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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This is an excerpt from Chapter 7 of Your God is Too Glorious: Finding God in the Most Unexpected Places by Chad Bird (1517 Publishing, 2023).
You are the baptized, for in Christ we are all wet. The demographic dividers are washed away.
Do our petitions move God?
Steven Paulson shares the meaning (and grace) found in All Saints Day
Sing of Jesus’ Easter victory for you, and watch Satan flee with his worries and cares!
Sunday morning is about receiving, not giving.
The only way to change the current state of worship songwriting and production is to create something different.
Many people have struggled to understand Leviticus and Old Testament worship in general. Here is a handbook or map to navigate these subjects, and to see their relationship to Christ and his saving work.
This is an excerpt from the prologue of “On Any Given Sunday: The Story of Christ in the Divine Service” by Mike Berg (1517 Publishing, 2023).
The earliest followers of God sang their faith, which is no different today as we sing of the hope we have in Jesus.
Psalm 98, with its promise of a sea and mountains singing, takes these imposing natural features and turns them into a praise choir.
While the world is full of horizons and endpoints, for Christians, there is always tomorrow, and there are people in that tomorrow waiting for us as we wait for them.