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 this year’s 1517 Advent Devotional.
Why would David write this psalm for all to read when he was no longer God’s greatest king, but rather God’s greatest sinner?
When we fail, our first impulse is the same as that of our spiritual ancestors: to sprint headlong into the bushes.
Resurrection does not start in sunlight. It begins in the dark.
The acrostic psalms do not hold because of their perfect structure. Nor do our lives.
All Saints’ Day is a war story. And in Christ crucified and risen, it’s also a victory story.
Grace isn’t fair. It’s reckless and lavish and handed out freely to those who don’t deserve a thing.
He has freed you from a selfish fixation on gifts. He has freed you to look to the Giver.
This is the third installment in our article series, “An Introduction to the Bondage of the Will,” written to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Bondage of the Will.
Faith takes God at his word and holds his promise to be true for me because I know God would not lie to me.
God leads us to green pastures. He comforts us with his grace in our darkest valleys.
The Word seems like it is so little, like five barley loaves and two small fish, but it is all that God used to create the heavens and the earth.