David finally found the truth that it was not his seed of kingship but the promise made to Abraham that made him holy. From that, David refused to be moved and wrote this Psalm by the necessity of the Spirit as the assurance of faith. The law never made a man holy, not even one as robust as David; yet faith did this great thing without lifting a finger.
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.
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.

All Articles

No one is harder to convert than a religious expert.
This is an excerpt from the Chapter 7 of Being Family by Scott Keith (1517 Publishing, 2026), pgs 72-74.
This is an excerpt from the first chapter of Being Family by Scott Keith (1517 Publishing, 2026), pgs 1-6.
We believe in a Savior who raises the dead: this is why the church is the one place on earth that can speak plainly about abortion without collapsing into despair.
There’s a difference between refusing revenge and refusing responsibility.
This is the third installment in our article series, “An Introduction to the Bondage of the Will,” written to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Bondage of the Will.
The Solas are not just doctrinal statements. They are the grammar of Christian comfort.
The IRS says churches can endorse candidates from the pulpit. But just because they can doesn’t mean they should.
This is the first installment in the 1517 articles series, “What Makes a Saint?”
Below is the Thinking Fellows Essential Reading List with contributions from each of the Thinking Fellows hosts.
In Honor of Dr. John Warwick Montgomery: October 1931 to September 2024.
This is the second installment in our series entitled, God and Nature, which explores the relationship between our Creator and nature: how God uses nature, how we are meant to view nature, and how God chooses to reveal (or hide) himself in nature.