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.
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.

All Articles

The church is of no use to this world if all we do is ape the world’s rhetoric, antics, and actions. We are a unique community with a unique message. Here are four reasons I'm convinced that 2020 is a great year for the church.
This is an excerpt from “The Freedom of the Christian” written by Martin Luther and translated and edited by Adam Francisco (1517 Publishing, 2020).
Sin is driven by disordered love, and it is love in this sense that leads to all the pain and suffering in the world.
What does it mean that holding to Jesus’ teaching will set us free? Which teaching? What will we be set free from?
We vote because we are citizens, and it is our duty. We serve our neighbors in love because it is our Christian calling.
Solomon did not write Ecclesiastes to bum you out. He wrote it to set you free.
Viewing the Bible as literature is an essential and natural way of engaging the text. But there are also ways in which this practice can get lost.
The gospel fires up within us the gratitude, joy, and love to pull off what the law never could get us to do.
Little do we know the ancient and everlasting healing powers of God’s beloved tender shoot.
What does it take to be a Christian? Christ.
We’ve become experts at making deals with God.
Even as children of God, we have down days. That’s just a fact of being sinful and living in an evil world.