Dr Paul Allen

This is a question commonly bandied about among Christians who feel the age of miracles is past. Its weakness lies in the implication that the miracle-working power of God is like magic, and that the signs and wonders of God’s power can be divorced from the gospel message.  Let us recast the same question in terms of salvation: If Jesus is the Son of God with power to save, why isn’t the whole world Christian? The immediate answer is that salvation is dependent upon man’s response to the gospel message. Potentially, what both questions ask is possible, for potentially, every human need has been met in the grace of God revealed through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Christ died for all men. The intent of God to establish a society on earth where every need is met through His love and grace is clearly revealed in New Testament teaching. It is called the kingdom of God. Jesus demonstrated it in His ministry, proclaimed its proximity, and we pray for its manifestation every time we pr...

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,  and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Ps. 51:5) They’re the two essential parts of redemption, rescue and restoration, and you and I can’t do either one for ourselves. But it’s hard to admit that we have a problem that we cannot solve. We like to convince ourselves that our anger tells us more about the flawed people we live near than about ourselves.  We like to think that our impatience is more about poor planning or the character of the people we deal with every day. We like to think that our sin can be blamed on the temptations of the fallen world around us.  When we do or say what is wrong, we tend to point to a boss, a spouse, one of our children, a friend, a difficult situation, a busy day, the fact that we aren’t feeling well, bad parents, some injustice, or a long catalogue of other excuses.  But the Bible is quite clear. We all suffer from the same terminal disease. None of us has escaped it. It’s not caused by the...

Laws That Sound Strange to Us Many readers view several laws in the Pentateuch as obscure, strange, and sometimes impossible to understand. Specialised vocabulary and ritualistic concepts make them difficult to translate for the ears of modern readers. However, we must take great care to read each law within its given context instead of ignoring or reading our own mindset into the text. Get clarity on some of these laws from Biblical scholars who have dedicated their lives to discerning their meaning. All content is adapted from the ESV Expository Commentary . “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” —Ex. 23:19b Exodus 23:19b relates to the Lord’s proper worship. Boiling appears to have been a common way to prepare sacrificial meat (Lev. 6:28–29; 1 Sam. 2:13; Zech. 14:21), which would have been done during three festivals mentioned earlier in chapter 23: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering. Why such meat should not be boiled...

  Ecclesiastes 11 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. (Eccl. 11:9–10) Ecclesiastes is bold. It deconstructs us, and it reconstructs us. It frees us from any dreamy idealism that would run smack into the brick wall of harsh reality. But it also frees us from any grim cynicism that would keep us miserably half-alive. Ecclesiastes declares our freedom to live real life, in this real world, vigorously and confidently under the smile of God. Which puts our feet on the path of profound holiness. And if you ask me, freedom of heart to live, really live, is the change we most need here in our time. We forsook idealism long ago. What hurts us now is the opposite. We have grown numb to lofty grandeur, ...

  Other than the gospels, what evidence is there for the existence of Jesus Christ? Dick Harfield's response:  Jewish historians who could have written about Jesus include Nicolaus of Damascus, Philo of Alexandria, Justus of Tiberias and Flavius Josephus. Certainly, Nicolaus, Philo and Justus never mentioned Jesus. A passage attributed to Josephus, the Testimonium Flavianum , mentions Jesus indirectly, but is widely acknowledged to be a late Christian interpolation, wholly or in part. As an interpolation, the Testimonium Flavianum probably demonstrates that the early Christians were embarrassed by the lack of evidence for Jesus Christ. Another, minor reference attributed to Josephus is in the form of “James, the brother of Jesus”, but “the brother of Jesus” is identifiably a gloss. First-century Pagan historians who could have written about Jesus include Marcus Velleius Paterculus, Marcus Servilius Nonianus, Pamphila of Epidaurus, Aufidius Bassus, Pliny the Elder, Cluvius Ruf...

The baptism in the Holy Spirit opens the way to many wonderful gifts of God, but it does not provide instant holiness or perfection. Far from it, we must not confuse the gifts of the Spirit with the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit, which Paul lists in Galatians 5:22–33, is evidence not of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but of conversion or the new birth. (See 1 John 3:14.)  And it is not always quick to appear in the life of a Christian, even one baptised in the Holy Spirit. Just as one may manifest a measure of the fruit of the Spirit, yet experience none of the charismatic gifts, it is also possible (although not desirable) for one baptised in the Holy Spirit to manifest gifts of the Spirit, yet little fruit. But its very nature fruit takes time to produce.  Paul criticised the church at Corinth because he saw little evidence of the fruit of the Spirit, yet he said, “1 give thanks to God always for you…that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift” (1 Corinth...

