Dr Paul Allen

The Hour to Wake Up: Romans 13:11–12 In Romans 13:11–12, Paul appeals to the Christians in the city of Rome to understand “the present time” and explains that “the hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” ( NIV ). The “night” is the present evil age (see Gal. 1:4); “the day” is the day of the Lord . Paul’s assertion that “the day is almost here” (Rom. 13:12 NIV) means that the day when God will bring to an end human history as we know it is fast approaching. Paul is convinced that Jesus might return within a very short period of time. Paul does not seek to narrow down the time frame within which Jesus will return , nor does he base his exhortation on the assumption that Jesus’ return would take place very soon. But he clearly believes that Jesus’ return is the next event in G...

The Temptation of Christ, 1854 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Have you ever stopped to consider the sheer strength and power of God ? It is good for us to reckon with how his strength surpasses everything else that can seem so strong compared to us. Whether it’s Olympic weightlifters, or the muscular frame of a 400-pound gorilla, or the jaws of a great white shark , or the remarkable eroding power of falling water, or an earthquake or volcano, it’s not too difficult for us to be impressed by such strength, and then easily reason that the creator of such things much be infinitely stronger. But we can only go so far in trying to wrap our minds around infinite strength. And yet God doesn’t mean for us to think of his power merely as a physical thing. If he did, the Bible would be a very different book. It would read more like a science textbook and spend more time telling us about the kind of things we learn from the natural world. Romans 1:19–20 says that “what can be known about God is...

( ) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution , Steve Jeffrey, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach have blessed Christian scholarship with a thorough, scholarly, and accessible contribution on the subject of penal substitutionary atonement.  The book is divided into two parts—the first making the positive case for penal substitution on biblical, theological, pastoral, and historical grounds, and the second outlining and answering objections that have arisen against the doctrine. While the authors acknowledge that there have been critics of penal substitution throughout church history, many of those critics have self-confessed outside the boundaries of evangelicalism and have largely been relegated to the upper echelons of academia.  However, recent critics of the doctrine not only regard themselves as evangelicals committed to the authority of Scripture, but are also finding their material published in m...

One of the key disagreements between amillennialism and premillennialism is whether the thousand years of Revelation 20:1-6 is present or future. According to the amillennial interpretation, this thousand-year period consists of the present age which extends from the first coming of Christ to His second coming. In contrast, premillennialism teaches that the thousand years of Revelation 20 is future and will take place immediately after the second coming. In his book End Times Made Simple, Samuel Waldron argues for the amillennial view. In doing so, he spends three chapters on Revelation 20, starting with a discussion of various hermeneutical issues which he believes “must take center stage and precede the detailed study of the passage” (p. 85). According to Waldron, understanding and applying these hermeneutical principles is crucial to an accurate interpretation of this controversial chapter. The first hermeneutical principle cited by Waldron involves the historical context of R...

A Shinto priest kneeling before a shrine. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) A young boy came home from his Japanese baseball practice exclaiming, “Dad, coach is making us worship the ground.” The coach had required them to bow toward the ground in worship. We called a Japanese pastor who said that this was indeed false worship. He reminded me that Japan is pantheistic, like Eastern religions generally. Everything is “god.” There is no distinction between the Creator and creation. In that worldview, it is proper to worship your playing field. This later became a problem for Danny at practice when he would not bow. The first error in Eastern religion is that there is no God with a big G. The gods are small and many, including ancestors, the emperor, statues, and thousands more. Atheists in the West do not believe in “God”; Japanese atheists do not believe in “the gods.” Islam has the opposite error —only a transcendent Allah with no immanence, no Emmanuel (“God with us”). In the West, ...

US troops in China during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Our missionaries have remained with us; we will stand by them, and live or die together." Meng Ch'ang-ch'un and the other Chinese pastors at Pao- ting Fu were united in their determination. The Boxer Rebellion , an angry reaction against western interference in China , raged across China. The government encouraged lawless bands to kill all foreigners and those who had adopted their ways, especially Christians . Thousands of people died. Meng was a direct descendant of the famous Chinese philosopher Confucius . He was attending a conference in T'ung Chow when the news came that the Boxers had destroyed the railroad to Pao-ting Fu and cut communications. Meng could have fled to nearby Peking where foreign embassies offered some protection; many other Christians did. But he remembered the missionaries who remained behind. It seemed to him that his honor as a Chinese called him to Pa...

Image via Wikipedia Tierra! Tierra! The men had been on the sea for over thirty days without sight of land. Now land was in plain view. All the despair and gloom immediately gave way to excitement and hope as the three little ships drew closer and closer to the shore  on this day, October 12, 1492. Probably every American school child old enough to study history has heard the little rhyme, "In October, 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue", and the story has often been told of Columbus' dream of finding the East or Asia by sailing west. Columbus is often held up as an example of someone who set goals for himself and would not give up when obstacles to achieving those goals came his way -- he waited at the Spanish court six years before King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella agreed to sponsor his voyage. He persuaded his men to continue their westward voyage even when they threatened mutiny because they had  Image via Wikipedia not yet reached the expected islands of the ...

Good Morning Hope Church! This Sunday our guest speaker is Alwyn Matt.   Alwyn began as a youth leader at The Lighthouse Church, Kuwait , a church of 7000+ members. He has spoken across Asia , Europe , the Middle East , America and Australia , which is his current home. He is an evangelist who loves to see God move in people’s lives.  Alwyn has been ministering in country Qld churches, he loves   travelling for the Lord and going on tours to preach minister on revival (did around 53478 miles last year internationally - excluding local and national ones!). Alwyn is married to Leah . Alwyn and Leah will be with us this Sunday September 25 th at our 10am and 6pm Holy Spirit Encounter service. A ministry offering will be taken. See you this Sunday.

Image via Wikipedia Robert J. Thomas was haunted by the thought of Korea . A Welsh missionary to China, he knew that the people of the " Hermit Kingdom " needed the gospel. But Korea, observing how westerners had mistreated China, closed its doors to foreigners. Burning with evangelistic zeal, Robert felt he must do something about the people's ignorance of eternal life. Lacking Korean language material, Robert handed out tracts and New Testaments in Chinese. He soon had to return to China, where, the following year, his wife died. On this day, September 13, 1865 , he arrived on the coast of Korea and began to learn what he could about the people and their language. By his action, Robert became the first Protestant missionary to the ancient land, whose name means "chosen." Roman Catholics , however, had converted many Koreans starting in the late 1700s. They were so successful that in 1863 eight thousand were slaughtered by a government that feared foreign ...

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