Dr Paul Allen

Holy Ghost (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Early, then, on the second Lord’s day after the Ascension, is the entire company met, with one heart, to renew their oft-repeated prayer. We cannot go to the house where was that upper room; nor to the site where it stood. These points are left unnoticed, after the mode of Christianity, which is in nothing a religion of circumstances, in everything a religion of principles.  We know not how long they had that morning urged their prayer, nor whose voice was then crying to Him who had promised, nor what word of the Master he was pleading, nor what feelings of closer expectation and more vivid faith were warming the breasts of the disciples. But “suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind.” Not, mark you, a wind; no gale sweeping over the city struck the sides of the house and rustled round it. But “from heaven,” directly downward, fell “a sound,” without shape, or step, or movement to account for it—a sound as i...

Arius was arguably  the most notorious heretic of the early church . Though Arius’ heretical views were soundly condemned by the Council of Nicaea (in A.D. 325), the controversy he sparked raged for another fifty years throughout the Roman Empire . During those tumultuous decades, the defenders of Trinitarian orthodoxy often found themselves outnumbered and out of favor with the imperial court. Yet they refused to compromise. Among them, most famously, stood Athanasius of Alexandria —exiled on five different occasions for his unwavering commitment to the truth. He was joined by the Cappadocian Fathers : Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzas, and Gregory of Nyssa . But how did these early Christian leaders know that the doctrine they were defending was, in fact, a truth worth fighting for? How did they know that they were right and the Arians were wrong? Was it on the basis of oral tradition, a previous church council, or an edict from the bishop of Rome? No. T...