Josephus does not tell us that Christianity is true, and Christians do not need Josephus to tell them that Christ is risen. But Christianity makes claims about things that happened in public history under identifiable rulers, priests, and governors. For that reason, testimony from outside the church matters.
09/18/26
Today, the longing for cultural Christianity on both the left and the right hearkens back to an older version of Christendom that was a mixed blessing for the church in the western world. The cultural mediation of Christian views on created order has certainly benefitted the civilization we’ve inherited. But the gospel itself isn’t something that can be reduced to cultural mediation either. Instead, the gospel as a message stands apart from all human accomplishments and achievements, no matter how beneficial they might be.
09/16/26
The student of Scripture should always have a map open next to their Bible as they read. If possible, they should also travel to Israel, not to make a pilgrimage, but to see the context of the land in which these stories took place. These are not fairy tales made up about fictional fantasy lands; these are stories about real people in real places interacting with a real God.
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Chad Bird
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10/28/19
We show up to this crowded sacred shindig on Sundays, all wings and halos and blue jeans, and shimmy our way into the sanctuary, late to church but not late to church, for how can we be late to a service that never ends?
10/24/19
Our very lives as parents and children implicitly proclaim this higher and lovely truth: we have no value to God based upon our usefulness.
10/08/19
Jesus knows your name. Whether you’re a boy named Sue or a beggar named Lazarus, the God who named that forgotten man has not forgotten you.
09/27/19
As our first parents had a bond with the animals, as Noah had animals with him in the reboot of creation after the flood, so after this old creation comes to an end, we will enjoy a new creation that includes animals.
09/24/19
One of the first steps in recovering from a broken marriage is to find ways to heal the divorce that’s happened within our own souls.
09/17/19
Peter showed his soul on the night when he denied knowing Jesus. Or, as I prefer to think of it, when he finally told the truth.
09/09/19
Far too many Christians read the Bible as if a dam has been built between the waters of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
09/03/19
“Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.” Those nine words could serve as the Bible’s subtitle.
08/28/19
As we do in daily life, so we have done in our reading of the Bible: we have placed ourselves at the center, and Christ at the periphery.
08/24/19
Jesus and the New Testament—good.
Yahweh and the Old Testament—not really so good.
So goes the popular, but largely whispered, dichotomy.
08/13/19
Contrary to what pop-psychology, social media memes, and your sweet grandmother told you, you are not fine just the way you are.
08/04/19
It is a strange irony, but in a world drunk on violence, it is only on the cross of violence that there is hope for peace in our world.
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