Dr Paul Allen

The theological divide between Christianity and Islam centers on several foundational doctrines that shape how each faith understands God, humanity, and salvation. God’s Nature and Identity Christians express God’s oneness as a divine threeness, while Muslims insist upon a consistent monotheism 1 . Islam presents a God who is “ultimately a God outside of the world, a God who is only Majesty, never Emmanuel, God-with-us” 2 —a conception fundamentally at odds with Christian theology. Additionally, while both traditions affirm God’s mercy, the Bible emphasizes his grace and love in ways that make salvation as a divine gift incomprehensible within an Islamic framework 3 . Christ’s Identity and Redemptive Work The person and work of Jesus represent the sharpest theological divergence. For Christians, Jesus embodies the incarnation of God, the second member of the Trinity, and the sacrificial atonement for humanity’s sins, whereas Muslims regard trinitarianism as blasphemy and interpret “son...

The fundamental distinction between Christian and Islamic theology centers on how God’s nature is understood. The God revealed progressively through Scripture—Yahweh in the Old Testament and continuing through Christ and the apostles—differs fundamentally from Allah as presented in Islamic teaching. 1 The most significant theological divergence involves the Trinity . Christians affirm God as triune—one in essence yet three in person—where the distinctions between Father, Son, and Spirit do not create three separate deities. 1 While both faiths claim monotheism, Islam understands “one” to mean Allah is a singular spiritual being without internal plurality, and Muslims explicitly deny the Trinity as implying polytheism. 2 The Qur’an categorically rejects any notion of threeness in God, treating the Trinitarian confession as blasphemy. 3 This doctrinal disagreement extends to Christology and redemption . Islam denies both the incarnation of a second person of the Trinity who accomplishe...

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...