Dr Paul Allen

Did Mark write the story of the pigs called Legion to have a go at the Romans?  Mark has the event mistakenly at Gerasa, which is over nine kilometres from the Sea of Galilee. Can pigs run that far? But was this intentional? In our world, we want everything to line up for the gospel to say the exact thing, but that was not a necessity of the gospel writer.  Matthew’s Gospel has the pigs at “the region of the Gerasenes” (τὴν χώραν τῶν Γερασηνῶν) to “the region of the Gadarenes” (τὴν χώραν τῶν Γαδαρηνῶν). Nicholas Elder says, in Mark at the Borderland of Orality and Textuality, that Mark’s author wrote this anecdote as a disguised criticism of the Roman legions during the Roman-Jewish War of 66–70 CE. He explains why the demons purportedly said their name was ‘Legion’ and why the tale had to take place near Gerasa: Vespasian’s military actions in Gerasa in the years preceding 70 CE will have made the city culturally significant for Mark’s audience. In J.W. 4.487–489, Josephus re...

Can Jesus really mean what he says in John 15:7? His promise is breathtaking: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Ask whatever we wish? How is this possible when so many of our prayers seem to go unanswered? Is this promise only for super-saints? No. The only saints Jesus chooses are those who are weak and foolish (1 Cor. 1:26). They are disciples whose faith begins small (Matt. 14:31). They are people just like us. So this promise is for us. It is a check Jesus wants us to cash at the Bank of Heaven, where there are more than sufficient funds (2 Cor. 9:8). But there are two conditions we must meet for this check to be valid.   The first is that we must abide in Jesus (John 15:1–6). Jesus commands us to abide in him just as branches abide in a vine. Apart from him, we can do nothing but wither (vv. 5–6). An abiding branch has the sap of the Holy Spirit running through it. The more connected the branch, the more it re...

Why do some historians like Tallus and Phlegon mention unusual events like eclipses during Jesus' crucifixion, and what do these accounts add to the narrative? We do not have any actual writings from Thallus, although some of his work was quoted by later writers. One such writer was Sextus Julius Africanus, a Christian who lived in the early third century. He said that Thallus reported darkness at about the time of the crucifixion but dismissed it as a solar eclipse.  As Africanus points out, solar eclipses never occur at the time of the full moon. Origen reported, in Against Celsus 2.xiv, that Phlegon wrote about "the greatest eclipse of the sun" at the sixth hour.  William Lane Craig, a theologian and Christian apologist, has written a lengthy article (Thallus on the Darkness at Noon) in which he accepts that Thallus wrote the account attributed to him and demonstrates that there was, in fact, a darkness at the time Jesus was crucified. As we only have references to wha...

It has been a good term for religious freedom at the U.S. Supreme Court, and predictably, LGBT activists are outraged. Their anger, however, reveals how far their crusade to hijack public education has gone and how necessary judicial pushback has become.  Exhibit A is Mahmoud v. Taylor, considered a key test case for parental rights – a concept that many LGBT activists reject entirely. The case centred around Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, which had introduced LGBT books into the pre-kindergarten through Grade 5 curriculum, and, in March 2023, eliminated a policy allowing parents to opt their children out of LGBT lessons.  Led by Tamer Mahmoud, a group of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish families sued the school board generally and Superintendent Thomas Taylor specifically, saying that their First Amendment right to the exercise of religion was being violated because their families were being forcibly exposed to content that directly conflicted with their religious...

Every year, substantial sums of money are allocated to the two major Christian churches in Germany. Last year, they received more than €600 million ($645 million) in state funding, in addition to the billions in church tax that the clergy receive. Understanding why huge state allowances go to the  Catholic  and  Protestant  Church takes us back more than two centuries to the 20 years of Napoleon's occupation of Germany at the beginning of the 19th century. After defeating what was then the first German Reich, the French ruler ordered a far-reaching separation of church and state, including the closure and expropriation of monasteries and other ecclesiastical institutions. A law dating back to 1803, known as the "Reichsdeputationshauptschluss" — often referred to in English as the Imperial Recess of 1803 — compelled the churches to cede money and land to often neighbouring secular principalities. As a form of compensation, they agreed to pay the salarie...

I was a sophomore in college when I took my first class devoted to the scholarly study of the Bible. It was a course on the New Testament that covered the background of the Christian Scriptures and dealt with matters such as the authorship of the New Testament books. It was the first class for my major in religious studies, and I was excited to take it. My professor was a kind and very encouraging man, so I was glad to have him as my instructor. However, the subject matter of the class was occasionally jarring. It was my introduction to the world of biblical scholarship, and it was the first time I saw how many professional Bible scholars did not treat the biblical text as the Word of God. That was not in itself especially surprising to me; before taking the class, I had known many people who did not treat the Bible as God’s Word. No, what was surprising to me was seeing how scholars would outright reject statements made in the Bible that should not be objectionable, even to those who ...

