Dr Paul Allen

Moses is still not satisfied.  Even with God's promises and recent gifts, he remains unsatisfied. Moses has been on the mountain for 40 days and nights, communing with God.  He has already had that experience; he has already had the experiences that are recorded in this chapter, where God, we are told, ‘spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend’—a most unusual thing. In response to Moses' request for assurance and satisfaction, God says, ‘I will even grant you that,’ and immediately provides him with some degree of it.  And yet Moses goes further. He is not satisfied. He does not stop; he goes on, and he says, ‘Show me your glory.’ This attitude is what we may very well describe as the daring quality that always comes into great faith. You will find other illustrations of this attribute elsewhere in the Scriptures.  But here is perhaps the most remarkable of all: Moses's audacity in asking for more after already receiving such answers.  G...

  1 John 1:6-2.2.  Th ree important tests of profession are in these verses; they are introduced with the words ‘If we say.’ The first is in verse 6. It tests the profession of salvation. The ongoing walk of a true child of God must be in the light, for he has been delivered from darkness. The second is in verse 8 and tests the profession of a person’s nature. Claiming sinlessness is untrue. The most spiritual believer is conscious of the ever-present inner desires of the flesh, resulting in the commission of various sins. What then is the way for a Christian to gain forgiveness? It is to pray, but this is not the normal prayer of communion; it involves confession of sin. ‘Confess’ is an interesting word; it means to ‘agree with’ or to ‘speak the same thing.’ Thus, when we confess, we are telling God about our sin and agreeing with His verdict on our conduct. When David sinned with Bathsheba, there was an initial period when he ‘kept silence’; he did not admit to God what he h...

  Read 1 Peter 5:5-11. ‘ Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you’ is a golden text in every way. God would not have us careless, vv. 8–9; the constant prowling of our adversary calls for constant vigilance on our part. But God would have us carefree, v. 7. Peter’s readers had every cause for anxiety. They faced numerous challenges. In the present, they suffered simply because they were Christians, 4:16. Prospects for the future were even worse; in rather ominous words, Peter warned them that the time had come ‘that judgment must begin at the house of God’, 4:17. The storm clouds were gathering. Recognising that his readers had every reason to be alarmed, Peter alludes to the Greek Old Testament translation of Psalm 55:22, ‘Cast your care upon the Lord’. To stifle any remaining doubts on their part, however, he adds the precious word, ‘all’. They do not need to bear any anxieties themselves; instead, they can cast 'all' their concerns on Him. Peter had concluded cha...

Read 1 Peter 4:7-11. Peter had been present when the Lord had spoken of another, an eternal realm. For example, Peter had heard Him speak of ‘treasure in heaven, which does not fail,’ Luke 12:33, 41. Peter understood this point and elaborated on it in his letters. He wrote of ‘an inheritance’ which is incorruptible, undefiled and unfading, ‘reserved in heaven for you,’ 1 Pet. 1:4, of an ‘unfading’ crown of glory, 5:4, and of the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 2 Pet. 1:11.  By way of contrast, he taught that the present world and all in it will be destroyed and dissolved with fire, 3:7, 10–12. The things of earth will not continue forever. And neither will the adverse circumstances of the present life. When viewed against the eternal glory to which we are called, the various trials and the sufferings of the present are only ‘for a little (time)’, 1 Pet. 1:6; 5:10 lit. We are not here forever.  We are only sojourners and pilgrims in this world, 2:11. Peter...

  Peter had been present when the Lord had spoken of another, an eternal realm. For example, Peter had heard Him speak of ‘treasure in heaven, which does not fail’, Luke 12:33, 41. The point registered with Peter, and he developed it in his letters. He wrote of ‘an inheritance’ which is incorruptible, undefiled and unfading, ‘reserved in heaven for you’, 1 Pet. 1:4, of an ‘unfading’ crown of glory, 5:4, and of the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 2 Pet. 1:11. By way of contrast, he taught that the present world and all in it will be destroyed and dissolved with fire, 3:7, 10–12.  The things of earth will not continue forever. And neither will the adverse circumstances of the present life. When viewed against the eternal glory to which we are called, the various trials and the sufferings of the present are only ‘for a little (time)’, 1 Pet. 1:6; 5:10 lit. We are not here forever; we are only sojourners and pilgrims in this world, 2:11. Peter believed that t...

  Peter lays great stress upon separation from evil in its many forms. Christians are not to return evil for evil, v. 9. In speech they are to refrain from it, v. 10, and in conduct to turn away from it, v. 11. If they suffer, let it be for doing good and not for doing evil, v. 17. ‘The Lord’s eyes are upon the righteous and His ears open to their prayer’, v. 12 lit. The Lord’s promise of ‘open ears’ can be claimed only if two conditions are met.  First, the supplicant must be ‘righteous’. Measured by God’s standard of absolute perfection, we are ‘the unrighteous’ for whom ‘the Righteous One’ suffered to bring us to God, v. 18. Nevertheless, having been reconciled to God, we should now be characterized by righteousness in our conduct, 2:24; 3:14. Of ungodly and unrighteous men, God has said, ‘though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them’, Ezek. 8:18. Second, our petitions must be genuine . Mere words are not enough. We must be particularly careful ...

