Dr Paul Allen

“For nearly 3000 years man has been searching for the lost Ark. It’s not something to be taken lightly. No one knows its secrets. It’s like nothing you’ve ever gone after before.”  So Dr. Marcus Brody warned Dr. Henry Jones, Jr., aka “Indiana.” That was in Raiders of the Lost Ark, probably the single best adventure movie ever made. But its success, and cultural influence, has indeed proved Brody right. Many do now take the most fearsome object in biblical history too lightly. How could they not? The legion of parodies practically assures it. (Although some, like this famous Simpsons one, are priceless.) The Ark in Reel, and Real, Life The Ark is now back in the news. Both cinematically, and in real life. It was 40 years ago this week that Raiders premiered. And now the fifth Indiana Jones movie has commenced filming. But much more importantly, blood has been shed, again, over Ark.  Earlier this year, a story surfaced that over 800 Ethiopian Christians had been killed protectin...

YouGov released a new poll that shows that the majority of British Christians no longer believe ALL of the Ten Commandments are important. According to the study, although the Ten Commandments have traditionally played a central role in Christianity, a majority of British Christians now believe that the FIRST FOUR are unnecessary. Notice what the Telegraph wrote on October 25: “[R]esearch has revealed that just six of [the commandments] are still important to British Christians. “Most Christians believe that four of the commandments are not ʻimportant principles to live by’ according to a YouGov poll. “The four which have fallen by the wayside are the requirement not to worship idols, use the Lord’s name in vain, to worship no other God , and to keep the Sabbath day holy.” In other words, the four commands “Christians” deem to be unimportant are the first four commandments—the ones that show us HOW TO LOVE GOD! Notice how Christ responded when a lawyer asked Him about the greate...

English: The Great Wall of China (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Many people fear the holy war passages of the Old Testament make him out to be. "Show no mercy." "Utterly destroy them." "Do not leave alive anything that breathes." Those are some pretty drastic marching orders. At first glance, God can look like an ancient military commander who's lost his marbles in war, suddenly unleashing rapid machine-gun fire on a conquered village of unarmed civilians. Do these passages depict genocide? Are Jesus' grandparents carrying out vicious massacres at his Father's command? How do we reconcile these tough passages with the goodness of God and help our people understand them well? How do we preach on holy war? Here are a few angles I've found helpful. Military cities The cities Israel takes out are military strongholds, not civilian population centers. Say the word city today and most of us think of metropolitan centers flooded with civilia...

“And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.” ( Exodus 32:16 ) In this verse is the first occurrence in the Bible of the word “writing” and, appropriately enough, it is speaking of “the writing of God” rather than the writings of men. The reference, of course, is to the two tables of the law, the Ten Commandments, “written with the finger of God” ( Exodus 31:18 ) and rewritten on a second set of stone tables to replace the first, once they were shattered ( Exodus 34:1 ). All Scripture is divinely inspired, but the Ten Commandments were divinely inscribed! This testimony of their unique importance is a sobering condemnation of any who ignore them or distort their meaning (including the one referring to the six-day creation in Exodus 20:11). But there is another writing of God—this one recorded in the New Testament, one of even greater personal significance to the Christian: “Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Chri...