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.
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.
The word of assurance given to Moses at Sinai echoes through eternity on the lips of the Savior, untroubling troubled souls with the good news that there is one who walks the paths of life with you, and soon he’s coming to bring you to himself.

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More certain than death or taxes and more certain than “anything else in all creation” is the fact that God loves you.
Below is the Thinking Fellows Essential Reading List with contributions from each of the Thinking Fellows hosts.
Free speech isn't dead yet, and when it comes to the proclamation of the gospel, it never will be.
God does not give us an undebatable answer to suffering. Instead, God suffers, too.
Lutherans have a unique heritage that makes teaching predestination doubly difficult.
You are the baptized, for in Christ we are all wet. The demographic dividers are washed away.
He declared you what you might not always feel you are, but what you were from the moment he knew you, before you were you, when he foreknew you.
Do our petitions move God?
This feast is the Gospel, “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.”
In this article Amy Mantravadi give a short but helpful summary of the differences in Lutheran and Reformed thought regarding assurance.
God has a hall ready for us, for us and for so many more
Confession and absolution offer more than assurance, they gift real and genuine Divine promises.