The basic meaning of the word translated ‘hindered’ is ‘to block the way’. Many indeed are the obstacles which bar the way between us and prayer. Alas, so often our experience attests the truth of William Cowper’s words, There are five of the most common roadblocks that we encounter on the highway to the throne of grace, and suggestions for removing them: ‘I can’t afford the time’. But prayer is important; I cannot afford not to pray. I need to make the time. Daniel handled top-level affairs of State yet made the time to pray three times every day, Dan. 6:1–3, 10. Perhaps I would accomplish more if I attempted less and spent more time praying about it. ‘I don’t honestly see a need for it’. But, my self-sufficient heart, the Lord Jesus has explicitly said, ‘without me you can do nothing’, John 15:5. Do I know better than Him? And have others no needs for which I can pray? What of Christian leaders, other saints, and non-Christian contacts? Dare I ‘cease to pray’ for such?, 1 Sam. 12:2...

  Who can forget Dan Brown’s best-selling book The Da Vinci Code? Millions and millions of people have read the book and seen the movie. I can remember having conversations with friends and acquaintances who believed that what Dan Brown wrote in his novel was historically accurate.  In one passage, the fictional character Sir Leigh Teabing, a professorial guru, points out that “the Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven.”1 Teabing goes on to explain, “The Bible is a product of man … not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book.”2 Teabing claims that there were “more than eighty gospels … considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John among them.”3  This claim of there being eighty other gospels is...

  JESUS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT Even though there’s a large amount of supporting evidence for the existence of Jesus in non-Christian sources, the best evidence is found in the New Testament. The New Testament is made up of twenty-seven different documents (ancient biographies, letters, apocalyptic writings), all written in the first century. You might be thinking, What about the writers’ prejudices and impartialities? Yes, the New Testament is biased because Christians composed it, but every text is biased. Bias does not necessarily equal unreliability; if this were the case, every ancient (and modern) text would be considered unreliable. So why do historians believe that the New Testament is the best evidence for the existence of Jesus? The strongest argument is that before and during the time of Jesus, Jews did not believe that the Messiah (or Christ) was going to die.  They believed that the Messiah was going to rise up and conquer the Romans, taking back Jerusalem, where the...

  It may surprise you to know that Jesus is mentioned in quite a few non-Christian texts from ancient times. For economy of space and time, I won’t reproduce every early source that attests to Jesus’ existence, but I’ll list some of the major references and provide the quotations scholars use when looking into the existence of Jesus.3     1.      Roman: PLINY THE YOUNGER (AD 62–113) Epistles 10.96:     they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light [Sunday], when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food, but of an ordinary and innocent kind.     2.      Roman: TACITUS (AD 60–120) Annal...

We have a God for all circumstances. In times of affliction, we should pray to Him; in times of cheerfulness, we should sing to Him. Do times of trouble drive us to prayer, and do times of joy lead us to praise? To encourage us to pray, James draws attention to the powerful combination formed by the right kind of prayer prayed by the right kind of man. The fervent supplication of a righteous man, he assures us, is of ‘great strength’, v. 16 lit. James loves to illustrate his points by reference to examples from the Old Testament. Previously, he had cited Abraham and Rahab as evidence of true faith that expresses itself in works, 2:20–26, and Job as evidence of patient endurance in the face of affliction, 5:10–11. Now he introduces Elijah as an example of one whose prayer was of ‘great strength,’ 5:17–18. Although James was fully aware of the normal weather cycle, v. 7, he was also aware of one occasion when God interfered with that cycle in response to a man’s prayers. For by his praye...

  Do we experience the joy of answered prayer? If not, the one thing which is certain is that this our fault and not God’s. In today’s reading, James offers us two possible reasons why we are strangers to that joy. First, often we simply do not ask. We try everything else before we go to God. Although we profess to believe that God has unlimited resources available which He is waiting to bestow on us, we fail to pray—and so we do not receive. O that our hearts and wills were gripped by the firm conviction that God really does hear and answer prayer! If we truly believe that: (i) prayer links our helplessness with God’s almightiness; (ii) prayer can do anything which God can do, and He can do anything; (iii) prayer causes more havoc among the unseen forces of darkness than does any other weapon we possess; (iv) prayer changes, not only us when we pray, but actual events and situations; and (v) prayer is the answer to every problem which exists … then we will ‘ask’. Second, when we d...

