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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The gospel is best understood in terms of those two most important words: for you.
The Lord has an answer to your tears, your trouble, your weariness, your enemies, your grief, your shame, your sin.
Show me a sinner, and I’ll write you a story of a God who saves them.
Jesus Christ is relentless. He does not give up. And with him comes the certainty of redemption.
Below is the Thinking Fellows Essential Reading List with contributions from each of the Thinking Fellows hosts.
Let your soul grieve, yes, but don’t let it be eaten alive by worry.
This article is part of Stephen Paulson’s series on the Psalms.
Press on, church. Yours is the victory through Jesus Christ your Lord.
God can never really be said to be ignoring us, even if our experience with God at any given moment is that he is.
In Christ, this world’s never-children are his always-children, because he isn’t a God of death, after all.
This is an excerpt from chapter 6 of Scandalous Stories by Daniel Emery Price and Erick Sorensen (1517 Publishing 2018).
Moltmann is gone now, but his theology will continue to provoke and provide.