Dr Paul Allen

The Miracle of Enoch’s Translation Genesis 5:19-24; Hebrews 11:5. Coming to the brief yet blessed biography of Enoch, we discover that everything about his testimony and translation is miraculous. The first mention of this saint is in Genesis 5, a register of births and deaths and a chapter of remarkable longevity.  If we add together the lifespan of those who are named, we have a period of 8,575 years. Enoch had the shortest lifespan, 365 years, and his son Methuselah lived 969 years—31 years short of a millennium. The testimony of Enoch. The unstained testimony of this patriarch was a miracle of grace. The Enoch we are considering, the son of Jared, must not be confused with a previous Enoch, Cain’s eldest son (Genesis 4:17, 18). (1) He walked with God. Twice over we have the phrase, “he walked with God” (Genesis 5:22, 24). The repetition emphasises how conspicuous this phase of his character was. Although Enoch begat sons and daughters, he did not find family ties...

There was an important truth behind that argument. Paul certainly appeals to “the signs of an apostle". W hile defending his ministry in 2 Corinthians 12:12, Paul and Hebrews 2:3–4 describe God bearing witness to the proclaimed salvation through “signs and wonders, and with divers miracles.” So there is good biblical reason to say that miraculous signs could have an authenticating or confirming function.  But we also found that miraculous activity was not confined to apostles. Stephen performed “great wonders and miracles” (Acts 6:8). Philip performed signs in Samaria (Acts 8:6–7). Paul discusses gifts of healing and miracles among the wider congregation in 1 Corinthians 12, and even distinguishes apostles from those who work miracles when he asks, “Are all apostles?... Are all workers of miracles?” (1 Corinthians 12:29). That leaves us with the next part of the original argument. The viral post claims that these gifts were temporary and “ceased when the written revelation was com...

One of the things that has continuously shocked me throughout my life is the relentless attack against God’s Word – especially from professing Christians.  Sometimes, these attacks are subtle, implying the Word of God is insufficient because it is too difficult to understand. Other times, the attacks are blatant, like the promotion of an evolutionary theory as an alternative to biblical creation. In the study of 1 Corinthians, this reality was essentially happening in Corinth, where those believers sought after worldly wisdom. They lived as if the Bible was insufficient for their needs or that Scripture was inferior to the latest philosophies or psychologies. They also judged men’s wisdom to be superior to God’s, which undermined and attacked the truth of His holy Word. Paul addressed this problem in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, reminding the Corinthians that Christians have the mind of Christ, which is infinitely superior to worldly wisdom.  The mind of Christ is described as eterna...

Give us this day our daily bread. (Matt. 6:11) These words draw our focus to a particular time—this day. It is recurring, a petition to be made again with each sunrise. These words would have reminded Jesus’ hearers of the Exodus, a period in Israel’s history when God provided just enough manna daily for the people to survive (see Ex. 16). They were wandering in a wilderness on their way to a promised land where God would be their king. They would have loved a grand stockpile of food. But God taught them to trust him afresh each morning as they awakened to find new manna on the ground. Trusting God for basic necessities would form the foundation for trust in greater matters. Similarly, Jesus prepares his followers to trust God for what they need as they await the new kingdom that God is establishing through him. What was difficult for a first-century peasant may also be difficult for us, albeit for different reasons. Reliance requires that we see our position in the world clearly. We a...

We need to understand Genesis 3 if we are to understand the gospel. Everything else that follows in the Bible does so as a consequence of the events that took place in the Garden of Eden.  And they were events, not myths. Underlying all the actions of Jesus and all the teaching of the New Testament is the fact of human sin and the doctrine of the fall of man. By the Fall we mean man’s fall from the perfect condition in which he was created to a state of sin. Our responsibilit y Whilst it is clear from Genesis 3 that Satan is behind sin, this does not excuse us, nor does it remove our responsibility for our actions. The words which the Bible later uses to describe human disobedience to God emphasise this. • Sin means to fall short of the standard God has set. • Transgression is to trespass outside the boundaries God has set. • Iniquity means crookedness, not straight, moral distortion, and refers to our nature. Read Psalm 32:1–2 NKJV, where all three words are used. The three words ...

If our thinking about God is not correct, then every other doctrine we apply our minds to will also be incorrect. This is the most important doctrine, yet people seem to think they are free to make up their minds as to what God is like.  So some who call themselves Christians say, ‘My god would never send anyone to hell.’ Such a statement is only possible if you ignore all that the Bible has to say and just impose your own thoughts on the subject. This attitude is responsible for what is possibly the greatest sin a person can commit—to reduce God to terms that are acceptable to us (Psalm 50:21).  This is why in the Old Testament one of the sins that grieved God the most was idolatry. This is to substitute man-made objects and ideas in the place of the one true God (Jeremiah 10:3–5). It is a slander on the character of God, and all worship that flows from it is worthless. What is God like? The answer to this question is that he is not like anything we have known or experienced....

The question of who Jesus is is crucial to the validity of the Christian faith. It was a question important to Jesus himself, so in Matthew 16 we find him asking his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ The answers are interesting and, if spoken of anyone else, would be highly flattering.  Common opinion held that Jesus was either John the Baptist, Elijah or Jeremiah. People were so impressed with him that they thought he must be one of these great servants of God come back from the dead. Flattering though the answers were, they were totally inadequate to describe who Jesus is; the Bible leaves no doubt about Jesus' uniqueness and exclusivity. • ‘He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created’ (Colossians 1:15–16). • ‘In Christ all the fulness of the Deity lives in bodily form’ (Colossians 2:9). • ‘The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being’ (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus is sp...