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.

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Jesus promises more than a disembodied “spiritual” existence after death. He has promised to raise our perishable, mortal bodies to immortality.
The Psalms aren’t the clandestine successes of a faithful soul, but are the journaled hopes of a desperate soul — of one teetering on the edge of oblivion.
Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it.
The presence of the Glory Cloud at the presentation of the manna makes clear who is providing this meal.
In His grace, Jesus promises that all who come to Him in faith will live abundantly and eternally.
The Christ Key: Unlocking the Centrality of Christ in the Old Testament by Chad Bird is now available to order
We do not have to endure the pain and suffering of this fallen existence forever, just for a little while.
The rainbow is a sign of the covenant God is making with “all flesh which is on the earth” and to the coming generations.
When the One who created the world comes to you, there is reason for courage and never reason to fear.
When we read about Noah, we are reading backward to Adam and forward to Jesus.
But Jesus didn’t see it that way. He saw his arrest not as the kingdom’s program being thwarted but as it being “fulfilled.”
The LORD promises He Himself will gather up the remnants and they will prosper under His shepherding.