' https://www.christianitytoday.com/2019/04/single-parenting-divorce-why-church-needs-single-parents/

Apologetics

After a crisis of faith during his first year of college, Jones became interested in apologetics.Jones, Timothy Paul. (2007). ''Misquoting Truth: A Guide to the Fallacies of Bart Ehrman's "Misquoting Jesus."'' Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic. ISBN 978-0830834471 While completing his first Ph.D., he wrote two

evidential apologetics Evidential apologetics or evidentialism is an approach to Christian apologetics emphasizing the use of evidence to demonstrate that God exists. The evidence is supposed to be evidence both the believer and nonbeliever share, that is to say one need ...

texts, ''Misquoting Truth'' and ''Conspiracies and the Cross'', for which

Dinesh D’Souza Dinesh Joseph D'Souza (; born April 25, 1961) is an American right-wing political commentator, conspiracy theorist, author, and filmmaker. He has made several films and written over a dozen books, several of them ''New York Times'' best-selle ...

wrote the foreword.Jones, Timothy Paul. (2008). ''Conspiracies and the Cross.'' Lake Mary, FL: Frontline. ISBN 978-1599792057 ''Misquoting Truth'' was the first book-length response to ''

Misquoting Jesus ''Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why'' (published as ''Whose Word Is It?'' in the United Kingdom) is a book by Bart D. Ehrman, a New Testament scholar at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Published in 2005 ...

'', a bestselling introduction to biblical textual criticism authored by

Bart D. Ehrman Bart Denton Ehrman (born October 5, 1955) is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books ...

. In a review of ''Misquoting Truth'', Tim Challies stated that Jones had demonstrated that "not only are Ehrman’s arguments far from original, they are also, quite simply fallacious."Challies, Tim. (2007). Book review--Misquoting Truth. https://www.challies.com/book-reviews/book-review-misquoting-truth/ Apologetics writings by Jones have typically emphasized the historical reliability of the New Testament Gospels in contrast to later texts that were produced by sects with little interest in the actual events of Jesus’s life. When

Jesus Seminar The Jesus Seminar was a group of about 50 biblical criticism scholars and 100 laymen founded in 1985 by Robert Funk that originated under the auspices of the Westar Institute.''Making Sense of the New Testament'' by Craig Blomberg (Mar 1, 200 ...

member Hal Taussig published ''A New New Testament'', with ten texts added to the New Testament, Jones commented to Religion News Service that “treating these ten texts as historical context for the New Testament would be like studying ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’ to understand the historical context of the Thirteenth Amendment,” claiming that none of the added texts could be reliably traced to eyewitnesses of Jesus’s life.Bell, Caleb. (2013). Scholars piece together a 'new' New Testament. https://religionnews.com/2013/03/28/scholars-piece-together-a-new-new-testament/ Jones has been equally critical of politically conservative attempts to rework the Bible. Responding to the Conservative Bible Project, spearheaded by

Andrew Schlafly Andrew Layton Schlafly (; born April 27, 1961) is an American lawyer and Christian conservative activist. He is the founder and owner of the wiki encyclopedia project Conservapedia. He is the son of the conservative activist and lawyer Phyllis Sc ...

and

Conservapedia Conservapedia (; ) is an English-language, wiki-based, online encyclopedia written from a self-described American conservative and fundamentalist Christian point of view. The website was established in 2006 by American attorney and activist An ...

, Jones told the Associated Press, “This is not making scripture understandable to people today, it's reworking scripture to support a particular political or social agenda.”Associated Press. Blessed are the conservative in Bible translation. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna34270487/ Beginning with his book ''Why Should I Trust the Bible?'', Jones's apologetics approach shifted from

to verificational

presuppositionalism Presuppositional apologetics, shortened to presuppositionalism, is an epistemological school of Christian apologetics that examines the presuppositions on which worldviews are based, and invites comparison and contrast between the results of those ...

, influenced by

Francis Schaeffer Francis August Schaeffer (January 30, 1912 – May 15, 1984) was an American evangelical theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He co-founded the L'Abri community in Switzerland with his wife Edith Schaeffer, , a prolific auth ...

and

Edward John Carnell Edward John Carnell (28 June 1919 – 25 April 1967) was a prominent Christian theologian and apologist, was an ordained Baptist pastor, and served as President of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He was the author of nine maj ...

.Jones, Timothy Paul. (2020). ''Why Should I Trust the Bible?'' Ross-Shire: Christian Focus. ISBN 978-1527104747 His faculty address "Brothers and Sisters, We Are All Apologists Now" revealed another dimension in his approach, in which the countercultural moral life of the church is central in the defense of the Christian faith.Cockes, Timothy. (2023). Every believer’s an apologist, professional apologists say. ''Baptist Press.'' https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/every-believers-an-apologist-professional-apologists-say/ The

Baptist Press Baptist Press (BP) is the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Baptist Press is a ministry assignment of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention. Baptist P ...

