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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For all mankind, the answer is terrifically simple and remains the same: God wants to turn us towards the cross and then turn us back to our neighbors.
As the body positivity movement has gained traction, we must also be aware of some of its pitfalls
Through the often abominable and lamentable and occasional commendable season, there is one who remains unmoved by it all.
God invites you to confess the skeletons in your closet so that he might bury them in the grave for good.
Only when we’re ready to accept the impossibility of human perfection can we move beyond the paralyzing myth that we are capable of anything good apart from Christ.
This is the first direct promise of the Seed who will reunite all mankind to God by defeating Satan on the Cross.
The irony of our idolatry is that many of our idols could and would speak the gospel to us if we would listen.
Faith isn’t something that needs to be done. It’s something to be enjoyed because faith is a gift bestowed by God’s word through the hearing of the Gospel.
Jesus rejects what we believe is most necessary and instead points us to his pain, suffering, death, and self-sacrifice.
This is an excerpt from Vocation: The Setting for Human Flourishing written by Michael Berg (1517 Publishing, 2021). Available for purchase this Tuesday!
God loves you no matter what. Loves you no matter how many times you have screwed up. Loves you to death, he does.
You can’t bear your own sins, to say nothing of getting rid of them.