Dr Paul Allen

“Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.” ( Philippians 4:15 ) As Paul went on his missionary journeys, he never asked for money for himself from the people to whom he preached. He later wrote to the Thessalonians “because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God ” ( 1 Thessalonians 2:9 ). He did stress the teaching of Christ that “the labourer is worthy of his reward” ( 1 Timothy 5:18 ; Luke 10:7 ) and that “even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel” ( 1 Corinthians 9:14 ). But he himself said: “I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me” ( 1 Corinthians 9:15 ). Thus, he was especially moved when the impoverished Christians at Philippi , without being asked, “sent once and again unto my neces...

Raphael, St Paul Preaching in Athens (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Last Sunday as my wife preached, a person stood up and walked out. My wife and I pioneered the church and I am the senior pastor and elder. We were told he had a problem with a women preaching.  In 1 Timothy 2:12 , the apostle Paul sets forth the qualifications for church leadership, and he makes the statement, “I will not allow a woman to have authority over a man or to teach.” Now notice, he doesn’t say, “I will not allow a woman to be a pastor,” nor does he say, “I will not allow a woman to be ordained to ministry.” He says, “I will not allow a woman to have authority over men or to teach.” Therein lies the problem. The verb Paul uses in this passage that is translated “authority” occurs only once in the entire New Testament in this particular context. Because this word is only used once in the New Testament and rarely shows up in other Greek literature of that period that survives today, we’re not ex...