James was concerned about believers who did not know how to face their many trials and troubles. If any lacked the necessary wisdom to bear and make proper use of their afflictions, he said they were to ‘ask of God’. By way of encouragement, James described Him as the One who gives without reservation (liberally) or reproach (upbraideth not). God gives unreservedly. He gives ‘richly’, 1 Tim. 6:16, ‘freely’, Rom. 8:32 and ‘liberally’ (with singleness of heart, lit). God’s resources are not simply great; they are infinite. In response to my requests, He gives and I receive. Yet, although thereby I am so much richer, He is not one whit poorer. Usually, when I receive something good (cf. verse 17) from somebody else, I end up with more and they with less. But not so with answered prayer.  Notwithstanding all God’s bountiful giving, His store is not in the least diminished. If I come to Him for help or strength or whatever, I need never fear that my taking is going to impoverish Him. Hi...

 

 

  It’s easy to skip past Jude on your way to Revelation. Who was Jude anyway? Jude’s letter opens with the greeting, “Jude (called Judas in his day), a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James” (Jude 1). This sounds specific, but it isn’t. The very description that is intended to identify him, “the brother of James,” requires that we know which James he’s talking about. The description “brother of James” is also problematic. The Greek word for ‘brother’ (ἀδελφός, adelphos), like the English slang word ‘bro,’ is ambiguous. Using The ESV English-Greek Reverse Interlinear New Testament, we can make the switch to Greek and look up the word adelphos in A Greek-English Lexicon of The New Testament (BDAG). BDAG tells us that adelphos can be a term of friendship (Phil 3:13), specify membership in an ethnic group (Rom 9:3), and metaphorically reference a “fellow believer” (1 Cor 11:1). Nonetheless, since Jude only mentions one “brother” in his opening, unlike Paul in his letters, James...

  Most Bible study resources describe fallen angels as demons who joined Lucifer in his rebellion against God. But what if the only place in the New Testament that describes angels sinning does not call them demons, has no connection to Lucifer, and has them in jail?  Welcome to the world of 2 Peter and Jude.  For … God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment (2 PET 2:4 ESV).   And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day (JUDE 6 ESV). Second Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 are nearly identical in their description of angels doing time, but some differences help us figure out “what in the spiritual world is going on.” Jude 6 defines what 2 Peter 2:4 means by the angelic sin. These sinning angels “left their proper dwelling.” Second Pe...

  “But Michael the archangel, when contending with the Devil, debating concerning the body of Moses, did not dare to pronounce an irreverent judgment, but he said, “May the Lord reprove you” (JUDE 9,  But doesn’t the Old Testament say that only the Lord was with Moses when he died on Mount Nebo, just outside the promised land of Canaan? “And [the Lord] buried [Moses] in the valley, in the land of Moab … but no one knows the place of his burial to this day” (DEUT 34:6 ESV).  There is no mention of Satan, Michael, or an epic battle. Who (or what) is Jude’s source? New Testament source material usually came from the Old Testament, but not always. Sometimes New Testament writers drew upon non-biblical documents.1 For example, Paul cites the Greek poets Aratus and Cleanthes to support his claim that the God of Israel is responsible for the entire created order (Acts 17:28). Accessing the sources of the first century AD can be challenging. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson’s Comment...

WHEN THE ODDS ARE AGAINST YOU BUT GOD ISN'T There is a new king in Israel, who does not fear Yahweh. He has married into a family of idolaters. Even now, they are erecting more statues for Baal and pillars for Asherah (1 Kgs 16:31) while the altars of Yahweh lie in ruins. His name is Ahab, and he is worse than all the kings who have come before him—put together. His administration is thoroughly pagan and ruthlessly oppressive. He and his wife Jezebel have begun rounding up and murdering the prophets of Yahweh, who are now hiding out in caves like criminals (1 Kgs 18:4). This is the situation when Elijah the Tishbite steps forward and defies the king, cursing the land with drought (1 Kgs 17:1–7), then disappearing for several years. Meanwhile, there is no rain. Even the king is forced to send his servants to wander the land in search of spring water for his horses and mules (1 Kgs 18:5). Then Yahweh sends Elijah back. The king wants this rabble-rouser (“troubler of Israel”) dead, de...

 

THIS ARTICLE CLEARLY DEMONSTRATES HOW PRESBYTERIANS ARGUE AGAINST ANY FORM OF THE SUPERNATURAL ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TODAY USING THE HUMAN CATEGORY ARGUMENT TO JUSTIFY THIER POSITION ARTICLE AUTHOR:  R ev . Nicholas T. Batzig  Western society has turned the idea of the miraculous into a mere literary tool—an idiom to capture any extraordinary (i.e., a rare, unexpected, or unlikely) happening. “It was a miracle that we made it on time,” a couple exclaims at a dinner party after getting caught in heavy traffic. “He was a miracle worker,” a woman tells her friend as she explains how her counsellor helped turn her marriage around. “It was a miracle that she made it through,” a man says about his mother’s risky surgery. These are a few common ways that our culture has appropriated the word miracle over the past century. At the very least, this tendency reveals that most people label rare, extraordinary, and unlikely providences as miracles. At the same time, many professing belie...