Dr Paul Allen

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Acts 20:24 “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course…that I received from the Lord Jesus , to testify to the gospel of the grace of God ” ( v. 24 ). Since Jesus’ proclamation of the Gospel involved telling people that “the kingdom of God is at hand” ( Mark 1:14–15 ), His commissioning of the disciples to preach the same message in Matthew 10:1–15 gives us a chance to consider the Gospel and the church ’s spread of it in missions and evangelism. Let us seek to define the Gospel, which is what evangelism is all about. Our English term gospel comes from the Greek word euangelion, which literally means “good news.” In the secular Greek culture of the first century, one who delivered euangelion might be speaking of the birth of a royal heir, a victory in battle, or news about an electoral victory. The New Testament reclaims the common use of this word and invests ...

Samson in the Treadmill, by Carl Bloch, Danish painter, d. 1890. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) A stone seal from the 11th century BC , possibly depicting a man fighting a lion, has been discovered at the site of Beth Shemesh . The archaeologists who excavate the site have suggested identifying the scene on the seal with the story of a man fighting a lion, and that this story or legend eventually found its way into the text of the Bible and the Samson story. The seal is approximately 1.5 cm in diameter and depicts what appears to be a long haired man fighting (punching? or standing next to?) a four legged animal with a feline tail which even seems to have a tassel at the tip (unique to lions) and a head that appears to have some type of pointed ears like a feline. Because lions are known from historical records and ancient artwork to have inhabited the Levant in antiquity, identifying the animal figure with a lion is plausible. Beth Shemesh, or "House of the Sun," is loca...