Dr Paul Allen

Australian one-dollar coin (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Even though tithing is not mandated, there is no call in the New Testament to hoard one’s possessions or to live selfishly. Believers are commanded to support those who proclaim the gospel ( Matt. 10:10; Luke 10:7; 1 Cor. 9:6–14; 1 Tim. 5:17–18). Those who are blessed with wealth are to enjoy the good things God has given them, but they are also to be generous to those in need (1 Tim. 6:17–19). The New Testament clearly teaches that wealth is dangerous because it can seduce us so that we stray from the Lord . God is to be our treasure, and hence believers are to give generously and freely. For most believers in the West, that means giving more than a tithe . Still, the tithe itself is not mandated by Scripture, and Scripture is our rule and authority rather than a tradition that requires believers to tithe. Schreiner, T. R. (2010). 40 Questions about Christians and Biblical Law. (B. L. Merkle, Ed.) (p. 221). Grand Rapi...

The Academy of Athens. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “As I . . . beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD . Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.” ( Acts  17:23 )   The people of Athens were known to be quite religious, worshipping a host of nature gods. They even had set up an altar “to the unknown god.” Paul pounced on this point of contact to declare unto them the God they didn’t know. He starts by laying the foundation: This God, he claims, is the Creator .   He not only “made the world and all things therein” (v. 24), but also is “Lord of heaven and earth.” To cause to exist and then to rule over all of creation, one must be omnipotent. He is much too great to dwell in “temples made with hands.” How ludicrous to think He might need anything, including the worship of men, “seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (v. 25).   This God “hath made of one blood all nations...

( ) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Many of the world's favorite fads are toxic, and they are becoming increasingly so as our society descends further in its spiritual death-spiral. It's like a radioactive toxicity, so while those who immerse themselves in it might not notice its effects instantly, they nevertheless cannot escape the inevitable, soul-destroying contamination. And woe to those who become comfortable with the sinful fads of secular society. The final verse of Romans 1 expressly condemns those "who, knowing the righteous judgment of God , that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them." Even when you marry such worldliness with good systematic theology and a vigorous defense of substitutionary atonement , the soundness of the theoretical doctrine doesn't sanctify the wickedness of the practical lifestyle. The opposite happens. Solid biblical doctrine is trivialized and moc...

Image via Wikipedia "And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead , some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. . . . Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite , and a woman named Damaris, and others with them." ( Acts 17:32, 34 )   Today's verse describes the reaction of the Athenians to Paul's preaching on the resurrection. These listeners seem to have consisted mostly of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers: these were the ones who got Paul to come over to the Areopagus (near the famous Parthenon ) to present his case there to an open-air gathering of curious spectators.   Now these philosophers, like most of our modern philosophers, were evolutionists.  The Stoics were pantheists and the Epicureans were atheists: neither believed in a personal Creator God nor in a primeval creation. Paul began his message by stressing the fact of special creation. They had been worshipping ma...