In ApologetiX, we try to be all things to all men so that by all means we might save some (1 Cor. 9:22). Consequently, we play many styles of music, but that doesn't mean we all have the same tastes.

One style we all agree on is late-1970s classic rock. We grew up with it, and thanks to Guitar Hero and Rock Band a whole new generation is growing up with it as well. So that's our focus this time -- playing music that mattered to us then, while singing about what matters to us now.

When naming this project, we considered the albums the original songs came from, and decided to spoof ELO's Discovery as Recovery. We all loved our parody of "Don't Bring Me Down," and now we could close our album with it as ELO did.

One of Merriam-Webster's definitions for "recover" is "to save from loss and restore to usefulness." That's what Christ did for us and what we try to do with our parodies. The Bible says we were once dead in our sins but are now alive in Christ (Eph. 2:4-5). That's quite a recovery!

Although in some senses ApologetiX does cover versions of other people's music, we cover them in a new way, so re-covery seemed appropriate in that sense, too. Best of all, now ApologetiX can officially be called a Recovery group.

Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! (Romans 11:11a)

We didn't set out to be the Christian Parody Band. We're all life-long musicians of varying tastes who have written our fair share of original music. We all have that "artist" side of us, but we've seen God use our songs in so many lives. We've learned that apparently God wants us to do two things in particular with our music.

First we've noticed that ApologetiX CDs are more easily handed to non-churched friends to check out (as "sound-tracts"!), so we reach some folks that other Christian music doesn't. Secondly, we're kind of surprised at how much Christians don't know about their faith, and the Bible! We originally wrote these songs to help ourselves remember what we were learning in bible study. People tell us that they use ApologetiX music in their own personal learning, too. That's awesome! Now, we take that opportunity and we use music to teach the essentials of the faith and the details of scripture. And as long as God, leads, we'll continue to record CDs full of great music and His message.

ApoloWHAT??

ApologetiX gets their unusual name from the word "apologetics" which means "the defense of the Christian faith." It's based on the Greek word for defense, apologia, which is in the original text of this Bible verse from the Apostle Peter:

1 Peter 3:15
"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer (or defense or "apologia") to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."

When a person is called an apologist these days, he could be defending a number of ideas. If you like soccer and you're trying to convince someone that soccer is a great game, you could be called a "soccer apologist." But the original apologists were the early Christians who were trying to defend their faith to outsiders (the Romans, for example) who thought they were a cult and were spreading unsubstantiated rumors about them.

When we picked the name back in 1992, it was because Christian apologetics was really important to us. As ApologetiX lead singer J. Jackson says:

"Although I went to 12 years of religious school (Grades one through 12) and attended church faithfully, participated in choirs, etc., before I became a born again Christian, I didn't have a clue as to exactly 'why I believed what I believed.' When atheists or agnostics or cultists wanted to debate with me, I'd run away.

"Then I started reading the Bible and really, really researching things, and I discovered that there is a whole lot of evidence to back it up. There's a whole lot more to the story, but the point is that I wanted to be able to help others know 'why they believe what they believe.' So we chose the name ApologetiX, adding the "X" on the end to make it look more modern and to ensure we had a name that nobody else had ever used. We liked the name ApologetiX because it could be used with a "the" in front to make it sound like a '60's/'70's vocal group ("The ApologetiX," the Stylistics, the Dramatics, etc.) or a without a "the" to make it sound like a modern rock group ("ApologetiX," Anthrax, etc.)

Plus, starting with an "A" puts our name near the top of the alphabetical lists on the Net, in stores, etc., too (Ha ha ha!)

Future Tense
2008

Past tense. Present tense. And if you thought they were tense, wait till you see the future:

"Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Matt. 24:7-13)

Yet the same person who said that, Jesus Christ, also said, "So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matt. 6:31-34)

Similarly, the Apostle Paul painted a pretty pale picture for posterity: "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.having a form of godliness but denying its power." (2 Tim. 3:1-5a)

But he also said, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." (Rom. 8:18)

A tentmaker by trade, Paul likened our bodies to tents: "Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." (2 Cor. 5:1-4)

Rather than focus on a tense future, Paul preferred to focus on our future tents. And if we follow his example, we'll all be happy campers. Think of this CD as a bunch of songs to sing while we're in the woods.