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.

All Articles

The amount of Messianic/Christological connections in this account is stunning. This is an excellent Old Testament text with which to begin Lent!
The paradoxical Puritan doctrines of an inability to convert oneself and the command to work out one’s salvation with fear and trembling placed would-be converts like Mather in quite a bind.
Our prayer confesses that God’s abode is beyond us, yet ever so near for the prayer presupposes that we are being heard, even in our sighs and whispers.
John T. Pless has prepared a midweek Lenten sermon series that will fix our eyes on the saving work of the triune God. Based on Martin Luther’s hymn “Dear Christians One and All Rejoice,” this series will provide preachers an opportunity to proclaim the saving work of God to their hearers throughout the season of Lent.
So, what do we pray? What do we say? In times of fear, in times of chaos, in unprecedented times, we pray and say the words that have been written on our hearts.
Rituals resist domestication and confront us with a world and worldview brought forth from the Bible and through twenty centuries of Christianity for the purpose of arresting our contemporary worldview through its self-sameness.
As we close out an old year, Saint Silvester can remind us God is the Lord of history and He has used and is using even people whose lives sink largely or totally into obscurity to keep the confession of our faith in Jesus Christ alive.
Truly wondrous is the whole chronicle of the Nativity. For this day the ancient slavery is ended, the power of death is broken, paradise is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed from us, error-driven out, and truth has been brought back.
On this day in the year 1093, Anselm was consecrated as the archbishop of Canterbury.
In a year where things are unclear, tensions are heartbreaking, and uncertainty is rampant, what can we be thankful for?
Because everything we possess, and everything in heaven and on earth besides, is daily given, sustained, and protected by God, it inevitably follows that we are in duty bound to love, praise, and thank him without ceasing
The theme of guardianship permeates Christian observances of Michaelmas, unifying this wide variety of celebrations.