Dr Paul Allen

QUESTION ASKED: What would have happened if Adam and Eve had not eaten from the tree of the knowledge? Would there still be original sin? How would they have been able to have children without eating from the tree? DICK HARFIELD'S RESPONSE: In point of fact, Adam and Eve did not eat from the tree of knowledge. I can say this with complete assurance because the story of the Garden of Eden is known to be a myth that was adapted from the much older Epic of Gilgamesh. The concept of original sin was developed by Augustine of Hippo in the Christian era, but was not fully adopted as doctrine by the Orthodox Church or by Judaism (the religion in which the story was originally written).  MY RESPONSE: The answer provided by Harfield contains a mix of solid points and some claims that warrant closer scrutiny. The answer provided by Harfield contains a mix of solid points and some claims that warrant closer scrutiny. What holds up well: Correctly noting that original sin as a formal doctri...

QUESTION:   The Book of Isaiah describes events of the Babylonian Exile and even mentions Cyrus by name. Given that the prophet Isaiah lived centuries before the Babylonian Exile, that ought to be surprising. Biblical scholars have looked at changes in style, vocabulary and historical interest to establish that the Book of Isaiah was originally three separate books written by three separate authors over a long period of time. Isaiah, son of Amoz, only wrote chapters 1–39, apart from some alterations and insertions within those chapters. Two other, anonymous authors wrote the remainder of the book. Another instance is the Book of Daniel, which appears to predict quite accurately the events immediately before 167 BCE. Still, neither mentions what happens immediately after that time nor is it at all accurate regarding the history of the Babylonian Exile, the time during which the story is set. Biblical scholars have established that the book must have been written around 167 BCE, as i...

Dick Harfield writes answers to theological questions on Quora. As a self-declared atheist, his responses follow a recognisable pattern: vague where precision is needed, occasionally accurate, but consistently thin on detail. He habitually invokes the phrase "most theologians today believe" without attribution, and on the rare occasions he does cite sources, they tend to be liberal, non-believing scholars who share his sceptical presuppositions — a kind of circular credentialing. His approach to engagement is equally revealing. He disables debate on his answers, insulating himself from challenge, and his followers tend to reinforce rather than interrogate his conclusions, often using his answers as a platform to sneer at orthodox Christianity rather than examine it seriously. The question below is a good illustration. It is a genuinely interesting theological question — but Harfield misreads its context entirely, arriving at a confident conclusion while missing the point th...

There are hundreds of passages in Scripture about abuse. Abuse is woven throughout Scripture, offering rich teaching on what abuse is, how it affects us, and how God responds to it. What is abuse? Abuse is a dark topic. But it can only be rightly understood against a positive backdrop: Abuse, at its core, involves the diabolical corruption of God’s very good creation. Genesis 1–2 recounts the magnificent way God made humans, male and female, in his image and likeness. That image gives us innate dignity and worth. Abuse attacks and distorts—though it does not eliminate—this. It strikes at the very essence of who we are as image bearers. God entrusts his image bearers with power. Abuse inverts this: Power is used to exploit and harm. Abuse is also always a misuse of our God-given power. In the creation account, the second command given to the man and woman involves having dominion over all of creation (Gen 1:28). God entrusts his image bearers with power—physical, relational, sexual, eco...

The baptism and subsequent temptation of Jesus not only stand at the outset of Jesus’s public ministry but, as a pair of events, also seem to set the terms for it. In his baptism, Jesus is anointed for his mission, even as his subsequent temptation in the wilderness seeks to draw him away from it. Together, these events help us to understand all that follows, revealing Jesus’s relationship to the Father and the devil’s place as his primary antagonist. The Synoptic Gospels record three distinct accounts of Jesus’s temptation (Matt 4:1–11; Mark 1:12–13; Luke 4:1–13). All three bear witness that after his baptism by John in the Jordan, Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days. Matthew and Luke note that he spent this period fasting. Towards the end of the period, he was tempted by the devil (named Satan in Mark’s account), after which he was ministered to by angels (in Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts). But what exactly was at stake in each of these temptations, and what do they reveal ...

Why does the KJV Bible contain references to such mythological creatures as the ‘unicorn’ (Num. 23:22) and the ‘satyr’ (Isa. 13:21)? How can such allusions be harmonised with the claim that the Bible is the infallible word of God? The “Unicorn” of the Bible The term “unicorn” is found nine times in the King James Version of the Bible (Num. 23:22; 24:8; Dt. 33:17; Job 39:9-10; Psa. 22:21; 29:6; 92:10; Isa. 34:7). However, unicorn does not appear at all in the American Standard Version, nor in most other modern versions. This should be a signal that the “problem” is one of translation, rather than a problem with the original, biblical text. In ancient mythological literature, the unicorn was a horse-like animal with a prominent horn protruding from the centre of its forehead. There is no evidence that this creature is alluded to in the scriptures. In the Hebrew Old Testament, the word that is found in the texts referenced above is re’em, which is translated “wild ox” in the later version...

The Church at large is reeling from more and more exposure of sin in the lives of its leaders, whose greed, sexual immorality, abusive behaviour, and lust for attention have left many weary and wary. In the charismatic world, the list of problems includes failed “prophecies” from those claiming to speak for God. It’s no wonder that even many continuationists have become gun-shy about the supernatural. To be clear, by “continuationists” (more commonly, charismatics), I mean those who believe the Holy Spirit still distributes spiritual gifts today, including supernatural gifts like prophecy. People who believe the Holy Spirit ceased distributing spiritual gifts after the apostolic age are called cessationists. Scripture takes these issues seriously. Jesus warns of false prophets (Matt. 24:11, 24), as does John (1 John 4:1). Likewise, Peter and Paul warn of false teachers, prophets, and apostles (2 Cor. 11:13; 2 Pet. 2:1), and all their warnings are relevant for this moment. With that sai...

In 1976, Carl F.H. Henry published God, Revelation, and Authority, one of the most significant works of theology in the twentieth century. Five years later, Gordon Clark released A Christian View of Men and Things. In the same tradition, David Noebel’s magisterial Understanding the Times covered 10 different areas to which a worldview speaks, from theology and philosophy to economics, ethics, sociology, and history. And all on his own, the late Christian philosopher Ron Nash covered almost every other conceivable topic from a Christian worldview.   Missing in the long line of Christian worldview books is one that would have been especially helpful last week when the Pentagon released a slew of documents, some of which were formerly classified.  The Christian view of UFOs, Aliens, and Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (or UAP) remains to be written. NPR described this move by the Trump administration, “In all, the Pentagon released more than 160 records, citing President Tr...

Across generations, believers have asked an important question: Does God still speak through dreams and visions? For many Christians, the answer is yes, and many believe we are presently witnessing an increased outpouring of dreams and visions in this generation. Scripture reminds us that God is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8) and that He does not change (Malachi 3:6). Throughout the Bible, God spoke to people such as Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Solomon, Peter, Paul, Ananias, Joseph (the husband of Mary), and many more through dreams and visions. Since Scripture teaches that God does not change, it is reasonable to believe that He still speaks to His people in the same way today. Yet many in the Western, intellectually sophisticated world (including some in the church) dismiss dreams entirely as either psychosomatic phenomena or eating bad pizza before going to sleep. But that is not a biblical paradigm, as Scripture presupposes a supernatural worldview, of which dr...