Dr Paul Allen

Most Bible study resources describe fallen angels as demons who joined Lucifer in his rebellion against God. But what if I told you that the only place in the New Testament that describes angels sinning does not call them demons , has no connection to Lucifer, and has them in jail? Welcome to the world of 2 Peter and Jude. 2 Peter 2:4: “For … God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment.” Jude 6: “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.” Second Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 are nearly identical in their description of angels doing time, but there are differences that help us figure out “what in the spiritual world is going on.” Jude 6 defines what 2 Peter 2:4 means by the angelic sin .  These sinning angels “left their pr...

Martin Luther, author of the text of Christ lag in Todes Banden, and who, with Johann Walter, also wrote the melody (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Martin Luther wasn't prone to compromise. He famously said in his sermon "Knowledge of God 's Will and Its Fruit": The world at the present time is sagaciously discussing how to quell the controversy and strife over doctrine and faith, and how to effect a compromise between the Church and the Papacy . Let the learned, the wise, it is said, bishops, emperor and princes, arbitrate. Each side can easily yield something, and it is better to concede some things which can be construed according to individual interpretation, than that so much persecution, bloodshed, war, and terrible, endless dissension and destruction be permitted. Here is lack of understanding, for understanding proves by the Word that such patchwork is not according to God's will, but that doctrine, faith and worship must be preserved pure and unad...

In the last few tragic days, I received the following comment in my twitter feed from an Australian journalist. AIDS researchers and a Catholic nun among #MH17 victims. If you believe in a god, this would seriously be testing your faith. I replied, Well, most of all, and sadly, it tests your faith in humanity who do these things to each other. The journalist was kind enough to ‘favourite’ my tweet as her reply. I think she recognised that before we rush to blame God , we should direct our blame on those directly responsible for such evil: the terrorist who fired the rocket launcher; the persons who supplied the hardware and training to fire it. More broadly in recent days, it is not God who burned down Mosul ’s church, but the ISIS militants. It is not God who butchered a hundred villagers in Damboa , Nigeria, with RPGs and machine guns, but Boko Haram . That’s where the clear and immediate moral responsibility lies: with the human evildoers. However, once we’v...

St Lawrence and Pelagius (Photo credit: Lawrence OP ) Historians believe that Pelagius was born in Britain around the year 354. We know little about his early years, but do know that at some point he became a monk and in that capacity journeyed to Rome. While in Rome, Pelagius began to write theological works, though, except for a few fragments, these have been lost and are known to us only through quotes in the writings of those who refuted him. He began to promote a rigorous asceticism, apparently out of concern for the moral laxity he saw among many Roman Christians. This austere lifestyle made him attractive to many Romans and he soon gained a considerable following. One person in particular, a lawyer named Celestius , became a devoted follower and promoter of Pelagius’ teachings. It is said that at one time Pelagius heard a quote from Augustine ’s Confessions—“Command what you will, and give what you command”—and blamed such teaching for the lack of morality in the church. H...

For each session there is the Challies summary of it, and then at Cripplegate we ran something closer to the manuscript of each message. If you want the concise version, go to the Challies link, and if you want the more detailed version, check out our link. Challies writes summarizing the content as a listener, while the Cripplegate link is more like a manuscript used by the speaker. When the audio/video is up at GTY, we’ll link that here too.   The conference began with  John MacArthur  preaching on Leviticus 9-10, and on the strange fire from Aaron’s sons.  He connected that sin with the modern Charismatic movement ( Challies summary  and the  Cripplegate notes ). Joni Erickson Tada  told the story of how she ended up losing the use of her legs, and how she has grown spiritually as a result. She talked about how charismatics have wanted to pray for her healing, while she has wanted prayer for her sanctification ( Challies summary ). R. C. Spr...

(Author: Kabwata) Many explanations have been given for the explosion of the Charismatic movement in Africa . Many have seen this as a powerful visitation of the Holy Spirit . Whereas there is probably more than one reason, I want to add my own observation to this for what it is worth. In this blog post, I do not refer to the old conservative form of Pentecostalism once represented by the Assemblies of God churches. I have in mind the current extreme form that is mushrooming literally under every shrub and tree in Africa. How can one explain this phenomenon? I think that one reason why the Charismatic movement in Africa has been like a wild bushfire is because it has not challenged the African religious worldview but has instead adopted it. It has simply baptised it with Bible verses and Christian words that previously meant something totally different. The African Spiritual Worldview Let me explain what I mean. The African spiritual worldview consists of four tiers. ...