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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“There,” the Queen said, “That’s so much better than talking, isn’t it?”
My words are peanuts compared to the porterhouse of God’s Word.
Only by faith in Christ are we truly awake.
Good, we tend to think, is the absence of evil. But this reversal of the formula can only have disastrous consequences.
If you are going to lose your life for the gospel’s sake, you must begin by hearing it.
Cranach became the evangelical interpreter for the masses
At the heart of The Idiot is Dostoevsky's confession of faith and the confession of all Christians.
Sometimes I think we should be more tempted to laugh at the gospel than we are, not in derision but in sheer surprise and awe.
With every bone in our bodies, we declare war on grace. We declare war on the gift.
The world hates Jesus because he comes to lead us to love and forgive all, including our enemies.
FLAME uses Scripture and church history to argue that baptism is a gospel gift, not our work.
Ethics begins not with our doing, but with the Triune God’s giving.