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

Pride builds identities that leave no room for grace.
A rightly-oriented heart and a rightly-oriented love will consistently do what is best for God and best for our neighbor, which is why St. Augustine speaks of sin as a disordered love.
You are a soul. Not an algorithm. Not a hashtag. A soul knit together by a God who does not mock, does not abandon, and does not lie.
The baptized do not celebrate sin—they grieve it.
Uzziah was showing the most dangerous kind of pride – a pride wrapped up under the guise of religious service.
Jesus rests in a manger in the days to come, but don’t be fooled.
The world rushes forward, lighting up screens and decking out storefronts in a mad sprint toward the next thing, but Advent pulls us back.
Below is the Thinking Fellows Essential Reading List with contributions from each of the Thinking Fellows hosts.
The sinful nature loves self, and pride is its native tongue.
God does not give us an undebatable answer to suffering. Instead, God suffers, too.
You are the baptized, for in Christ we are all wet. The demographic dividers are washed away.
Do our petitions move God?