article reporting on this address quoted Jones as stating, "Pursuing the Christian way of life will inevitably require a defense of this way of being in the world – not merely for apologists, but for all of us." This approach to apologetics, grounded in a retrieval of second-century sources, has become known as " ecclesial apologetics."Jones, Timothy Paul, ed. (2025). ''Understanding Christian Apologetics: Five Methods for Defending the Faith.'' Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Academic. ISBN 978-1496488138 According to Jones, care for the vulnerable and socially marginalized is a central component of ecclesial apologetics.Jones, Timothy Paul. (2022). “Something divine mingled among them”: Care for the parentless and poor as ecclesial apologetic, in ''Rich in Good Deeds: A Biblical Response to Poverty by the Church and by Society,'' edited by Rob Plummer. Dallas, TX: Fontes Press. ISBN 978-1948048736 Jones's coauthored book ''In Church as It Is in Heaven: Cultivating a Multiethnic Kingdom Culture'' encouraged churches to practice ecclesial apologetics through unified communities that demonstrate multiethnic, multisocioeconomic, and multigenerational diversity.Williams, Jamaal E., and Timothy Paul Jones. (2023). The Lord's supper is a multiethnic love feast. ''Christianity Today.'' https://www.christianitytoday.com/2023/06/jamaal-williams-timothy-paul-jones-lords-supper-multiethnic/

Sex and gender roles

Jones holds to traditional Christian teachings regarding gender and sexuality. He was an early signatory of the

Nashville Statement The Nashville Statement is an evangelical Christianity, Christian statement of faith relating to human sexuality and gender roles authored by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) in Nashville, Tennessee in 2017. The Statement expres ...

, which declares that a “homosexual or transgender self-conception” is inconsistent “with God’s holy purposes.”Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. (2017). Nashville Statement signers. https://cbmw.org/nashville-statement-signers/ Beth Allison Barr criticized Jones on her blog and in her book ''

The Making of Biblical Womanhood ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

'' because Jones depicted the medieval abbess

Hildegard of Bingen Hildegard of Bingen Benedictines, OSB (, ; ; 17 September 1179), also known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictines, Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mysticism, mystic, visiona ...

as proclaiming the truth but failed to identify Hildegard explicitly as a preacher in his book ''Christian History Made Easy''.Barr, Beth Allison. (2017). The medieval counsel of biblical womanhood. https://www.bethallisonbarr.com/the-medieval-counsel-of-biblical-womanhood/

Recognition

Timothy Paul Jones’s books have received numerous accolades. ''Christian History Made Easy'' won the 2010 Christian Retailers’ Choice Award in the Christian Education category.Laurro, Ben. (2010). ''Christian History Made Easy'' wins the 2010 Christian “Retailers Choice Award.” https://hpgadmin.tyndale.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Christian_History_Made_Easy_wins_the_2010_Christian_Retailers_Choice_Award-1.pdf The

Evangelical Christian Publishers Association The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) is an international non-profit trade association whose member companies are involved in the publishing and distribution of Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres ...

awarded Jones a Christian Book Award in the Bible Reference category in 2016 for his book ''How We Got the Bible''.Petersen, Jonathan. (2016). ''How We Got the Bible'' interview with Timothy Paul Jones. ''Bible Gateway''. https://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2016/06/how-we-got-the-bible-an-interview-with-timothy-paul-jones/ Jones and his coauthor Jamaal E. Williams received a 2024 Award of Merit from ''

'' for ''In Church as It Is in Heaven''.CT Editors. (2024). Christianity Today’s 2024 book awards. ''Christianity Today''. https://www.christianitytoday.com/2023/12/christianity-today-2024-book-awards/ ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' featured ''In Church as It Is in Heaven'' as a work that faces "the challenge of creating multiethnic congregations."Grossman, Cathy Lynn. (2023). New books find voices of faith in fraught times. ''Publishers Weekly.'' https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/religion/article/92351-new-books-find-voices-of-faith-in-fraught-times.html Jones is a member of the

Evangelical Theological Society The Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) is a professional society of Biblical scholars, educators, pastors, and students "devoted to the inerrancy and inspiration of the Scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ" and "dedicated to the oral ex ...

, and he has regularly presented papers at annual meetings.WordMP3. (n.d.). Timothy Paul Jones. ETS Presentations. https://www.wordmp3.com/speakers/profile.aspx?id=4880

Personal life

Jones is married to Rayann, and they have adopted four children.Jones, Timothy Paul. (2024). Celebrating our shared humanity. ''WORLD Opinions.'' https://wng.org/opinions/celebrating-our-shared-humanity-1729592517 Their oldest daughter was an early survivor of severe

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

.Cornetet, Robin. (2020). Southern Seminary VP’s daughter on ventilator at Louisville hospital. ''Kentucky Today''. https://www.kentuckytoday.com/downloads/southern-seminary-vp-s-daughter-on-ventilator-at-louisville-hospital/article_24c998cb-0296-5ffd-8a8d-08bd786b236e.html She spent nearly a month in the hospital and eleven days on a ventilator before recovering and being released.Cornetet, Robin. (2020). SBTS prof praises God for daughter’s release from hospital. ''Kentucky Today''. https://www.kentuckytoday.com/baptist-life/sbts-prof-praises-god-for-daughters-release-from-hospital/article_04177522-45d6-5fe9-8bc6-4dd2a38d5de5.htmlJones, Timothy Paul. (2020). Trusting God's hand when I couldn't see his face. ''The Gospel Coalition''. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/trust-hand/

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Timothy Paul Christian scholars 1973 births Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary alumni Southern Baptist Theological Seminary alumni Southern Baptist Theological Seminary faculty Living people People from Wright County, Missouri Baptist writers Baptist scholars Evangelical theologians Baptist theologians