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb. 12:1–2) Christ does not get flustered and frustrated when we come to him for fresh forgiveness, for renewed pardon, with distress and need and emptiness. That’s the whole point. It’s what he came to heal. He went down into the horror of death and plunged out through the other side to provide a limitless supply of mercy and grace to his people. When you come to Christ for mercy and love and help in your anguish and perplexity and sinfulness, you are going with the flow of his own deepest wishes, not against them.  We tend to think that when we approach Jesus for help in our need and mercy ami...

Psalm 28 -  David. To you, O LORD, I call;  My rock, be not deaf to me,  lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy,  when I cry to you for help,  when I lift up my hands  toward your most holy sanctuary.  The LORD is the strength of his people;  he is the saving refuge of his anointed.  Oh, save your people and bless your heritage!  Be their shepherd and carry them forever. (Ps. 28:1–2, 8–9) A cry for help. At times that’s the only way we can pray. Some trouble we’ve been dealing with takes a turn for the worse, or a brand-new crisis breaks over our life in the course of a single day, an hour, a phone call. When that happens, when we are suddenly and utterly overwhelmed, God is there. Our new crisis is not new to God, so we can simply cry out for help. That’s exactly what David does as he prays for deliverance and for a divinely imposed barrier on the evil coming agains...

  1. Prosecuting fellow believers through online platforms without ecclesial process The Apostle Paul instructed the church in Corinth to judge matters internally (1 Cor. 6). Today, however, the church has outsourced judgment to the Twittersphere. Believers now play judge, jury, and executioner without due process or any semblance of ecclesial order. Social media has become a tribunal, and reputations can be assassinated with a single click. This practice not only bypasses biblical structures of accountability but also reveals how biblically illiterate and spiritually reckless much of the body has become. The church is not a mob. It is a family governed by elders, not online outrage. 2. Presumptuously calling for a 'court of Heaven' For over a decade, the “courts of Heaven” teaching has gained traction in certain charismatic circles. The idea is that one can summon a heavenly court to break generational curses and demonic strongholds. While there are kernels of truth — God is a...

Cherubim first appear in Genesis 3, when God places them east of the Garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life, and they continue to make appearances throughout the pages of Scripture. There were numerous representations of cherubim in the tabernacle and in the temple.  Cherubim were given varied descriptions and primarily signified God’s presence, serving as a visible reminder of the majesty and glory of the Almighty God who reigns on His throne and abides with His people. Read commentary from Iain Duguid, Jay Sklar, Gary Millar, and Thomas Schreiner, who trace the appearances of cherubim through the Bible and help us understand who these figures are. Cherubim in Genesis He drove out the man, and to the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. —Genesis 3:24 Adam and Eve’s sin has immediate and tragic consequences, as they are driven out of the garden. The entrance to the garden of E...

We don’t hear much about virtue, character, or moral excellence in the church today. There might be many reasons for this omission, but let me suggest a couple. The first is that calling people to a high standard of moral excellence is to place a demand on them. These demands are challenging to align with our typical mindset of making the church consumer-friendly and keeping our own business. Additionally, our culture does not value what is good for its own sake. Many people look for ways to improve their lives immediately, in tangible ways that they can measure. With this mindset, truth and goodness are only relevant if they help maximise production. Virtue, though, should be valued, not because it is pragmatically effective, but because it reflects God’s holiness, beauty, and goodness. Therefore, we should value moral excellency, character, and virtue because they all showcase the excellencies of our Lord. However, this message of moral excellence only resonates with those who believ...

Fruit of the Spirit, we took a general look at the list to begin to uncover the meaning of the Apostle Paul’s words to the Galatians. Now we will examine each of these slices of the Spirit’s fruit, starting with love. What is this love produced by the Spirit?  Defining love is not an easy task, but here’s one that attempts to sum up the biblical nature of love: Love is a holy, divine affection toward others produced by the Spirit of God in all believers. This is spiritual love – produced, wrought, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. So, what does this love truly mean? First, spiritual love is not a natural phenomenon. Spiritual love is not the natural affection of the world. The world might be capable of love in the human sense of the term. We know there are unbelievers who have good marriages. Some unbelievers are willing to sacrifice for the greater good of humanity. It is possible to do these things without having true love as God defines it. As Paul says, a person can be a great ...