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.
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.
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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Even now we sing as we live in His gifts, and await His second Advent—His second-coming.
God graciously bursts our foolish plots by coming our way, into our very flesh, and being God with us.
Jesus loves His church. He cleans her up. He takes her as His own. And He leads her.
If this opening verse offers to us both door and doorkeeper, then the doorkeeper stands with the door held securely shut.
Every age gives cause for both hopefulness and despair.
Those clinging to God in Christ can be assured that it’s all clean.
Beware the lament, dear readers, that is not soothed with the good-goods of Jesus.
The creation is one of God’s good gifts and being cut off from nature and wild places, as we often are in the modern world, is probably not so good for us.
I’m still laughing now as hard as I laughed back then. And the salve that he gave me in that moment still works some strange magic on me to this day.