Crowd shot masthead ApologetiX Logo Keith Haynie plays bassBill Hubauer plays lead guitarJ. Jackson sings leadJimmy Vegas Tanner plays drums
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as of December 7, 2023

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12.07.23New ApX Shirts, Hoodies, Caps, Mugs & Stickers
12.07.23How to Get the ApX Library, USBs, Multiple Downloads
12.07.23This Week's Bible Reading & Rock Thru the Bible
12.07.23ApologetiX Updated Christmas Playlist
12.07.23Influential Albums: 1304-1310
12.07.23Just Reword CD Added to iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, Etc.
12.04.23This Week's News Bulletin
12.02.23Influential Albums: 1297-1303
12.02.23This Week's Bible Reading & Rock Thru the Bible
12.02.23How to Donate Online or by Mail
12.02.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
12.02.23New Shirts & Other ApX Merch Coming Soon
12.02.23Get Over 1600 Tracks for $100
12.02.23New USB Thumb Drives Include Next CD
12.02.23Get Multiple Downloads for One Donation
12.02.23Samson Rock Opera CD: BOGO & Program Book
12.02.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
11.28.23This Week's News Bulletin
11.28.23New Christmas Single: All '80s
11.24.23Influential Albums: 1290-1296
11.24.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
11.24.23Clues for 2023 Single #24
11.16.23All 71 ApX CDs Available as Downloads for $9.99 Each
11.16.23Influential Albums: 1283-1289
11.16.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
11.16.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
11.12.23This Week's News Bulletin
11.12.23New Single: #1 Hits from '81 & '86
11.09.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
11.09.23Influential Albums: 1276-1282
11.09.23From a Nutty New Fan to an Avid Bible Reader
11.06.23This Week's News Bulletin
11.03.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
11.02.23BOGO Deal on New CD Ends Saturday
11.02.23Influential Albums: 1269-1275
11.02.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
10.30.23This Week's News Bulletin
10.30.23New Single: '76 & '83
10.27.23Clues for 2023 Single #22
10.27.23Influential Albums: 1262-1268
10.27.23Next Up: Get Ready for Our Samson Rock Opera CD
10.27.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
10.23.23This Week's News Bulletin
10.20.23Influential Albums: 1255-1261
10.20.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
10.19.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
10.15.23This Week's News Bulletin
10.15.23New Single: First Half of the '80s Revisited
10.13.23Influential Albums: 1248-1254
10.13.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
10.13.23Clues for 2023 Single #21
10.12.23All About Our Next CD
10.12.23What's on Our Next CD?
10.09.23This Week's News Bulletin
10.06.23Influential Albums: 1241-1247
10.06.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
10.06.23All About Our Upcoming CD, Just Reword
10.06.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
10.02.23This Week's News Bulletin
10.02.23New Single: 1987 & 2001
09.29.23Influential Albums: 1234-1240
09.29.23Let's Talk About the Next Four ApX CDs
09.29.23Prayers for Cowboy Bob
09.29.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
09.26.23This Week's News Bulletin
09.23.23Influential Albums: 1227-1233
09.23.23Prayers for Jeff Jennings
09.22.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Wk
09.22.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
09.19.23This Week's News Bulletin
09.19.23New Single: '64 & '91
09.14.23Influential Albums: 1220-1226
09.14.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Wk
09.14.23Happy Birthday to ApX Guitarist Tom Tincha
09.14.23Clues for 2023 Single #19
09.10.23This Week's News Bulletin
09.08.23Happy Birthday to ApX Guitarist Wayne Bartley
09.07.23Influential Albums: 1213-1219
09.07.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
09.07.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Wk
09.05.23New Single: '65 & '85
09.04.23This Week's News Bulletin
08.31.23Influential Albums: 1206-1212
08.31.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Wk
08.31.23Prayers for ApX Fan's Son
08.31.23Clues for 2023 Single #18
08.30.23Septuagint CD Added to iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, Etc.
08.28.23ApologetiX Needs Help & Prayers
08.24.23Encouragement from 14 States + Canada & Hungary
08.24.23Influential Albums: 1192-1198
08.24.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
08.23.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
08.20.23This Week's News Bulletin
08.20.23New Single: '77 & '84
08.20.23New CD BOGO Ends Wednesday
08.18.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
08.18.23Influential Albums: 1192-1198
08.17.23Clues for 2023 Single #17
08.14.23This Week's News Bulletin
08.10.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week

The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
Fri., Feb. 10. 2023 8:13pm EST

J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again.

Here are the stories behind the songs on our third single of 2023:

ASK GOD

I started this parody on January 4, 2023, planning to call it "Just Go" and make it about biblical heroes who were initially reluctant to heed God's call ... like Moses, Jeremiah, and Gideon. Then it dawned on me that the most important repeating line in the original I needed to rhyme with was actually "I like the nightlife, baby," because that's the real hook.

Around the same time, for some reason, I decided to listen again to "The Real Need," a parody we put out in May 2022. I'm usually too focused on new stuff to spend much time listening to old ApX releases, but I was so delighted with how God had enabled me to share a previously unsung portion of my testimony in that song.

Meanwhile, on January 3, 2023, a fan named Zach W. had sent me a Facebook message about the things he was looking for in a wife. What he wrote had nothing to do with outward appearance — just the inner beauty of a godly woman who followed the Lord. I replied and told him God gave me a woman like that in 2000 (although my wife, Lisa, is very beautiful on the outside, too) and that I hoped he'd get what he was praying for.

Anyway, all those factors helped inspire me on January 13 to do a song about how the Lord brought Lisa and me together. That story is quite amazing, but I don't have the space to write it here. I finished the lyrics on January 17, the night before Lisa's birthday, and we released "Ask God" about a week before Valentine's Day.

If you'd like to know more about how Lisa and I met, I wrote a full-length account you can read at http://apologetix.com/news/news-details.php?news_id=4676

RIDERS FROM THE LORD

Growing up, I was fascinated by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I didn't know much about them, but I bought a poster with a scary painting of them as a gift for a neighborhood friend when I was in my upper teens. I also recall ordering a back issue of Giant-Size Fantastic Four #3 from 1974 that supposedly featured The Four Horsemen. It proved to be a bit of a disappointment.

The real ones are found in the Book of Revelation. There's not an exact parallel to them in the Old Testament ... the closest thing is in the similarly apocalyptic Book of Zechariah, where there are four chariots, each with distinctively colored horses, representing "four spirits of heaven, going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole world." Interestingly, they're in Zechariah 6:1-8 and the Four Horsemen are in Revelation 6:1-8.

I wrote my first version of this parody in 1996 or '97. It was about the same topic but was called "Riders Numbered Four." I was never totally happy with that title, but I loved the way the music matched the tone of the Bible passage. After we finally put "Riders" into production in January 2023, I realized the words needed some work.

By the time I was done with revisions, only eight of the 28 lines in the four verses remained from my '90s version. I was bummed that I wasn't able to put the horsemen in the exact order in which they appear in the Bible, but I did do that in one of our previous parodies, "Life in the Last Days" in 1994 and 2009.