First of all, how much importance should we place on whether or not a religious practice is currently “normative”? Christianity is not the normative religion of the world today, but this does not keep Christians from proclaiming Jesus Christ as the Light of the world and believing that it is God’s will for all men to come to a saving knowledge of Him.  While the baptism in the Holy Spirit may not yet be normative in the church of our day, nevertheless, it is growing by leaps and bounds. It was much more normative in the early church than is generally understood. A study of Scripture shows that Christians in Caesarea, Samaria, Ephesus, Rome, Corinth, and Jerusalem received the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues, since either direct or indirect references point to the fact. We know that the 120 in the upper room at Pentecost spoke in tongues, as did the apostle Paul. From this group emerged almost the entire leadership of the early church.  O bviously, as they ministered in th...

This will spill your coffee! Do you know where your pastor or minister was trained?  Most ministers who were trained in liberal Bible colleges and seminaries had this same theory drilled into them. When I say this, I include myself, for I was trained in such a seminary. We need to know how such theories came into being and to realise that they are not based on Scripture.  Hebrews 13:8 plainly states, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” As Rufus Moseley used to say, “This means that what Jesus was, He is; what He said, He says; and what He did, He does.” Jesus still saves today, still heals today, still baptises in the Holy Spirit today, and still performs miracles in answer to prayers of faith today. The belief that the age of miracles is past is commonly called dispensationalism. Dispensationalism claims that God has tried various expedients with man, each one having been completely abandoned before the next one was attempted so that divine workings i...

The New Testament apostles thought so. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Acts 19:2) seemed to be a kind of watchword with the early church. And Peter’s plea in Acts 2:38 for both the acceptance of Christ as Lord and the receiving of the Holy Spirit is followed by a universal promise: “For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him” (Acts 2:39). When Philip’s preaching in Samaria, as recorded in Acts 8, resulted in the conversion of multitudes to Christ, the apostles in Jerusalem quickly sent down Peter and John to minister to the new converts that they might be filled with the Holy Spirit, “for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 8:16). It is important to note that while the apostles did not doubt the validity of the conversion of the Samaritans, they were still not content to leave them without this further vital experience...

Certainly, the Holy Spirit is present in conversion. Paul says, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). We know that every Christian experiences a measure of the Holy Spirit’s power. But the Scriptures plainly teach there is spiritual power available beyond our experience of conversion.  Obviously, Paul was converted on the road to Damascus, but the Lord sent Ananias to him to pray for him to get his sight back and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. (See Acts 9:17). And while the Samaritan Christians were soundly converted under Philip’s teaching, still it was through prayer and the laying on of hands that they received the Holy Spirit. (See Acts 8:14–17). Let us stress that this deeper experience of the Holy Spirit in no way refutes or denies any experience the Christian may have had before. It simply opens unto us a whole new realm of spiritual possibilities. Many Christians seem to feel that since their conversion was so wonderful, this m...

Are you on fire for God? It is important to know the difference between being saved and receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. No, baptism in the Holy Spirit is not essential for salvation. Salvation, or conversion, or the acceptance of Christ as Lord and Saviour, is a separate, prior experience. Millions of Christians who love and serve Jesus Christ as Saviour have not received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The New Testament makes it plain that baptism in the Holy Spirit is a second work of grace, which follows conversion. Philip went down to a city of Samaria, and proclaimed to them the Christ....But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women….Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but...

Jesus considered the baptism in the Holy Spirit so important that He expressly forbade His disciples to begin their ministry until they had received it. He knew it was essential for them to have the power which baptism in the Holy Spirit provides. And while staying with them, He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, for John baptised with water, but before many days you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”(Acts 1:4–5) There are many reasons why the baptism in the Holy Spirit is important. Rufus Moseley listed the following reasons in a little pamphlet entitled The Gift of the Holy Spirit. 1.It is only through this heavenly gift empowering us, guiding us, and transforming us that we have immediate union with the glorified Jesus and are given power to do His work and His will and to grow up into His likeness.  As blessed as was the ministry of Jesus in the flesh, and as glorious as was His redemp...

They were talking about this in the pub. Like, what is this Baptism? The baptism in the Holy Spirit is a second encounter with God (the first is conversion) in which the Christian begins to receive the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit into his life. Jesus promised this power to his disciples when he said, You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8) This promise was fulfilled at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell on the one hundred twenty gathered in the upper room. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.(Acts 2:4) This second experience of the power of God, which we call the baptism in the Holy Spirit, is given for the purpose of equipping the Christian with God’s power for service. It is the spiritual baptism from Jesus Himself, in which He begins to exercise His sovereign po...