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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That image of the “godly woman” haunted me from examples in the Bible of honorable women.
She heard it before, but looking around she struggles to see how it matters.
“My Old Man” is the story of a single father, a grossly flawed character, told through the eyes of his son who can’t help but love him.
In Christ we are already dead to sin and the eternal consequences of sin. “There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,” writes Paul (Romans 8:1).
Those clinging to God in Christ can be assured that it’s all clean.
Yet, just as the Jews had two choices, true God or no God, the Christian has the same, true Jesus or no Jesus.
It’s a subject that for some comes up every 4th of July. How does the American Revolution square with Romans 13?
If affairs always begin by believing lies, then repentance always begins by believing the truth: the truth that you are in the wrong, the truth that you have a God who loves you in Jesus Christ, and the truth that he and he alone can save you not only from adultery but from every sin that seeks to lead you down the path of destruction.
In a world so wired by law and rules, judgement is everywhere.
The world doesn’t need dads who are more stressed than they already are. It needs fathers who care for their families, not in heroic ways, but in common, everyday ways.
You have suffered your son to come unto Jesus; but fathers, don’t let him die!
Christians argue about who's in charge of who, who's going to run things, who is the authority and who are the leaders that tell us on behalf of Jesus what to do next.